University of Maryland to create 5 new cultural centers for underrepresented students
The hubs mark the latest step in President Darryll J. Pines’s push for diversity and inclusion.
Pines said during his State of the Campus address Wednesday that students and officials next will create new cultural centers for Latino, Asian Pacific Islander Desi American, Native American and Indigenous, and multiracial and biracial student groups, as well as for students with disabilities.
The announcement of the centers is the culmination of meetings between administrators and “communities that have experienced exclusion and underrepresentation,” Pines, Perillo and Dodge said. Fewer than 1 percent of students at U-Md. are from American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander backgrounds; 19 percent are Asian; 10 percent identify as Hispanic or Latino; and 5 percent say they are two or more races, federal data show
Officials did not announce an opening date for the cultural centers, which will be housed in Cole Field House, an athletics facility. But Pines, Perillo and Dodge said university leaders and students will begin planning and designing the spaces this month.
“After covid and a year-and-a-half of virtual [learning], we haven’t gotten as much interaction with students, in general, and specifically with students of our own communities,” said Parashar, who is Indian. “The university is a big place,” he noted, and such spaces allow minority students “to embrace your own culture, and you get to talk to people of similar backgrounds as you.”
“These spaces help students to be successful and thrive by better supporting their acclimation to university life and developing greater cultural awareness, allowing them to feel part of community and know that they matter,” Pines, Perillo and Dodge said.
The creation of these cultural centers, they added, are part of an ongoing effort “to acknowledge the University of Maryland’s role throughout its history in denying access and full participation, and take actions to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.”