While israel continues its depraved and barbaric campaign of mass bombing, murder, and forced starvation of Palestinians, the University of Michigan Board of Regents continues to prop up its indefensible investments in that genocide through repression. The Regents have now brought disciplinary charges against undergraduate and graduate students for alleged participation in protests that took place in 2024—ten to fourteen months ago—targeting higher-profile students, including those who recently defeated criminal charges pursued by MI AG Dana Nessel. The Regents failed in their attempt to weaponize the criminal-legal system to suppress the popular movement to divest from israel, and are now using the university's Office of Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) to threaten individual students' futures and destroy campus free speech.
The Regents are transforming OSCR from a unit dedicated to restorative justice into a tool for authoritarian repression. Vice President of Student Life Martino Harmon has twice overruled "not-guilty" verdicts to sanction students over the past year, resulting in a 100% "conviction rate" for student protestors. Last summer, the Regents broke their own rules for amending the student code of conduct, to make it so that guilty verdicts can now be imposed directly. They recently hired disgraced student disciplinary officer Donovan Golich, who was recorded threatening and swearing at accused fraternity members and acted as complainant in an attempt to revoke pro-Palestine students' degrees in 2024, to act as their "enforcer."
The Regents have effectively ended due process, allowing them to sanction any student who stands against them. This is why we must turn to you, our community, to empower those undergoing the repression from UM administration. You can directly support by donating to the community legal fund, which will be used to run the vital defense campaign against these charges. You can also support by using the email zap below to tell the Regents, Interim President Domenico Grasso, and OSCR Director Erik Wessel to drop these politicized charges, cease and desist their vindictive crusade against the anti-genocide movement, and respect students' political speech. Lastly, follow us on social media, and we will provide updates on events for us to talk together and strategize further.
Send a Tweet to call out the complainant Donovan Golich and director Erik Wessel on their constant abuse of power to punish students through the Office of Student Conflict Resolution!