Controversy at the University of Michigan over the screening of American Sniper has not yet died down.
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh met with a group of Muslim students this week to hear their concerns over what they deemed his “insensitive” tweet in support of an earlier campus screening of the film.
In April, the university’s Center for Campus Involvement went back and forth on whether to proceed with the screening after receiving complaints from students and faculty members who said the film perpetuates “negative and misleading stereotypes” and made some Muslim students “feel unsafe.”
Coach Harbaugh created a stir when he tweeted out his support for U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and said he would hold his own screening of the film for the football team. Several hours after the tweet, which was retweeted over 30,000 times, university officials reversed their decision to cancel the screening.
Michigan Football will watch “American Sniper”! Proud of Chris Kyle & Proud to be an American & if that offends anybody then so be it!
— Coach Harbaugh (@CoachJim4UM) April 9, 2015
The campus organization Students Allied for Freedom and Equality later requested a private meeting with the coach that was held on Wednesday afternoon, according to The College Fix.
The leader of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality sent an email Tuesday to members of her organization as well as several other concerned student groups inviting them to the meeting with the coach during which she claimed Harbaugh “[would] be issuing a private apology.”
However, a few hours later, the student sent out a correction.
“I made the mistake of assuming that an apology would be issued,” she wrote. “However, Coach Jim Harbaugh was simply invited to a private meeting with us in order to talk about the screening of American Sniper and get a dialogue going about how a university leader’s social media can impact campus climate. I take full responsibility for this assumption and I am very sorry for any confusion I may have caused.”
The college’s newspaper The Michigan Daily reported that about 15 students and several administrators attended the closed-door meeting.
Attendees requested that no reporters attend the meeting and refused to comment on what was discussed, although Harbaugh told a journalist for Reason that the meeting “went great.”
One Muslim student who wished to remain anonymous told The College Fix that school administrators most likely persuaded Harbaugh to hold the meeting to avoid attracting controversy to the school’s football program.
