UMass students claim victory, end takeover

Special to the World

This article was reprinted from the March 15, 1997 issue of the People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.

AMHERST, Mass. - The takeover of the administration building on the University of Massachusetts campus here has ended and the students have claimed victory. After six days occupying the Goodell Administration Building, an agreement has been reached between student protesters and the campus administration. The administration was forced to negotiate seriously on issues of financial aid and affirmative action.

The 175 students said they were forced to take dramatic measures in light of the administration's failure to implement the provisions of the 1992 ALANA (African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American) Agreement, a current atmosphere of privatization of university resources, sky high tuition and fees, and the attempted downsizing of support mechanisms for the ALANA student community.

After the students took over the Controller's Office in the Goodell Building on March 3, campus police shut down the building, including phone lines. Outside, 1,500 students took part in peaceful demonstrations.

The support groups held daily rallies, wrote letters of support to the campus newspaper and established a web site chronicling the struggle. In addition, students set up a tent city outside of the Goodell Building where 50-70 students maintained a 24-hour vigil.

In addition to the student protesters both inside and outside the Goodell building, there has been tremendous community support with donations of food, clothes, toiletries, medicines and blankets. Financial contributions came from university faculty and staff on the campus, campus unions and student government associations, as well as from area businesses.

CORRECTION: Humphrey Brown III and Lisa Chiu authored last week's article on the UMass student takeover. Because our space was limited, we had to cut a large part of their article which originally ran in the Daily Collegian. Because of this we did not include their names on the article. We regret the omission.