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Why Is Meher Singh Outraged?

J M Shenoy in Amherst

Meher Singh has hardly missed a class. This week she not only missed a class but she joined hundreds of students in chanting, marching and forming a human chain around the campus pond to demand more protection for women students and the faculty.

The students at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst were reacting at a November 22 rally against increased and dramatic attacks on women on the campus in the past three weeks.

At least two women reported being raped near the university pond early this month. Two others said they were assaulted in the same area.

No arrests have been made.

Singh, 21, a senior in women's studies, said she is so angry over the school's reaction to the attacks, that she did not find it difficult to walk out of class. She also wanted to set an example to other minority students to be proactive on the campus and fight the allegedly apathetic attitude of the authorities.

Organizers of the rally called Outrage included men and women. They asked students at large including foreign students to join the protest.

An ad hoc group of students, comprising men and women and calling itself Outrage, organized the rally, encouraging students to walk out of class if they had to in order to attend the protest. The school has over 25,000 students, about 10 per cent from them from Asian countries. About 10,000 of the undergraduates live on campus.

Singh and other students demanded a bigger police presence, more vans and walking escorts, and more security officers in the library and dormitories. Of the 25,000 students who attend the state's largest public college, 18,000 are undergraduates. About 11,000 of the undergraduates live on campus.

''The saddest part of all this is that it is taken four instances [of violence] on this campus for them to react,'' Singh said.

She echoes the concern of her fellow students some of whom have been walking around with baseball bats and knives, and powerful whistles that alert fellow students of a potential rape or life threatening situations.

Singh joined fellow students in chanting anti-violence slogans and carried placards saying 'Protect our women' and 'Too little, too late,' reminding the university that it should have responded more swiftly to the complaints.

University officials say they have done much to step up security since the news about the attacks reached them, but Singh and other students are apparently unsatisfied.

A week ago, the school began distributing 12,000 shriek alarms free to students and faculty. The school has trimmed many bushes, including those around the pond where one of the rapes reportedly was committed, and added emergency call boxes.

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