By Sam Barrett

Families came to campus in droves from Oct. 7 to 9 to take part in the University of Maryland’s annual Family Weekend. 

“It was really cool seeing everyone with their families and everyone talking and having fun together,” said Sophia Wang, a freshman undecided major. 

On Family Weekend, students’ families are welcomed and encouraged to visit campus. There are pre-planned events like a barbecue on McKeldin Mall, a .5k race, and a guided tour of the gardens outside the Memorial Chapel. The University also offered discounted tickets to the Saturday football game against Purdue.

But not every family who came to family weekend participated in these events.

“We just took the chance to come in and hang out with Sam, so that’s what we’ve been doing,” said Norah Bringer, aunt of freshman environmental horticulture and agronomy major Sam Wake. 

Wake said they were not aware of many of the planned events for Family Weekend. 

“There’s not a lot of things telling me about family weekend,” Wake said. “I had to Google everything to find everything that they did have.”

Junior information sciences major Patrick Polglase said his father came up on the last day of Family Weekend. The events were mostly over by then, and he just walked around campus with his dad, he said. 

“I don’t think we had time for it,” Polglase said. “I think we did register for the events on Friday and Saturday. We just didn’t attend them.”

Other families were aware of the events but said they also saw the weekend as an opportunity to come to campus. 

Kerry Wolf, mother of freshman computer science major Robert Wolf said the price of the weekend was more than they expected.

According to the Family Weekend website, many of the events required families to have a Family Weekend wristband. The wristbands cost $28 for adults and $22 for UMD students. Other events cost extra, such as Saturday’s football game. 

“[Wolf’s sister Hannah] went to Loyola and Parents Weekend was free, so it was a little bit of a shock, but that’s okay,” she said. “A private university versus a state university, so yeah, that’s all different.”

Some families came to watch the football game together, like the family of sophomore biology major Owen Bitner, but other families did not come at all. The family of senior Accounting and Business major Varen Gupta couldn’t come because of work, and the family of first-year graduate student Kyle Seaton, who studies Real Estate Development, couldn’t come because of distance.

“Most of my family is away, and the family that I did have here, they weren’t able to make it that day,” said Seaton. 

Whether people’s families came or not, many said they saw the value in having a day dedicated to spending time with family. 

“It’s a good time for people’s families to come see them if they can,” Bitner said. “It’s an accepted time for them to come.”

Featured Image: (Left to right) Gilbert Rocca, freshman Francesca Rocca and Gigi Rocca holding “finisher” medals at the 0.5K Downhill “Race” for Terp Essential Needs family weekend event at McKeldin Mall on Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. Photo by Thai Nguyen and provided by the Parent and Family Affairs Office.