At the Michigan Democratic Convention in Lansing, one contested election took center stage — the race to fill two seats on the University of Michigan Board of Regents.
Incumbent University Regent Denise Ilitch and former University Regent Shanna Ryder Diggs were officially nominated at the Michigan Democratic Convention, though pro-Palestine activist Huwaida Arraf won the popular vote.
Three days before the deadline to nominate a candidate, a group of University of Michigan students asked Arraf to run for a seat on the Board. In an interview with The Michigan Daily, U-M alum Salma Hamamy, who served as the president of U-M student organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality last year, said the campaign came together quickly, similar to other previous SAFE initiatives.
“We figured if we can put together an encampment in three days, we can start a campaign in three days,” Hamamy said. “So that’s what we did today.”
Arraf’s campaign comes after months of student protests demanding that the University divest from companies profiting off Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
The University’s Board of Regents has said they will not divest from these companies, citing their policy to shield the endowment from political pressures. The University has previously divested from South African companies during apartheid and Russian companies following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In May, the U-M administration removed the Gaza solidarity encampment, which was set up on the Diag for a month. In an email to the campus community, University President Santa Ono said this decision was partially in response to a protest at University Regent Sarah Hubbard’s residence and a graffiti incident at University Regent Jordan Acker’s law office.
Arraf co-founded the pro-Palestine organizations International Solidarity Movement and Free Gaza Movement and is currently a civil rights attorney for U-M students who are facing disciplinary action in response to the Nov. 17 sit-in at the Alexander G. Ruthven Building, where 40 students were arrested.
Hamamy said she believed nominating Arraf would help advance the divestment movement.
“We have exhausted all options to advocate for the divestment movement,” Hamamy said. “Not only have we tried to articulate our demands through the democratic processes within the University sphere, which have been canceled and shut down, through the faculty level, through the staff level, through the alumni level, through grassroots action, through organizing. This is now the next step that we need to take.”
As the National Anthem played at the convention, Pro-Palestine protesters demanded divestment from Acker, who was in attendance. In an interview with The Daily, Acker said he feels the role of a regent has become overshadowed by the issue of divestment. Acker said the regents work on other important initiatives, such as the Go Blue Guarantee and policy to reduce barriers to unionization for University workers.
“Those are the important things we work on on a day-to-day basis,” Acker said. “We don’t have the conversation about Israel. … We elect leaders in Congress to do stuff like that. Our job is to make sure we have the best campus we (can) possibly have. I’m pretty confident that our board is among the highest functioning of any university in the country, and that’s because of the people that we put forward here, and we’ll continue to put forward, I hope.”
Arraf told The Daily that student voices are at the forefront of her campaign, which focused on ethical investment and protecting students’ rights.
“We have to protect students’ civil liberties, and students have to feel safe, and they don’t, and they don’t feel heard, and so I said I would run, and it has been a wonderful experience,” Arraf said. “(Student activists) didn’t feel like they had a home in any kind of political party, but in the past three weeks, I’ve seen them mobilize and do more for (our) campaign than other campaigns can do in three or six months. And that is the kind of energy that I think the Democratic Party needs to … attract.”
After being nominated, Arraf needed 349 in-person signatures to be included on the ballot. Between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., Arraf’s supporters filed into the convention wearing maize T-shirts in support of Arraf, chanting “Huwaida” and holding signs reading “Huwaida Arraf for Regent.” Arraf received more than double the number of signatures needed.
U-M Dearborn junior Ahmed Hussein drove to Lansing from Wayne County to vote for Arraf.
“She’s done a bunch of great stuff, and she’s trying to help get our voices out,” Hussein said. “So that’s why I’m here. I’m trying to help promote a great candidate that I support. Just like all these people here.”
While Arraf won the popular vote, votes were weighted based on a formula that calculates Democratic turnout at the last election in order to account for voter preferences across Michigan. Under the proportional voting system, Diggs received more than 2,800 votes, Illitch received more than 2,400 and Arraf received just over 2,300. Upon the announcement, many of Arraf’s supporters began chanting “In November, we’ll remember” and “show the math.”.
Law School student Gabriel Jimenez stood among Arraf’s supporters towards the front of the room. Jimenez told The Daily he believes the election results might spur distrust in the democratic process due to a perceived lack of transparency about the vote-counting process.
“I think people are disenchanted by democracy, because there is this shield from knowing how the process is actually done,” Jimenez said. “We’re told to believe in this system of voting, but yet, we’re not given the math to know what the actual counting is. And I think we’re also concerned about trusting … that they’ve administered the voting and calculating it.”
Hamamy said the movement advocating for the University’s divestment will continue despite the results.
“Nonetheless, we showed up here and we showed our commitment and our dedication to the cause, and that’s truly the bare minimum.”
At the Michigan Republican Convention in Flint, incumbent University Regent Ron Weiser was not nominated by the Republican Party. Carl Meyers and Sevag Vartanian were nominated and will advance to the November general election.
Daily News Editor Sneha Dhandapani can be reached at sdhanda@umich.edu.
The post UMich students push for Huwaida Arraf to win Board of Regents nomination at Michigan DNC appeared first on The Michigan Daily.
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