The University of Wisconsin System has reinvested in Tyson Foods International after dissociating itself from its bonds last December.

Last year after Jefferson, Wis., plant workers went on strike to protest new policies that would freeze wages and cut health-care benefits, the UW System Board of Regents voted to divest in Tyson Foods as a gesture of solidarity.

Following the end of their strike early this year, Tyson employees still felt dissatisfied with their lack of substantial gains, according to the Capital Times. For this reason, many found the university’s decision to reinvest in Tyson surprising.

“I think some of the members of the business and finance committee were surprised,” Beth Richlen, student regent, said. “They thought they’d be told in advance.”

Richlen said she did not know what the reasoning behind UW’s decision to reinvest in Tyson was. She noted, however, the regents “do a lot of proxy-voting,” and consequently they do not always hear of decisions in advance. In addition, Richlen said this was only the second forum for the current business and finance committee, so members found themselves in unfamiliar territory.

Richlen said the decision to reinvest in the Tyson bonds especially surprised Regent Eileen Connolly-Keesler.

“She was supportive of the original divestment and didn’t know why it had been reversed,” Richlen said, adding Connolly-Keesler believed the regents would re-evaluate the decision in the weeks before the next regent meeting.

“I think this board is more open to socially responsible divesting than previous boards,” Richlen said. “Students should be assured they were well heard.”

Richlen also said the confusion over the university’s reinvestment in Tyson would probably lead to a re-evaluation of the board’s voting process, with regents requesting more briefings on the companies they are divesting from. She predicted there would be “a lot of developments” by the next board meeting.

Last year’s divestment was the UW’s first such gesture since the regents voted to break financial ties with South Africa in 1978, also according to the Capital Times.

“As I recall we had made the decision to be in solidarity with the campus boycotts,” said Doug Hoerr, UW assistant trust officer. “We had instructed our investment managers to sell the Tyson bonds and not invest in any other Tyson securities until the strike was settled.”

Asked whether he knew the outcome of the strike, Hoerr said he did not.

“We didn’t know the details of the settlement itself,” he said, adding, however, UW had allowed for the possibility of reinvesting in Tyson. “This was not done until the strike was settled and presumably the boycotts were lifted,” he said.

UW Student Labor Action Coalition member Ruth Castel-Bianco said she did not support the reinvestment because “the strike hasn’t really been settled even though it’s over.”

She added she believed the university originally divested from Tyson in response to pressure from students and because the UW’s economic interest didn’t clash with the divestment.

Castel-Bianco said the apparent confusion over the reasoning behind the reinvestment was symptomatic of the disenfranchisement of students, faculty and regents from major decisions and unless people actively campaigned over an issue, most community members remained unaware of it.

“That’s a real problem,” she said.