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University of Maryland, College Park
Motto:	Fatti Maschii, Parole Femine ("Manly deeds, womanly words")
Established	1856
Type:	Land Grant Public university
President:	C. Daniel Mote, Jr.
Provost:	Nariman Farvardin
Faculty:	3,752[1]
Undergraduates:	25,154[1]
Postgraduates:	9,948[1]
Location	College Park, Maryland, United States ( 38°59′17″N, 76°56′41″W)
Campus:	Suburban, 1250 acres[1]
Colors:	Red and White (athletics), Black and Gold (academics)
Nickname:	Terrapins
Mascot:	Testudo
Website:	http://www.umd.edu

The University of Maryland, College Park (also known as UM, UMD, or UMCP) is a public research university located in the city of College Park, in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., in the United States. Founded in 1856, the University of Maryland is the flagship institution of the state of Maryland, and is considered to be a "Public Ivy" by authors Howard and Matthew Greene of Greene's Guides (2001), defined by the authors as a public institution that "provides an Ivy League collegiate experience at a public school price". The University is most often referred to as the University of Maryland or simply Maryland, even though its formal name remains University of Maryland, College Park.

The University of Maryland's location near Washington, D.C., has created strong research partnerships, especially with government agencies. Many of the faculty members have funding from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Agency. It is a member of the Association of American Universities.

As of fiscal year 2007, the University of Maryland, College Park's operating budget was projected to be approximately $1.352 billion.^[2] The University has also raised more than $400 million in private donations in its recent "Great Expectations" campaign.^[3]

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 1.2 Civil War period 1.3 Postwar era 1.4 The Great Fire of 1912 1.5 Recent history 1.6 Name and structural changes 2 Academics 3 Research 4 Athletics 5 Testudo 6 The Diamondback 7 Hoff Theater 8 Notable people 9 Fraternity and sorority life 10 Events 11 Filmography 12 References 13 External links

On March 6, 1856, the forerunner of today's University of Maryland was chartered as the Maryland Agricultural College (MAC).^[4] Two years later, Charles Benedict Calvert, a descendant of the Barons Baltimore and a future U.S. Congressman, purchased 420 acres (1.7 km²) of the Riverdale Plantation in College Park for $21,000.^[5] Calvert founded the school later that year with money earned by the sale of stock certificates.^[6] On October 6, 1859, the first 34 students entered the Maryland Agricultural College, including four of Charles Calvert's sons, George, Charles, William and Eugene. The keynote speaker on opening day was Joseph Henry, the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.^[7],

In July 1862, the same month that the MAC awarded its first degrees, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant Act. The legislation provided federal funds to schools that taught agriculture, engineering, or provided military training. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the school became a land grant college in February 1864 after the Maryland legislature voted to approve the Morrill Act.

A few months after accepting the grant, the Maryland Agricultural College proved to be an important site in the Civil War. In April 1864, General Ambrose E. Burnside and 6,000 soldiers of the Union's Ninth Army Corps camped on the MAC campus. The troops were en route to reinforce General Ulysses S. Grant's forces in Virginia. While encamped the troops tore down several hundred feet of fence for fire wood and attempted to set fire to a stone barn. Later, the University unsuccessfully attempted to sue the federal government for damages.

Later that summer, around 400 Confederate soldiers led by General Bradley T. Johnson stayed on the grounds while preparing to take part in a raid against Washington. Warmly welcomed by university President Henry Onderdonk, a Confederate sympathizer, the cavalrymen were thrown a party on the campus. Nicknamed "The Old South Ball," legend tells of a lavish party that carried on late into the night. The next morning the soldiers rode off to cut the lines of communication between Washington and Baltimore. The stigma of "The Old South Ball" would linger much longer.

Financial problems forced the increasingly desperate administrators to sell off 200 acres of land, and the continuing decline in student enrollment sent the Maryland Agricultural College into bankruptcy. For the next two years the campus was used as a boys preparatory school.

