By Jennifer Baxter
In this week’s newsletter, read about how UMD is taking action to improve on campus issues with electric buses, SGA student body outreach and discussion of anti-racism.
UMD celebrates arrival of first electric buses to promote environmental sustainability
By Abigail Bender
The University of Maryland celebrated eight new electric Shuttle-UM fleet buses on Tuesday. The addition is expected to save around 130,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually, according to University of Maryland President Darryll Pines.
The Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Low or No Emission Vehicle Program awarded UMD $40 million in grant funding in 2023, UMD Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Charles Reuning said.
“Funding supported the purchase of battery electric buses, charging infrastructure and training for drivers and maintenance staff,” he said.
The new buses include improved wheelchair-safety systems and phone-charging stations and are a part of UMD’s broader initiatives to promote environmental sustainability and decrease carbon emissions, Reuning said.
The buses have also introduced advantages such as smoother rides for passengers and less noise on the road, according to UMD student drivers.
UMD SGA works to bridge gap with student body through committees, increase participation
By Bailee Neyman
University of Maryland’s Student Government Association has opened applications for executive cabinet and legislative and judicial branch positions post their recent special election.
SGA members will be deciding who is elected into these positions.
Only 1,943 out of UMD’s 31,333 students voted in the special election, representing how some students feel that the SGA is somewhat disconnected from the student body.
Tessa Heller, a freshman biology major, said that she didn’t vote in the special election, adding that she had no idea that the election was happening.
“If I knew what they actually did, I think I would have been more likely to do something,” Heller said.
SGA is responsible for advocating on behalf of the student body to the university along with locally and to state and national governments, so it is important that it is very connected to the student body. The SGA also works with student organizations and is responsible for allocating money to various groups.
SGA includes 12 committees, and they are in place to help turn student concerns into action, according to the Student Body President Sulyaman Khan. Khan hopes to continue addressing the lack of student involvement with SGA.
SGA has created a BuzzFeed quiz in order to help students figure out which committee would best suit them, encouraging participation from the student body.
The applications for current officer positions will remain open on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.
Read more here.
UMD school hosts panel to discuss effect of racist iconography, importance of art
By Angelina Nunez
Dean Stephanie Shonekan of the University of Maryland College of Arts and Humanities gathered a group of panelists to talk about racist iconography on Wednesday.
The panel was brought together in light of a recent incident in which UMD’s club tennis team was suspended due to distribution of racist imagery to other universities’ tennis teams. Around 40 people were there to listen to the panel in Taliaferro Hall’s library.
“As soon as I saw it, I had a visceral response,” Shonekan said. “But what it did was that it really raised questions about where we are with anti-black racism … Why does [the symbol] have such sustained impact on a society beyond the borders of the University of Maryland? So I gathered my colleagues here to help us think about this.”
Benjamin Jancewicz, the graphic designer behind the graphic, created the image to highlight the Maryland state flag’s connection to the confederacy. The image originated in a 2017 article.
Confederates represented themselves with the red and white sections of the flag at the time of the Civil War. The Union Army represented themselves with the yellow and black sections. The two were only combined to represent the state after the war.
Jancewicz said that the altered flag no longer represented the Confederate roots of the state without the context of the article.
La Marr Bruce, a panelist and UMD associate professor in American studies, talked about how important contextualizing the image was during the panel discussion.
“We know that it was taken out of that context and circulated in what appears to me to be a sort of a gesture of anti-Black antagonism,” Bruce said.
Emily Springer, a panelist and UMD graduate student pursuing a master of fine arts, discussed how it is the viewer’s responsibility to engage with the art they encounter and shared the challenges artists face when their work is misinterpreted.
“When you’re an artist, you sometimes don’t have control of how your art is taken and what it’s used for, or if it’s appropriated,” Springer said. “It circles back to your responsibility as a viewer to look at these images, think about the history of them, research the history about them [and] have conversations with people about it.”
Read more here.
Featured image: SGA Suite in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Photo by Charlotte Florin.