This is now calling to order. We are joined today by many members of our university community, including 28 individuals who have signed up to provide public comments. We ask that everyone in attendance be respectful of this meeting and adhere to our university policies, guidelines and instructions. Please file us also on electronic devices if the meeting is disrupted to apply for the Board's business and not be completed, and the meeting has to be recessed or adjourned, for granted police public comment will not be held. I ask the secretary to not follow
here Kelly, here, our
first item of business is the approval of the consent agenda. I ask for a motion before the governor to approve the consent agenda and the present the board we have approval of the official proceedings of october 24 approval of the official proceedings of october 24 2024 from the Academic and Student Affairs Committee, we have the establishment of a new program for our PhD and the rate of neuroscience. From the budget finance committee. We have approval of the Hillary gateway performance complex and the Teach Commons revitalization I have a motion all in favor abstentions. Production carries next agenda item three before the Board of personnel recommendations submitted by Provost Lego. The action is as follows, I ask for a motion that the Board of Governors approve the personnel recommendations for a tenure promotion to full assessment and administrative appointments other than those separately submitted. May I have a motion support, all
in favor? Opposed? Opposed abstentions motion
period for Agenda Item four, I am delighted to report on the successful conclusion to the search of our new Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and request formal approval of the appointment, as you've seen from recent campus announcement, Dr Bernard comes to us with extensive
academic background
at a top 10 academic health center known for a countless role in advancing the city of Pittsburgh. I'm grateful for the work of the Search Advisory Committee under the leadership of doctors ash and Judy and based on the campus feedback, Everyone is very excited for him to join us. Dr Sella met with the board earlier today and is here this afternoon. May I ask him to please stand and be recognized so we can officially welcome you. I
know they will thank you. There'll be lots of opportunities for everyone to meet Dr Costello in the winter semester. I now ask for a motion that the Board of Governors approved the appointment of Dr Bernard Costello as the Senior Vice President for Health Affairs. The effective date of disappointment is no later than January 31 2025 May I have a motion? Okay, that was fast. Is there support? Thank you. Favor opposed. Abstentions. The motion carries congratulations, next agenda.
Item five is a request from Vice President of a for approval of a subcontract to purchase technology from a company owned by a faculty member. You learn more about this company at the October meeting of the Health Affairs Research and Economic Development Committee. This is the second contract with the firm. Go
ahead and
that comes from the company, motivation and so that's purchase. I asked for a motion for donors authorized the
private author. Does it need to enter anything incorporating commission, Corporation? The agreement will allow the purchase of a critical technology to advance research funded by the National Institutes of Health, to leverage the patented non invasive infrared light technology, to expedite the proposed work supported by an NIH funded study non invasive infrared light therapy and medical devices treaties spinal cord injury just. Project explores the potential treatment of incomplete spinal cord injury and the initial 24 hours following a trial for this a roll call vote is required. I have a motion report. Will
the secretary please call the roll?
Yeah? Yes, next vice president Abbasi has submitted a report on waivers approved under the board statute regarding research policy on restricted and proprietary research. Vice President Abba, do you have anything to add to your written report? No practice.
Our next item is from the Division of Development and Alumni Affairs and the establishment of endowments. I ask for a motion that the Board of Governors establish endowment funds the total $805,000 for the purposes presented. May I have a motion All in favor, opposed? Abstentions. The
motion carries
the the next board of business is the election of election of board officers for the coming calendar year, for the terms beginning January 1 2025 for the chair, I open, I open the floor for nominations for the chair of the board. Governor
nominate. Surely it's been
COVID for Wonderful. Thank you, Governor Matthew,
are there other nominations
All in favor of closing nominations? Oh, sorry, is there a second or support? Wonderful. Thank you. I appreciate that all in favor of closing nominations and electing Charlotte Chair of the Board for 2025 opposed next I open
the floor for nominations for the vice chair of the board?
Are there other nominations? I'll second that All
in favor. The floor for
nomination for treasurer of the board For 2025 Yes, I'd like
to nominate Bethany.
You. Favor.
Pronunciation for secretary of the bar for 2025 present, I'd
like to not make Julie Miller and say thank you for a great year and look forward to another great year
tonight. There other nominations? Hearing none all those in favor opposed, abstentions, a motion carries. Thank you. We have moved on to our committee reports for agenda item seven, three of the board standing committees met this morning, and I will call on each of the committee chairs for a report. We will begin with Governor stancato for the Academic and Student Affairs Committee. The
Academic and Student Affairs Committee met this morning with a short agenda. The Committee approved one recommendation for the establishment of a new program for a PhD in integrated neuroscience, a program that spans multiple schools and colleges at the University next the committee heard a presentation of Brian coming dean of the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and health science. College was established 100 years ago in one of the university's founding colleges. The dean provided data and demographics they valued at the college has called unique programs, about 1000 students and 15,000 alumni, 100 full time faculty and 20 staff. He reviewed enrollment trends, success rates and rankings, providing the committee with a picture of a college of successful students. In wide range of health science fields, but 100% of their students have positions in their field at the time of graduation, this presentation included student feedback and participation, which
two students
presented conversations afterwards, excited
about that in November, meeting
for the college and what it is accomplished on behalf of our students. Thank you, Madam President, the pleasure
of my next meeting
this morning. Committee met this morning, consideration approval 14 capital expenditures. One was related to additional design services, materials and labor costs for the renovation and depression. So the second project was to approve costs for the design, instruction, revitalization project. Both of these recommendations were approved by the committee, and we're also receiving, I'm sorry, we also received and reviewed two standard informational reports, one summarizing activity on major capital projects. Since the last time the board met in the other is a report on purchasing exceptions for contracts over $50,000
expenditures for the capital projects. But also on this
afternoon, from
governance, thank
you. Vice President Bill said and
a consultant from
ascent sure gave a report on our
ongoing HR project. This is
almost one year project. It's a full review of HR and all of its operations. This review has been performed and completed. Teams have now been working on a well developed plan for comprehensive and multifaceted improvements. We discovered what many of you already knew was that was a bureaucracy had been built over many years in HR, and it's now being fixed and corrected, streamlined and improved. Vice President Carolyn Hepner gave a report on the employment of 8700 people here at Wayne State University,
including promotion decorations, etc.
