AMHERST, Mass.--Eleven students were arrested yesterday during a sit-in at a University of Massachusetts office to protest CIA recruitment on campus.

The students were among 20 who demonstrated at a career placement office where the recruiter was expected.

When they learned the recruiter was holding interviews at undisclosed locations on campus, the students marched to the administration building, tried unsuccessfully to enter the locked doors of Chancellor Joseph Duffy's office and staged a sit-down protest at the affirmative action office.

The arrested students were taken to Hampshire District Court in Northampton for arraignment on charges of disturbing the peace.

University spokesman Jeanne Hopkins Stover said the university arranged for private meetings with eight CIA applicants after demonstrators turned back the recruiter Thursday night from a scheduled talk on the spy agency at the career center.

Stover estimated the number of demonstrators outside the university's career center at 30, although other observers said the number was closer to 75. The protesters chanted "USA, CIA out of Nicaragua."

"The protesters won out," said student placement director Arthur Hilson. "He came and couldn't get in. The students wouldn't let him in."

Campus police closed the doors of the center before the recruiter arrived, keeping both him and the demonstrators outside.

"We don't think brutal murderers should be on campus recruiting," said protester Barry Lefsky.

Across from the anti-CIA group, about 15 supporters of the agency held American flags and responded with cries of "USA, USA."

"I don't see how people can come out and protest an organization that's out for their best interests," said Brian Darling, president of the school's Republican Club.

"I'm furious," said David Abrams, a student who said he wanted to speak with the recruiter. "These people don't know me. They don't know why I'm interested in the CIA and yet they're prohibiting the way I can express myself. They're deciding for me who I can apply to."

The protest was condemned by the school's chancellor, Joseph Duffy.

"While people may share moral outrage about the role of the CIA, I don't think they have sympathy for this kind of moral bullying," Duffy said.