By Neneh Burnside

University of Maryland students are reflecting on the various negative news stories involving the university this fall, raising questions about how the coverage reflects student life on campus. 

Recent UMD headlines have included controversy surrounding the university’s club tennis team, campus protests and an incident involving university police and student journalists, prompting responses from university officials and students, including calls for accountability and questions about how the university handled each situation. 

Zen Nuako, a junior kinesiology major, said the number of negative stories involving the university has been difficult to keep up with.

“When I first was hearing everything, I was very shocked,” Nuako said. “You come to UMD and I guess you don’t really expect that to be [like that].”

Nuako said the coverage has made her more aware of issues she believes the university still needs to address.

She criticized what she sees as a lack of communication from university leadership, saying students need to hear more from administrators when campus issues receive public attention.

“I feel like our priorities are kind of off right now in regards to what’s important and what’s not,” Nuako said.

Nuako said people at her workplace have brought up news involving UMD, showing her how widely the stories have circulated. 

Hearing people outside the university discuss the stories has made the coverage’s reach more noticeable to her. She said those conversations have also encouraged her to think about how students can help push for change.

“It’s bringing more of a push to want to change things and try to impact the way that you can or the way I can as a student,” Nuako said.

Theo Williams, a sophomore computer science major, said he first learned about the club tennis controversy when his mother showed him a social media post about the incident. He later received an email from the university about the incident.

Williams said he was surprised by how the university communicated the incident, saying the email students received offered little explanation of what had happened. 

“I was confused because I feel like reading the email, I didn’t know what had happened,” Williams said.

Williams said he was surprised to see UMD receiving negative attention.

“I feel like Maryland is a place that tries to be very diverse … so I think it’s kind of weird that we end up being in a position where we’re in the news for these really negative things,” Williams said.

Seeing the news coverage involving UMD affected how Williams views the university’s administration, particularly its communication with students. He said he believes the response damaged students’ trust in university leadership.

“I think they kind of lost the trust of a lot of students with the way they handled it,” Williams said.

Despite his concerns about the administration, Williams said he does not believe the negative attention accurately represents the student community. He said his UMD experiences differ from some of the behavior highlighted in the news. 

“I weigh my experience here a lot more than whatever I see on social media,” Williams said. “Just being here, I have a much better understanding of how most people think and feel here than like someone just posting on Instagram.”

Williams said he wants the university to be more transparent when responding to major issues and to communicate directly with students rather than relying on general statements.

For Alexa Boltax, a senior studio art and religious studies major, the recent media attention reflects broader concerns about how the university treats its students.

Boltax pointed to several stories that have stood out to her, including the club tennis controversy and videos of students confronting President Darryll J. Pines at Stamp Student Union’s Colony Ballroom on Oct. 15.

She said the repeated attention has made her feel less connected to the university as she approaches graduation. 

“Yeah, it’s frustrating and sad,” Boltax said. “It makes me ready to leave and not really be proud to be a student here.”

Boltax believes much of the coverage reflects real experiences within the broader university community. She said her experience in the studio art department has been positive, describing it as a smaller environment where she feels supported and where faculty care about her development.

She said that contrast has contributed to her disappointment with the university’s leadership and its priorities. 

“I feel like this school doesn’t really care about the students at all …The [administration] treats it as a business,” Boltax said. 

Boltax said her expectations of university leadership have changed since she first applied. She initially expected administrators to be more involved with students but said her experience has given her a different understanding of how the university operates. 

Featured Image: The outside of McKeldin Library at the University of Maryland. Photo by Audrey Bengtson.