The following are remarks delivered at the June 20 Board of Regents meeting.
Regent Mark Bernstein
This is the first time I will vote against a budget in my 12 years of service on this board. And 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.
Indeed, earlier this week on June 17 an investigation by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights found that the university failed to comply with its Title VI requirements to ‘assess whether incidents individually or cumulatively created a hostile environment for students, faculty or staff and take steps reasonably calculated to end the hostile environment, remedy its effects and prevent its recurrence.’ This involved, ‘allegations of discrimination or harassment based on shared Jewish ancestry, and also, I will add, shared Palestinian or Muslim ancestry.’
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. The toxic presence of antisemitism and all forms of bigotry threatens the viability of this institution and causes profound damage to our society.
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. Talk is cheap. We need to do better. And until then, the buck, at least for me, stops here.
Regent Jordan Acker
Today, as in the last nine months, antisemitism runs rampant on our campus.
Like many American Jews, I believe that there is no secure Israel without a secure, free and just Palestine. But since Oct. 7, many of us have been asked to either distance ourselves from our Jewish identity — which includes prayers for the people of Israel, prayers in the direction of Jerusalem, or simply a cultural affinity for friends and family in Israel — or face unrelenting attacks, some of them physical, and many of them like what happened at my office.
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. There has been intense policing of Jews’ ability to determine for themselves what is antisemitic and what is not. That must end. We have so much to do moving forward. Our campuses must be safe for all students, but the facts are what they are.
The U.S. Department of Education reported 75 discrete incidents of reported antisemitism on campus, and I won’t quote because Regent Bernstein just did. I want to remind everyone that this campus has been a haven from antisemitism of the Ivy League for nearly 100 years, and we have to move back to being that place.
Let me make this clear. I am voting for this budget because to do otherwise would be to not give Michigan students the Go Blue Guarantee; the ability of middle-class Michiganders to go to school tuition free. I’m voting for this budget because our campuses at Flint and Dearborn deserve the chance to educate their students in those communities.
I’m voting for this budget because, ultimately, the University of Michigan is most importantly a place that a son or daughter of an autoworker can come and get an Ivy League-level education at an affordable price less than an hour from home. That is the dream of this institution, and despite my misgivings about our ability to combat antisemitism, that is why I will vote yes.
President Santa J. Ono
I want to first acknowledge all the comments from all the regents, and I agree. We have much to do, and we will do so.
During the recent protests related to the Israel-Hamas war, I too have been concerned about the impact of some of the rhetoric on all of our students and our Jewish students in particular, and university officials and the regents. Working together, I know we can do even more to support everyone in the community and those students, and I will continue to lead us in that regard.
At the very beginning of my presidency — far before Oct. 7 — we planned for the establishment of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute on antisemitism. The institute celebrates him and is meant to share his values and bring people together to understand the root causes of antisemitism and bias. In the upcoming year, programming will include multiple opportunities to discuss and debate complicated issues, including the war in the Middle East.
These are indeed challenging times, not just for Michigan, but on all campuses across the country and around the world.
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.
As always, we also continue to evaluate university policy to consider whether there are additional steps we can take to address the new challenges that have been articulated, and we shall do so.
Finally, 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.
Our community includes people of different religions, national origins and ethnic groups, and we expect and welcome disparate views. Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students have the right to study and learn in an environment free also from fear and harassment. Just as the university stands up against antisemitism — and we will — we also stand up against Islamophobia, anti-Arab bias and all forms of discrimination and hate. 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.
I remain committed to working with all of you on the board, every member of the community, to ensure that we have the university that we all want — one that is safe and welcoming for all and in which civil discourse prevails.