And we also met the new union president, James Middleton for the UAW local,
which represents
500 workers. So thank presentation and as a regular update of our progress towards our goals and objectives outlined in the university strategic plan a month at the time, these presentations provide a review and analysis of our progress and achievements on each of the five focus areas of the plan. Today, we will dive into the financial sustainability focus areas where senior vice president guilt check will discuss key efforts regarding
our campus plan. Thank you. So as we have been working through our strategic goals, you'll remember in June, we talked a lot about the financial goals of this section of the strategic plan, but included in the same section of the strategic plan are also operational excellence goals surrounding our campus planning and sustainability. And so we wanted to take a little bit of time to talk about what we've been doing in that space today. And you can see those two goals here, and we're going to talk a little bit more about each of them as we get a little further to the project I already introduced this morning. So we won't go into that again in depth, but we're very excited to
have Brad on board and
talk first about the first goal. You know, one of the pieces is really to be rethinking how we are using our facilities and land space with those four key objectives that are outlined specifically in the strategic plan. And so we're going to talk a little bit about each of these, consolidating the common teaching space into modern and pedagogically appropriate space. Certainly, we've been doing that as the renovated state Hall, which is one of the original campus plan recommendations, we're doing that with our improvements to the classrooms in Detroit, as Rob talked about this morning and. As we can start to then think about what we can do as we move forward, and think about properly aligning those spaces, reducing facility expenses and generating research resources by repurposing or selling unnecessary buildings. So we have had several conversations about real estate, and we'll talk about a couple of pieces that are currently actively being targeted, enhancing student life by consolidating central office space and creating more student centered spaces. So this going to talk a little bit about the realignment that's going to take up a number of years to get through that will create some more efficiency across campus and, of course, updated their education research facility for the school size. Facility for the school as well. So keeping that up, you'll remember that this spring, we had Dumont Jake's revisit campus this year after having been here for over a year, back in 2018 and 19, to do the more recent campus plan, we asked them to come back to an abbreviated update post COVID, so that we could get an understanding of whether things had changed and how that space was being used, and whether or not we needed to pivot at all of what we found was generally confirming what we found in 2019, primarily one. Classroom utilization was fairly similar, but we have even less utilization as we have before. So there is room to create efficiency, and especially as we start to look at some of our larger classrooms and how to use those spaces, we're going to be able to push and continue in that same path, concentrating academic and administrative spaces more efficiently when it comes to office space will allow us to reduce work for campus, potentially to commission buildings and avoid additional deferred maintenance costs. We're going to talk about that a bit more, and then that we have significant opportunities to improve some of our outdoor space COVID reading of campus, which our sustainability directors will talk about in a bit, but also focusing on some of our workspace and making sure that we're using it well, like the key Commons project that you just approved today, which was one of the key excuses of this plan, the administrative and academic space consolidation. You know, there were a number of key buildings that among Jake's identified for us to consider. Primarily among these is revisioning how we are using Maccabees and the faculty administration building and the academic administration building. Turns out, in the faculty administration building and academic administration building is mostly non academic or non faculty. So those are not aptly named, but we have a really interesting mix across these buildings. And so what we want to try to do over time and use it as an opportunity to rethink space, and to to really push in a reduction of space, to start to think about hoteling where appropriate, when we have some people working remotely, part time, and to start trying to consolidate teams where it is appropriate as well, is to roll out what will be a domino effect over a number of years. And so in February, we intend to bring you phase one, which is really like the first 18 months of what this project might look like, in order, at the end to be able to at least reduce campus, you know, by one or two of these buildings that then could potentially be decommissioned, reused, renovated for a new potential permit over time, they also identified some key buildings you know, that are primed to think about renovating or reimagining how we use their space. We've talked a little bit about shaver music building in the past, which is our key candidate for a potential School of Public Health. And we also have some significant potential in our crisis building, our life sciences building that needs a lot of deferred maintenance, and the Shapiro building, which also has
underutilized
space as well. So they identified these peak spaces, and so we're going to continue to try to question and reimagine how we use those over time. Keep comments that you saw this morning, so I won't go into more detail on that, but we're very excited about that potential and our real estate strategy. So we do have a number of excess properties that, for whatever reason, we've either inherited or been given or we have purchased or previously used. You know, in past years and sometimes decades, some of these buildings have been empty for a long time. And so one of the things that we're starting to do is one of Brad's focus points will be moving some of this real estate, especially as we see the development market starts to get more attractive, to try to get some interest in these spaces. So our three current primary focuses for redevelopment and ones we are actively marketing and in the last week or two, you know, at least, getting some tours. So that's just is one Kennedy Warren, which is the former Coronavirus center, Cancer Center building. The 77 can deal the 90 West Willis, which is a joint property. It's a former CMC building, along with a perfume lot that is getting empty. And 2727 seconds, as you will also know as the Block office building, which we got as part of a breakup of a much larger partnership, and we inherited the property. It's a office building that has about 60% occupancy currently, and really is something over by casting High School, and is a space where there's some potential for redevelopment. So we just wanted to do in the loop on loop on those, and hopefully we'll be able to bring good news in the new year. And with that, we're going to switch to an update from Rob Davenport on our Health Sciences Research Building. Good afternoon.
All right. So this, as you may recall, project, this is our Health Sciences Research Building. We have on the first two slides, a couple of samples of who's involved in the project. So as we have completed the project initiation issue phase, which you'll see here in a second timeline and events. Three categories of folks are engaged in the project, the project management team, the core team and executive team, and in fact, many of the folks that are noted on the slide are here in this room. Next slide, this is a another sample of folks that are truly engaged in the design phase of the project. So programming and design of the lab space, we've got thematic captains and thematic users that have been very engaged in the process, and we've booked at least 50, probably more than that, probably 75 hours of meetings and really determining what this space is going to look like, but more importantly, what it needs to look like based on the mission before us next slide. All right, so here's a timeline, folks, that's right. So okay, all right. So do know that we're heading into the design development phase and then eventually into our breaking ground this fall. And here's an image of the building, both the front the back of the front is on Canfield. Back is on the teams over the federal Affairs side of the building. We're excited about the look and feel and again, a lot of work so far to get to this point. Oh, here we are. Okay, thank you. So right, we're we finished the project, initiation phase, VIP phase, schematic design is underway. Now we'll make our way into design development, and that will conclude somewhere around June. At that point, we will make it into construction document phase and break around here at the end of next year, so completion of slate before the beginning of 28 All right, here's a quick sample of what the lab environment might look like. Again, open lab environments, we're thinking we're going to have somewhere at least 42 PIs with six support staff for those PIs for each and really this a lot of thought, again, brought it to this concept, and the open lab environment is one that is utilized today in grand way. And so bringing that modern technology to this project is super important. All right, capital renewal. So a bit of a recap on 24 and where we're going in 25 last year, we initiated more than 50 million in projects, a very, very aggressive position for us, and you see the categories that we've slated for all of our capital endeavors. If we jump into the next slide, we'll see some, some examples of projects that have been completed. We talked about nuclear gateway and the graduate gas. We got more impressive with HVAC projects, which you'll see more here in a bit. Parking structures for and to have been refurbished. Detroit reflecting pool and the interior we talked about as well earlier today, and a lot of camp, a lot of concrete around campus has been replaced. So we're, we're doing our best to get rid of these trip hazards. All right, so elevators we've given the past couple of years. 2324 We've invested the best part $13 million into elevators, and we're seeing greater reliability with the elevator plant, and certainly fewer work requests for repairs. So this has done us very well to bring reliability to that part of our campus. 25 we've got another $2 million slated, and then the next, you know, five years or so, another 5 million. We'd like to get more aggressive this year, but candidly, it's difficult to find out bigger mechanics to do the work. So, you know, we're limited with put the available labor out there. Next one. All right, so what's planned for 25 another nearly 50 million in projects slated for 25 another aggressive position. We've gathered design and construction services folks are very busy, and our operations and maintenance folks are also contributing to the separate cuts and remains projects toward abortion. I won't read all the projects that you see the major highlights on the right. But do know that our focus here, as you can see, the largest number, is mechanical, electrical, plumbing. And you know, this is a super important piece. So as we are, you know, finishing up the elevator piece, we jump into an MEP. And here we'll see reliability across campus with that that piece. So the fewer too cold or too hot coals we get, will be your welcoming place to be, for sure, and also we're we've added athletics to this particular round of capital projects. So a lot of work that we anticipate doing here next year for that group.
