The Law School Student Senate and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Council both approved measures on April 8 calling for the University to divest from Israel, respectively becoming the third and fourth student councils to do so.

The Law School Student Senate approved a statement advocating for divestment with a majority vote during an emergency meeting with 23 of the 49 senators present. The GSAS Council’s resolution on divestment passed with near-unanimous approval from representatives, according to an Instagram post from Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

In a statement to Spectator, a Law School spokesperson wrote that “The Law School is aware that the Student Senate voted on Monday to adopt a non-binding advocacy statement in response to the Israel-Hamas War. There are established pathways at the University level, including the University’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI), for evaluating proposals for divestment. The Law School respects those long-standing processes.”

A GSAS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The Law School Student Senate statement demands the University to cease its dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, cancel the opening of the Tel Aviv global center, and divest all of its investment holdings from “companies profiting from or engaging in Israeli apartheid.”

“We hope that this statement compels Columbia’s trustees to actually separate from companies and institutions that directly participate in grave violations of human rights and international law,” Columbia Law Students for Palestine wrote in an April 10 email to their mailing list. “By involving these groups and individuals in a global boycott, we hope to siphon off the massive stream of international investment dollars that Israel and complicit companies use to perform the worst acts imaginable against Palestinians.”

The Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing rejected on Feb. 29 a CUAD proposal calling for the University to divest from companies with ties to Israel, citing a lack of “broad consensus” on the topic as reasoning for its decision.

In early March, the Columbia College Student Council and Barnard’s Student Government Association became the first and second student councils to vote in favor of measures for University divestment from Israel. The Engineering Student Council rejected a petition to issue a referendum on divestment from Israel on April 1.

“The role of the Student Senate, which is composed of and elected by law students, is to represent and advocate on behalf of the student body, a duty that can be challenging in a diverse community whose members hold a range of views,” the Law School spokesperson wrote. “As Dean Gillian Lester emphasized in her recent message, the Law School remains committed to fostering a welcoming learning environment where political and moral disagreements can be discussed and resolved with civility and humanity.”

Matt Meltzer, Law ’25, who was elected to next year’s senate, resigned from his position in light of the senate’s vote, citing a lack of transparency.

“The meeting on Monday was the first senate meeting I ever went to. As someone who is a constituent, I—after these previous votes—had no idea which of my senators voted for or against these proposals,” Meltzer said. “To me, it’s just a fundamental principle of any democratic body that votes should be on the record. Constituents should know how their representatives voted.”

The Student Senate announced last Monday’s emergency meeting in an April 3 email to Law School students and senators.

“This was just a statement that is going to have ultimately no effect other than to make Jewish and pro-Israeli students feel uncomfortable, feel misrepresented,” Meltzer said. “[The vote] is not representative of a consensus in the law school community.”

The senate has recently come under fire for initially denying approval of a Law Students Against Antisemitism group on Jan. 23 due to concerns that the group would suppress speech and conflate antisemitism with anti-Zionism. After an emergency meeting revote, the group was approved on Feb. 11.

Prior to last Monday’s emergency meeting, the senate sent out a poll to Law School students. Nearly sixty percent of respondents voted in favor of the divestment statement and almost forty percent opposed.