September 27, 2023 - Parent & Family

the diamondback

PARENT & FAMILY ISSUE 2023

HANNAH ZIEGLER Editor in chief 3150 S. Campus Dining Hall, College Park, Md., 20742

FULLY UPDATED AND EDITED BY: Nur Yavuz

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Hannah Ziegler

Apurva Mahajan

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Apurva Mahajan

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MUST-VISIT PLACES

By Hannah Ziegler | EditorinChief

College Park has a lot to offer students and their families this Family Weekend. Here are the top places to check off your bucket list before classes resume on Monday.

LOONEY’S PUB

If your parents liked to have a good time during their college days, look no further than Looney’s on Route 1 for all of your happy hour needs. This standby for current students didn’t open until 2011, so most parents and alums have missed out on its delicious chicken tenders and happy hour deals. The restaurant has happy hour every weekday, but the Looney’s Friday night happy hour is the best place to kick off parents weekend. The restaurant is often packed, so get a table early and snag some $8 appetizers from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Looney’s is a spot on campus that’s electric during Friday night happy hour. Every table is often packed with Orange Crush Buckets — a large Smirnoff bucket packed with orange vodka, Triple Sec and orange juice. If you’re looking for something more tame to drink, you can never go wrong with the fan-favorite Looney’s Mule. Looney’s is a surefire way to show family and friends a taste of College Park spirit.

Greg Heffley

The newest rival to the McKeldin Testudo statue’s faded gold glow is a person who redefines what it means to be a campus celebrity: Greg Heffley.

Located in the Stamp basement, this university’s new Greg Heffley statue honors esteemed alum Jeff Kinney and his bestselling book series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Members of Generation Z were raised on Greg Heffley and his friend’s shenanigans throughout the early 2000’s. Seeing the hunched over, studious Greg statue will undoubtedly elicit strong emotions from parents who spent each Christmas placing Diary of a Wimpy Kid books under the tree.

Taking your parents to meet Greg is a more evolved, mature version of dragging them to meet Santa or the Easter Bunny. Greg has become a staple on campus in only a few short months and it’s essential that all generations of Terp families experience his gloomy essence.

McKeldin Mall

Another College Park staple is the Maryland Dairy – an old standby in Stamp Student Union that all parents and alums should know about. The Dairy has served sweet treats to University of Maryland community members since 1924 and moved from Turner Hall to Stamp in 2014.

The Dairy offers a variety of handcrafted ice cream flavors honoring Terps we all know and love, from Kermit the Frog to Cathy Reese. If your parents are Terps fans, I recommend trying out the Brenda’s Peanut Butter Frese or Sasho’s Crew Crunch — both are brimming with decadent, rich and chocolatey flavors. The Dairy is open every day of the week, but make sure to catch them this Parents Weekend between 12 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Friday or 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Maryland Dairy Board & Brew

The Board and Brew was the first restaurant my family and I went to when we visited College Park for the first time – and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t impact my decision to attend this university. Located on Route 1, The Board and Brew is the perfect place to bring your family game night to College Park. For a few dollars per person, guests can choose from hundreds of board and card games that line the restaurant’s walls to play during their meal.

The Board and Brew easily has the best family fun vibes of anywhere in College Park. There’s no better way to unwind from a stressful school week and welcome family to town than with some good, old fashion board game competition around the dinner table. My personal favorite game to play at Board and Brew is Othello or, on days when I need a break from using my brain, the childhood classic Don’t Break the Ice. But whether you’re a Monopoly traditionalist or want to try a crazy, zany game nobody has ever heard of before, The Board and Brew has all the food, drinks and games you need.

This wouldn’t be a story about can’t-miss spots on this university’s campus if I didn’t mention McKeldin Mall. This old campus standby is home to the Omicron Delta Kappa Fountain that has lured thousands of students in for a start-of-semester swim since it was built in 1997. Although going for a swim in the fountain isn’t the best way to spend Parents Weekend, this campus spot is always a great place to unwind.

Our beautiful, shining Testudo statue also sits at the top of McKeldin Mall steps away from the library. It’s essential for family, alums and students to give Testudo a good luck nose rub anytime they find themselves near this part of campus during Parents Weekend.

