With Palestinian death tolls since last October exceeding 40,000, Israel’s attacks expanding into Lebanon and no signs pointing toward a ceasefire despite proposed deals, Mac for Palestine is impatient with the Board of Trustees’ (BoT) continued delays in voting on the student-written proposal regarding the divestment of endowment assets.
While the BoT gathered inside Weyerhaeuser Hall this Thursday, Sept. 26 before their formal meeting the following day, an estimated more than 150 students and faculty rallied outside.
This was Mac for Palestine’s first rally of the 2024-25 academic year. Speakers included Macalester and University of Minnesota students and a group of Macalester faculty, all of whom spoke on their reasons for showing up to support Palestine and why they expect Macalester to do more. The crowd aimed to shout loud enough that the BoT in Weyerhaeuser would have to hear them and set a date to vote before Oct. 11.
These votes will be on Mac for Palestine’s proposal calling for divesting the around $1 million Macalester has invested in Israeli companies, out of the school’s $877 million total endowment.
Both proposals are currently in discussion stages within committees. The Educational Policy and Governance Committee, as well as the Faculty Advisory Council are currently reviewing the study away proposal. Once it’s finished, the document will go through the Study Away Review Committee. The whole faculty will then vote on the proposal.
After the Social Responsibility Committee (SRC) reviewed the divestment proposal — and made the recommendation this June that President Suzanne Rivera forward it to the BoT for additional consideration — Rivera referred it to the Ad Hoc committee for further discussion and eventual voting.
The timeline of this process and discussions has frustrated students.
“You say you want to listen to us, but then you put 25 committees in the way of us getting anything passed,” Mac for Palestine member Chris Zephyr Mango ’28 said.
Ari Zeren ’27, who attended the protest in support of Mac for Palestine’s demands, also finds the BoT’s pace exasperating.
“At what point does collecting more comments just become a stalling tactic so that you hope that we all forget about the genocide in Palestine?” Zeren asked.
Oct. 11, the date by which Mac for Palestine is asking the BoT to set a concrete date on which they will vote on the proposal, would mark around the one year anniversary of Israel’s increased assaults on Gaza, and shortly after Oct. 7, the day that violence escalated, beginning with Hamas’ attacks and Israel’s rapid retaliation.
A frequent chant from the crowd — “Genocide cannot wait, hey trustees, set a date!” — seems to summarize the stretched patience of many students.
Alex Beaudreau ’26 gave the first speech of the rally, describing Macalester’s investments in Israeli companies and those that financially or materially support Israel’s military as incompatible with the school’s values. Two of Macalester’s core values are internationalism and multiculturalism, and the speakers were clear that they find Macalester’s current investing practices antithetical to this mission.
“[Macalester does] care about multiculturalism,” Mango added in an interview after the rally, “and we can’t be funding something that is actively taking away one of the cultures.”
Beaudreau also pointed towards Israel’s scholasticide — the systematic destruction of educational infrastructure and resources — in Gaza, as every university in Gaza has been destroyed. The United Nations released a press release this April, stating that the more than 625,000 students living in Gaza have no way of accessing education there.
When Anthropology Professor Olga González spoke, representing Mac Faculty & Staff for Palestine, she too brought up Macalester’s values. The faculty group called for the BoT to “immediately divest from all companies participating in the oppression of Palestinians.”
This is the first time Mac Faculty & Staff for Palestine has spoken at a Mac for Palestine rally. The group of representatives stood about 10 strong, with faculty and staff from varying departments standing with González.
The group also asked Macalester to support the process discussing ending study away programs, and called for the college to take a strong stance against anti-Palestinianism.
Sociology Professor Khaldoun Samman has been involved in Palestinian activism for decades and is looking for Macalester to “stay consistent with the mission of the college.”
Samman is currently teaching a course titled ‘Palestine,’ and he identifies Israel’s actions as ethnic cleansing. When he calls for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea”, he is arguing for a free state for all, a universal solution he coined “Palisrael.”
Sam Lucio, a student from the University of Minnesota (UMN) and member of UMN Divest, spoke about how the BoT has a chance to be a force for real change. Lucio is hopeful for Macalester to be a changemaking institution where the UMN hasn’t stepped up.
UMN’s board recently refused divestment, disappointing many students after 70% of UMN’s student body voted in favor of divestment. UMN cited institutional neutrality, a reasoning Lucio found lacking.
Mac for Palestine member and author of the study away proposal Oriane Sachs-Bernstein ’26 was the final speaker at the rally, identifying as a proud Jewish member of Mac for Palestine, and decried a hypocrisy between Macalester’s values and practices.
“We know the truth: your values and your investments are irreconcilable,” Sachs-Bernstein said.
Thus far, Macalester has not impeded upon the free speech rights of students. Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Javier Gutierrez watched the rally from just outside the crowd, describing the safety of student protestors as his first priority, as well as continuing to educate himself.
At other colleges and universities, shifting and harsh security presences have remained a recurring theme of on-campus pro-Palestinian protests — a sharp contrast to Gutierrez’s presence, being there to protect and listen to protestors.
In 2013, during President Brian Rosenberg’s tenure, 17 students were put on disciplinary probation for occupying an entrance to Weyerhaeuser in protest of Macalester’s ties to Wells Fargo. Conversely, the Mac for Palestine students who occupied Markim Hall last March were not formally reprimanded.
This openness to let students speak is a major factor in why some students chose Macalester.
“I know that for me, choosing a school depended a lot on where they seemed with the Israel-Palestine issue, and out of any school, this one seemed the most willing to support free speech and actually give supporting divestment a chance,” Mango said.
Hearing that the SRC had included students was a push for Torrey Johnson ’28 to choose Mac.
“When I saw that they gave students or alumni power to actually make that decision, it felt like there would actually be a strong attempt on the school’s part to make it right,” Johnson said.
Mango and Johnson both became involved with Mac for Palestine when they came to Mac, and though they feel their free speech has been protected, that doesn’t mean they feel heard. The students who occupied Markim were allowed to protest, but their demands weren’t met.
“I’m very glad I chose Macalester,” Mango said. “I don’t think at any other school, at least the ones that I had available, would have allowed me to speak so freely about my beliefs. I wouldn’t be able to attend a class about Palestine. I wouldn’t be able to know that the faculty that I work with care about the cause. I think that, because it’s not a hush-hush issue here, there are more people discussing it and more people being willing to be involved in political activism.
“But I still there’s still more they can be doing. There’s still more — they could be listening to us, because it feels like ‘you can say whatever you want, but we’re not going to acknowledge it for as long as we can. We’re going to just keep going until it fizzles out or you lose interest.’”
But Mac for Palestine shows no signs of dying down.
Whether or not the BoT sets a voting date by Oct. 11, Mac for Palestine will continue to push the school to do more.
Sachs-Bernstein concluded their speech by speaking directly to the BoT: “If you care about justice, divest. If you are concerned about human lives, divest. If you want Macalester’s stated values to mean something, divest. Until then, we’ll continue to be loud, we’ll continue to take up space, we’ll continue to fight for a free Palestine.”
