The University of Michigan Central Student Government met Tuesday to discuss potential impacts on DEI funding cuts under Donald Trump’s second administration and passed a resolution urging the University to provide more scholarship opportunities for international students.
The meeting began with the swearing-in of Business junior Jason Nuridjanian into the Assembly and the recall of Rackham student Hiab Teshome. Next, the Assembly passed a series of nominations unanimously, including Law student Julian Hemmings as Deputy Student General Counsel, LSA sophomore Larissa King as School of Public Health representative and LSA sophomore Meyer Cusnir and LSA freshman Tyler Hart as members of the executive nominations committee.
After nominations, the Assembly discussed current political events and their impact on the campus climate. CSG president Mario Thaqi reported on the discussions of the President’s Council — an advisory group of University community leaders that work with University President Santa Ono and U-M leadership — on the effects of the Trump administration.
“Things related to DEI are obviously really connected with campus climate,” Thaqi said.
“The fact that DEI is kind of getting completely abandoned and even kind of illegalized at the federal level, is really concerning in that regard.”
Thaqi also reported on the council’s discussion of the University’s institutional neutrality policy.
“Both teachers and students are kind of worried about the implications of that policy and (are) kind of starting to even self-censor themselves in classrooms and what they should say,” Thaqi said. “That’s obviously a huge campus kind of issue if we can’t talk about things openly.”
Wrapping up the series of reports, CSG speaker Eric Veal Jr., criticized CSG’s reliance on tradition in unprecedented times.
“In any organization, especially in one as dynamic as ours, relying solely on tradition and precedent can be comfortable,” Veal Jr. said. “That is a choice we cannot continuously make when our student government is not effective. Precedent gives us a blueprint, a way of doing things that feel safe and familiar; however, progress does not emerge from comfort. It emerges when we dare to question, to innovate, and fundamentally, when we dare to disrupt an ineffective system. So I ask each of us: doing things out of precedent is not progress, but paralysis.”
Veal Jr. continued by imploring CSG to take on new initiatives in an effort to make real change on campus, beyond existing programs such as New York Times student subscriptions and the Airbus program.
“When someone asks you about student government, you talk about the bus that takes you here to the airport,” Veal Jr. said. “That’s the precedent that we’ve set. Let’s change that to ‘We are doing A, B, C and D,’ and it’s not just The New York Times (student subscription) that we sign off on once a year, it’s the resolutions that we’re passing to make a better University.”
The Assembly then discussed several resolutions. AR 14-043, advocating for a psychology minor and LDA Motion II, appropriating funds for a DEI event, were both passed unanimously and without significant debate.
AR 14-052, the Hail to the Victors Act, was brought to the floor but ultimately tabled due to concerns about the somber political climate voiced by Rackham student Angelica Previero. The resolution would celebrate the Michigan football team’s accomplishments in 2024. Previero argued that, given the issues facing the campus community, passing the resolution could send the wrong message.
“I think that the intention behind this resolution is right,” Previero said. “I cannot stress enough how somber the tone this morning at the President’s Council was. Is this the right time to pass a resolution like this? And what we want to say that CSG is focusing on, I understand that it celebrates resilience. But at the same time, I also want everybody to take a step back, remember the time, remember what’s happening outside, remember the role of a student government, and think whether this is something that intentionally we want to do.”
The Assembly also considered AR 14-055, which advocates for increased international student scholarships. LSA freshman Isaac Gardner, opposing the resolution, expressed concern that increased funding for international student scholarships might take away resources from domestic students.
“For students outside the state of Michigan, it does cost a lot and college costs a ton everywhere,” Gardner said. “How logistically are you pushing the University to manage them? Like are you thinking (of taking) a scholarship from domestic to international? How do you see this happening where it just doesn’t make it more expensive somewhere else?”
LSA sophomore Margaret Peterman objected to the idea that this resolution would take anything away from domestic students.
“I don’t think that this is going to cause any, for lack of a better word, discrepancies,” Peterman said. “I don’t think that asking the University to initially start some funding for international students is going to take away from anybody else’s education.”
Rackham student Mark Farag, who is also an international student, likewise objected to Gardner’s division between domestic and international students.
“If we look at this international student, I don’t want to look at it by ‘you have a part and we are another part,’” Farag said. “We’re all at the school, we’re all the students and we all deserve the same.”
After a lengthy discussion, AR 14-055 went to a vote and passed unanimously.
Daily Staff Reporter Glenn Hedin can be reached at heglenn@umich.edu
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