The Chapel Garden

A more underrated outdoor space on this university’s campus is the Memorial Chapel Garden, located on South Campus a stone’s throw away from McKeldin Mall. The Chapel Garden is a perfect place to unwind and experience the natural beauty this university’s outdoor space has to offer. This university constructed the Chapel Garden as a “lush, open space for meditation” that is free of the daily hassles associated with college and work life.

The Garden celebrates religious diversity and acceptance on campus and is a great place to decompress for anyone visiting this university. Best of all, there’s a secret book hidden under a bench in the garden that all community members are welcome to leave notes in. The book is one of those hidden gems on campus that has helped build a welcoming, albeit anonymous, community over the last several years. I can’t think of a better way to commemorate Parents Weekend than leaving a mark in the garden’s secret journal.

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Here’s how UMD’s campus has changed since you last saw it

By Hannah Ziegler | EditorinChief

The University of Maryland campus has undergone a massive transformation in recent years. Construction will envelop much of this university’s campus during Family Weekend this year, while academic programs and majors are also evolving. Here is a rundown of what’s changed in recent years and where campus is heading.

Purple Line construction

The biggest talking point on campus in 2023 is the Purple Line. Traffic on Campus Drive now operates in one direction to accommodate the light rail’s addition to campus life. It also prompted this university to move the iconic “M” circle in spring 2020.

The Purple Line will connect the university’s campus directly to Washington, D.C., and Maryland suburbs. There will be five stations in and around campus: Campus Drive, Adelphi Road, Route 1, the College Park Metro Station and Riverdale Park North.

The project has faced a slew of delays and is now projected to cost roughly $3.6 billion. Construction will continue on campus for the next several years, but is now more than halfway done, The Diamondback reported this year.

A Changing Campus Landscape

Construction has brought more than light rail tracks to campus in the last few years. This university is currently working to bring a new Field Hockey and Women’s Lacrosse Complex to campus on Paint Branch Drive. The $17 million project began construction in June 2022 and is set to be completed in October.

The newest building on campus is Thurgood Marshall Hall, a 77,000-square-foot home for the public policy school that opened in fall 2022 on south campus.

Johnson-Whittle Hall, the IDEA Factory, the Yahentamitsi dining hall and the Agora building, a space for Greek life organizations that serve underrepresented communities, have each arrived on campus in the last three years as well.

Besides construction, partnerships with companies like Veo have brought flocks of new micromobility vehicles to this university’s campus. There are now at least 300 Veo-operated electric scooters and bikes around campus — additions

that have prompted some safety concerns and redefined how students at this university commute to class.

Greater College Park

A $51 million city hall also opened in downtown College Park in December 2021. The College Park City Hall is currently home to city government proceedings, but will also welcome a slew of new retailers to the downtown area.

That’s not the only shiny new structure downtown. Multiple new student apartment buildings opened near downtown College Park this year, including The Hub, Aspen Heights and The Standard — and even more are on the way. These new additions join The Nine and Tempo, which opened further north on Route 1 in fall 2022.

The most welcome addition to downtown College Park is an 11,000-square-foot Trader Joe’s grocery store, which opened in October 2022.

Students welcomed the Trader Joe’s after multiple downtown businesses shuttered their doors during the pandemic. Bagel Place, a College Park fixture for nearly 40 years, closed in fall 2021. This year, the College Park Target closed on Route 1, as did College Park BookHolders — a fixture of the College Park Shopping Center for more than 20 years.

Local business closures are set to continue through 2023. The Diamondback recently reported that Campus Village Shoppes, the decades-old shopping center on Route 1 home to community fixtures such as College Park Liquors and Pupuseria La Familiar, will close by the end of 2023. The closure will make way for a new mixed-use development, with construction slated to begin in early 2024.

New academic majors

This university also boasts a variety of new academic majors and concentrations for students to declare. Even though this university began as an

agricultural school at its founding, it now allows students to explore more than 100 undergraduate majors and roughly 80 minors across 12 colleges and schools.

Most recently, the information studies college added two new majors – social data science and technology and information design. Social data science, which looks to use data analysis to “capture aspects of human behavior,” launched in fall 2022, according to the information studies college’s website. The technology and information design allows creative students to build new technologies, such as apps, computers and prototypes, and was formally introduced in fall 2022.

