Why Divest?

Paul "Bing" Brown: Venture capitalist with a friendly face

Our third installment in our series The Regents vs. the Revolution

October 11, 2024

Regent Paul “Bing” Brown is one of the most outspoken liberals on the Board of Regents, yet he also is the most notorious for making opportunistic promises that are never fulfilled. He is the Regent with the deepest ties to the networks of venture capital and financing in the private sphere that we rebel against in our divestment campaign. Brown deploys narratives around people of color (especially Black students), low-income students, ethics, and his union membership, in order to win political points. He never makes good on promises to actually benefit students and opposes campaigns for human rights when it...

Denise Ilitch: Dynasty of Dispossession

Our second installment in our new series The Regents vs. the Revolution

September 26, 2024

Denise Ilitch, like most of the Regents, comes from money — but Ilitch’s family has a specific and long-running history of dispossession and false promises made to Detroit. Their fortune is primarily managed through Ilitch Holdings, a corporation managing many different entities including: Little Caesars Pizza, the Ilitch family’s largest business The National Hockey League (NHL) Detroit Red Wings The Major League Baseball (MLB) Detroit Tigers Olympia Entertainment Olympia Development Olympia Parking Blue Line Foodservice Distribution Champion Foods 313 Presents the Little Caesars Pizza Kit Fundraising Program Hockeytown Cafe, and a variety of venues within these entities. Ilitch Holdings subsidiaries...

Introduction: Who are the Regents?

Our first installment in our new series The Regents vs. the Revolution

September 8, 2024

The Board of Regents is the University of Michigan’s highest governing body. The Regents, by controlling many major University decisions including the governance of UM’s $20 billion endowment, are the primary targets of the TAHRIR Coalition’s against U-M's material complicity. The TAHRIR Coalition combats systems of oppression, chief among which has been the investments into israel’s apartheid regime and campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza; the Regents decide whether our claims are legitimate and have refused to answer for their crimes. To put it simply, the Regents stand between activist demands and divestment. Why is this the...

The University Endowment and the Genocide in Gaza

February 15, 2024

Members of our coalition have uncovered deep connections between U-M’s endowment and Israel and the military-industrial complex more broadly. Read our report detailing dozens of these connections, each of which trace hundreds of millions of dollars to weapons manufacturers and surveillance tech, below.