Alumni, families and prospective students were all around the University of Maryland campus Saturday, attending the 13th annual Maryland Day. The university opens to the public each year in an effort to showcase the schools and programs that students experience on campus.
Most colleges were under white tents on McKeldin Mall, ignoring the area that was fenced off due to a sewage leak Friday, offering freebies and information about the schools. Many prospective students were able to tour the campus’ buildings and talk to student volunteers from each school.
Huge bubbles occasionally bobbed into the air from children playing at the College of Education’s tent. WMUC radio station blasted music and volunteers from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences handed out red, yellow and white balloons advertising one of the day’s book signings with alumnus Jeff Kinney, the author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
The School of Public Health asked everyone who passed by the tent to participate in an art project, which investigated the definition of “family.”
Doctoral student in family science Damian Waters said the several pages of collages of pictures and words was a kind of “community based participative research” typical to the public health field.
Everyone from “children who can barely walk, to grandparents” had been offering their definitions, Jessica DiBari, a doctoral student in maternal and child growth, said. The definitions will help investigate the impact of public health issues on families, Waters said. The collages will be cut up and framed in the Family Science department, Waters said.
Children also took pictures with their faces in cardboard cutouts of a child in a car seat or as the man on the food pyramid.
Some colleges targeted alumni who returned to visit. The College of Journalism invited alumni to record an interesting memory from their college days to be posted to a blog website.
“It’s surprising how talkative some people are, while others are avoiding it,” freshman journalism major Brianna Vollmer said.
The philosophy department of the College of Arts and Humanities sat at a small booth across from the tents, offering free philosophical advice. They also shared several news articles about how philosophy majors succeed in places like the business world.
Brock Rough, a philosophy graduate student, said that is because, “Philosophy trains you to think critically.”
Maryland Day events, which started at 10 a.m., ran until 4 p.m.