The ANU Council, the university’s governing body, announced yesterday that it will make changes to the University’s Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Policy in response to community feedback. The University will screen out investments in “controversial weapons manufacturers” and “civilian small arms manufacturers” from its portfolios, used to support its endowment – called the Long Term Investment Pool – and a smaller cash float fund.

The announcement comes after the Council conducted a review into the policy over the mid-semester break. Over 900 submissions were made to the review and over 100 people attended a town hall held by the university’s investment officers.

The change also comes after more than a 100 days of the ANU Gaza Solidarity Encampment, which has demanded that ANU, “cut ties with all weapons manufacturing companies, disclose and divest from all companies complicit in the genocide in Gaza and Cut academic ties with Israel, including its exchange partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem”. 

Students for Palestine and ANU Students and Staff Against War (SSAW) have also led activist efforts in demanding that ANU disclose and divest from weapons manufacturers tied to Israel.  

SSAW, in particular, has welcomed the announced changes. Finnian Cowell, a member of SSAW, said, “Every Palestine supporter at ANU should be proud; our protests forced the university to divest from some of the arms companies profiting off Israel’s slaughter in Gaza.” 

“We should now be confident of our power to cut every tie ANU has to Israel’s crimes.”

The SRI policy was originally adopted by the Council in 2013 in response to calls from students and staff for divestment from companies with large interests in fossil fuels. At that time, the University also committed to limiting its investments in companies deriving revenue from gambling, pornography and tobacco.

The policy’s stated aim is to ensure that the University’s investment funds are not invested in “opportunities […] likely to cause substantial social injury” and to promote investment “where the greatest return is achievable for the greatest social good”. “Social injury” and “social good” are not defined in the policy.

Freedom of information disclosures earlier this year revealed that the University’s investment funds hold sizable equity positions, worth up to $150,000 each, in computer company IBM and weapons manufacturers such as Thales, Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing. All of these companies have been linked by pro-Palestine activists to the war in Gaza.

However, a full text updated policy has not been published on the University website as of the time of publication, leaving two ambiguities.

The first is what the criteria for a “controversial” weapons manufacturer would entail.

In a statement, students from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment put their view that University’s announcement was “inadequate, immoral and deceptive”, citing the vagueness of the exclusion of “controversial weapons manufacturers” and what they see as a lack of urgency in implementing the changes in light of the urgency of the conflict in Gaza.

They state, “The announced outcomes are insufficient in addressing their material investments in the Palestinian genocide, and there is no commitment to immediately address their current holdings in companies assisting this genocide, including Raytheon, BAE Systems, and Northrop Grumman.” 

“The Encampment is currently seeking clarification on their SRI Policy changes through our mediation team to understand what degree of material and financial impact their policy change actually reflects – especially whether it actually implies divestment, as per our demands.” 

The second question is what will come of the university partnerships with other weapons manufacturers. Northrop Grumman, for instance, funds scholarships for select cyber security students and offers ANU students access to special graduate and summer internship programs. 

The policy’s transitional provisions also required the University’s investment managers to divest from investments identified as socially harmful “as quickly as possible, but over a period of no more than three years” and in a manner calculated to “avoid any adverse impact on the University’s overall investment position”.

The passage of a motion demanding that ANU divest from companies involved in the Gaza conflict will be the main item on the agenda of the two upcoming ANUSA special general meetings, scheduled to be held on Thursday.

Nick Reich, an ANUSA General Representative, and mover of the motion, posted on the ANU’s student facebook group, Schmidtposting that the meeting is still going ahead and that the university’s announcement shows that “protest works”.