Pro-Palestinian Activists Hold Student Fees Hostage To Demand University Divestment

Pro-Palestinian student government representatives at the University of Michigan (UofM) are refusing to fund campus organizations until the school divests from the war in Israel, despite the fact the student council’s budget comes from student fees and not the university’s endowment, the New York Times reported Tuesday.

Last spring, pro-Palestinian activists won control of UofM’s student council, and, in an effort to pressure the administration to meet their divestment demands, froze much of the roughly $1.3 million in funding the council is supposed to distribute to student groups, the NYT reported. Now, campus organizations like the Ultimate Frisbee and ballroom dance teams have been stripped of funding, even though the budget for the activities comes from student fees, which are not connected to the university’s endowment or its investments.

“It feels a little silly to me to refuse to hand out money that’s coming from students to help students,” Gabriel Scheck, president and captain of the men’s Ultimate Frisbee team, told the NYT in reference to the fact UofM’s student government is funded by an $11.19 per-student fee paid each semester.

SHOCKING – Pro Palestine protestors are clashing with police at the University of Michigan as they break their way into the office of the school’s president. pic.twitter.com/Tw0H5rb9Wt

— Times Algebra (@TimesAlgebraIND) November 17, 2023

The Pro-Palestinian activist “Shut It Down” party won the presidency, vice presidency, and 22 of the 45 assembly seats in the UofM student government election in March, according to the NYT. Just 20% of UofM students turned out to vote.

“There are people, and I talked to one or two of them, who walked by that encampment and who were worried about where they were going to get their next meal,” Gabriel Ervin, a UofM student who unsuccessfully ran for student government president last spring using a pro-labor platform, told the NYT. Meanwhile, he said, “all the supposedly worker-oriented and left-wing organizations on campus [are] spend all their resources on a war that they had no effect on.”

Now, the administration is stepping in and loaning money to some of the roughly 400 student groups UofM’s Central Student Government (CSG) had been responsible for funding, the NYT reported.

The various pro-Palestinian activism movements come after the university increased its diversity, equity and inclusion spending 66% from $18 million to $30 million between the 2022-2023 school year and the 2023-2024 academic year.

The University of Michigan and the UofM Central Student Government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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