OSU Unconstitutionally Blocks Divestment Vote
/Today, Palestine Legal sent a letter to the Ohio State University (OSU) administration urging it to allow students to vote on a ballot initiative that would call on the university to divest from companies complicit in genocide.
After multiple administrative hurdles, the initiative—titled “Initiative Urging the Ohio State University to Divest from Companies Profiting from Human Rights Violations—initially appeared on students’ ballots when student government elections began on March 4, but was removed within hours because of alleged procedural errors. Students were assured that after a review, the initiative would be voted on in an upcoming special election. On March 7, the university informed the OSU Divest team that their initiative could not proceed at all because student government “actions cannot supersede state law (Ohio Revised Code 9.76), and the initiative could not be enacted if passed.”
The previous day, the university had reached out to the Ohio attorney general to ask if the university would be allowed to divest its interests wholesale from Israel. The initiative did not call for wholesale divestment from Israel. If approved by the student body, the student government would have called on the university to cease investment in companies that are contributing to and profiting from the genocide in Gaza.
OSU and the Ohio attorney general gravely misinterpreted Ohio Revised Code 9.76 and the students’ ballot initiative. This move is the latest in OSU’s pattern of discrimination against Palestinian students.
In our letter to the university, we warn OSU against disparate treatment toward Palestinian students and put the university on notice to respect students’ civil and constitutional rights.
Read our letter here.
Take action here.