SEASON-ENDING SKID: Maryland football’s losing streak extends to six games with 54-7 loss to Nebraska, p. 11
THANKSGIVING: The best turkey day foods, ranked, p. 9
The University of Maryland’s Independent Student Newspaper ONLINE AT
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UMD to hire new hate bias response staffer The current program manager says the role is too much for one person The University of Maryland is searching fo r a n o t h e r p e rso n to help manage its hate bias response program. Neijma Celestine-Donnor, who started as the program manager in April 2018, told The Diamondback on Friday that she estimates she began working in a higher position — the director for hate bias response and advocacy — about six months ago. A job posting for a new program manager was posted on a hiring site close to a month ago. “There’s a lot of work to be done,” she said. “When you’re doing the responding, the recording, the data, the programming, the training — you can imagine that it’s probably not a one-person show.” Celestine-Donnor largely handles the response to reported hate bias incidents — from slurs on whiteboards to anti-LGBTQ vandalism — by herself, with some support from a graduate assistant and from other administrative staff in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.
“We’re still angry” angry A year after a UMD freshman died of adenovirus, her friends maintain that the tragedy could have been prevented
by
Leah Brennan @allhaelleah Senior staff writer
See bias, p. 8
campus
Indigenous students want land recognition A group is pushing UMD to acknowledge it’s built on Piscataway land The American Indian S t u d e n t Un i o n a t t h e University of Maryland is trying to gather support for a campuswide statement acknowledging the university’s campus was built on Piscataway Conoy tribal land. Although university entities such as the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, MICA and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center have acknowledged the land already, AISU members say it’s not enough. In addition to an official, campuswide statement, they also want the university to install plaques and signs across the campus. “We’re going to students,” said Jazmine Diggs, an executive board member of the AISU. “We’re bringing awareness of where we are.” The effort began in October, after members of the AISU attended the Big Ten Native American Conference at Indiana University. There, they met native and indigenous groups from other Big Ten universities, some of which had seen much more progress. Indiana University, for example, has a First Nations Education & Cultural Center, dedicated to helping Native American students. Inspired by the students at other institutions, Diggs and other AISU members wanted to spark a conversation about American Indian representation on the campus. So, after the conference concluded, Diggs started to plan a petition. It launched about two weeks ago, and had garnered about 28 signatures as of Thursday night. “UMD just hasn’t started this process at all,” she said. “And the biggest problem is that the student body doesn’t even know.” by
Amanda Hernández @thedbk Staff writer
See native land, p. 8
nearly 100 posters that Olivia Paregol’s friends put up around UMD’s campus aimed to educate students on the circumstances of her death last year. julia nikhinson /the diamondback
By Nora Eckert | @NoraEckert | Senior staff writer
The moon shone down on Riley Whelan as she walked around the University of Maryland on Sunday night. She glanced up at it, thinking about what her friend Olivia Paregol would have done if she were there. “She was obsessed with the sky,” the sophomore communication major said. “She would just stop and stare at the moon, and we would be like, ‘Olivia, come on!’” On the eve of the first anniversary of her death, a group of Paregol’s friends — still hurting from the loss and aiming to call attention to the circumstances that surrounded it — trekked through the cold to post flyers on doors and windows across the campus. “ O l iv i a P a re go l d i e d a yea r a go to d ay o f adenovirus,” the sheets of paper read. Then, in bold: “This could have been prevented.” Paregol, a freshman criminology and criminal justice major, died from pneumonia last November after contracting a serious strain of adenovirus, which afflicted more than 40 students in an outbreak last academic year. The university didn’t alert the campus until 18 days after it first knew of the outbreak. Paregol’s family didn’t know she could have had the virus until her father called then-University Health
Center director David McBride, looking for answers. Paregol’s doctors switched course after that phone call, The Washington Post reported in May, but it was too late. She died five days later. “We’re still angry,” Whelan said. “And we still think about it.” The group hung nearly 100 posters on dorms and academic buildings. Some of them, including one on the door of the health center, were quickly removed. Any flyers that were posted in buildings the student affairs department manages, including dorms, the health center and Stamp Student Union, were moved to nearby bulletin boards in accordance with university policy. The flyers, Whelan added, were the group’s way of encouraging students to become familiar with the events that led up to Paregol’s death, which she believes many still don’t understand. T h a t wa s rea f f i r m e d fo r R a c h e l Je sse e , a sophomore government and politics major, after she hung signs outside of McKeldin Library. She said she was approached by students who wanted to learn more about Paregol and how she died. Paregol lived in Elkton Hall, the dorm hit hardest by an outbreak of mold last fall. Experts say mold doesn’t cause adenovirus, though it can result in respiratory irritation and increase susceptibility to a viral infection. Ian Paregol, Olivia’s father, has expressed concern that the mold in her dorm worsened her condition. Paregol had been taking medication for Crohn’s disease, weakening her immune system and making her more prone to contracting the virus, which typically isn’t serious for people with healthy immune systems. The university considered — but ultimately decided against — notifying students in Elkton and those with compromised immune
campus
See paregol , p. 8
Students urge admin toward climate action Loh sat alongside a group of about 40 gathered for a teach-in on Friday by
Kicking off
administrators to take action.
Staring up at the gathered Eric Neugeboren what University @eric_neugeboren o f M a ryl a n d crowd from the sidewalk, environmental s e n i o r M a x S k o g l u n d Staff writer activists hope will be a weekly demonstration next semester, about 40 students gathered at the steps of the school’s administration building Friday to raise awareness for climate change. In the first “Terra-Teach-In” — hosted by the university’s Sustainability Cooperative and environmental student organization Fossil Free UMD — student leaders addressed the audience, sharing projects their groups are organizing and calling upon
calendar 2 OPINION 4 FEATURES 5 city 6 diversions 9 SPORTS 12
stressed the demonstration’s importance. “ I t’s n o t j u s t s t u d e n ts that need to be educated on issues, but I think [the] administration also needs to b e f u r t h e r e d u ca te d o n t h e rea l i ty o f c l i m a te c h a n ge ,” s a i d S ko g l u n d , communications chair for SCoop. “Once you know all the facts and the urgency of the issue, you know that you have no other option but to fight for our future.” About 10 minutes into the
students demonstrated on the steps of the administration building. julia nikhinson / the diamondback The activists want a event, university President Wa l l a c e L o h e x i te d t h e university sustainability general administration building and sat education requirement, the down on its steps. He listened school to end the direct use as Skoglund laid out a series of demands for the university. See climate, p. 8
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