ANN ARBOR, MI - University of Michigan students kicked off a week of activities dedicated to expressing their discontent with the potential visit of white supremacist Richard Spencer to their campus on Tuesday, Nov. 28.

Around 100 people showed up on Tuesday at the UM Diag for a #StopSpencer speak out in which students talked about their fears of what bringing a white supremacist to campus could mean to their safety, while others put pressure on the university to deny Spencer a space to speak.

Dana Greene Jr., a first-year master's student in UM's School of Public Health, spoke at the rally to convince students that they need to stick together to prevent someone who promotes hateful speech and ideas from coming to campus.

"How dare you ask me or any student on this campus to not speak against hate or to not speak against intolerance," he said. "They say that they are doing this to protect our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. For President Schlissel and the rest of the administration I have one simple question: If a Nazi can come to my campus and speak to me about how I shouldn't exist, in what way is it protecting my freedom of speech, my freedom to live, my freedom to pursue happiness?"

UM student worker Zoe Proegler, who spoke out against Spencer coming to campus during a meeting of the Board of Regents last week, said she is conflicted on how complicit she would be if she was asked by the university to help set up for an event featuring Spencer.

"When I look at my staff and put myself in that moment of thinking 'What would we do if we were told to go help Richard Spencer spread his ideas about peaceful ethnic cleansing, about wanting black and brown and Jewish and Muslim and gay people to not live in this country and not be alive and to not exist?' I don't know what I would do in that situation.

"You say no - you say hell no, I will not facilitate that, I won't work with that, I will not be complicit," she added.

Members of a number of UM student groups, including including Students4Justice, radfun, the Campus Antifascist Network, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) and Collective Against White Supremacy organized the #StopSpencer speak out.

The protest of Spencer's potential appearance on the UM campus kicked off a week of events that include a student walk-out at 11:45 a.m. on Wednesday and a student "strike" planned for Thursday.

On the day of the strike, the UM group Students4Justice and others have called upon faculty, graduate student instructors, research assistants and staff to cancel classes in an editorial appearing in the Michigan Daily.

Special teach-in events also have been scheduled each day throughout the week, focusing on topics like "Nazis and fascism," "protest safety training," and "free speech not hate speech." The group also has planned a "conversation with elected officials" at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Michigan League, but did not specify which elected officials would participate.

UM President Mark Schlissel announced on Nov. 22 that the university would begin discussions with Cameron Padgett, who organizes speeches for Spencer, to determine if he would be able to speak on campus, noting that if the university can't ensure safety of the public, it wouldn't let the speech go forward.

While a decision of whether or not Spencer will appear on campus ultimately was not reached during the meeting, Spencer's attorney Kyle Bristow indicated he would extend the deadline for a decision from the university until 5 p.m. on Dec. 8 before he files a lawsuit seeking to allow the speech.

"In general, limits on time, place, and manner of speech have been upheld in lawsuits alleging violations of First Amendment rights; content-based prior restraint - or denying the opportunity to speak in advance - has not," Schlissel said. "We will insist upon appropriate and lawful requirements on the time, place, and manner of his speech in ways that our experts conclude are most conducive to public safety for the entire community, including those who are not a part of our learning community."

During the board of regents meeting, a number of students spoke out against the decision during public comment, while many voiced opposition to the university's decision by holding up signs and protesting the decision in the halls of the Michigan Union after the meeting concluded.

Padgett requested a venue for Spencer to speak on the UM campus on Oct. 27, he claims, while UM confirmed the request on Oct. 31. Padgett indicated there was flexibility with the date, UM Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald noted after receiving the request.

The NPI had requested Michigan State University host Spencer at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center in mid-September. MSU President Lou Anna Simon denied the request, made in July, after consulting with MSU's police department, "which had concluded, in the light of the incidents in Charlottesville, it was highly likely there would be violence if Mr. Spencer were permitted to appear on campus on September 15," the university said in a court filing. "MSU's decision, therefore, was not content based."

The university has since been sued in federal court by Padgett, a 23-year-old student at Georgia State University.

MSU's denial was made following a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, during which protesters rallied against plans by the city to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Spencer spoke at the rally, which later turned violent, with clashes between the white nationalists and counter protesters. One woman died and 19 were injured when a man with views sympathetic to Nazis plowed his car into a group of counter protesters.

Since the Charlottesville rally, a number of universities across the country have denied requests by Spencer's National Policy Institute seeking a space to speak on campus including

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