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109th

4 YEAR

Monday, September 17, 2018

campus

‘Safe space’ established for white students Univ stands by ‘White Awake,’ despite pushback

community

‘Just contagious’: UMD remembers Zac Garcia

The University of Maryland’s Counseling Jillian Atelsek Center is offering a new @jillian_atelsek group, billed as a “safe Senior staff writer space for white students,” to discuss race. This, in turn, has prompted pushback from some students. The group, called White Awake, aims to provide white students an opportunity to “explore their experiences, questions, reactions, and feelings” on race, according to the Counseling Center’s website. “Do you sometimes feel uncomfortable and confused before, during, or after interactions with racial and ethnic minorities?” a promotional flyer for the group read. David Akerman, a sophomore journalism major, said the language being used to advertise the group concerned him as a Hispanic person. “The way I interpret it is that white people are being victimized by interacting with us,” by

By Arya Hodjat | @arya_kidding_me | Staff writer

Every time Monica Madrazo Garcia would call her son Zac Garcia — regardless of the time or place — he would greet her with a chipper,“Hey mama, how are you doing?” “There was always no shame, no anything, in how he said he loved me. He would go to hug me, and then go ‘I love you’ and then give me a noogie. He was much taller than me,” Madrazo Garcia said. “He was just always loving, in those simple, simplest of ways.” Garcia, a senior finance major at the University of Maryland, died Sept. 9 in a car crash in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. He was 21.

See white awake, p. 8

administration

ODI creates six new diversity trainings Programs are a response to Senate recommendations by

Grace Mottley @gracemott7 Staff writer

The University of Maryland has created six voluntary diversity training programs, as well as an online log for tracking campus hate bias incidents. The programs come after dozens of reports of hate bias incidents on the campus over the past several semesters, including swastikas drawn in multiple buildings and a noose found hanging in a fraternity house. This university announced last academic year that students would be able to opt in for email updates to the log. There have been two hate bias incidents so far

ZAC GARCIA, a senior finance major, is remembered as an outgoing and steadfast friend. He died in a car crash in Pennsylvania last week. photo courtesy of monica madrazo garcia

Garcia and four other students were driving back from Ohio State University, where they’d met up with a friend for the weekend. According to a report from Pennsylvania State Police, the driver of the vehicle lost control while traveling east on Interstate 70 in rainy weather. The car veered up an embankment before tumbling back onto the highway. Garcia, who had been wearing a seatbelt, was pronounced dead at the scene. All five passengers in the car were members of this university’s chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, also known as Fiji. While some of the car’s other passengers sustained serious injuries, all are currently in stable condition. Garcia, a Cresskill, New Jersey native, is remembered by friends and family as an outgoing, ambitious person who made friends everywhere he went. Razak Malas, a senior economics major, met Garcia when they were in sixth grade. Garcia introduced him to most of their friends at home, and later convinced him to join the fraternity when he transferred to this university his sophomore year. “One of his friends would say he’s the glue, and I think that’s a good description,” Madrazo Garcia said. When they’d run into each other on the campus, Garcia would scream his name in excitement, and Malas would call him “Wacky,” his nickname. “It’s a clear divider between him as a friend and everyone else. He’d give you this smile and a big hug always,” Malas said. “He’d have small gestures with everyone, each tailored to each individual

ZAC GARCIA, above, played soccer when he was younger. Monica Madrazo Garcia, below, remembers her son as “always loving.” photos courtesy of monica madrazo garcia

See TRAININGS, p. 8

See GARCIA , p. 8

campus

Group to create multimedia project on students and faculty of color Black Faculty and Staff Association prepares to launch online campaign Solomon Jillian Atelsek Comissiong’s office @jillian_atelsek at the University of Senior staff writer Maryland, tucked into a corner of the Nyumburu Cultural Center, has become something of a refuge for students of color navigating what he described as a “toxic environment.” “I’ve seen no shortage of students crying, emotional, in my office, [telling] these stories by

of feeling dislocated and isolated on this campus,” said Comissiong, the president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association. After a tumultuous first few we e ks o n ca m p u s — wh i c h included two reported hate bias incidents — Comissiong said he’s frustrated that the university hasn’t released its external review of campus diversity, commissioned in the wake of the stabbing of 2nd Lt. Richard Collins.

So the BFSA has taken matters into its own hands, preparing the launch of an online media platform meant to showcase the experiences of students and faculty of color at this university. C h i e f a m o n g t h e g ro u p ’s concerns, Comissiong said, is addressing transparency on diversity and inclusion measures within the university’s leadership. “This university is doing an abysmal job — a horrendous job — horrible, horrible, horrible job when it comes to fixing this

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See diversity, p. 8 Submit tips and corrections to The Diamondback at newsumdbk@gmail.com

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