U-Md. Students Protest 'Racial Tension'

Ten years ago, as a student at the University of Maryland, the big catch-phrase was diversity. Diversity in educational activities was fine as far as I was concerned, if taken a little too far by the administration.

At the same time, the school was actively seeking to recruit more minority students. Such a cause is noble on its face, but lead to a sort of voluntary, self-segregation by race as the racial groups grew. Thus instead of an integrated student body, you had little racial cliques and rarely would there be mixing.

Today, the College Park campus is experience some racial tension as a result of campus police activity. The students are protesting

an early morning incident Nov. 13, when the U-Md. Department of Public Safety responded to a noise complaint about a party of about 100 people, most of them black, at the New Leonardtown apartments.

The campus police arrested two 19-year-old men who are U-Md. students and a 23-year-old man who is not. The charges included assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, and two officers were treated for minor injuries, said Maj. Cathy Atwell, a campus police spokeswoman.

Some students told a different story, of police waving nightsticks, squirting pepper spray on students and showing their guns. "They were pulling out their pistols, and the two young men [the arrested students] were peaceful," said sophomore Chris Graham-Egbo, a black student who said the incident was another sign of a major problem on campus.

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"People do tend to stay with their own type or race" at U-Md., said Andrew Kurland, a white junior. "They sit with the people they identify with."

I can't say for certain if this is a result of the diversity efforts, but I am sure Maryland is not the only campus suffering such problems.