This university’s chief administrative officer Charles Reuning announced last week that testing of the light-rail vehicles is set to begin on campus in early January. On-campus testing is set to be conducted on selected days from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Purple Line is about 80 percent complete and set to begin operation in December 2027.

Freshman Jaden Cohen said it’s exciting to hear that the cars will actually start moving. But since the testing will be conducted at night, he is concerned some students may be unaware the testing is happening or try to disturb the cars.

“People don’t make smart decisions at night, and there’s no way to have a police presence across the whole line,” said Cohen, an accounting and supply chain major.

Cohen added he’s excited for the Purple Line to make it easier both to get around the area and to get to the Amtrak to return home to New Jersey.

Cohen’s also curious to see how students crossing Campus Drive during peak times will look like, he said. Cohen noted even buses are not able to get through the student’s foot traffic.

[College Park City Council asks state to evaluate site for affordable family, senior housing]

“I don’t know what’s gonna happen there. Is the train just gonna wait for students for an hour?” Cohen said.

Freshman digital art and media communications major Giulia Blough grew up in this area and frequently visited this campus since one of her parents worked at the university. She remembers seeing “significantly worse” construction around campus then.

Blough said she is curious if the testing of the Purple Line will actually happen as scheduled and how it will affect campus safety.

“I feel like I’ve been told so many times that ‘it’s almost done, it’s almost done’ and then it hasn’t been,” Blough said.

The Purple Line was set to open in 2022, but the construction process was paused for two years when Purple Line Transit Partners — the contractor overseeing the project’s construction — quit five years ago.

Five of the Purple Line’s 21 light-rail stations will be located on or near this campus. The line will also connect to the Metro’s red, green and orange lines.

Blough said that it will be interesting to see the light-rail vehicles coming through campus, considering all the people walking, riding scooters or driving cars. She added the Purple Line opening will make the journey home easier for students from nearby counties.

[Maryland sues Trump administration over blocking FBI headquarters move to Greenbelt]

“It’ll be nice for people that live in Montgomery County because they have a direct way of transportation home instead of having to order an Uber or take two different trains to get home on the Metro,” Blough said.

Applied economics graduate student Erik Lavoie said the Purple Line is a positive development but believes the project could have been designed better.

Lavoie said many students do not have access to a car and the Purple Line will be an alternative to spending money on Ubers. He added he’s concerned the Purple Line could get stuck at certain busy times in the day, just as he sees other vehicles get stuck on Campus Drive due to high pedestrian traffic.

“I’m just wondering if the people who planned [the Purple Line], are they fully aware of what it looks like around here at 11 a.m. when a lot of classes are out?” Lavoie said.

The bill, which passed 18-1-1, urges the deans of both schools and the vice president of university relations to rename the Lockheed Martin Room, Lockheed Martin Partnership Suite, Lockheed Martin Lounge, BAE Systems Lab and Leidos Lab.

Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and Leidos have all supplied weapons to the Israel Defense Forces that have been used to commit a genocide in Gaza, the resolution read.

“I think that these companies who are actively engaged in human rights violations, and make me sick to my stomach, should have their legacies remembered more so as that, than partners in research,” transportation and infrastructure committee co-director Shubh Agnihotri said.

[UMD SGA condemns student-hosted event with IDF soldiers, demands university issues apology]

Israel has killed more than 69,000 people in Gaza since it declared war on Hamas two years ago. A United Nations committee in September ruled Israel has committed a genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Agnihotri said the bill’s passage is following through on student voting in favor of multiple resolutions about divestment recently.

Last month, the SGA passed a resolution urging this university and its charitable foundation to disassociate from corporations, institutions and academic entities that “support or profit from Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation.” In May, students also passed a referendum in support of divesting from companies that may be implicated in human rights violations in places such as Palestine, Myanmar and the Philippines.

This university wrote in a statement to The Diamondback Wednesday that SGA resolutions have no bearing on university policy or practice.

Agnihotri said university administration took a long time to provide an accurate response to SGA members on who to contact about renaming the rooms.

