May 5, 2024: Update on our Community as the Semester Comes to a Close

May 5, 2024 email from President Sarah Bolton to campus: “Update on our Community as the Semester Comes to a Close”

Dear Whitman Campus Community,

I am writing to you to provide an update as we enter the last week of the semester in a time of global crisis. Many on our campus and around the world are deeply concerned about the war in Gaza and Israel and its catastrophic impacts, including huge loss of life, destruction of homes, humanitarian disasters, and much more. Some have turned to protest and other activities to raise awareness and to call on the College to act. There are many people on our campus, including students, staff and faculty who are from Gaza, Israel, the West Bank, or who have family members or connections there, for whom these issues are very personal and very painful. Some have lost loved ones or fear for the lives of family members. Nationally, there are also many who have been affected by bias and discrimination based on their identities, including antisemitism and anti-Muslim bias.

Whitman College is committed to being a place where all of our students, staff and faculty can work, learn, thrive and feel truly welcome. We want to support everyone through what is an exceptionally difficult time, where many are rightfully experiencing anger, fear and pain, and many are seeking to act for a better future.

Last Thursday evening, a protest took place at a dinner for a group that included faculty, staff, students, members of the board of trustees, and honored guests from the City of Walla Walla and beyond. The purpose of the dinner was to thank those who had worked so hard over many years to make possible critical work at our college, including the growth of scholarships and the beginning of work on new safe, equitable and accessible housing for juniors and seniors. On Friday morning, an encampment of tents was placed on the side lawn of Reid Campus center.

Whitman College strongly supports freedom of inquiry and expression as a crucial part of learning. That commitment to learning and to freedom of expression means that protest is important and valued. Harassment, intimidation and discrimination can not be allowed, as they disrupt the rights of others on campus to work and learn. The faculty code states “The educational rights of Whitman students are paramount. Every student has a right to conditions that are conducive to learning and favorable to the pursuit of higher education. Any conduct that infringes on these rights or disrupts the educational mission of the college is prohibited.” And, “Obstruction of the educational environment or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other college activities, including its public service functions or other authorized activities on or off college premises, is prohibited.” If protests cross that line, that would be addressed through our regular conduct processes.

Whitman College has also allowed students to have tents up on college lawns for various occasions in the past - the Dean of Students has the authority to permit that, and the encampment can continue on that basis. However, as with protests, the presence of the tents can not limit the rights of others to learn in a safe and equitable space on our campus. Reid Side Lawn can not be "cut off" from access to others as has happened at encampments on some other campuses - it must remain a space for all, as it has at Whitman College. Our student affairs staff and campus security team will continue to work to ensure the safety of those staying in the tents as well as the campus community as whole. The student contacts at the encampment have been in communication with the Dean of Students Office, and understand that the encampment is subject to the policies that are articulated in “Student Rights and Responsibilities”. If there were to be any violations of college policy, those would be addressed as they normally would in any other location or event on campus.

Those who are protesting are calling for the College to take multiple actions. Chief among them is divestment of the endowment. Students made a proposal of this kind in late November, which was carefully considered by the Trustees, who met with the students making the proposal and also read hundreds of pages of input from those with varying views across the College. In January, the trustees decided not to approve the proposal. You can read both the students' proposal and the trustees’ response here. In continued calls for divestment, several ideas have been raised that I’d like to address.

1. Some students have expressed that they do not want their tuition dollars going to fund war or other activities they disagree with. The endowment does not come from tuition dollars or any dollars from current students. It is made up of gifts from alumni and others over generations. Those gifts are invested broadly and the returns are used to fund scholarships and many other activities of the College.

2. There is a concern that the investment of Whitman’s endowment is funding the war in Gaza and Israel. Sometimes that is phrased as “Whitman Scholarships are blood money.” This is not the case. While contracted managers oversee the investment of Whitman’s endowment in particular companies, a recent review shows that less than 2% of the endowment is invested in companies that have any part of their business in military manufacturing or related undertakings.

3. Some have asked whether Whitman College could reduce the loss of life in Gaza or improve the humanitarian situation by committing to divestment. The College’s funds are tied up in multi-year contracts. Any movement of funds would take years (as can be seen in the annual reports on divestment from oil and gas companies on our website) and would not have an impact now.

4. Some have said that, because of their decision not to divest the endowment, the trustees do not care about Whitman students or about the loss of life in Gaza. The trustees took the proposal for divestment extremely seriously, spending a great deal of time reviewing it, gathering additional information, meeting with the proposers, and thinking through the concerns brought forward about loss of life and humanitarian crisis. The board has been deeply moved by the concerns students, staff and faculty have raised. Trustees do their work - volunteering hundreds of hours each year to support Whitman and its students - because they want students to be well-supported at Whitman and to have great opportunities. Trustees are also required, under the law, to uphold certain responsibilities. Their primary responsibility is to act for the long-term mission and best interests of Whitman College. Through a lot of intensive work, they determined that the proposal to divest did not meet our policies and that approving it was not in the best interests of the College. This was a hard and carefully thought-through decision.

While I know that there are deep divisions, as well as pain and anger, in our community around these issues, I continue to be grateful for our students, staff, faculty and trustees, all of whom are making their best effort to do what is right in this extraordinarily difficult time. I believe in this community, and the excellent things you all make happen across generations. I welcome your advice on ways we can best move forward together, knowing that it will take all of us to do so.

Sincerely,

Sarah Bolton, President