A New Direction for Justice UMD: Inclusive Leadership

Written by: Emely Gonzalez 🇸🇻

Running candidate Nick DiSpiritio (Jad Khleif)

Over the course of the last few months, there have been online discussions emphasizing the need for voting in local elections. But civic engagement does not stop at city council races — it also includes participation in student government.

With the upcoming University of Maryland Student Government Association election, candidate Nick DiSpirito is running for vice president of financial affairs on the Justice UMD ballot. He said the ticket represents a new direction, despite it carrying the same name as the previous ticket.

“Justice UMD was a name that was also in the last election, but this is completely new. We have a basically expanded version of the different values and priorities that we have as a ticket, things that we're standing for, and a bunch of other logistical things. Almost every person involved this year is also new as well, so this is a completely new ticket in this SGA cycle,” he said.

DiSpiritio, the only Hispanic candidate on either executive ticket, believes that representation matters to create a platform that elevates the voices of others.

As the current student liaison to the College Park City Council, he represents more than 40,000 students at the University of Maryland. In his role at city council, he came across various organizations at the university that were lacking support from the SGA.

“The SGA is the one who provides a lot of funding for a lot of [organizations], from food to events to other things like that. But a lot of times, finance without reason would just deny [the] request,” DiSpirito said. “I saw how impactful this was, and I knew that that was something that I wanted to change.” 

DiSpirito witnessed friends and leaders of different organizations dealing with SGA’s mismanagement of finance, bad response times, and a lack of accessibility. 

The Justice UMD ballet is more than a new group of candidates;, it is an effort to redefine how the SGA serves students, he explained.

“Our campaign takes pride in our diversity, for our legislature, for our executive ticket, and also for our efforts to communicate with organizations across our campus. Because that is something that we want to set if we are to win as a precedent of how the SGA operates,” he said. 

DiSpirito also pointed out concerns about the SGA’s reputation among students.

“The SGA has had a variety of scandals this past year, including stuff related to racial discrimination. And it's no surprise that this general student body either sees the SGA as ineffective or they see the SGA as a place that is not welcoming,” he explained. “Justice UMD is running to change the viewpoint as well of how we interact with SGA students and how people see it. We want it to be seen as a place that is supportive and also fights and stands up for every student from every background in the school.”

One of Justice UMD’s key initiatives advocates for the university to become a sanctuary campus. DiSpiritio acknowledges the barriers involved but notes the importance of persistence.

“We don't want to give in, like our administration has done. And so if [there’s] one thing I could leave, hopefully the sanctuary campus initiative, which is a big part of our platform, is something that we can actually get passed in the next year. And I'm not going to deny that it will be easy or it will be a straightforward process; it will probably be a lot of back and forth. But I'm confident we can make progress on this pressing issue,” he said.

He points to his experience working with city officials and his running mate, Amira Abujuma, passing heavily opposed legislation.

“Just as people said to Amira, my partner at the city, that passing an ordinance against multi-million dollar lobbyists and corporations that were running these apartments would not be possible, we still got it done. It took us eight months, but we got it done. And we can do the same thing when it comes to the Sanctuary Campus, and we have a track record of doing so,” he said.

As a current junior at the University of Maryland, DiSpirito wants to leave UMD in a place where people of different cultures feel welcome, comfortable and safe to express their culture with one another.