Open Letter: More than Two-Thirds of UMass Residential Staff Declare No Confidence in UMass Chancellor, Demand Measures to Protect Students and Prevent Outbreaks

Chancellor Subbaswamy:

We tried to warn you. Yet you, in your desire to collect housing and dining revenue, decided to open campus without the proper safety precautions, leading to the present coronavirus outbreak. Although the worst of the outbreak seems over, it is clear that changes must be made to prevent future outbreaks. The time has come for UMass to make serious investments in the safety and wellbeing of its students.

As a surge of coronavirus campuses engulfs the campus, UMass has taken some steps in the right direction. Thanks to the advocacy of our Student Government Association, students with on campus jobs will be paid in full for shifts lost due to the self-sequester order. Many students who flout health and safety guidelines are now facing sanctions. Providing economic support so students can isolate and sanctioning those students who egregiously violate COVID guidelines are good policies. And, there is more to be done. There are confirmed cases of COVID-positive residents waiting for days before being moved to quarantine; there are not enough Residence Hall Security staff to properly enforce guest restrictions; and students deserve economic support so that, when necessary, they can miss work to isolate, quarantine, and stop the spread of the virus.

So it is that nearly 190 Residential Life staff members, comprising more than two-thirds of all RAs and PMs, have voted to declare no confidence in your administration. Our confidence can be restored, should your administration meet our comprehensive demands for safety and economic security for all.

Chief among these demands are the following:

• UMass shall hire enough Res Hall Security staff to provide 24/7 security in the Residence Halls, and shall hire enough contact tracers and quarantine staff to ensure that newly-infected students are quarantined within hours of testing positive
• UMass shall continue to employ and fully pay all student workers, and shall reimburse students for lost wages — both from on-campus and off-campus employment — due to the present and all future self-sequester, isolation, or quarantine orders
• All fraternities and other student organizations that host parties and flagrantly flaunt COVID guidelines — such as Theta Chi — should face immediate sanctions, up to and including the suspension/revocation of their status as a student organization
• All students documented for severe COVID guideline violations shall be removed from campus and educated about the seriousness of COVID-19 once they are off campus
• In the event of campus shutting down due to COVID, UMass shall keep all student workers, staff, and faculty fully employed and fully compensated for the Spring 2021 semester

RAs and PMs also implore UMass to agree to the safety demands of Res Hall Security staff, found here.

Chancellor, we urge your administration to meet with RAs and PMs to begin addressing these issues, before this crisis deepens and more students, staff, and faculty suffer from COVID infection or economic pain. We are aware that these investments in public health and economic security will be costly, and we urge the university to draw from its $300 million reserves and state and federal aid to make these investments.

No one should have to choose between paying rent or risking COVID infection. UMass must make critical investments to stop both the current and future spread of COVID and ensure the economic wellbeing of our entire community.

On behalf of the Resident Assistant and Peer Mentor Union,

William Cole, Melissa Francois, Silvia Shtereva, and James Cordero