“It’s meaningless to say it has no bearing on university policy or practice,” Agnihotri said. “How is SGA supposed to be an advocacy organization or any sort of voice that stands up for students, if the second that our values and administrators’ values are at a crossroads, they shut us out?”

[UMD Students for Justice in Palestine petitions to cancel even with IDF soldiers]

The resolution also cited how the University System of Maryland changed the football stadium’s name, previously after former university president Harry Clifton “Curley” Byrd, because he supported racial segregation. Former university president Wallace Loh supported the name change, The Diamondback previously reported.

Bill sponsor and engineering representative Nane Manukyan said the bill’s intention is to show the university what the SGA thinks.

“It opens the door for us to start having those conversations with the faculty,” Manukyan said.

The resolution also requires the vote results be published on SGA’s official Instagram account and be republished with student organization accounts, including the Asian American Student Union, Organization of Arab Students, Palestinian Cultural Club and this university’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter. Manukyan said this emphasizes transparency and allows more students to learn about the resolution.

SGA also plans to send a letter to the deans of the colleges and the university relations vice president after the vote to officially request the renaming of the rooms.

In October, the Category 5 hurricane began wreaking havoc across the Caribbean, making landfall in Jamaica before then heading north toward Cuba, Haiti, the Bahamas and Bermuda. Nearly 6 million people in the Caribbean are affected by the storms’ destruction, according to the United Nations.

The junior public health practice major, who is half Jamaican, said that her father’s side of the family was caught in the storm. Hall nervously awaited calls from her family in St. Ann’s, confirming their safety.

“It is very devastating,” Hall said. “It’s going to affect the Jamaican community a lot and especially for the people who have family there.”

As a result of the hurricane, 45 people have died and 15 people have been reported missing, the Jamaican government confirmed Tuesday. The storm has displaced 30,000 households, according to Jamaica’s emergency management office director.

Hall said it would take months for Jamaicans to rebuild their homes and major buildings, like churches, in their towns. Hall is also the president of this university’s Caribbean Student Association, and said the association is planning to accept donations to give to the Jamaican embassy in Washington, D.C.

The association is donating medical supplies, basic hygiene products and family care materials. The closest drop-off location to campus is The Jerk Pit, she said.

“We feel helpless because we don’t feel like what we can give is enough,” Hall said. “But there’s still a sense of at least giving what we’re capable of.”

Hall also said peer support is important at this time. Donations, prayers and raising awareness on campus can help those affected by the storm’s damage, Hall added.

[UMD community members reflect on war, humanitarian crisis in Sudan]

The association released a statement on social media on Oct. 29 expressing its support for any Maryland community members with personal ties to the countries affected by the hurricane.

”Our thoughts are with those who have experienced loss and disruption as a result of the severe weather event,” the post read. “CSA stands in solidarity with all those engaged in recovery and rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of this disaster.”

The Dean of Students Office reached out to students from Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic to offer support.

Twanna Hodge, a doctoral information science student who was born and raised on the St. Thomas Island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, said though hurricanes are a common occurrence in the Caribbean, Hurricane Melissa is one of the most devastating hurricanes in history.

She added that high winds and devastating rainfall leaves most without electricity for days. This leaves people without a way to safely cook food or get in touch with relatives for long periods of time, she explained.

“It is hard to be in a situation where you can only watch what is happening,” Hodge said.

Hodge mentioned witnessing the total devastation caused by Hurricane Maria, a storm in 2017 that struck Puerto Rico. It killed about 3,000 people, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

International education policy doctoral student Abigail Smith is working closely with the Jamaican embassy in Washington, D.C., to help support those affected in her home country.

[UMD students celebrate diversity of South Asian culture at multicultural night]

Smith grew up in Kingston, Jamaica, and said she immediately jumped into action when she heard about the storm.

“My first reaction was like, I want to go home,” she said. “I want to go help. I want to be on the ground.”

Smith said she plans to go home by the end of the year to help her community, but it is not currently safe for her to go to Jamaica due to the storm’s destruction. While she is away from home, Smith said the support she has received from her peers has been heartwarming.

Many of Smith’s classmates checked in on her after the news broke, the International Student and Scholar Services office sent an email with resources and a faculty advisor donated about $100 for supplies.

