The University of Michigan says it is canceling a vote on two student-led resolutions related to the Israel-Hamas war because of an email that was sent to students that “irreparably tainted the voting process.”

One of the resolutions — brought to students through the Central Student Government following student-led petitions — sparked backlash and calls for the university to intervene ahead of the vote due to the resolution’s anti-Israel sentiments, as the Sun reported.

The school maintains, however, that was not the reason for the cancellation of the vote. In an email to the student body at the Ann Arbor campus, the school’s vice president and general counsel, Timothy Lynch, said the action was taken “with deep reluctance” after “extraordinary, unprecedented interference” with the ballot process. 

“The University of Michigan received numerous calls to block, delay, or oppose two resolutions being considered by the student body under the auspices of its Central Student Government,” the email read.

Yet it did “not take any of these steps,” it reads, “despite serious concerns about the appropriateness of putting these types of questions up to a vote by the student body.”

Instead, the school took action after “an unauthorized email was sent to the entire undergraduate student body,” urging students to vote “yes” on one resolution and “no” on the other. The email was “an inappropriate use of the University’s email system” and a violation of school rules, it said. According to the university, the school administration alerted the Central Student Government about the violation, but the students “declined to address” the issue. 

Michigan’s student government is directing students to counseling and psychological services following the university’s decision as a way to “seek support as we all process the events of this past week.”

The student government said that its own governing documents did not forbid mass emails, and thus the students “had no obligation and no precedent for terminating a vote.” 

“The decision to deny students of a forum to voice their opinions on these questions goes against our governing documents and our morals as student leaders,” a statement from the student government Thursday says, adding that allegations against students for stealing the student body emails were false.

“The email was approved by University personnel prior to its dissemination to the student body,” the statement reads. “The doxxing of these students is inflammatory and Islamophobic, and this kind of rhetoric and the violence it inherently incites should not be tolerated by our University.”