AMHERST — Pro-Palestinian groups at the University of Massachusetts Amherst say the school continues to stifle student voices and refuses to agree to contracts with its professional staff amid building anger about the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, members of the Professional Staff Union have been in ongoing negotiations with the university, saying in November it had been 500 days since thousands of employees had had a contract. The union members Thursday evening overwhelmingly voted no-confidence in Javier Reyes, the university’s chancellor.
The vote passed 966 to 59, representing a 94% vote of no confidence.
Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that has had an active voice in protesting the university’s role in the war over two years, claim that the university has been hypocritical and they want to hold it to account. They held a press conference in front of the university’s administration building on a wintry Thursday afternoon.
“The university has cracked down on student protests, cut back offerings in Arabic language and Middle Eastern studies, furthering its legacy as a hostile campus to Muslim and Arab students, as it has been deemed by the Council for American Islamic Relations,” said Will Kenney, a graduate student at the university and member of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Ari Jewell, communications and organizing committee member of the union and associate managing editor of UMass Magazine, told a reporter that many people on campus feel Reyes is running an “educational institution like a business and a corporation, not supporting the staff that it’s supposed to support.”
When reached for comment Thursday evening, Emily Gest, a spokesperson for the university, said the university will continue to present its proposals in good faith and bargain under the laws set forth in Chapter 150E.
Jewell said both Reyes’ and UMass President Marty Meehan have continuously shown why staff and students voted no-confidence in them. The union vote was the fourth no-confidence vote taken by a body of campus members since the pro-Palestinian protests began in October 2023.
Reyes was named the chancellor of the university in February 2023.
Students continue to be punished, groups say
In September, Kivlighan de Montebello, a junior at the university, was one of a number of students to protest the presence of RTX, formerly known as Raytheon — a defense contractor — at a career fair hosted by the business school.
He says days after the protest, which was dismantled by the university’s Demonstration Response and Safety Team, he received five charges of misconduct from the university: disruptive behavior, threatening behavior, creating a disturbance, failure to comply and violation of the university picketing code.
Now he is in the appeals process after receiving four additional sanctions — effective from Nov. 7 to May 31, 2026 — from the university, including suspension, restriction from university housing, a re-entry assessment meeting and a letter on decision making. The sanctions are stayed while the appeals process is underway, he said.
“While I’m watching a live-streamed genocide, having to deal with charges against me for trying to protest that genocide is extremely disheartening and as a member of the UMass community, I feel completely disappointed in the administration and this institution,” he told a reporter after the press conference.
De Montebello, who is studying social thought and political economy, said if his appeal is denied, the sanctions he received removes him from campus and he will have to reapply next fall to complete his final year at the university.
He said he is unsure if he’ll want to apply to come back.
Gest, university spokesperson, said she could not comment on the specifics of de Montebello’s case, including whether the charges and sanctions are accurate, per the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as well as campus policy, in an emailed statement.
However, she said, generally student conduct cases are considered individually.
Sanctions and restorative outcomes preserve individual and institutional integrity and, whenever possible and appropriate, help students to learn from their mistakes, repair harms, and regain their standing in the community, she said.
With regard to RTX’s presence on campus in September and its ties to the company, Gest said the university remains “content-neutral” on which companies may join career fairs or host informational recruiting sessions, so long as those companies meet the college’s non-discrimination and recruiting guidelines, per the 1st Amendment.
“UMass Amherst maintains numerous partnerships with entities including, but not limited to, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private industry,” Gest’s statement said.
Pro-Palestinian students also say that courses in Arabic and about the Middle East, including the history of Palestine and Israel and the Iranian Revolution, would be cut by the university “under the pretense of financial constraints,” an emailed statement from the Students for Justice in Palestine said.
Gest, university spokesperson, said no UMass program, credential or certificate has been discontinued, including the Arabic language class, which is offered by the Judaic and Near Eastern Studies program.
“UMass students can still take Arabic classes on campus or at Smith College,” she said in an emailed statement. ”The discontinued program referenced was the Five College Consortium’s Arabic Language Initiative (ended by the Five College Consortium due to low enrollment.)“
University course offerings are determined by faculty, not the administration, she said.
Kevin Young, a history professor at the university who has spoken out against his employer in support of the Palestinian people, said as some employees’ pockets get heavier, others — like those negotiating their contracts in the Professional Staff Union — are struggling to get by.
“By capping administrator salaries and reducing administrative positions to more reasonable levels, the campus could fund many of the things for which students and workers are fighting,” he said.
