Pro-Palestinian protesters demand endowment transparency. But it's proving not to be simple

abcnews.go.com:

Some universities are vowing to provide information about how much university endowment money is invested in companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war amid calls from pro-Palestinian protesters

MINNEAPOLIS — On college campuses across the country, a rallying cry of pro-Palestinian protesters has been “ Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest.”

Now some are winning the first of those two demands: Promises to provide information about how much university endowment money is invested in companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.

As part of that effort, the University of Minnesota, for one, disclosed this week that about $5 million of its $2.27 billion endowment investments — or less than a quarter of 1% — are tied to Israeli companies or U.S. defense contractors.

To Ali Abu, a 19-year-old University of Minnesota student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, the disclosure is a first step. He was among more than a dozen students to stand before the university’s Board of Regents on Friday and demand further action.

“That chant isn’t a bluff," he said, adding: «We will truly not stop. And we will truly not rest until this university divests.”

But Jewish leaders have raised concerns, and endowment experts say the potential fallout from disclosure is hard to predict. Transparency, they say, has pros and cons.

“I think the broader trend towards transparency is probably healthy. In response to a very charged situation, I think people get nervous about it. Once the information is there, what’s done with that information?” said Kevin Maloney, a former investment manager who is now chair of the finance department at Bryant University in Rhode Island.

Endowments face little federal regulation compared