On Friday, Oct. 25, the Board of Trustees (BoT) Ad Hoc Committee announced in the Mac Daily that it would release its decision on Mac for Palestine’s divestment proposal by Dec. 11.
This comes 14 days after Oct. 11, the date by which Mac for Palestine had demanded the committee announce a voting date, and after multiple demonstrations demanding a transparent voting process.
After the Ad Hoc Committee’s silence on Oct. 11, Mac for Palestine covered Weyerhaeuser in posters during a visiting students day. Some posters demanded divestment, others highlighted specific victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Many pointed to Mariam Faour ’27, a Macalester student currently unable to leave Lebanon due to ongoing violence. At least 2,350 people in Lebanon have been killed and more than 10,000 injured since Israel expanded its assault.
Three days later, on Oct. 14, Mac for Palestine staged a demonstration during an admissions ‘Meet Mac’ event in the John B. Dayton (JBD) Lecture Hall. 22 Mac for Palestine members marched into the auditorium, which was packed with more than 200 prospective students.
A letter was read, demanding action and condemning Macalester’s inaction surrounding divestment.
“As you consider your options for higher education,” the letter read, “we hope you’ll think about where your tuition dollars will be going, and what they might be funding.”
These demonstrations targeting admissions are specific. As Mac for Palestine member Abby McCaroll ’26 explained, “if you don’t have admissions efforts, you’re not recruiting students, and students make the college run.”
“I saw a lot of really interested faces,” McCaroll said. “I felt like everybody was really listening to us. And there were quite a few people who were nodding.” A voting date being announced does not mean Mac for Palestine is content. They’re looking for more transparency in the voting process, rather than a secret ballot vote behind closed doors.
On Aug. 28, the University of Minnesota officially declined the request to divest from investments linked to Israel. Since then, student orgs on campus have decided, alongside taking action at their university, to also provide greater support to other colleges’ calls for divestment.
“We want to support our fellow students in the metro area,” Ali Abu- Atieh, vice president of UMN’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), said. “This is a cause for … everybody who wants to fight for humanity and for human rights.”
Other members of the Macalester community also joined the rally to express their support for divestment.
David List ‘74 and Erica Tesdell ‘76 both have supported the peace movement since before their time at Mac. In his sophomore year, List became the chair of the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. While at Mac, Tesdell worked closely with the feminist orgs on campus.
“I’m a human being, I’m a mother … Most of the victims have been mothers and children,” Tesdell said. “I am not a big extrovert, but one thing that will make me yell and scream is genocide.”
This year, List organized small fundraising projects to show the Mac administration that “there are not just alumni donors that are against divestment, but there are some that are strongly for it.” After a series of speeches delivered by the leader of SJP and faculty at both Macalester and UMN, McCaroll read out a letter addressed to Rivera in which they asked her to use her power as the head of the college to put pressure on BoT to accept their divestment proposal.
“If you refuse to take decisive action in support of achieving justice and peace in Palestine, it will not be forgotten,” Mac for Palestine’s letter read. “Your legacy as Macalester College’s president will be as a complicit bystander to the horrors in Palestine as long as you continue to ignore the real issue at hand.” The crowd then started walking towards Rivera’s house on Summit
Ave. Some organizers rode there standing in the back of a truck. Public Safety workers were also present, stopping traffic and ensuring safety of the protestors.
