On UD’s campus, a building is never just a building. 

Old College isn’t merely the stately home of UD’s art history and art conservation departments; it’s where students once sheltered an escaped slave. Daugherty Hall isn’t merely a tranquil study room; it’s where Blue Hens affectionately recall bonding over calzones and the B-52s. 

The latest issue of UD Magazine, hitting mailboxes now, attempts to capture the many lives — and many evocative memories — attached to these storied structures and more. For thousands of dewy-eyed alumni, the spaces of campus represent more than brick walls and slate rooftops. Here is where friendships are forged, traditions are upheld, and purpose is discovered.  

Of course, not every beloved Blue Hen spot is a physical building — this issue also explores, via a poem, the beauty and history of the campus Green, designed by one of the nation’s first female landscape architects. And through a comic strip, readers will connect with the 35-acre forest on South Campus known as Ecology Woods, home to a significant turtle study that’s linked UD researchers for more than half a century.

Additional stories touch upon:

• UD’s latest rise in national rankings

• How UD supports Blue Hen parents

• What a group of landscape architecture students gleaned from their time in the Amazon Rainforest

• How a new gathering space is bonding chemistry engineering majors

What spaces do you love and remember most about your time at UD? Shoot us an email at magazine@udel.edu. Happy reading!