“Our humanity is so tied to each other,” Smith said. “You know, it’s Jamaica today, it could be D.C. or Maryland tomorrow.”

This story has been updated. 

After noticing her students growing increasingly distracted by their cellphones each semester, University of Maryland professor Sara Herald decided to do something about it.

The director of this university’s Southern Management Leadership Program implemented a cellphone ban in her entrepreneurship class this fall.

While Herald has previously discouraged personal electronic devices in her class, this is the first time she has locked away phones and smartwatches in Yondr pouches. These pouches are designed to allow users to keep possession of their device, which remains locked in the pouch until they are allowed to unlock them.

Herald was inspired to purchase the pouches when she heard about its recent use in K-12 classrooms.

[UMD student creates mental health brand, publishes self-reflection journal with her mother]

Initially, students said they were taken aback that their devices would be locked up, but Herald believes that they have since adjusted positively.

Senior operations management and business analytics major Tonia Agwumezie has found her classmates and herself more focused in class when their cellphones are locked up.

“It’s out of sight, out of mind, so that allows us to really take into account what she’s saying and actually be present in the moment,” she said.

Another one of Herald’s students, Brandon Scott, who is a senior real estate and the built environment major, agreed the new policy helps him stay focused. He feels he is gaining more from his time in the classroom and walking away with a better education.

“It’s really impacted my retention of the stuff being taught,” Scott said.

The cellphone ban has also cultivated a stronger connection between classmates, Herald said. During breaks, her students are no longer engrossed in their phones, she said. Instead, they talk to each other.

Scott said he has seen his cohort become more cohesive, which allows them to create stronger relationships that go beyond the classroom.

[Alum, Iowa judge David Porter credits passion for law to his time at UMD]

“We’re also more present with our peers,” Scott said. “Overall, we’re creating better connections that exist in other events.”

Agwumezie said that part of what helps Herald successfully implement this ban is the way she outwardly shows her intentions are for the betterment of her students.

Herald showed her class the statistical difference in focus between students who have access to their phones in class versus those who don’t.

According to a study done by Yondr, the usage of Yondr pouches in the classroom has increased student success by 6.27 percent and lowered behavioral referrals by 44 percent. This helped put the ban in perspective for students in Herald’s class.

“It’s not just taking it away for us not to have it,” Agwumezie said. “[There’s] actually a purpose behind the motivation and making sure that we are in the moment.”

Herald acknowledges that it may not be the right approach in every academic setting, but has been satisfied with the differences she has noticed in her own classroom.

She believes that there are many benefits for keeping technology put away in the classroom when it’s not functioning as an academic tool.

“I encourage anybody who’s curious about it to experiment with it,” Herald said.

Ahmed, the president of the University of Maryland’s Sudanese Student Organization, said they had to gather thousands of dollars because of how expensive it is to get out of danger and into neighboring Egypt. It took Ahmed’s family multiple days to leave through various means of transportation, the sophomore physics major said.

“They were fortunate that they had someone to offer them that money,” Ahmed said. “Most people don’t have that.”

More than 40 students and university community members attended a roundtable Thursday about the civil war in Sudan. Since the war started two and a half years ago, the fighting has killed at least 40,000 people and displaced more than 12 million others, according to the Associated Press. Aid groups said the true death toll could be much higher.

The United Nations’ children’s agency head also said in March that the war in Sudan created the world’s largest and most devastating humanitarian crisis in history.

The roundtable was hosted by NoirUnited, a global development organization mobilizing African diaspora communities across the world, in partnership with multiple student groups, including the Sudanese Student Organization. Attendees discussed the history of Sudan and the crisis.

[UMD community members discuss deadly protests in Nepal, future of country]

The war between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces — a paramilitary group — began when the previous allies turned on one another in a struggle for power, according to the Associated Press. They were meant to oversee a peaceful government transition together in 2019, but accumulated tension instead led to war.

The Rapid Support Forces said Thursday it has agreed to a U.S.-led mediator group’s humanitarian truce, the Associated Press reported. A Sudanese military official said that the army will only agree to a truce when the Rapid Support Forces completely withdraw from civilian areas and give up weapons, according to the outlet.

