Students from the Drop Daycon Coalitition conducting a "study-in" at the president's office
LISTEN TO STUDENTS DEBATE THE UMD ADMINISTRATION:
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“We need more pplz like yall in the world.. Or maybe I should be pplz like yall.” – “Naod”
A dozen University of Maryland students with the Drop Daycon Coalition took a break from studying for finals and occupied UMD President Wallace Loh’s office at noon on Friday. More than six hours later the students left on their own accord having won a major concession. By the end of this week the university will decide whether to cut its ties with Daycon, a cleaning supplies contractor which has violated federal labor laws.
“I will clear my calendar,” Interim Vice President for Administrative Affairs Director Frank Brewer told the students, who are scheduled to continue discussions with him Tuesday at 1 p.m. “It may take more than one meeting… [but] by the end of the week we will make a decision,” said Brewer.
The activists held the “study-in” to “protest the continued inaction by the administration [in] addressing the violations of labor law and UMD’s ethical standards by Daycon,” a press release from the Drop Daycon Coalition said.
Jack Izen, a sophomore majoring in American studies and government, said, “[UMD must] issue a letter stating our intention to not renew our contract with Daycon once it’s up for renewal later this year.”
“Daycon has refused to rehire workers involved in union activity, despite the ruling of a federal judge two months ago that this action violated federal labor law,” the press release said.
Mary Yanik of Feminism Without Borders in conversation with Frank Brewer
“These workers have really been suffering as our administration has done nothing,” said Mary Yanik of Feminism Without Borders, one of the twelve campus organizations that make up the Drop Daycon Coalition.
“Workers homes have been foreclosed on. Workers have borrowed from friends and family just to afford necessary medications to treat their diabetes and other diseases,” said Yanik, a chemistry and political science major who graduates this week and is headed to Yale Law School in the fall to study labor issues.
The student activists arrived at the president’s office armed with laptops and immediately took to Facebook and Twitter to get word of the action out. “Naod” responded with this Tweet, “Saw on [Facebook] that you are at the study-in. We need more pplz like yall in the world.. Or maybe I should be pplz like yall.”
For further reading on the Daycon struggle see the impressive reporting of freshman Maria Romas. She writes for The Diamondback, The University of Maryland’s Independent Daily Student Newspaper.
Related sites:
http://umddropdaycon.org/
http://maryland.usas.org/