In this newsletter: Bargaining ※ GSCA virtual vigil ※ UMass Unions drive to Swamy’s house ※ Defunding police
Successor Bargaining: Thank you to those who filled out the bargaining inputs form last week. If you want to inform your elected Bargaining Committee about what to put on the bargaining table, continue to put your ideas there. Once we have some more responses, we will begin to publish and update them here https://cutt.ly/barg2020-members so members can read each other’s inputs.
Impact Bargaining: The newly released Fall 2020 policy is being read and researched by the Bargaining Committee, more on this soon.
Black Lives Matter: Graduate Students of Color Association is holding an online Vigil on Wednesday, June 10 at 5 PM. The vigil is intended to celebrate the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and many others, while creating space for our student community to grieve, discuss, listen, and to support each other. It is a critical moment for all of us. We encourage our members to attend and use this opportunity to reflect on our own campus climate. [Zoom link] (Meeting ID: 747 499 8222, Password: 741602)
UMass Unions United drive-in protest: Inspired by GEO led Drive past the Chancellor’s House Protest that took place in April, the UMass Amherst Unions United (GEO-UAW, University Staff Association, Resident Assistant/Peer Mentor Union UAW2322, Professional Staff Union, AFSCME Local and Massachusetts Society of Professors UMass Amherst) is planning on a cross-union drive-in protest on Wednesday, June 17, 2020, from 10:00am-12:30pm. We will meet at Parking lot 71 by Whitmore building first. Ranging from dining hall staff, janitors, graduate employees, professional staff and faculty, UMass Unions United (UUU) is calling on the university to guarantee no layoffs or major cuts in the coming year. We demand that UMass Put People First: invest in public higher education, preserve academic programs and campus jobs, and reopen the campus only when it is safe. Together, we can send a strong message to the UMass Admin and also have some fun! Blast that horn! [Facebook event here]
Defunding Police: While there is an ongoing effort in the pursuit racial justice and dismantling systemic racism, here in the campus community, people of color are also facing various forms of racial discrimination in day to day life. Those who were here in 2018 will remember many racist incidents that happened on campus, from the graffiti in residential hall, and UMass Admin refusing to use the word racism but calling it “bias-related”, to a long-time staff of color being searched and detained with no legal grounds by the UMPD due to an anonymous call reporting a supposedly “agitated black man”. UMass needs to do more than sending out a letter of condemnation. The staff person mentioned above filed a complaint against UMPD recently in the hope that “no one else in the UMass community will be treated this way”. We ask the question: when is the end? When will the community take action and not passively wait for another occurrence ?
One way we can start doing so is to defund the police! According to Budget reports from 2015-2019, the police funding of UMPD eats up to SIX MILLION! Let it sit for a bit: Six Million is TEN times the UMass budget of childcare, SIX times the budget of advocacy and inclusion support programs, and DOUBLE the budget of wellness. While there are many staff on furlough this month, UMPD is exempted, and getting paid overtime for working closely with Northampton police during the protests there. Police presence on campus is unnecessary and creates more harm and tension in the community. The defunding of the police means that there will be more funds for community based resources and safety net. We encourage everyone to be bold, be creative and be humanistic, and engage in a conversation on what campus would look like without police.
For our Chinese-speaking members, if you are interested in learning more about the demand to defund the police, please click below:
為什麼說要”Defund the Police”? 警察不是為了保障安全嗎?到底”Defund the police”的訴求是什麼? 沒有警察後的世界是什麼樣子呢?
GEO Co-Chairs,Dora & Jyoti