The truce comes after the Rapid Support Forces took control of el-Fasher last month, a city that has been under siege for the last 18 months and was the last Sudanese military stronghold in the western Darfur region, the Associated Press reported.

During the assault, the Rapid Support Forces reportedly killed 460 patients in the Saudi Hospital and shot and beat people in their homes and on the streets. Satellite images appear to show mass burials conducted in the region, the outlet reported.

Ibrahim Alduma, a Sudanese human rights advocate, presented an extended history of the war in Sudan at the roundtable.

Alduma moved to Kenya from Sudan in 2023 where he worked with Sudanese youth. He continued working on consensus building and coalitions between different bodies in multiple countries and came to the U.S. in 2025 where he continues his advocacy.

Alduma told The Diamondback that while his family fortunately got out of Sudan, he still has neighbors and friends there. He said nobody can hear their voices, so it’s his responsibility to spread their voices to people from different areas.

“Sudanese civilians are suffering and they need any kind of advocacy or any kind of donation for those people just to stay alive in the future,” Alduma told attendees.

[UMD students honor lost Palestinian lives with campus art demonstration]

During the presentation, Alduma emphasized that Sudan has a lot of natural resources which multiple parties, including the United Arab Emirates, take advantage of for their personal interests.

“[The UAE are] killing Sudanese people to get their resources, and to do it, abolishing their reputation in the world,” Alduma told The Diamondback. “People must know that they are committing crimes in Sudan.”

Sudan filed a case at the top United Nations court in March that alleged the UAE of breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the Rapid Support Forces, according to the Associated Press. U.S. intelligence assessments for many months have found that the UAE has been sending weapons to Rapid Support Forces. The UAE denies these claims.

Roundtable attendees were broken up into three groups and given multiple questions to discuss with themes including understanding the Sudanese crisis, humanitarian and policy action and diaspora and identity.

Akunna Okonkwo, a research and programs volunteer for NoirUnited, said the organization wants to empower the youth and college-aged students by giving them a platform.

“Our goal with this event is to have people feel empowered, find ways that they can try to connect with the Sudanese cause and also other causes within the continent,” the junior public health science major said.

At the roundtable, Sudanese Student Organization cabinet member Basmah Elradi shared a project she created for her capstone last semester that focused on her parents’ stories and memories in Sudan. Elradi said seeing the pain that her parents were going through motivated her to work on this project.

Elradi also has family members who fled Sudan during the civil war.

“The good memories that they have in Sudan, and of their childhoods and of their children’s childhoods, deserve to be preserved, especially because we don’t have a Sudan to go back to right now,” the junior neuroscience major said.

Students turned their attention to the group of performers dressed in colorful clothing, some wearing kurtas, salwar kameezes and lehengas. They began to fill the room with the sounds of their voices, which wove together in harmony.

Anokha’s performance was one of many elements that paid homage to South Asian culture on Multicultural Night, an annual event hosted by this university’s South Asian Student Association that typically draws about 200 people, according to Mahee Patel, the association’s co-president.

Mahee Patel said Multicultural Night aims to spotlight the practices and traditions of all eight countries in South Asia. Many people tend to associate the region with India, the largest and most populous country, but it also includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives, she said.

“Even though there’s a lot of similarities and people like to group South Asian countries together, there is a lot of diversity within just those eight countries,” the senior criminology and criminal justice major said.

The organization has hosted their Multicultural Night every fall for the past few years, but it changed things up this year by collaborating with this university’s Nepali and Indian student associations.

[Ellicott Hall to temporarily close in fall 2026 for AC installation, renovations]

Senior information science major Arnav Patel, the South Asian Student Association’s other co-president, said the partnership aimed to branch out and incorporate more activities from different South Asian countries.

“It’s to connect people culturally on this campus and show them that there’s so much diversity here and around the globe,” he said.

Booths representing all eight South Asian countries were placed around the outskirts of Stamp’s Colony Ballroom on Thursday. Each one displayed a poster board with information about its associated country’s history, culture and geography.

Some tables served traditional cuisine, drawing long lines of students that only began to fade after the food ran out. Dishes included biryani, butter chicken, samosas, falooda and chatpate, a food often eaten in the streets of Nepal.

