After a leaked racist, sexist email led to campus unrest in the spring, University of Maryland administrators vowed to establish a student advisory group for diversity issues.
University President Wallace Loh will announce Friday the 18 student members of the President’s Student Advisory Council on Diversity & Inclusion. The students will work with Assistant President Michele Eastman, Chief Diversity Officer Kumea Shorter-Gooden and Student Affairs Vice President Linda Clement to advise Loh on the university’s Strategic Plan for Diversity and bring forward diversity-related student issues, according to the announcement.
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The offensive email, sent by a former Kappa Sigma fraternity member, resulted in a march on Fraternity Row and a tense town hall meeting with university officials attended by more than 250 people. Around this time, Clement announced in a campuswide email that officials would work to create a student group to advise Loh on diversity and inclusion issues.
There were 112 nominations and 40 applicants for the council. The 18 students selected represent different races, sexual orientations, incomes and ethnicities, said Warren Kelley, a member of the selection committee and student affairs assistant vice president.
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Some students are leaders of prominent cultural or government associations on the campus, while other students were chosen for their perspectives or experiences, Kelley said.
“They all bring something unique and valuable to the organization,” Kelley said.
The council will meet twice this fall and twice in the spring semester, according to the announcement. The first meeting date has not been set, university spokesman Brian Ullmann wrote in an email.
Below is a list of the council’s student members:
- Max Balagtas-Badoy, junior psychology major and LGBT studies certificate
- Nana Brantuo, doctoral student studying minority and urban education
- Jordan Brunson, senior criminology and criminal justice major
- Stephanie Cork, doctoral student studying kinesiology
- Moses Fatola, junior government and politics and criminology and criminal justice major
- Christopher Frye, senior environmental science and policy major
- Rhys Hall, senior sociology major
- John Hart, doctoral student studying family science
- Shahrazad Hired, junior government and politics major
- Fiona Jardine, doctoral student in the information studies college
- Sierra Kelley-Chung, senior minority advocacy and public policy major
- Rashel Maikhor, junior communication major
- James Mott, senior anthropology and government and politics major
- YLan Nguyen, psychology and Asian American studies major
- Allison Peters, senior government and politics and history major
- Jazmin Pichardo, graduate student studying student affairs
- Patrick Prommel, senior finance major
- Whitney Wilson, graduate student in the public policy school