“Your disregard is visible”: UMD community members advocate for greater support, transparency for Nyumburu Cultural Center

Safiyah Fatima contributed reporting to this story.

Chanting “say it loud, I’m Black and proud” and “Psyche stays,” more than 50 students walked from the Nyumburu Amphitheater to the Thomas V. Miller Administration Building on Wednesday in demand of increased student involvement and care from the University of Maryland’s (UMD) administration and UMD’s office of belonging and community towards the Nyumburu Cultural Center.

“We want to reach the administration about disrespect for not only the [Nyumburu Cultural Center student] ambassadors, but also the staff at Nyumburu and systemic neglect of the center itself, especially with funding and provision of resources,” protestor Madison Diggs said. “We want to bring our concerns to the administration and let them hear us.”

Wednesday’s protest was followed by a meeting with UMD president Darryll Pines, UMD vice president of belonging and community Dr. Georgina Dodge and upcoming interim vice president of belonging Dr. Stephanie Chang. Student ambassadors had seven demands in the meeting, according to ambassador Jade Blackmoore, including:

• Extending interim director of Nyumburu Cultural Center Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson’s contract through at least Aug. 7, 2026; or making her a permanent director
• Granting Williams-Forson a right of refusal for the position of permanent director
• Canceling the university’s national search for an interim director
• Establishing a formal student and community evaluation process requiring UMD’s office of community and belonging to seek input from Nyumburu student ambassadors, staff and program participants
• Conducting an independent review of the office of belonging and community’s oversight practices for all cultural groups
• A publicly accessible budget plan and timeline for renovating the Nyumburu Cultural Center’s infrastructure
• A public reaffirmation of UMD’s commitment to the Nyumburu Cultural Center

None of their demands were met, the group told Al-Hikmah.

The students’ advocacy was sparked by UMD’s announcement to replace the current interim director of Nyumburu, Dr. Psyche Williams-Forson. On April 2, 2026, student ambassadors for the center signed a letter addressed to officials at this university saying the decision to replace Williams-Forson was made “without consulting the students, staff, or community members who work alongside her daily.”

In the six months Williams-Forson served as interim director, she was a “fierce advocate for the fair treatment of everyone,” the letter reads. 

In response, Dodge and this university clarified that Williams-Forson’s contract was not being terminated early and that she may apply to be permanent director. Student ambassadors acknowledged their misunderstanding in the timeline, but said there is a greater problem in a response letter to Dodge and UMD administrators — a “lack of transparency” from this university and the office of belonging and community when it comes to the Nyumburu Cultural Center.

Student ambassadors have since organized into a collective calling on this university’s administration to have greater transparency, student involvement, and care towards the Nyumburu Cultural Center. Students held a town hall on Tuesday, April 29 co-hosted by campus groups including the Black Student Union and UMD’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America, and led a protest last week. 

Diggs, who is co-president of UMD’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter, said advocacy for the Nyumburu Center isn’t just an issue for Black students.

“It affects everybody. Black hands have been the foundation of not just our country, but also this campus. This campus was founded on stolen land, and it’s important that we give back to spaces that have continuously been pouring into not just a university, but all students of color on campus,” Diggs told Al-Hikmah. “It’s an issue for all minority communities and every single community that has used the cultural center and has called it their home.”

The Nyumburu Cultural Center serves as a prayer spot for Muslim students on campus, who hold weekly jummah prayers every Friday in the center’s basement. 

Jenna Awadallah, who attended the student-organized town hall on Tuesday, said it is important for Muslim students to advocate alongside student ambassadors.

“All of our struggles are intertwined. At the end of the day, we’re all fighting for the same thing, and we face the same barriers … it’s always the same roadblocks with trying to talk to admin,” she said. “I would love to see more Muslims coming out and supporting [the advocacy efforts] too, especially since we do benefit so much from having the cultural center there.”

Former director of the Nyumburu Cultural Center Dr. Ronald Zeigler told Al-Hikmah that the center is a “safe haven” for the Muslim community and minority students on campus.

Before Cole Field House was designated for prayer, Nyumburu filled the gap. “Even if you look back to 10 years, there was no space that the Muslim students had… [it] was a struggle to get that to be granted,” he said.

Zeigler also said that Nyumburu’s staff and students are “the ones doing the hard work” of working nearly every day to ensure the center’s activities “serve the campus community.” 

“To the of community and belonging and president Pines, your disregard is visible and we see it, we hear it, and we feel it every single day,” student ambassador Blackmoore said. “All we ask is for you to hear and see us right now in this moment so that way we don’t have to get to a point like this again.”

In a statement to Al-Hikmah, Dodge said UMD has “been meeting with the student ambassadors in good faith, answering their questions and educating them about university processes while also providing them with information they did not have … We were honest and transparent with the students, and I made it very clear that there would be no discussion of personnel matters.”

_{Image credits: Cover photo by Safiyah Fatima for Al-Hikmah.}