Princeton Student Government Appears by Anti-Israel Vote This Concedes Was ‘Unfair and Incorrect’
Guv backs chief elections manager Brian Li after he misled students about how votes would be counted
Aaron Sibarium • April 20, 2022 1:30 pm
Princeton University’s student government conceded on Monday that its handling of an anti-Israel referendum was “unfair and incorrect,” but will pass the referendum nonetheless over the objections of Jewish students.
After huddling in a closed-door session, the student government acknowledged that chief elections manager Brian Li misled students about how the vote would be tallied. But it is refusing to revisit the results of the referendum—which only received 44 percent of the vote—after some members protested that doing so would undermine confidence in the student government. The Washington Free Beacon obtained audio of the closed-door session, which shows student leaders deliberating about how to save face.
Not passing the referendum would “eliminate trust among the student body,” Isabella Shutt, a sophomore at Princeton, said in the session.
The student government thus resolved to say that the referendum passed “with a majority of student votes”—even though it would have failed under the rules Li originally communicated.
The referendum marks a symbolic setback for pro-Israel students on campus, who have worked to beat back Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions resolutions at elite schools. Princeton is the third Ivy League student body to actually pass such a resolution, after Brown and Columbia.
The closed-door session came in the wake of an April 14 appeal lodged by four student government officials against Li, who repeatedly told the student group Tigers for Israel that abstentions would count against the referendum. Tigers for Israel organized their campaign strategy around Li’s guidance, encouraging students to abstain if they didn’t feel comfortable voting no. But after voting closed, Li said abstentions wouldn’t count after all, a reversal the appeal called “unfair and incorrect.”
Though the student government upheld the appeal, it ruled out a revote. Instead, student government officials drafted a statement, obtained by the Free Beacon, that passed the referendum but declined to comment on it.
“Given the close nature of the vote and the appeal of an action by the Chief Elections Manager,” the draft statement reads, “the USG will not make a statement on behalf of the student body in favor or against the position taken by the referendum.”
The statement will be delivered to the Princeton administration by the end of the week, a member of the student government confirmed.
The non-binding referendum calls on Princeton to stop contracting with the construction company Caterpillar, which the referendum claims is complicit in the “murder of Palestinians.” Princeton has said that it will not divest from Israel regardless of the referendum’s outcome.
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