ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A diversity, equity, and inclusion administrator at the University of Michigan was fired over making alleged antisemitic remarks.
Rachel Dawson, the director of the university’s office of academic multicultural initiatives, is accused of making multiple antisemitic comments at a conference.
But her lawyer denied those claims, saying she had never said anything like that. Dawson’s attorney says two very different sides are being told, and she said her client’s rights are being violated.
“It’s a crackdown on free speech any way you look at it,” said Employment and Civil Rights attorney Amanda Ghannam.
Tensions were heating up at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus after Dawson was fired following allegations that she made offensive comments about Jewish students.
Dawson, the now former director of the university’s academic, multicultural initiatives, is accused of saying the college is “controlled by wealthy Jews” and that “Jewish people have no genetic DNA connecting them to the land of Israel.”
“What is alarming to me is that the university chose to take the word of two women not affiliated with the university,” Ghannam said.
Ghannam says Dawson took part in a private conversation with two women at a conference, simply sitting down to read a scholarly article.
She said the two women approached her, and not liking what she had to say, and they took her words out of context.
“What she did do is actually try to defend the University of Michigan against these two women’s accusations that the university is antisemitic,” Ghannam said.
This incident came after months of stress between the university’s administration and pro-Palestinian students and rewards totaling $6,000 being offered for information about vandalism at the home of University of Michigan Regent Jordan Acker after pro-Palestine messages were scrawled on his family car and mason jars filled with urine thrown through his front window.
The University of Michigan’s director of public affairs released the following statement:
“Ms. Dawson was fired by the Provost because her behavior as a university representative at a conference and during an on-campus protest was inconsistent with her job responsibilities, including leading a multicultural office charged with supporting all students, and represented extremely poor judgement.”
