USM Divestment Coalition Adapts Student Palestine Protests Amid Campus Repression in 2026

Student activists across the University System of Maryland are adapting their tactics to maintain momentum in the Palestine solidarity movement, shifting their focus to the system-wide governing body that controls state higher education investments.

Members of the USM Divestment Coalition for Palestine, representing public campuses including the University of Maryland College Park, Towson University, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, are increasingly targeting the Maryland Board of Regents. The strategic pivot follows nationwide campus protests and encampments that drew significant administrative pushback, federal scrutiny, and heightened surveillance across American colleges.

Organizers note that early efforts to negotiate directly with individual campus presidents proved limited. At UMD College Park, more than 3,000 students voted in favor of a student government referendum calling on the university to divest from companies complicit in human rights violations in Palestine. However, university leadership indicated that individual campus presidents only serve in an advisory capacity to the 21-member Board of Regents, which holds sole decision-making authority over the system's pooled $2 billion endowment across 12 public institutions.

In response, student leaders established the USM Divestment Coalition to unite campus chapters, including Students for Justice in Palestine and the Young Democratic Socialists of America, alongside faculty, staff, alumni, and community members. Coalition members, including student organizers Khadeeja, Zyad, Mohammad, and Fi, have increased their presence at official Board of Regents meetings, using public comment periods, campus teach-ins, and public tribunals to demand full financial transparency.

The coalition’s primary objective remains ending university complicity in Palestinian human rights violations and the war in Gaza. However, student organizers emphasize that the push to divest from major defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, addresses broader global issues. Activists argue that weapons manufactured by companies within the university system’s investment portfolio are used in imperialist conflicts elsewhere, including targeting student activists and humanitarian workers in the Philippines.

As the new academic year unfolds, the student-led movement continues to organize across Maryland campuses despite institutional restrictions. By coordinating across the state system and applying direct pressure on governor-appointed regents, the coalition seeks to translate student advocacy into structural financial policy changes.

#UniversitySystemOfMaryland #Maryland #USMDivestmentCoalition #PalestineProtests #BoardOfRegents #UMD #CampusProtests #LockheedMartin