Last October, after weeks of pressure from outraged student groups and University donors, President Wallace Loh publicly accepted responsibility for UMD athletic department’s lack of oversight and abusive culture, and announced that he would retire in June, 2019. President Loh’s announcement came within hours of UMD’s Graduate Student Government releasing a statement which condemned the Board of Regents’ decision to reinstate football coach DJ Durkin, and which called for more student involvement in decision making involving the continued employment of University staff who were complicit in the events that resulted in the death of Jordan McNair.
In the days following, the University announced Durkin’s termination, and speculation began about whether or not Loh would backtrack on his announcement. On November 5, 2018, Graduate Student Government held a special assembly, during which a resolution (GSGA38-R07) was passed, which called on President Loh to reaffirm his commitment to retire in June, 2019. The resolution also requested that President Loh, over the duration of his tenure, take actions to reform UMD’s athletic culture, and to reinforce shared governance in that process.
Following the passing of this resolution, GSG leadership reached out to the President’s office in November and December to ask for updates related to the transition. Follow-up was also requested in the semi-annual meeting that GSG has with the Provost. These requests were met with unsatisfactory replies which advised that no more information was known by support staff. The GSG leadership expected transparency and confirmation of student inclusion in the forthcoming transition process. Time passed and GSG, like the rest of the campus community, was left in a state of limbo knowing a commitment has been made but that the needed steps to ensure a smooth transition were not taking place in a timely manner.
On Wednesday, January 30, 2019, with the support of the Board of Regent, President Loh rescinded his early retirement and announced that he would remain in his position until June, 2020. Graduate Student Government stands by its November 5th resolution, and asks that President Loh honor his commitment to the UMD community and retire at the conclusion of this academic year. Our student community is still healing from the events of last year, and to reach full recovery, we need new leadership - leadership that is not tainted by national scandal, and leadership that is receptive to the opinions and involvement of students, as the primary stakeholders of this University.
- GSG E-Board (Shawna Dias, Annie Rappeport, Devin Scott, Binbin Peng, Xu Han)