Okay? And with that, we're going to look at the next
goal. So the second piece of our capital goals, including promoting sustainability throughout the university, we went for a couple years without a sustainability director with the vaccine, we had a really hard time feeling and so we are very excited to introduce to you Edna Lawrence, who is our Director of Office sustainability. She's been here about six months, and she's going to tell us a little bit about
herself. And thank you. Afternoon, everyone. My name is Josh. I am an electoral engineer, Certified Energy Manager. I come from global health. I was previously the director of energy so is responsible for identifying energy efficiency as myself and efficiency as myself and moving to the recidivism program. And prior to that, I was in Chicago. I'm very excited to be here next up in my career. Thank you. So we got this chance of sustainability. We got a nice history. State University, and I think a lot of our work has been done in the past. Where I'm looking to take the outset moving forward is to really focus on operationalizing sustainability across the campus. So how can we incorporate sustainability into every all the work that we do, whether or not that's janitorial services, maintenance services, through hard services and making sure that we're incorporating sustainable design
practices. So really
making sure that that is part of everything we do, we are also going to track initiatives that line in our 2020, products for community initiatives outlined in our 2023
to 28 student sustainability plan,
and then also interfacing with students,
faculty and staff to get their feedback on sustainability on campus, so that we know what priorities are for our community and is where we need to go. Looking forward in terms of our initiatives for the following year, we're going to be looking at developing an energy reduction plan, and really the first step of that plan is to benchmark our energy consumption. Obviously, we have access to all of our bills, but tracing back the energy to individual facilities is actually a little bit more complicated than it may seem. So we're working on doing that right now, and also we're working, I'm working closely with Rob and his team, and looking at what are deteriorating, and seeing what opportunities there are to capitalize on improvements that we already know we need to do, and so looking at the projects that are currently underway, and what is up and coming, making sure we're capitalizing on due dates from CTE and any sort of tax returns to the inflation Reduction Act. We're also working on waste stream mapping. So one thing I heard very early on my day, certainly state, was that there's a lot of dissatisfaction amongst students, faculty and staff around waste and recycling on campus, and just. A lot of mistrust. And so right now, we're benchmarking our practices across campus, and then we're going to be looking at ways to improve and improve both reliability of the recycling and composting on campus, and then also PMC, what our vendors can be doing better as well. So that's an important issue for this year. And then finally, also looking at our stormwater management. So begin working with Rob and team as we're looking at concrete replacements. Where can we remove concrete? Where can we install permit replacements? Where can we install additional bios? Early welding is a real issue here in town, Detroit, and so how can we help mitigate that in a sustainable manner, but also in a way that will help us? In a way that will help preserve our buildings as well, and again, so the Office of Sustainability, working with the president Sustainability Council, put together this strategic
plan exposed to run through 2028
it was guided by the DSM sustainable development goal. Goals, and that follows very closely with the UN regional center back to the team for Windsor that is currently run by done in fashion. So working very closely with sort of make sure that our activities align with those 10 focus area but our plan the 10 focus areas of our plan right there. So look at that. But right now, like our Office of campus sustainability is fairly small, so we're focusing on those three areas I measured over
here. And that's it. That gives you a bit of a picture of what we're doing in that place. And it's obviously that we've talked to a lot about projects, but we wanted to give
you a picture of some of the other
pieces, and as I mentioned, we will then start to bring you some of the consolidation and realignment projects.
As we start to get into them.
Just appreciate that Congress food for raising recycling they've also with
the board, and so glad that we're listening to that, and
also Very grateful
as part of a larger sustainability medical walk. Does
cross
Canfield so
that we can connect it to Scott Hall. So we recently invested significant funding into the vibarium in Scott Hall. And so rather than trying to recreate a vibarium, which is where people have animals. For those of you not familiar, it made a sense to instead create a walkway between. And we also anticipated that there will be faculty and staff, research people that are in students going back and so we're still, we're early stages of working with the city with that. I'm sure grant can pull a few strings and make sure that happens
too.
But we anticipate, and so far, have not received any any concerns about that. They did something similar with that
before. Just just wanted. One comment, but just wanted to share just some observations about perhaps changing support sustainability practices. So my suggestion would be
to, as we message the work we're doing internally, make sure that the work to a reviewable thing
takes such as cost savings, student success, outcomes, etc. I'm just I'm not sure that I
personally think it's
great. May not may not be shared. I making sure that people like all resources,
beautiful paper projects, right? AWD and the law school that very well received by campus, which is a great alternative, but we need a hard state.
Comments. Okay, let's move on to Agenda Item nine. You'll find a written report that covers a wide range of university updates at our last board meeting from our campus and across our campus that are developed by the respective leader. There's a lot of great work by our university community every day that makes a difference to our students, our families and our communities. So I really encourage everybody to read the report. I'll just take a couple of minutes to do kind of a dashboard tour of a couple of the items, but please, the amount of work that goes on here on this campus is truly transformative. Is really remarkable. So it's not surprisingly, a University of our statute stature is really leading on the national stage. I was pleased to join my colleagues across the campus where Wayne State was awarded the top national prize for innovation and economic engagement from the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities. We competed against 1000 fund universities across the country for Wayne stage, we identified whether it's our $2.75 billion in annual economic impact, whether it's tech town, whether it's our research ideas or talent and college Victoria, we've all come together to contribute to the economic prosperity of our region, and it's great to be recognized. We've been recognized already by ACLU relative to our degree completion, as well as our Talent Award Association, our national peer, really looking to win the state as a national agenda. Agenda. Time Magazine has a new ranking of the best colleges for future leaders, and we were ranked in the top 100 number 93 what they do is they survey, they look specifically empirically at leaders, resumes and educational backgrounds. And so this isn't just asking someone who's important, but rather it's empirically where our folks are being placed. So it's great to see our Wayne State students going on to being those leaders, not just here in our region, but also across the United States. You probably saw the announcement with respect to our faculty R and D, activity that continues to grow. The National Science Foundation released its annual per survey that covers FY 23 it's the primary source of institutional information on R and D across the 900 southwest colleges and universities that were ranked, we see a steady increase in our R and D. You see the ranking relative to other public universities. Not surprisingly, there are many areas of disciplines that we rank well the top 100 and chemistry, health sciences, physical science and life sciences, particularly important with the growth in both federal and nonprofit already, nonprofits, obviously, are primarily the community funded, applied projects that are so critical to our impact in our region, and that was growing at a higher rate than our 10 institutional peers, and also our own institutional investments in R and D, the support for startups and students really makes a difference in what's out facing our peers. So it was great to see you now. Vice President ABA and all of our deans, Carlos Fuego and others, are hard at work to continue that important impact. This is one of my favorite parts of this presentation. I always get to do a couple of highlights of our faculty doing outstanding work, whether it's Dr Liu and finance team who received a highly competitive five year renewal of the r1 on sport germination inhibitors. Nate mccoughtry in the college affairs awarded the extension by the mission community health worker program. We're working with the pdsc on a wastewater project. So we're really partnering and being awarded a really important fund and resources to support our work. It was exciting to be able to invest in our faculty for their nascent College to Career initiative. Thanks to Provost clavo and Senior Vice Provost Ahmad Azzedine, we were able to get started to create some momentum projects put forward by the schools and colleges as initial starter, there'll be a competitive application that will come out in the spring that will allow even further investment. What was really neat is just to see the range of outstanding work that our faculty are doing that allows students the kind of experiences that set them up for success, not only the things that they learn in the classroom, but the experiences outside the take full advantage of our Detroit community. You all, many of you, were probably able to attend the Noel night, a midtown festival. One of the things that we take. Full advantage of is the opportunity to showcase our entrepreneurs. So we had many of our folks who had their winners for sale, and was a huge success. I must say, it was a little cold out, so having our warm in a warm place was really a nice touch. Not surprisingly, we've had lots of different events since we last met, including our employee celebration that allowed us to welcome everyone into McGregor for a fun evening of festivities, recognizing our important work as we head into the season of thanks and the holidays. And then here on the right, you see the dinner that we hold for students on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy a nice Thanksgiving holiday. We were I was very excited by the event where we brought together all of our advocates, our school and college advisory boards, our tech tab foundation board, as well as this board together at Huntington tower to talk about the impact that we do working on behalf of Wayne State University. It was a lovely evening. I'm very grateful to Gary forgiving and alumni of Wayne State who allowed us to host the event, and this is an effort that we intend to bring together more routinely. It was amazing to hear so many clubs who serve on a particular board for the school or college, to run into a colleague who's on a different board, not realizing that they're working together on behalf of Wayne State. So look for more of these kind of events going forward. Little thing to look forward to in the winter holiday. I'm really grateful to our entire communications team across our university for the new winter magazine, it should be coming out soon, telling our story of how we're contributing to our community, whether it's in academics, research or service and impact. A lot of really fun stories. It has a much more up tempo, facts and figures alumni University. So I think it'll be a really nice publication feedback send it does way and we'll continue to improve this going forward. I think there's electronic version coming out as well. So be a great opportunity to showcase some of the work. Wayne State is also on the stage telling some of our stories nationally. I had the opportunity to join U of M's President tanta omel at the Council of Competitiveness, talking about innovation and impact across universities in a very different mission. I was being an urban serving public research institution, the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Hofstra on Long Island and Morgan State and HBCU. It was a real pleasure to talk about all the things universities are doing towards talent, workforce, innovation and impact all together to a large convening of business and government leaders in Washington, DC. And then lastly, I would like to close with some of the great work that's contained in the report that happens every day on our campus. You see the parade, the local health unit, the SOS maternity network, and so many so I would really encourage folks to go ahead and read the report, because there's some really great work in there. Thank you very much. That concludes the report. We will now move on to Agenda Item 10 of the agenda that provides an opportunity to recognize our outgoing board member, Governor Mark Gaffney. Governor Gaffney will complete his term of services on the Board of Governors by December, 31 2024 that his leadership was particularly special to me, as he was critical in my recruitment for Wayne State he was the one who conveyed what special place Wayne State University is and how deep our impacts are on the community. Every day, I am personally so grateful for the year enduring impact on our university and for your service on behalf of the state. So we have two action items to be taken in recognition of the service, followed by a statement of appreciation that Governor Chicago two of our boards will read on its behalf. So first, for approval of American status, may ask for a motion that the Board of Governors name as governor America. Motion and a second, it sounds like everyone's going to move a
second, all in favor, and
that they're not going to be any opposed, but I will say it on the record, opposing the sessions the motion carries. The second is to establish an endowed scholarship fund. I ask for a motion. The Board of Governors established the mark Gaffney Endowed Scholarship Fund, functioning as an endowment to recognize the last six achievements, encourage continued progress and to provide assistance to students in financing their education at Wayne State University. May I have a motion? Consultant, all in favor, opposed. Abstentions. The motion carries next, I call on Governor Stein Connor
for a few words on behalf of the board, maybe more than
a few words, thank you. President, as Mark concludes his term of service to recognize many times the board, his service has been an commitment, not only to the institution itself, but to our faculty staff and students, for which we are profoundly Great. Mark was elected to the Board of November 2015 Following his retirement as a Teamster and following 12 years as president of the Michigan AFL CIO. This capped a 30 year career honing exceptional skill and expertise in workforce and labor relations issues, Mark brought those skills with them to Wayne State, often providing advice and counsel to the administration on labor management issues. He increased the board's awareness as well helping find common ground and solutions that may not have been readily appeared Mark's concealed experience and expertise but also recognized and sought after by the university's labor and range and Labor Studies Program, where he served as an adjunct professor. Mark has served as a chair of the board at Wayne State, as chair of numerous board committees and as a committee member, in fact, serving on all of the board's committee and ad hoc standing committees, ad hoc the hoc as we all know, we were most fortunate that he served as chair of the board during a critical time transition at the University. His skill and expertise was never more evident than during his service as chair of the Presidential Search Committee that brought President Keshe to our campus about 15 months ago, he led the process brought a wide panel of distinctive, diverse voices and perspectives together, and we can all agree that that search that brought president here was profiling during March terminal office. Of course, the face of the institution changed dramatically, and he heard about a lot of those changes this morning, in addition to that, new programs have been approved, and faculty and a number of new senior administrators have joined the university. The university has been remarkable improvement in graduation and retention rates at a tremendously wide array of student success initiatives. Throughout all of these changes, Mark has been a steadfast supporter of the institution, feeling pride, as all the members of the board have about its accomplishments and urgent continued progress for those areas. We will miss you, Mark, but hope you know to complete your terms of service, the board will lose a strong advocate and a value credit. Best wishes to you from all of us here on the Board of Governors.
Applause, Governor,
thank you for your dedication, your commitment and your service to the
university we are serving the better institution for your you're impacting
yourself. Final item on the agenda is public comment, and I turn
over to Governor
for the first the book. Board welcomes an opportunity to hear from students, faculty, staff and all in our broader campus community during public comments. Earlier this year, we expanded the board's ability to receive and consider written and video comments in addition to the comments provided directly in today's session, we encourage all of this input as it helps us broaden our understanding of issues of concern to our call. Today's public comment session is for members of our community to share their perspective with the board, not for interactive dialog. Please know we're listening to your remarks, reading your materials and taking
your perspective into consideration.
President e Sure. Thank
you. Venus mancato, today's public comment session includes 28 receivers who register registered to speak prior to the Monday deadline, because the board wants to hear from as many speakers as possible within the 60 minute time limit designated the board meeting procedures for public comment. Yes, each speaker will be limited to two minutes in which to make remarks. The on screen clock will keep us on time. When the time has elapsed, the speaker's remarks are concluded. Secretary Miller, please call each speaker one at a time to
provide comments. Thank
you. Hello. My name is I hear many of you the Board of Governors are also parents. I'm not sure what thoughts cross your mind when you see folks about the daily carnage of children going on in Gaza and now the surrounding regions. For me, it's deeply traumatizing to be a witness in daily news dreams and to go from watching children being blown to bits in that part of the world to watching our own children and young adults getting brutalized by police and by our educational and government institutions for opposing those egregious human rights violations. I've seen students protest at the University of Michigan and at Wayne State, firsthand. It was peaceful and beautiful in the way students of various backgrounds and beliefs came together to peacefully convey a message demanding peace and demanding divestment from human carnage. The only violence I saw was when the police was unreached on our children by their own education institutions. Did the members of this body ever consider how they would feel if their children were thrown to the ground by the police and paid for hours with horrible
conditions? Did you consider?
