By Nadine Hoffman

UMass Boston administrators addressed allegations of systemic racism during a public forum on Monday (April 7), following the assault and arrest of Professor Anthony Van Der Meer by campus police during a confrontation with military recruiters last week. Although college officials have condemned the incident, the university has taken no action to drop charges against the professor, creating palpable tension as students and faculty members confronted school authorities, demanding accountability.

Van Der Meer was arrested last Thursday (April 3) while defending students' right to pass out anti-war fliers. More than 200 students and faculty members came to the Monday afternoon forum, sharing concerns of a communication break-down between campus authorities and students, as well as fear for their own safety in the wake of what has been characterized by witnesses as blatant police violence.

Chancellor Jo Ann Gora, who did not attend the forum, stressed the importance of civil liberties, saying in a prepared statement that freedom of speech and assembly are two "sacred" rights at the university. Many who attended the forum felt that those rights were violated by campus police.

Shown right: Professor Anthony Van Der Meer

"Every African American student does not feel safe on this campus," Melinda Emmanuel, director of the Black Student Center's administrative board, said. "If this is something that can happen to my professor…this could happen to me."

Wendy Baring-Gould, director of education and community outreach for the Arts on the Point program, was running an errand when she passed the scene of the arrest. She said she fears for the state of free speech in America because of what she saw. "Do we risk being charged for simply voicing our opinion?" she asked.

Chief Phillip O'Donnell of UMass Boston's public safety office and panelist at Monday's forum expressed concern regarding student and faculty fears.

"It's disturbing to sit here and hear that some students feel unsafe," O'Donnell said. "We have tried very hard over the years to ensure that this is a safe community."

O'Donnell called arrest a "last option" and added that only 12 arrests were made by campus police in 2002.

UMass Boston police arrested Van Der Meer on charges of assault and battery of an officer and resisting arrest Thursday following an altercation between National Guard recruiters and Black Student Center volunteers. The students, who were distributing fliers advertising a Martin Luther King remembrance day/anti-war moment of silence, were asked to move by recruiters. The guardsmen subsequently called police to have the students removed.

Van Der Meer, an advisor to the Black Student Center and member of the Africana Studies department, arrived on the scene to defend his students' right to distribute information. Visibly agitated, one of the recruiters yelled, "I hope you get shot in the head like Martin Luther King! I hope you all get shot in the head!" according to witnesses.

The same recruiter then instigated a short verbal altercation with Van Der Meer, who yelled back, "I hope you get shot too!" The recruiter began to push the professor, who raised nothing but his voice in his own defense. Officer J. St. Ives separated the two men, ordering Van Der Meer to quiet down while the recruiters left the building.

This reporter and others present watched as St. Ives, with no further provocation, assaulted the professor, pushing him to the ground, tearing his corduroy jacket and handcuffing him. Several officers dragged Van Der Meer away amidst student chants of "Police brutality, police brutality!"

Africana Studies Professor Jemadari Kamara, one of the panelists, warned that "unless we're willing to face up to the issue of racism the rest of this is for naught." Next time, he added, "the crisis will be more grave."

Kamara called Van Der Meer's arrest "a manifestation of set relationships of power that are out of order," adding, "I would urge us to commit ourselves to engage in a process of undoing racism."

The college's Muslim Student Association representative said her group felt "distressed that he was made to feel like 'a runaway slave' by our own campus police," and urged Chancellor Gora to investigate and bring the matter to justice.

Sylvia Beevas, assistant coordinator of the Black Student Center, challenged administrators to root out racist policies. "You say public safety isn't racist, but they've been harassing us," she said. "I don't feel like you guys are doing enough for safety." Beevas called for the dismissal of the officers involved in Van Der Meer's arrest.

Campus police targeted Van Der Meer once before, confronting him in his office and asking to see valid identification. The professor says he was wearing a baseball cap that day, and officers were on the look out for a black male perpetrator in a hat. "They saw a black man in a baseball cap," he said, and immediately suspected him.

Professor Van Der Meer, himself a member of the panel, had mixed sentiments about the situation. On one hand, he said he felt "overwhelmed by the support of the community" (excluding one death threat that he received on his answering machine). Despite that support, he said of his arrest, "It seems like Baghdad is coming to campus."

He called the incident "an embarrassment to the university as a whole," and added, "When something like this happens, I don't know who's who." Charges, he said, were being brought by police through the university.

"There are some systemic things that we have to address as a community and we can do it," he said. "We have to use our mouths as weapons and not use guns."

Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, David MacKenzie, reiterated the importance of open dialogue to prevent a recurrence of events like Van Der Meer's arrest. "This forum is for us to talk about how we should have discourse on this campus and what is the right to disagree," MacKenzie said. "We don't expect all of these issues to be resolved today."

"We need to keep talking about this thing," MacKenzie said, "so we don't become our own worst enemy."

In another sign of increasing tensions on college campuses over the war in Iraq, a professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston was arrested yesterday and charged with assaulting a police officer after he exchanged heated words with a National Guard recruiter.

Eyewitnesses said the recruiter told adjunct professor Tony Van Der Meer and a student that they should be shot in the head for their antiwar views. A Massachusetts National Guard spokesman, Captain Winfield Danielson, said the Guard is going to look into what happened yesterday at UMass and will take appropriate action.

The skirmish is the latest in a growing list of incidents in which simmering tensions about the war have boiled over on high school and college campuses.

On Wednesday at Wheaton College in Norton, students replaced an upside-down American flag with a sign citing the First Amendment after they received a death threat for their antiwar activism.

The day before, in California, administrators at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana canceled classes, citing concerns for student safety and warning of the potential for violence at an antiwar rally planned near the school.

At UMass-Boston, spokesman Ed Hayward said the university will review yesterday's incident and its policy toward recruiters on campus. He said he knew of no other clashes on campus between antiwar organizations and war supporters.

The confrontation, which began with activists handing out information on various causes, disintegrated into a shouting match, with students screaming at the guardsmen and campus police, eyewitnesses said.

UMass student Tony Naro said the recruiter sparked the dispute by heckling him as he passed out leaflets to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the fatal shooting of Martin Luther King Jr.

"He called me a [expletive] communist," said Naro, a senior, who was wearing a black T-shirt with the words "Education Not Enlistment" on the front and "Military Recruiters off My Campus" on the back.

The two argued, and campus police were called because someone was "blocking the guardsmen from handing out informational pamphlets," according to the police report.

As the guardsmen packed up their literature and began to leave, Van Der Meer walked into the lobby. It's unclear what happened next, but a half-dozen students and Van Der Meer later said that one of the four guardsmen turned to Naro and the professor and said: "You should be shot in the head."

"No. You should be shot in the head," replied Van Der Meer, according to Shauntell Foster, a senior and a student of Van Der Meer's. Students Theresa Myrthil and Bethanie Petitfrere said they also watched the confrontation.

According to the police report, which did not record their words, the men were screaming at each other, nose-to-nose. An officer stepped between them.

The students said Van Der Meer never raised his hands or threatened the officer, and that the officer attacked Van Der Meer. In his report, the officer said Van Der Meer shoved him in the chest and told him to "get out of my [expletive] face," and then elbowed him in the chest.

Three UMass-Boston police officers tackled Van Der Meer and wrestled him to the ground, several students said. Meanwhile, students started filing into the lobby and shouting "Stop police brutality" and "Recruiters off our campus."

After his arraignment and not-guilty plea yesterday Van Der Meer, still wearing the green corduroy jacket that was torn during his arrest, said he did resist arrest after police accosted him. "I resisted," he said to the applause of about 30 students who had come to Dorchester District Court to support him. "I don't see why I should be assaulted."

"It's shameful," Van Der Meer said. "It says something about academic freedom."

UMass-Boston professor arrested while trying to help students By Nadine Hoffman

4/3/03 A UMass-Boston professor, called on to defend his students' right to pass out anti-war fliers, was himself thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and arrested by campus police Thursday on charges of assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.

Anthony Van Der Meer, a professor of Africana and American Studies, went to the second-story McCormack Hall lounge to intercede on behalf of several members of the Black Student Center. The students, who were handing out leaflets advertising a Martin Luther King remembrance day/anti-war moment of silence Friday, had been told to move by nearby National Guard recruiters.

Although witnesses, including this reporter, never saw Van Der Meer raise anything but his voice in response to physical intimidation by a recruiter, a campus officer threw the professor to the ground, tore his jacket and arrested him. The recruiter and his colleagues left the scene unchallenged.

After his arraignment at the Dorchester District Courthouse, the professor returned to campus, still wearing the same shredded jacket, and at a press conference with about 100 colleagues and supporters, said, "They booked me and treated me like a runaway slave."

Vice-Chancellor Jo Ann Gora made a brief statement condemning racially motivated violence and promising that the administration would ensure the UMass community's protection from what she characterized as heavy-handed police action.

