Landmarks

The 16.28-acre area from Main Administration Building to McKeldin Library is one of the largest academic malls in the country and a popular hangout for students on sunny days. Its configuration of sidewalks is based on the paths students cut through the grass as they walked to the buildings lining the mall. The 250-foot-long fountain on the eastern end of the mall honors members of the campus chapter of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society. It is engraved with quotes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr., along with a list of ODK fraternity members from the university.

The Sundial, located in the center of McKeldin Mall, was a gift from the Class of 1965, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and friends of Professor Uco Van Wijk, who died in 1966. It was renovated with donations from the Class of 1990.

A brick and concrete circle nearly 40 feet across in the pavement between Shoemaker and LeFrak halls designates the center of campus activity at the time of the Great Fire of 1912. It leveled the two largest campus buildings, as explained in historical plaques placed near the site on the fire’s 75th anniversary. With lines radiating in the direction of each of the buildings that existed at the time of the fire, the circle looks like a carelessly sliced pie. It’s probably not campus history that keeps the circle in the minds of current students, however. Legend has it students who step on the center of the circle where the lines intersect won’t graduate in four years.

The bronze likeness of a diamondback turtle overlooking the mall in front of McKeldin Library has a well-burnished nose for a reason—rubbing it for good luck is our campus’s most well-known tradition. The statue was dedicated in 1933, but it was only decades later that this custom began. In the early 1990s, Maryland students augmented the custom to begin making offerings to Testudo at finals time—food, drinks, heartfelt poems and even pieces of furniture in hopes of a good grade. In addition to the primary Testudo statue at the heart of campus, six other bronze replicas can be found around campus at the Stamp Student Union, Xfinity Center, the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center, Van Munching Hall and two at SECU Stadium.

Selfie seekers who grew up reading the bestselling “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series of kids’ books head to the Stamp Student Union to find a 4-foot-tall likeness of middle-school protagonist Greg Heffley. Author and Terp parent Jeff Kinney ’93 donated the bronze statue, which stands in the ground floor north atrium, near TerpZone. 

In front of Thurgood Marshall Hall are two installations that celebrate UMD’s position as the nation's first Do Good campus. The five Do Good Rings are 12 feet tall and feature built-in speakers and motion sensors that, when activated by passersby, share voices from the UMD community about the positive impact they’ve made on campus and beyond. The ringed walkway ushers pedestrians toward an 8-foot aluminum sculpture of the words “Do Good,” illuminated with more than 300 LED modules.