CUNY Students Won on Investment Disclosure. Now They’re Demanding Divestment.

After fighting for 2 years to get the City University of New York’s(CUNY)financial investment records, trainee divestment activists won a huge success on September 9. A Supreme Court choice ruled in favor of the trainees, who argued that under New York’s Freedom of Information Law, the university might no longer keep its records from the general public.

In spite of the judgment, CUNY, which runs 26 colleges throughout all 5 districts of New York City, has actually stopped working to divulge the complete cache of products trainees have actually asked for, consisting of order histories for the 30 business whose monetary ties to CUNY organizers looked for to examine. Of these, the university just offered records for 2– the American innovation business Dell and IBM. Through these holdings, organizers were aiming to determine the university’s monetary ties to business they thought benefited from Israeli military actions.

Considering that 2024, CUNY4Palestinea company of CUNY trainees and employees, has actually been the force behind require the university to reveal financial investments in business that are linked to Israeli military operations in Gaza. Throughout all 26 schools, CUNY4Palestine has actually arranged divestment efforts for many years, linking this financial investment project to wider needs for institutional modification.

The freshly launched types expose that from 2020 till 2025, CUNY was purchased business, consisting of Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and Caterpillar, that have actually supplied Israel with weapons and military devices utilized in its decimation of Gaza. CUNY likewise held stock in mass detention and monitoring business such as Palantir, Geo Group, and CoreCivic.

For lots of trainees, the recently launched details raises another concern: What should CUNY do now?

A draft resolution, a partnership by Hunter College’s trainee federal government and Hunter SJP members, needs that CUNY “instantly divest from these damaging holdings” and rather “embrace an ethical financial investment policy.”

Present Issue

For numerous trainees,the university has actually stopped working to support its objective as a university”for the entire individuals of New York” They think the university has actually made money from genocide, displacement, and imprisonment, which stands at chances with the worths and objectives of the bigger CUNY neighborhood.

“Students have actually ended up being passive stars in mass violence without their understanding” by paying tuition that might discover its method into the university’s invested fund, stated one Hunter SJP member, who asked to stay confidential for security factors. “CUNY is simply an exterior of a public organization that rather perpetuates damages to the really neighborhoods it declares to serve.”

Corinna Mullin, an accessory teacher in the government and economics department at John Jay College and Brooklyn College and a member of CUNY4Palestine, stated the battle exceeds CUNY’s financial investment practices.

“We have actually constantly connected divestment– as we carried out in the encampment– to more comprehensive systemic modification at CUNY: polices off school, demilitarization, a completely moneyed CUNY with complimentary tuition, reasonable agreements for CUNY employees, and uniformity with the Palestinian freedom battle,” Mullin stated. The group has actually likewise promoted to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) far from CUNY schools.

For Mullin, the disclosure of CUNY’s financial investments marks a brand-new phase in the group’s arranging efforts.

Mullin took part in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University in 2024. In 2025, 4 Brooklyn College accessory teachers, consisting of Mullin, were gotten rid of from their positions due to continuous assistance for Pro-Palestinian demonstrations and motions. 3 have actually considering that been restored; Mullin continues to promote for the last member to restore their post.

Mullin stated that a person of the company’s mantras, obtained from the Black feminist motion, is “None people is complimentary up until everybody are complimentary.”

Much of these trainee- and faculty-run companies share one objective: to hold the university liable and to guarantee its agents precisely show individuals who comprise the university neighborhood.

CUNY is understood for the broad undergraduate racial and ethnic representation of its trainee body. For Mullin and other members of CUNY4Palestine, schools need to represent the bigger New York City neighborhood.

“Now that we’ve won disclosure, we’re constructing a broad union due to the fact that we acknowledge that CUNY financial investments are linked not just to settler manifest destiny and genocide in Palestine,” Mullin stated, “however likewise to the United States imperialist war device and to repression in your home.”

“We desire a university run by and for its trainees, employees, and neighborhood members,” she stated.

To some CUNY teachers, the disclosure story is considerable not simply for what the records expose however likewise for what the university’s rejection to launch them states about the school and its real top priorities.

Anthony Alessandrini is a teacher of Middle Eastern Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center and chair of the Professional Staff Congress’s Academic Freedom Committee. The committee is devoted to safeguarding CUNY professors and personnel and guaranteeing flexibility throughout the university.

Alessandrini discussed that professor have actually attempted to protect trainees’ right to arrange long previously this stage of the divestment motion began. He traces CUNY’s Palestine uniformity arranging to a 2013 Brooklyn College panel on the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.

For years,”the message being provided to trainees, we’re here to teach you crucial thinking, we desire you to question things, we desire you to look and examine things, however not your own university,” Alessandrini stated.

He likewise mentions that the university’s rejection to reveal these records becomes part of a more comprehensive pattern of limiting scholastic liberty and trainee advocacy, not just at CUNY however likewise in schools worldwide. Alessandrini sought to France, where high school trainees and instructors are leading demonstrations over bad instructional centers and personnel scarcities. For him, these presentations highlight the value of holding universities liable.

He stated the university’s reaction to trainee demonstrations and its treatment of employees associated with the motion likewise raises concerns about its function as a public organization.

“If you’re apprehending your trainees, if you’re declining to divulge your financial investments to trainees, if you’re shooting employees for protesting genocide,” Alessandrini stated, “you’re not an operating university.”

Ana Agudelo

Ana Agudelo is a 2026 Puffin trainee composing fellow for The Nation and a New York City– based trainee reporter at Hunter College. She is editorial director for her school’s paper, The Hunter EnvoyHer work concentrates on Latino neighborhoods, underrepresented voices, and culture in New York City.