As exam week edges closer and students begin to pack libraries to work on term papers and final projects, they may find themselves in need of more than just a quiet space — they may find themselves in need of peace.
Bahá’í Chair for World Peace and professor John Grayzel is compiling a list of the most “peace-full” places on the campus, which is already listed online and will be available as a free iPhone application — Pathways to Peace — by late fall. Grayzel describes “peace” as any environment that fosters or leads to “human cooperative interaction.” He said he is designing the application, which will guide students to these places, to highlight tranquil spots, activities and courses on the campus and to increase awareness of opportunities for students to engage in peace.
“People tend to get into a cocoon and stay in their cocoon,” Grayzel said. “As a result, they lose out on connectivity.”
Although the list of Peace-Full Places will be growing as Grayzel continues his search on and around the campus, the Driskell Center in Cole Field House, the Jim Henson statue in front of the Stamp Student Union and art galleries around the campus are listed as a few of the places where students can find serenity.
The Pathways to Peace application will feature a “tranquility doodle” function, which would promote calming by providing a series of dots arranged in a line to trace and a menu of different categories for finding peace. A more fully formed website with the same capabilities will appear alongside the application.
This summer Grayzel plans to coordinate with computer science professor Ashok Agrawala’s graduate students to create the iPhone-compatible program.
Agrawala, who instructs a course — CMSC 818G: Advanced Topics in Computer Systems: Information-Centric Design of Systems —that teaches students to create such applications, said he agreed to help Grayzel with this application because of his ties to India and personal interest in peace.
Creating the list and the application seemed to be common sense to Grayzel, who said students often struggle to find places with harmony and balance. He said he hoped UMD Students for Peace, a new student group, would someday take the responsibilities of managing and updating the application.
Students largely agreed that the university’s sheer size tends to obscure any sense of peace. Many students added that smartphone applications are a good way to communicate with students.
Senior mechanical engineering major Dan Nguyen said he wasn’t surprised about the existence of such an application.
“It’s convenient. There’s an app for everything,” he said.
Junior government and politics major Annalisa Allen, who doesn’t own a smartphone, she said she still supports the concept behind the creation of the application.
“Sometimes it’s hard to find a spot where there’s no one else,” Allen said.
The list on the Semester for Peace website highlights many tranquil places, and Grayzel added that locations not listed, such as the Wooded Hillock, the Arboretum and Botanical Gardens would be added as some of the top places to find a peaceful spot on the campus. But, he noted, students may find other places that they find relaxing and serene because there is no right or wrong place when it comes to finding harmony.
“Peace to me is a direction, not just one place,” Grayzel said. “People decide for themselves what they think is peaceful.”
quijada@umdbk.com
