Members of the University of Massachusetts community voiced concerns about University administration’s handling of race, inclusiveness and social justice on campus at a Campus Listening Session Friday afternoon in Mahar Auditorium.

About 250 students and at least a dozen administrators, including Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, attended the open discussion. The goal of the session, according to a campus-wide email delivered to students Thursday afternoon from Subbaswamy, was to allow people to share their perspectives and suggestions on how to better the campus community. The message was sent in light of recent protests at the University of Missouri.

However, many of the speakers at the event questioned how seriously the administration was taking these issues, as Subbaswamy only listened to questions and did not specifically provide answers to most questions.

“I feel like (administration) did this as a tactic to stop black students from rising up on campus,” political science and legal studies major and vice president of the Black Student Union Sheena Jeune said at the session. “Don’t come here to save face because we’re very aware of your tactics.”

Two microphones were set up in the aisles of the auditorium and community members were encouraged to form lines and speak. Most administrators sat in the auditorium crowd, while Subbaswamy moved throughout the room to listen to speakers.

While Subbaswamy began the listening session with a list of accomplishments the University has made in regards to issues of race and social justice in the previous year, students noted that they felt little change in how they experience racism on campus since a similar listening session was held a year ago.

“It hasn’t been an improvement for students that are here today,” said political science and legal studies major and vice president of the Student Government Association Chantal Barbosa. “What are the plans that your administration can do now?”

Speakers at the event expressed dissatisfaction with the timing of the listening session – some claimed they were informed of on short notice – and that the session was selected at an inopportune time for students to attend.

Subbaswamy responded to these criticisms by saying that there would be more public conversations in the future.

“We felt that in light of developments across the country we thought it was important to have one session right away,” Subbaswamy said. “There will be more sessions.”

Speakers at the event described facing incidents of racism on campus such as being called racial slurs and being unnecessarily harassed by police officers due to their race. One graduate student said she was told by her departmental advisor that she only received her job because of her race.

Many speakers at the session also said they wanted to see a structural retraining of faculty, staff, students and police officers at UMass, and that undergraduate freshmen should be required to take a course that focuses on institutional racism.

Others brought up the absence of provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs Katherine Newman, who was not present at the event. Alejandro Oms, a theater and political science major and associate chief justice of the SGA, said that Newman told him it was “not her job” after being suggested that undergraduates be required to take classes on issues such as racism.

“It is not something Provost Newman can do by fiat,” said Amilcar Shabaaz, faculty advisor for Diversity and Excellence in the Chancellor’s office, in response to Oms. Shabaaz said that decisions like those must be made in the Faculty Senate.

Barbosa added that while members of the SGA wanted to meet with Newman about issues such as race and diversity at UMass, they had been unable to do so as their scheduled meetings were continually cancelled.

“Provost Newman, the students of color here on campus are definitely not your priority,” Barbosa said.

Issues of racism on college campuses have come to the forefront of national discussions after student activism at Missouri led to the resignation of the university’s president Tim Wolfe, who was criticized for his lack of response to rising racial tensions on campus.

Other campuses, such as Yale University and Ithaca College, have seen large-scale demonstrations and increased student activism over issues of race and diversity on college campuses.

Stuart Foster can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @Stuart_C_Foster