About 100 community members gathered outside the Alexander G. Ruthven Administration Building Wednesday afternoon, where U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who represents Michigan’s 12th Congressional District, joined organizers calling on the University of Michigan to divest its endowment from companies tied to the Israeli government and to stop what speakers described as administrative repression of pro-Palestinian speech.
The noon press conference, titled “United Against Genocide, United Against Repression,” followed months of demonstrations over the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza, including a weeks-long encampment in the spring of 2024 and subsequent disciplinary and legal proceedings, which were dropped in May. Regents have previously said the University does not take institutional positions on political matters, including divestment.
Stephen Ward, associate professor of Afroamerican and African Studies, served as the emcee for the event and introduced a lineup of speakers, including students, union leaders and recent alumni facing disciplinary charges related to various demonstrations over the past three years.
Before the start of the event, Social Work student Mallery Bee said in an interview with The Michigan Daily she feels the University’s recent stances on divestment reflect a broader trend of authoritarian politics in the U.S.
“I think we need to be getting loud about the rise of local fascism and the investment of our places of education in that fascism,” Bee said. “I think no one should be funding genocide, but least of all places that are supposed to educate and protect us.”
A statement from a former Office of Student Conflict Resolution student staffer — identified only as “Ariana” — was read aloud by Graduate Employees’ Organization President Hiab Teshome, who framed the statement as a resignation-style rebuke of OSCR’s tactics. Ariana’s critique follows reports that the University’s OSCR office was under heightened scrutiny for filing a new round of formal complaints against 11 protesters stemming from demonstrations since 2023.
“I sincerely believed in the office’s abilities in restorative justice practices for the betterment of the campus,” the statement read. “It quickly became clear that OSAR had more interests in exerting power over students and bending the need to the University of Michigan Board of Regents.”
U-M alum Eaman Ali who was charged and found responsible by OSCR for violating the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities at two protests, also spoke to the attendees, saying he felt the University unfairly portrayed students as violent.
“They accuse us of community harm and violence despite the (University) police being the one who immediately pepper sprayed and brutalized (us),” Ali said. “Somewhere along the way, the University thought they could convince us that protesting against genocide is violence, but investing in a genocide is not.”
Michael Mueller, a recent doctoral alum and one of 11 students charged by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel in relation to various demonstrations, spoke from a distance after being restricted from stepping onto University property under his disciplinary sanctions. To allow him to address the crowd, demonstrators shifted toward the public sidewalk and passed him the megaphone. Mueller noted that while state prosecutors dismissed criminal charges tied to the encampment, disciplinary proceedings through OSCR remain ongoing.
Nia Hall, the vice president of GEO, directly accused the administration and Regents of attempting to stop dissent on campus.
“Right now, at (the University), students, staff, faculty and community members are being charged, banned for protesting, for demanding that our tuition dollars and labors not be invested in genocide,” Hall said. “This repression does not come from an abstract force. It comes directly from our administration and our Regents, masquerading as a champion of our learning, deploying every insidious tactic they can to crush dissent.”
When Tlaib took the microphone, she invoked Constitutional rights and the University’s history of student activism to buttress calls for institutional change. Meanwhile, on the sidewalk, a passerby shouted “go home,” to which protesters answered with chants of “free, free Palestine.” Members of a volunteer organization Meta Peace Team stood behind Tlaib during her remarks to help monitor safety.
“I don’t have to be an attorney to know this, just so you’re clear,” Tlaib said. “Constitutional rights of your students, of faculty, of alumni, do not end when they come on campus. I could not believe an alum had to stand on the public sidewalk to be able to participate in the press conference.”
She also reminded the audience of past student victories at the University.
“Students’ antiwar movements were birthed on this campus,” Tlaib said. “Students organized and won major racial justice reform at this school because they have been forced to do it, and the University even celebrated the history of divesting from fossil fuels and from apartheid South Africa,. his is the University that is charging you now, but there’s a massive exception, of course, when it comes to defending Palestinian life.”
Tlaib then answered questions from the attendees. When asked why she had come to Ann Arbor, Tlaib said she was moved by students, many of them her former interns, who told her they felt isolated.
“It’s the first week of school, and when I talk to some of the students, they brought tears to my eyes,” Tlaib said. “They said, ‘We’re alone here’.”
When asked about sentiment in Washington, Tlaib said pressure to stop policies that contribute to civilian suffering was growing across districts and party lines.
“They’re being pushed in their districts, in their communities, both Republican and Democrats, to stop the starvation to end the genocide, so I know it’s growing,” Tlaib said. “I mean we got farmers asking Republican colleagues, ‘Why are you supporting the genocide?’”
Near the event’s close, Tlaib and roughly five students briefly entered Ruthven at about 1:15 p.m. to deliver a request for a meeting with University leadership; they returned at roughly 1:30 p.m. and told attendees they hoped administrators would agree to a time to talk.
Daily News Editor Emma Spring can be reached at sprinemm@umich.edu.
