Editor’s Note: Alifa Chowdhury is a former Daily staffer. Chowdhury did not contribute to this article.
University of Michigan student and faculty chants could be heard throughout U-M Central Campus Thursday afternoon as protesters waved Palestinian flags and held signs demanding the University to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli military campaign in Gaza. A set of three protesters held up large, red cardboard hands around a sign addressing University President Santa Ono that read “Ono you have blood on your hands.”
More than 600 students and faculty attended “A Day of Disruption,” an emergency walkout hosted by the TAHRIR Coalition, a coalition of more than 80 multicultural student organizations. The protesters gathered to demand the University administration divest from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and speak out against the drafted “Disruptive Activity Policy” and the student lawsuit challenging the results of the 2024 Central Student Government election. The SHUT IT DOWN party was projected to win executive ticket positions, along with 22 other Assembly seats in CSG, and received almost 4,000 votes in the executive ticket election.
The event began with a speech from Zaynab Elkolaly, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality director of activism. In her speech, Elkolaly said she believes students must continue organizing and showing up to protests to ensure the U-M administration hears their concerns.
“Your presence here is especially remarkable and especially important, given how much Ono and his administration are attempting to suppress our freedom to mobilize to assemble and speak out against their oppression,” Elkolaly said.
LSA junior Alifa Chowdhury, the projected CSG president, spoke to the protesters about the Central Student Judiciary, the judicial branch of the CSG lawsuit at the protest.
“This vague lawsuit proves our point that CSG is an extension of the larger U-M institution,” Chowdhury said. “It proves that when we organize and mobilize and threaten the day-to-day operations of the status quo, they are scared enough to fight back. We’ve seen it with Ono, we’ve seen it with the regents and we see it yet again with CSG.”
Chowdhury announced that a hearing for the lawsuit will be held Friday at 4 p.m. and said the TAHRIR Coalition and the SHUT IT DOWN party will host a rally on the Diag in protest.
“The hearing for the case is tomorrow at four,” Chowdhury said. “The hearing itself has been closed to the public for fears that it will intimidate witnesses. However, we will be holding a rally at 3:30 on the Diag.”
Derek Peterson, U-M history and African studies professor, said in a speech that disruption entails challenging complacency, referencing historical student movements at the University including the Black Action Movement. Peterson said he believes students should have a voice in how the University invests its money.
“When the University tells us to keep quiet and stay out of the way, we have to say no because our money is an institution,” Peterson said. “Our financial infrastructure goes to uphold the war that is stigmatizing the relatives and friends of our own students and colleagues.”
In an email to The Michigan Daily, University spokesperson Colleen Mastony wrote that while student activism is an important part of the University’s history, protests must also adhere to U-M guidelines.
“The University of Michigan is subject to certain requirements as a public institution,” Mastony wrote. “Our current Standard Practice Guide 601.01 and the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities make clear that disrupting speakers and events is not protected speech under the law and is a violation of university policy.”
After the speakers, attendees split into two large groups, with one marching toward the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the LSA Building and the other marching toward East Hall. The protesters first marched through East Hall before stopping at the Chemistry building and the U-M Museum of Natural History, chanting slogans like “How do you spell ‘coward’? O-N-O!” and “We are all Palestinians! We are thousands, we are millions!”
The protesters marched through sudden rain and made their final stop at Hill Auditorium, where both groups joined once again. At the end of the event, Elkolaly thanked the attendees and said protesters will continue to voice their concerns with the U-M administration.
“Our fight is far from over,” Elkolaly said. “In fact, it’s only just begun. We will not remain complacent. Whether they pass (the draft policy) tomorrow or in the summer or next year, we will always be here to shut it down, to show that we will not participate in this suppression of free speech.”
In an interview with The Daily, LSA junior Rhea Chappell said they attended the walk-out to condemn the University’s use of its endowment to invest in companies profiting off Israeli military violence.
“The TAHRIR research team has shown the connections between our endowment and imperialism ventures and companies that profit from Israel’s genocide in the apartheid state against Gaza,” Chappell said. “It’s important to come out and make it clear that students and everyone on campus should have a voice on what our endowment goes into and to divest from these companies.”
In an interview with The Daily, Elkolaly said she believes the administration’s recent actions only further motivated students to show up and protest.
“They didn’t realize that by actively telling us not to protest and that they were going to crack down on our free speech that they would mobilize the campus to action and produce numbers like this,” Elkolaly said. “I honestly don’t know what they were thinking but they gave us free PR and free motivation for our movement.”
Elkolaly said she encourages students to voice their criticisms regarding the University administration.
“(Don’t) be afraid to have courage in joining us against our oppressive administration,” Elkolaly said. “The more they attempt to codify an egregious suppression of free speech, the more we’ll be motivated to action and we call on everyone to join us.”
Daily News Editor Ji Hoon Choi can be reached at jicho@umich.edu.