AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts Amherst has stepped in after a Residential Life staff member asked a student to remove a sign criticizing Nazis, citing, among other reasons, “issues of inclusion.”
“F— Nazis You Are Not Welcome Here” read the sign that junior nutrition major Nicole Parsons hung from her dorm-room window at Brett Hall. The message prompted someone to make a phone call to a university residence director, Eddie Papazoni, who asked Parsons to take the sign down.
“There are some in the community who have expressed that the sign should be taken down as it has created mixed emotions in the community on how to proceed, issues of inclusion, and the ability to be active members of their community,” reads an email from Papazoni to Parsons. “While Residence Education cannot force you or your roommate to take the sign down, I am asking that you or your roommate take the sign down so that all students can be a part of an inclusive residential experience… ”
Papazoni’s email drew swift backlash on social media after Parsons posted it on the popular Facebook group “Overheard at UMass.” The university quickly responded, issuing a statement that called Papazoni’s message “poorly worded” and said the email “does not reflect the values of the campus, and it should not have been sent.”
The controversy follows several recent anti-Semitic incidents on campus. Since late last month, the university has seen swastikas drawn on a door, a bathroom stall, in the pavement and on the floor at several residence halls. In total, there have been 19 “acts of hate” committed on campus this semester, according to the university’s own website that now tracks such incidents.
Parson’s sign was facing outwards toward Baker Hall, where the most recent anti-Semitic and homophobic vandalism happened on campus early this month.
In an interview over email, Parsons said she doesn’t think the message in Papazoni’s email necessarily reflects his personal views. She went onto criticize “campus administration policies that need changing.”
“I’m disappointed but not surprised that UMass is throwing a member of their staff under the bus,” Parsons said. “It’s nice of them to make a statement… but I’ll continue being angry until they actually do something about it.”
Papazoni did not respond to an emailed request for comment on Friday. In an email, university spokesman Ed Blaguszewski said that there is “no policy in place that restricts a sign such as the one displayed by the students.”
“UMass Amherst emphatically rejects Nazis, and any other hate group, a view expressed in the students’ sign,” the university’s statement reads. “However, we are sensitive to the use of profanity, which some could find inappropriate. The university respects the students’ right to display the sign, and it may remain up.”
Bigoted acts have roiled campus this semester, from racial slurs and anti-black threats written in residence halls to someone spreading white supremacist propaganda around campus. Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation released in November showed hate crimes increasing on college campuses in both 2016 and 2017.
In a November letter to the university’s independent student newspaper, junior Stephanie Margolis wrote about how UMass Hillel — the Jewish campus life organization — was compelled to end the longstanding open-door policy at their building after a gunman opened fire at a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11.
“From Brooklyn to Las Vegas to the University of Massachusetts, where neo-Nazi stickers were found on campus last Wednesday, hate is closing in,” Margolis wrote in the Daily Massachusetts Collegian. “Being a Jew myself, I feel my community shrinking. It feels like there is nowhere for us to turn. So, we turn to ourselves and organizations that can support us.”
In a phone interview Friday, Dec. 21, Margolis said that to fight hate on campus, students need to reach out to one another across dividing lines. But when each new attack happens, she said, it seems to have the effect of closing off that communication between minority groups on campus.
“If we’re not supporting each other as a campus community, these are going to continue to happen over and over and over,” Margolis said. As for the UMass Amherst administration, they need to be doing more, she said, adding that the “Hate Has No Home at UMass” campaign has been ongoing since she got to campus, but has had no real impact.
Rabbi Aaron Fine, the executive director of UMass Hillel, said the Pittsburgh shooting accelerated a change that had already been in the works. He said the organization remains a welcoming and vibrant space despite the “small inconvenience” of having to change the open-door policy. He added, however, that “the need to think about security in this way is a sad reflection of the state of our country and world.”
“All of us need to raise up our voices and assert values of tolerance, understanding and caring in the face of the hate boiling up in our country,” Fine said. “UMass Hillel is committed to doing this, and our intention is to continue to bring our values to life by working to build bridges between communities on campus.”
Fine said it was inappropriate and a mistake for the staff member to ask Parsons to take down her sign in the name of “inclusivity.” He said he had been in communication with university administrators after that incident, and also after the “delayed response” to a swastika drawn on a student’s Happy Chanukah sign on their door in Baker Hall on Dec. 5. In both cases, he said, UMass immediately released communications to “remedy the error.”
“The administration at UMass are good people with good values, and I have no doubt they take all the incidents this semester very seriously,” Fine said. “But they face a real challenge, as so many other campuses around the country do, as expressions of hate have continually increased.”
As for Parsons, she said she has removed her “F— Nazis” sign because her roommate was concerned about all the attention it was bringing to their room. Parsons replaced it with one criticizing the university administration.
“There’s been a sharp rise in these types of actions on campus this semester,” Parsons said, “and the vast majority of them have been swept under the rug, with UMass acting like they never happened — and even asking students to not talk about it.”
Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.