Following the Civil War, the Maryland legislature pulled the college out of bankruptcy, and in February 1866 assumed half ownership of the school. The college thus became in part a state institution. George Washington Custis Lee, son of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was appointed president of the college by the Board of Trustees, but due to public outcry declined the position. By October 1867, the school reopened with 11 students. In the next six years, enrollment continued to grow, and the school's debt was finally paid off. Twenty years later, the school's reputation as a research institution began, as the federally funded Agricultural Experiment Station was established there. During the same period, a number of state laws granted the college regulatory powers in several areas—including controlling farm disease, inspecting feed, establishing a state weather bureau and geological survey, and housing the board of forestry.

Also in 1888, the college began its first official intercollegiate baseball games against rivals St. John's College and the United States Naval Academy. Baseball, however, had been played at the college for decades before the first "official" games were recorded.

In 1897 the first fraternity, Phi Sigma Kappa, was established on Maryland's campus, and Morrill Hall (the oldest instructional building still in use on campus) was built the following year.

On November 29, 1912, around 10:30 p.m., a fire, probably due to faulty electric wiring, broke out in the attic of the newest administration building, where a Thanksgiving dance was being held. The approximately eighty students on the premises evacuated themselves safely, and then formed a makeshift bucket brigade. The fire departments summoned from nearby Hyattsville and Washington, D.C. arrived too late. Fanned by a strong southwest wind, the fire destroyed the barracks where the students were housed, all the school's records, and most of the academic buildings, leaving only Morrill Hall untouched. The loss was estimated at $250,000 (about $5 million in 2005 U.S. dollars) despite no injuries or fatalities. The devastation was so great that many never expected the university to reopen. University President Richard Silvester resigned, brokenhearted.

However, the students refused to give up. All but two returned to the university after the break and insisted on classes continuing as usual. Students were housed by families in neighboring towns who were compensated by the university until housing could be rebuilt, although a new administration building was not built until the 1940s.

A large brick and concrete compass inlaid in the ground designates the former center of campus as it existed in 1912. Lines engraved in the compass point to each building that was destroyed in the Thanksgiving Day fire. The only building not marked on the compass is Morrill Hall, which was spared by the blaze.

The state took complete control of the school in 1916, and consequently the institution was renamed Maryland State College. Also that year, the first female students enrolled at the school. On April 9, 1920, the college merged with the preestablished professional schools in Baltimore to form the University of Maryland. The graduate school on the College Park campus awarded its first Ph.D. degrees, and the University's enrollment reached 500 students in the same year. In 1925 the University was granted accreditation by the Association of American Universities.

By the time the first African-American students enrolled at the University in 1951, enrollment had grown to nearly 10,000 students—4,000 of whom were women. In 1957 President Wilson H. Elkins made a push to increase academic standards at the University. His efforts resulted in the creation of one of the first Academic Probation Plans. The first year the plan went into effect, 1,550 students (18% of the total student body) faced expulsion. Since then, academic standards at the school have steadily risen. Recognizing the improvement in academics, Phi Beta Kappa established a chapter at the university in 1964. In 1969, the university was elected to the Association of American Universities. The school continued to grow, and by the fall of 1985 reached an enrollment of 38,679.

On September 24, 2001, a tornado struck the College Park campus, killing two female students and causing $15 million in damage to 12 buildings.^[8]

In a massive 1988 restructuring of the state higher education system, the school was designated as the flagship campus of the newly formed University System of Maryland and was formally named University of Maryland, College Park. However, in 1997 the Maryland General Assembly passed legislation allowing the University of Maryland, College Park to be known simply as the University of Maryland, recognizing the campus's role as the flagship institution of the University System of Maryland.

The other University System of Maryland institutions with the name "University of Maryland" are not satellite campuses of the University of Maryland, College Park, and are not referred to as such. The University of Maryland, Baltimore is the only other school permitted to confer certain degrees that state, simply "University of Maryland". This is due to the fact that the Baltimore school offers primarily graduate degrees in disciplines not covered at College Park, such as Dentistry, Law and Medicine. The relationship between the University of Maryland, College Park, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore is akin to the relationship of the University of California, Berkeley to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), which also primarily offers graduate programs that Berkeley does not provide.

