The College Fix

ANALYSIS: Activists blame DEI cuts on frustration over pro-Palestinian protests

University of Michigan leaders — the president, top administrators and the Board of Regents — collectively decided recently to end the institution’s massive diversity, equity and inclusion programming.

The main DEI office, several DEI programs, and DEI plans embedded into all 51 units of the state’s flagship campus over the last decade will be eliminated.

The Trump administration’s aggressive stance against DEI — it violates federal civil rights laws as an unconstitutional dogma based on race — played the largest role in the decision to wipe out the University of Michigan’s once ballyhooed DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan. It’s what campus leaders cited in their public announcement March 27 ending DEI.

A January report by The College Fix found 1,100 employees at the public university worked either full-time or part-time on DEI-related efforts, exposing the level of DEI bloat and likely swaying regents too.

But some student leaders say the root cause of the decision primarily lies elsewhere.

In an emergency meeting held online a day after the announcement, they argued the decision was based on resentment over relentless pro-Palestinian protests that have overwhelmed the campus since Oct. 7, 2023.

“President [Santa] Ono and the regents, while most of them claim to be Democrats or liberals, are very much in line with all these DEI funding cuts, specifically Jordan Acker, who is a liberal Zionist,” said a student leader with Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, or SAFE, an anti-Israel activism group that in January was suspended for repeated aggressive campus protests that violated the code of conduct.

A leader with the Graduate Employees Organization echoed similar sentiments.

“This is all tied to SAFE being suspended,” she said. “The Board of Regents, elected officials who serve Michigan’s communities, are acting beyond their mandate, which is just to be overseers of our endowment, which is invested in harmful and genocidal practices.”

“[They] are collaborating with government forces, including the attorney general, to arrest students, staff, faculty, and community members,” she said. “Their focus on the intent of dismantling higher education as a site of genuine critique and social change is more than capitulation, it’s active collusion.”

It may not be a stretch to argue that the protests did have some measure of influence over campus leaders’ decision. Are they tired of funding programs indirectly linked to the repeated vandalism of their homes and businesses? Consider that campus leaders have had their personal spaces repeatedly violated.

In May 2024, activists targeted regents’ homes. NPR Michigan reported that Regent Mark Bernstein said protesters hung a list of demands to regents’ front doors.

“Nobody should ever encounter a masked and hooded man on the front porch of their home in the early morning making demands that the university divest from Israel and defund the police,” he reportedly said. “I will not be intimidated by these provocative tactics, nor will my colleagues on this board, nor will this institution.”

Regent Sarah Hubbard had about “30 protesters put tents and other objects on her front lawn and used bullhorns to disrupt the neighborhood at around 6 a.m.,” NPR reported.

In June 2024, the front of Jewish Regent Jordan Acker’s law office was spray-painted with the words “free Palestine” and “divest or f*** off.” Local police and the FBI investigated the incident as a hate crime. However, responsibility for the vandalism has yet to be assigned.

In October 2024, President Ono’s home was spray-painted with the words “intifada,” “coward,” and “divest.”

Regent Acker was again targeted in December when his car was spray-painted with the words “divest” and “free Palestine” and a window in his home was smashed. Acker said both his and his wife’s vehicles were vandalized, and someone threw a jar with a “foul-smelling liquid” through a window of their house.

The Huntington Woods Department of Public Safety is investigating the incident with state and federal agencies.

In an interview last week with The College Fix, FBI Detroit Field Office Public Affairs Officer Jordan Hall said “Justice Department policy is to neither confirm nor deny an active investigation.”

Most recently, in March, the home of University of Michigan Provost Laurie McCauley was vandalized; the protesters broke a window and spray-painted the words “free Palestine,” “divest,” and “no honor in genocide” near the front of the home, according to ABC News Detroit.

The Ann Arbor Police Department is investigating the incident but has yet to press charges.

Campus leaders, campus police and the University of Michigan did not provide a response regarding the repeated property damage to The College Fix.

The University of Michigan chapter of SAFE has taken responsibility for previous demonstrations calling on the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel, according to the Michigan Daily.

SAFE and two other student groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and Transparency, Accountability, Humanity, Reparations, Investment, Resistance (TAHRIR), claimed responsibility for placing fake body bags and toys, both painted with fake blood, on the front porch of Regent Hubbard’s home, CBS News Detroit reported.

When SAFE was suspended in January, the targeting of Regent Hubbard’s home was cited by an outside consultant hired by the school as a violation of school policy.

While the regents and administrators’ full motivation for axing DEI is multifactored, it is not a stretch to assume the repeated attacks played as great a role as any “threat” to funding by the Trump administration.

After DEI was dismantled, a SAFE student leader encouraged her peers during the meeting to “get up and fight,” adding: “It’s the activism of students, staff, faculty, and the community that changes the university.”

MORE: ‘Terrorism’: Vandals target Jewish U. Michigan regent again

IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A University of Michigan’s car was vandalized with pro-Palestinian graffiti; Courtesy image, University of Michigan

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