Campus Messages

Earlier today, Prince George’s County announced the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, effective Monday, February 28. This follows a previous announcement by Governor Larry Hogan lifting indoor mask requirements in all state buildings updated guidance released today from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Effective Monday, February 28, we will lift the indoor mask mandate on campus for all faculty, staff, students and visitors.

Although the spring semester may have just begun, we are already looking forward to celebrating our graduates this spring. We want to honor them amongst family, friends and peers and celebrate their resilience and achievement. Spring 2022 graduates will be joined by Winter 2021 grads to mark a special day for our Terrapin community.

Over the past year, more than a thousand members of our campus community worked together to create an ambitious vision for the future of our university. Fearlessly Forward: In Pursuit of Excellence and Impact for the Public Good, The University Of Maryland Strategic Plan presents a bold reimagining of what our university must be to uphold and expand our mission of service to humanity. Our vision is at once ambitious and fearless.

We are excited to share with you that Dr. Gregory F. Ball will be the next Vice President for Research overseeing the joint research enterprise at the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB).

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.

As our Chief Medical Officer Dr. Spyridon Marinopoulos reported yesterday, our campus community – like many communities across the country – is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. Earlier today, our COVID-19 dashboard was updated to show 98 positive cases from university testing plus an additional 12 self-reported cases and we expect to see another high number of cases from today’s testing. These are the highest case counts we’ve seen this fall semester. Given these numbers and the potential further spread of the virus, we are taking the following actions, effective immediately: