ISA FERNANDEZ

Over the last year, students across the country have made calls for their colleges and universities to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel. Bowdoin College is no stranger to these debates.

Students, faculty, and alumni have argued passionately over the College’s current investment practices, with some citing Bowdoin’s commitment to the public good, and others worrying how divestment would impact Student Activities funding. It is an issue that has severely divided the campus. After months of ad hoc committees, student lunches, Smith sleepovers, and passionate emails, the Board of Trustees has come to an agreement. Not only will the College be divesting from Amazon and Lockheed Martin, Bowdoin is divesting from every stock it currently owns. Campus has been confused to say the least. Students from SJP are excited that the College has seemingly listened to their pleas, but are wondering if this is some sort of passive-aggressive stunt from the Board. “I mean, I was hoping to divest from a couple major companies, but everything? Something’s not right”, said one student after reading President Safa Zaki’s brief 2000 word email. Faculty in the Economics department are in distress, left to wonder how these divestments will impact their tenure. In her email to the campus, President Zaki explained that she has come up with a new, seemingly unproblematic, source of funding. “A very kind Nigerian prince explained to me that he would send the College a sum of 2.5 billion dollars if I gave him access to my bank account” explained Zaki. “He has no living family members and decided Bowdoin is the perfect institution to invest in.”, she told Harpoon interviewers when asked why this hypothetical prince would choose to send money to a random college in Maine. We were able to review the email sent to the President – which was buried in her spam folder and came from someone with a Hotmail account. While this definitely raised concerns, it is seemingly the only solution that makes the majority of campus happy. Hopefully, this new source of funding will allow Bowdoin to further its commitment to the Common Good through more food trucks and booking Kendrick at the Spring Concert next year.