Fellow workers,

The recent Supreme Court decision about affirmative action has wide-reaching consequences that will have detrimental effects on creating a just space for students of color and other underrepresented groups. This decision continues the trend of the Supreme Court being reactionary, sexist, homophobic, and racist. This includes attacks on student loan forgiveness, LGBTQ+ folks, and labor unions. These attacks disproportionately worsen access and economically harm students of color and international students on campus, while also stripping away our labor protections.

Moreover, we wish to call out UMass’ hypocrisy on the recent ruling. The Chancellor claims to be “deeply invested in inclusive education.” However, The University Analytics and Institutional Research Centre shows alarming statistics regarding the overwhelming whiteness of UMass’ current graduate population within domestic admission. Additionally, rates of retention appear to be low and years to completion are alarmingly high– and unfortunately not disaggregated by demographics. It is also evident that the supposed support mechanisms for Black students and students of color at UMass are extremely inadequate. When Black students and student organizations received racist emails, there was no redressal from the administration. The university has only paid lip service against Trump-era xenophobia against international students stuck at borders. As troubling was the hiring of Margolis Healey and Associates to investigate the arrest of a student of color. These incidents are indicative of not only a lack of support but of systemic racism fostered on campus.

This is not an exhaustive list of what UMass has done to make this campus more exclusionary to marginalized students. UMass has continually provided opaque, inadequate and skewed data on our campus climate, without enough information, transparency or accountability. Admission and acceptance rates are not adequately shared. UMass has consistently been complicit in perpetuating anti-Blackness, racism and systemic discrimination despite its claims to inclusivity and “holistic” admissions.

We wholeheartedly believe in the need for affirmative action as a political necessity and to implement more broad mechanisms to not only ensure diverse admissions, but also for more equitable funding, decent labor conditions, non-discriminatory and safe spaces, which improve the experience of higher education and increase rates of retention after entering UMass. In the face of racist policies and erosion of labor rights, it is clear that one of the best ways to achieve these gains is through organizing. As the UAW International stated, “Access to higher education is a labor issue.”