'We asked.. No answer': Western students continue to press for a divestment strategy

An encampment protest was held on the university campus to show opposition to Israel's ongoing military actions in Gaza and draw attention to the university's funding of companies, organizations or research linked to arms development or military applications.

The encampment ended in mid-July but the issues continue to be raised, including at the University Board of Governors meeting on Thursday morning.

Lynn Logan is Vice-President of Operations and Finance at Western and responded to an inquiry from board member Noah Zabian, "we are hearing, certainly, from the community, around the human rights issues.”

Logan told the Board of Governors the military and arms divestment request is one the university has only just begun to consider, "The Investment Committee is considering it, how long it will take us to actually do the research and to the due diligence that we need to bring forward, a framework or potential resolution for Western, I can't speak to."

Western VP of Operations and Finance responds to a question about divestment (Gerry Dewan/CTV News London)

Logan indicated it could take some time though, with the Investment Committee meeting only four times a year.

Those campaigning for divestment linked to environmental concerns say they're all too familiar with that message. Gisele Hachey has been part of the effort to secure fossil fuel divestment, "at least five years, we've been requesting divestment - and that is just from fossil fuels, and they have not put forward any substantial action or motion towards doing that."

Student Jessica Roberts said that when the encampment ended it was the expectation of the organizers that there would be accelerated efforts to try and address the concerns raised, "the divestment coalition took down the encampment to potentially - hopefully - continue conversations in good faith. But it was not met by any sort of action."

The board meeting was on the third floor of the Interdisciplinary Research building. Gisele Hachey, Jessica Roberts and Nora Vincent were on the ground floor handing out flyers to those heading to the meeting.

The flyers contained a letter that was sent to Western President Alan Shepard that they say didn’t receive a response. The flyers were stamped with the messages 'We asked.. No answer,' and, 'ignored but not silent.'

Sample of a flyer distributed to meeting attendees

Hachey said they were soon approached by Western University security, "they asked for our student cards - that our student cards are property of Western, actually, so we should hand them over and we need to hand them over."

The trio declined and said they would leave, but the exchange didn’t end there. According to Hachey, "they said no, you should identify yourselves. You need to identify yourselves or we can identify you by other means."

Hachey said at that point they left the building. CTV News requested an interview with Alan Shepard and with Lynn Logan at the conclusion of the meeting but were told by a member of the communications team that they were not available to speak with us.