The University of Maryland offers 127 undergraduate degrees and 112 graduate degrees in 13 different colleges and schools, including the College of Education; the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Physical Sciences; Philip Merrill College of Journalism, which has produced journalists like Connie Chung and Carl Bernstein (who actually dropped out of the school)^[9]; the Robert H. Smith School of Business; the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences; the A. James Clark School of Engineering; School of Music; College of Information Studies and the School of Public Policy.

The Honors Program is similar to most other honors programs throughout the country. The Gemstone program is a highly selective program within Honors run by the A. James Clark School of Engineering, in which students from numerous disciplines live and work together on a complex 4-year research project. This project culminates during the senior year when the teams must defend their dissertation in front of a panel of experts, similar to the thesis defense for a Masters degree or Ph.D. The College Park Scholars program allows incoming freshman to live and take classes with a group of students who have a similar interest. The Jimenez-Porter Writers' House is a program that focuses on the creative writing skills of students. Civicus focuses on civil service. There is also a program for mainly business and engineering majors who are interested in starting their own business called Hinman CEO's. As the nation’s first living-learning entrepreneurship program, Hinman CEOs is a groundbreaking program placing entrepreneurially-minded students from all academic disciplines in a unique community to explore new ventures. The mission of Hinman CEOs is to foster an entrepreneurial spirit, create a sense of community and cooperation, and positively impact the way that students see their career opportunities. Brian Hinman, University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering alumnus and successful entrepreneur, provided $2.5M to initiate and support the Program.

The University of Maryland also has a number of stand-alone academic programs in many fields. These undergraduate programs pull faculty from many different colleges and departments, and a degree certificate or minor may be granted upon completion. Specialized programs offer students academic, community service, and research opportunities outside of the traditional classroom interaction. Students are often invited into these programs based on academic merit, current community service involvement, and racial/ethnic designation. In some programs, a degree certificate or minor may be awarded upon completion.

The University's academic reputation has increased in recent decades, as evidenced in many surveys. It is ranked 54th in the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings of "national universities" ^[10], and is 18th among public universities. 31 programs are ranked in the Top 10 (undergraduate and graduate), and 91 programs are in the Top 25. ^[11] It was also considered to have one of the nation's best first-year student experiences.^[12]] The much-publicized and most widely cited Academic Ranking of World Universities compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked Maryland as 37th and 11th among public universities in the United States. In early 2007, as a follow-up to the Institute's overall 2006 ranking of the world's research universities, it released world rankings based on "Broad Subject Fields.", Maryland was ranked 23rd in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, 13th in Engineering and Computer Science, and 18th in Social Sciences. Newsweek ranked the University of Maryland as 45th in their ranking of the world's "global universities" and Webometrics, a leading web collegiate ranking site, ranked Maryland 24th on its Top 3000 Universities list.^[13][14].

On October 14, 2004, the university added 150 acres (607,030 m²) in an ambitious attempt to create the largest research park inside the Washington, D.C., Capital Beltway, known as "M Square" ^[15]. The university completed construction on a new Bioscience Research Building on campus in May 2007.

The University of Maryland's location near Washington, D.C., has created strong research partnerships, especially with government agencies. Many of the faculty members have funding from federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Agency. These relationships have created numerous research opportunities for the university including:

• taking the lead in the nationwide research initiative into the transmission and prevention of human and avian influenza^{[citation needed]}
• creating a new research center to study the behavioral and social foundations of terrorism with funding from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
• launching the joint NASA-University of Maryland Deep Impact spacecraft in early January 2005.

The University of Maryland Libraries provide access to and assistance in the use of the scholarly information resources required to meet the education, research and service missions of the University.

