The University System of Maryland (USM) – comprised of 12 institutions including the University of Maryland, College Park – announced it will only host university-sponsored events on the one-year anniversary of the October 7 terror attack by Hamas, limiting Students for Justice in Palestine and the Jewish Voice for Peace who reserved McKeldin Mall for a vigil that day.
In a Sept. 1 email to campus, University of Maryland President Darryll Pines announced the move to host only university-sponsored events, and that all other events should be held prior to or after October 7. “Numerous calls have been made to cancel and restrict the events that take place that day, and I fully understand that this day opens emotional wounds and evokes deeply rooted pain. The language has been charged and the rhetoric intense,” Pines said.
The decision was made to foster listening and reflecting in the community, not to abridge student expressions according to USM.
The announcement came with much criticism from students and organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Palestine Legal to reverse the decision. Lawyers from both groups sent a letter to campus officials on Sept. 4 but received no response. “The First Amendment does not allow the government to make October 7th or any other day a free-expression-black-out date. The clarity of the constitutional violation, if maintained, courts conflict,” said CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas.
