An inclusive space for students just opened its doors at the University of Maryland.
Located in the recently-renovated Cole Field House, the Unity Center is intended to act as a place of learning and gathering for students across different groups. The Unity Center, which officially opened Monday, features five lounges that are each dedicated to a specific culture or group.
- The Unity Center’s lounges are:
- The Braid, for Native American and Indigenous communities
- The Mosaic, for multiracial, multiethnic and adoptee students
- The Tapestry, for students with disabilities
- The Wave, for Asian American, Pacific Islander and Desi American students
- The Vista, for the Latino community
The center will generally be open to all students from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is free to use. After 5 p.m., registered student organizations can reserve one of its rooms to hold a meeting or host an event by emailing the Unity Center.
University president Darryll Pines announced the Unity Center project in fall 2021, and the planning process began in spring 2022. Field house renovations started last January, according to the Division of Student Affairs website.
Students from cultural groups across campus came together to create the blueprints for their representative room, according to Yvette Lerma Jones, director of diversity, equity and inclusion in the student affairs division.
“Over two academic years, we met with students to talk about community needs [and] overall general student needs,” said Lerma Jones, who also serves as an associate director of the Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy office. “They also picked everything down to the finishes and furniture that’s in the space.”
The Braid
The Braid celebrates Native American and Indigenous communities, its name a reference to the spiritual practice and cultural symbol of braiding.
The lounge features burnt orange furniture and a separate meditation room, which Lerma Jones said was a focus point of the student design process.
The Mosaic
The Mosaic lounge — named after a work of art that is composed of multi-colored pieces of stone or glass — honors multiracial, multiethnic and adoptee communities. It’s a space where students of different backgrounds can come together and “build one whole picture,” Lerma Jones said.
This university’s Multiracial Student Union hosted an affinity welcome event in the Mosaic lounge Wednesday.
Junior chemistry major Valeska Zitta and junior bioengineering major Christine Baker, both members of the Multiracial Student Union, said the Unity Center can act as an alternative for student organizations that don’t have the resources to reserve a meeting space in Stamp Student Union.
“These are spaces where student [organizations] can meet to plan their events and programming,” Zitta said.
The Tapestry
A small quiet room can also be found within the Tapestry, a lounge dedicated to students with disabilities.
Lerma Jones said the Tapestry was designed with accommodations in mind. It includes a sensory swing, medical recliner and low-stimulation study space.
The Tapestry also doesn’t have carpeting to make it easier to use mobility devices in the space, Lerma Jones said.
The Wave
The Wave room is named in honor of Asian American, Pacific Islander and Desi American culture. The Wave symbolizes the “importance of collective voice and power for that community,” according to Lerma Jones.
“If you think about a drop of water, it doesn’t move a lot, but a whole wave will create movements,” she said.
The Wave features sectional furniture that can be rearranged for a variety of events and activities, building on the movement metaphor.
The Vista
The final lounge in the Unity Center, the Vista, is dedicated to the Latino community. Its name symbolizes both rich cultural history and looking forward to future possibilities. The Vista also has lockers set to become available for commuter students to check out and use for storing their belongings during school hours, Lerma Jones said.
Student Access
All lounges include some variation of whiteboards, bookcases, a kitchen space and tables and chairs Some rooms are still waiting for screen monitors and refrigerators to be installed, according to Lerma Jones
The Unity Center also contains one large multipurpose room, designed in collaboration between all cultural communities to serve as a “more flexible” workspace, Lerma Jones said.
“It really is intended to be a space for the whole campus to feel welcome and for us to really build on cross-cultural engagement [and] education,” she said of the Unity Center.
Members of student organizations looking to reserve a room in the Unity Center will receive more information upon their request and must undergo a short training before they can use the space, Lerma Jones said.
“There are ways in which we have grown into sticking into our own spaces and our own communities,” she said. “This is a way of also bridging some of the different intersections of our identity.”
