While delivering his speech at the University of Michigan’s spring 2026 commencement ceremony, history professor Derek Peterson, outgoing chair of the University of Michigan’s Faculty Senate and Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, told graduates to remember pro-Palestine student activists when singing the University’s fight song.

“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,” Peterson said.

Since 2023, student activists have called for the divestment of the University’s endowment from companies with financial ties to Israel’s military campaign Gaza, which has killed more than 75,000 people and has been classified as a genocide by the United Nations. The University has consistently refused demands for divestment and financial transparency.

Peterson also told graduates to remember historical activists and social movements. These included Sarah Burger, a suffragette who campaigned for the University to accept women in 1858; Moritz Levi, who fought against antisemitism as one of the University’s first Jewish faculty members in 1896; and the Black Action Movement of the 1970s and 80s, which fought for the rights of students of Color on campus.

“The greatness of this institution does not only rest on the shoulders and on the accomplishments of our student athletes, who deserve all the congratulations we can offer them,” Peterson said. “The greatness of this university rests also on the courage and the conviction of student activists who have pushed this university down the path towards justice.”

Following the commencement ceremony, excerpts of Peterson’s speech quickly spread across social media. An Instagram post by Students for Justice in Palestine praising his remarks currently has 430,000 views, and a post to X by StopAntisemitism calling for Peterson to be fired currently has 1.9 million views.

In an email to The Michigan Daily, Peterson wrote that he believes his statements have recieved an excessive amount of controversy online.

“It should not be controversial to have one’s ‘heart opened to the inhumanity and injustice of Israel’s war in Gaza’, which is what I credited activists with doing,” Peterson wrote. “Having an open heart to other people’s suffering is a fundamental human virtue, and it is a quality that I hope we teach our students, whatever their political posture might be.”

The University has previously reacted negatively toward pro-Palestine student activists at commencement and elsewhere, and Peterson’s speech received a similar response. The University’s commencement recording has since been removed from YouTube, and University President Domenico Grasso issued a statement apologizing for Peterson’s remarks, calling them “hurtful and insensitive.”

“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.”

When asked about his reaction to the issued statement, Peterson told The Daily he has had a productive working relationship with Grasso, but wrote that it was “not his finest hour.”

Grasso’s statement has received backlash from the U-M community. The day after commencement, several faculty members wrote an open letter demanding Grasso retract his statement and apologize to Peterson. The letter says Peterson’s remarks were an appropriate celebration of the University’s students and values.

“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. President Grasso and those who compelled him to issue his unfortunate statement would do well to go back and rewatch Professor Peterson’s speech, this time listening for what they can learn, from history and about the future.”

At press time more than 600 students, faculty and staff have signed their names to the letter.

Daily News Editor Glenn Hedin can be reached at heglenn@umich.edu.

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