The University of Michigan’s handling of campus conflicts related to the Israel-Hamas war became a focus of discussions over the university’s 2025 fiscal year budget at the June 20 Board of Regents meeting.
Two regents addressed the issue in remarks during the meeting, as did President Santa J. Ono, who said he remains committed to working “to ensure that we all have the university we want — one that is safe and welcoming for all and in which civil discourse prevails.”
“As the University of Michigan’s president, I am steadfast in my commitment to making our university the premier institution, not only for higher learning (and) research, but one that values diversity of thought and provides our students and every member of the community with a forum to challenge one another in a cordial and open dialogue,” Ono said.
Regent Mark Bernstein cited the administration’s response to antisemitism at U-M as the reason he, for the first time, voted against the annual proposed budget package to fund university operations for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
“My vote is informed by three observations. One, first, my belief that our university has failed the vast majority of our Jewish students in addressing antisemitism on our campus,” Bernstein said.
“Secondly, our many failures during the past academic year have reduced my confidence in our ability to fight the dangerous, deeply rooted culture of antisemitism on our campus going forward.
“And finally, the administration has failed to present, in my view, a detailed plan to address the current crisis with the conviction, resources and urgency that this challenge demands.”
Regent Jordan Acker, while voting for the budget, echoed Bernstein’s comments. Both cited a recent report by the U.S. Department of Education that said U-M did not address whether reports of antisemitism on campus created a hostile environment for students, faculty and staff.
The university has reached an agreement with the Education Department regarding two complaints that were filed with the department’s Office of Civil Rights and announced June 17 that it would review existing policies and develop new ones related to discrimination and harassment on the basis of national origin and shared ancestry.
Acker, whose law office recently was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti, said that since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas “many of us have been asked to either distance ourselves from our Jewish identity.”
“Instead of debate or discussion on the war in Gaza, much of this conversation, especially on our campus, has been around whether Jews and Jews alone have the right to self-determination,” Acker said. “There has been intense policing of Jews’ ability to determine for themselves what is antisemitic and what is not. That must end.”
Ono acknowledged these are “indeed challenging times, not just for Michigan, but on all campuses across the country and around the world.”
Many college campuses have been roiled by protests, including at U-M where protesters erected an encampment on the Diag for four weeks before public safety officials removed it.
“I am mindful that, while we condemn the actions of individuals and groups who conduct threatening, intimidating and illegal acts, we have supported and will continue to support every member of the community who wishes to have a meaningful dialogue about complex subjects like the war in the Middle East,” Ono said.
“But when individuals or groups threaten or intimidate members of our wider university community, we will not hesitate to step in and to hold them accountable.”
Karthik Ganapathy
If I was writing a propaganda piece to whitewash how American university administrations are cynically “addressing campus tensions” with the help of neo-nazis and right wing fascists in order to suppress mass student uprisings who are protesting the ongoing genocide perpetrated by the Zionist entity funded heavily by the United States, I would at the very least make sure I put the word “Palestine” or “Palestinian” at least once so as to not appear completely biased. But hey, that is just me.
Christina Feldermann
I am very curious as to what is being labeled antisemitism. Protesting genocide is not antisemitism and this article makes it extremely difficult to form an informed and educated opinion on the matter. There are no facts or details included. I do not agree with any kind of hate speech toward any group of people; however, being against the war is not antisemitism. You can support Jewish people and be against genocide simultaneously without being antisemitic.
Tom Braun
Kudos to Regents Bernstein and Acker. The hatred and violence spewed by individuals this year has been shocking. And how disappointing that individuals so casually throw out words like “genocide” to silence debate.
Ruth Gretzinger
AMEN Tom!
Myles Zhang
Throughout history, they have always found various names at various times to disparage anti-war protestors. Today, they call them “anti-semites” and “terrorist sympathizers.” In WWI, they called those men who resisted the draft and opposed dying in the trenches “cowards.” In the 1920s, they called us union organizers and labor activists “reds.” In the 1950s through 1970s age of McCarthyism, they called those of us opposed to the wars of Korea and Vietnam as “commies,” “hippies,” and “draft dodgers.”
The goal of this university that profits from war is not to clarify or to side with civil rights. The point is to obfuscate, to misdirect, to misinform, to represent anti-war protestors as something they are not.
The U.S. Department of Education’s report on the University of Michigan mentions dozens of incidents. But the report complains nowhere about ongoing police brutality against students, and the ongoing mass arrest of students. The police crackdown on multi-faith Muslim and Jewish protestors occupying the Diag and President Ono’s office is the largest mass arrest on campus since the prosecution of Vietnam War protestors for “trespassing.”
There are very real bias incidents. But it is misguided in the extreme to brand as “antisemitic” anyone opposed to war, opposed to the slaughter of over 15,000 children, opposed to the murder of one in ten journalists in Gaza by U.S. supplied weapons, opposed to the bombing of every last hospital and university in Gaza. Using a word too much and too broadly dilutes its meaning.
The majority of United Nations member states voted last month in favor of Palestinian statehood. Only the United States, Israel, and seven other Pacific Island micro-nations voted against the resolution.
Silke-Maria Weineck
I visited the encampment and have followed the protests both here and at other universities closely. It seems to me that contrary to Regent Acker’s assertion, the dominant question has not been “whether Jews and Jews alone have the right to self-determination” but rather whether Israel has the right to commit war crimes.
Antisemitism is a heinous scourge, and it must indeed be fought vigorously whenever it crawls out from under the rocks. But precisely because it is so heinous, calling those protesting the slaughter in Gaza antisemites is irresponsible slander (those who object to the word “genocide” appear curiously unconcerned about that).
Are there antisemites in the pro-Palestinian movement? No doubt, though I haven’t caught a whiff of anti-semitism on the UM campus. In the end, I suspect the numerous antisemites in the pro-Israel camp, the likes of Elise Stefanik who cavort with the likes of Nick Fuentes, are the far more dangerous ones.
I am saddened to see our Regents (!) defame so many of our community members, many of whom are, of course, Jewish themselves. Sorting Jews into good and bad ones is itself an antisemitic tactic with a long and nasty history. The same is true for conflating Israel and Judaism, a right-wing tactic frequently employed to accuse American Jews of dual loyalty etc. etc. etc.
Our Jewish students, staff, and faculty members have every right to feel safe and to be heard. The same is true for our Palestinian students, staff, and faculty members. I do not see a single Regent speak on their behalf, and that, too, is unfathomably sad to me.
Norzaimi Nordin
Ditto, Karthik Ganapathy.
Spot on!
And I’m sure you are not ‘alone’.