“Board of Regents you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” students, faculty, community members and staff chanted. Among a crowd of roughly 50 protestors, signage included three flags, a bullhorn, various sound equipment and smaller posters, distinguishing this protest as the first conducted under a newly reinforced University of Minnesota protest policy that set limits on attendance without a permit, poster size and sound equipment.

On Sept. 5, around 50 protestors marched along the train tracks from McNamara Alumni Center to Morrill Hall to protest the institutional neutrality resolution adopted by the Board of Regents on Aug. 27 special Board meeting.

At the meeting, the University adopted a resolution of “neutrality” for the University endowment fund that would leave investments to be made on “solely financial criteria.”

Protest leaders are saying the UMN Divestment Coalition leaders are aware of the new guidelines but are seeking to initiate more protests regardless of whether guidelines can be followed.

The protest began at 6 p.m., with the die-in starting around 6:45, lasting about 15 minutes before the protest’s conclusion at 7. The march was mostly led by members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

Notably among the students, staff, community members and faculty attending the march and die-in was Sima Shakhsari, an associate professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University. 

The first speaker of the night, Shakhsari, criticized the University’s refusal to divest from Israeli-backed financial investments and condemned University President Cunningham’s email Thursday, which expressed personal neutrality in commentary on global issues sent out two hours before the protest began.

Shakhsari is not new to publicly commenting on political issues, nor to receiving backlash for speaking out about their beliefs.

Shakhsari was previously denied a position as the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the College of Liberal Arts after answering a question about Gaza as a part of a public panel. They removed online access to their contact information amidst hate mail and death threats.

Although President Cunningham and the University sent out statements attesting to the consolidation and reinforcing of protest guidelines as necessary for the safety of University community members, Shakhsari said Muslim and Palestinian students, staff and faculty members already feel unsafe on campus.

According to Shakhsari, this feeling is a result of the violence their families are being subjected to in Gaza and the University’s inaction.

“The President talks about safety, but I say safety for whom, right?” Shakhsari said. “If she says that (her) job is the safety of students and faculty, I don’t feel safe. I was subjected to death threats. What did this University do then? Our students don’t feel safe. What is the University doing about that?”

According to Celia Nimz, a University SDS chapter alum and current member of their national organizational team, the University’s attempts to moderate protests through reconsolidated restrictions are not only a scare tactic, but a sign that protestor voices are being heard by the broader University community. 

“​​Admin has always tried to ignore us,” Nimz said. “Now we’re at a point where they can no longer ignore us so they have to try to silence us, and they’re trying to silence us with these anti-protest acts.” 

​​When asked if SDS planned to adhere to the University’s protest guidelines during future demonstrations, Nimz replied, “Absolutely not.”

Sasmit Rahman, one of the students arrested last semester for setting up pro-Palestine encampments near Northrop, said it would be impossible to follow all of the guidelines. They said the existing University policies on protests were never enforced until calls for divestment from Israel.

“The most ridiculous thing is that any protests over a hundred people need to be applied for in advance,” Rahman said. “This is just a show of force to intimidate student protestors and squash our voice.”

For Piper Fraase, a first-year student at the University, protests such as Thursday’s march by the UMN Divest coalition are a welcome means of gaining exposure to important global issues.

Fraase was on the lawn when the UMN Divest coalition marched by and said that although protestors are often just passing through without causing significant disruption to the day-to-day lives of the University community, sometimes disruption is necessary.

“With conflict comes uncomfortableness,” Fraase said. “And that discomfort comes with change. It could be positive change, it could be negative, but there has to be something that is changed in the world.” 

Corrections: A previous version of this article misstated the day of the march and protest as Aug. 5. It was Sept. 5. A previous version of this article misstated that Sima Shakhsari did not have feelings of unsafety because of the violence in Gaza. A previous version of this article stated Shakhsari was denied a position as the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the University of Minnesota. This position was only for the college of liberal arts.