For 13 days last semester, pro-Palestine supporters set up encampments — first at Alma Mater, then on the Main Quad — to demand the University cut ties with companies profiting from the war in Gaza.
These protesters are not alone. Student bodies at over 100 colleges in 30 states around the country have pressured their administration to be held accountable for their investments as well as partnerships with Israel.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups launched a surprise invasion of southern Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis and abducting 250. In Israel’s subsequent bombing campaign and invasion of Gaza, the military has killed 36,000 Palestinians, with over 1.7 million internally displaced, and the enclave is also facing a severe food and humanitarian crisis, according to the United Nations.
In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take measures to prevent genocide in Gaza. Eight months into the war, the International Criminal Court now seeks arrest warrants for war crimes against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leadership.
On April 28, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University published a list of demands on their Instagram. They asked the administration to divest from corporations profiting from the occupation of Palestine, cease collaborations with corporations involved in the oppression of Palestinians and publicly disclose all of its financial assets.
So, what do these calls for divestment mean and what would potential divestment look like?
The University is well endowed
The University has two large pools of money: the University of Illinois System and the University of Illinois Foundation.
University of Illinois System
The first, the University of Illinois System, holds $4.9 billion in assets as of fiscal year 2023. This $4.9 billion is split into the Operating Pool and the Endowment Pool. The Operating Pool — composed of revenue from tuition, state funding and grants — makes up $3.72 billion, and the Endowment Pool — worth $1.07 billion — comes from private gifts and donations.
UIS is managed by a board of trustees, who set investment policies and appoint members to oversee committees such as the audit, budget, finance and facilities committees. The UIS is a public body, and information about the UIS’s portfolio was obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
University of Illinois Foundation
The second pool, the University of Illinois Foundation, serves as the fundraising and private gift-receiving organization of the University. In 2023, UIF had an endowment worth $2.73 billion. However, unlike UIS, the UIF is not a public body under the FOIA and the exact contents of the organization’s investments are unknown.
Institutional ties to the war in Gaza and Israel
Money Out
The UIS portfolio held $21.3 million in assets tied to companies involved in the war in Gaza and Israel in fiscal year 2023. These assets consisted of investments in the following companies.
- $20.3 million in BAE Systems PLC., Boeing Co., Northrup Grumman Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Lockheed Martin Co. These companies are present on the Action Center for Corporate Accountability’s divestment list of publicly traded companies that “enable or facilitate human rights violations or violations of international law” in Gaza.
- $443,000 in State of Israel securities in the form of a corporate bond and an international government bond.
Much of the UIS’s money is placed in the hands of third parties. These external managers, known as asset management companies, set and manage their own investment funds.
Most notably, UIS invested a total of approximately $387 million in two funds managed by BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest asset manager. These two funds were the ACS US ESG Insights Equity Fund, in which the UIS invested $228 million, and the ACS World ESG Insights Equity Fund, which holds the other $159 million.
According to BlackRock’s website, the engine manufacturer GE Aerospace represents 1.56% of total holdings in the US EGS Insights Fund and 1.42% of total holdings in the World ESG…
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