There has been a flurry of activity at the University of Michigan in recent days. The faculty has overwhelmingly voted to condemn the school's board of regents, on behalf of the pro-Hamas mob, while the student government has impeached some of its own leadership, in a rebuke to the pro-Hamas mob. Forbes describes the alleged adults' decision to condemn their university for enforcing the law, framing it as a 'free speech' issue. "For the first time in history, the faculty at the University of Michigan have voted to censure UM’s Board of Regents, citing multiple concerns with shared governance and failures to consult with faculty," the story says. Some additional details:
The censure motion passed by an overwhelming margin, with 1,387 members voting yes, 559 voting no, and 225 abstaining. It cited several complaints including the allegation that the “Regents have little inclination to engage in shared governance and are increasingly exhibiting authoritarian tendencies antithetical to a public university in a democratic nation.” ... The censure motion also objected to the regents’ authorization of “police violence against students; the use of chemical irritants against students, faculty, and staff at protests; hiring private security which have maintained a presence on campus since the spring; increased surveillance and intimidation of students on and off campus; enlisting Student Life staff in the policing of students; and disciplinary action, campus bans, employment bans, and formal criminal charges to repress student activism and political speech on campus.” ... In addition to calling for the censure of the regents, the motion demanded, “in the name of the values on which the United States and its public universities were founded, that the Regents cease the use of surveillance, policing, physical violence, and legal power as mechanisms to silence speech.”
Breaking: 70% of the faculty at the University of Michigan passed a resolution censuring the Board of Regents.
— Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) November 9, 2024
The faculty passed the motion in response to the Board of Regents shutting down the encampment. Our universities have to be gutted out. The faculty are radicals. pic.twitter.com/HjSp74MWKz
This is, at least in part, an anti-law enforcement resolution, which also has no binding authority: "Faculty motions of censure, like votes of no-confidence, are symbolic measures...they carry no legal authority." The conniption fit from the faculty also comes on the heels of this sensible move by the university's governing board:
Now: University of Michigan's Board of Regents unanimously adopt institutional neutrality, vowing not to make political statements. "It's not up to chairs, deans, or administrators to make those arguments on behalf of the university; it's up to individuals to engage in robust… https://t.co/GeJSiGTAkS
— Alex Morey (@1AMorey) October 17, 2024
Faculty members are furious that the school empowered police to clear out pro-terrorism encampment (this is different from 'free speech'), and it seems they're not happy that the university will remain insitutionally neutral on controversial issues. Meanwhile, UM students seems to be forging a rather different path, having grown sick of extremists bullying people:
BREAKING: The University of Michigan student government has impeached its anti-Israel president and vice-president for:
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 13, 2024
-incitement to violence;
-cyber theft; and,
-dereliction of duty.
The students are taking their government back.
🧵 pic.twitter.com/Km9mijMtDv
This was the reaction after that vote:@thestustustudio pic.twitter.com/Mj0S6Ib7Dz
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 13, 2024
The radical student body president and vice president have now been overwhelmingly impeached from office, on multiple counts, and have been given the boot:
The executives (who call themselves “Shut It Down”) had earlier released a statement refusing to resign, saying “We occupy CSG not to maintain the system, but to dismantle it in pursuit of global liberation.”
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) November 13, 2024
Now it seems they’re being shut down, and their occupation will end. pic.twitter.com/izkYpuzeTu
At many universities around the country, it too often feels as if the inmates are running the asylum. At Michigan, it appears as though the faculty are the inmates, while their much younger students are more sensible.
