More than 300 University of Michigan staff, faculty and alumni have signed a letter asking the University to abandon part of its security plan for this year's commencement ceremonies.
The University has asked for volunteers from among staff to serve on "protest and disruption response" teams.
Last month, a student protest related to Israel's actions in the war against Hamas disrupted a University event; there are ongoing tent encampment protests at Michigan and some other universities across the country.
The letter says this plan amounts to asking staff to violate their personal beliefs, and engage in policing behavior against students in order to squelch free speech.
"We unequivocally oppose the use of university staff (hourly or salaried) as crowd control, protester management, disruption mitigation, or any activity that places staff in an intermediary position between people trying to express free speech in a place where free speech is permitted," the letter reads.
The University responded that the goal isn't to suppress free speech but limit significant disruptions. "Our volunteers have also received training on how to respectfully address disruptions in the audience and mitigate disruptive behavior through de-escalation techniques."
The letter also says asking staff to volunteer for any university event is asking for unpaid labor, since some units may offer to trade hours from the regular work week, or offer free food at the event instead of compensation.
"It must be codified that staff will be provided overtime pay for working at an event the same way full-time event professionals are," the letter continues.
The University of Michigan responded that it complies with federal and state provisions of the Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA).
"Under FLSA, employees required to work who qualify as non-exempt, or hourly, must be paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a work week. For non-exempt employees, special or alternate scheduling is allowed within the same workweek, which can include shifting work hours from a typical schedule to work a special event during evening or weekend hours."
Editor's note: U of M holds Michigan Public's broadcast license.
