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#universityofmichigan

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#UniversityOfMichigan ends undercover #surveillance contracts after Guardian revelations
Outcry after report that private investigators had been trailing and recording pro-Palestinian protesters for months
The Guardian’s reporting found dozens of investigators were following #student #protesters on and off campus, and in some instances were confrontational, cursed at students, threatened them, and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way.
theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j

The Guardian · University of Michigan ends undercover surveillance contracts after Guardian revelationsBy Tom Perkins

A College President Tried to Make the Move to a Republican State, and Failed

[a contemptible opportunist loses out]

from #NewYorkTimes #NYT
[gift article - link can be shared. Expires in 30 days.]

By Vimal Patel
June 4, 2025

"A board overseeing #Florida’s public universities unexpectedly rejected his bid to lead the 60,000-student Gainesville campus. The officials expressed concerns about his leadership at the #UniversityOfMichigan, where he was president, criticizing its sprawling diversity, equity and inclusion program and what they characterized as its failures to curb #antisemitism."

"Dr. Ono’s effort to leap from #Michigan to the red-state higher #education politics of Florida, known for trying to stamp out “woke ideology,” ended with him out of a job and the $1.5 million base salary it came with."

nytimes.com/2025/06/04/us/sant

Santa Ono’s bid to become the next president of the University of Florida ended with him out of a job and the $1.5 million base salary it came with.
The New York Times · Santa Ono’s Bid for U. of Florida President Shows Politicization of Higher EducationBy Vimal Patel
#news#press#DEI

This is fucking weird gestapo bullshit.

-The undercover investigators appear to work for Detroit-based City Shield, a private security group, and some of their evidence was used by Michigan prosecutors to charge and jail students, according to a Guardian review of police records, university spending records and video collected in legal discovery. Most charges were later dropped. Public spending records from the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, show the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield’s parent company, Ameri-Shield.-

-The students who spoke to the Guardian tracked dozens of investigators who have followed them around campus and Ann Arbor, often working in teams, and in some cases sitting at nearby tables at cafes and bars, eavesdropping on conversations. Their allegations were supported by videos reviewed by the Guardian – some taken by students of the people following them, along with police body camera footage – or corroborated by multiple students who were being surveilled.-

-Walker was twice charged by Nessel for misdemeanor trespassing in 2024. During the legal discovery process, Walker obtained U-M police bodycam footage – which he shared with the Guardian – that showed an officer looking at a phone and what appears to be a group chat with undercover investigators titled “U-M intel”. It includes a text that shows video of Walker in a campus area where police claim Walker wasn’t permitted to be.-

-The charges against Walker were later dropped.

Walker said the surveillance is an “extraordinarily dangerous situation” since the investigators have been caught lying, are using questionable tactics, and are collecting information prosecutors are using to charge students.-

#Fascism #DanaNessel #Michigan #FreePalestine #Gestapo #UniversityOfMichigan

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/j

The Guardian · University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protestersBy Tom Perkins

#Michigan AG Drops Charges Against Pro-Palestinian Campus Protesters

"Our First Amendment rights should never be criminalized. Speaking up against genocide should be lifted up, not slammed with felony charges. #Palestinians deserve safety and dignity," said Rep. #RashidaTlaib.

from #CommonDreams
Jessica Corbett
May 05, 2025

Jessica Corbett
May 05, 2025

"Advocates for student protesters and other critics of the U.S.-backed #Israeli assault on the #Gaza Strip celebrated on Monday after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped all charges against seven people arrested last year at the #UniversityOfMichigan amid allegations of bias that the #Democrat rejected. "

commondreams.org/news/universi

#DefendAcademicFreedom
#ReleaseMahmoudKhalil
#repression
#ReleaseRümeysaÖztürk
#StopTheDeportations
#DefendFreeSpeech
#ProtestIsNotACrime
#DefendStudentProtesters
#NeverStopTalkingAboutPalestine
#DefendRuleOfLaw
#USA #US #USPolitics #politics #Trump
#news #press @palestine

Common Dreams · Michigan AG Drops Charges Against Pro-Palestinian Campus Protesters | Common DreamsThe Michigan AG dropped charges against protesters at the University of Michigan who spoke out against the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip.
Continued thread

Well, this one hits closer to home than I'd like. The University of Michigan has become the latest extremely wealthy ($19.2B endowment as of June 30, 2024) US higher education institute to capitulate to Trump, and in doing so further the regime's efforts to enforce a white supremacist worldview on education in America.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

University of Michigan shutters its flagship diversity program

“The federal government is determined to dismantle and control higher education and to make our institutions more uniform, more inequitable, and more exclusive,” Rebekah Modrak, the chair of the faculty senate, wrote in an email to colleagues about the decision, according to the Detroit Free Press. “They are using the power of the government to engineer a sweeping culture change towards white supremacy. Unfortunately, University of Michigan leaders seem determined to comply and to collaborate in our own destruction.”

As someone intimately familiar with how UM operates, the administrator's decision to surrender completely in the face of Trump's threats to cut all federal funding is hardly surprising; although it is extremely disappointing. Michigan is in many ways the perfect model of the neoliberal (capitalist) university; it receives over a billion dollars a year in federal research funding, and the school had already cut back on its diversity initiatives in admissions and hiring in response to a 6-3 fascist high SCOTUS striking down Affirmative Action. As in the case with Columbia, I am fairly certain the school's wealthy alumni base, access to some of the finest lawyers in America, and massive endowment would have allowed it to fight Trump's extortion in court; and that decision would be largely supported by students, faculty, and even the (Democrat controlled) state government. Despite this, a conflict-adverse administration that has transformed UM into a money printing machine over the past couple of decades in particular, was never going to risk perhaps billions of dollars in funding; even if it means capitulating to fascism. While some may be inclined to forgive Michigan's leadership for their cowardice given those stakes, I will once again remind folks that if you don't stand for opposing extortion, fascism, and white supremacy, why should anyone believe you stand for anything at all?

