Harvard University is in the midst of a campus-wide debate after the Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee posted a series of mock eviction notices on students' doors, The Harvard Crimson reported. The flyers, posted in several dormitories, notified students that their rooms were "scheduled for demolition in the next three days." The notices intended to mimic the displacement that the committee believes Palestinians experience at the hands of the Israeli government. The poster campaign is part of a larger effort to publicize the annual Harvard Israeli Apartheid Week, which includes a talk by philosopher Noam Chomsky and the construction of an "apartheid wall" to resemble the highly controversial barrier that is being constructed along the West Bank by the Israeli government. Several students and campus groups have responded to the notices, criticizing the publicity campaign and the apartheid week in general.
In a meeting with the Brown Divest Coal Campaign, Brown University President Christina Paxson acknowledged for the first time that the university invests in some of the 15 major coal mining and utility companies that the campaign targets, The Brown Daily Herald reported. The university's advisory committee on corporate responsibility in investment policies is currently reviewing these investments and will likely recommend divestment, a member of the committee said. The campaign, which started in September, aims to encourage the university to divest from major coal companies.
A current student and an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are calling on universities and colleges across the nation to respond to sexual violence by making comprehensive changes to how complaints are handled, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Annie Clark, who graduated in 2011, and Andrea Pino, a junior, filed a complaint with the Department of Education accusing the university of underreporting sexual violence and failing to protect their rights as survivors. Clark and Pino claim that the institutional procedures they encountered after being assaulted are widespread at other colleges. Their efforts to push for safer campus environments reflect broader nationwide action against sexual violence, including the passage of the Violence Against Women Act in Congress last week. While Clark and Pino voiced optimism about the bill's passage, they said that more must be done to change the national conversation about sexual violence.
