Photo by Michael Galkovsky

Following the fatal stabbing of a 23-year-old black man by a white student at the University of Maryland in College Park, the school’s president has announced a series of steps to address hate-bias incidents on campus.

The FBI and local police are currently investigating the death of 23-year-old Richard Collins III, who was a student at Bowie State University, as a possible hate-bias crime.

Police have charged 22-year-old UMD student Sean Urbanski with first degree murder, second degree murder, and first degree assault in connection with the stabbing, which took place around 3 a.m. on May 20 on the College Park campus. Officials have linked Urbanski to a Facebook group called “Alt-Reich: Nation,” which posts racist content.

In a statement on May 24, UMD president Wallace D. Loh issued five action items that are effective immediately.

The college’s office of diversity and inclusion will create a “rapid-response team” that includes faculty, staff, and students to support victims of hate-bias instances and the school will give the diversity office $100,000 to support educational efforts, among other things.

According to incident logs obtained by WAMU, there were 25 reported hate bias incidents on the campus since 2015. These include two incidents in which white nationalist flyers were posted around campus and the discovery of a noose hanging in the kitchen of a fraternity house last month.

“This is not the first incident exposing the escalating racial tensions at the University of Maryland,” said UMD’s Black Student Union in a statement on Monday. If the “administration does not extend their actions beyond ‘dialogue,’ it will surely not be the last.”

Current and former UMD students have been sharing their experiences with discrimination on campus using the hashtag #FearTheTurtle.

Loh said that the school’s office of civil rights and sexual misconduct will create an annual report of all hate-bias incidents that take place, which will also entail prevention, response, and education measures.

There will be another task force established to review all of the university’s policies and procedures that relate to hate-bias incidents. This team will create a report with recommendations and guidelines “to foster an environment where hate is not tolerated,” Loh said.