The only direct email Black Terps Matter organizers have received from President Pines. He did not respond.
Email to UMD VP of Student Affairs Patty Perillo in regards to President Pines not meeting with BTM organizers + student activists. 9/5/2020



If you’d like to find out more information on how the students feel about this issue you can also visit these links to view the collective of students burdened by this issue below:

UMD Tenants on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/umdtenants/

Concerned Tenants of UMD Housing facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1153367158363920

Their group hosted the SCC/CTY Car Caravan (Car Protest) Monday 8/10 at 4pm starting at UMD Courtyards parking lot, then SCC, ending at UMD admin building.

Find our post about it on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CDw162sJlT8/
Amazing art by Karli Lawrence - find their page here: https://www.instagram.com/internal.arts/

DBK Article on the situation here: https://dbknews.com/2020/08/11/umd-students-legal-team-apartment-leases-coronavirus/

8/21/2020

In response, President Pines wrote (8/22/2020):
Thank you for your thoughtful email about trying to be a part of history by attending this event.
However, as you may recall during our zoom meeting with black student leaders, I stated that I cannot support providing buses to attend the march because I strongly believe it is not safe to attend the march in person. I too would like to attend the march in person, but unfortunately I do not want to put myself nor anyone else in harm's way. 
Thus, the university will not provide buses to attend the march strictly based on ensure the health, safety and well-being or our students. I strongly recommend that everyone tune in to the video links provided on their websites.  We all must abide by our 4Maryland healthy behaviors and that includes not participating in large gatherings. These collective measures will help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Best,

Darryll
Darryll J. Pines
President

This is the first time President Pines has acknowledged/responded to an email from Black Terps Matter (ever, in 3 months since we started in June) with more than 1 sentence. This is the first email that individuals from the other offices, (Student Affairs, MICA, ODI) have been attached to. 
See response to Pines' email above. 8/24/2020 - March on 8/28/2020


About

We are happy to report that President Pines spoke on the Black Lives Matter movement in two separate public interviews. We welcome him to also acknowledge our homegrown offshoot movement, Black Terps Matter, thereby solidifying a strong working relationship with the Black and activist student bodies that are vital to campus culture.  We were honored to have him attend our first event on 6/25/2020, and we hope to work more closely with President Pines and his administration in the coming months. I have already emailed him to let him know that it would mean so much to us (Black Terps Matter) if he used his powerful platform to spread the word about our movement using his platform. 8/6/2020

*this email was sent June 5th by Saba Tshibaka, as an individual- not a BTM organizer. BTM started June 25th, 2020.

On June 5th, 2020, I (Saba Tshibaka) formally requested that President Pines increase the number of Black Students admitted to UMD. On July 1st, 2020, the first day of his presidency, he released a set of initiatives that together comprise his progressive TerrapinStrong program. The 9th TerrapinStrong initiative states that "The racial and ethnic diversity has increased as well -- the number of African American freshmen will increase by 8%". We commend President Pines in this first step toward victory for UMD’s Black students! We're hopeful he'll keep it up.


About

Still, we have a long way to go in the fight against racism. On June 28th, 2020 at 3:00 PM I had a meeting with Patty Perillo, who began serving as VP of Student Affairs in Fall 2019. She expressed her support of Black Terps Matter and willingness to use her position to connect me with some people who could help me as an individual. Not seemingly malicious. I met with her via Zoom to explain my concern over evidence that the newly named "Mike Miller” Main Administration Building is named after a man who displayed racist and homophobic views. I told her that, as an individual supporting the anti-racist movement, I think it is absolutely unacceptable for this to happen. I told her I would be following up with the supporting evidence, and I sent her the above email on July 28th, 2020. She has not yet responded  though she has sent me several emails about the people she put me in contact with.

Sign the petition to un-name the administration building here: https://www.change.org/UMD_UNNAME

Mike Miller, a conservative Democrat, kept progress from happening for years...

https://lbsbaltimore.com/marylands-plantation-politics-the-midterm-general-election/

 

Mike Miller defended Justice Taney- author of the Dred Scott Decision?

https://pgcpsmess.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/after-protest-in-his-district-miller-says-he-regrets-offering-his-historical-perspective-about-justice-taney/

 

Mike Miller called black Republican an uncle tom???

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2001/10/11/miller-apologizes-for-uncle-tom-reference/50364676-18a5-4d42-91bb-da1b60a98dad/

 

In this interview Mike Miller displays a dog-whistle brand of racism directed at specific inner-cities, seemingly being racist towards people that live in Baltimore?

https://youtu.be/ccs29V-RK74

 

And to top it all off -- Mike Miller openly opposed gay marriage.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/same-sex-marriage-will-pass-in-md-in-12-senate-president-predicts/2011/07/28/gIQAj4T2fI_story.html?utm_term=.03cc2ddc7f07&itid=lk_inline_manual_28&_gl=1*rclwt5*_ga*Vi1seF9rb3dFQXJrQVZNMHExcW82OVcyZVdreno0Tks1Rjk3bnkzai1UdTczSTBvTGxOWFhjQU8zNTZwU2Uxcg

 

Regarding the naming of the Main Administration Building: How, when, why, and by whom was it decided that the building would be named in honor of Mike Miller? Why did President Loh name it after such a partisan figure? Why would he name it after a relatively conservative white man? Why now?

 

What’s more, this naming appears to violate a 10 year moratorium on name changes that is set to expire in December 2020. However, the naming might be defended on the grounds that it was a “renaming” rather than a “new naming. For this reason we believe it may be more effective to fight the naming on symbolic grounds:


The Main Administration Building, which has never been named in all of its 164 years, is a part of many campus traditions. Black students visit it on campus tours and take their graduation pictures in front of it. National discourse  around the naming of buildings is highly charged right now, and well over 90% of public institutional buildings in this country are named after white males. Given these facts, it was highly inappropriate to name what is arguably the second most important building on campus (second after McKeldin, named after an actual segregationist) after a white male who often stood for political centrism and opposed progressive actions. Miller opposed police reform and gay marriage, and made disparaging (racist) remarks about Baltimore residents. UMD has set itself up for future building name protests.


