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].