You consider how the parents of these students felt when they could not reach them for hours and only had videos of the race to watch over and over again, screens of young women subjected to violence and humiliation at the hands of quote, unquote, law enforcement, and knowing that one of the students had to be taken to the hospital. My own parents left the dictatorial regime to escape religious persecution in a different part of the world. They came here to give me and my siblings the chance to live and learn the freedom I've always cherished my new home, thinking of my thinking that my children were here free to get an education and follow their conscience. The fact that funds raised in the name of providing an education are being used in the most unethical way in companies profiting from war and genocide by a state that is many times more brutal than the one that we escaped is unacceptable in accordance with your time temple left. Minutes i
In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Peace be upon you all. My name is benadlan. I am the director of safe spaces at the Council on American Islamic COVID Michigan chapter. I am here on behalf of care Michigan to address serious concerns raised by students at this campus since 2021 these include Islamophobia, suppression of CO Palestinian voices, and excessive reliance on law enforcement, creating an environment that intimidates rather than supports activism and inclusivity. As a public institution, Wayne, State University is obligated to uphold freedom of speech and the civil and religious liberties of students. Yet we've seen alarming incidents that disregard these principles. Students peacefully raising awareness about Jan De was subjugated to a violent rape police with students detained and a Muslim student having her hijab removed. Meanwhile, Islamophobic groups have desecrated the holy Coronavirus on on campus with impunity, fostering a hotline environment instead of implementing safety measures, the university repeatedly changes policies following peaceful protests, clearly targeting dissenting voices, police officers have also been stationed in the student center, patrolling near group events used by the MFA in pro Palestinian groups, this create an atmosphere of fear, particularly across communities with a history of police surveillance. I urge President the Board of Governors and the administration not only to listen, but to take decisive actions such as enforce police accountability to a sensitive. Retraining and clear public protocols create formal avenues for grievances and resolutions with transparency and address Islamophobia through tangible measures, including education and student support. The time to access now Wayne State must foster a campus where every student feels safe, heard and reflected. Thank you.
Good afternoon during the DoD meeting before
my first medical team now, as I approach My second final discussion, Wayne State now has six orders. Including the students. Additionally, we have even more State University technical investment classes,
or comfortable in either the consensus. During public comments, I, along with other students on the table, will be reading to withdraw financial support from companies that are directed funding
for payments. Occupy
data. These actions include deterioration bodily in mental health and improving the victims of life. Calculated authors, calculated in massive violations of the genocide conventions. Israel actions are also in clear violation of international conventions on further indicates the apartment system in
California. Thank you.
COVID news may up travel. Okay, we'll go
through I'm a
resident of Woodbridge neighborhood, just at stones throw away my spouse and I've been living there for the past few years, and I was on a walk just a couple weeks ago, and I noticed that peace pole right out in front of a faculty and administration building. I guess this peaceful was donated just last year to the center of peace, to conflict studies, to honor the native peoples of this land. It's got the word peace in the language of Ojibwe and Odawa and Taiwan peoples. And when I walked past it, the first thing I thought about was these students on this campus
who are honoring
and giving dignity to native peoples of this land, to the land of the Holy Land, to help senior people. I thought about the students that for years now have been demanding that this university divest from companies that are profiting off with land theft, genocide.
These students,
in the midst of an atmosphere of anti Arab racism and homophobia, are summoning spiritual depth, moral clarity, political courage to stop a genocide. Students are peacemakers, but you have refused to take the sensible demands of these students seriously when they pitch tents and nonviolent protests. You even called the cops dressed up in riot costumes to arrest them as Jewish historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt theorized those who go. Along with genocides aren't innately evil. They're often just boring careers. People just doing their job instead of doing what it takes to stop a genocide. So I'm asking you, Lord, to break rank With ruling elites and stand with These students. You
that's great. I
I'm ready. My name is I'm a student at this university, and I'll be reading from the government proposals submitted to the Board of Governors today at this
meeting. As a public institution, Wayne, State University is accountable to its community, including students, faculty, alumni, and the city as it serves. The Board of Governor has the Board of Governors have demonstrated responsiveness to student advocates. Many of these institutional Programs and Features originated from student said, led initiatives such as fall break the office of sexual violence prevention and education and others. Divestment has been introduced through the Wayne State student senate in 2003 and again in November of 2023 Wayne State Department of African American studies as we know it, would not have existed without student protest demanding for a center in 1970 and a building occupation, demanding a department in 1989 the bog have demonstrated a divestment mechanism through its decision to divest from South African apartheid and the tobacco industry in response to student led campaigns. These actions underscore the university's commitment to align with financial practices, with principles of equity, justice and global responsibility. Over a year of advocacy efforts have further highlighted widespread community support for divestment, most notably with hundreds of people demonstrating their solidarity by visiting the student encampment for divestment on Wayne State University grounds, by failing to address these overwhelming consensus, the Board of Governor erodes trust within the community and damages its reputation as a leader of social justice. Wayne State must demonstrate consistency in its commitment to social justice by reading these findings contained in this proposal and divesting from companies the university decides to uphold its missions and principles. This action would reaffirm the university's dedication to upholding human rights and ethical investment principles and affirm the democratic commitment to its due to community. We've submitted a proposal. We've given you information. You don't understand what we're talking about, or you don't understand why we're doing this. Read it, learn it, understand it, because we will be here and we will be back.
You. My
name is Grace. Could do student, veteran and vice president of Jewish Voice for Peace, the Board of Governors and the university president must adhere to the democratic principles and enact bylaws and regulations that favor the clear and broad consensus among their constituencies as elected bodies, the university administration must prioritize the interests of whom they chose to serve. Concerned constituents have been urging the adoption of an ethical investment policy. It is the WSU Board of Governors interest to see this adoption, to see through the adoption of a new policy to both align the values of the university and policy circumstances of unrest and sustained dissatisfaction in the community. Wayne State has a rich history of social movements that are celebrated today despite their perceived controversy at the time, this section explores the history of Wayne State University's existing efforts of ethical investments and strategies from which this proposal builds upon to align the institutional mission positively impacting local and global communities. Wayne State has a proud history of standing against injustice through principled financial decisions. During the apartheid era. In South Africa, the university's divestit companies complicit in apartheid injustices, aligning its financial practices with its moral and ethical values. Similarly, in 1991 the university divested from tobacco companies, responding to student advocacy and reorganizing the detrimental impact of such investments on its public health priorities. I'm going to take one minute to address this board member here. How dare you refuse to take that proposal? You're an elected official, that's your constituent.
You're elected to
do a job. Take the proposal. We'll move on, then to Layla do Sorry.
Logan bull is Logan bull here.
Okay, then the next speaker is Layla.
Oh, can you hear me?
Thank you. I didn't have time to prepare any remarks today. I'm in agreement with what I'm sure everyone else has said. I'm a graduate student here at Wayne State in the history department. I formerly went to William as an undergrad as well. That much has changed since the last Board of Governors Meeting, both in terms of the situation with Palestinians, but also, it seems like of the composition of the board in your position. Unfortunately, things have only gotten worse in Palestine. You probably know there's a modern day Holocaust being carried out that it seems like most folks here are okay with Israel has now illegally invaded Syria it is stealing land from Syrians and claiming it as their own, that being a greater Israel, which is hormone, they are bombing Syrians. They are bombing Lebanese people, infringing upon the sovereignty of millions of people across the world, which has performed and Wayne State has continued to retain its investment in Raytheon, in Lockheed Martin and dozens of other companies that are crossing off this criminal warfare. So I'm here as a student who pays tuition to this university to ask you to please divest. Finally, this is not a minority or infringed position. Very recently, the Yale student body at Yale University overwhelmingly endorsed divestment. This is the standard of the majority of people in this country and across the world. When state, more fortunately, look back on this period with deep shame and regret, the sooner you can act The better there is blood
on all of your Hands. Question,
Rex, Donaldo.
Rex, Donaldo.
