Protesters gather at UMass Boston campus calling for school to cut ties with police

BOSTON — Hundreds of current and former UMass Boston students gathered on campus Saturday, calling for the university to cut ties with the police.

Protestors instead suggested that the university allocate that money into programs that would benefit its students and the Greater Boston area.

Some proposed mentoring and counseling programs.

“We don’t want cops on the campus anymore, that’s it,” said PhD student Ashley Torres.

Rising Junior Celine Boyard echoed that message.

“There’s other ways that we could invest our money and our time in creating actual peace-making measures,” said Boyard. "There are students who have been traumatized and feared for their lives because of the police surveillance on this campus, and to have them on every corner… there needs to be change on that. We can’t have it.”

Protestors also demanded that the university abolish racial injustice on campus, which some claimed has gone on for years.

“These battles or these fights that the students have had, faculty and staff members have had, have been long historical battles that have happened within the university,” said UMass Boston graduate student Tracy Beard.

Boyard told Boston 25 that event organizers sent a list of demand to University Chancellor, Katherine Newman, pushing for the school’s diversity to be respected for future generations.

“We’re not going to let the future generations of UMass Boston students deal with this kind of treatment,” said Boyard.

On Friday, Boston 25 News reported that Chancellor Newman will no longer allow Massachusetts State Police troopers to park on campus.

In a letter to students, faculty, alumni and staff, Newman said the police cars on campus can “serve an implied deterrent to the right to protest.”

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