Fired University of Michigan administrator denies making antisemitic statements

An attorney for a fired University of Michigan said Monday her client denies allegations that she made antisemitic remarks while at a conference.

U of M fired Rachel Dawson, who had been director of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, Dec. 10 after being accused of saying the university is “controlled by wealthy Jews” during a conversation with two professors at an academic conference on diversity and equity in late March.

“What is currently being left out of the story is the full context of the conversation which she was fired over,” said Amanda Ghannam, a Detroit attorney representing Dawson.

“Two women approached her and began to ask her questions about whether or not the University of Michigan harbors an antisemitic environment, and Ms. Dawson actually defended the university,” Ghannam told Michigan Advance.

“She noted the multitude of resources, campus organizations, representation, resources that are available to all students, including Jewish students. And when she did not agree with these two women who approached her, they became visibly angry with her. She responded that she believed multiple groups of people have origins in that region, and they did not like what she had to say. She disagreed with them, and they went after her employment.”

The New York Times was first to report the allegations, and said the conference in question, sponsored by the American Association of Colleges and Universities, took place in March in Philadelphia. The newspaper reported Dawson told the two women that Jewish students were “wealthy and privileged” and had no need for her office’s diversity services, adding that “Jewish people have no genetic DNA that would connect them to the land of Israel.”

One of the women later contacted the Anti-Defamation League of Michigan, which filed a complaint with the university. According to the Times, the complaint prompted the university to hire an outside law firm, Covington & Burling, to investigate the matter. A subsequent report by the law firm said while it was “not possible to determine with certainty whether Ms. Dawson made the exact remarks” the “weight of the available evidence supports A.D.L. Michigan’s report.”

Ghannam, however, emphatically denied Dawson made those statements when asked by the Advance.

“She did not make the statements attributed to her,” Ghannam said. “These two women who approached her and initiated the conversation…they took her words completely out of context, mischaracterized her, and again, went after her employment and after her livelihood because they didn’t like what she had to say.”

When asked to comment on the situation, the university’s director of public affairs, Kay Jarvis, sent this statement to the Advance:

“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,” said Jarvis.

Ghannam says the on-campus protest referenced an incident on Aug. 28, when four people were arrested during a pro-Palestinian protest on the Ann Arbor campus’ Diag.

“What Ms. Dawson did there was advocate for student protesters not to be violently arrested,” she said, pointing to allegations that the subsequent prosecution of protestors by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel had been initiated by university officials urging her office to bring felony charges against those involved in the various incidents.

“The fact that they would rely on Ms. Dawson attempting to protect these students from violent arrest by police as a reason for her termination, I think it speaks to a wider and more troubling pattern of the University of Michigan’s abdication of its responsibilities to uphold people’s First Amendment rights,” said Ghannam.

Dawson initially received a written warning in October about her actions, but was then placed on leave a little over two weeks later when the warning was revoked, said Ghannam who pointed to the New York Times reporting that the termination came at the behest of a regent, who was “disgusted” with the university’s response, and demanded Dawson be “terminated immediately.”

“It’s clear that her constitutional rights have been violated, and we are going to take the appropriate legal action,” said Ghannam.

This latest controversy follows the targeting of Regent Jordan Acker on Dec. 9 when someone threw Mason jars through the front window of his Oakland County home, shattering the glass. Police believe the jars were filled with urine. The vandals also spray painted the words “Divest” and “Free Palestine” in red on his wife’s car in the driveway. That incident remains under investigation.

It was at least the third time Acker has been targeted since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including in May when he said a masked intruder came to his home and those of other regents and left a list of demands, and the vandalism of his Southfield law office in June.

It also follows protests earlier this month prior to a Board of Regents meeting in which scaling back the university’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives were discussed.

When asked if she thought Dawson’s firing was connected to those efforts, Ghannam said she couldn’t speak to that.

“I do believe that the university just decided to roll back some of its DEI efforts, so whether there’s any connection there, I truly can’t say. I don’t have any personal knowledge and can’t speak to that,” she said.

However, Ghannam did say she believes the university is not acting within the scope of what the public expects from an institution of higher learning.

“Our public institutions cannot fire employees because they don’t like what they had to say. Even when speech makes us uncomfortable, even when it offends some of us, it is the cornerstone of our democracy to uphold and defend those free speech rights,” said Ghannam.

Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com.