James Perkinson, I
James Perkinson, professor of social ethics at ecumenical Theological Seminary. Woodward, I've lain awake for three nights now, wondering what I can say in two minutes. It would make any difference. It feels like a game. We talk. You sit there and check a box. The dollars continue to flow to the corporations. The bombs continue to fall. Kids body parts continue to fly through the air before their mother's eyes or their legs have to be sawn off while the parents hold them downstream. The mainstream media pontificates about the latest electoral shenanigans. 10s of 1000s of lion fans continue to pour through my downtown neighborhood on Sundays to go drink and roar you sit in your offices doing something called education, really. I call it incorporation in the genocide United Nations last week, said Gaza now has the highest per capita rate of child MDC in the world, with many children forced to endure surgery without anesthesia. This is not fake information. The whole world can see your kids can see. These young people can see and unless you. You've taken in some ideas that tell you don't believe your eyes. These are not real human beings being killed just globs of animal bats, just terrorists, just human shields. Your eyes are reporting to your great, ongoing human dismemberment taking place in real time with your blessing in the form of investment dollars and taxes you could contribute to stopping or you can continue to be human shields for the really scary terrorists of our time, the corporations that are destroying the world. Up to you, but subsequent history, if any of us survive, what's happening, will be unequivocal. What the US of A is doing in this affair is utterly reprehensible and perverse, but then that is exactly how we behave towards Our own indigenous vote isn't so, of course, David,
David, caster, Eli Krantz,
Dania, I guess I'm sorry. Captain,
good afternoon. My name is Pastor Elijah friends, and I'm with the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Detroit, your neighbor to Wayne State, is on the corner of forest and Cass as a Unitarian, I am called to speak up when the dignity and worth of people are injected and also called because the actions of this institution, as well as their inaction, has affected beloved members of my congregation deeply. Their spiritual and emotional care is in my hands at their ministry to the student voices here demanding change. We are with you. We affirm and support your wisdom and action. You are beloved and held in our spirit, and we are here for you whatever you need. Both our denomination and our church here in Detroit have made it very clear where we stand in this conflict, and is on the side of Palestinian people here in Gaza and around the world. To this board. First, uu supports the call for divestment transparency and the end of police action against protesters from the June meeting. Governor Barnhill is quoted as saying, and pardon me for paraphrasing, for time, that students need to have a level of critical thinking to realize that quote, in order to address complex issues, you have to do more than yell at people who ultimately would pass a policy that is tantamount to just a gesture. I invite you governors into the same critical thinking to understand where you are in history, it is an insult to dismiss these prophetic voices rising in Unity despite violent suppression. Historically, yelling has been proven to be very effective to make people pay attention when things that need to be paid attention to, there are plaques and warning when things are deeply wrong, these students have done you a service by acting as a warning bell of consciousness. What they are asking of you is not an empty gesture. It is a clear action that you can take if you cannot, perhaps it is time to critically think of your position in this Body and whether it is the
right place down here.
University President David Adam, and served from 1983 to 1997 expressed a principled rationale for the implementation of institutional divestiture for companies that are complicit in apartheid on total divestiture versus the existing resolution adopting the Sullivan principles. Adam when he stated that total divestiture quote signals minority students of the university's concern for them in his recognition of the evil arising from racial, national and religious discrimination. End, quote, he further this point by saying, quote, the special circumstances within which the Board of Governors you guys now deliberate, makes a possible case that generational, institutional interest may be better served by policy of total avoidance in my best interest ways, the university has, to a degree rarely found in the United States, serves exactly those minority racial and religious groups which are the targets of discriminatory policies in the USSR and Republic of South Africa. While the university can be proud of these accomplishments, it should recognize also that its special commitment should be steadily offended precisely because other institutions are not meeting the needs of the affected groups. So the following importance of the university drives investment policy in its continued efforts to provide encouragement to and to serve these groups is consequently greater at wings and elsewhere. End quote former president Adam these words of words perfectly embody the practice of Wayne State's law. Health, values and purpose and choice with undergraduate library names in honor former president Adam and upheld academic honor and respectfully marginalized students and community, something that you guys do not. Do you
can I go? Okay,
I have stuff prepared to stay, but everyone already said that, basically everything gets to stay. No, I just want to address you guys, because it's kind of funny about that. She comes to hand this holder a paper, and she doesn't accept them, and she thinks she's a big chef. The girl you
slams on the floor that you guys land
on the floor and feather and Deborah from God and
threw her inside of herself.
She hand you a paper, and you don't take it. And then when you're when the other person that came after called you out on it while she walked away, you laugh. What is wrong with you? Like people come to tell you guys, oh, we need you guys to do this. We need you guys to do this. There's evil people Israel. The evil people aren't told me in Israel, they're right here. They're right here. Every single one of you guys, shame on you guys. What is wrong with you, especially you. And then the first person that came she said, Do you guys not have kids when you see the kid images of kids, and not that you guys not have sympathy to those kids. I say this. I say, may your children be treated the way Israel treats Palestinian children. And if you think that's an insult, then you agree that Israel is treating Palestinian children horribly. And if you think that Israel treats Palestinian children good, I want you to say amen to that prayer, because if you don't show you, guys are hypocrites. It's okay for for people to come stop on the command on campus and arrest Muslims on campus, but God forbid the students on campus condemn a foreign regime that new policies are enacted, a private security company is brought in, extra police patrolling with a Muslim set, but don't criticize the foreign regime 1000s away that hurts her Republican honor her right there she observed 10 years in the rally i is,
by the way, we're starting a student pack, And you see here, your political career is done. You
county former faculty member Law School.
I'm speaking today on behalf of the of the Michigan chapter of the National Congress of black lawyers, the Michigan chapter of the National Council of black lawyers appears today to call from the university to respect the First Amendment rights of all students, specifically to respect and protect the rights of those who express their views on events. We request, well, that this board of governors consider the merits of these expressions of concern and reach the reasonable and humane conclusion that this university should be in no way complicit in the ongoing campaign of genocide that by some estimates, has caused, directly or indirectly to
deaths of nearly 200,000 the widespread destruction of Gaza, as well as the deliberate ongoing massacres With ongoing in that region have appropriately promised the issuance of an arrest warrant of Prime Minister Netanyahu by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice appears to be moving toward definitive findings in the events end of in fact, ncdl is alarmed that last spring, this university authorized violent attacks by law enforcement officers on those in the encampment like the aforementioned respective international courts, demonstrated alarm about the events of Palestine. I'm going to run out Alexander, I'm going to run out of time remarks by urging this board of governors to consider the request made for divestment from all implements of the State of Israel. Wow.
Comprised copies of the proposal.
Deadline. My name is and I'm going to be continuing on, starting the middle of page nine at the proposal. So this is on Wednesday, Stafford in april of 1991 two medical students attended a voc meeting, as we're doing right now have been doing for the past year, and pointed out the difference between the university's cancer research and prevention efforts versus investments in tobacco companies. The students presented a resolution to the consideration of the vots in which they urge the governors to commit to the university's principles. The governor approved the student's resolution in the following vo team a significant precedent of student advocacy influencing University investment decisions occurred when these two medical students address the investments in tobacco companies, the students highlighted the conflicts between the university's professed values and its financial practices. As a result, the university reconsidered and ultimately divested from these companies, aligning its investments with its health related mission and values. Given the established precedent, the university must take the concerns from apartheid and Gentile, complicit companies seriously and implement the necessary changes to align its investments with the spouses. This duty is grounded in the right support to students the university's commitment to ethical standards and effective of the university to hear and implement feedback on investments with students today, we heard a presentation on sustainability, which I thought was a good presentation. I actually used to work at the office of campus sustainability in the compost program. Our presentation is similar, and that it's really about global sustainability. Student Success rides on sustainability, both on campus and in effect of what we put into the world and what we've propagated through financial systems, these commitments are not
preferable
from each other. You
College of Education ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR Last Thursday, Amnesty International joined the international course of voices denouncing Israeli slaughter Palestinian children.
