What Does the Blackstone Investment Mean for Students?

In January, the University of California invested $4.5 Billion in the Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust. Blackstone is a profit-driven real estate corporation, and the world’s largest alternative asset manager. The corporation is notorious for harmful housing practices, including aggressive evictions, maltreatment of tenants, extreme rent hikes, and poor maintenance practice on their units. The UC claims to be addressing California’s housing crisis in good faith with the cities it occupies, but their high investment in Blackstone seriously undermines that commitment.

Students are already disparately impacted by the housing crisis in California — low-income students in particular. It is completely unjust that the University is making major investments in harmful private equity firms while simultaneously raising students’ tuition and closing libraries, saying they don’t have the money to keep them open. We must call for the UC to divest from Blackstone. As a public institution, they have a responsibility to serve their students — not corporate profit interests.

Owen Mark for the Daily Californian

The Blackstone Investment: a non-neutral explainer

By Lee Xuan, The Daily Californian | 4/22/2023