Updated: UMass Faculty and Librarians Call for the Resignation of Chancellor Javier Reyes
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An ad-hoc group of faculty and librarians has collectively written a letter calling for Chancellor Reyes to resign. The letter now has over 225 public signatures from UMass Amherst faculty and librarians, plus many additional anonymous signatures from people who feared retaliation. The 225 names are listed within the letter. Organizers sent the letter te Reyes on May 16. The letter follows a vote of no confidence in Reyes by the UMass Student Goverment Association and a letter of condemnation of Reyes and the police action he ordered by the five largest unions at UMass.
The letter opens with a condemnation of the brutal police assault ordered by Reyes on peacefully protesting students and of the use of force to silence political speech. It states:
“We write as faculty and librarians who are appalled and outraged by the brutal law enforcement action you authorized against peacefully protesting UMass faculty, students, staff, and alumni on May 7 and 8. Your actions have violated the sense of trust, safety, and community that your administration claims it wants to build on this campus, while trampling on constitutionally protected First Amendment rights. You have failed this university. Like the undergraduate and graduate students on this campus, we have lost confidence in your leadership and call for your immediate resignation.”
The letter concludes by calling on university leadership to adopt an open and democratic process for choosing the next chancellor.
Read the entire letter and view the list of signatories here.
A bibliography providing background on the events of May 7 and links to videos of police actions can be found here.
I am a UMASS alumna, Ph. D. In English. and a Jew. I am appalled by Chancellor Reyes’ actions during a peaceful demonstration. I believe every voice has a right to be heard. To stifle free speech is to betray the core values of a school or university. Reyes should lose his job, either voluntarily or involuntarily. He does not belong in any institution of higher learning.