By Maristela Romero

Over 20 student-led organizations held a protest to demand President Wallace Loh to commit to his retirement and call for student power to elect the next president and Board of Regents members.

The UMD Muslim Alliance for Social Change, UMD Pride Alliance, UMD Socialists and Political Latinxs United for Movement and Action in Society (PLUMAS), among many others, sponsored the rally to demonstrate dissatisfaction and concern among people of color within the campus community toward how the administration addresses student concerns.

Some of the main criticisms that speakers and attendees discussed were the university’s lackluster initiatives in response to issues such as hate bias crimes on campus, the call for undocumented student resources and the need for cultural sensitivity.

Students like Blanca Arriola Palma, the president of PLUMAS, voiced her dismay in a speech at the rally about these initiatives that she believes do not make a great enough impact.

“I think that’s the overall thing with this university,” the senior government and politics major said. “They might do committees or some task forces but it’s never really enforced…to actually get students to use it, and to make sure they’re used to hold accountability on campus.”

She said that the death of the football player, Jordan McNair, was just one of the most recently alarming situations in which the university has not responded in a timely or efficient manner.

Other student speakers like Trey Huff shared his thoughts about the administration, citing his five years at UMD as experience.

Huff, who is the president of UMD’s National Pan-Hellenic Council, referenced recent hate bias incidents in the past that elicited what felt to him like “half-hearted emails and task forces” from the university.

“President Loh doesn’t care about black people,” he said. “I’ve seen two black men killed in the past two years here. ”

Huff also mentioned the sharp drop in black student enrollment since Fall 2016 and said the university does not reflect the black population in Maryland.

In a Baltimore Sun article, Vice President and Provost Mary Ann Rankin said that it is “naive” to believe that the incidents on campus did not contribute to the decline in enrollment among African American students.

One of these incidents was the killing of Lt. Richard Collins III, a visiting black student from Bowie State University who was stabbed by a white UMD student who is now being prosecuted.

“Justice for Jordan is the same justice for Lt. Richard Collins,” Huff said. “Making policies to make sure that another black child doesn’t die on campus.”

These continuous concerns over how the administration chooses to address incidents have culminated into a call for Loh to retire from his position as planned, despite the Provost’s request that he stay in his position, and for students to have a voice in choosing who represents them as president.

“Under his leadership, the university has taken a lot of hits, and it’s a PR nightmare at this point,” Sydney Jordan, a junior public policy major said. “And I feel like his lack of leadership is more telling than the leadership he has offered. I would not be uncomfortable with him leaving.”

But Ayo Osoba, a senior history and economics major, said that he believes Loh’s departure will only further “destabilize” the university.

“I don’t think there’s necessarily an easy answer for the issue we’re having now,” Osoba said. “And I think it really falls on us, the UMD community, to be able to figure something out together, to work with the administration to get what we want.”