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The University of Michigan Faculty Senate voted last week to censure the Board of Regents for its response to pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the spring and its adoption of an institutional neutrality policy without faculty involvement.
“The Faculty Senate demands, 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,” part of a censure motion reads.
Faculty accused regents of fostering “a climate of repression at the university, by authorizing police violence against students”; using “chemical irritants” against students and employees; and engaging in “surveillance and intimidation of students on and off campus,” among other actions they view as “authoritarian tendencies antithetical to a public university in a democratic nation.”
The censure passed by a vote of 1,487 to 559 with 255 abstentions, according to the University Record, part of the Office of the Vice President for Communications.
The professoriate also asked regents to walk back student conduct code changes approved in July.
Faculty allege those changes “occurred without consultation with [Central Student Government] or Faculty Senate Leadership” and expand avenues to take action against students while limiting their time to respond to sanctions, according to a Faculty Senate motion. The body has asked the board to pause implementation of the changes and involve students and faculty.
