University of Maryland undergraduates overwhelmingly voted to oust a regent whose name surfaced in Department of Justice files on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Results certified Tuesday night by the Student Government Association tallied 2,092 votes in favor of firing Tom McMillen, a former Terrapins basketball star and Maryland Democratic congressman. That’s roughly 69% of all ballots cast.
Just 231 voters opposed the largely symbolic referendum in last month’s student elections, while 721 others abstained.
Students also voted to demand that administrators divest from Israel and declare the College Park campus a sanctuary for illegal immigrants evading Trump administration deportations.
All three measures appeared on the ballot after administrators at the state’s flagship public campus ignored student government resolutions calling for the same actions.
“It is hard to say what message these referendums send to school leaders, as they cover a range of issues,” Louis Mancuso, the student government’s chief of staff, said Wednesday in an email. “That being said, this year’s SGA has shown a commitment to humanitarian issues in the passage of these bills.”
Mr. Mancuso, a sophomore accounting major, conceded that the votes don’t oblige school leaders to do anything. He also said he was not aware of the school ever adopting student referendums.
A University of Maryland spokesperson declined to comment on the results. The school previously insisted that it has no obligation to act on student recommendations.
Overall, just 3,044 out of the school’s 30,184 undergraduates voted in the March 30-April 1 election, or roughly 10% of the student body.
Mr. McMillen chaired the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports during the Clinton administration. Emails and flight logs in the Justice Department files show that he maintained contact with Epstein from his time in Congress until five years after the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019.
He defended himself in a March 23 letter to his fellow regents and the student government, insisting he barely knew Epstein and could only be fired for cause.
“I met him briefly in the mid-eighties when I was running for Congress,” Mr. McMillen wrote in the letter. “At the time, I did not know of any criminal conduct.”