One thing we get
crisis and devastation is to look for the helpers in Gaza, most important among the helpers of medical workers who work in impossible conditions to try to attend to the injured, mutilate the starving and the dying. Unfortunately, hospitals, ambulance drivers and medical workers are, as has been widely documented, systematically targeted by Israeli forces on Monday, the 76th anniversary of the UN's adaptation of the convention of genocide, I and many others listen to the press conference of doctors across Gaza testifying the conditions in which they work every day. We heard about Dr fusama, the director of COVID Hospital in northern Gaza, who was severely wounded an Israeli attack on his hospital in late November, and who had lost his eight year old son a few weeks earlier, four more members of the medical staff were killed in an Israeli assault last Friday and on Monday, Israeli attacks cut off the hospital supply of electricity, oxygen and water. Attacks like this have been directed in the hospitals across Gaza repeatedly. Doctors against genocide has now launched a global campaign called not another child, not at a hospital. The campaign has embedded the principle that medicine, fundamentally, is about preserving human life, and therefore hospitals and doctors should not be targeted. This is a principle upon which everyone should be able to agree we're fortunate at waiting state to be hit, led by a President and Provost who are fundamental workers. President eSPI is a clinical neuropsychologist, which allows her insight into the mental suffering of children in Gaza. Provost, clabo is a longtime leader in the field of nursing, understands the complexity of medical triage under his birth conditions. I urge the university, as a leader in health sciences field, Detroit and state, to join not another child, not in the hospital campaign, and remember, in this time of genocide, in this way, I would be happy to serve as our University's liaison to that campaign. Thank
you. Layla Fauci, applause, I'm
standing here to remind you of the duty as public servants employed at a public university to uphold the First Amendment. I. Might be wondering why this reminder is needed now, recent actions bringing criminal charges against Main Street students, the suppression of peaceful protest or Festival and the rewording of our free speech norms to empower administration and weaponize our campus police are just a few reasons. But if I'm being honest, what really motivates is a spectacle for black political police officers violently pushing, dragging and yanking pride they jumped women out of the Board of Governors meeting on April 26 while this white police chief looked on approving. If you're not concerned about justice, maybe we concerned about optics as a public university, Wayne State has a duty to uphold first, then. Why are cities so worried about criticizing Zionism? It's an ideology that motivated the ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians 76 years ago. It's an ideology that still justifies illegal Jewish settlements on land that has been owned by Palestinians for generations in West Bank. These are facts. Now, everyone thinks that this is justified or not, but in any case, this should be open for discussion, especially at clean state. However, what I'm asserting as faculty are my colleagues and students to their corners because it's not safe to speak out in the open. This is beginning at the end of democracy, when our academic institutions become ideological. Now our students will graduate, and given their intelligence great and sense of integrity, I imagine they will go on to do amazingly wonderful things and their professional lives, but here's where you should pay attention. When our alumni office reaches out to them for donations, these wildly successful professionals are going to remember when you demonized and misrepresented them, And more importantly, how their friends and family of Palestine
College of Engineering. Let's continue with the proposal. Wayne State rightfully embraces its r1 status as a permanent urban research institution in Michigan. However, there's an incongruity between Wayne State's key research areas that aim to do more discoveries and ethics, or maybe investing in the genocide environment as a health and environmental research is at the forefront of funded academic activity. One of the many examples is research conducted through the Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which has received a multi million dollar grant to explore the harmful effects of PFAs at this big time, Israel's used aircraft to weaponize PFAs harmful effects to perpetuate apartheid by damaging life, supporting crops and infrastructure within a plane. Another grant brought interdisciplinary researchers in the College of Fine performance and Communication Arts and the College of Engineering to explore the interdependency of drinking water and health systems. This interdependency has been confirmed by the simultaneous destruction of water and health systems within laser or more than 95% of lesser water has been unsafe for human consumption, and poor sanitation and acute malnutrition had reduced the devastating surge infectious diseases and post operative infection on the entire population of Hazel The marrow Palmer struggle Institute host research on infants, behaviors, biology, environment, and more 50% of this research contains discoveries and results that are contradicted by the investments and entities complicit and the disruption of Palestinian homes, schools and medical facilities that exacerbate the very conditions the research the weight of these contributions between research studies and investments in companies that have been environmental and health infrastructure devastation will continue to grow for Wayne State and its community to live as long as the investment is not in prayer. Once the university has demonstrated through its divestments in South Africa, apartheid and tobacco that there is an established divestment President which he trusted you the responsibility to align its financial practices with its alleged principles. Thank you.
I'm going to be reading from page 16 on the proposal in binding orders, the ICJ ruling of january 2024 authorized the right. South Africa to protect the rights of Palestinians from genocide by the State of Israel. The court noted that purpose was not just to ascertain that genocide is occurring, but to prevent its atrocities and ultimate goal of erasure from occurring again in history. This moral imperative is being instilled in more and more institutions as Israel's violations continue to occur. Recent presidents of institutional recognition. Research institutions across the world are being presented with the invitation to reassess their investment portfolios in the face of modern forms of complicity in systems of violence and injustice. North American universities can and have made strides ever our neighboring campus that the University of Windsor, has institutionalized a robust agreement with student activism that includes divestment under their policies and new anti business policies and several other provisions. Just as way, State University limited its investments in tobacco San Francisco State University, SFSU limited its investments in coal and tar sands in 2013 on March 14, an investment advisory council of students was set up, and by August, the sfsc Foundation divested from walking manufacturers, Lockheed Martin, Palantir technologies and Leonardo Wayne State University's complicit in light of these recent developments, Development Development, Wayne State University's responsibility to divest from Israeli associated entities can be further justified by setting the legal framework the genocide enrichment ICG ruling as weight to arguments that continuing any form of economic relationship with Israeli institutions supports these violations of international law, including apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide. The next section will explore the policies the Wayne State University Board of Governors can pass to define the investment policy statement for the Wayne State University Foundation to address
it, I don't want to so my name is Jonathan. I'll be continuing off the divestment proposal
that was presented to already
University. Shall be seen a portfolio of investments that adhere to ethical principles. In this case, investments in companies that contribute to apartheid practices are considered unethical and therefore should be assessed and discarded. The university will remove investments through comments on icio global equity from the following companies, divestment should be enacted on companies including, but not limited to Raytheon, this American company sells bombs, fighter jets, other weapon systems and border monitoring surveillance equipment through the United States into the state of Israel. It is further implicated in international corruption, as ruled by the US just justice system. Our system serves Israel as largest weapons providers. Our systems have provided FDR bomb parts for Israeli fighter aircraft, weapon systems for Israeli battle tanks and electric electronic warfare technology to Israeli surface vessels, enabling it in its war crimes. The UN Human Rights Council found that Elba made FPR bombs were likely used to bomb a family of nine in their home in communism in 2015
LFA drones were also found to have attacked
three world Central Asian vehicles in April of 2024 Lockheed Martin, Corp has facilitated Israel's extreme violations against Hudson, including bomb using F 16 and F 35 fighter jets, brown invasion of ghaza with his c1 30 transport aircraft and aerial attacks using AGM. 114 held fire missiles for Israeli helicopters between October 7 and November 14 of 2023 Israel received over 2000 home fire missiles on December 11 2023 the Israeli Air Force dropped over seven tons of equipment using Lockheed Martin super aircraft Israeli soldiers conducting ground attacks in The continent on November 9, 2023 a Lockheed Martin Luther,
hi. My name is Amanda Shaw, named the proposal that was just mess up starting with Boeing. Boeing is the third largest military company in the world that designs manufacturers and sells military weapons to the IVF to use against the Palestinians. As of 2022 Boeing had $35 billion in annual revenue, 56% of which was obtained from a defense sector the US. Shipped over 1000 guided bomb units to Israel in October and sent another shipment of of these bombs on April 1, one day before the world central kitchen modeling, where seven eight workers were killed, sending out on November 1, and Israeli airstrike conducted our youth these bombs to kill over 150 Palestinians just resigning in the hope of the NBA family moving on Northrop Grumman. This company arms Israel with key components of F 35 Apache attack helicopters and communication subsystems to have these fighter jets. These fighter jets are mostly common. Are commonly used in population deaths developments leading to high civilian casualty rates, including on July 13, an attack of the Saudi humanitarian zone killing at least 90 Palestinians and 18 people during attack in the refugee camp. The following
up on top, apartheid immunized companies that directly contribute to approving a vibrant apartheid structure against Palestinians. Include COVID Caterpillar deny militarized home owners were used to demolish structures in the West Bank in 2015 unlawfully in 2005 the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit bought a case against 10 color for the selling of bulldozers to Israel that were used to kill Palestinians and murder American student activist
Rachel Cory, I just
like to thank the Israel for being here in order to protect Our rank of students because we feel threatened.
