University of Michigan still punishing pro-Palestine students after graduating

Arbitration hearings carried out this summer are overreach, former students say

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather for a mock trial against the University of Michigan's board of regents on the university's campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on 21 April 2025 (Jeff Kowalsky/AFP)

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A little over a year ago, Drin Shapiro was a student programme assistant at the University of Michigan's (UM) English Language Institute, and a student in his final year of a bachelor's degree in history.

Since then, he has faced criminal charges brought by the state's attorney general, lost his on-campus job, spent time behind bars, and, as of last month, was still being disciplined by the university despite having graduated in May.

All of this was because he took part in a student encampment against the war on Gaza on 21 May 2024. Shapiro was arrested during the police raid of the encampment and was later released on bond.

Attorney general Dana Nessel, a vocal supporter of Israel, charged Shapiro in September 2024, but ultimately dropped the criminal charges in May 2025 because she said it was no longer a good use of time and resources.

But while Shapiro was out on bond, the university famously hired - and later fired - private investigators to track his movements, as well as other students rounded up during the anti-war protests.

"I was aware of it happening to many different people I knew, and on a few occasions, had noticed myself being followed, but I did not realise on that day that I was being closely tailed by two different private security officers," Shapiro told Middle East Eye.

"I put up flyers in the hour I had between classes, instead of leaving campus entirely," he said, adding that the flyers highlighted "the university's complicity in the genocide in Gaza".

The terms of his bond meant he was only allowed on campus for strictly academic purposes. As a result of what the investigators saw, Shapiro was jailed from 24-27 April.

"We were all surprised. We didn't think that the judge would rule such a ridiculous punishment for handing tape to people between classes, but we understood," Shapiro told MEE.

Universities across the US have come under intense pressure to act against criticism of Israel since President Donald Trump took office in January.

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On 13 August 2025, after being called to a UM arbitration hearing, Shapiro received a letter from UM's associate director of staff human resources, Amy Grier.

"After a review of the circumstances that led to the meeting, which were that you interfered with law enforcement actions including impeding with an arrest... the assessment concluded that you committed several violations," she wrote.

Grier pointed to "behavior or actions that would be interpreted by a reasonable person as carrying a potential for violence and/or acts of aggression [and] any act that threatens harm to another person or damage to property".

The hearing resulted in the university barring Shapiro from re-enrolling in another degree programme at the institution. Shapiro is already barred from re-employment at UM, for which he is suing.

But he's not alone.

'They're trying to make an example of us'

Eaman Ali graduated from UM in May this year with a dual bachelor's degree in political science and arts and design, and had previously worked on campus as an administrative assistant.

About a month before graduating, she was fired from her job in a case that mirrors that of a fellow UM protester, Zainab Hakim, whom MEE reported on earlier this year. They are now both part of the same lawsuit as Shapiro, which insists that the university put "an indelible stain on their employment record".

Despite the termination, which she was told was because of a protest for Gaza outside the university's arts museum last year, and the fact that she is no longer a UM student after receiving her diploma, Ali was summoned to an arbitration hearing last month by Grier, the same HR staffer who dealt with Shapiro.

"What I was being accused of was failing to comply with university officials and failing to leave university-controlled premises," as well as "violence or community harm" at a different protest altogether, Ali told MEE.

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This one had taken place on the first anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, which led to Israel's fiery assault that is now a genocide.

Ali denied all the allegations.

She told MEE that they were levelled at her despite not even being arrested at either of the two protests for which she was now being disciplined.

She was already banned from being hired at UM again, but now, she said, "what the complainant had asked for was a lifetime ban from ever re-enrolling in a university programme".

Grier, she said, had been "cagey" about providing any further information.

"When I asked her where she had gotten this information that had prompted her to start this investigation, she had told me she was investigating this on behalf of the university. And I was like, 'okay, well, who in the university asked you to investigate this?' And she declined to respond."

Like Shapiro, Ali was found responsible for student conduct violations in August.

She believes the deck was always stacked against her.

"They're trying to make an example of us... the overreach... is essentially just them trying to come for whoever they can," Ali told MEE. "And it also signals to me weakness, because they can't come for and they can't target the hundreds of protesters... they can only target and punish a select few that they believe that they have access to".

'Kangaroo court'

Nine other students faced the same hearings this summer after formal conduct complaints were brought against them, in cases handled by the Office of Student Conflict Resolution (OSCR).

The OSCR is designed to serve as a mediation forum between various parties affiliated with UM, but students say it has been weaponised against them.

"Originally founded on principles of restorative justice, OSCR has been transformed by the Regents into a vehicle to unilaterally punish - and even expel - student protesters behind closed doors and without due process," a statement supplied to MEE by the campus group, The Tahrir Coalition, said.

'OSCR for pro-Palestine students has a 100 percent conviction rate. So we always joke like it's up there with the Israeli military courts'

- Kathleen Brown, PhD candidate

The Board of Regents oversees the educational activities of the institution.

"The University... successfully transformed the OSCR process into a kangaroo court in which it is both plaintiff and judge," the statement added.

This is not the first or second time these hearings have taken place.

This is now the third round of hearings that OSCR has held, based on alleged violations of the "statement of student rights and responsibilities" (SSRR) at the university.

The Tahrir Coalition suggested that it is egregious to take such action "during the relative quiet of summer break", and to have amended the language of the SSRR in July 2024 to suit the university's agenda.

The language now means UM can act as a complainant in an OSCR case instead of requiring an individual to bring forth a complaint, Tahrir said, adding that it would also "drastically" shorten deadlines within the OSCR process, making it "nearly impossible" for students to find representation and build a defence.

Kathleen Brown, a PhD candidate in American Culture at UM who had to face a three-hour OSCR hearing over Zoom, told MEE that "every student who has had a hearing has been found guilty".

"OSCR for pro-Palestine students has a 100 percent conviction rate. So we always joke like it's up there with the Israeli military courts," Brown said.

She was accused of "impeding police activities", thereby "disrupting university activities" at the arts museum protest, she told MEE.

The university is recommending her for a formal reprimand and making her write "an educational essay reflecting on my transgressions that cannot justify my actions", Brown said.

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"This is the lightest sanction, but I'm the former vice president of our graduate employees union, and so it's more like they're trying to mark me so that in the future it'll be easier to punish me. So it's setting a precedent," she told MEE.

MEE reached out to the UM Office of Public Affairs, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

Ali said the hearings are ultimately a distraction from the only thing that should matter: the genocide in Gaza.

"I'm feeling fed up, to be honest," she told MEE.

Human rights activists and legal experts have previously slammed the state of Michigan and the FBI for conducting a "witch hunt" against pro-Palestinian protesters, in what they say is an excessive use of force.

Law enforcement agencies raided several homes of both current and former students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests at UM in April.

Amir Makled, an attorney for one of the students affected, told MEE in April that he had filed a motion to have attorney general Nessel be removed and disqualified as the prosecutor in the case against pro-Palestine student protesters because he was concerned about her being "biased".

"Dana Nessel is not impartial in this cause," he said.

Within days, Nessel dropped the criminal charges.

Makled cited an investigation by The Guardian in October 2024 that found Nessel was favoured by the UM governing board to be a prosecutor because she was expected to take a hard line on students.

In a previous investigation, Nessel asked a special prosecutor to take over her case, citing "perceptions" that she was biased against "Arabs and Muslims".

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