Texas
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Texas are calling for universities to divest. Here's what that means
When Jumana Fakhreddine took part in last week’s anti-war protests at the University of Texas at Austin, she said organizers had set up a peaceful teach-in with speakers and pizza. Their purpose was to pressure the university’s leadership to divest in entities tied to the Israeli war effort in Gaza, she said.
But the moment instead devolved into chaos where dozens of students were arrested by riot-gear clad state and local police officers who used force to quell the demonstration and stop students from venting their frustrations.
“The whole reason we were there was just to simply ask for divestment and to stop supporting the ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinians,” Fakhreddine, a 21-year-old biology and pre-med student, said. “I think that we just all want the occupation to stop.”
The ongoing protests at UT Austin come in response to the Israeli-led effort against Hamas after the Oct. 7 attack that left more than 1,200 Israelis dead and dozens held captive. Since then, the Gaza Ministry of Health reports more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war.
What is divestment?
These protests aren’t confined to the UT Austin campus. Similar demonstrations have erupted on other public and private campuses across the state and the country. While reports and photos of a heavy-handed police response to the protests have dominated headlines, some students say the message about divestment hasn’t resonated as much as it should.
So what exactly is divestment, and why are protesters calling for it? It all starts with university endowments – basically, donated money and assets that are invested to generate income.
Caleb Silver, the editor-in-chief of Investopedia, told the Texas Newsroom that the UT System has one of the largest endowments in the world. As of the 2023 fiscal year, it was worth about $44.9 billion.
Silver said “divestment” is a broad term, but in terms of what protesters are demanding, it includes three key elements.
“What you see through these protests is students … asking for the university and their endowments to stop investing in companies that either do business directly with Israel, or do business with companies in Israel, or that invest in companies that are domiciled in Israel,” he said. “So, it’s a broad request for the UT [System] endowment or some of these campuses.”
Last Wednesday’s protest at UT Austin was organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee in Austin, a student organization, and specifically “called for a cease-fire in Gaza and for UT to divest from weapons manufacturers that provide supplies to Israel,” reported KUT.
Some students have also said they don’t want their tuition to go toward funding what they call a genocide of Palestinians. That’s not too far-fetched, as Silver noted some university endowments are partially funded by tuition.
“Endowments, generally speaking, are built from tuition payments made by students. They’re also made from gifts from former students and alumni who are influential people connected to the university,” he said. “So oftentimes you will see wealthy donors giving millions – if not billions – of dollars to a university’s endowment.”
Calls for divestment aren’t a new strategy. They actually date back to at least the 1960s, when colleges and universities were in the grips of protests calling for an end to the war in Vietnam. Those were followed by calls for divestment in protest of South African apartheid and later, the fossil fuel industry in Texas.
That history aside, predicting the actual impact of divestment is somewhat complicated.
Chris Marsicano, an assistant professor of educational studies and public policy at Davidson College in North Carolina, told NPR the anti-fossil fuel movement didn’t make a significant difference. And it’s unclear whether the current campaign will yield results the protest movement deems significant.
“When universities have divested from fossil fuels, that hasn’t made much of a dent in terms of the stock prices of those fossil fuel companies, and it doesn’t seem to affect the university endowments,” he said. “It also has some parallels to South Africa in the ’80s. But even then, the research shows that most of the divestment efforts mainly led to a global political movement. And I don’t know that we’re there yet with divestment from Israel due to the Gaza conflict.”
The calls for divestment aren’t confined to the UT Austin campus. Students at the University of Texas at Dallas held sit-in demonstrations last week and eventually met with university president Richard Benson, KERA reported.
“Our demand is for divestment. Our demand is for our university to end its complicity in the genocide,” said Fatima Tulkarem, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine at UTD.
Demonstrators, however, didn’t make any headway toward their demands and said the meeting didn’t lead to meaningful discussions.
The flip side of divestment
Nationally, at least one student protest movement has provided some sense of progress. Brown University in Rhode Island announced Tuesday that an agreement was reached where protesters would dismantle their encampment and a university advisory committee would meet to discuss the students’ divestment demands.
“The University agreed that five students will be invited to meet with five members of the Corporation of Brown University in May to present their arguments to divest Brown’s endowment from ‘companies enabling and profiting from the genocide in Gaza,’” the school said in a statement. Brown President Christina H. Paxson will also “ask the Advisory Committee on University Resources Management to provide a recommendation on the matter of divestment by Sept. 30, and this will be brought to the Corporation for a vote at its October 2024 meeting.”
But Investopedia’s Caleb Silver said there is a flip side to divestment: If universities ultimately agree to divest from a certain company or entity – whether in Texas or elsewhere – they surrender any say in how it acts afterwards.
“You lose your voice in what that company is able to do going forward. And if you’re a large shareholder – like a lot of these big university endowments are – you have a pretty big voice in how these companies operate,” Silver said.
