Dean Martha L. Minow challenged a crowd of about 900 graduating students from the University of Michigan.

The Harvard Crimson reports.

Minow Calls on Michigan Graduates to Combat Injustice

At a time when she faces immense pressure to address what some have alleged is racism at Harvard Law School, Dean Martha L. Minow challenged a crowd of about 900 graduating students from the University of Michigan on Sunday to stand up against injustice in their post-graduate lives.

Minow, who received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1975, traveled to Ann Arbor, Mich., Sunday to speak at the university’s winter commencement ceremony. Minow gave her speech, which focused on activism, a month after a racially-charged incident occurred at the Law School involving the taping of black professors’ portraits, which officials are investigating as a hate crime. Student activists, in the meantime, have protested against what they characterize as the Law School’s inadequate treatment of minority students.

Minow began her address by congratulating students and thanking the University of Michigan for inviting her to speak before her former adviser and other colleagues. But her tone quickly became serious as she asked, “What does it take to stand up against what seems wrong—and when and how should we?”

Minow urged students not to be bystanders, or people who do not speak out or act against perceived injustices. Instead, Minow encouraged students to be “upstanders”—a term she said she first heard from Samantha Power, her former student and current U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Upstanders, Minow said, are people who take action against wrongdoing like bullying or racism, despite potential social or financial costs.