Visit UChicago's Online Gather Campus

Do you miss meandering over the grounds, discovering things in the odd corners, hanging out in dining halls or common rooms, and running into friends by chance?  We’ve created an online campus, where you can do exactly that, exploring the familiar gothic grounds in cute pixel art form, and running into old friends or making new ones!  

The virtual campus uses Gather, a program that combines video calling with a simulated space. As you explore the virtual campus, when you get near someone, you will automatically connect by voice/video (like a Zoom call), and disconnect again when you walk away. This lets you run into people in hallways, mingle with crowds, have a quick private chat in the corner, attend a performance or movie screening and chat about it with fellow attendees, all sorts of interactions that social distancing and quarantine have taken away. You’ll find dozens of rooms as you explore, including the main quad, classrooms, dorms, dining halls, Regenstein group study rooms, Logan theaters that clubs and individuals can use for performances (anything from Shakespeare to stand-up comedy), RSO rooms, a special grad student lounge, and some magical hidden spaces with puzzles, scavenger hunts, and embedded games. We will add new spaces week by week, including custom ones if you request a space for your club, major, project, institute, etc.

The virtual campus also has a chat function, tools to find your friends, a campus bulletin board for announcements, and an events calendar that can be used to organize and host group events, anything from small things like tea and cookies in company, or a dungeons and dragons session, to big things like movie screenings/discussions, or a campus-wide event with hundreds involved.

Note: Gather's support for Safari is still in beta so we recommend using a different browser if possible.

All you need to join is this link: https://gather.town/app/ZMF4gi9L05UhV4Ud/UChicago

When you get there, you’ll have an auto-generated avatar to move around campus, which you can customize to your liking – you’ll find easy instructions in the “Welcome” sign when you arrive. While the link is enough to start, we recommend making a free Gather account using your UChicago email address so the system will store your name & avatar when you return, and so you can create your own virtual spaces.

• Questions? Requests? Want to organize an event or request a custom room? Contact the team at GatherTown@uchicago.edu.
  • Please email adapalmer@uchicago.edu with questions about accessibility, especially visual and hearing needs.
• Want updates as new things are added? Sign up for the listserv at this link.
• Want to create rooms, games, or other content for the virtual campus? We’d love to have your help, and can teach you to do it! Contact the email above, or, when you enter the virtual campus, head west from the center of the quad moving toward Levi Hall and talk to the monarch butterfly hiding in the flowers to learn more (press X).

We look forward to seeing you there!

This is a University of Chicago project and is subject to the policies at https://college.uchicago.edu/advising/academic-integrity-student-conduct and to the University of Chicago's Student Manual of University Policies & Regulations. 

Visitors to UChicago’s Gather Campus are expected to adhere to the University’s expectations of good citizenship, and to respect each other and behave in a generally civilized fashion. Visitors should respect common sense rules for public behavior, personal interaction, and common courtesy.

The designers and moderators of the virtual campus reserve the right to remove access to any visitor for just cause.