Four members on why they’ve had it with UMass Amherst’s Chancellor Javier Reyes.
Carley Paleologopolous
You may have read the article I wrote in August about why I take action. This time, I’m here to talk about why I will be voting No Confidence in Chancellor Reyes.
That’s easy. I don’t have any confidence in him.
Reyes is the top leader on our campus. Reyes makes 18 times the lowest-paid PSU staff member. He makes nearly 12 times what I make. Our pay system is broken—Reyes knows this, but instead of working in concert with campus unions to address this issue, he wants to turn our guaranteed-by-the-governor COLA increases into a zero-sum game, where only some employees receive it. That alone is unconscionable. Coming from one of the highest-paid employees in the state system, it’s downright despicable. It’s so despicable that the university won’t acknowledge that plan publicly, even though it’s written in proposals they’ve put on the table.
As staff at UMass, we don’t have a place in university governance. When we fight for a seat at that table through our contract, leaders like Reyes will pretend their hands are tied, point to the Wellman document, and tell us we’re out of luck with one side of their mouth, then use the other side to tell us we’re such valued members of the community that we should donate some of our wages back to the university … through the illegally privatized foundation.
That’s why this vote is so easy. I’m exercising my right as a union member to announce to Reyes, our campus community, the Board of Trustees, and anyone who is listening: I have No Confidence in Chancellor Reyes.
Cody Olson
When Chancellor Reyes was hired, I was hopeful. I was a newer employee, and I had heard that this change in leadership could be good for the university. I wanted to believe in Chancellor Reyes as an agent of change. But even in his interviews, he failed to speak to the issues that matter to me: staff pay, retention, student success, and equity and social justice.
Something didn’t feel right.
Then his colleagues from his former institution warned us about his anti-labor sentiments.
This worried me.
Then came the student protests over the past couple of years. UMass has a proud history of activism, but when faced with protests and calls for action, Reyes responded with over 100 police officers and mass arrests.
My worries escalated to alarm bells.
Now, after 18 months of bargaining for a fair contract—one that addresses affordability, equity, and campus vitality—Reyes has refused to engage with his staff despite our suffering. From my perspective, he’s declared an impasse and simply walked away. I wanted him to do well—I really did. But it’s clear to me now that I should have listened to my gut. I didn’t feel confident during his interviews, I didn’t have confidence in him during the arrests, I haven’t had confidence in him throughout this bargaining process, and I certainly don’t have confidence in him as a leader going forward. He is not the person to lead our institution, and I hope you will join me in raising your voice, your worries, and your concerns by voting No Confidence.
Amelia Sutton
Chancellor Reyes has spent the last year and a half doing his best to break my confidence in his judgment and ability to lead our university. He betrayed our university’s values of free expression and open political dialogue in May of 2024 when he brought police to our campus to arrest and brutalize students peacefully exercising their right to protest. This was traumatic, not just for the students and university employees who were arrested en masse (with many left overnight with wrists zip-tied together in Mullins Center bathrooms!!!) but also for myself and many of my colleagues who were horrified to see our chancellor bring violence to our campus at such an unbelievable scale. I still think about the images and video of that night every time I walk past the campus pond. Following the crackdown, I expected at least a token apology and some measure of accountability, but the chancellor only doubled and tripled down on his decision, claiming that everything he did was in the name of “protect[ing] the safety of the UMass Amherst campus.”
A few months after the protests, PSU began bargaining for our next contract. Having never participated in contract bargaining, I was excited to be able to attend our bargaining sessions as a Silent Bargaining Representative, but I was soon disappointed by what I saw. Management (after MONTHS of dragging their feet getting started) came with some of the most regressive proposals the university has ever put on the table. Management has spent the last year and a half relentlessly pushing for these takebacks at Reyes’s direction. He has been unwilling to even guarantee the bare minimum COLA to all of our members who need those increases to keep putting food on the table. Now he is abusing state collective bargaining law in an attempt to force his version of the contract on us without the need for further bargaining. So why am I voting No Confidence? It isn’t complicated. Reyes has shown a total disregard for the safety and dignity of the members of our campus community. He has brought violence to our campus and wants to deny our members, his employees, the basic pay we need to survive. He does not live up to the values of this institution and is unfit to lead our university. After all of this, how could I still have confidence?
Alexis Ali
I lost confidence in the chancellor so long ago. His blatant disregard for the safety and protection of free speech on this campus from day one has been troubling, but now that we know he is behind all the infuriating bargaining games, I have zero confidence he could win back any trust at this university. Nor do I have any faith that he would ever want to. He does not respect the members of this community enough to do better or care that he has lost our trust. It is alarming to have someone so callous at the helm, steering the course of a university I love.
