The following statement from faculty members at the University of California – including USACBI Organizing Collective members Sunaina Maira and David Lloyd –  published in the Daily Cal on March 6, urges the UC Davis administration to heed the call of the Associated Students at UC Davis for divesting from certain corporations that are involved in Israeli occupation in Palestine:

With the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis, or ASUCD, vote to pass Senate Resolution 9, known as the “divestment resolution,” UC Davis joined the student governments of six other UC campuses (UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Cruz), and a larger number of universities nationwide.

The resolution calls upon the UC regents to refrain from investing in certain companies that openly assist the Israeli government and army in the occupation of Palestine, in violation of international law and multiple United Nations resolutions. The recent University of California Student Association vote confirms that this is a demand strongly made by the student representatives of the UC system at large, as did a corresponding vote last fall by the union for student employees.

As faculty, we strongly urge the administration to heed this call. Divestment is not a “personal and emotional” issue, as UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi claimed in the email circulated almost immediately after the ASUCD vote – a letter that affirmed the administration”s withdrawal from any obligation to the ratified commitments of the student body it purportedly serves. Divestment is one of few widely accepted means by which civil society can influence global politics. We deplore the attempts to disguise this broad struggle as local identity politics that can thereby be dismissed, as well as the university administrators” concomitant failure to secure a campus environment that is safe and equitable for all without fear of harassment and intimidation.

The University of California has historically been in the forefront of progressive movements and struggles for social justice and an end to militarism and violence, thanks to strong student movements. Today, the university has more than 240,000 students, and it is incumbent upon its administrators to abandon their autocratic practices and honor the duly expressed demands of this population to continue to honor this position that the university has historically occupied.

Signed:

Joshua Clover           professor, English, UC Davis

Noha Radwan          associate professor, Comparative Literature, UC Davis

Natalia Deeb-Sossa  associate professor, Chicana/o Studies, UC Davis

Sunaina Maira        professor, Asian American Studies, UC Davis

Rutie Adler              lecturer in Hebrew, UC Berkeley

Caren Kaplan          professor, American Studies, UC Davis

Omnia El Shakry    associate professor, History, UC Davis

Susy Zepeda            assistant professor, Chicana/o Studies, UC Davis

Adam Sabra            professor, Islamic Studies, UC Santa Barbara

Susette Min             associate professor, Asian American Studies, UC Davis

Neil Larsen              professor, Comparative Literature, UC Davis

Eric Smoodin          professor, American Studies, UC Davis

Jeff Fort                   associate professor, French & Italian, UC Davis

Donald L. Donham distinguished professor, Anthropology, UC Davis

Flagg Miller             associate professor, Religious Studies, UC Davis

Marisol de la Cadena         professor, Anthropology, UC Davis

Rei Terada              professor, Comparative Literature, UC Irvine

Suzana Sawyer       associate professor, Anthropology, UC Davis

Christine Hong       assistant professor, Literature, UC Santa Cruz

Hatem Bazian         lecturer of Arabic, UC Berkeley

Howard Winant      professor, Sociology, UC Santa Barbara

Samera Esmeir       associate professor, Rhetoric, UC Berkeley

David Lloyd             distinguished professor, English, UC Riverside

Nouri Gana              associate professor, Comparative Literature, UCLA

Jocelyn Sharlet       associate professor, Comparative Literature, UC Davis

Dylan Rodriguez     professor and chair, Ethnic Studies, UC Riverside

Lisa Rofel                 professor, Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz

Noha Guynn            associate professor, French and Comparative Literature

Jesse Drew              professor, Cinema and Technoculture, UC Davis

Nancy Gallegher     professor, History, UC Santa Barbara

Robin Hill                professor, Art Studio, UC Davis

Tom Bills                 professor of Art, UC Davis

May Wilson             visiting professor, Art Studio, UC Davis

Jaimey Fisher          professor, German, Cinema & Technocultural Studies, UC Davis

Jeffrey Sachs           associate professor, Comparative Literature, UC Riverside

Devra Weber          associate professor, History, UC Riverside

Sondra Hale            professor emeritus, Anthropology and Gender Studies, UCLA

Chris Tilly                professor, Urban Planning, UCLA

Marie Kennedy      professor, Urban Planning, UCLA

Ali Anooshar           associate professor, History, UC Davis

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