AUSTIN, Texas — This week, University of Texas at Austin students have gathered for pro-Palestine protests on the university's campus.
But what are the demonstrators asking for? It depends on who you're speaking to, but one protestor claimed, "We are saying that, as students, we're not OK ... with our tuition, our money going towards genocide."
We took a look at exactly where UT says students' tuition dollars go.
According to the university's website, tuition goes into UT's operating budget. That budget includes staff pay, maintenance and operations, scholarships and utilities – basically, all of the university's bills.
So, according to UT, that protestor's claim is false.
What about the demonstrators' call for UT to "divest" from Israeli businesses? Well, that's tricky.
UT's investments are controlled by UTIMCO, or the University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company. The good news is the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Act requires all colleges to report every foreign gift over a certain amount.
Those gifts are searchable on an online database. A search for the "University of Texas at Austin" and "Israel" shows a lot of gifts coming in – and a lot of money as well. You can click on each gift to learn more, and some even say they came from the Israel government.
So, yes, UT does get money from Israel, including the Israeli government. That's what protestors want that to end.
There is no word at this time what UT's Board of Regents has to say about the protestors' request, but other universities have responded to similar requests from their students. American University rejected the request, Yale University did the same and Columbia University's president said, "We cannot have one group dictate terms."