--- title: "The Year in Pictures: 2021" date: 2021-12-13T05:30:00-05:00 author: University of Maryland canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/the-year-in-pictures-2021" section: Articles --- # The Year in Pictures: 2021 *December 13, 2021* — by [Karen Shih ’09](/author/karen-shih) > Cicadas, COVID-19 Vaccine Clinics and Historic Celebrations Illustrate Our Unusual Year *Commencement 05212021 SC 8821 1920x1080 — Under a cloudless sky and cooled by a light spring breeze, Spring 2021 graduates and their families sat—physically distanced—in Maryland Stadium to celebrate the first outdoor commencement in 66 years.* Stroll through campus today and you’ll see students chatting over sandwiches in dining halls, browsing the stacks at McKeldin Library or raising their hands during classroom discussions. It’s enough to make you think it’s 2019 again—except for the masks and jugs of hand sanitizer at every building entrance, of course. At the start of the year, such scenes weren’t a given. But thanks to the widespread availability of vaccines starting this spring, the University of Maryland community was able to start celebrating the milestones missed during the pandemic year. They included the delayed inauguration of university President Darryll J. Pines; UMD’s first outdoor commencement ceremony in six decades; the historic opening of Jones-Hill House, honoring trailblazing student-athletes who broke racial barriers; and a ground blessing for the new Yahentamitsi dining hall, set to open in 2022. Relive the past year with some of the University of Maryland photo staff’s favorite images from 2021. *Student sleds down snowy hill in laundry basket* --- *Celebratory streamers falls as Darryll J. Pines is officially inaugurated* --- *Man receives COVID-19 vaccine* --- *Campus aerial showing School of Public Policy building construction* --- *Cicada skin on a tree* --- *Football players run into red-lit Jones-Hill House locker room* --- *Kimberly Griffin poses* --- *Students walk on McKeldin Mall* --- *Running back Tayon Fleet-Davis poses with hyped-up Terp fans* --- *Maurice Proctor, a member of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, leads the November ground blessing ceremony for Yahentamitsi* **Topics:** [Campus & Community](https://today.umd.edu/tags/campus-community)