Rectorate Asks Deans to Allow UMY Students to Protest Today

The leadership of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) has issued an official letter addressed to all deans and lecturers within the campus, requesting they grant permission for students wishing to participate in a protest responding to the current national situation. The letter, issued by the UMY Directorate of Student Affairs and Career under number 1237/A.2-IDKK/VI/2026, supports the planned action by the UMY Student Executive Board (BEM) together with the UMY Bergerak Alliance. UMY students are set to hold a demonstration titled ‘Towards National Liberation’ on Wednesday, 17 June 2026, at Yogyakarta’s Kilometre Zero Point from midday into the afternoon. In the letter signed by UMY Director of Student Affairs and Career Zain Maulana on Tuesday, 16 June 2026, the university requests all deans to grant permission to students who will join the action, including excusal from lectures, practicums, tutorials, and/or the provision of make-up exam dispensations due to participation in the activity. ‘We view the expression of aspirations in public as part of the process of democratic maturation,’ Zain said when contacted on Wednesday. Zain stated that the rectorate has no issue with the number of students who will take to the streets, though he estimated that out of approximately 20,000 UMY students, around one per cent would join the movement. ‘Anyone may express their views, including students, as long as it is a peaceful action,’ Zain said. Zain explained that the letter issued is not a policy to suspend all academic activities on campus, but rather a formal appeal for lecturers to provide dispensations and flexibility for students who choose to demonstrate. This is because the authority over whether classes are held in person or online remains under the control of each class lecturer. Beyond attendance leniency, the rectorate also requested that instructors provide compensation in the form of assignments or make-up exams if important agendas are missed on that day, so that no academic consequences burden students who voluntarily decide to protest. ‘So the principle is that the letter is not to cancel lectures, only to urge lecturers to grant permission to students who want to join the action. The point is more about not making it difficult,’ Zain said. Zain also added assurances regarding academic safety for students participating in the action. ‘So if there are assignments or other things today, we request that they be given a make-up opportunity or something similar, so students also feel their academic standing remains secure,’ he said. The campus is committed to continuing to facilitate students’ right to peaceful expression and has asked teaching staff to be accommodating. The wave of student actions in Yogyakarta has been escalating over the past week in response to the administration of President Prabowo Subianto and Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka. A number of Prabowo-Gibran programmes, from Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) and the ‘red and white’ village cooperatives to fuel price hikes and land-use conversion, continue to draw scrutiny. The Prabowo-Gibran programmes are deemed to be merely wasteful of the budget and marked by policies that threaten democracy and the economy.