INITIAL ALERTEmail
Approximate reconstructionReconstructed from WBUR's quotation of Chancellor Javier Reyes' email to the UMass community sent at approximately 8:30 PM EDT on May 7, 2024688 chars
Today, members of our campus community established an unauthorized encampment on the South Lawn. Despite three warnings from the Demonstration Response and Safety Team, and after I and members of my senior leadership team met with demonstrator representatives for an extended period this afternoon, the encampment was not voluntarily dismantled. The protesters rejected our offers for continued civil discourse. Let me be clear — involving law enforcement is the absolute last resort, and one I have taken only after exhausting alternative paths. I have asked the UMass Police Department and our state and local law enforcement partners to disperse the crowd and dismantle the encampment.
This text has been reconstructed from news coverage and may not reflect the exact original wording.
Sent approximately three hours before the police sweep began at roughly 11:30 PM EDT on May 7, 2024
The phrase 'involving law enforcement is the absolute last resort' became a central object of dispute when faculty later voted no-confidence in Chancellor Reyes on May 21, 2024
DRST is UMass Amherst's Demonstration Response and Safety Team — a designated unit responsible for issuing formal warnings under the university's content-neutral demonstration policy
The 'three warnings' framing was repeated in UMass's January 2025 timeline FAQ but was disputed by demonstrator representatives, who said the warnings were issued in rapid succession over a short window