Worse still, is that Michigan's rational for groveling before Trump's white nationalist agenda tries to have it both ways, while (not so) subtly reinforcing white supremacist propaganda and world views. The university touts the groundbreaking success of its expansive DEI programs; while simultaneously pretending they're unconcerned with ending these programs because racism is over or something, I guess. The administration also points to the myriad of fascist executive orders and threats issued by the Trump regime, but then offers up the excuse that "some in our campus community have voiced frustration that they did not feel included in DEI initiatives and that the programming fell short in fostering connections among diverse groups" - as if Trump's orders and Michigan's actions have anything at all to do with "fostering connections among diverse groups" or helping people the DEI initiative wasn't helping enough. Finally the UM administration promises to continue to foster "multiculturalism" and states it remains "steadfast in our dedication to academic freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression" - as if Trump can't threaten Michigan's funding again to cancel programs that foster "multiculturalism" (another word fascists use instead of slurs), or terms like "academic freedom" mean anything in light of the Faustian (non) bargain the University has struck here.

The sad truth here is that out of nothing more than greed and cowardice, the University of Michigan has given Downmarket Mussolini and his white nationalist agenda a victory that will ring across the nation. The UM DEI program was expanded in part to counteract the rise of white nationalist politics during the first Trump presidency, it was a highly successful endeavor that was considered a model for other schools to copy nationally, and Michigan's commitment to diversity programs was genuine. If a northern liberal school with more money than god and every reason to fight back, won't take on the Trump regime's fascist agenda, who else is going to have the courage to do so?

The Guardian · University of Michigan shutters its flagship diversity programBy Adria R Walker

Condemning Dana Nessel’s Hypocrisy

"Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel, a self-styled progressive who has attempted to build a reputation opposing Donald Trump’s authoritarianism, now exposes her own hypocrisy by weaponizing the legal system to suppress pro-Palestine protesters.

...

Where was this zeal for “accountability” when white supremacists plotted to kidnap Michigan’s governor? Where is her outrage over “israel’s” US-funded genocide in Gaza, which has slaughtered over 40,000 Palestinians? Her selective application of justice exposes a dangerous truth: For Nessel, opposing Trump is a political brand, not a commitment to dismantling oppression."

unsalted.noblogs.org/post/2025

University of Michigan: Mcity unveils digital twin, making its physical AV testing facility available for free in the virtual world. “The first open-source digital twin of the Mcity Test Facility—the University of Michigan’s test center for connected and autonomous vehicles and technologies—is now available to the public, giving researchers around the world a new free tool. A digital […]

https://rbfirehose.com/2024/12/17/university-of-michigan-mcity-unveils-digital-twin-making-its-physical-av-testing-facility-available-for-free-in-the-virtual-world/

WTH?

The University of Michigan doesn't know what the environmental impact is, but they gave an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to every student, faculty, and staff member at the university.

Hey, my alma mater, how about you educate students, faculty, and staff about the environmental impacts and costs of AI?

bridgemi.com/michigan-environm

www.bridgemi.comU-M gives AI assistant to every student. Environmental worries follow | Bridge MichiganIn September, the school gave personal AI assistants to the more than 50,000 students at the University of Michigan.

University of Michigan is a Cop: AG Nessel Collaborates With UM on New Charges Against 11 Divestment Activists

"On Thursday, September 12, 2024, Michigan Top Cop (Attorney General) Dana Nessel announced that she would bring charges against 11 individuals who have been part of the larger movement to force the University of Michigan to stop supporting the genocide in Palestine and divest from Israeli companies and businesses. ... The warrants and press release have a few instructive lessons for folks in Michigan (and possibly outside Michigan), for students and non-students alike: ..."

unsalted.noblogs.org/post/2024

unsalted.noblogs.orgUniversity of Michigan is a Cop: AG Nessel Collaborates With UM on New Charges Against 11 Divestment Activists – Unsalted Counter Info

From the outside it looks like one of the area's most successful businesses, representing an enormously successful sports program at an enormously wealthy university in one of the richest, most educated cities in the world. And yet... #AnnArbor #Michigan #MDen #UMich #UniversityOfMichigan #UMSports #MGoBlue freep.com/story/money/business

Detroit Free Press · Claims of unpaid bills piling up for The M DenBy , Detroit Free Press

University of Michigan Students Launch Palestine-Solidarity Encampment

"The TAHRIR Coalition has launched a Palestine-solidarity encampment on the Diag on the UM campus in Ann Arbor! Police repression is expected, and we are our defense. Join us on the Diag today!

...

Follow our Telegram: t.me/s/TAHRIREncampment "

unsalted.noblogs.org/post/2024

TelegramTAHRIR Encampment Announcements

1) So the obligatory introduction. Life long Midwesterner with deep familial roots in Chicago. I enjoy #woodworking with #pallets, #chicago sports, #universityofmichigan fan boy (more than sports), self-professed #music snob, and all around people person (enfp). I also spent a good portion of my adult life (and money) studying ancient Near Eastern ( #ane) history. LGBTQ+ friendly he/him. I'm unfortunately a small cog in the Banking Machine™ and I apologize profusely.