The Center for American Politics and Citizenship provides citizens and policy-makers with research on critical issues related to the United States' political institutions, processes, and policies. CAPC is a non-partisan, non-profit research institution within the Department of Government and Politics in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

The Space Systems Laboratory researches human-robotic interaction for astronautics applications, and includes the only neutral buoyancy facility at a university.

Main article: University of Maryland athletics

The school's sports teams are called the Terrapins, and the mascot of the University (pictured right) is a diamondback terrapin named Testudo, which is Latin for "protective shell." The Terrapins sports teams participate in the NCAA's Division I-A, and the school is a founding member of the Atlantic Coast Conference. For years the school colors were black and gold. After World War One, new coach Clark Shaughnessy came to Maryland from Stanford, and brought a supply of that school's uniforms with him. Combining those colors with the old black and gold, the university's official colors were expanded to match those that appear on the Maryland State Flag: black, gold, red, and white. Red and white are now the most-used team colors, and gold is almost strictly used as an accent color. "Fear the Turtle," a slogan born during the basketball team's national championship run in 2002, has since been commonly associated with other Maryland teams.^[16]

The university's athletics program has always enjoyed national prominence. Most recently, the Maryland women's basketball team won the 2006 Women's National Championship on April 4, guided by Coach Brenda Frese, after beating Duke 78-75 in overtime.

The football program has been a top program in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and occasionally is a force in the national picture. Overall, Maryland owns Nine Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, more than any conference school except Clemson and Florida State. Maryland was recognized as a football dynasty from 1949 to 1955, as the team's overall record during this time was an astounding 60-9-2. After winning the 1949 Gator Bowl, the team went undefeated in 1951, and defeated heavily favored Tennessee in the Sugar Bowl. This was followed by the school's only National Championship in 1953. 1955 also saw the team go undefeated in the regular season, before falling to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl. The years from 1973 to 1985 were also some of the most successful in the history of Maryland football, and saw a total of six Atlantic Coast Conference Championships. The 1976 team stormed through the regular season undefeated and finished with an 11-1 record. The 1984 season was the season where the Terrapins, down 31-0 at halftime in the Orange Bowl against the defending National Champion Miami Hurricanes, completed an amazing comeback to win 42-40 in thrilling fashion. After a fifteen-year period that saw only one trip to a bowl game, former Maryland player and coach Ralph Friedgen was hired as Head Coach in 2001. He reversed the fortunes of Terrapin football in his first three seasons, leading the team to 31 wins, an appearance in the BCS Orange Bowl, commanding victories in the Peach Bowl, the Gator Bowl and the Champs Sports Bowl, consecutive top-3 finishes in conference, and one ACC regular season title. These promising seasons were followed up by two disappointing 5-6 seasons. However, in 2006, Friedgen returned the Terrapins to bowl status, where they defeated the Purdue Boilermakers in dominating fashion, 24-7 in the Champs Sports Bowl, in Orlando, FL. Maryland has produced NFL stars such as Vernon Davis of the 49ers, Shawne Merriman of the Chargers, Lamont Jordan of the Raiders, E.J. Henderson of the Vikings, Domonique Foxworth of the Broncos and many others.

Men's basketball has traditionally been the most popular sport at Maryland and is under the guidance of another Maryland graduate, Gary Williams of the class of 1968. Williams, who returned to his alma mater in 1989 after successful head coaching stints at Lafayette College, American University, Boston College, and Ohio State, inherited a once-successful program that was suffering the aftereffects of the death of Len Bias as well as NCAA rules infractions under Williams's predecessor. Williams led Maryland to eleven consecutive NCAA tournament appearances (1993–2004) and eight consecutive seasons with 20 or more wins (1996–2004). In addition, he has taken the Terps to the tournament's Regional Semifinals (Sweet Sixteen) seven times, to the Final Four twice, and led the school to its first NCAA title in men's basketball in 2002. With one of the youngest teams in the nation, Williams led his team to his first ACC Tournament title in 2004. With a win over the Virginia Cavaliers on February 7, 2006, Gary Williams became Maryland's all-time leader in basketball wins with 349, beating the previous record of Lefty Driesell, who attended the record-breaking game.

