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Wallace D. Loh, president of the University of Maryland at College Park, on Thursday announced additional actions to “fight hate and create a safer campus,” following the murder there last month of Richard Collins III, a visiting senior from Bowie State University. Collins was black and his alleged killer was a senior at College Park and suspected white supremacist sympathizer. Based on what Loh described as strong input from students, faculty, staff and administrators, the university will adopt a “Pledge of Respect and Unity” for all students to “reaffirm our core values of respect for human dignity, diversity, inclusion and academic freedom.” Students will take the pledge together at organized events this fall, he said.
Maryland will also amend its Code of Student Conduct to strengthen sanctions for hate and bias through a process of shared governance. “We will carefully consider the enactment of stiffer sanctions when conduct is found to be motivated by hate or bias,” Loh said in a campus email. A task force also will be named this summer to perform “a comprehensive review of [university] policies and procedures related to bias, hate and campus safety in order to shape a culture that is more respectful and inclusive of all persons.” Loh said campus police continue to investigate a “hate symbol” found in a fraternity house; a noose was found in the Phi Kappa Tau chapter kitchen earlier this spring.
