Clarifying Misconceptions about Repression at UMass Amherst

Q: Does the weapons manufacturer RTX comply with UMass's Employer Recruiting Guidelines?

A: No. While the guidelines note that they "are subject to change without prior notice," they currently state that UMass can "decline to post jobs that do not support the interests of UMass Amherst and our students"—we find it clear that murdering civilians, environmental degradation, and defrauding the US government do not in fact support the interests of the University or its students. The guidelines additionally require adherence to the NACE Principles for Ethical Professional Practice, which state that companies must "practice reasonable, responsible, and transparent behavior that consciously avoids harmful actions by embodying high ethical standards." Routinely violating fair labor practices, including silencing whistleblowers, should disqualify RTX's participation on these grounds, even ignoring the human rights violations that their products enable.

Q: Does student discipline at UMass focus on repairing harm and helping students learn from their mistakes?

A: Reports of UMass students racially and physically harassing pro-Palestinian activists on campus, yelling "kill all Arabs," and sharing photos, videos, and personal information of other students with militant pro-Israeli groups like Betar (which the ADL calls a hate group) and the doxing website Canary Mission never resulted in the University holding anyone accountable for these harms. It is difficult to take UMass's sanctions against students protesting injustice in good faith given this context. To label currently repressed students' outspokenness against mass murder as a "mistake" to be learned from does not appear to align with UMass's slogan that it is "for the common good."

Q: Has UMass cancelled its Arabic language program?

A: On 10/15/25, The Five College Consortium announced that it was shuttering its joint Arabic Language Initiative, stating that "there is no expectation or requirement for campuses" to continue hosting Arabic classes. Accordingly, after Fall 2026, UMass Amherst will be cancelling its intensive "four-skilled" (listening, speaking, reading, and writing—which EBSCO and many other academic sources call the "essential components of language mastery") Arabic language program in the Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (LLC) department. It is true that UMass is retaining Arabic courses in the Judaic and Near Eastern Studies department, but these courses do not cover all four skills and therefore do not enable students to speak with the fluency necessary to converse with Arabic speaking family members or travel in the Arabic speaking world. Any declaration that these four-skilled Arabic courses saw low enrollment should note that many other UMass courses see equal levels of enrollment without cancelation.  Additionally, recent changes to the UMass course catalogue prevented these classes from appearing when searching “Arabic,” which may have contributed to low enrollment numbers. The claim that students can continue to take Arabic classes at Smith are misleading—this can add an hour and a half round-trip commute to their course schedule, which is prohibitive for many students as they juggle course load and, in many cases, jobs.

Q: Are all UMass course offerings decided by the faculty, without input from administrators?

A: No. Although permanent faculty have a large measure of control over the courses they teach, their control is not absolute. The provost and dean in the LLC department are overriding fellow faculty's desire to maintain the four-skilled Arabic course offerings. Because, according to administrators, four-skilled Arabic does not constitute a "program" on UMass campus (and is rather just a series of courses), they claim they can unilaterally axe it without faculty input. This decision is a clear violation of the spirit of faculty governance. In the History case, the faculty member is in a contingent and temporary position, so he has much less say over his courses than permanent faculty do. 

Q: Is UMass actively bargaining in good faith with the Professional Staff Union?

A: PSU has filed three separate charges with the Department of Labor Relations (DLR) over UMass management's bad faith behavior at the bargaining table. Read more in PSU's "FAQ Correcting Common Bargaining Misconceptions."

Q: What aspects of the "Besieged from Without, Undermined from Within" report do UMass officials dispute?

A: You can read a full list of management's criticism's and the author's rebuttals on pages 34-35 of the the report.