The University of Maryland will construct a plaza to honor 1st Lt. Richard W. Collins III near Montgomery and Annapolis halls, university President Darryll Pines announced in a campus-wide email Wednesday.
The campus community will be invited to the plaza by the end of the spring semester after its construction finishes in May, according to the email.
A white student at this university stabbed and murdered Collins, a student at Bowie State University, “in an act of hate” in May 2017. Collins was set to graduate just days later.
[UMD President Pines calls for more research achievements at State of the Campus address]
“We must never forget what happened here, and we will continue to honor the life of Lt. Collins as we pursue an anti-racist, inclusive culture at our university,” Pines wrote. “We must commit ourselves to eradicate the ideology of intolerance.”
The plaza will feature two walls that act as gallery spaces to honor Collins, according to the email. It will display a Unity Mural created collaboratively by students at this university and Bowie State in 2017 to visually illustrate peace, justice and unity.