Chatpate is typically made with Wai Wai spice noodles, puffed rice, chaat masala seasoning and fresh vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers and onions, according to junior biology and math major Sudha Poudel, who is the president of this university’s Nepali Student Association.

Poudel usually just throws the ingredients in a bag, shakes it up and eats it, she said.

Students also sipped on chai boba provided by Boba Chai Barista throughout the night. The recently opened Indian restaurant Maryland Tandoor helped sponsor Thursday’s event, along with Indian Kitchen.

[Maryland Tandoor brings an affordable taste of Indian cuisine to College Park]

Freshman physiology and neurobiology major Vedansh Sawhney said he sampled all of the food at Multicultural Night .

“It’s such a nice melting pot of a lot of different cultures,” he said.

In between bites of food, students stopped at stations to make bracelets, receive tarot card readings and get their hands intricately decorated with henna art. They chatted with new acquaintances and challenged friends to rounds of the popular Indian boardgame carrom, which was scattered throughout the ballroom on tabletops.

A highlight of the event for many students was watching performances by Anokha and Maryland Manzar, this university’s South Asian fusion dance team.

The two groups showcased their talents and honored South Asian culture through their respective artistic mediums as they performed in the center of the ballroom.

Maryland Manzar member Christina Perumattathil said the dance team has performed at past Multicultural Nights hosted by the South Asian Student Association. This year, they danced to a soundtrack of South Indian songs.

It was the team’s first performance of the semester and many members’ first performance on the team, the junior public policy major added.

“I think they had a lot of fun,” she said. “We’ve been practicing for a while, so I hope they had fun.”

The South Asian Student Association begins preparing for Multicultural Night the summer before the event, Arnav Patel said.

“Just seeing people enjoy it is part of what makes it so rewarding,” Mahee Patel said.

Perumattathil, the Maryland Manzar dancer, said her experience at Multicultural Night helped her form stronger relationships with people she previously only knew as faces from her classes.

“I never realized how connected we really are until I came here,” she said.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated that Anokha members wore saris in their a cappella performance. Some wore salwar kameezes and lehengas, not saris. A previous version of this story also misstated that chai boba was provided by Maryland Tandoor. It was provided by Boba Chai Barista. This story has been updated.

The installations in Ellicott Hall are set to begin in May 2026 after finals and are expected to be completed by December 2026, according to a statement from a Resident Life department spokesperson.

Ellicott Hall is also expected to receive window replacements, updates to electrical equipment and updates to the community bathrooms, the spokesperson wrote. Hagerstown Hall is expected to receive similar renovations and construction is slated to start in January 2027 after more funding is approved.  

Resident Life will “prioritize the availability for on-campus housing in the residence halls to incoming first-year students, rising sophomores and students in exempted groups,” the spokesperson wrote. Exempted groups can include people in living-learning programs or on a particular scholarship.

[College Park City Council to hold hearing on proposed early lease ordinance]

“I hope you know that you’ve got advocates in … us and our staff,” Resident Life director Dennis Passarella-George told Residence Hall Association members during a town hall last month. “Continuing to invest in our residence halls is important, and that means a lot more than just air conditioning and windows.”

Dorms without air conditioning have been a longstanding issue. In September 2023, The Diamondback reported an extreme heatwave affected residents of eight different dorms. 

Seven dorms are currently without air conditioning, including Caroline, Carroll, Cecil, Ellicott, Hagerstown, Wicomico and Worcester halls. 

Freshman public health science major Jacob Cabrera Cadet, an Ellicott Hall resident, said he’s excited for the air conditioning installation, but disappointed it didn’t happen sooner. For residents like Cabrera Cadet, the lack of air conditioning has affected their daily lives. 

“In the beginning, it really sucked, because it was hot everyday,” he said. “I had to turn on my fans. I had to have them pointed at me 24/7.” 

[Purple Line to begin testing light-rail vehicles at UMD in January]

Cabrera Cadet added that having air conditioning in Ellicott Hall will make students feel more comfortable and excited to live in the dorms. Some students don’t live in the dorms because they know freshmen often are assigned those with no air conditioning, he said.

