Protestors marched from the Gaza solidarity encampment behind Wells Hall to the Breslin Center yesterday afternoon. Their goal: to picket the ongoing spring convocation ceremony.

They held Palestinian flags and banners calling on the university to divest from Israel. They also chanted "Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel's crimes," and "Trustees, trustees you can't hide, you are funding genocide."

The protestors say that MSU's investments are funding weapons manufacturers involved in the Israel-Hamas war. MSU also has $236,114 invested in Israeli bonds.

MSU’s Board of Trustees announced earlier this month that its finance committee will review the university's financial holdings but won’t consider "divestment of any kind."

But protestors are still pushing the university to divest, and they set up an encampment two days ago.

As they marched, the protestors were quickly met by police, who gave them an escort to walk on Shaw Lane. They then walked through the parking lot by Spartan Stadium and toward Breslin, where they set up a picket.

Comparative cultures and politics junior Jesse Estrada White said the picket's purpose was to "not let people just come to this campus and ignore the fact that MSU is complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people."

"We have this opportunity, where this is one of the biggest events for the university all year," Estrada White said. "They're celebrating a graduating class of seniors who worked really hard to get their degrees, who absolutely deserve to get their degrees, but the administration here (and) the trustees who are coming into this need to know that we are not going to let them go about business as normal without having to confront their complicity in genocide."

As more people entered and exited convocation, they watched the protestors. Some nodded in support, one person raised their fist in solidarity, while another heckled the protestors.

The students wrote "denounce" and "divest" on the pavement before leaving, heading back to the encampment to conduct a teach-in.