April 24, 2025
Consistent with the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) commitment to due process and free expression in higher education the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Chapter of the AAUP(UM-Ann Arbor AAUP) expresses its support for recently suspended and terminated University of Michigan workers and condemns the University’s crackdown on the freedom of speech and the right to protest, particularly at a time when education itself is under threat by the federal government.
The suspension of these workers is a fundamental violation of their freedom of speech and the right to protest. On Monday, April 7, 2025, a full-time U-M employee and University Staff United (USU) AFT Local 284 member, along with four part-time student workers, was suspended from their positions for an alleged violation of the University’s Standard Practice Guide (SPG). Without evidence, the University charged all five workers with violating SPG 601.18 pertaining to “Violence in the University Community.” The alleged violation of the SPG provision supposedly occurred during a Palestine solidarity protest on May 3, 2024, which is to say before the full-time employee was hired and while they were a student. On Friday, April 11, the full-time employee was terminated from their position as an Academic Program Specialist for the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) at the International Institute (II). The employee who was fired was neither detained, charged, nor had any criminal proceedings brought against them. There is no evidence that any of these workers participated in acts of violence or incited violence at the May 2024 protest. A police report of the incident documents that the full-time employee complied with police officers when asked to put down a megaphone.
While there is no evidence of violence on the part of these five workers, there is ample evidence of violence on the part of law enforcement officers, including the use of pepper spray and throwing a bicycle at protestors. As Judith Butler points out in The Force of Non-Violence (2020), “the power to attribute violence to the opposition itself becomes an instrument by which to enhance state power.” We reject the cynical and selective deployment of the concept of violence to politically target workers exercising their freedom of speech and right to protest.
We condemn the University for suspending and terminating these five employees for the reasons stated above, and we call on the University to reinstate them immediately. We also call on the University to respect the rights of all workers to due process, their freedom of speech, and their right to protest.
University of Michigan AAUP 