Leadership Institute-trained students win seats on University of Michigan student gov

A new party called “Keep It Running” won six seats at the University of Michigan’s student government elections, vowing to focus on student interests after recent attempts by another party to undermine student life as part of an anti-Israel campaign. 

The Keep It Running winning candidates included three students who had recently graduated from a Leadership Institute Campus Election Workshop: Alex Richmond, Andrew Kim, and Wade Vellky. The mid-term elections began Wednesday and concluded Thursday. 

The election win came in the wake of a previous victory from the disruptive Shut It Down party, which carried out a promise to repeatedly disrupt the normal proceedings of the student government until the University of Michigan would vow to divest from Israel. 

[RELATED: How Leadership Institute training helped one U of Michigan student break student gov gridlock caused by anti-Israel activists]

Shut It Down’s efforts culminated with an attempt to send more than $400,000–money that should have gone to student organizations–to a Palestinian university that has been accused of having connections to terrorism. 

Campus Reform previously reported how Shut It Down lost its dominance after multiple members lost their seats due to a persistent refusal to attend student government sessions. This development cleared the way for the passage of a petition–drafted by Richmond–to fund activities and programs related to student life. 

Now, it seems that Shut It Down’s disruptive behavior led to a loss of trust with the voters. The party won only two seats out of the total that were up for election. In contrast, Keep It Running now holds seven seats and the Empower Michigan party gained eight seats. 

Richmond, Kim, and Vellky spoke to Campus Reform about their party’s victory. 

Richmond detailed how Shut It Down’s obstructive behavior temporarily blocked funding for campus services like Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Safe Ride, a program promoting student safety on campus. 

“When [Shut It Down] declared those budgets void, when they voided those budgets and vetoed them, they . . . didn’t just threaten student [organizations]. They threatened many of the programs that we fund, from Sexual Misconduct Prevention . . .to general accommodations like the Airbus, which a lot of students are utilizing now.” 

Richmond believes that the disruption that Shut It Down caused had soured student voters on the party and its agenda. 

“I think that to a large extent, the student body became fed up with . . . all of these actions that [Shut it Down] were using to filibuster, and it was very clear by the results of this election that . . . many of the people that we had recruited to support us within our own party, they expressed extreme concern for the Shut It Down party . . . [Shut It Down] faced allegations of racism and bigotry towards non-Muslim students,” Richmond told Campus Reform. 

Richmond detailed how students became tired of Shut It Down’s obstruction of student life in order to protest Israel. “We wanted to convey that we were not going to make this about politics,” he said. “It’s not our place to speak out against anything that isn’t directly harming students.”

Vellky also addressed Shut It Down’s disruptive behavior. The anti-Israel party refused to respond to calls and emails from their colleagues, and “intentionally created as hostile of an environment in [the student government] as possible.” Kim added that the Shut It Down party members were “ideological purists” motivated only by obstruction, and that they faced “a real pushback” online. 

Richmond and Vellky expressed their confidence that Shut It Down’s president Alifa Chowdhury and vice president Elias Atkinson, both recently impeached for their obstructive behavior, will be removed by the other student government members.

[RELATED: UMich student government freezes funding to student orgs until university divests from Israel]

Richmond said that the Leadership Institute training that he and his colleagues received was “extremely helpful,” saying it “inspired us to put forth a very effective social media campaign.” 

The main message he gleaned from his training was that “messaging should always remain positive,” even if “[you] can still be critical at the same time” of opponents. “Whenever you give a critique of your opponent, you always . . . want to show how comparatively you’re going to fix [the issue at hand], as opposed to just putting them down.”

Vellky also spoke of how Leadership Institute training benefitted his party, mentioning that the message of “having concrete goals versus vague goals” is a lesson that helped the party’s campaign. Speaking of certain incumbents who lost, he stated: “Their campaign platform statements were relatively vague and didn’t have a lot of specific policy goals.”

Kim echoed these sentiments, revealing that many other candidates’ platforms were “very vague” and adding: “Having those specific and direct campaign platform issues was very important.” Kim also believes that “leveraging personal connections” aided Keep It Running’s campaign: “You can’t underestimate reaching out to as many people [and] as many groups, and being very direct and honest with people and getting them to support you.” He concluded: “Be extremely specific on what you plan to execute, and make sure you get that done in office.”

One of the goals that Vellky wishes to pursue is establishing a security presence at student government sessions, considering how Shut It Down members harassed and intimidated those who voted to fund student life instead of sending money to the West Bank. 

The three students plans to introduce resolutions and intiatives to promote free speech, student safety, and a budget process that would be impervious to further filibustering attempts like those initiated by Shut It Down.