Manny Blanco is a senior majoring in geography and international affairs and is a member of the Student Coalition for Palestine.
No one gets it right in their first year on the job. University President Ellen Granberg, however, could not have gotten it more wrong.
If you weren’t keeping score, here’s a quick rundown: She has garnered GW the distinction of being one of three institutions to “set the standard” for creating a hostile environment for Muslim and Palestinian students, only after officially condemning a vigil for murdered Palestinians as “a celebration of terrorism” and assuring alumni of her “wish” to expel students whom she admits were exercising protected free speech. In the spring, she begged D.C. police to forcibly clear the student encampment, something the Metropolitan Police Department saw as unnecessary, until House Republicans met with GW officials, and the ensuing potential congressional hearing appeared to pressure MPD to move against protestors.
Meanwhile, in her recent interview with The Hatchet, Granberg reflected on this tumultuous last year through a wistful lens. Student negotiators have demanded a transparent disclosure of GW’s investments and funding sources and divestment from companies profiting from the ongoing genocide in Palestine. When questioned about these demands, she suggested she’s interested in reviewing GW’s financial support for mass slaughter, “not from what we remove but from what we add,” confirming her refusal to take the matter seriously.
In a recent email, Granberg insists that the past year’s protests have taught the GW community “important lessons.” Any lessons of the past year should have come from the neighborhoods razed, hospitals bombed and journalists murdered by an illegal Israeli project that GW refuses to divest from. Instead, Granberg learned how difficult it is for her to manage a diverse community, as some members protest her institutional support for the bombing of their relatives. Her response remains infantilizing, opting to “extend grace and space” rather than acknowledging the gravity of her community’s concerns.
Criticism has come from all sides of the GW community. Faculty has repeatedly called for a voice in how officials handle demands for disclosure and divestment, and when Granberg refused to visit the encampment, student representatives blasted her lack of communication with them. The community at large made their opposition known as well. Press conferences from local abolitionist organization Harriet’s Wildest Dreams and Reps. Cori Bush (D-MO) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) both condemned the University and police response.
With all of this backlash, why does Granberg claim that, “there was a lot of communication back and forth” during the encampment? And, in the bigger picture, where does she find the confidence to so shamelessly ignore the vocal pleas of her students, faculty and the wider community — whom she herself admits were ignored?
The answer is more straightforward than one might expect. Board of Trustees Chair Grace Speights said in May that she was “grateful” for Granberg’s approach. Her refusal to consider divestment — despite the University’s investment manager having the infrastructure to do so — can only be understood as an authoritarian move, removed from community wishes, to uphold the Board’s desires. If any of us were under the impression that the president seeks to balance the interests of the GW community with those of the trustees, this year has cemented that we are sorely mistaken.
Through it all, Granberg prefers to shirk responsibility instead of owning up to her disinterest in hearing the GW community. She chooses to “punt based on ignorance” to evade scrutiny over her response to divestment and disclosure demands, deny the Washington Post’s reporting about GW’s communication with MPD and put officials that are unknowledgeable about University finances in charge of student negotiations. There is no good faith in Granberg’s handling of student and faculty demands and no moral qualms concerning GW’s ties to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians.
If the GW community’s sole representative on the 20-person Board is Granberg, then the community has none. In fact, at the same meeting where Speights praised Granberg for her handling of the encampment, she ignored Student Government Association representatives calling for student voting members within the Board and financial transparency from the University. With no president to pursue its interests, and a refusal to give students a peer representative, it follows that community demands will only be heard via community pressure. Granberg has made it clear she won’t plead our case. The Board must feel the weight of calls for divestment directly, through community actions, emails and every other channel available, if it will take the community’s input seriously at all.
University divestment from weapons manufacturing and companies advancing the genocidal Israeli project is not unreasonable nor unattainable. It is being forcibly shut down by a Board that includes Charles Bendit, a recipient of an Israel Bonds award and Jeffrey Flaks, a partner with the investment arm of the Israeli government. The University’s current approach to student protesters is not apolitical nor standard. It differs from its historic negotiations process for South African divestment and is entirely opposite to GW’s divestment from fossil fuels, which is on track despite Granberg’s claims that it has been difficult. In the words of a student negotiator, it is not divestment that is off the table, it is divestment for Palestinians that is off the table.
The students, faculty and larger GW community want disclosure and divestment, and we demand a president who has an interest in representing GW students and faculty voices. Granberg has heard the GW community and done all she can to silence it, operating solely under the will of trustees. Her community notices when she is out of touch, and if there is any resolution to unrest on campus, it will only come through a radical revision of her approach to disclosure and divestment demands.
While pressure mounts on Granberg, it must be enough to spill over and onto the Board of Trustees. They operate away from the public eye, so much so that they’ll move their meeting to a virtual format to put protesters out of sight and out of mind. The greatest tool our GW community has is our size. When trustees brazenly ignore divestment demands and refuse to consider students, faculty and the extended community as stakeholders, we must mobilize that size to make our voices heard. War profiteering and genocide are not compatible with GW community values. We just need to convince the Board that’s the case.
Here’s a feedback form to do just that and a contact form to the trustees’ office directly. As long as administrators and Board members don’t feel public pressure, they will continue to profit off of genocide and do it in your name.