New Vibrant Student Spaces
The university has opened the new Unity Center, a community hub where students can connect, grow, and find a sense of belonging. The Unity Center is a newly-designed space, grounded in the collective voices of our student body and created to honor, and celebrate the richness of our entire campus community. The Unity Center includes five lounges and a multipurpose room. Each of these spaces is carefully crafted to reflect the cultures it represents, aiming to educate as well as foster connection and a shared sense of belonging for all Terps.
The Unity Center is centrally located in renovated, accessible spaces in Cole Field House. The new center broadens the campus’s existing network of spaces and resources that celebrate students’ diverse identities, such as the Nyumburu Cultural Center, LGBTQ+ Equity Center, Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy, and Agora.
Questions?
Contact: unitycenter@umd.edu
The Unity Center Steering Committee
A steering committee of students, staff, and faculty who have advocated for expanded resources led the project. The committee aimed to:
- Serve as a trusted source of feedback for their communities
- Center the participation of students in their communities
- Offer context about their communities to the firm that will design the new center
Steering Committee Members
- Adam Klager, '23, Staff
- Alex Mullen, '23, Staff
- Alex Pryor, ‘18
- Amanda Vu, Psychology and Community Health, ‘24
- Ava Lamberty, General Biology, ‘24
- Benjamin Beltran, Staff
- Dr. Ana Patricia Rodriguez, Faculty
- Dr. Bayley Marquez, Faculty
- Dr. Ronald Zeigler, Staff
- Hana Zewdie, Staff
- Jazmin Pichardo, Staff
- Jennifer Enriquez, Staff
- Jestina Ricci, Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies '24
- Justine Suegay, Staff
- Kyrsha Balderas, Staff
- Lasair Ni Chochlain, Graduate Student in Entomology
- Nancy Forsythe, Staff
- Valeria Morales, ‘18 ‘20
- Vy Thompson,
The Unity Center Progress
The newly designed Unity Center opened at the start of the Fall 2025 semester. A community hub where students can connect, grow and find a sense of belonging, it features a multipurpose room, an accessible kitchen and five lounge spaces intentionally named to honor community, history and connection.
Timeline
Fall 2021:
President Pines announced to the campus community the creation of cultural centers aligned with the university’s “collective goal to ensure that every campus community member feels welcomed and affirmed and experiences a sense of belonging at the University of Maryland”.
Spring 2022:
March: The Cultural Center Steering Committee was formed after recruitment through various stakeholder groups.
April: The steering committee gathered for the first time to discuss their ideas for the cultural centers.
May: The steering committee met with the design firm to provide initial information about student community needs. The design firm also toured other key cultural spaces on campus to understand current campus offerings.
Fall 2022
October: Interactive design forums hosted with close to 100 attendees across the five sessions. Attendees represented the communities the cultural centers will serve. Sessions focused on what attendees wanted to experience in the spaces, the qualities they valued, and how the spaces would be used. Additionally, a survey was shared so individuals who could not attend could provide input.
November: Design firm presented the findings from the feedback they received and conceptual design options to address the various needs shared by attendees of the previous setting.
December: To provide an additional opportunity for feedback, a survey was distributed to gather additional input from students specifically.
Spring 2023
January 2023: We received the next set of design documents in January. We collected feedback via a virtual community session, one-on-one meetings, and a survey.
March 2023: We offered a survey, and series of in-person opportunities to receive ideas for programming that will take place in the Cultural Centers
Fall 2023
October 2023: Additional, final feedback collected for the Cultural Centers renovation and furnishings. Steering Committee members coordinated community-specific feedback conversations.
November 2023: The Steering Committee met with the design firm and designers about the feedback collected in the weeks leading up to this meeting.
2024
January 2024: Renovations of Cole Head House began.
2025
August 2025: Renovations for the Unity Center completed.