Whether students at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst actually carry out a strike later this week or reconcile difference with administrators, the student government there has shown commendable organizational strength and effectiveness as it forces its administration to look at student grievances with a necessary willingness to improve student life.
UMass-Amherst officials plan to meet with student groups organizing the strike to discuss conflicts, according to a Nov. 12 Boston Globe article. The student groups, including the Graduate Student Senate and Student Government Association, are acting as student advocacy groups should, by standing up to administrators and demanding their attention regarding increases in mandatory student fees, campus police practices and minority representation.
The Student Senate, which represents the nearly 20,000 undergraduates at UMass-Amherst, has called for the removal of plainclothes police officers from student dormitories and the creation of an oversight committee for campus police actions, according to a Nov. 8 Daily Collegian article. SGA President Aaron Buford told the student newspaper, “These issues are very real. We want to show that our voice is being heard.” This determination to have student concerns addressed promptly and sincerely is a desirable trait in a student leader.
The goals of campus government should never be closely intertwined with those of the university on all occasions. UMass-Amherst groups offer a reassuring model of the power student governments have to strike fear within the faceless offices of campus administrators who, like their peers at thousands of institutions, make it increasingly difficult for students to get answers from unaccommodating spokespeople or to demand accountability for tuition and fee increases. The possibility of forcing administrators to meet with students in light of pressing concerns and to realize something must be done to deter groups from boycotting classes — a dramatic move that would embarrass the university — is unheard of and admirable — at least at Boston University, where the Student Union has been closely tied to the administration since a dramatic organizational redesign in 2004.
The forceful tactics of UMass-Amherst student groups have resulted in change in the past. Graduate student employees held a 10-day strike in 1991, according to an Oct. 31 Collegian article, and got a better contract for it. Now the Graduate Employment Organization, which has been negotiating with the university for 11 months, is demanding a 5 percent raise to offset rising student fees, which have increased 50 percent over five years, to $8,969, according to the student newspaper.
Graduate Student Senate President Jeff Napolitano told the Globe that professors at UMass-Amherst have said they will not penalize students who take part in the strike. With faculty support, the student government may just get the answers it wants from administrators. Regardless of the outcome, the movement should inspire all student leaders with administrative grievances to action.
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