Photos by Robert Rigo

Hundreds of students, faculty and community members gathered to rally for democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders outside the Student Union at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Tuesday evening. The new UMass for Bernie Sanders student group organized the event; students registered to vote, filled out volunteer forms and took photos with a Bernie face-in-hole frame before the first speaker took the stand.

Political science major Casey Pease, UMass economics professor Gerald Friedman, Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts organizational director Ferd Wulkan, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies major Olivia Murphy, and communications director at Represent.us Mansur Gidfar gave speeches covering a range of topics. Students listened and cheered for Sanders’ stances on income inequality, student debt, raising the minimum wage, climate change, funding Planned Parenthood, women’s issues and corruption in politics.

Students distributed candy apples to attendees and the crowd dispersed at dusk.

Email Hae Young Yoo at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter @drinkyoohoo.
Email Robert Rigo at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter @Robert_A_Rigo.