A University of Michigan history professor’s commencement address lauding pro-Palestinian student protesters has drawn a formal apology from the university’s president, prompting calls from state and national officials to strip the school of federal funding and a demand from a prominent donor that supporters halt contributions. The speech, delivered Saturday by Derek R. Peterson — an East African history scholar and outgoing chair of the faculty senate — set off a cascade of recriminations that quickly moved beyond the Ann Arbor campus to Washington and the courts of public opinion.
Peterson, speaking at the university-wide ceremony, told graduates that “pro-Palestinian student activists … have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza.” He had earlier praised Moritz Levi, the university’s first Jewish professor, as part of a series of figures he said had advanced justice through the institution’s history. Video of the Gaza passage circulated widely within hours, and Jewish groups swiftly condemned the remarks, alleging that sustained campus protests against Israel had created a hostile environment for Jewish students.
That evening, University President Domenico Grasso issued a public apology, saying the remarks were “inappropriate and do not represent our institutional position.” Grasso added that Peterson had “deviated from the remarks he had shared before the ceremony.” “We regret the pain this has caused on a day devoted to celebration and accomplishment,” Grasso said.
The apology did not extinguish the backlash. Florida Senator Rick Scott called for the federal government to cut aid to the university, and a Republican member of the University of Michigan Board of Regents raised the possibility of disciplining Peterson. Adam Milstein, a prominent Israeli-American investor and philanthropist, urged Jewish donors to suspend contributions to the school.
Peterson, for his part, rejected the university’s characterization of his speech. He said in a statement that it was “ridiculous” to expect that graduations remain apolitical. “Michigan is not a finishing school for polite young men and women,” Peterson wrote. “They do not need sentimental, cloying nostalgia. They need encouragement to face a flawed and unjust world head on, using the tools we’ve given them: critical reasoning, careful research, sympathy for the oppressed.” He also accused administrators of attempting to scrub the speech from the internet. A university spokesperson said the video had been temporarily taken down by YouTube because of a music copyright issue and was later restored.
On Tuesday, a coalition of academic labor organizations, including the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers, issued a joint letter condemning the university’s statement. “Institutional leaders have an obligation not only to tolerate faculty speech, but to defend it — especially in the face of external political pressure,” the letter read.
The controversy revives a national fight that erupted in 2024, when protests against the Gaza war swept college campuses, canceling or disrupting commencement ceremonies across the country. At Michigan, students formed a campground and staged walkouts to protest the war. A small number of U.S. students faced discipline in 2025 for using graduation platforms to highlight pro-Palestinian issues, including a New York University graduate whose diploma was withheld after she criticized Israel during her speech. Saturday’s address, and the administration’s rapid disavowal, have now pulled Michigan into the same charged debate over speech, protest, and the lines academic communities draw between celebration and political witness.