AMHERST — A student leader pushing the University of Massachusetts to sever ties with weapons maker RTX, formerly Raytheon, says he may have his enrollment end because of his actions at a career fair this fall.
Kivlighan de Montebello is facing five misconduct charges under the student code of conduct, and is also being given four sanctions related to what the university’s Demonstration Response and Safety Team witnessed. This, de Montebello said, means he could be removed as a student and lose his tuition, and would have to reapply to continue his studies in Amherst in fall 2026 should the appeals process fail.
“As students of UMass, we demand better,” said de Montebello, speaking as part of a press conference outside Whitmore Administration Building late Thursday afternoon.
With freezing temperatures and a few flurries, the organizers from the Western Massachusetts People’s Tribunal brought together about a dozen students to highlight what they view as repression by the UMass administration against those who are advocating for the Palestinian people, as they also ask UMass to close down partnerships with companies that may be supporting Israel and its military.
About 18 months after 132 students, faculty, staff and community members were arrested at a pro-Palestinian encampment, de Montebello is among those contending that removal of undergraduate and graduate students, and suspension of others, is part of continued attacks led by Chancellor Javier Reyes. He said that at the career fair he abided by the request to stop chanting, yet he is the only one facing discipline.
De Montebello has received support from the Student Government Association, which reaffirmed his rights to protest and, he claims, exonerated him this week. In September, he also led a protest at the Isenberg School of Management, delivering a letter demanding RTX be prohibited from career fairs.
UMass spokeswoman Emily Gest said officials can’t comment on student conduct records due to the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and campus policy, and thus she couldn’t verify the accuracy of the information he and others presented. But there is a process for determining any sanctions that include a student’s present demeanor, past conduct record and the nature of the offense.
The Student Government Association is also not part of the disciplinary process, she said, which is handled by the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards Office.
The press conference follows the tribunal that found UMass, Smith College, Hampshire College, and L3Harris in Northampton responsible for illegal and immoral activities. UMass has also been designated a hostile campus by the Council of American-Islamic Relations, in part due to the removal of the encampment.
UMass previously issued a statement defending its actions and the free speech protections offered: “UMass Amherst is committed to ensuring that all students and employees can live, work, learn and teach in an environment free of harassment. The university has always, and will always, fiercely defend the rights of its community to speak freely under the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment. However, trespassing in closed buildings and constructing fortified encampments are not protected forms of speech.”
Will Chaney, a doctoral student, said that he is also under investigation by a legal team for the university, which is looking into whether he violated various policies through disruptive behavior. While this outcome is uncertain, Chaney said students shouldn’t bow to pressure and must resist fascism.
“It’s not just an attack on me and Kiv, it’s an attack on all of our rights to free speech,” Chaney said.
Will Kenney, an undergraduate involved with Students for Justice in Palestine, said that UMass has suspended students because it doesn’t want to remove its ties to weapons manufacturers. The UMass administration, Kenney said, “continues to propel genocide” and is furthering its legacy for being a campus that is hostile to Muslim and Arab students.
“This is a ludicrous assertion and antithetical to our values, campus policies and the First Amendment,” Gest said.
Gest notes the university actively protects students’ right to demonstrate, such as when students handed out flyers about Raytheon throughout the Campus Center, and another time when members of the Demonstration Safety Response Team ensured students passing out flyers there could continue doing so even when others objected.
Undergraduate Abigail O’Donnell spoke about how classes to be taught by history department lecturer Mohammad Ataie were canceled. This, O’Donnell said, was a “discriminatory attack” to not allow students to learn about the history of Palestine and Israel and the Iranian Revolution, though a class focused on the Middle East from 1500 to present has been reinstated for the spring semester.
“We refuse to let marginalized voices be cleansed from our campus,” O’Donnell said.
All decisions on which courses take place are made by faculty and not administrators, according to UMass.
There is also concern around the Five College Arabic Language Initiative ending. A statement read on behalf of another student by Mari Elsa McBride compared the displacement of Indigenous people to the cultural importance of Arabic studies.
At UMass, students can still take Arabic classes on campus or at Smith College and Arabic continues to be offered at UMass in Judaic and Near Eastern Studies.
The idea that UMass has insufficient funds to support some classes was referenced by UMass history professor Kevin Young, who authored a recent report, endorsed by campus unions, showing recent annual budget surpluses of more than $100 million.
“Repression and austerity go hand in hand,” Young said.
He added that there has been bloat in administrative salaries, which could have been capped at $200,000 in 2024, as well as a $62 million annual athletics department budget and plans for a $25 million to $30 million overhaul of the football stadium.
“Athletics is one area of significant waste,” Young said.
UMass officials dispute aspects of this report, Gest said, and key academic measures show improvements, with better research expenditures, application numbers, the academic makeup of our student body and first-year retention rates.
“Across multiple areas, the report mischaracterizes investments in student and faculty support as detracting from academic spending rather than strengthening it,” Gest said.