Freshman chemical engineering major Luis Vasquez Coto, a Hagerstown Hall resident, said the lack of air conditioning has impacted his sleep on nights before classes.

“I remember moving in during August and September, it was bad,” Vasquez Coto said. “I could barely sleep, I was sweating a lot.”

Rather than staying inside his dorm, Vasquez Coto said he spent time in other buildings on campus like McKeldin Library or Marie Mount Hall to stay refreshed. 

Vasquez Coto added that air conditioning would also improve how students sleep and their overall mental wellness.

“Going around the halls, it creates humidity, it just gets annoying,” he said. “It makes you not stay in the dorms, especially during the hot summer time.” 

For The Diamondback

Content warning: This story contains mention of sexual violence and assault.

About 50 University of Maryland community members viewed a new Stamp Student Union gallery exhibit that highlights stories of sexual violence in an opening reception on Wednesday.

The exhibition, called “We Will Not Be Silent: Art Transforming Rape Culture,” encourages the use of art for social change and engaging in conversations about the issue of sexual violence.

The gallery, which officially opened for viewing on Oct. 30, displays work from artists dedicated to shedding light on experiences of sexual violence across the globe, with an emphasis on uplifting the stories of members of the LGBTQ+ community, people of color and people with disabilities.

Artist Jadelynn St Dre’s piece, “Protection,” used bones sculpted out of salt to highlight the connection between intergenerational trauma and sexual violence.

St Dre used bones to symbolize both what has been lost and the parts of humans that remain the longest. Attendees were invited to pour water over the bones and then use the crumbled salt remains to create a circle. She called the process a “tradition of protection.”

“How are we holding the stories of our ancestors?” St Dre said. “How are we holding our traumas and our stories, and how are we holding the people that are to come?”

[Purple Line to begin testing light-rail vehicles at UMD in January]

St Dre expressed how members of the LGBTQ+ community “have to be the architect of visions,” to convey their stories and voices to the world.

“If we can’t vision our future, then it’s much more difficult to manifest, right?” St Dre said.

The piece was paired with a cathartic and vulnerable performance from artist Eva Salazar, who walked through the gallery with clay painted on her body while releasing emotional breaths and cries to convey the harsh impact left on survivors of sexual violence.

Event curator and co-founder of art collective FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, Hannah Brancato, told The Diamondback about her desire to create a public space for survivors and highlight the different systemic contexts that shape sexual violence with the exhibition.

“There’s no one monolithic experience of being a survivor,” Brancato, an American Studies doctoral student at this university, said. “What every survivor needs is different, even though there’s this systemic context that affects everybody.”

The exhibition’s featured artists have all made contributions to FORCE’s Monument Quilt, the first memorial to sexual and intimate partner violence survivors. The now-archived quilt, most recently displayed in 2019 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., used more than 3,000 blocks to display survivors’ stories and art. The blocks are now being placed in permanent collections across the world.

Manager for the Stamp Gallery and Studio A, Tara Youngborg, told The Diamondback that the quilt panels speak to a specific time in activism. The panels were made between 2013 and 2019, during the height of the MeToo movement.

“It sounds odd to call something that’s a decade old historical,” Youngborg said about the quilt panels. “They’re in relation with contemporary art … I think it’s interesting to see how the artists’ work and practice has evolved.”

Youngborg said she hopes the archival work resonates with students and the current conversations they have about sexual violence.

The exhibition’s emphasis on providing accessibility and content warnings aims to make all exhibition attendees feel comfortable learning and speaking about the issues presented.

[UMD alumni offer STEM students tips for job searching in a turbulent market]

The gallery manager shared how Salazar’s piece “To Have and To Hold” can provide comfort to viewers during intense feelings that the exhibit could bring.

Youngborg said this piece was made by artists holding pieces of clay and creating impressions as voids of Salazar’s body. She explained how gallery attendees were invited to “grab the object and figure out how [they] fit in relation to their body.”

“It’s very grounding, especially because this exhibition can be intense,” Youngborg said. “It gives folks a chance to feel really connected to the work.”