Ed Hayward, associate vice chancellor for University Communications, said Van Der Meer's arrest "is under investigation by UMass police as well as by the university." While he noted that it was too early for the school to release an official comment on the incident, he said that "the entire thing will be reviewed."

Earlier in the day, campus public safety officials declined comment. The recruiters remained unidentified.

Events unfolded on campus at about 12:30 p.m.

Twenty-two-year-old UMB senior Tony Naro, the student in charge of distributing the fliers, said he was asked to move away from a National Guard recruiting station because of his T-shirt, which bore the slogan, "Education not enlistment: Military recruiters off my campus."

Naro said the guardsmen complained that he and his fellow students did not have a permit to distribute the information, and subsequently called campus police to have them removed. Naro, who says he did have the required permit, called Van Der Meer, one of his professors and counselor to the Black Student Center. The professor quickly came to the scene and began talking to the recruiters.

As the discussion between recruiters and students grew heated, Naro said one recruiter told Van Der Meer, "I hope you get shot in the head like Martin Luther King." Then, witnesses said, the recruiter turned to the students distributing fliers and screamed, "I hope you all get shot in the head!"

After making the remark, the recruiter moved within six inches of Van Der Meer's face and proceeded to verbally harass him. Provoked, Van Der Meer yelled back, saying, "I hope you get shot, too."

The recruiter began to push Van Der Meer, who made no attempt to push back but continued to yell. Campus police officer J. St. Ives stepped between the two men, at which point the recruiter, along with the other recruiters present, left the building.

Van Der Meer, still visibly upset, continued to yell at the recruiter as he left, ignoring demands from St. Ives to quiet down. With no further provocation evident to witnesses, St. Ives began to push the professor - who tried to elude the officer's grasp. The officer ultimately threw Van Der Meer to the ground, badly ripping his suit jacket. Van Der Meer continued to yell, defending his right to speak freely, as he was handcuffed and dragged away by several officers.

Dozens of students witnessing the arrest chanted "Police brutality, police brutality!" after Van Der Meer was removed from the building. The students also taunted police, yelling, "Why didn't you arrest him?" in reference to the recruiter, who by this time had left the building.

"I'm not arresting anyone in the military because I choose not to," St. Ives responded.

As the shouting match continued, police threatened several particularly vocal students, including Naro, with arrest.

"That is plain racism," Naro (who is white) said of Van Der Meer's arrest. He called it a classic instance of "authority over the people," adding, "They saw him as the aggressor because he's a black male."

Naro called Van Der Meer "a respected member of this community."

Shauntell Foster, a 26-year-old senior and witness at the scene, said that after seeing such blatant police violence, "I don't want to be part of this institution anymore."

"To see my hero be shot down like that means we can't stand up for what we believe in," Foster said. "He does have a right to [speak freely].... This was a peaceful gathering and for them [recruiters, police] to turn this into a violent situation is ridiculous."

At the press conference held later in the day, Van Der Meer received support from more than 100 colleagues, administrators and students, who expressed outrage that such an incident had occurred on their campus.

Gulet Shirdon, a junior and member of the Black Student Center who was passing out fliers when the arrest took place, spoke candidly about his feelings in light of the police violence. "I really don't feel safe on this campus at this moment," Shirdon said. "When I saw this man being tackled like he was on a football field, that really brought tears to my eyes."

Naro gave his account of the arrest, saying, "Something went wrong here today and it's something that's been going wrong for a good amount of time.... It shouldn't happen at our school, it shouldn't happen in our communities but it happens every day, and this bullshit makes me mad."

Some students started crying while they spoke about the day's events. A Haitian student named Bethany, who has Van Der Meer as a professor, said she felt like she had traveled back in time to the civil rights movement when she learned of Van Der Meer's brutal treatment. "Today showed us we're still in bondage," she told her peers.

Van Der Meer echoed this sentiment. "We're still in 2003 trying to be treated like human beings," he said.

Van Der Meer will be tried May 28, 2003, at the Dorchester District Courthouse.

Assistant Dean of Students Angeline Lopes announced that the college would hold a public forum Monday, April 7, 2003, to discuss ways to heal as a community. "It's not just about talking," Lopes said, "It's about doing...so something like this will never happen again."

Van Der Meer did not comment on whether he intended to press charges against either the recruiter, whose identity is as yet unknown, or the campus police.

A representative of the college's office of student affairs, which gave recruiters a permit to be on the campus, declined to identify who the recruiters were or how they could be reached.