The Michigan State University Board of Trustees has agreed to meet with pro-Palestinian student organizers on April 10.
That date was set after students with the Hurriya Coalition interrupted the board’s meeting Friday, causing the board to go into recess for more than 20 minutes.
During that time, some trustees negotiated with the students to try and reach a resolution that would allow them to continue with the meeting in person rather than moving to Zoom.
The Hurriya Coalition has been pressing the university to divest from financial holdings in Israel. They organized the protest after trustees declined to attend a town hall the students had planned earlier in the week.
Trustee Dennis Denno confirmed that he had made a verbal commitment to attend the coalition’s town hall but said he cancelled when he heard that MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz was planning to organize an official conversation.
Denno said he supports “seriously looking into” divesting from all foreign bonds and reinvesting in Michigan municipal bonds instead.
The students initially demanded that the trustees participate in a town hall by the end of February but later agreed to the April 10 date as long as MSU officials agreed to meet within two weeks to begin planning the event.
Trustee Rema Vassar said that April would be the soonest that all eight trustees would be available to meet.
“It is not going to behoove you all to try to push this before because we’re not all going to be able to convene before that time,” Vassar said.
Vassar said that continuing to disrupt the meeting would cause it to continue virtually with no time for public comment.
“If you take public comment now, it will be recorded by the people here but not necessarily within the record for the university,” Vassar said. “Your power is your voice.”
Denno seemingly compared the results of the meeting to the University of Michigan, which is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for issuing trespass bans to student protesters.
“We’re not the university that’s calling the cops on you,” Denno said.
The comment was met by students shouting out that they had been arrested for protesting, referring to a sit-in at the Hannah Administration Building last year where five students were arrested.
“Maybe that wasn’t an appropriate comment,” Denno added.
The Board of Trustees also voted to approve construction of a new outdoor tennis court and renovations at Spartan Stadium.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.