More than 100 members of the Faculty Staff Union, Classified Staff Union, Professional Staff Union and Graduate Employee Organization, alongside student supporters, gathered to support increased wages and free speech Thursday at Skylight Park Plaza.
Among the speakers were Amanda Achin and Jason Fasano, two CSU members who have been notified that the university is considering disciplinary action for noncompliance with the space use policy at an Oct. 8 vigil at the same location.
“The crackdowns on free speech on this campus will only prevent future students from accessing the same opportunities that I had for self-empowerment and collective advocacy challenging systemic issues. It’s bad for our social justice struggles. It’s bad for our union movement — all of which are deeply connected,” Achin said in her speech.
Jessica Holden, an associate archivist at the Healey Library and member of the FSU bargaining team, said protests are an important part of UMass Boston’s history. “I can tell you all that we have a very long history of activism at this university dating back to the 1960s, when our students were protesting the Vietnam War. Campus activism is a huge part of our identity as a university,” she said.
“As a librarian in our current era of misinformation, of censorship and book banning and nationwide attacks on higher education, I am horrified by this current suppression of free speech on our campus,” Holden said.
Union organizers did not submit the protest and demonstration advance notification form, as required by the university’s space use policy, according to PSU Vice President Penelope MacDonald. “I think it’s important to note that the administration of the university has instituted a space policy for protest. We did not adhere to that today,” she said. “We came together as unions to decide this.”
MacDonald said the speak-out was organized by multi-union contract action teams.
PSU President Tom McClennan said the unions are bargaining for guaranteed annual raises in addition to a $68,000 minimum salary demand. “It’s not just enough for people to get hired at a living wage. We want to keep people here. We want people to grow here,” he said. “To do that, we need to also give people raises that are better than inflation.”
The demonstration had no visible police or administrative presence, and organizers were not ordered to disperse, unlike the Oct. 8 vigil, at which approximately a dozen administrators and campus police officers stood at the edge of the protest after instructing the organizers to disband at the start of the event.
“What we did do was an informal email with event services to ask if we could use this space uninterrupted today, while making it known this is not official request,“ MacDonald said.
“The union demonstration activity on October 31 was a registered campus event so it took place in accordance with campus policy,” Communications Director DeWayne Lehman wrote in an email statement.
The term “registered campus event” does not appear in the space use policy, and an email does not meet the policy’s notification requirements. Lehman did not respond to a further request for comment.
“We have a lot to advocate for — on this campus, in our communities and in the world. We need more empowered voices and less fear and intimidation,” Achin said. “The priorities of this campus are becoming more and more shameful: more money for administration while many CSU members are working multiple jobs just to get by.”
Caroline Coscia, the president of FSU, emphasized the importance of the campus’s librarians and non-tenured faculty. “If you take a 100-level class and you’re interested in that major, it is that associate lecturer who is out there working with you and encouraging you to be a poli-sci major… It is the associate lecture who goes beyond his or her job description to embrace you, teach you critical learning skills and show you the way,” she said. “They get no benefits.”
“Our Librarian 1’s. They’re the ones helping you in the library as you go forward and learn to research. They get no support,” Coscia said.
Said Holden, “Censorship is not who we are. It’s not what we’re about, and it’s not what we need from our administration. We need leadership, not oppression.”
A version of this article appeared in print on Page 1 of Vol. LVIII Issue VI, published Nov. 4, 2024.
