By Franklin Zessis

Students from across campus gathered in the Parren J. Mitchell Art-Sociology building on Tuesday to discuss their concerns over the Campus Village Shoppes shutdown.

The Campus Village Shoppes, located across from The Varsity on Baltimore Ave, is coming to a close after a Texas-based real estate company, LV Collective, recently bought the property. According to the United Students Against Sweatshops Local 54, LV Collective plans to build luxury apartments there. Demolition has yet to start, as the real estate company has not gotten approval from the county for construction yet.

The shops’ closure has become a heated topic around campus, as many small businesses will be uprooted in favor of luxury apartments. For most of the businesses, it means they have until the end of September to find a new home.

“If anything, it’s just disappointing to see,” said Sean Brittan-Powell, senior anthropology and American studies major. “It’s disheartening to see these people who have been in the community for some decades, people who were around when my parents went to school here, just get kicked out with such short notice for something that people aren’t going to be able to afford.”

In response, USAS hosted a town hall-style meeting where students from across campus could share their feelings on the decision made by LV Collective and the city of College Park.

“People often look for an outlet when things like this happen, and I wanted to give people the opportunity to take action and put actions to the emotions they are feeling,” said Grace Orellana, senior immersive media design major and USAS Local 54 president. “I thought that a town hall would be a great place to discuss how this is affecting individuals and the campus community.” 

During the meeting, students broke out into small discussion groups and discussed how they felt about the change in their community.

“I hoped to stand in solidarity with the workers that are affected by this, by the students that are affected by this,” said senior computer science and history major Paul Crumine. 

At the end of the event, each student was given the opportunity to send an email to the city of College Park and to the LV Collective expressing their wish to delay the displacement of small businesses in their community.

“There’s power in numbers, so if the LV Collective or P.G. County or College Park just sees that there are dozens of students that care about this issue enough to send an email, I think that just sends a message that we found power amongst each other and they can’t just ignore everyone’s voice as a collective,” said USAS Steering Committee member Miral Mohamed, a junior government and politics major.

Additionally, for anyone looking to show support for the business in the Campus Village Shoppes, Powell is organizing a “Shop & Support” effort to encourage UMD students, faculty, alumni, and the surrounding community to go support the businesses while they are still here. 

Brittan-Powell and his brother Jack are organizing the “Shop & Support” effort, and it will occur from Friday to Sunday. Anyone who wishes to get involved, please email sbrittan@terpmail.umd.edu for more information. 

Featured Image: Students gather in the Art-Sociology Building on Sept. 26, 2023. Photo by Franklin Zessis.