The SGA will lead a week-long campout on McKeldin Mall starting tonight in protest of a Board of Regents decision last year to deny the university money for a new dorm, a move student government officials see as exacerbating the current housing crises.
After Resident Life denied 556 rising seniors on-campus housing last week, Student Government Association President Emma Simson said she wanted to send a stark message to the University System of Maryland's governing board who she blamed for the university's housing shortage.
"The announcement last week from Resident Life illustrates the extreme housing shortage we face at College Park," she said, "and it serves as the perfect opportunity to demonstrate to the Board of Regents that housing projects are needed."
In interviews, several members of the University System of Maryland and members of the board at the time it made the decision denied responsibility for the university's housing shortage.
While the regents are the "primary target" of the protest, Simson said, Resident Life will also face the SGA's ire for waiting so long to inform juniors they will not have housing on the campus next year.
The protest will culminate Friday with a group of students marching into the regents' meeting in Cambridge. Simson said they will also be sending the regents letters, some demanding that the regents put up displaced students in their own homes.
Students will head to the mall, near McKeldin Library, at 9 p.m., and Simson said they will remain all week, eating, sleeping and hanging out around the clock. Simson said she will only return to her apartment for the occasional shower.
"We are planning to have students out there at all times," she said.
The SGA does not yet have a permit for the protest, she said, but plans to get one early tomorrow morning.
According to the protest's Facebook profile, 156 students have enlisted in the demonstration, but hundreds have given tentative commitments and thousands have yet to reply to an invitation to join. They have secured 34 tents for the event and some students left posts vowing to live in boxes for the week.
Fox News and NBC are planning to cover the demonstration, which SGA Vice President of Academic Affairs Melissa Morales said could increase awareness across the state, but even more importantly, among students.
"I think that issues that need to come to light about the Board of Regents are very important," she said. "Without the media attention there's less of a likelihood that the entire student population will be aware of the source of the problem."
In a potentially embarrassing coincidence for the university, the very prospective students who could inherit the housing crises will have a pointed introduction to the issue as the protest continues through a series of recruitment tours Friday.
The protest could also be a key campaign point for SGA presidential hopefuls, who will announce their candidacies before the protest begins tonight.
Contact reporter Ben Slivnick at slivnickdbk@gmail.com.
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