AMHERST — Tensions rose on Wednesday, if only briefly, between Hampshire College’s president and the students occupying her office in protest.
President Miriam “Mim” Nelson met with students from the Hamp Rise Up movement, who have conducted a sit-in there for 50 days, protesting the way administrators have handled recent decisions about the college’s future. Nelson asked the students to leave her personal office — one of four office rooms in the suite — and after they declined, Nelson had facilities staff remove her personal belongings from the space.
According to Nelson, the students had previously been occupying all of the rooms in the suite except for her personal office, which was locked. Nelson said she previously had not allowed the students to occupy that office because her belongings were in there, including confidential information.
But recently, Nelson said she found out that the students had “broken into” her office anyway and were occupying it.
“Yesterday I asked for a meeting with the students, and about 30 showed up including some faculty, some parents and some alums,” Nelson told the Gazette on Thursday.
Sarahi Silva, a media liaison for Hamp Rise Up, said in a statement that during that meeting, the students “respectfully declined” Nelson’s request to leave her office.
“When a student pointed out that we were sitting in to make the point that currently leadership aren’t entitled to that space anymore she threw up her hands and called campus security, as well as the entire facilities staff, whom she demanded retrieve her items,” Silva wrote.
Nelson said that facilities staff removed her belongings from the office without incident. She said that she hasn’t been working in that personal office due to the sit-in.
Students have several key demands for Hampshire’s leadership, such as increased transparency and improved shared governance. The group also recently asked that the college’s trustees fill two vacant seats on the board with students elected by their peers.
In a letter, the trustees declined to do so, citing several reasons, including the current presence of a student trustee and student trustee-elect on the board; potential unfairness to staff and faculty, who each have one representative on the board; and the four-year commitment that trustees are asked to make.
Nelson said the college’s shared governance structure is “very progressive” and compares favorably to the shared governance at the Pioneer Valley’s other colleges.
The students who continue their sit-in, however, feel differently after Wednesday’s encounter.
“We’re struck by how entitled the timing of these requests seem and understand this as a move to end any need for discussion with us,” Silva wrote.
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.