AMHERST — Chanting “shame” and “shut it down,” as well as pounding on the walls inside the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts, student activists on Monday demanded that Raytheon Technologies and similar defense industry contractors be banned from campus due to what they claim is their role in the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The hourlong action by about 25 students involved with the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine began on the Haigis Mall and then extended into Isenberg’s business innovation hub, where a Palestinian flag was hung on the door to the Irwin M. “Mike” and Rona Chase Career Center, with another draped over a nearby staircase. The students issued a series of demands, including that Raytheon be prohibited from participating in upcoming career fairs.
“We are no longer asking for change, we are making it,” said one of the lead organizers of the “Raytheon Out of UMass: No Business as Usual During Genocide” protest. Like others involved, he wouldn’t provide his name out of safety concerns, but observed that the protest is the beginning of disrupting business as usual on campus and creating a “people’s arms embargo,” expressing frustration that several years of appeals to UMass leaders have been ignored.
Contending “UMass, your hands are red,” one student entered the career center and had a brief conversation with representatives, and delivered the demand letter. After being asked to quiet down for the benefit of other students, one of the protesters responded this wouldn’t happen. “Well, they shouldn’t be complicit in genocide.”
UMass spokeswoman Emily Gest issued a statement on behalf of UMass, describing the university as dedicated to advancing knowledge and opportunity in Massachusetts and the world through teaching, research and service.
“In accordance with this mission, UMass Amherst maintains numerous partnerships with entities including, but not limited to, educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private industry,” the statement said. “These partnerships, whether they are manifested through internships, recruitment events, or collaborative research, provide our students and faculty with the widest possible range of opportunities to engage in research, scholarship, and employment that align with their individual personal and professional values.”
UMass also notes that many students have chosen to explore defense-aligned career paths in research, engineering and management, and the companies also have a large portfolio of non-defense work, including decarbonization and civil aviation.
“The university, as a public institution constitutionally bound by the First Amendment, is, and must remain, content-neutral on which companies may join career fairs or host informational recruiting sessions so long as they meet our non-discrimination and recruiting guidelines,” Gest said. “It is up to each student to make their own choice to engage or not engage with an employer; it is not the role of the university to make that choice on their behalf. Therefore, the university will not take actions that limit opportunities for its students and faculty. To do so would be counter to our core values and a violation of our obligations under the Constitution.”
In an Instagram post publicizing the protest, the organizers wrote: “UMass Amherst has deep ties with Raytheon, ranging from research partnerships to recruiting programs, and are thus directly complicit in the mass-murder of Palestinians. As students in the United States, we must stand against our institution that is aiding in the destruction of universities in Gaza and cares more about profits than humanity.”
The post continues, “Israel is enacting the final stage of their genocide in Gaza. A recent report has estimated the death toll to be 680,000 people, half of which are children under 5,” and notes that Raytheon has built F-35 fighter jets.
The protest Monday was smaller than those on the campus during the 2023-2024 school year, when 57 were arrested for trespassing at Whitmore Administration Building after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. That school year culminated in an encampment that was broken up with arrests of 132 people.
Even before Oct. 7, 2023, a group known as UMass Dissenters began making similar appeals in fall 2022, citing Raytheon as a manufacturer of aircraft engines, cybersecurity, missiles, satellites and drones, and complaining about their presence at job fairs.
The rally began on the Fine Arts Center end of the Haigis Mall, where shouts of “no peace, no justice” and “not another nickel, not another dime” were made, prior to brief presentations, where speakers talked about the direct recruitment on campus and contending there is a “Raytheon-tailored curriculum” in the engineering school.
UMass disputes this.
“Neither Raytheon nor any private entity has any control over the Riccio College of Engineering’s curriculum or any curriculum at UMass,” Gest said. “Academic matters have always been, and remain, solely under the purview of the faculty and administration. “
The protesters plan to continue to apply pressure in advance of the career fair that will be held Monday, Sept. 29.
All of those involved covered their faces and heads with masks, scarves and keffiyehs for most of the rally, though one student removed his mask when speaking to those at the career center.
The rally also had First Amendment observers and protocols in place at the conclusion, with those participating asked to disperse in pairs, and then only to remove their coverings when they felt safe to do so.
The concern for the safety of the participants was illustrated as the action wound down, with a critic standing nearby, yelling out to them to have courage of convictions to show their faces and identify themselves, comparing their hiding identities to what Ku Klux Klan members do. That bystander also noted that the number of those involved was significantly diminished from the past two years.