A student-led proposal to the change the name of the University of Maryland’s Byrd Stadium took another step forward on Thursday with school President Wallace D. Loh’s announcement of the creation of a group charged with formally considering the issue.
A potential name change would face review by Maryland Chancellor Robert L. Caret and the Board of Regents after Loh is presented with the work group’s final report.
A coalition of Maryland student groups have long advocated for a new name for the stadium, arguing that its namesake, former university president Harry Clifton “Curley” Byrd, was a racist and segregationist whose beliefs are contrary to the state flagship school’s mission and principles. The cause picked up traction in April when the student government endorsed a resolution supporting a change.
The student coalition, which includes the NAACP, the Black Student Union and several multicultural Greek organizations, is led by Colin Byrd, a senior sociology major at Maryland. Byrd and the coalition’s supporters contend that Curley Byrd, who served as the school’s president from 1936 to ’54, barred African Americans from enrolling at the school until the early 1950s.
Colin Byrd formed an advocacy group this summer called the College Park Nine, its name a reference to the group of students who led the landmark desegregation of a high school Little Rock, Ark, in 1957. The group delivered a letter to Loh regarding the issue last week.
Byrd said in a phone interview that he is hoping to for a name change to be made at an earlier date, and was cautious in his assessment of the name-change process.
“I am very concerned about actually what this does mean. I’m skeptical about the nature and the causes of this particular action,” Byrd said of the formation of the work group. “In terms of getting us closer to what the university’s ultimate decision will be … now there is a little bit more certainty about the timeline for a decision. So that’s positive, but I don’t want to go as far as celebrate.”
