Communications

It is with great pride that I welcome new members of our community and returning members back to our beloved campus. Since the last time most of you were here, we have ushered in a new year and watched our campus become blanketed with snow.

I write to share good news with our valued employees.  Last night, Chancellor Perman announced proposed pay increases for most regular status faculty and staff employees of the University System of Maryland schools. The increases are part of the budget proposal recently announced by Governor Larry Hogan and have been made possible through education and advocacy spearheaded by our System and institution leadership. We have worked to demonstrate the priceless value of our higher education workforce and the talented faculty and staff who power our academic and research enterprise.  

We write to update you on our plans for the spring semester. As it has been from the beginning, our decision-making is guided by the careful monitoring of the COVID-19 situation and by campus and local health officials. Our plan is to begin the spring 2022 semester as planned and in-person on January 24. After weighing all available data and recommendations, we plan to emphasize the following four primary strategies during the spring semester to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our highly vaccinated community.

Dear campus community, Happy New Year’s Eve, Terps. As we prepare to return from Winter Break and start a new year, we are actively monitoring the increase of COVID-19 cases across the region and the country, driven largely by the high transmission rate of the Omicron variant.

Dear campus community, As COVID-19 cases increase in our region and around the country, the University of Maryland continues to actively monitor all available data and trends both on our campus and in our surrounding community. Throughout this pandemic, our goal has been unwavering: to prioritize the health and well-being of every member of our campus community. With that in mind, we are enacting the following measures for the winter term, effective January 3-21, 2022:

This week, we had planned to celebrate your extraordinary accomplishment as you complete your academic degrees here at the University of Maryland. But the COVID-19 virus once again upended our plans and our lives. Although I believe we made the prudent decision to postpone our commencement exercises to help keep you and your loved ones safe, it is a decision that comes with great sadness and heartbreak. I feel for every single one of you.