Communication graduate student Kalin Schultz said it was important that the gallery provided displays and resources to a college campus about a topic that often feels taboo to speak openly about. She noted the ways the gallery aimed to make viewers comfortable during the exhibit.

“They’ve got different reminders about how to engage. They’ve got spaces where you can rest,” Schultz said. “The fact that it’s so tailored towards finding ways to take care of yourself as well, I think it’s really important.”

By Josh Hananel

For The Diamondback

The next chief judge of Iowa’s Fifth Judicial District said he first caught the law “bug” as a student at the University of Maryland.

But when he first started at this university in fall 1995, David Porter was a neurobiology major set on becoming a brain surgeon.

His interest in learning law sparked in a class taught by associate professor Noel Myricks, changing his assumption that the core curriculum requirements for neurobiology were simply “filler” classes.

Porter, who will assume the role in January, said he looks back to his time at this university as a critical point in his life when he developed not just an interest in law, but his principles of perseverance.

“‘Now, it’s all on you,’” Porter said he thought to himself when graduating. “‘You have every tool you need, and you learned it here at the University of Maryland.’”

Myricks later influenced Porter to join this university’s mock trial. The program, founded by Myricks in 1989, has won five national championships since its inception.

[UMD alumni offer STEM students tips for job searching in a turbulent market]

“I’ve been very pleased that many of my students all over the country have kind of stayed in touch with me long after they graduated,” Myricks said. “[Porter and I] had that kind of relationship.”

Porter said Myricks became a mentor for him not just in mock trial but throughout his law career.

He emphasized Myricks’ Socratic method of teaching which challenged and fascinated him.

“I cannot tell you what a champion [Myricks] has been in my life,”10 Porter said.

Porter joined mock trial his senior year, where he was partnered with Amir Sadeghy, who later became the program’s director. They finished second in the nation 25 years ago in the mock trial championships in Des Moines, Iowa.

“Immediately [Porter] just sort of commands the courtroom with his voice… and he was just an extremely hard worker,” Sadeghy said.

Competing in Des Moines gave Porter connections to Drake University Law School. Porter worked at a law firm in Las Vegas after graduating from Drake but said the work there was tedious.

“I didn’t feel as though I was making a difference,” Porter said. “I wanted to stand in front of a jury and vindicate a position.”16

Porter sought guidance from Myricks, who suggested returning to Iowa for more opportunities.

[UMD student creates mental health brand, publishes self-reflection journal with her mother]

By the time he returned to his passion of trial law in Iowa, Porter said he was “addicted to trial work.”

“I would characterize him as someone who found his passion and followed it and never stopped,” Sadeghy said.

Porter added that Iowa Judge Richard Blane, who he highlighted as a mentor, suggested he should look into becoming a trial judge.

Blane noted that judges have the distinct ability to interpret what the law should be, in addition to teaching it to people, Porter said.

As a judge for slightly more than 10 years, Porter has worked in the law with the same fascination that struck him when he first studied cases in Myricks’ class.20

Nevertheless, Porter said he’s had his fair share of challenges and rejections throughout his journey. Learning from Myricks while in this university’s mock trial team and working countless trials in his career, Porter has developed a powerful mindset of perseverance.

“Perseverance is … the single most important thing that’s gotten me to where I am right now,” Porter said. “Simply persevere. Never give up.”

The testing on campus is expected to be conducted overnight on selected days from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., according to a campus-wide email on Thursday by this university’s chief administrative officer Charles Reuning. Testing from the College Park Metro Station to the east is set to start mid-November.

“This is an exciting step toward full system operation, which is scheduled for December 2027,” Reuning wrote in the email.

The high-voltage power lines will soon be energized and should be treated with the same caution used with any overhead power lines, the email read.

The wires are safe for anyone at ground level, Reuning wrote, but people should not get near them with any tall objects and should not throw anything on them. The email advises people to call 911 if a power line is downed.

Due to gaps in the rails, micromobility riders and wheelchair users are urged to take precautions such as using bike paths, avoiding rails when riding parallel to the tracks and crossing the tracks at a 90-degree angle, the email read

Five of the 21 Purple Line light-rail stations will be on or around this campus, the email read.