University of Michigan’s Interim President Apologized for a Faculty Senate Chair’s Commencement Speech. Now More Than 1,000 Faculty Are Demanding He Apologize for the Apology.

A single sentence at the University of Michigan's spring commencement ceremony has opened a new front in the long-running battle over speech, institutional neutrality, and the boundaries of academic freedom at one of America's great public research universities — and it has placed Interim President Domenico Grasso in the crossfire between two communities he cannot easily placate simultaneously.

The sentence was spoken on Saturday, May 2, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, by Derek R. Peterson, a professor of history and African studies, a MacArthur "genius grant" recipient, and the outgoing chair of the University of Michigan Faculty Senate. As the Faculty Senate chair — a commencement speaker role the chair has held since 2014 — Peterson gave brief remarks honoring the generations of student activists who had pushed the university toward greater openness and justice. He invoked Sarah Burger Stearns, the suffragist who fought for women's admission to Michigan in the 19th century. He invoked the Black Action Movement of the 1970s and 1980s. And then he said this:

"Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel's war in Gaza."

The line received extended cheers from graduates on the field. It was less well received by Michigan's administration. By Saturday afternoon, Interim President Grasso had issued a written apology. By Sunday, more than 1,000 faculty, staff, and students had signed a letter demanding Grasso retract it. By Monday, Peterson was giving interviews explaining why he says he did nothing wrong — and why he believes the university knew, in advance, what he was going to say.

What Peterson Said — and What He Left Out

Peterson's speech was framed throughout as a celebration of student activism as an engine of institutional progress. He told graduates he had two consequential Michigan athletes beside him on the rostrum — swimmer Michael Phelps and basketball player Jalen Rose — and that he wanted to give "equal time" to student activists who had done as much or more to move the university forward.

Before submitting his remarks, Peterson said he incorporated feedback from university officials to remove one word: "genocide." Even though the United Nations has characterized the situation in Gaza using that term, and even though Peterson considers it an accurate scholarly descriptor, he agreed to drop it to reduce unnecessary provocation. "I left it out because I didn't wish to provoke anger and unnecessary bad feelings," he told the Chronicle of Higher Education.

What he did not remove — and says he told university officials he would include — was the reference to pro-Palestinian student activists and the description of Israel's military campaign in Gaza as unjust and inhumane. Peterson says the university knew this was coming. "I had the idea that it would be kind of controversial, but ... it shouldn't be controversial to say that you should have an open heart toward people who are suffering in Gaza or anywhere else," he told Inside Higher Ed. "My surprise is at the quickness with which this relatively innocuous argument was made to seem as though it were virulently antisemitic. That, I did not expect."

Speaking to WDET, Peterson placed the remarks in his broader scholarly context: "As a scholar of African history looking at events in 2026 in Ann Arbor and around the United States, where it's increasingly difficult to say anything at all about what happened in Gaza, I can't play along with that deliberate silencing of an act of great violence." He added: "I'm full of sympathy for Jewish people who suffered, including students at U of M who suffered as a result of the awful actions of Hamas on the seventh of October 2023. I don't have any sympathy for Hamas sympathizers, but as the leader of the Faculty Senate and as a faculty member who studies colonial and post-colonial African history it's really important that we don't invisibilize Palestinian suffering."

What Grasso Said — and What the Faculty Said Back

Interim President Grasso's statement, posted Saturday afternoon, said Peterson had "deviated from the remarks he had shared with university officials prior to the ceremony." Grasso called Peterson's line about pro-Palestinian activists "hurtful and insensitive to many members of our community."

"Everyone in our community is entitled to their own views; but this was neither the time nor the place," Grasso wrote. "Commencement is a time of celebration, recognition and unity. The Chair's remarks were expected to be congratulatory, not a platform for personal or political expression. Introducing such commentary in this setting was inappropriate and did not align with the purpose of the occasion."

Following the backlash, the university removed the commencement recording from its YouTube channel — a decision that itself drew criticism from faculty who said removing the record of a public academic ceremony was contrary to Michigan's stated commitments to transparency.

The faculty response came swiftly. By Sunday, an open letter signed by more than 1,000 faculty, staff, and students demanded Grasso withdraw the apology and apologize to Peterson instead. "Professor Peterson's remarks were thoughtful, informed, instructive, and ethically rich," the letter read. "President Grasso's response was none of that. It represents a sad abrogation of the ideals and principles which should have been upheld and celebrated on the dais and from the Office of the President."

Peterson himself called Grasso's statement "not his finest hour" while telling the Michigan Daily he has had a productive working relationship with the interim president.

The Political Backlash — and the Calls to Cut Funding

The reaction from outside the university was equally sharp, but in the opposite direction.

Two Republican candidates for the University of Michigan Board of Regents — Michael Schostak and Lena Epstein — said they were "deeply troubled" by Peterson's selection as a commencement speaker. Pro-Israel advocacy groups and conservative commentators characterized Peterson's remarks as antisemitic and an inappropriate use of a graduation ceremony. Calls circulated on social media and from some political figures for the university's state funding to be reduced or conditioned on Peterson facing consequences.

The Jewish Insider characterized Grasso's statement as an apology for an "anti-Israel commencement speech." Peterson disputes that framing: he said explicitly that he has sympathy for Jewish students who suffered as a result of the October 7 Hamas attacks and that he does not sympathize with Hamas. He described his goal as refusing to "invisibilize Palestinian suffering" at a university that enrolls many students with family ties to the Middle East.

The Context: Michigan, Gaza, and Two Years of Governance Pressure

The Peterson controversy is the latest chapter in a two-year story at Michigan that has involved student encampments, divestment demands, a Faculty Senate censure of the Board of Regents, the university's controversial alignment with federal guidance on DEI, and now — with the presidential search restarting after president-elect Kent Syverud's brain cancer diagnosis — a period of profound leadership instability.

Peterson, as outgoing Faculty Senate chair, has been at the center of much of that governance tension. He told WDET that commencement was, in part, an opportunity to make an argument the Faculty Senate has been pressing for two years: "Michigan's acquiescence to federal authorities around student protests has damaged our collective culture."

The University of Michigan has consistently refused to divest from companies with financial ties to Israel's military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 75,000 people and has been classified as a genocide by the United Nations. In 2024, pro-Palestinian student protesters put up an encampment and interrupted spring commencement, and student government leaders who had campaigned on a pro-Palestinian platform sought to hold up campus-activities funding. That context — of student activists facing significant institutional resistance — is what Peterson says he was honoring when he asked graduates to "sing for" them.

What This Moment Reveals About the Impossible Position of University Leaders

The Peterson-Grasso confrontation encapsulates a problem that university presidents across the country are navigating in real time: there is no response to a controversial faculty remark at a public event that will satisfy both constituencies simultaneously.

Grasso's apology alienated his own faculty in a moment when faculty trust in university leadership is already fragile — the Faculty Senate had censured the Board of Regents less than a year ago. It has been cited by faculty as evidence that the administration prioritizes managing donor and political pressure over defending academic freedom. At the same time, not apologizing would have exposed Grasso to the political pressure that has already cost some university leaders their positions.

The removal of the commencement recording from YouTube — a document of a public ceremony attended by thousands — has been characterized by faculty as a form of institutional self-censorship that compounds the original apology's damage.

Peterson, who is a tenured full professor and has been at Michigan since 2009, faces no professional consequences. He says he does not intend to apologize, does not believe he did anything wrong, and views the controversy as confirming precisely why the Faculty Senate has been pressing the university on its relationship to free expression.

The University of Michigan, for its part, has not retracted Grasso's statement as of the time of publication.