In NYCLU Settlement, CUNY to Disclose Investments to Pro-Palestine Student Organizers

NEW YORK – Today, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) announced a settlement in Southey v. City University of New York (CUNY) — our successful litigation challenging the school’s refusal to release records regarding its investment funds, bonds, and private equity holdings, as well as its contracts with companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrup Grumman, to student organizers advocating for Palestinian rights. 

The settlement requires CUNY to hand over the requested records from July 1, 2023 to the present, after years of unlawful denials and delays. As part of the settlement, CUNY agreed to drop their appeal of a lower court’s decision siding with the NYCLU. 

“While we’re grateful that the largest, urban public university in the country will finally disclose its investment records, it is outrageous that our client had to file this lawsuit in the first place,” said Veronica Salama, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union. “Investment records disclosure is a basic responsibility and function of a public institution, and CUNY students, faculty, and the entire campus community are entitled to transparency and equal treatment from their administration — no matter their viewpoint or their purpose in seeking those records. CUNY cannot pick and choose which viewpoints to respect and which to dismiss when it comes to records disclosure.”

In 2025, CUNY rejected a Freedom of Information Law request by a CUNY Law student on behalf of CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine and CUNY for Palestine — even though CUNY had released earlier versions of the same investment records to a prison divestment group in 2015.  

New York’s Freedom of Information Law is intended to grant the public access to government records to hold the government accountable and shine light on potential waste, negligence, or abuse. While there are narrow exemptions under FOIL for certain sensitive records, none of these exemptions apply to these investment reports, which provide the public with critical information about how taxpayer money is being spent. 

“The disclosure of CUNY’s investments is a major victory in CUNY4Palestine’s years-long campaign for CUNY to disclose and divest from companies complicit in Israel’s colonization of Palestine,” said Sarah Southey, plaintiff. “In these records, CUNY must show exactly how much of our money, public money, it is spending on companies profiting off of genocide and occupation. Investments reflect values, and we will not stop fighting until the CUNY Board of Trustees fully divests our money from companies that are enabling and aiding the colonization of Palestine.”

While the NYCLU focuses on civil rights and liberties in New York and does not take positions on foreign affairs, including on actions by the state of Israel, the organization is committed to ensuring access to public information and government transparency in New York. Other public university systems — like the University of California and University of Texas — publish information on their investments routinely.

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