'Free Palestine Encampment' reaches agreements with campus, disbands from Mario Savio steps

Source: Daily Californian

A little more than three weeks after the establishment of the UC Berkeley “Free Palestine Encampment,” protesters have reached an agreement with campus administration and took down the majority of their tents this afternoon.

Chancellor Carol Christ agreed to “support a comprehensive and rigorous examination of our investments and our socially responsible investment strategy” in exchange for the decampment.

The agreement, which was first signed and sent to encampment negotiators early May, included Christ’s plan to request the UC Berkeley Foundation to expedite hearing concerns on investment, a request to the Chair of the Regents Investment Committee to develop a broader framework for ethical investment strategies and the creation of a UC Berkeley Divestment Task Force made up of students, faculty and staff.

As part of the agreement, the Foundation’s Environmental, Social, and Governance, or ESG, Committee will hear community concerns on specific industry sectors including weapons manufacturing, mass incarceration and surveillance industries. Should the ESG Committee deem “the issue … serious enough to consider divestment,” the agreement states, the committee will create a divestment task force in consultation with students and administration.

Read more: https://www.dailycal.org/news/free-palestine-encampment-reaches-agreements-with-campus-disbands-from-mario-savio-steps/article_7b801406-126e-11ef-b73e-a723ed2170bd.html