“Baltimore is a ***** shithole. It’s worse than Washington DC- it’s shitty. I hope you’re not getting any of this on tape *hahahaha* I mean it’s a war zone, I mean it’s crack, these dime bags of PCP... one quarter of kids not in school each day, 50% of kids in school don’t graduate so looking at things from a statewide perspective we really need to help”.

https://youtu.be/ccs29V-RK74


Since I’m here, and some people have shown themselves to be uneducated on how this is racist, I’ll outline it for anyone who is interested in being a part of this dialogue:


What Mike did in this video is known metaphorically as a “dog whistle”: drawing attention to something which appears nonracial on the surface, but is psychosocially associated with those who are not white. Race, therefore, does not need to be directly mentioned in order for an audience to make the racial association. Miller’s use of dog-whistling is actively racist. 

 

How did we let this happen?

Well, President Loh officially changed the name of the main administration building on June 29th 2020. President Pines came into office two days later on July 1st, 2020.

Today, President Pines is sitting on an anti-racist panel...

To be anti-racist...

"Anti-racism" is the policy or practice of opposing racism and promoting racial tolerance. 

"Tolerance" is the absence of prejudice of what is disliked, towards those whose practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own.

I'm asking that President Pines makes it a priority of his to immediately un-name the main administration building.

Please sign this petition to support un-naming the administration building: https://www.change.org/UMD_UNNAME

 

I propose the UMD Community petitions to: 

1) Formally un-name the administration building after Thomas V. "Mike" Miller

 

2) Re-name the administration building after Mr. Hiram Whittle, the first African American male to be admitted to our university in 1951, or Ms. Elaine Johnson-Coates, the first African American female to graduate with a degree in education in 1959. Pine's 5th Initiative is to name the new residence halls after these prestigious individuals- why not name the administration building after one of them instead?

 

3) Incorporate the ENTIRE ARHU Student project Claiming Their Space: Black Student Activism at the University of Maryland- (NEW UMD BLACK HISTORY EXHIBIT) into President Pine's 4th initiative- the new TerrapinStrong Onboarding Program

 

#BlackTerpsMatter

 

Supporting evidence:

(anonymous) Letter from student on her experience interning in the Senate

https://www.newsandtimes.com/politics/2018/03/the-md-state-senate-has-a-metoo-problem/

 

Loh's post about Mike Miller

https://twitter.com/presidentloh/status/1277983418417123328?s=20

 

Loh's post about organizer Saba

https://twitter.com/presidentloh/status/1276194752426323969?s=12 

UMD video on re-naming the Main Administration Building

https://twitter.com/UofMaryland/status/1277677923479310339?s=20

 

Mike Miller opposed bussing in 1973

https://twitter.com/RichForMaryland/status/1270016039598817280/photo/2

https://twitter.com/RichForMaryland/status/1270019426503589888?s=20

 

Carter Called Legislative Work Group On Police Reform "A Play Group":

https://www.wbal.com/article/118242/107/carter-legislative-work-group-on-police-reform-a-play-group

 

 

Literature & podcasts on re-naming buildings:

  1. https://unmute.squarespace.com/season-4/2112019/episode-037-michele-moody-adams-on-monuments-and-memorials

  2. https://www.dropbox.com/s/j98yaoian0gnyi6/Liberman%20Doctrine%20of%20Double%20Endorsement%20Penultimate%20Draft.docx?dl=0 - my fav

    1. “But I Voted for Him for Other Reasons!”

    2. Moral Permissibility and the Doctrine of Double EndorsementAlida LibermanWe are told that Confederate memorials should be decommissioned because some black people, In particular, equate them with racism, and racism makes them upset (understandably), and therefore the offending symbols have no place in our public spaces. . . . Tens of millions of patriotic Americans honor the South. The vast majority of Americans, moreover, equateConfederate memorials, and theConfederate flag, with Southern pride, not racism.Nicholas Waddy, “In Defense of Robert E. Lee.”

  3. https://www.academia.edu/43124527/Syllabus_-_PHIL2122_Philosophy_and_public_policy?auto=download

    1. Since public policies affect the communities we are part of, it is important to critically reflect on the merits and demerits of alternative policies. What are the characteristics of defensible public policies? What courses of action should be taken at local, state and national levels? And how are we to engage in public discourse, under ordinary and also more extraordinary circumstances?

  4.  Julian Baggini’s “Not All Slopes Are Slippery: How to decide which statues can remain and which need to go”

    1. https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/not-all-slopes-are-slippery/

  5. Stanford Encyclopedia entry on The Ethics of Cultural Heritage

    1. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-cultural-heritage/

  6. Frowe, H. (2019). “The Duty to Remove Statues of Wrongdoers“. Journal of Practical Ethics, 7(3).

    1. https://philpapers.org/rec/FROTDT

  7. Timmerman, T. (Forthcoming). “A Case for Removing Confederate Monuments“. In Ethics Left and Right: The Moral Issues that Divide Us, edited by B. Fisher.

    1. https://philpapers.org/rec/TIMACF

  8. “Michele Moody-Adams on Monuments and Memorials” at the UnMute Podcast.

    1. https://unmute.squarespace.com/season-4/2112019/episode-037-michele-moody-adams-on-monuments-and-memorials

View running list of more credible sources of information here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-Y9fZOf_RqWgE1Dlb76_9WxpEmkQWy5B2PeGucwzr5U/edit?usp=sharing