President Pines to Teach Fall 2021 Course

University President Darryll J. Pines and Dr. Spirydon S. Marinopoulos, University Health Center director, sent the following email to the campus community today: We hope you are all enjoying the summer months—staying cool, staying safe and taking some time away from work. Here in College Park, we are actively planning for a return to full campus operations for the fall semester. As a result of our campus community working together to follow public health guidance, our COVID-19 positivity rate is essentially 0% and our full vaccination rate is 74%, metrics that give us great confidence in a safe return to campus. The University System of Maryland (USM) mandatory vaccination requirement remains in effect for every individual who returns to campus, except for those individuals who have been granted a medical or religious exemption.

UMD President Darryll J. Pines, Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Georgina Dodge, Vice President for Student Affairs Patty Perillo and Director of Athletics Damon Evans sent the following email to the campus community this morning: We have witnessed increasing incidences of transgender people publically harassed and ridiculed, and there has been an avalanche of antitransgender legislation proposed in dozens of states. A recent count indicates that there are at least 50 of these bills in 36 states, most of them focusing on health care and sports. While none of these bills has been proposed in Maryland, this spate of proposed anti-transgender legislation has created stress and a climate of fear among our transgender and nonbinary communities.

University President Darryll J. Pines, Interim Senior Vice President and Provost Ann G. Wylie, University Health Center Director Dr. Spyridon S. Marinopoulos and Associate Vice President for International Affairs Ross Lewin sent the following email to the campus community this afternoon: We are deeply saddened to see the devastating impact that COVID-19 is creating across India and other countries around the world. Although the pandemic has affected us all, the impact from COVID-19 continues to grow more severe outside the United States; in addition to India, parts of South America, the Middle East and other regions have witnessed a dramatic increase of serious illness that is overwhelming health services.