Beyond these primary "revenue sports", Maryland excels in other areas as well. Women's basketball began a resurgence in 2002, and has reached the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament for four consecutive years under Coach Brenda Frese. The Lady Terps beat Duke in 2006 to bring Maryland its first NCAA title in women's basketball. Coach Sasho Cirovski has taken the men's soccer team to five Final Fours since 1997, including four straight. In 2005, the squad claimed the NCAA College Cup National Championship with a 1-0 win over New Mexico.

The field hockey team has made eleven Final Four appearances (through 2006) and won the 1987, 1993, 1999, 2005, and 2006 national titles. The volleyball team won the ACC tournament in 2003 and qualified for the NCAA tournament.

The women's lacrosse team has won a total of ten national championships since 1981, eight of which came under the direction of Cindy Timchal, including a run of seven straight (1995 through 2001). Additionally, the women's lacrosse team has been an NCAA finalist in eleven of the last fourteen years, and produced more All-Americans in the sport than any other school. Two of Maryland's outstanding All Americans, Cathy Nelson-Reese and Jen Adams, became coach and co-coach of the team in 2006-2007 when Timchal took over the new program at the United States Naval Academy. The men's lacrosse program is often ranked among the top programs nationally and won the NCAA Championship in 1973 and 1975.

The Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band^[17] attends all home football games and at least one away game each season. The band provides pre-game performances that have remained largely unchanged for several years. A video of the pre-game show can be viewed at the band's Web site.^[18] The band also plays at halftime during home games, with a different show every game. At the end of their 2006-2007 season, the entire 250-member Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band traveled to New Orleans to build new homes with Habitat for Humanity for families displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

During the basketball season, the marching band converts into the University of Maryland Pep Band.^[19] The pep band provides energetic music and cheers in the stands at men's and women's home games. The pep band's repertoire (more than 300 songs, as of the 2006-2007 season) is compiled from past marching band shows and some special arrangements. The Pep Band also travels with the basketball teams during tournament play.

In 1932, Curley Byrd, who served both as University football coach and President, proposed changing the school mascot to the Maryland diamondback terrapin, the state reptile. The first statue of Testudo cast in bronze was donated by the Class of 1933 and was displayed on U.S. Route 1 (Baltimore Ave.) in front of Ritchie Coliseum. However, the 300 pound mascot was subjected to many indignities by visiting college athletic teams.

One famous incident in 1947 involved students from Johns Hopkins University who stole the bronze statue of the mascot and returned to their campus in Baltimore. Maryland students went up to Baltimore from College Park to retrieve the statue and ended up besieging the residence hall where the Johns Hopkins students had kept Testudo; over 200 riot police had to be called in.

In 1949, then-University President Byrd was awakened by a phone call from a University of Virginia fraternity requesting that Testudo be removed from their lawn. Testudo was later filled with 700 pounds of cement and fastened to his pedestal to ensure that the statue could not be stolen in the future. Students at rival schools continued to vandalize the statue, and in the 1960s Testudo was moved from its location on Baltimore Avenue to a spot in front of McKeldin Library in the center of campus. The statue is considered a good luck charm by students, many of whom rub his nose and leave him offerings during finals week.

In 1992 a twin statue of Testudo was placed at Byrd Stadium that the football team and marching band touches for good luck as they pass by on their way. There is now also a statue of Testudo outside the Gossett Team House on the outskirts of Byrd Stadium. In 2002, another statue was placed in front of Comcast Center, the school's new basketball arena; and in 2005, a fifth statue (this one hollow) was erected in front of the new Riggs Alumni Center

During the 1994 session of the Maryland General Assembly, legislation was approved that named the Diamondback Terrapin (malaclemys terrapin terrapin) as the official State reptile of Maryland, as well as the legally-codified mascot of the University of Maryland. At the time, the terrapin was only the second university mascot in the nation (after the University of Florida gator) to receive such a designation.

