The Undergraduate Student Government Senate voted Wednesday evening to dissolve a committee responsible for modifying a referendum calling for the University to divest from the military-industrial complex. The referendum will be put before the senate in its current form on Sept. 17.
The committee was formed on Feb. 5, 2025, during the same session at which the referendum was brought before the senate for discussion. The senate proposed to appoint 10 senators and a multitude of student organizations to the committee, including: UConn Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), UConn Muslim Student Association (MSA), UConn Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), UConn Unchain, UConn Chabad, Huskies for Israel, UConn Hillel and Jewish on Campus. The committee was chaired by former Chief Justice Andy Lanza and Chief Diversity Officer Phoenix Harper.
The committee’s first official meeting was held on Apr. 21, 2025, according to Harper.
“At this meeting, no amendments were adopted. In the days that followed, several senators and student organizations even withdrew, or signaled intent to withdraw from this committee,” she said.
No amendments were proposed at that first meeting according to the Chief Diversity Officer.
UConn Unchain, one of the organizations which left the committee, cited inherent dysfunction in the committee as their reason for leaving in a statement on Instagram.
“No one asked to be a part of this committee, and it was dysfunctional from the start,” the statement said. “It failed to find senators to fill its own seats, to adhere to its original neutral composition and to reach quorum at a critical juncture.”
Senator Smith Bernard originally brought the motion to form the committee before the senate over concerns that the language of the referendum violated senate bylaws. At Wednesday’s session, Bernard made a statement in which he said the making of the referendum committee was a mistake.
“I regret making the motion to form this committee,” the senator said.
Many students attended the session in support of dissolving the committee. Some gave public comments.
One such student was Kenza Madhi, a third-semester nursing student at UConn, who said she was attending the session “to support my fellow students who are committed to justice for people across the world, of every color, of every country, of every ethnicity, of every walk of life.”
Madhi said she found that the committee was not “very conducive to our fight for equality and justice,” and urged senators to dissolve the committee and bring the referendum before the student body.
Madhi took the stand to deliver a public comment to the senate, noting how the University had divested from businesses involved with the then apartheid state of South Africa in 1986.
“As a nursing student here, I have a duty to speak up for issues concerning humanity and ethics,” she said. “In 1986, UConn divested $217,000 from businesses involved with South Africa to stand against the apartheid then. It is possible again.”
The global movement against apartheid in South Africa largely employed a strategy of boycotts, divestment and sanctions, often called BDS, to force the South African government to acquiesce to demands of equality.
Some speakers took direct aim at the tactics of BDS such as Eliyahu Cohen, who claimed the tactics are forcing the state of Israel to comply with an agenda.
“The BDS movement claims their goal is to promote equality and justice for the Palestinian people,” he said. “The BDS movement uses tactics similar to those of the South African anti-apartheid movement, to force Israel to adhere to their agenda.”
Some commenters took issue with the specific language used in the referendum. Joshua Fishman was one such commenter. Fishman said he believed that some vocabulary used in the referendum was biased and misleading.
“The wording makes it seem as though the UConn student body accepts biased, unequal rhetoric,” Fishman said. “Terms such as genocide and apartheid push students towards a particular outcome, despite the inaccuracy of those terms in this context.”
The International Association of Genocide Scholars recently passed a resolution saying that the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies these claims.
Similarly, Sophia Rifkin, a third-semester Judaic studies major and the senator representing the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences cited concerns of the referendum’s language when asked for comment.
“As a senator, I am concerned about the language of this referendum,” the senator said. “It shares the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist perspective and that marginalizes pro-Israel, pro-Zionist, Israeli students on campus.”
Rifkin also stated that the committee has “not been productive” in addressing those issues.
Others made remarks specifically regarding the committee in question. Kathryn Adinolfi argued that the committee was fundamentally flawed from its conception.
“Through its [the committee’s] structure and by design, effectively halted any progress of a referendum being finalized,” Adinolfi said. “During the meetings members from JVP, MSA, ASA [Arab Students’ Association] and SJP were subjected to disrespect and dehumanization, despite our constant willingness and corporation to continue working. This was a clear breach of good faith and willingness to participate.”
Reem Saood, a third-semester human rights and political science major with a track in pre-law, sat on the committee as a representative for UConn MSA. Saood recounted her experience as a member of the committee, recalling a lack of any significant progress and dehumanization from other members of the committee.
“I felt like it was a waste of time,” she said. “I felt we made no progress. Every meeting we had, we had no agenda.”
Saood also recounted committee members requiring a definition of what a Palestinian is.
“I think it was dehumanizing to come up with how to define, Palestine, Palestinians and Gaza,” she said. “Why are we defining Palestinians? They have their own definition; they can make their own definition.”
The referendum in its current form is now set as a voting item on the agenda for the next senate session.
This article was edited on Sept. 5 to correct the date on which the senate will vote for the current form of the referendum.
This article was edited on Sept. 6 to correct the full name of the ASA acronym from African Students’ Association to Arab Students’ Association.