The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) urges all supporters of civil rights and Palestinian liberation to take immediate action.
The University of Michigan Regents continue waging political war against the courageous students standing against Israel’s genocide in Gaza. When the local prosecutor refused to file unfounded charges against pro-Palestinian students in 2024, the University of Michigan Regents enlisted Attorney General Dana Nessel to do their bidding – the same AG Nessel who has taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from them. AG Nessel was later forced to drop those charges in court, but the Regents did not stop their harassment. They have just filed disciplinary charges against the students whom they were unable to charge at the local or state level. ADC believes that the University of Michigan Regents should be focused on serving students rather than advancing their politics.
This is not about student conduct. It’s about silencing a movement. The Regents are weaponizing the university’s disciplinary process to punish students who stand for justice and call for divestment from genocide-supporting investments.
The University of Michigan Regents have:
- Ignored legal exoneration of students to force academic sanctions against them,
- Changed the student code of conduct to permit harsh punishments against the same sort of peaceful protests that have been a benchmark of the university’s legacy of student activism,
- Created an entirely new and unprecedented office to coordinate with campus police,
- Paid almost $1 million in university funds to City Shield, a private investigation company whose employees surveilled, threatened, and intimidated students before the university was forced to cancel their contract.
This is political retaliation to silence a movement — plain and simple.