Pro-Palestinian protesters interrupted the inauguration of University of Minnesota President Rebecca Cunningham on Wednesday, while another group held a walkout and rally outside Northrop Auditorium that attracted about 200 people.
The UMN Divest coalition was protesting the Board of Regents’ decision this summer to take a “position of neutrality” on the university’s endowment. Divestment from Israeli companies and U.S. defense contractors involved in the war in Gaza, which has killed 40,000 Palestinians, was a key demand of student protesters in the spring. Students also object to university guidelines limiting protest activity.
Students began walking out of class and marching toward the auditorium shortly before the 3 p.m. inauguration.
Maryam Wazwaz, a member of American Muslims for Palestine, said Cunningham had not reached out to Palestinian students at the university who had lost family members. And she was frustrated that the university is still investing in companies “profiting from war crimes.”
“She has been ignoring university faculty, staff and students in just the first few months of her presidency,” Wazwaz said, of Cunningham.
Inside Northrop, university officials and local political leaders, including Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, celebrated Cunningham’s ability to lead the university.
Mary Sue Coleman, president emerita of the University of Michigan, highlighted Cunningham’s background as an emergency room physician, noting that she learned to make decisions quickly while consulting with other professionals. “Rebecca has never hesitated to tackle the toughest issues facing our society,” she said. “She always approaches these issues with a strong moral compass.”
As Cunningham introduced herself, explaining how her mother’s years attending night school to obtain a college education lifted her family out of poverty, some students and professors in the auditorium interrupted her remarks.
“You are all complicit with the Israeli genocide in Gaza!” student protesters shouted. Protesters recited a list of demands, including divesting from weapons manufacturers.
About a dozen professors, chanting along with the students and wearing T-shirts that said “Respect the no-confidence vote,” walked out after a second warning. After the third warning, chanting died down as students left the balcony.
Cunningham resumed her remarks to loud cheers, pledging her commitment to providing “an affordable, world-class education.”
Cunningham assumed the presidency on July 1, replacing Interim President Jeff Ettinger. In his final months as president, Ettinger negotiated a peaceful end to a 10-day student encampment, allowing protesters to present their demands for divestment from Israel to the Board of Regents.
Ettinger also reversed a decision to hire the Israeli historian Raz Segal, who described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocide,” as director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, following pushback from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. After Ettinger withdrew the offer to Segal, the Faculty Senate held a no-confidence vote in both Ettinger and Provost Rachel Croson.
In an August meeting, the Board of Regents voted not to divest from Israel. During that same meeting, Cunningham outlined the approach the university would take to civic engagement this school year. She said that this did not represent new policy, but rather a clarification of existing policy.
Among the tenets of the policy: no more than 100 people can gather in a protest without a permit; each protest can only have one megaphone; signs and posters must fit certain size limits; tents will be prohibited; and protests must conclude by 10 p.m.
Following the inauguration, the university held a celebration outside, as students staged a parallel protest. When Cunningham stopped by a performance of the Red Tree Singers Drum Group, protesters chanted “Cunningham you can’t hide, you are supporting genocide.”
“A lot of people think we have nothing to do with a conflict across the globe, but at the university we have billions of dollars involved,” said Kyle Feldhake, a master’s student, who is originally from Alexandria. He was inside Northrop Auditorium disrupting the ceremony. “Now it is about our right to protest,” he added.
University officials gave warnings to students protesting both inside and outside the inauguration about consequences that would follow if they did not comply with university policy regarding civic engagement. Those potential consequences include suspension.
Jake Ricker, the university’s senior director of public relations, said he wasn’t aware of anyone receiving a formal suspension notice or other discipline.
But Sima Shakhsari, an associate professor of women’s and gender studies, said they came across a group of five students who had been detained for suspension after interrupting the inauguration. Two of the five wore hijabs, Shakhsari said. After Shakhsari questioned why this group had been detained while other students who protested in the same way were not, and asked the university official to call their supervisor, the students were released.
Fae Hodges, student organizer with the UMN Divest Coalition and member of Students for a Democratic Society, said the goal of the action on Wednesday was to relaunch the campaign for divestment and Palestinian rights after protests dwindled during the summer.
“This is a really important time as a new administration comes in to make student voices heard,” Hodges said.
It was the fifth protest the coalition has held since the semester began.
Corrections: This story has been updated to clarify that the Red Tree Singers were performing as part of the university’s inaugural events. University of Minnesota faculty member Sima Shakhsari’s title has also been updated.
