Protesters Mar UMass Ceremony

A crowd of approximately 80 people chanting "Re-open negotiations" and "We shall not be moved" demonstrated during David Knapp's inauguration yesterday as president of the University of Massachusetts.

The Faculty Staff Union (FSU), the negotiating body representing the faculty of the UMass Boston campus, distributed leaflets outside the ceremonies at Faneuil Hall. The leaflets cited the "administration's intransigence" as the reason the faculty withdrew from mediated negotiations last week. The demonstration had no effect on the formal ceremonies inside the hall.

Negotiators for the Massachusetts Society of Professors (MSP), which represents the faculty of UMass-Amherst last week signed a contract ending their dispute with the university.

The society hopes to put the contract to a vote of all UMass faculty for general ratification, Jack Cathey, president of the group, said yesterday.

Don't Try It

A spokesman for the FSU said his organization decided Friday to seek an injunction if the other groups representing professors "bypass any provisions in bringing up a contract for ratification."

A joint co-ordination committee negotiates contracts for both organizations.

"There's not a chance in the world they can stop us from bringing it up for ratification," Cathey said.

According to an FSU spokesman who asked to remain unidentified, an article in the union's constitution stipulates that both negotiating parties must agree to a contract's terms before it can be put to general vote.

"But our major problem right now is even if we could bring it to the courts, it would be both the university officials and the MSP against us," the spokesman said.

The issue that precipitated the FSU's withdrawal is preferential hiring of part-time faculty, JoAnne Preston, a member of the group, said yesterday.

The UMass administration offered a clause during negotiations that allowed the university to hire new, cheaper faculty every year, thus lessening the security of established part-time teachers, Preston added.

Almost half the faculty at UMass-Boston is classified as part-time. The percentage at the Amherst campus is substantially smaller.

Kent Worcester, a member of the UMass-Boston Student Strike Committee who participated in the demonstration, said "the interests of the faculty are similar to ours. We are behind them all the way."