UMass Amherst Faculty

On April 25, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Javier Reyes convened a rare all-faculty meeting asking us to ratify a statement opposing federal cuts to university funding. His administration has been slow to publicly respond to President Donald Trump's administration's assaults on university students and academic freedom. Many people thus welcomed the Chancellor's willingness to sign onto this statement.

May 24, 2024 I have been a history professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst for twenty years. On May 7, I was one of a handful of faculty members arrested for standing in support of hundreds of students who were engaged in nonviolent protest of university complicity in the ongoing slaughter and suffering of Palestinians in Gaza. They want the school to divest from companies profiting from the carnage.

On Oct. 25, University of Massachusetts Amherst police officers arrested 56 students and one staff member who were participating in a sit-in outside the Chancellor's office. The sit-in was organized by the student groups UMass Dissenters and Students for Justice in Palestine as part of a nationwide protest against the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, carried out by the Israeli military with U.S. support.