On Wednesday, Sept. 25 CommUMDiversity hosted a Unity Fair in the Stamp Student Union. The Unity Fair was an opportunity for over 12,000 diverse students to see all of the organizations. 

Stamp hosted the CommUMDiversity event, a day-long showcase of the university’s diversity resources. The day began with the Unity Fair and Expo and continued with other events, such as a visit from University of Maryland’s Vice President for Diversity & Inclusion, Georgina Dodge.

Student groups as well as educational departments and resources had tables set up around Stamp. Organizations were placed all around the food court overlook and in the Grand Ballroom. 

Hunter Jones, a senior geography major, was tabling for the Clarice Performing Arts Center. She is a UMD Art Ambassador. Jones was promoting various art, theater and music performances happening at the Clarice. Jones emphasized how the Unity Fair can help students become involved in other groups. 

“It’s really cool because UMD has a lot of niche groups, but it’s easy to just get stuck into that one group and never venture out into the other things you might be interested in,” Jones said. “So, [the Unity Fair] is a good opportunity for students to do that.”

Students Asma Palmer, a sophomore agricultural business major, Ramya Bogg, a junior animal science major and Alfred Maybury, a junior animal science major, were tabling for their group, Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Science. Known as MANRRS, it’s a nationally recognized society that is open to students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds studying agriculture and related science careers. 

“We’re an organization that was traditionally aimed at recruiting minorities in the fields of agriculture, natural resources and related sciences,” Maybury said. 

MANRRS offers a wide range of events for students, including professional development events such as LinkedIn and resume workshops, to gardening events such as invasive plant species removal. Palmer, Bogg and Maybury were all tabling to promote their organization. 

“In continuation with our org’s initial mission, we like to involve ourselves in any type of initiative that promotes diversity within the university,” Maybury said. 

Associate Director of the Graduate School’s Office of Graduate Diversity and Inclusion (OGDI), Christopher Pérez, was tabling at the event. He was trying to recruit students from all backgrounds and years to consider the university’s graduate programs. 

“I do recruitment, and in order for me to do effective recruitment, we have to be a collabrative, and unified campus,” Pérez said. “We have to work together in order to be stronger and recruit talented students to our university.” 

Pérez explained how it is important for him to stay updated on what diversity groups the campus has to offer. This way, he can stay informed and provide information to minority students about what resources they will have on campus. 

“It’s really important for an office like me to be part of something like this,” Pérez said. “The more I am engaged with this, the better I can do recruiting for underrepresented populations.”