AMHERST — A white nationalist group is believed to have placed fliers on vehicles in a University of Massachusetts Amherst parking lot over the weekend, supplementing earlier distribution of similar white supremacy material at other area campuses.
The posters and fliers, from a group called Identity Evropa, bear an image of a classical statue with messages such as “Protect Your Heritage,” “Serve Your People,” “Let’s Become Great Again” and “Our Future Belongs to Us.”
UMass spokesman Edward Blaguszewski said Thursday that UMass officials are taking the matter seriously, as it appears to be not only a bias incident, in which a group is targeting someone based on factors such as race, religion, ethnicity, gender and sexual identity, but also a violation of a campus policy on who can post and distribute information.
“We are committed as a university to values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and we have a system in place for people to report bias-related incidents,” Blaguszewski said.
This includes notifying police, the dean of students’ office and the Title IX coordination team within the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, should people feel they are subjected to harassment, intimidation or bias.
As a violation of the UMass land-use policy, all posters were removed, Blaguszewski said, as they are considered litter and may be irritating for those who found them on their vehicles.
The Identity Evropa fliers were found on fixtures and vehicle windows in Lot 44 at the university Sunday evening. Lot 44 is located off North Pleasant Street, north of the North and Sylvan residential areas and east of the former Mark’s Meadow School.
The organization, classified as a white nationalist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, was founded in March 2016 by Nathan Damigo, a 30-year-old California State University student, according to the center.
Identity Evropa’s Massachusetts Twitter account has photos purporting to show that fliers have been hung at Mount Holyoke College, Holyoke Community College, Amherst College and the University of Massachusetts Boston, among others in the state and nationally.
UMass Boston confirmed that the fliers appeared on campus, putting out a warning Wednesday urging its students to be on alert for the “intimidating” fliers.
But officials at Mount Holyoke College and Amherst College didn’t know whether fliers were on their campuses.
“We have not yet received any word that these fliers have appeared on campus despite the published claim by the group,” Keely Savoie, spokeswoman at Mount Holyoke College, said in an email. “We are investigating”
“We have not had any reports of any activity, including posters, on this campus,” Amherst College spokeswoman Sandy Genelius said.
The Amherst Wire, a student-produced digital publication at UMass, was the first to report the concern, and Blaguszewski told its reporters that the matter is under investigation by UMass police.
Like UMass, other colleges have systems in place for how literature is posted and the response to any that are considered to be targeting specific groups.
Savoie said Mount Holyoke has a Title IX coordinator and a diversity, equity and inclusion cluster that works on diversity efforts.
“We have procedures here,” Genelius said. “For anyone who wants to put up a poster, they need permission.”
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
