In an April 22 email to USG President Mayu Takeuchi ‘23 and USG Secretary Charlotte Selover ‘25, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber announced that the University will not dissociate from Caterpillar, as requested by Referendum No. 3, which aligned itself with the national Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement calling for the end of the State of Israel. The referendum urged the University to halt its usage of Caterpillar construction equipment because of alleged “atrocities” against Palestinians.
In his email, Eisgruber “remind[ded] the USG of the University’s procedures governing dissociation from companies,” explaining that “any disassociation decisions are ultimately within the jurisdiction of the Board of Trustees, not the Undergraduate Student Government or, for that matter, the University administration.”
He argued that for the University to dissociate, there must be “considerable, thoughtful, and sustained campus interest.” According to Eisgruber, “there is quite obviously no consensus on campus or in the broader University community” as evidenced by the “contested” referendum results. In referencing the “contested” results, Eisgruber is alluding to controversies surrounding the status of abstentions in voting, the subject of a host of complaints and a formal appeal filed by four Senate members.
The appeal held that the Chief Elections Manager’s comments compromised the integrity of the voting process by “confirm[ing] in written communication…that ‘abstain’ votes would be counted towards the total vote count” only to “reverse his previous position” after voting closed. “It is our judgment that the conduct and decision of the CEM are unfair and incorrect,” the appellees wrote. After upholding the appeal in a vote of 15 in favor, 4 against, and 4 abstaining, the Senate voted to provide the administration with a reconciliation paper that declared neither victory nor failure of the referendum, instead choosing to simply lay out the circumstances of the appeal process and numerical results.
Eisgruber closed his letter with a pointed criticism of USG, urging the body to thoroughly consider “when and why a referendum would be desirable” before allowing one to come before the student body in the future. Eisgruber wrote that “some issues are ill-suited to decision by referenda” and are better resolved by University trustees.
When asked about the University’s stance on the BDS movement, Michael Hotchkiss, the deputy University spokesperson, referred The Tory to a 2013 statement by President Eisgruber in which Eisgruber declared it “indefensible” to “single out Israel alone” in boycott efforts and “strongly opposed” members of the American Studies Association who voted to boycott Israel. Hotchkiss wrote in an email to The Tory that the University “do[es]n’t have anything” new “to add” to the condemnation of Israeli boycotts.
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