University breaks pro-Palestinian student leaders ‘ “blockade,” reinstating resources to 60+ groups through an “alternative cause.”
After the student federal blocked funds to require withdrawal from Israel-linked companies, the University of Michigan restored money for school groups through an “alternative cause.”
The College Fix received a statement from associate vice president for common interests, Colleen Mastony, saying” Funding for listed student organizations remains available for fall term.
According to Mastony, the college established a momentary process to allow teams to apply for assistance until the Central Student Government passes its resources.
More than 60 student companies have contacted the college about funding so far this word, and she explained that they will continue to do so until the Central Student Government approves its resources.
The CSG’s website still states that” student organization funding is suspended”. It directs students to a form where they can” sign up to address the Assembly and President about the matter”
” However, similar funding to what has historically been offered is available through an alternative source”, the website states. Additionally, it directs students to a page where they can submit an application for funding.
The College Fix reached out to student groups at UM, including Turning Point USA, College Republicans, and Young America’s Foundation. In the past two weeks, none of the email addresses that had been contacted for comment on how the student government’s actions have affected them.
The UM CSG was also contacted by The College Fix via email to inquire about the justification for suspending funding for student organizations. The CSG directed The Fix back to the school’s public affairs office.
Yaakov Menken, the director of Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Fix in an email statement that UM “made the right decision”.
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” It also reacted correctly when the chapter of ‘ Jewish Voice for Peace,’ which is neither Jewish nor pro-peace, called for ‘ death to Israel,'” Menken stated.
” The University President condemned the statement, noted that the group has not been recognized or funded for years, and had its name removed from the list of student organizations”, he stated.
Menken further stated that The Fix students are no longer “protesting for actual human rights or fighting actual genocides” because they are” too busy” in favor of genocide against Jews.
” In earlier decades students protested genocide in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Darfur, and they had an impact. Yet the state of global human rights has been on a steady downward trajectory for nearly two decades, during which Uygher Muslims, Syrian Muslims, Yazhidis, and Sahrawis have gotten next to no attention on campus”, he stated.
He also stated that “antisemitism” was originally a German euphemism used to give age-old bigotry an “academic veneer”. Now “anti-Israel” is another way of doing the same thing—demonizing Jews” simply for adhering to Jewish values”.
As previously reported by The Fix, the newly appointed student government president at the University of Michigan blocked funding for campus organizations this summer in protest of Israel.  ,
The student leaders were elected in the spring as part of the pro-Palestinian” Shut It Down” movement, which aims to demand the school’s divestment.
Students and staff objected to the administration’s use of veto power to block student group funds, prompting administrators to look into alternative funding options.
Some faculty members also urged the school to “divest from its financial holdings in companies that invest in Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza” earlier this year.
In response to three recent, allegedly antisemitic attacks on campus, a group of Jewish students at UM is setting up a private security service. The “makeshift security service” will escort Jewish students on the Ann Arbor campus, The Fix reported.
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