Protesters Topple Chairs, Shut Down U-M Regents Meeting

Administrators at the University of Michigan administrators and members of its Board of Regents fled under cover of campus security Thursday after activists with the By Any Means Necessary group shut down a Regents meeting with demands that the university increase its minority enrollment.

The Michigan Daily student newspaper said about two dozen protesters jumped from their seats about 10 minutes after the meeting began and pushed past ropes separating regents and university executives from spectators inside the Michigan Union’s Anderson Room.

They chanted “open it up or we’ll shut it down” and “we don’t need another committee; open it up to Detroit city,” the Detroit Free Press reports. A brief shoving match ensued, chairs were toppled and tables were pushed back.

“When the activists broke through barriers, I thought my personal space was being invaded,” U-M Regent Denise Ilitch, a Democrat, told the Free Press. “It was a new experience for me to feel physically threatened.”

BAMN, a national group advocating for affirmative action and immigration rights, wants a pledge from the university to increase its minority enrollment through what is known as the “10 percent plan,” which would guarantee admission to any of the state’s public institutions for the top 10 percent of every in-state graduating class.

The demands are modeled after the pioneering Texas Ten Percent Plan, established in 1997 after a federal appeals court ruled an admissions system based on affirmative action was unconstitutional.

U-M officials face similar obstacles after being dealt a major blow this spring when a divided U.S. Supreme Court upheld Michigan’s ban on affirmative action in admissions. Without affirmative action, then President Mary Sue Coleman said, the university can’t achieve a fully diverse student body. In 2006, 58 percent of Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution making it illegal for the state to consider race in college admissions and hiring.

BAMN also wants the university to double enrollment of underrepresented minority students, place on-site admissions enrollment counselor in Detroit high schools and create a special scholarship fund for undocumented students.

“This university is not just for rich, white students,” Leroy Lewis, 20, of Detroit, said in one of several speeches made after the Regents fled the room. Lewis plans to transfer to the university from Wayne State University next fall.

Related:

• Supreme Court Upholds University of Michigan Ban on Affirmative Action

Just 4.4 percent of U-M’s student body is black, according to fall 2014 enrollment statistics, but U.S. Census Bureau statistics show 14.3 percent of the Michigan’s residents identify themselves as African-Americans.

After the meeting, Regent Andrea Fisher Newman told the Free Press that she understands activists’ message, but thought “it could have been delivered in a better manner.”

The protest didn’t stop the meeting. Rather, Regents reconvened in a locked room in a nearby administration building. Police officers were stationed at each entrance to the building, a precaution U-M President Mark Schlissel said was an appropriate response to public safety concerns.

He declined to comment on whether it violated provisions of Michigan’s Open Meetings Act, the Free Press said.

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Photo: David Jesse @reporterdavidj via Twitter

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