Admin. releases private emails

Although student activists who requested internal emails between top administrators received significantly fewer than they had initially hoped, they said the 14 exchanges provided insight into university officials' attitudes toward issues they continue to bring to the administration's attention.

University alumna Mary Yanik, former president of Feminism Without Borders, sent the initial request for any emails mentioning several keywords of last semester's hot-button issues at the university: "Daycon," "feminism," "Black Faculty and Staff Association," "BFSA" and "forum." The student-run organization Justice at Maryland: Fight UMD Worker Abuse raised more than the necessary $678.26 — $89.35 of which was later refunded — in five days to pay for the emails they requested under the Maryland Public Information Act.

Jack Roach, the university's executive assistant to the president for legal affairs and chief counsel, said the group's request would consist of about 192 documents.

"The request was sweeping in nature and a lot of the emails were requested," said university spokesman Millree Williams. "The legal office tried to condense it and make it as clear as possible."

The 14 emails the group ultimately received were correspondences between university President Wallace Loh, Vice President for Student Affairs Linda Clement, then-interim Vice President for Administrative Affairs Frank Brewer and Williams, among others. These emails centered on administrators' exchanges about the issue of cutting ties with Daycon — a janitorial supply company convicted of violating federal labor regulations, which it is appealing.

Last semester, a coalition of students came together to form the organization Drop Daycon.They sent emails to university administrators, brought Daycon representatives to the campus, held a contentious meeting with Loh and occupied the president's office for six hours in May.

Jack Izen, a Drop Daycon member, said a few emails did not sit well with him. He specifically mentioned an email from Loh to Brewer, which read "Some student asked me if I was going to be present at the meeting with the Daycon representative(s) when they come to campus tomorrow? If you will be there, can I not be there?"

"I think the emails display the amount of respect the president has for the students," the junior American studies and government and politics major said about this message. "They are just trying to avoid dealing with us."

An email that several students said particularly interested them was one Loh sent on May 5 — two days after three student activists held a meeting with the president to advocate that the university sever ties with Daycon. After the meeting, the students alleged Loh stormed out in frustration, although university officials said the meeting had simply run over its allotted time.

After the incident, Loh sent an email to several administrators requesting a communications official be present at meetings "we know in advance are going to be tense and confrontational."

"It's my responsibility, of course, not to allow others push my buttons, but I also need help from a professional communications expert so that I'm not being so exposed next time I have to enter the lions' den," Loh wrote.

However, Williams said Loh's message was a simple request for Williams as the university communications director, to attend more meetings.

"Up to that point, I hadn't been involved in any of those discussions," Williams said. "He was just directing me to get more involved."

Sam Williamson, who was present at the May 3 meeting, said although she plans to schedule meetings with the president in the future, this email indicated to her that she was right to feel as if the president had left their discussion abruptly.

"We are not there to attack him," the junior government and politics and history major said. "It's indicative of his attitude that he's not there to listen but to defend his positions no matter what they are."

Additionally, the emails showed administrators were actively corresponding about cutting ties with Daycon after 22 students held a six-hour "study-in" in Loh's office on May 13. Loh asked university officials to see if other universities were ending their contracts early with Daycon before reaching a decision later that month to give the company's its right to due process and renew the contract.