This university also launched a new neuroscience major in the fall 2020 semester, and more new academic programs are on the way. The University Senate approved a new global health bachelor of science degree in September.

University Competitiveness

The university’s biggest structural changes came as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and sweeping policy adjustments in the higher education world. This university’s acceptance rate dropped in the last few decades — going from 46% in 2002 to 36.6% in 2022.

University officials have attributed this increased competitiveness to pandemic-era admissions and recruitment policy revisions. Most students are applying to this university since it moved to test-optional admissions policies and began accepting new students via the Common Application. Applications to this university have more than doubled in the last two decades. More than 62,000 students applied to the University of Maryland in 2022, compared to about 30,000 in 2002.

Events to attend during UMD’s Family Weekend

By Apurva Mahajan | Managingeditor

As you show your parents and relatives around campus, here’s a few events to participate in each day of Family Weekend. Make sure you plan in advance, as you might have to register beforehand or pay additional fees to attend certain events.

Every family member registered for Family Weekend will receive a wristband they can pick up along with event tickets, parking permits and campus maps from the Family Weekend Welcome Center at Stamp Student Union’s atrium.

A full listing of events is on the university schedule of events site.

Friday, Sept. 29

President’s Open House

University President Darryll Pines and Sylvia Pines will provide light refreshments at the University House from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Guests can meet and take photos with the Pines family and see a collection of artist David Driskell’s work. Advance registration and a Family Weekend wristband are both required to attend.

Men’s Soccer

Maryland men’s soccer will face Northwestern at 7 p.m. on Ludwig Field. Tickets are available from the Maryland Athletics ticket office.

The Prom

Students from the theatre, dance and performance studies school will perform The Prom at 7:30 p.m. at the Kay Theatre in The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center on Friday as well as at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The production follows a lesbian high school student’s journey to be open with her identity while facing resistance from her school’s PTA for planning to go to the dance with a girl.

Tickets cost $25 for the general public and $10 for students and youth. University students can claim free tickets on The Clarice’s website.

Saturday, Sept. 30

Family Weekend Brunch

This dine-and-go brunch at the Stamp Colony Ballroom features music from the Villanueva Jazz Trio. The event, which lasts from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., costs $39.95 for students and adults and $13.95 for children ages 9 and under. Advance registration is mandatory to attend.

Football

Watch the Terps take on the Indiana Hoosiers Saturday at SECU Stadium. People registered for Family Weekend get special football ticket prices due to a partnership with Maryland Athletics. Tickets, which are nonrefundable, cost $60 each for premium seating, $48 for lower level and $32 for upper level plus additional processing fees for all seating.

Barbie Movie Feature

See a full-screen feature of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s Barbieland adventures at Stamp’s Hoff Theater at 9 p.m. during a screening co-sponsored by Terps After Dark. The event is free, but seating is first come, first serve, so make sure to get there on time.

Sunday, Oct. 1

Chesapeake Country Brunch

Come out to the university’s golf course clubhouse for a Maryland-themed brunch at one of three seating times: 9:30 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Advance registration is required, and the event costs $45.95 for students and adults and $14.95 for children 9 and under. If there is space available on the day of the brunch, prices will be $48.99 for students and adults and $21.89 for children 9 and under.

Menu options include hot and cold buffet items such as pan-fried Chesapeake catfish, various salads and Old Bay home fries. There will also be an omelet station, alcoholic and nonalcoholic a la carte beverages and a carving station with southern Maryland ham and slow-smoked pit beef.

Field Hockey

At 1 p.m. on this university’s Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex, Maryland field hockey will take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. Admission is free and no tickets are required to view the match.

Gospel Brunch

The 18th annual Gospel Brunch will start at 12:30 p.m. in the Stamp Colony Ballroom, featuring a live performance of traditional and contemporary Gospel in partnership with the Washington Performing Arts Men and Women of the Gospel Choir. Prior to and during the show, you can enjoy a buffet of Southern comfort food prepared by university chefs. The event costs $45.95 for adults and students and $14.95 for children 9 and under.

Maryland Football runs from the tunnel before its 38-20 win over Charlotte on Sept. 9, 2023. (eric robinson/the diamondback)