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ADMINISTRATION
‘The fight isn’t over’: UMich students take part in silent pro-Palestine demonstration at Senate Assembly
More than 50 students attended the protest to support UMich divestment resolution SNEHA DHANDAPANI AND MILES ANDERSON Daily News Editor and Daily Staff Reporter
More than 50 University of Michigan students filed into the Alexander G. Ruthven Building for a silent protest staged at the Senate Assembly meeting. At this meeting, faculty members voted on resolutions determining their response to the University’s cancellation of the U-M Central Student Government midterm ballot proposal and asking the University to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel. The silent demonstration was organized by Students Allied for Freedom and Equality and the TAHRIR Coalition, a group of more than 60 U-M student organizations, including SAFE, advocating for the University’s divestment from companies with financial ties to Israel. Senate Assembly members voted on two resolutions at the meeting. One condemned the University’s decision to cancel voting on two CSG resolutions regarding the University’s position on the Israel-Hamas war — AR 13-025 and AR 13-026 — after the University determined that an email sent to all U-M students urging them to vote yes on AR 13-025 and no on AR 13-026 violated University policy. The other resolution called on the University to divest from companies that profit from ongoing Israeli military violence. About 10 students waited outside the Ruthven Building because they were banned from entering the building for one year after the Nov. 17 protest at the building, where 40 students were arrested for trespassing. Zaynab Elkolaly, SAFE
GRACE BEAL/Daily Michigan students sign a poster as they celebrate the passing of a proposal which demands the University divest from companies that fund Israel at the Ruthven Building Monday afternoon.
director of activism, stood outside the Ruthven Building during the silent demonstration. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, she said she stayed outside to support other students from afar. “Our peers are inside flooding the room to send our message on our behalf here today at this specific faculty senate,” Elkolaly said. “(It) has a huge pull on administration and an affirmation that they’re calling for divestment would be (a) huge benefit to the cause.” Alex Sepulveda, activism chair for the U-M chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, also waited outside Ruthven due to the ban. In an interview with The Daily before the event,
Sepulveda said he came to support U-M faculty members. “I’m here to join the chorus of people at this campus,” Sepulveda said. “I’d say that we are supporting our faculty as they demand from the University administration that we inquire into the ethicality of our investments…. The Board of Regents has absolutely zero intention of divesting because they’re beholden to corporations — not beholden to students. They have demonstrated absolutely zero intentions to make any sort of legitimate relationship with student organizers here on campus.” At the start of the meeting, attendees who were unable to find a seat were asked to leave
STUDENT GOVERNMENT
CSG passes resolution to investigate the cancellation of votes during fall 2023 elections
the meeting. Public Health senior Rawan Antar waited on the first floor of Ruthven because there wasn’t enough seating in the room. Antan told The Daily she felt frustrated with the lack of accommodations. “We were sitting alongside the (students) on the floor, and they told us that there is only space for as many seats as there were, which was like 200 that were set up,” Antan said. “ … It was filled up by the time I was there.” In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Kim Broekhuizen said the U-M administration respects student protests and that spaces for protestors opened up as the
meeting progressed. “We have great respect for peaceful demonstrations, which has been an important part of our campus for almost as long as we have existed,” Broekhuizen wrote. “U-M students care about their communities and the world we all live in and they are not shy about advocating for what they believe in. The room hit capacity, but as guests left and spots opened — others were allowed to enter the room.” The first resolution the Senate Assembly voted on condemned the administration’s cancellation of the CSG midterm ballot. The second called on the Board of Regents to divest from companies invested in Israel. The first resolution passed
with 38 in favor, 17 against and 5 abstaining, and the second passed with 37 yes, 15 no and 5 abstaining. In an email to The Daily, Silvia Pedraza, professor of sociology and American culture and Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs member, wrote that she believes the resolution came from faculty members seeing the ongoing violence in Gaza and wanting to take action to end the University’s support for it. . “I believe it came out of the distress faculty feel at seeing so many Palestinians in Gaza killed, their families destroyed, their bodies maimed,” Pedraza wrote. “The faculty really do not know the financial implications of that vote, and that is up to our financial specialists at U of M and the leadership of the University to assess. But the faculty vote indicates they want the leadership of the University not to collaborate with the enormous harm the people in Gaza are enduring.” After hearing that the vote passed, Elkolaly told The Daily she felt excited about the outcome but recognized the importance of continuing to advocate for divestment. “We’re incredibly elated,” Elkolaly said. “We’re glad that the Faculty Senate was able to look beyond the garbage bureaucratic measures that opponents were using to hinder the vote. Of course, the fight isn’t over. The Faculty Senate only has the capacity to make recommendations to the Regents. This resolution being passed does not materially change (the University’s) investments, so the fight is with the Regents. We invite everyone who’d like to see divestment progress to the next level to join us.”