“Well, you’ve taken your money out, you’ve walked away, you’ve let your money do the walking. But you’ve lost your ability to affect strategy, to affect change within that company.”
The pitching woes continued for Texas A&M in its 18-11 series-opening loss to Mississippi State at Blue Bell Park on Thursday night.
Typically, scoring 11 runs in an SEC contest equates to a win, but not for the Aggies. Jason Kelly’s pitching staff gave up the most runs in a single inning since Texas A&M joined the conference in 2012. To make matters worse, the loss was tied for the most runs allowed this season, which came in an 18-5 run-rule loss to Auburn on May 2.
Needless to say, the bullpen has much work to do moving forward. With postseason play right around the corner, it is make-or-break for the pitchers on the roster to step up and provide consistency on the mound for the Aggies. If Texas A&M drops the series to the Bulldogs on Friday, it will be the end of the team’s hopes of being a national seed.
The Aggies will aim to avoid dropping their third straight SEC series, as they face Mississippi State in Game 2 at Blue Bell Park on Friday. First pitch against the Bulldogs is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT and will be broadcast live on SEC Network+.
Here are some of the best social media reactions from Texas A&M’s loss to Mississippi State in Game 1:
Final score from Blue Bell Park
18 runs… yes, you read that correctly
Statistics from the series-opening loss
Mississippi State takes down No. 10 in Game 1
Texas A&M drops in the league standings
That one stings a little
Poor night for A&M on the mound
Kellner’s mask was a sight to see
A closer look at Kellner’s mask guarding his eye
Grahovac’s lead-off solo home run
Hacopian’s solo home run in the first
RPI update
Weston Moss slated to start in Game 2
The formula for success wasn’t there for the Aggies in the series opener
Frustrating night on the bump for Texas A&M
The Aggies must find an answer to the lack of consistent performances on the mound
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Dylan on X: @dylanmflippo.
Texas A&M football and basketball may be in the quiet stretch of their calendars, but the offseason doesn’t mean the work slows down. This is the time for coaches to hit the road, meet with Aggie clubs, and lay out the vision for the months ahead. One of the first stops each summer is the Dallas Aggies Coaches Night.
Hosted annually by the Dallas A&M Club, the event brings together several Texas A&M head coaches. This year, first‑year basketball coach Bucky McMillan joined football coach Mike Elko. Before the program began, both coaches met with the media and offered updates on their teams. And while football naturally draws the biggest spotlight, McMillan delivered plenty of insight into his first year in Aggieland and the foundation he’s building.
Below are some of the most notable quotes from Coach Bucky’s appearance at Coaches Night.
Texas A&M head basketball coach Bucky McMillan speaks on attending his first Dallas A&M Club event
“We didn’t have a roster. We didn’t have any coaches… It was wild, but since then I have gotten to meet so many great people and so many I have made friends with.”
Coach Bucky McMillan on the support they team received
“We have great support, and you did it with a coach you didn’t know very well. We broke a lot of records last year… We broke 15 A&M records. We are going to break all those again next year. I was proud of our defense, as small as we were.”
Coach Bucky McMillan discusses what being in Aggieland has meant to him
“Aggies love Aggies and A&M. I am from SEC country in the middle of Alabama. I tell my friends, the honor and tradition of being an Aggie is something I don’t take lightly. The honor of the people, it’s truly awesome. It makes me proud to wear this on my shirt.”
Coach Bucky McMillan on Mike Elko
“The football coach has to deal with a lot more things than I do… We lose a game, and most of y’all know about it, but everybody knows if he loses a game.” “The one thing I know is there could not better coach for Texas A&M than Mike Elko.”
Coach Bucky McMillan on the 2026-27 basketball season
“We are going to take that next step. We were a game away from the Sweet 16 this year, and we are going to be in that second weekend next year, trying to get the Final Four.”
Here’s a look at the impact the Dallas A&M Club has had since its founding.
Established in 1902, the Dallas A&M Club has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in scholarships to Dallas-area students attending Texas A&M – with 29 Aggie fish and sophomores currently benefiting from our $6,000 scholarship awards.
As the chartered A&M Club for all of Dallas County, the DAMC has also generously given back to The Association of Former Students by contributing to the following: Aggie Park, Endowed Aggie Ring Scholarship (4), Endowed Diamond Century Club, Endowed Scholarship Fund, Corregidor Muster Memorial Fund, Building Enhancement Campaign, and The Association’s Annual Fund.
Contact/Follow us @AggiesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas A&M news, notes and opinions. Follow Jarrett Johnson on X: @whosnextsports1.
Texas is planning its grid around an unprecedented wave of AI-driven power demand that the state’s energy regulator says may not fully materialize on projected timelines.
