The referendum to divest from contracting with multinational companies with Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Egypt was the most heated and contested referendum the University has seen in the 21st century, Undergraduate Student Government chief elections manager Grant Golub ’17 said.
Both USG and student activist organizations have been riled by controversy over campaign financing and allegations of biased referendum language,even though the referendum has officially concluded. Undergraduate students split nearly down the middle over whether to divest from certain Israeli companies, with 52.5 percent voting against divestment.
Golub is a former staff writer and staff copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.
The amount of money spent by No Divest raised questions, Lily Gellman '17, a member of the Alliance of Jewish Progressives and the Princeton Committee on Palestine who worked closely with the Princeton Divests campaign, said.
"I don't know where the money is coming from but it is definitely a lot with all of the pizza, all of their expensive posters," Gellman said. "They had targeted Facebook ads and ads in the 'Prince' online, which I'd heard cost $350 per day."
There is no concrete evidence that No Divest sought funding from an outside source. An attempt by the 'Prince' to verify who registered the No Divest website revealed it was registered through a private proxy service, meaning who paid for the website remains unknown.
Gellman said she acknowledged that students themselves may have paid for all of the No Divest campaign efforts.
"Students would have had to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket which is a possibility, but even then — and I would never have thought to say this regarding a school referendum — there should be some kind of campaign finance reform," Gellman said.
Hannelora Everett '17, president of Tigers For Israel and a leader of the No Divest movement, did not directly address the source of funding for No Divest's website and advertising but said the allegations against No Divest were misleading.
“Money for pizza at our information table, which was not very much money, came from our students," Everett said, noting that the No Divest website was of the same quality as the Princeton Divests website. "The resource that pushed our campaign to a victory was the work of the dozens of students who were determined to educate the student body."
She added that she thinks it is almost insulting to the student body to say that students voted a certain way because money convinced them to do so.
Katie Horvath '15, Princeton Divests co-founder and Princeton Committee on Palestine board member, said she believed reform was in order but was not optimistic given the lack of success of campaign finance reform efforts elsewhere in the country.
"I don't think it's right for one side to be spending thousands of dollars,” Gellman said, noting that the website for Princeton Divests was close to free. “It's not reasonable in a college election to have that kind of disparity."
Everett said she believed there was a need for some reform, just not in the area of campaign finance.
“USG regulations should be reformed to protect against biased referendum language and unequal access to the undergraduate student body,” Everett said.
Golub said he believes that the wording of this referendum and all other USG referenda have not been biased. However, he said there was room for reform.
“[The election and referendum rules in the USG election handbook are]outdated and we do plan on rewriting every line over the summer,” Golub said.
However, the state of the current election rules did not adversely affect the legitimacy of the referendum's outcome, Golub said.
“The election did accurately portray the sentiment on campus," Golub said. "Opinions were divided."
Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated where the election and referendum rules can be found. They are in the USG elections handbook. The 'Prince' regrets the error.
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