ANN ARBOR – The decision to divest from companies with ties to the Israeli military has been made on the campuses of Wayne State and Michigan-Dearborn in past student council votes.

A Michigan Student Assembly meeting that began at around 7:40 p.m. and lasted until nearly 1 a.m. on Tuesday ended without an agreement to do the same at the Ann Arbor campus, however. The debate drew a constant stream of comments from audience members. The “community comments” section was extended by about 45 minutes to accommodate additional speakers on the topic of divesting from four companies including Northrop Grumman, which was mentioned specifically in the resolution presented by a group of students called “Practice What You Preach” as providing military support to Israel.

The resolution was heavily amended, however, as the night wore on, after a motion to originally skip a discussion on the topic was denied.

The first amendment removed mentions of specific countries including Israel according to George Garcia of PWYP. Another amendment was then made to strip Northrop Grumman from the resolution. The final resolution failed to pass with 10 votes for and 12 against; two voters abstained as well.

Other companies mentioned were British Petroleum, which oversaw a massive oil spill in the gulf; Monsanto, a multinational U.S.-based chemical and bio-agricultural company that has been the subject of massive amounts of protests and controversy; and HanesBrands Inc.

The issue of divestment has been discussed at Michigan-Ann Arbor student meetings since 2000.

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