AMHERST — University of Massachusetts students erected a makeshift residential area next to the campus pond Thursday evening to protest a shortage of on-campus housing, pitching tents and arranging blankets for the overnight encampment ahead.

More than 100 students gathered between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m. to stand — or sleep — in solidarity with 900 students recently informed that they will not be able to live on campus for the 2023-24 academic year. UMass Residential Life Student Services filled the campus’s 13,586 beds on the fourth of eight days they offered housing selection appointments.

“I sobbed,” said Mariana Raftery, a UMass freshman, recalling the moment she realized she would not have on-campus housing for next school year. “I didn’t know what I was gonna tell my parents because they really wanted me, obviously, to stay on campus.”

Raftery sat beside a banner reading “The Future of UMass Housing” during the early hours of the protest and said she had yet to tell her parents she could not find a place to live.

“I’m going home this weekend, and I’m going have a conversation with them over the table because I wanted to talk to them in person about it,” Raftery said. “I can’t imagine that they’ll be very happy.”

Raftery remained uncertain where she will live next year.

“I was initially gonna wait until the [summer] when I could see if there’s anything available, but there’s a … likely chance that there will be nothing available because they prioritize freshmen,” Raftery said. “I’m thinking that I might just have to take a semester off or just the next year off until it gets fixed and I can actually get housing.”

In addition to calling attention to the lack of on-campus housing at the flagship, some at the sleep-in, sponsored by UMass Radical Student Alliance, also pointed out that off-campus housing in the greater Amherst area has increased in price and demand, squeezing out many students.

These limited housing options have reshaped many protesters’ plans for the next year. Kevin Sydlowski, a freshman who transferred to UMass at the start of the spring semester, received an unconventional offer from his friends if he could not find a bed on campus.

“I had a bunch of friends come together and were like, ‘Hey, we realize you don’t have housing right now… we’re gonna make a spreadsheet of people you’re gonna sleep in their room with,’” Sydlowski said. “Basically just like dorm hopping.”

Sydlowski managed to snag one of the last available beds in the Commonwealth Honors College residential area. He said freshmen and sophomores benefit most from the resources available in on-campus residence buildings.

“They’re just adjusting to living on campus for the first time… so it’s very difficult for them to wrap their heads around living away,” Sydlowski said. “It’s very frustrating to see juniors and seniors who are well-adjusted, who have the ability to live off campus, have cars, have the money to live off campus, but choose to stay on campus.”

UMass Residential Life announced in December that juniors and seniors would have priority when selecting apartments or suites on campus, and freshmen and sophomores would have priority for shared living accommodations. The priority system factors in the number of semesters students have lived on campus and may offer older students earlier housing selection appointments, a rule that junior transfer student Thomas Wasson said undermines upperclassmen transferring to UMass.

“Because I couldn’t afford to go when I was a freshman, I’m coming as a junior. I’ve only technically been here for one semester. So I’m not the priority because [I] couldn’t go here earlier,” Wasson said. “It just made me feel very kind of expendable or like I was only valued for how much money I would give the school.”

There was no available housing by the time Wasson’s enrollment appointment arrived, and balancing a busy class and work schedule, Wasson worried he may not have time to look for off-campus housing.

“There’s just a lot of demand, not a lot of options,” Wasson said, noting the housing selection process made him feel “insignificant” at UMass.

Protesters repeated claims that UMass is suffering from over-enrollment during an open forum at 7 p.m. and passed around a megaphone to share their frustration with UMass administrators and Residential Life.

University response

UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski said in a statement that “UMass enrollment has remained steady” during a period of increased competition in the Amherst housing market. While the university slightly exceeded the fall 2019 and 2022 first-year enrollment targets, it did not reach its fall 2021 and 2020 targets. The target for the fall 2023 first-year enrollment is not increasing from previous years, the university said.

“The university recognizes the need for additional housing in the Amherst area and across the state, and since 2006 UMass has added more than 2,000 beds,” the statement read. “Over the past four years, 2019 to 2023, undergraduate enrollment has increased only 1.8% to the current figure of 23,146.”

As for off-campus housing in Amherst, the university says the town has “undergone tremendous growth in its downtown and village centers, permitting hundreds of units of housing — many of which support the university’s faculty, staff, and students — with several additional projects under construction or near completion. Additionally, hundreds of beds in neighboring Sunderland have been added to the area’s housing stock, marketed primarily to students.”

The university also points out that the 2023 housing situation is largely due to a change in student preference, potentially driven by a national post-pandemic desire for communal living, not over-enrollment.

Course instructor and Ph.D. candidate Terrell James said UMass must take responsibility for its role in the competitive housing market.

“To think that you can have a larger student body and not expect for that to have any impact on housing in the area — it’s just foolish,” James said. “I’m hearing the people in the community say UMass is causing a housing crisis. I’m hearing students on campus saying UMass is causing a housing crisis.”

“Instead of just dismissing that claim, I think UMass should actually admit that we are somehow responsible for this, and we need to listen to the demands of the community and students to address this issue,” James said.

James teaches his students about social change movements as part of his work with the Office of Civic Engagement & Service Learning. He applauded student protesters for joining in solidarity with students who could not find housing, regardless of the UMass administration’s response.

“You’re not going to win everything, but it’s important to stay together and continue to fight,” James said.

Protesters and their tents remained on the lawn Friday afternoon, and protest organizers plan to continue occupying the space next to the campus pond.

“This is only the start,” organizer Mitchell Brecht said. “We’re gonna continue this campaign until the university gives into our demands … We want actual control, and actual control doesn’t come from making suggestions. It comes from making demands.”

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