The University of Maryland and Bowie State University will go silent at 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday in memory of Richard Collins, a Bowie State student who was fatally stabbed on this university’s campus in May.
During the minute of silence, all campus cash registers and food service locations are to suspend business, buses at bus stops will remain idle, though neither cars nor buses in motion are being told to stop, according to planning documents developed by the Division of Student Affairs. All faculty, students and staff are asked, but are not required, to stop speaking or teaching.
[Read more: “Hatred and tragedy”: following the homicide of Richard Collins III]
“Our community is in shock and grief at this tragic loss of life,” University President Wallace Loh wrote in a campuswide email Tuesday morning. “Wherever you are — in a classroom, lab, office, residence hall, dining hall, practice field, or walking outside — I ask that you join in this moment of solidarity and respect.”
University Police plan to use their UMD Alerts system to warn the campus community between 11:50 a.m. and noon about the impending moment of silence on Wednesday morning, the document read.
University Police have historically avoided sending such alerts unless there is “an imminent threat or an on-going risk to the campus community,” according to a statement released after the murder of university student Farhad Siddique near the campus last September. Police did not send out an alert for this incident.
[Read more: Hundreds attend vigil for “fearless” Bowie State University student killed at UMD]
Other University System of Maryland institutions, as well as the system’s office, will also observe the event, the document read.
Sean Urbanski, a student at this university at the time of the stabbing, was indicted in July on a murder charge in the incident. University Police and the FBI are investigating the incident as a potential hate crime, though he has not yet been indicted on any such charges.
