In recent weeks, the University of Massachusetts has witnessed an encouraging outpour of student energy and RSO mobilization in the name of our right to a participatory education and to conduct our own affairs in peace. I applaud those individuals that have stepped up and continue to selflessly devote their time and energy to defending our university for all of us. I remind those that have remained removed from these affairs that it is never too late to learn about the issues and become involved, and I encourage you to do so. Join the GEO walkout/student boycott on Thursday, April 21 (it’s a Monday schedule due to the holiday) by boycotting your classes and/or heading out to the Student Union to educate yourself and get in on this exciting and noble action.
Some students have complained that GEO and Take Back UMass rallies are self-contradictory since they undermine the very educational process that they purport to defend. Why don’t these groups direct their attention toward Whitmore, and why don’t they seek their success through the standard channels provided them by university protocol? Undergraduates have zero influence over graduate employee pay, and besides, they say, graduate employees are supposed to be dedicated to undergraduate service rather than disruption during class time.
Aside from this position’s undisguised disregard for the future of the university, it also defeats its own critique by misinterpreting the source of the classroom disruption and by proposing that GEO and Take Back UMass do either what they have already done or pursue channels that the administration has already eliminated as viable options. More unfortunate than this gross muddling of the facts is the potential discontinuity it creates in a student body that, at least for the moment, shares an explicit and common interest that requires an uphill fight.
In truth, the most drastic restructuring of the university in 30 years is going down almost entirely behind closed doors. The radical restructuring of 30 years ago was a pro-student movement brought about by students’ own activism and resulted in most of the privileges we enjoy and take for granted today: active RSOs, independent student business and media, etc. Now, in what is becoming an increasingly unabashed anti-student regime, the Lombardi/Gargano junta seeks to capitalize upon the general sentiment of apathy on campus by rolling back these hard-won student prerogatives and expanding administrative control over all areas of student life and academics.
At the same time, the university is in blatant violation of its obligations to graduate employees who continue to work without the new contract promised them, and have now been told that the administration refuses even to honor the terms of the old contracts. Working for years now without proper reimbursement, it is only out of the sheer goodwill and dedication to education of the GEO that UMass has been able to keep on functioning. Now being told by the administration that they must accept pay cuts even as healthcare, childcare, and housing costs increase, these already under compensated professionals are simply incapable of conducting “business as usual.” A rubber band can only stretch so far before it snaps; and so it is the administration, and not the GEO, that is ultimately responsible for the aforementioned “learning disruptions.”
And what of the tactics employed by the GEO and Take Back UMass to voice their defense of student liberties and graduate employee rights? Truth be told, both groups have been exceedingly well behaved. In fact, their respect for university rules and quotidian affairs may spell their eventual demise since it permits the Lombardi Administration to ignore the urgency of their claims and execute unimpeded its anti-student objectives. Attempts to engage in constructive student-administration dialogue have failed, though not for want of student initiative or involvement, and our voices have been met with what might most aptly be described as ruthless administrative disrespect. As it is, marches have been aimed at Whitmore while buildings that are academic in nature have remained untouched – though this leaves unacknowledged the reality that we should not and may not continue our learning and teaching under current conditions.
In short, now is a time for students to become informed and come together as a powerful, unified body in our demand to create the university that we desire and are capable of having. This is our university, funded by our taxes and our tuition payments, and we have the authority to defend it from the invasive and authoritarian administration that seeks to convince us otherwise. Go home, think it over, and get involved.
Aaron Wodin-Schwartz is a Collegian columnist.
