Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Indigenous Repatriation Divestment topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Students urge UC to divest from TMT on Mauna Kea and to act on NAGPRA repatriation audit
Summary
Students and advocates at the Regents meeting called for the University of California to divest from the Thirty Meter Telescope project on Mauna Kea and to implement audit recommendations on Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act compliance.
Several students and advocates urged the Regents to divest UC funds from the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) project on Mauna Kea and to take action on recent audit findings related to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).
Liana, a student speaker from UC San Diego, said an audit "revealed that the UC continues to hold the human remains of thousands of indigenous individuals and hundreds of thousands of cultural items" and argued the university must do more than "lip service" to indigenous communities. The speaker said the UC should divest from TMT given the project's cultural and environmental impacts on sacred Hawaiian land.
Other speakers referenced long‑standing concerns about repatriation and cultural stewardship and connected those issues to broader criticisms of investment choices. The Regents heard those public comments; the transcript does not show immediate Regents action to divest or to adopt specific steps beyond the public comment requests.
