More than 100 students filtered onto McKeldin Mall Friday to demand that the University of Maryland take a stance against the Trump administration.
The protest established seven demands for this university’s administration to address, according to a news release from this university’s 17 for Peace and Justice chapter.
Participants demanded this university:
- Refuse to comply with federal government requests to monitor students and staff.
- Refuse to provide identifiable information about university affiliates to the federal government.
- Refuse to voluntarily cooperate with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies targeting university community members.
- Provide institutional and financial support to university community members impacted by new policies.
- Reaffirm this university’s commitment to academic freedom and inclusion.
- Provide transparent communication.
- Join the Big Ten Mutual Defense Compact.
The study-in was in support of the Campus Climate Network’s calls for students nationwide to advocate for the freedom of their universities, according to organizer Leah Zahniser, a senior environmental science and policy major.
[7 UMD international student visas restored after Trump reversal]
This university is monitoring federal changes and taking action to mitigate disruptions, university president Darryll Pines and senior vice president and provost Jennifer King Rice wrote in an April 25 email to campus community members.
This university is working to protect research and support international students, faculty and staff, the email read.
Students sat on McKeldin Mall and wrote postcards to Pines demanding action. Some participants held signs and chanted phrases such as “immigrants are welcome here” and “money for jobs and education, not for mass deportation”.
“Actions are important,” Zahniser said. “I’m really glad that we’re able to write these postcards so that the administration can’t ignore us.”
While the Hands Off protest intended to focus on the students’ specific demands, some protestors at the study-in were also advocating for a free Palestine.
Demonstrations supporting Palestine have increased at this university since Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and took about 250 hostages in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Since then, Israel declared war on Hamas and has killed at least 52,000 people in Gaza, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Terry Goolsby — a student in this university’s Golden ID program studying materials science and engineering — attended the protest to amplify her voice.
“The genocide in Palestine is a turning point across the world, and people around the world are becoming more and more aware of it,” Goolsby said. “That is a model for going forward as human beings.”
[About $12 million worth of UMD research grants, contracts impacted by Trump cuts]
Organizer Maggie Faloon stressed to students the importance of standing in solidarity with fellow international community members as policies continue to change.
”It’s important to show the international students that we care about them,” the freshman environmental science and policy major said. “We’re not just going to let them be mistreated and let it be swept under the rug.”
In the last month, the Trump administration revoked and then reinstated the student visas of seven international students at this university, The Diamondback reported in April.
The administration is also cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the Associated Press reported, which could impact many of the affinity groups on campus.
More than a dozen student organizations, such as Indigenous UMD, Campus Queers and Allies, the Secular Student Alliance and the Anti-Imperialist Movement at UMD participated in Friday’s study-in.
Faloon emphasized that students must continue to use their voices and power to influence university and federal decisions.
“It’s not like a one and done scenario,” Faloon told The Diamondback. “You have to keep fighting and keep uniting together to actually make a difference.”