Thank you. Name
is Anaya Budd. I'm a student in
the Department
of Education. I'm continuing from when Anand left off. The Israel discount Bank is a bank that supports the establishment and expansion of illegal sediments in the occupied West Bank by providing loans for their construction. This bank collaborates with land developers to construct residences on land that was unlawfully taken from Palestinians. This bank enables the violent displacement of people from the occupied territory, as well as facilitating the mass transfer of civilians into occupied territories. Mindy real estate is one of the largest settlement businesses in Israel. Minvy is known for its industrial buildings in the occupied West Bank and golden heights, where many illegal Israeli settlements exist. The UN Commissioner of Human Rights generated a list of implications of Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic and social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people, and has found Mindy to be responsible for use of natural resources, in particular, water and land for business purposes. Motorbola solutions is an indispensable in enabling the systematic oppression and territorial fragmentation of the Palestinian people. It is provided the Moto equal for dozens of settlements, providing an invasive work of invasive network of sensors, radars and cameras to prevent Palestinian land owners from accessing their land. The UN High Commissioner of Human Rights is on Motorola to be responsible for the supply of security services, equipment and materials to Emperor enterprises operating in settlements and the provision of services, utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport. I just want to bring up the fact that Terry land is on her phone while I'm speaking, after refusing to take the document and after laughing multiple times as people walk away from calling her out, I hope that you listen to my words and do not laugh and make light of the suffering that people are enduring, because clearly you have lived a privilege not life, to not care about other human beings at all. Thank
you. Wayne State
University, School of Medicine, a pediatric neurologist locally and a part of doctors against genocide, several of you here on board of governors or doctors as well, you have spent the best years of your life training to save lives, and when you do surgery, I'm sure you optimize every factor to for your patients healing and outcome others of you are lifelong advocates for mothers and children, advocates for the well being and dignity of healthcare workers and even psychologists training for healing those that are traumatized. Please stop and open your eyes. It has to hurt your heart that there's a. Genocide happening in Ghana, and that our financial support, even through this university, is enabling it, even in spaces that we hold safe greatest caregivers and advocates their errors, relentless, targeted destruction of healthcare facilities workers and and the patients that desperately need care. Have you seen the patients burning alive and their hospital beds with their IV lines attached, the world has seen it, and these are war crimes overall since the first days and months of the onslaught on the healthcare system in Ghana, power supplies to hospitals. Premature babies have died in incubators and their bodies been ravaged by animals. Hospitals have been bombed, nurses and staff killed by sniper fire through the windows. Medical Transport Workers bombed while others are kidnapped and raped. Surgeons are operating in rooms that are shaking, the walls are shaking while they're trying to operate at Missy International, as well as ICC and iCj have studied this and called it with evidence of genocide. It is moral and unethical to have investments in a country or industry that is involved in a genocide. Our collective humanity is on the line, and those that stand For nothing will fall for anything. Divestment from this evening,
Roman Huang. Next
speaker is kawaida Karan.
My name is Hui arach, human rights and civil rights attorney. I struggled really with what to use my two minutes to communicate to you the legal, historical, ethical and moral implications of not adopting an ethical investment policy. I thought about what it means for an institution of higher learning, a place where we send our children to prepare them to be leaders and change makers in the world, to treat its students the way that this board has treated its students. And then I thought, Well, maybe you don't really know what's happening, after all, our media doesn't tell us here, so these students have done a wonderful job. But I thought, let me use the little time that I have to make sure that you know what's happening, why these students are demanding divestment, why students across the country are demanding divestment, and what the global majority sees and is demanding, God makes a size of Detroit where 2.3 million people have been in prison for over two decades, And that's important. Conservatively, Israel has killed over 45,000 people, and that's just the name that we know. 1000s more are buried under the rubble. Medical journals are estimating 200,000 and more. At least 17,000 children have been killed. 99 American doctors who volunteer in Gaza attest to a deliberate policy of shooting children. Having seen countless children with clean shots to the head and heart, those children who are still alive are without shelter, without clothing, are sick and hungry, and many of them have lost one
or more limbs,
as you heard, Gaza is now home to the largest cohort of child amputees. Per capita, 20,000 children have become homeless. I started and become worthless. Imagine being an eight year old child who has lost one or more levels and has no surviving family life. Israel killed more kids in Gaza last year than have been killed in all World Congress combined over the last four years. You can't say you did
it. Good afternoon. I understand
that you are not responsible for creating a portfolio that contains ties to the Israeli occupation, but you did inherit that portfolio, and you now have an obligation to the Wayne State students, staff and faculty, as well as the surrounding Detroit community, to divest from that portfolio. I am very disappointed in a prior meeting, one of the Board of Governors said that only for. Point 1% of the investments are indirectly tied to occupation, apartheid and genocide. Well, that's point 1% too many, in my opinion. I'm
sure you know by now
that divestment comes in many forms, and as a healthcare provider in this area who was educated here at Wayne State University, I stand in solidarity with the students and demanding that you not only divest from the war volunteers, but also divest from occupation mentality by committing to dissolving any further away. State Police officer training under the direction of the IOM as many of the learned tactics have contributed to the brutal death of a profuse number of people of color, including but not limited to Sonya Bassey, George Floyd, Sherman, Lee Butler and John look Junior right here in this city. Divesting from apartheid mentality also includes apologizing to the students and staff who were punished by militarized police for dissenting. Divesting from apartheid mentality means initiating an audit of every aspect of software and technology used at the university, as well as assessing retired investments to assure that all platform forms are apartheid and just side free, as well as auditing the backgrounds of the vendors, suppliers and builders to assure that Only conflict free contracts will be negotiated on this campus. Human rights are being violated daily on a global level, with our health, due to our obliviousness, and although our leaders to respect lady law and the International Criminal Court, we at the grassroots level and should be respecting both of those. Thank
