Massachusetts Daily Collegian

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A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Tent city occupies part of UMass

Sarah Doremus/Collegian

Under a banner that reads “Occupy UMass,” a small tent city was erected at the University of Massachusetts last week on the green in front of Goodell Hall and near the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Individuals galvanized by the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York and involved in similar local movements had been planning the tent city for several weeks at general assembly meetings, according to participant Mwanase Ahmed. However, he said, the encampment was not put up until last Friday.

“Originally, we wanted to occupy Whitmore [the administrative building on campus], but we didn’t want to be expelled,” said Ahmed, who’s a student at UMass majoring in Social Thought and Political Economy. Members of the group initially stationed themselves next to the Student Union, but after a windy night, they relocated to their current position, in front of Goodell, which they feel offers them greater visibility.

“It tells people what we are doing, and that we exist,” said Rebecca Binns, a UMass student majoring in history, who has been helping to run the information tent where students can stop by to talk or to pick up pamphlets detailing the ideals of the movement.

“The purpose of staying out here is to stand in solidarity with other movements and to be here essentially when students start coming through the campus and being here to say that ‘this space is going to be perpetually occupied’ and bring light to the injustices,” added graduate student and participant Kate Losey, who has not slept in the tents yet, but hopes to do so soon.

The “Occupy UMass” sign is large enough to be read from the steps of Morrill Science Building IV. Currently, about 10 tents dot the green, with an occasional new one cropping up.

On Wednesday, senior women studies major Carrie Diehl pitched a large green tent that she said she hopes will become “the women’s tent” for the movement.

“I’m here because I am angry about the cuts to UHS,” she said – referencing changes at the facility, which include shorter hours and the eventual removal of its pharmacy – while staking her tent. “I followed the movement slightly, not a whole lot before, but I supported it fully. I just didn’t quite have the time, now I am making the time. “

Diehl believes that creating a visible presence is important to the overall success of the movement.

“I think once people become invisible it appears that they have become complacent. If you let them know you aren’t going to go away, then maybe they will make some time to talk,” said Diehl.

The idea of creating a place for conversation is a popular one in the movement, which is an effort to rally against what protesters define as corporate greed and unequal wealth distribution in America, among other things. Students at the UMass encampment hope that their site will become a “forum” to have the discussion.

“I feel this camp provides an area where people who support the movement can have discussion,” said Middle Eastern studies major Colin Booth Potter, who slept in a tent Monday and Tuesday night.

Currently, the group has no plans to abandon the encampment.

And while some of the members of the encampment said they had the permission of Chancellor Robert Holub to stay for as long as they wanted, Holub said in an email to the Massachusetts Daily Collegian last night that they had asked him if they would be removed from the site through means of police brutality, to which he said they would “most assuredly not.”

“We will be here until we win,” said UMass doctoral candidate Tim Sutton. “But I am not the person to declare what victory looks like.”

Sutton went on to say that he hopes that through conversation and by adding more voices into the discussion, a holistic solution will be reached.

In the meantime, the members of the encampment expect that it will continue to grow and evolve.

“I don’t know what will happen,” said Losey. “I think it is going to get bigger though.”

Katie Landeck can be reached at [email protected].

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  • A

    AnarchySucksDec 2, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    I do use my brain. I do not support OWS because when I ask for an alternative system to what we have now I do not receive one, nor are any ideas on how to change the current system fundamentally better. I support redistributing wealth, but not by those who live in tents and have no idea what they are talking about.

    Reply
  • D

    danielleDec 1, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    It really speaks to how much this country is controlled by corporate interests when students are willing to tear down a movement for less institutionalized economic inequality. Use your brains, you need this.

    Reply
  • A

    Anarchy SucksNov 29, 2011 at 9:44 pm

    I am curious to know how many people who study business, economics, math, and other applicable degrees are not part of OWS. As John G pointed out with conservatives, I guarantee that OWS would say those who study that stuff are the greedy fatcats! If one such area expert backs up the OWS side of the story though, even on a different issue, then they’re a hero!

    Conservatives aren’t sick of OWS. I’ve voted D all but once, I am just sick of those who have no idea what they are talking about opening their mouth and looking like the idiots they are.

