Addressing Anti-Black Racism at UMD – For a Limited Time Only: Black Student Demands and Institutional Accountability at the University of Maryland

Abstract

Title of Dissertation: ADDRESSING ANTI-BLACK RACISM AT UMD – FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY: BLACK STUDENT DEMANDS AND INSTITUTIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Victoria Alexander-Thompson, Doctor of Philosophy, 2025

Dissertation directed by: Associate Professor Bridget Turner Kelly, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education

At the University of Maryland, in 2020, Black student leaders engaged in campus activism to create a list of 25 demands that UMD publicly committed to meeting. These demands were made in the context of the 2020 resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder and death of two Black men on campus in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Five years after the making of these demands, this dissertation examines Black UMD students’ perspective on UMD policy, practice, and communication, to assess whether UMD has remained accountable to addressing the concerns of Black students.Using instrumental exploratory case study, data was collected through document analysis, historical analysis, and focus groups including two populations: 1) Black UMD undergraduate and graduate students and 2) UMD faculty and staff who support Black student initiatives. The theoretical framework of this study references Fraser’s (2009) Three Justice Dimensions and Black Critical Theory or BlackCrit (Dumas & Ross, 2016) to leverage critical organizational theory and critical race theory. This study’s findings problematize general diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives to illuminate how the needs of Black students are often further marginalized when institutions favor performative and generalizable diversity commitments over intentional action toward combating the specific and pervasive problem of anti-Black racism.