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Student government will look into the decision to cancel the votes on resolutions AR 13-025 and AR 13-026 CLAUDIA MINETTI Daily Staff Reporter
2/05 Correction: The article has been updated to the correct voting results for resolution AR-0432. The University of Michigan Central Student Government met in the Michigan Union Tuesday evening to re-discuss AR 13-042, which calls for an investigation into the cancellation of voting on resolutions AR 13-025 and AR 13-026 during the fall 2023 CSG midterm elections. Communications Committee Chair Alexander Gavulic said he believed the proposal to investigate the University would be detrimental to the relationship between the University and CSG. “When it comes to student governments … we only exist because the University lets us exist, and we only have access to tuition
dollars because they let us,” Gavulic said. “It is essential that we have as good of a relationship with the administration as possible to further other advocacy efforts. And while (the cancellation) feels like a slap in the face, we cannot realistically do anything to investigate the University and even if we do, what are we going to do with its findings?” If the petition did not pass the Student Assembly, it would have been sent to a campus-wide vote in the March election. Gavulic said that while the student body might pass the resolution, he believed the U-M administration would pay more attention ifCSG were to pass the resolution. “And for those who might be thinking, ‘Oh, if Assembly doesn’t pass this tonight, it’s just gonna go to the student body and they will pass it,’ I think there’s a world of difference to administration when they work with us as to whether
JULIANNE YOON/Daily CSG Speaker Jarek Schmanski moderates the CSG meeting at the Michigan Union Tuesday night.
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we pass it and adopt it as the official stance of the Assembly, or the student body does in two months,” Gavulic said. CSG President Meera Herle responded to Gavulic, saying she believes sending the petition to the student body for a vote would draw more attention from the University’s administration. “I think they’ll see us sending this to the student body as a poorly thought-out decision that will drag more attention to (the University’s) mistake,” Herle said. LSA junior Jacob Amspaugh said he believed failure to pass the petition would damage the relationship between CSG and the U-M student body, particularly with those who signed a petition in December to investigate the University’s decision and protect against potential future cancellation of CSG resolutions. The petition surpassed its goal of 1,000 signatures. “Though I understand my fellow representatives’ concerns, I think it’s important that we honor the request of the thousands of students that signed the petition,” Asmpaugh said. “Failing to pass the petition may be harmful to CSG by dissuading students from trusting in CSG. We are supposed to represent the voices of the students, so it’d be a bad look for us not to pass it after so many have put their names on the petition to get it to be considered.” The resolution passed with 22 in favor, 6 against and 1 abstention.
College of Engineering Senior Seta Hagopian performs with Tarps Off at Battle of the Bands at The Blind Pig Friday night.
ARUSHI SANGHI/Daily
NEWS BRIEFS
DPSS responds to firearm threat at Markley Residence Hall
An individual was arrested outside of the hall for possessing a firearm on University property CLAUDIA MINETTI Daily Staff Reporter
A firearm threat was reported at Mary Markley Residence Hall late Thursday evening. Melissa Overton, deputy chief of police for the Division of Public Safety and Security, wrote in a statement to The Michigan Daily that
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an individual who is not affiliated with the University of Michigan was arrested for violating Regents Ordinance – Article X. Article X prohibits the possession of firearms or bladed weapons on University property. The individual was found in possession of a holstered handgun. “On February 1, 2024, at approximately 7:00 p.m., an individual, not affiliated with
Vol. CXXXIII No. 13 ©2024 The Michigan Daily
the university, with a holstered handgun was arrested in Mary Markley Residence Hall for violating the Regents Ordinance – Article X, Weapons Offense,” Overton wrote. Overton said there is currently no active threat to the U-M community. “There is no threat to the community,” Overton wrote. “The incident is being actively investigated.”
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