Activist coalition sees loss of momentum

After a semester of momentum, campus activism has come to a standstill.

In the fall, students boldly took over the steps of the Administration Building and, with bullhorns and chants, issued a list of demands: the reinstatement of Associate Provost for Equity and Diversity Cordell Black, additional transparency from the administration and a true emphasis on campus diversity. The group called itself S.T.A.R.E, Students Taking Action to Reclaim our Education, and consisted of an array of the university's cultural and advocacy student groups. Their Facebook group grew to nearly 1,000 members.

But today, the megaphones are silent, Black hasn't been reinstated and the group has yet to hold a meeting. While the group's leaders said they're reorganizing, much of the ambition S.T.A.R.E. started with in November seems to have disappeared.

"All of us are getting back in the loop," Community Roots Co-President and S.T.A.R.E. organizer Kelechi Agbakwuru said. "In a lot of ways it hindered us to be together on everything. When it came to implementation, things got more difficult.The issues haven't gone away. ... We're definitely coming back to it. But we're going to work separately until something big happens."

Although STARE set far-reaching goals toward administration reform and called for phone bombing (repeatedly calling and leaving messages) campus administrators and sit-ins on the steps of the Administration Building to voice their discontent and draw change, little action came of their demonstrations and inspirational talk.

While Provost Nariman Farvardin has released more budgetary documents to the public and opened the doors to additional student participation in administrative decisions, the steps are a far cry from what STARE demanded — a release of all university documents dealing with the budget or diversity and a halt to all department reorganizations and faculty layoffs. And Black is still scheduled to leave the administration on June 30.

Because of the snow and missed classes, coordinating students and events has been difficult, said STARE organizers. Instead, the student leaders of campus groups like the Black Student Union, Community Roots, the Student Government Association and the Latino Student Union, who were united under STARE, have returned to their individual organizations. The focus for these groups has shifted from "Bring Back Black" and "This is what diversity looks like" to Haitian and Chilean relief efforts, recruiting more minority students and lobbying in Annapolis.

"STARE definitely does still exist in some fashion," Black Student Union President and STARE organizer Amber Simmons said. "But right now we're more focused on what we can do individually. Obviously, we can't keep doing this forever. We need to get more students to pass the torch. We need more black students at this university."

The group is helping to organize this campus' March 4 National Day of Action. Tomorrow, students at universities across the country plan to walk out of classes to defend public education and combat what they say are unfair administrative and budget decisions. Here, students plan on rallying against tuition hikes, faculty layoffs  and mergers at the Art-Sociology Building. But so far, Thursday's walkout  appears to be an isolated event as STARE latches on to a national movement.

"STARE is planning a walkout at noon," Community Roots Co-President and STARE organizer Jazz Lewis said. "We're all planning to walk out in solidarity with other schools around the country. [STARE] intends to get back together. We'll be back. It'll happen."

hampton@umdbk.com