Eastern’s money isn’t just going to spirit rocks and teacher salaries.

The 2023 audit report from Eastern Illinois University’s Business Office reveals that the university has approximately $7.5 million invested with financial giants Mercer, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock—companies notorious for their ties to weapons manufacturers and the fossil fuel industry. Notably, Eastern holds $6.6 million with BlackRock, a private equity firm. 

Meanwhile this April, the Eastern Board of Trustees approved a 2.5% increase in undergraduate and graduate tuition. As the costs of higher education continues to rise, students face increasing financial strain in acquiring housing, food, childcare, transportation and even food.

Consequently, as students are being constantly burdened with the rising costs of attendance we have to ask critical questions. For starters, where is our money being invested? And how are our tuition dollars—that we are paying more year after year—contributing toward companies complicit in the accelerating climate catastrophe and conflicts around the globe?

First, in order to maintain financial stability and achieve a return on investments, universities invest in various sources including private equity firms.

For instance, Eastern is currently investing in BlackRock, a multi-billion-dollar firm, despite their morally dubious financial history.

In particular, BlackRock faces criticism for its investments in military contractors, nuclear weapons and controversial arms. They have $6.9 billion invested in Boeing, $4.2 billion in General Dynamics; $9.7 billion in Lockheed Martin; $4.4 billion in Northrop Grumman and $11.5 billion in Raytheon, well-known military defense manufacturers. 

These companies cannot be separated from their role in fueling and profiting from global conflict and war. More troubling is the reality that our tuition dollars are contributing to these companies—largely without the knowledge of the general student body or broader public. 

To take a case in point, our tuition dollars are currently being implicated in perhaps today’s most egregious display of force and violence in Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

To illustrate, we pay tuition and that money is invested into private equity firms like BlackRock. BlackRock then invests that money into weapons manufacturers who produce and profit off of arms.

In one instance, those weapons and arms are used by the state of Israel against displaced Palestinians in designated “humanitarian safe zones.”

Our money is buying more than just books—it’s helping build bombs.

In January, the International Court of Justice at The Hague found that there is a “real and imminent risk” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This assault on the lives and society of the Palestinian people constitutes one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of the 21st-century and it has been backed and supported by both our tuition and tax dollars.

In addition, there are near daily reports of civilians and journalists being killed in Israeli bombardment of Palestinian homes, hospitals, schools, universities, refugee camps, churches, mosques, public infrastructure and even children in playgrounds. One of the world’s leading medical journals, the Lancet, estimates that the death toll could exceed over 186,000 Palestinians.

Students of good conscience, who constitute a core stakeholder at Eastern, should not continue to morally support our tuition dollars being invested into companies such as Mercer, Goldman Sachs and BlackRock. 

We cannot accept an increasing amount of our tuition going towards companies complicit in what the United Nations, Holocaust scholars and Palestinians have called a genocide for the past 10 months. The university needs to cut ties with this blood money. 

The way forward for Eastern is clear.

In addition to implementing a more comprehensive investment ethics policy, the university should immediately investigate their financial holdings, disclose any additional discoveries and divest from all companies complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza. 

We cannot simply look away.

It is Arundhati Roy who said, “The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it. And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet, saying nothing, becomes as political an act as speaking out. There’s no innocence. Either way, you are accountable.”

Eastern, invest in education, not war.

Jason Farias can be reached at 581-2812 or at jsfarias@eiu.edu.