Five UMass Undergrads Report Racial Assault

A group of Hispanic students attending the University of Massachusetts at Amherst have charged that several white men assaulted them while shouting racial slurs. The alleged attack took place less than 24 hours after students there ended a building takeover staged to protest racism at the school.

One of the students, Carlos Morales, told police yesterday that he was among the five assaulted by several white men early Wednesday morning. That same afternoon the six-day occupation of the New Africa House had ended, and university administrators had agreed to form a committee monitoring racial tensions at the school.

A UMass spokesman said yesterday that the university will search for the attackers.

Investigation Begins

"All the victims are filing complaints, and notices will be put up around campus requesting information about the incident," said Jane Hopkins, director of public affairs for the university.

Morales, a sophomore from Puerto Rico, told police yesterday that a white man who called the group of Hispanics "Cuban bastards" had attacked his roommate.

Morales said that he and his four friends were walking down a stairway in the campus center at 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday when a white man charged at his roommate, Javier Ramos.

When another student tried to help Ramos, the white man kicked him and spat at him, yelling "Don't come around here, get the hell out of here, Cuban bastards!" Morales said.

Morales said one student remained at the campus center later than his friends to look for a missing book bag. Soon after the student found his bag, Morales said, five white men approached him and yelled epithets at him.

The student said he and the other victims originally planned not to report the incident. "We all tried to forget it," he said.

But the next day, a group of students at the Bilingual Collegiate Program urged the victims to report the incident.

"This kind of thing happens a lot and nobody says anything about it," said Benjamin Rodriquez, director of the program.

"There's been a lot of other racial harrassment but people are afraid of retaliatory action," said UMass sophomore Pablo Penaloza, a member of the bilingual program. Penaloza said UMass students fear repeated attacks if the incidents are reported.

Last October, a race riot developed at the school following the 1986 World Series between the New York Mets and the Boston Red Sox.