UPDATED
Student movement demands divestment from Israeli-linked companies
Using veto power, the newly installed student government president at the University of Michigan blocked funding to campus groups this summer — and plans to do so again this fall — to protest Israel, the Detroit News reported Sunday.
The student politician was able to make such a power move because she and others were elected in the spring as part of a large contingent of pro-Palestinian representatives called the “Shut It Down” movement, prompting President Santa Ono and other administrators to investigate ways to get student clubs some money, the newspaper reported.
The student government oversees funding to 1,700 student organizations, according to its website.
“Due to measures taken under the Chowdhury-Atkinson administration, CSG student organization funding is suspended, with no restart date yet. Committee efforts are ongoing to resume funding. Alternative funding sources can be found at the Center for Campus Involvement’s website,” the student government website states, adding “note: no summer funding available.”
Alifa Chowdhury, the 2024-25 student body president, told the Detroit News: “The Shut it Down movement ran on a completely transparent platform. This is really to send a message to regents that you can’t just give us, student government leaders, a lump sum [of] money and expect us to stay silent with that. The point of student government is to make our voices heard.”
She added the election proved “the majority of students on campus want divestment to happen and the regents have yet to listen.”
The Shut It Down platform demands the university sell off “any UM endowment investments connected to Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza,” the News reported.
Not all students are on board, however.
“It’s putting a big strain on a lot of groups,” Ryan Grover, president of the Rugby Club, told the News. “Student orgs at the university are really what makes a lot of the experience, and without a student proper student org experience, it’s going to make life a lot harder for a lot of students.”
Jordan Acker, a University of Michigan Board of Regents member, said the move to yank funding from student groups “is absurd,” the News reported.
UM spokesperson Colleen Mastony told the newspaper administrators are developing ways to fund campus clubs affected by the protest tactic.
The TAHRIR Coalition, which consists of dozens of UM student groups, has demanded divestment from the university for years. However, this push intensified following the Oct.7 Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,200-plus civilians, including women and children.
In May, UM students set up a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at UM, which lasted for 30 days, before police used pepper spray to disperse the students. The encampment was part of the same effort to demand divestments from the university, as previously reported by The College Fix.
Pro-Palestinian students are not the only ones making this demand.
The UM faculty senate also demanded that the school “divest from its financial holdings in companies that invest in Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza.”
UM vetoed the student body president’s decision and returned student groups’ funding for the fall semester, “temporarily stripping the student governments of the power of the purse,” The Algemeiner reported.
MORE: Pro-Palestinian protesters at UMich disrupt, cut short honors convocation
Editor’s note: New details about the reinstatement of funding for student groups have been added.
IMAGE: Garry L. Shutterstock
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.