ANN ARBOR (WWJ) - University of Michigan administrators have issued a stern warning against any future disruptions to commencement ceremonies or any other activities after a group of activists interrupted an honors convocation over the weekend.
The university was honoring roughly 1,800 students registered for the 101th Honors Convocation at Hill Auditorium on Sunday March 24, but when President Santa Ono went to speak, protestors lobbying the university to divest funds from Israel crashed the event.
Now, university officials are taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Tarana Sharma, a 20-year-old junior who is the social media co-director for Students Allied for Freedom and Equality -- a Palestinian solidarity group told -- The Detroit News that they interrupted the ceremony to call attention "to the ongoing genocide in Gaza and our university's direct relationship to Israel."
"Our Board of Regents has funneled $6 billion from our endowment to Israel and has paid for the murder of over 32,000 Palestinians. They have shown zero accountability. In fact, they continue to target Palestinian students and make examples out of them for simply voicing feelings of frustration, hopelessness, fear, instead of protecting pro-Palestinian students," Sharma said.
The weekend's interruption is the the first university event protestors took over after activists demonstrated on the Diag out in front of Michigan's administration building last year.
UM spokeswoman Colleen Mastony told the Detroit News in an email that the university has in place a nearly-20-year-old policy "that shields the university's investment from political pressures."
"Much of the money invested through the university’s endowment, for example, is donor funding given to provide long-term financial support for designated purposes," Mastony wrote. "This policy was reaffirmed by the Board of Regents in 2017 and there has been no change in this position."
She went on to say while the university has long stood in support of student activism, it did adopt a new statement regarding free speech and free expression -- and interrupting school events and speeches are not protected.
"Although we support students’ right to protest, such rights are not limitless," Mastony warned. "Disrupting speakers and events is not protected speech and is a clear violation of university policy."
Mastony said Sunday's intrusion was made towards the end of the Honors Convocation, after all the student awards had been handed out, but it nonetheless put the ceremony to a grinding halt.
"These protesters intruded upon a joyous moment and prevented students and families from completing the celebration of hard-won achievements," Mastony said. "We are reviewing what happened on Sunday and will adjust our plans, as needed, in preparation for future events."
With UM's May 3 commencement ceremony quickly closing in, protestors did not say whether they have plans to disrupt any other campus event. The activist group did say, however, that it will protest at the Board of Regents meeting scheduled for Thursday morning.