July 28, 2025
The University of Michigan Ann Arbor Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (UM-AA AAUP) is dismayed to learn that the University is bringing new charges against 11 student protesters, including undergraduate and graduate students, through the Office of Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR) on the Ann Arbor campus.
Since November 2023, our AAUP chapter has objected when the University retaliated against student protestors with punishment and policing; made unilateral revisions to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities (SSRR), which diminished or eliminated protections for those facing charges through OSCR; circulated hastily drafted policies to thwart protest on campus; weakened and undermined commitments to academic freedom; and fired workers for exercising their first amendment rights. We are deeply concerned that the University has gone even further to suppress pro-Palestine activism, installing an extensive surveillance camera network and hiring private security to aggressively monitor students and staff. These actions affect all members of the University community by chilling speech and civic discourse and by placing people at risk for racial profiling and other harms. Together, these actions raise important questions about the University’s commitment to due process principles.
In bringing these disciplinary charges with significant delay and using a substantively compromised process (one that retroactively applies unilaterally-imposed and off-cycle revisions to the SSRR), the University gives the appearance not only of targeting protests against the genocide in Gaza but also of weaponizing the complaint process so as to silence any future pro-Palestine activism on campus. Moreover, such actions will likely further chill expressions of dissent, regardless of the subject matter. If the University does not require complainants to have suffered harm (i.e., they need not have legal standing) and ignores statutes of limitations, then there can be no meaningful free speech on campus.
We call on the University to withdraw these disciplinary charges that target students involved in pro-Palestine activism. We urge the University to recommit to democratic principles by restoring due process protections in student disciplinary proceedings.
University of Michigan AAUP 