AMHERST — Student protesters at the University of Massachusetts began pitching tents near the W.E.B. DuBois Library Monday morning in solidarity with Palestinians, following the example of many of their peers at campuses across the country who have created encampments as a way to hold educational institutions accountable for their stances on the Israeli siege of Gaza.

Seated on the grass, more than 60 students listened to their organizing peers as they listed rules of conduct for those inhabiting the space and educated those participating on their rights as well as potential legal and academic sanctions. As the morning went on, more students filed in carrying tents, signs and bulk packs of water bottles.

Beyond the encampment’s welcome desk, the smell of aerosol wafted through the air on the campus’s South Lawn as protesters sprayed slogans on T-shirts. A free library supplied interested parties with literature on Palestine’s history, community theory and the roots of authoritarianism. One tent served food and water to those present as protesters formed affinity groups to discuss a democratic decision-making structure for those inhabiting the encampment.

Like similar protests at universities nationwide, UMass students have compiled a list of demands they hope the school will recognize. This coalition of campuses building pro-Palestine protest encampments calls themselves the “Popular University of Gaza.”

“We plan to stay here until our demands are met,” said one UMass senior serving as a press liaison for the encampment. “After our big event on Friday at the chancellor’s inauguration, we knew we needed to keep pushing for those demands.”

Last Friday, protesters demonstrated during the inauguration ceremony installing Javier Reyes as UMass Amherst chancellor. During the demonstration, protesters called for Reyes to end the university’s ties with Raytheon and to condemn the attacks on Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces.

The student, as well as several other “press liaisons,” requested anonymity “to protect [them] from administrators who might serve us with sanctions for possible violations of student conduct.”

They wish for the university to divest its interests from Israel, for the end of student suppression and the democratization of their school. In particular, these students are calling for an end to the university’s partnership with Raytheon Technology, transparency regarding the school’s endowments and a downgrade or dismissal of charges for the “UMass 57.” The group also wants affordable housing to be made available to all.

The UMass 57 refers to a group of protesters who were arrested by campus police on Dec. 7, 2023, for participating in a pro-Palestine sit-in at the Whitmore building. After remaining in the building after hours, 56 UMass students and one employee were arrested.

University responds

In a late-afternoon statement sent to the campus community, Reyes said the encampment is unauthorized and established in violation of several campus policies, including the Land Use Policy, which requires prior approval for the use of university property. The policy is designed to ensure that spaces on campus are made available equally to all and that, in this case, the university was forced to cancel an event that had already been reserved.

“This encampment is in violation of university policy and those present in it have been notified multiple times and have been asked to dismantle the encampment,” Reyes wrote. “Those who continue to not comply will be trespassing.”

While Reyes said UMass supports the rights of its students to demonstrate peacefully and exercise their protected rights to speech and assembly, he wrote that the “presence of unauthorized structures, including tents, is not protected speech. Disruptive behavior is not protected speech. Activities that violate university policy or the rights of others on campus to participate in the regular business of the university are not protected speech.”

Monday’s protest was organized by several student-run organizations: the UMass Dissenters, Students for Justice in Palestine and the UMass Amherst Young Communist League. Police liaisons among the protesters sported yellow vests to be easily spotted in the event of an altercation with law enforcement, and press liaisons were marked with blue tape to serve as the unanimous voice for the protest. Whiteboards at the encampment’s entrance listed a timetable of events, and organizers listed their agreed-upon codes of conduct to ensure both safety for participants and respect for the issues at hand.

At the encampment’s edge, a small class of labor studies graduate students sat in a close-knit circle for a sincere discussion on personal ethics and politics.

“I asked [the students] about how people hold their pro-worker, pro-union politics with their pro-Palestine politics, and for most students these are considered inseparable,” said Cedric DeLeon, professor of sociology and instructor of the Labor 510 class. “We’re a labor organizing class, and because of the relationship between capitalism and occupation, students wanted to have this discussion out here.”

Shortly after noon, representatives of UMass administration arrived at the encampment to announce that participating students would face conduct violations if the tents were not taken down. In response, organizers called for an emergency rally to be held that afternoon with hopes of bolstering the encampment’s numbers to protect its presence.

The UMass Students for Justice in Palestine also made known via Instagram that, during similar protests regarding housing last year, students were “allowed to camp out for a night and not met with the same treatment.”

After hearing that UMass administration would sanction them for participating in the encampment, the protesters said they would file a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Liberties. This follows the opening of a formal investigation by the OCR on April 16 that resulted from a complaint submitted by Palestine Legal, which alleges “a hostile anti-Palestinian environment” at the university “in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

The ACLU of Massachusetts has “[urged] campus administrators and law enforcement to exercise restraint in interfering with student demonstrations and encampments,” and to “remain firm in their commitment to free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus.”

In an open letter to college and university presidents, the ACLU also stated that while colleges may enforce restrictions on protest activity to allow regular campus functions to continue, these restrictions must be “content neutral,” and therefore “[if] a university has routinely tolerated violations of its rules, and suddenly enforces them harshly in a specific context, singling out particular views for punishment, the fact that the policy is formally neutral on its face does not make viewpoint-based enforcement permissible.”

While the encampment at UMass is designed to draw attention and prompt action toward their stated demands, their primary goal remains the liberation of Palestine, and several participants expressed the hope that the demonstration would increase awareness of the Palestinians’ situation rather than distract from it.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.