On June 7th, former college President David Wippman met with the board of trustees and two representatives from Hamiltonians for Divestment (H4D) to discuss the process of divestment and investment transparency. This meeting follows a May 1st meeting between Wippman and Hamiltonians for Divestment where the group presented a list of their demands for the college relating to disclosure, divestment, and democracy of and in the college’s endowment.
During the May 1st meeting, H4D asked Wippman about his thoughts on Amherst’s decision to phase out fossil fuels in their investment portfolio, along with Brown’s to divest from Israel. Wippman responded that “[divestment is] a complicated thing” and “I won’t say yes or no [to divesting] because it’s not my decision,” indicating that would be a decision made by the Board of Trustees. This conversation laid the groundwork for the June 7th joint-meeting between H4D, David Wippman, and the Board of Trustees, where the board was made party to the demands.
Monitor reached out to David Wippman for comment after the June 7th meeting took place, on both the meeting and his now-unavailable June 11th statement which said the board ratified many resolutions on a variety of topics. Wippman responded, saying that “the board discussed the resolution and affirmed its current investment policies, as outlined in its Investment Policy Statement.” He did not respond to our request for comment.
Monitor then reached out to Lee Casstevens ‘26, one of the two representatives from H4D present for the meeting, for comment. Lee mentioned that David Solomon was notably absent from the June 7th discussion, and that H4D was asked by the board if they “would be comfortable raising tuition to compensate for losses” related to divestment, “essentially threatening us to do so and blame it on us if we [the college] divested.” Lee said the board argued that “nothing should infringe on the ability of Hamilton’s endowment managers to make as much profit as possible.”
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