Community-University Solidarity Brings Victory!

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Roger Conant talks with Frances Crowe and Sherrill Hogan outside commencement. Their action inspired two students to don jumpsuits and experience the power of this provocative act to raise awareness about torture. A few of the community and university activists outside the Mullins Center. Just left of center is one of the students who spent the day in an orange jumpsuit loaned by PVCAST. Andrew Card receiving his degree amidst signs and sounds of protest. The uproar entirely drowned out the awarding of the degree.

Amherst, May 26, 2007

Four weeks ago, the University of Massachusetts announced its plans to award Andrew Card with an honorary degree at graduate commencement. Students, faculty, and staff quickly began organizing to oppose this decision. They argued that Card's role in founding and chairing the White House Iraq Group - responsible for manipulating intelligence to "market" (Card's term) the war to the American people - made him ineligible for the degree, which by university policy is limited to "persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts." But the trustees and administration refused to consider withdrawing the offer of the degree.

Yesterday, at graduate commencement, the anti-war movement made its voice heard. This was a victory made possible not only by members of the UMass Amherst campus, but by peace-loving people throughout the Pioneer Valley. Community organizations actively participated in the efforts to convince the university administration to rescind the offer. When that failed, they took time out of a Friday afternoon, arriving at commencement in all their colors to demonstrate the real values of western Massachusetts.

The Northampton Committee advertised the event and many members attended the rally at 12:00 outside the Mullins Center (the commencement site). Doug Renick of American Friends Service Committee and Priscilla Lynch of CODE PINK served as point people for the community groups at the rally. The Raging Grannies led the throng in anti-war songs. Community members of the International Socialist Organization joined their UMass colleagues to hand out flyers. Together with AFSC and UMass students and faculty, Traprock Peace Center helped organized a post-commencement Celebration of Peace, Learning, and Democracy at Jones Library, where Tom Neilson's folk music brought the day to a jubilant close.

The event brought together the community and university anti-war movements in a way that many agreed had not been seen in a very long while. When faculty began their procession into the back of the Mullins Center, the president of the faculty union, Max Page, expressed his appreciation for Northampton activist Bill Ames, who despite the brutal sun had been keeping a tireless watch over the back door with a prominent anti-war sign.

But perhaps the most powerful example of community-university cross-fertilization came in the passing on of the orange jumpsuit experience. Veteran jumpsuit-wearers Frances Crowe and Sherrill Hogan stood at the front entrance of the Mullins Center to bring attention to the inhumane treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo. Their action inspired two students to don jumpsuits on loan from the Pioneer Valley Committee Against Secrecy and Torture. Seven hot and sweaty hours later, at the close of the celebration at Jones Library, the students were still wearing the jumpsuits. They talked to the gathering about what a profound experience it had been. By taking that simple action, they had encouraged people to approach them and engage in important conversations about the realities of war and torture.

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