{"id":361,"date":"2026-03-26T15:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/specialcollections\/umbc50\/?page_id=361"},"modified":"2026-03-31T17:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T17:57:32","slug":"school-closing-protest","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/home\/themes\/student-activism\/school-closing-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"School Closing Protest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;One thousand students packed into the quad Monday, chanting slogans, waving placards, and cheering speakers in the largest mass meeting in UMBC\u2019s recent history. The rally followed reports in the&nbsp;<em>Sunpapers<\/em>,&nbsp;<em>News American<\/em>, and the&nbsp;<em>Washington Star<\/em>&nbsp;of a State Board of Higher Education proposal to close down UMBC and turn the campus into an industrial park.&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite><em>Retriever<\/em>, March 4, 1981.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live-umbc-wpms-test.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"825\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/live-umbc-wpms-test.pantheonsite.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-825x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Black-and-white photograph of a student protest\" class=\"wp-image-91\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.8056640625;width:230px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-825x1024.jpg 825w, https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-242x300.jpg 242w, https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-768x953.jpg 768w, https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-1238x1536.jpg 1238w, https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-1650x2048.jpg 1650w, https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-1200x1489.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2026\/03\/P2014-01-0073-1980x2457.jpg 1980w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 825px) 100vw, 825px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photograph of Students Protesting School Closing, P2014-01-0073<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As reported in the&nbsp;<em>Retriever<\/em>, students rallied on the Quad against reports that UMBC could be shut down by SBHE. Timed to coincide with a visit by University President John Toll to address a faculty gathering, the rally featured SGA president Scott Rifkin and State Senator Tim Hickman, a UMBC alumnus. When the rally ended, the crowd squeezed into Dining Hall I to hear remarks by Chancellor Dorsey and President Toll. Dorsey stated: &#8220;If the threat is real, we are prepared to fight it.\u201d Toll deplored the report as \u201cmaximally damaging to UMBC coming as it did in the middle of the recruitment season for faculty and students, and on the morning of our defense of the university budget in the state legislature.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;One thousand students packed into the quad Monday, chanting slogans, waving placards, and cheering speakers in the largest mass meeting in UMBC\u2019s recent history. The rally followed reports in the&nbsp;Sunpapers,&nbsp;News American, and the&nbsp;Washington Star&nbsp;of a State Board of Higher Education proposal to close down UMBC and turn the campus into an industrial park.&#8221; Retriever, March [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":351,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-361","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/361\/revisions\/531"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.umbc.edu\/umbc50\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}