University of California system alumni have published an open letter directed at the Regents Chairs and UC President Michael Drake, pledging to withhold university donations until the UC Regents Board calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. As of Sunday, Jan. 14, over 1,023 alumni across all 10 UC campuses have signed the letter.

The Google document, addressed to all 26 members of the UC Regents, calls upon the board to address safety concerns for those on campuses who are condemning the genocide and calling for a ceasefire. 

Additionally, the letter demands that the board fully divest from United States military enterprises, manufacturers, and “companies profiting from Israel’s oppression of Palestinians as demanded of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

The BDS movement “works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law,”according to their website. BDS aligns with the demands in the article that calls for the divestment of assets that “are either spent on advancing this war industry or remain concentrated and hoarded in the pockets of the Regents and Administrators.” 

The UC Regents have retracted billions of dollars of funds from endowment and pension funds from controversial industries in the past, such as clearing all fossil fuels portfolio investments in 2020; however, the BDS movement targets boycott demands on their website towards consumer brands, such as Puma, HP, and SodaStream. The letter’s authors acknowledge the UC’s 3.1 billion dollar divestment in 1986 as a result of the South African apartheid and “are confident in the Regents’ ability to implement a divestment of even greater proportions to help end the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

Along with these demands, the letter rejects statements previously issued by UC’s leadership after Oct. 7. Such messages include President Drake’s Nov. 10 statement issued to the UC community. The letter describes his statement condemning Islamophobia and antisemitism on campus as “insufficient to protect students facing real threats to their physical safety and to their future ability to find gainful employment.” Furthermore, the letter calls for specific attention to protecting the “advocacy groups who have been sanctioned or outright banned on other college campuses,” citing examples of Regents Chair Leib’s as well as UC Berkeley Professor Davidoff Solomon’s adverse comments toward past student protests and boycotts.

The letter concludes with the first and last names of all alumni who signed, along with their graduation campus and year. According to the document, the list of signees updates daily.

According to The Campaign for UC San Diego, a ten-year-long fundraising campaign, the university alone received over 3 billion dollars in private donations across over 164 thousand unique donors — one of the fastest growing numbers in the country. The Campaign’s summary informs that over 46,000 of these individual donors are alumni, which is over a 1300% increase than what was reported from the previous campaign. Such donations are integral for funding UC San Diego scholarship programs, such as the Chancellor Associates Scholars Program, which has seen an 800% increase in scholarships since 2013. Furthermore, such funds were reported to contribute towards “focus areas,” such as Health & Medicine, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, and COVID-19 Response. Alumni donations are key sources of monetary support for such sectors and specialties.

One junior at UCSD, who was granted anonymity upon request, shared her positive experience as a UCSD scholarship recipient. 

“I know that the scholarship is the reason I’m able to get priority for class registration and housing,” she said. “[The scholarship] ensured that I haven’t had to pay for any of my tuition and housing since I got onto campus.”

Student testimonies regarding the CASP scholarship’s impact, featured in a UC San Diego Impact Report, further depict the alumni-funded program’s impact. Such testimonies highlighted its flexibility, as well as the kickstart CASP gave others to accomplish their dreams and navigate college.

This open letter comes after similar statements were released from alumni at Columbia University, Barnard College, and Brown University in November 2023. The full letter and signature list can be viewed here.

The UCSD Guardian reached out to UCSD media representatives for comment on the alumni-backed letter’s content, but has not received a response as of time of publication.