Occupy Movement Spreads to University of Massachusetts Boston

From the dome in Harvard Yard to the tents in Boston’s Dewey Square to the camp near Wall Street that started it all, Occupy movements across the country have shut down in recent weeks. But students, faculty, and staff at the University of Massachusetts Boston bucked the trend Monday, when they raised a new, indoor encampment inside the university’s campus center.

The novice occupiers pitched tents and held signs sporting slogans like, “We want education, not a corporation,” and “UMass for the working class.”

Organizers estimated that 25 to 30 people participated in the first day of the movement. Through a series of general assemblies, they planned to create a set of official goals.

In the meantime, organizers agreed on a few aims which they were confident the movement would pursue, including reduced fees; more student, faculty, and staff representation on the university’s board of trustees; and a return to the philosophy which they believe was UMass’ founding purpose.

UMass Boston senior Stephanie Fail said that one of the most important demands the movement can make is that UMass Boston remain affordable for low-income students.

“Even though they are not allowed to raise the tuition, the trustees are allowed to raise fees, and they use that loophole to make students pay thousands of dollars more,” Fail said. “The fees really hurt those of us who aren’t as economically privileged.”

She said that putting students and staff on the university’s board would help accomplish that goal.

The board that oversees the University of Massachusetts system’s five campuses, including Boston, has 19 voting members, two of whom are students. The two campuses which receive a student vote rotate each year.

Paul Atwood, a professor of American Studies at UMass Boston who graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1979, said he hopes the movement will help UMass fulfill its original mission, which he said charged the public institution with educating poor and urban youth.

“The university was founded to serve an unserved population,” Atwood said. “The university is in the midst of a transformation into what it hopes will be another research institution. We have plenty of those in Boston. What we need is an institution of higher education for people who don’t have the privilege of being born into the elite.”

Atwood said that he is optimistic that the UMass movement can cause change, despite the fact that many Occupy movements have abandoned their physical encampments.

“I’m impressed by the quality of the intellectual arguments made by students,” Atwood said. “I hope that our university will follow Harvard’s example and make sure there is room for this protest and for this free speech.”

At Harvard, administrators decided to close the gates of the Yard while protesters camped for six weeks. The group voluntarily removed its tents before winter break but kept an information desk and a large dome, both of which were seized by administrators in January.

William P. Whitham ’14, a member of the Student Labor Action Movement at Harvard, said that SLAM has provided materials to Occupy UMass Boston.

“I’m definitely glad to see another Occupy movement, especially on a college campus,” Whitham said.

—Staff writer Mercer R. Cook can be reached at mcook@college.harvard.edu.