Special Edition:
Students Seize UMass Offices
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UMASS STUDENT PROTESTERS CLAIM VICTORY AT GOODELL
For Immediate Release
March 8, 1997
The takeover has finally ended and the students have claimed victory! After six days occupying the Goodell Administration building on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, an agreement has been reached between student protesters and the campus Administration.Full details of the agreement will be available at today's 11:00 a.m. press conference on the steps of the Goodell Administration building where information packets will be available to the press.
The students, who have won on twenty-one demands, will walk out of the Goodell building at 11:00 a.m. this morning. United throughout the past six days of occupation and struggle, the 175+ students who have occupied the building have reached agreement on the accord through a consensus process.
Students felt they were forced to take dramatic measures in light of the Administration's failure to implement the provisions of the 1992 ALANA (African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American) Agreement, a current atmosphere of privatization of University resources, sky high tuition and fees, and the attempted downsizing of support mechanisms for the ALANA student community. The students boldly staged a sit-in in the Controller's Office in the Goodell Administration building on Monday, March 3, which soon turned into a building takeover and occupation. Campus police shut down the building, shut down phone lines, and have prevented access to the students inside.
Outside support groups have been able to recruit upwards of 1500 students to take part in peaceful demonstrations outside the building. This support has been key to forcing the Administration to negotiate seriously on issues of Financial Aid and Affirmative Action. The outside support groups have demonstrated vigorously by holding daily rallies attended by thousands of students, marches around campus and through the Whitmore Administration building, numerous editorials and letters of support in the campus newspaper, and the establishment of a web site chronicling the struggle. In addition, there has been support around the clock as students set up a tent city outside of the Goodell Administration building where upwards of 50-70 students per night maintained a 24-hour per day vigil in support of their comrades inside Goodell. This support will surely continue today.
In addition to the student protesters both inside and outside the Goodell building, there has been tremendous community support with donations of food, clothes, toiletteries, medicines and blankets, and money from faculty and staff on the campus, campus unions and student government associations, from individuals in the Amherst community, as well as donations from area businesses.