June 2020
A Newsletter for Legislative and Business Communities
President Loh Addresses the Recent Killings of Black Americans
In community and solidarity, President Wallace D. Loh shared and acknowledged concerns about insufficient police accountability across the country, systemic racism, and the social, economic, and health inequities that have led to protests born of despair, anger, and hope. President Loh was joined by Dan Alpert, President of the Student Government Association, Annie Rappeport, President of the Graduate Student Government, Mary Ann Rankin, Senior VP and Provost, Carlo Colella, VP for Administration & Finance and Georgina Dodge, VP for Diversity & Inclusion.
President-designate Calls Acts of Violence Against Black Community Nationwide a ‘Stain’ Against UMD Values
President-designate, Darryll J. Pines writes to the university community that the injustices against African Americans in the midst of a pandemic are a double blow to black and brown communities. He reminds us all to rise up and stand together to show our humanity to one another.
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Fall Semester to Start Aug. 31 With In-Person, Online, Blended Courses
The university’s plan to safely reopen campus and start the Fall 2020 semester focuses on five components with early identification of infectious COVID-19 cases as the key to limit outbreaks. The components include daily self-monitoring, population surveillance testing, contact tracing, environmental monitoring, and behavioral changes.
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Highlights
Maryland Named No. 1 College in U.S. for LGBTQ+ Students: The ranking combines Academic and Affordability Metrics along with the Campus Pride Index score, which is a comprehensive national rating system that measures LGBTQ-friendly campus life. Campus Pride takes an exhaustive and multifaceted approach, considering eight LGBTQ-inclusive factors to reach a measurement. The listing also includes descriptions of unique campus resources that provide support to students of various gender and sexual identities..
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UMD professor explains why George Floyd protests are different: Sociology professor, Dana R. Fisher, says “it’s important to remember that riots are the product of the actions of protesters and reactions by institutional political actors (e.g. the police, national guard, and other law enforcement).” “As more acts of violence and repression are witnessed, the protests grow even larger.”
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Dr. Pines, UMD Engineers Helped Prince George’s County Reopening Efforts: Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has enlisted the help of University of Maryland experts and resources as it prepares to begin reopening following a stay-at-home order intended to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. President-designate, Darryll Pines will lead the education group and Maryland Transportation Institute will provide data.
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University of Maryland Celebrates Virtual Commencement: Following an uncommon end to the spring semester, UMD honored graduates in a virtual commencement ceremony on May 22, 2020. Thousands of viewers tuned into the main ceremony, which streamed on multiple platforms. President Loh presided, offering words of pride and encouragement to the graduates who earned more than 8,500 bachelor's, master’s and doctoral degrees from various programs.
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Clarksville neighborhood graduation party gets surprise visit from President-designate, Darryll Pines: A group of families in a nine-home cul-de-sac in Clarksville set up a neighborhood graduation ceremony for three River Hill High School students on Memorial Day. President-designate, Darryll Pines, who lives in the neighborhood surprised the families and students Neabir Jahangir, Shane Lavner and Vedaant Shah by dressing up in his robes and delivering a commencement speech.
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UMD Geosciences Ranked #12 in the World, #4 Among U.S. Public Universities, and #9 Among all U.S. Universities: The University of Maryland, College Park ranked 12th in the world, 4th among all U.S. public universities, and 9th among all U.S. universities.
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UMD Undergraduate Criminology Ranked #5 in U.S.: As one of the best undergraduate criminology programs, pupils in this course get to learn about violence and formulate an opinion about reducing it. Additionally, students learn about other issues that plague the country.
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The Hall CP Opens in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District: Located in the heart of the University of Maryland Discovery District, new arts and entertainment venue,The Hall CP is the next big thing to hit the Discovery District, alongside the Capitol One Tech Incubator and WeWork. The Discovery District is part of the university’s Greater College Park initiative.
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Research Impact
UMD, UMMS Researchers to Develop More Precise COVID-19 Models: Niemeier and Kartik Kaushik, assistant professor and assistant director of data and informatics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Shock, Trauma and Anesthesiology—Organized Research Center (STAR-ORC) are launching a new project aimed at modeling pandemic curves more precisely by quantitatively examining the impact of COVID-19 and better identifying how social distancing affected hospitalization.
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SPH Professor, Don Milton, Provides More Evidence that SARS-CoV-2 may spread by air: Milton, a professor of environmental health and an expert in aerosol transmission, co-authored a study to understand the patterns of contamination of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. He assisted with the design of the experiments and the interpretation of the data. Researchers say further work is urgently needed to examine their findings.
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Alumni Spotlight
UMD Graduates Create Virtual COVID-19 Symptom Checker: Graduates Adeel Malik, Bilal Naved and Peter Gaber teamed up with friend David Zbarsky to create Clearstep, an AI-driven symptom checker. The virtual healthcare and website developed by the graduates is helping check people's symptoms and connect them with providers.
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Terp Builds Website to Connect People to Local Mask Makers: Senior Saba Tshibaka created FacemaskDC, a website map and directory that connects people needing masks with small businesses making them. Besides selling more than 400 of her own masks and donating batches to restaurants, Tshibaka said FacemaskDC, which went live on May 11, has received almost 11,000 hits running on word of mouth and news publicity.
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