“It may not be the response they want”: McInnis responds to Pro-Palestinian referendum
In December, McInnis responded to the results of the Yale College Council referendum written by the Pro-Palestinian Sumud Coalition. She directed students to existing policies and initiatives.

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Students who voted in a referendum asking whether Yale should divest from its holdings in military weapons manufacturers got an answer from University President Maurie McInnis at the beginning of winter break.
The referendum ballot, proposed and written by the pro-Palestinian Sumud Coalition, asked three questions relating to divestment. The first two asked whether Yale should disclose and divest from its investments in military weapons manufacturers, “including those arming Israel,” and the third asked whether Yale should “act on its commitment to education by investing in Palestinian scholars and students.”
49.5 percent of the student body voted in the referendum; more students participated in this YCC referendum than in the two previous ones. As a percentage of those who voted, the first question received 83.1 percent “yes” votes, the second 76.6 and the third 79.5. When accounting for the entire student body — including students who did not vote — a total of 41.1 percent of all students voted for disclosure, 37.9 percent voted for divestment and 39.3 percent voted for Palestinian scholarship. Since the referendum met the requirements to officially pass, YCC leadership sent the results to McInnis on Dec. 11, 2024, and requested an official response.
In a five-sentence reply, McInnis explained that Yale has “well-established policies and procedures” surrounding the issues of disclosure and divestment, directing students to websites about Yale’s policies on investor responsibility and procedures of the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility. In response to the third referendum question, she linked the homepage of a Yale and the World website about the University’s efforts to respond to global conflict.
In a previous interview with the News before McInnis sent her response, McInnis said that the ACIR was reviewing “many different proposals.” The ACIR reviews all proposals it is presented with, and in November, the Sumud Coalition argued for divestment from military weapons manufacturers, framing their presentation around Israel and the war in Gaza. The ACIR has yet to announce a decision on the proposal.
“There will be an answer that will emerge from the ACIR process,” McInnis told the News. “That is a response. It may not be the response they want.”
In April, amid mass student protests, Yale refused to divest from military weapons manufacturers. When asked to clarify whether the ACIR will make another decision on divestment from military weapons manufacturing, McInnis said, “it will make a decision on the many different proposals that were brought to it as to whether or not they think it meets the principles that are laid out in the ethical investor.”
McInnis said that there is no timeline for this decision and that an answer will emerge after an “deliberative process” over an indefinite amount of time.
Nara Kim ’25, an organizer for the Sumud Coalition, wrote to the News that McInnis’ response is “an insult” to the students who voted in favor of the referendum.
“The almost 50 percent of students who participated in the referendum deserved more than a 150 word response,” Kim said. “President McInnis’s dismissive response is another example of university leadership’s consistent failure to meaningfully engage with its community members’ concerns.”
In the interview and the public letter, McInnis also explained that she views the referendum results as just one piece of feedback the University has received about divestment.
“You might not be surprised to know that our office and many other offices on campus also heard from many people who are not able to vote in the referendum –– because they’re not an undergraduate student –– expressing their views in regard to the referendum,” McInnis said in the interview. “My job as president is to support the processes.”
In an email to the News on Tuesday, she explained that these offices have heard from “from other members of the Yale community, including graduate and professional school students, faculty, staff, alumni, and parents.”
In the December “Friends of Slifka Center” newsletter, Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale Director Uri Cohen wrote that McInnis had spoken to him about the results of the referendum. Per Cohen, McInnis said she had “received significant and widely divergent input on the referendum questions” and that “the referendum represents one view among many at Yale.”
He wrote that these additional inputs included the voices of students involved with Slifka who had spoken out against the referendum. Some students advocated against the referendum in December.
“[Slifka was] very active from the beginnings of the process through the vote itself, both by helping students raise their voices and by coordinating widespread efforts to keep this initiative from undermining overall Jewish belonging at Yale,” Cohen wrote. “No action on Yale’s part is expected as a result of the referendum.”
Since the university president also serves as a member of the Yale Corporation, McInnis has one of the 15 votes cast to make any final decisions about Yale’s investments, should the Corporation Committee on Investor Responsibility recommend a policy of divestment to the full board.