    Reply
  • J

    John G.Nov 21, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    By the way, here are some charts and data showing what the OWS protesters are so angry about:

    http://www.businessinsider.com/what-wall-street-protesters-are-so-angry-about-2011-10?op=1

    Reply
  • J

    John G.Nov 21, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    How conservatives keep lying and changing their story…

    BEFORE OWS:
    There are no jobs! The American people demand jobs!

    AFTER OWS:
    Why won’t these OWS people just get jobs and STFU?

    Reply
  • A

    Anarchy.SucksNov 21, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    This is independent news that I have gathered the sources from, I don’t watch Fox, CNN, or even your MSNBC (The Marx newspapers are drivel). BBC, CBC, Bloomberg, Forbes, and other journals have shown how hated this movement is by those who understand the system and who actually might be studying it, I know this is the internet but my Masters degree tell me that these people are idiots.

    Reply
  • C

    ChrisNov 21, 2011 at 5:38 am

    Rasmussen Polls Monday, April 05, 2010
    “On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own.” and “29% Say Tea Party Members Are Terrorists, 55% Disagree “

    Reply
  • T

    Troy Anthony DavisNov 20, 2011 at 9:29 am

    Please, AS. This is a global movement. Perhaps you could come to any number of the general assemblies currently scheduled and being held locally, regionally, or nationally, to catch up on a few facts.

    Reply
  • E

    Ed CuttingNov 19, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    So let me see if I understand this: The UMPD can basically run roughshod over my civil rights and threaten every dire and brutal consequence known to humanity because I am merely walking through the parking lot of the apartment complex in which I reside, but these folks — violating all kinds of university policies — are exempt from any form of consequence.

    I guess some folk are more equal than others. Oh, and Bob, the Lincoln HELP phone is *still* defective, has been since last spring, but I guess if your police terrify everyone enough, no one will complain and hence it doesn’t matter, I guess.

    Reply
  • M

    MikeNov 19, 2011 at 6:53 pm

    #occupyajob

    Reply
  • G

    GregNov 19, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    Good to see them getting a jump start on being unemployed. Can’t wait to see you mowing my lawn in 2 years with your Social Thought “degree”

    Reply
  • J

    johnNov 19, 2011 at 4:14 pm

    The problem with the occupy movement is that the reject rational thinking, they rejects facts and they reject common sense. It’s a a group of people who don’t understand the first thing about economics and business but believe because they have good intentions(in their view) that their goals will magically be accomplished. I personally think they are an embarrassment to our school and our country.

    Reply
  • C

    ChrisNov 19, 2011 at 1:58 pm

    So what are the injustices? Cuts at UHS? That is injustice? Corporate greed is injustice? I thought that not enforcing laws on corporations that break laws is injustice? Is there a law against profit? And what about “unequal redistribution of wealth in America”? “unequal”, does that mean you are not getting your fair share of what is illegally taken from those that legally obtained wealth? What right in our Constitution do you cite for a basis of getting other peoples wealth?

    Reply
  • H

    hmmNov 18, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    Anarchy sucks, eh? Aren’t a lot of TP types libertarians or ‘anarcho-capitalists’ who want nothing but total free-form capitalism? What of this ‘approval’ you vaguely allude to – is OWS running for office? Or is it maybe exposing the fact that certain things that affect all of us, like economic conditions for instance, have causes and effects far beyond the realm of ‘public opinion’ and even of democracy…?

    Reply
  • J

    johnNov 18, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    Those tents are disgusting and an embarrassment to the school. It’s sad that our chancellor is letting himself be bullied by a small group of students.
    It is not necessary to get them out by “police brutality”. The school has the legal right to ask them to leave and if they don’t, than can be be arrested.

    Reply
  • L

    LeniNov 18, 2011 at 1:10 pm

    Sadly, “Anarchy Sucks” is misinformed. 48% as of October approved of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. Start reading some independent news sources and get your head out of Faux News.

    Reply
  • A

    Anarchy SucksNov 18, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    No wonder the Occupy movement ranks below the Tea Party in terms of approval now. Marching through the campus center was obnoxious and distracting to us and the general rudeness/lack of basic economic and fiscal knowledge frustrates anyone informed who talks to them in the shanty town.

    Reply