hostages that are still there. It’s 
a very difficult environment to 
be in right now.
” 
Sari Rosenberg, a U-M 
junior and chair of U-M Hillel’s 
Undergraduate Governing 
Board, says the first week or 
two after Oct. 7 were very 
tense. Many Jewish students 
skipped classes because they 
were so upset and horrified by 
everything happening that it 
felt unproductive to be there. 
In October, the University 
of Michigan’s Central Student 
Government (CSG) was asked 
to consider a BDS-like petition 
created by the Palestinian stu-
dent organization on campus. 
Resolution 13-025, titled 
“University Accountability in 
the Face of Genocide,
” among 
its other calls to action, asked 
the university to “recognize the 
millions of people undergoing 
genocide in Gaza as we speak” 
and to “acknowledge that 75+ 
years of Palestinian-Israeli 
tensions have been created 
through systems of settler colo-
nialism.
” 
With the assistance of Hillel 
and other Jewish organizations, 

Jewish students on campus cre-
ated their own resolution. 
Resolution 13-026, titled 
“CSG Response to Atrocities 
in the Middle East,
” among its 
other calls to action, request-
ed that the university and its 
regents “continue to lend sup-
port to all students impacted 
by ongoing violence in Israel 
and Gaza and throughout the 
region” and called upon the 
university to “share broadly 
their short-term and long-term 
plans to keep all students safe 
in their homes, in their classes, 
and on the broader campus.
”
Multiple meetings were held 
with CSG. One of them lasted 
over five hours during which 
about 50 students were able 
to speak from both sides and 
share their experiences. 
It was eventually decided 
that, following Thanksgiving 
break, the competing resolu-
tions would be voted on by the 
entirety of the student popu-
lation on the CSG midterm 
ballot. 
After two days of voting 
had already taken place, the 
University of Michigan can-

celed the election process for 
the two ballot initiatives after 
finding that an email violated 
the University’s Responsible 
Use of Information Resources 
policy. 
This happened after a coa-
lition of more than 60 student 
organizations filled out a form 
to request the university email 
system to send a message 
to U-M Ann Arbor’s entire 
undergraduate student body 
— urging them to vote yes on 
resolution 13-025 and vote no 
on 13-026. 
In a follow-up communica-
tion to the U-M student body, 
Timothy Lynch, U-M vice 
president and general counsel, 
referred to the email as “unau-
thorized” and said it “irrepara-
bly tainted the voting process 
on the two resolutions.
” 
“We do not know and never 
will know the voting results 
on these two resolutions. But, 
under the circumstances, the 
university has been left with 
no alternative but to cancel the 
portion of the election process 
for these two resolutions,
” 
Lynch said. 

While Rosenberg says Jewish 
students are happy the vote was 
canceled, they believed from 
the beginning it shouldn’t have 
been happening in the first 
place. 
“There’s a lot of hateful 
rhetoric still going around,
” 
Rosenberg said. “
And a lot of 
frustration. Feelings are just 
very high all around.
” 
On the afternoon of Nov. 
17, hundreds of protesters 
demanding the University of 
Michigan stop investing in 
companies that fund military 
operations in Israel forcefully 
gained access to the locked uni-
versity administration building 
where U-M President Santa 
Ono’s office is located. 
With chants saying Ono sup-
ports genocide, while also hav-
ing banners and signs that read 
“
Anti-Zionism does not equal 
Anti-Semitism,
” a small group 
of student protestors remained 
in the building demanding to 

DECEMBER 14 • 2023 | 15

continued on page 16

LEFT: Pro-Hamas flyers on 
U-M campus shows children 
allegedly “murdered by Israel.” 
RIGHT: A display on U-M’s 
campus put on by the Israeli 
community of Ann Arbor.