In a recent filing to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) projected statewide power demand could surge to nearly 368 GW by 2032 – more than four times the state’s current peak demand record of 85.5 GW. But the filing also contains an unusual warning from the grid operator itself.
“ERCOT has concerns with using the preliminary load forecast values for the Reliability Assessment and any other transmission and resource adequacy analysis,” the organization wrote in its April 2026 long-term load forecast filing.
The organization added that it may seek adjustments to the forecast based on “actual historical realization rates or other objective, credible, independent information.”
ERCOT has already begun adjusting for realization risk internally. In its 2025 long-term load forecast report, the grid operator said the “average peak consumption per site was 49.8% of the requested MW” and applied that factor to projected non-crypto data center load additions in some planning models.
ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said the forecast reflects “higher-than-expected future load growth” tied to changing large-load planning dynamics.
Texas has emerged as a hotspot for data center growth, with numerous new projects reshaping the energy market and challenging grid capacity. (Image: Alamy)
Texas Developers Race Ahead of Grid Capacity
Texas has emerged as a key data center market, driven by its abundant land, competitive energy prices, and favorable regulatory environment. This combination has positioned the state as a magnet for hyperscale operators and AI infrastructure investments. The state is estimated to account for around 15% of all data center connectivity in the US.
Recent and proposed AI data center campuses tied to OpenAI, Oracle, Meta, Crusoe, CoreWeave, Soluna, and other hyperscale operators are reshaping Texas grid planning. Developers have proposed large campuses across North Texas, Abilene, West Texas, and the Houston corridor, many requiring hundreds of megawatts of capacity and, in some cases, dedicated onsite generation to bypass interconnection delays. That buildout pushed ERCOT’s non-crypto data center forecast above 228 GW by 2032.
Developers are continuing to pursue Texas aggressively because ERCOT still offers faster timelines and more flexible market structures than many competing regions. Several proposed campuses pair AI infrastructure with onsite gas generation, colocated power assets, or flexible-load arrangements to navigate mounting transmission constraints.
Utilities across the US are grappling with AI-driven electricity growth, but ERCOT’s projections stand apart for both scale and uncertainty. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, expects summer peak demand to climb above 241 GW over the next 15 years as data centers and electrification expand. ERCOT, by contrast, projects demand potentially reaching nearly 368 GW by 2032, driven largely by proposed non-crypto data center loads. At the same time, the grid operator openly questions how much of that demand will materialize on schedule.
Bigger Than Texas
Similar pressures are emerging elsewhere. In California, CAISO’s latest transmission plan cited “data center load growth” as a driver of major grid upgrades and described interconnection volumes as “unmanageable” before recent queue reforms.
A recent Grid Strategies report reached a similar conclusion nationally, warning that the “data center portion of utility load forecasts is likely overstated by roughly 25 GW” compared with market-based deployment estimates.
Ihab Osman, an independent strategist specializing in data center and other mission-critical infrastructure, said the distinction is less about “real” versus “fake” AI demand and more about “announced versus deliverable demand.”
“A large share of the current AI/data center planned load should be treated as paper megawatts until it is validated through physical gates,” Osman said, citing factors including site control, transmission deliverability, generation availability, turbine and transformer supply, permitting, financing, and credible energization schedules.
Osman said ERCOT’s forecast is best understood as “a stress-test map, not as a fait accompli build map.”
Separating ’Paper Megawatts’ From Real Demand
The filing shows Texas regulators and grid planners struggling to distinguish operating AI infrastructure from a rapidly expanding pipeline of proposed projects.
“The vast majority” of ERCOT’s projected load growth comes from submissions provided by transmission and distribution utilities, according to the filing. Those requests include hyperscale AI campuses, GPU clusters, and other large industrial loads seeking future grid capacity reservations.
Alison Silverstein, a former senior adviser to the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said “a large proportion” of projects in ERCOT’s large-load interconnection queue have already been canceled, particularly among smaller developers facing long interconnection delays and high turbine and transformer costs.
Forecasts Collide With Physical Infrastructure Limits
ERCOT has also signaled that many projects may not materialize on the timelines shaping transmission planning.
The grid operator said summer 2026 peak demand is likely to land between roughly 90.5 GW and 98 GW – far below the preliminary 112 GW figure embedded in the long-term forecast. ERCOT said it appears “unlikely” that new large-load projects and existing site expansions will ramp quickly enough to push demand that high this year.
The filing suggests uncertainty around AI-related load growth is beginning to influence broader infrastructure planning assumptions. By 2032, ERCOT projects non-crypto data centers reaching 228 GW of demand, compared with just 9 GW from cryptocurrency mining and roughly 3 GW each from hydrogen/e-fuels and oil-and-gas-related industrial growth.
The move also suggests the regulator is no longer simply forecasting AI-driven growth, but also working to determine how much of the proposed boom can actually be financed, supplied, interconnected, and energized before utilities commit billions to long-lived infrastructure.
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