In 2006, fifty Testudo statues decorated by University students were placed throughout the region. Besides the campus and College Park, other areas where statues were placed included Silver Spring, Ocean City, Baltimore, Annapolis, Landover, Washington, D.C., and along the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway at the Maryland House and Chesapeake House service areas of the Maryland Transportation Authority. ^[20]

The fifty Testudo statues were later auctioned off to independent buyers to raise money for the school. Most are no longer found on campus, but some buyers in turn donated their purchases back to the school.

Main article: The Diamondback

The Diamondback is the independent student newspaper of the University of Maryland. It was founded in 1910 as The Triangle and renamed in 1921 in honor of a local reptile, the Diamondback terrapin, which became the official school mascot in 1933. The newspaper is published daily Monday through Friday during the Spring and Fall semesters, with a print circulation of 17,000 and annual advertising revenues of over $1 million. ^[21]

For the 2005-2006 school year, The Diamondback received a Mark of Excellence award from the Society of Professional Journalists, placing 3rd nationally for Best All-Around Daily Student Newspaper and placing first in its region in the same category.^[22]

Notable journalists who have been with The Diamondback include David Simon of HBO's The Wire and NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street, disgraced Jayson Blair, who was editor-in-chief in 1996 (Blair did not graduate, instead taking a job with The New York Times); Norman Chad, who was editor-in-chief in 1978; cartoonists Aaron McGruder, who first published the cartoon The Boondocks in The Diamondback; and Frank Cho, who began his career with the popular "University Squared" for The Diamondback.

Many other "Diamondbackers" have gone onto successful careers as editors and reporters for dozens of major metropolitan newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.

The Hoff Theater is a student run movie theater in the Stamp Student Union where students can go and watch previously released movies at a discounted rate. There are also various live shows that appear in the theater including the University's sketch comedy groups. After opening in 1972, the theater was rededicated in 1975 and named after William L. Hoff, the first director of the Student Union from 1949-1974. In the late 1990s, it underwent an extensive renovation and reopened in 2002. The renovation added a concession stand, Dolby Digital Surround sound and a 550 person seating capacity. The theater has been host to countless movies as well as a number of speakers such as John Waters, Mo Rocca, Anthony Rapp, Spike Lee, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ray Bradbury and Laurie Anderson.

Main articles: List of University of Maryland, College Park people and President of the University of Maryland, College Park

University attendees have achieved fame or notability across a variety of disciplines. Within the field of science, notable University alumni include George Dantzig the inventor of the simplex algorithm, who is considered the father of linear programming; Raymond Davis Jr., winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics; Herbert Hauptman, winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Probably, the most successful entrepreneur coming out of the University is the computer science alumnus Sergey Brin who co-founded Google. Other notable alumni in business include Carly Fiorina, Kevin Plank (founder of Under Armour), and Jim Henson. Notable journalists that have attended include Connie Chung, Carl Bernstein,and Robert M. Parker, Jr. Other notable journalists include ESPN reporters Bonnie Bernstein, Tim Kurkjian, and Scott Van Pelt. Politicians include Steny Hoyer, Gordon R. England, and Harry R. Hughes. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham, the baseball player featured in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams, got his medical degree in College Park after his short lived baseball career; and Michael D. Griffin, Administrator of NASA.

In athletics, numerous professional athletes and coaches have either graduated or attended the University. The coaches of both the University's men's football and basketball teams, Ralph Friedgen and Gary Williams respectively, graduated from the University. Current University of Oklahoma Athletic Director Joe Castiglione is a graduate. Professional athletes include NFL players Gary Collins, Vernon Davis, Boomer Esiason, Domonique Foxworth, E.J. Henderson, Kris Jenkins, Stan Jones, Lamont Jordan, Shawne Merriman, Dick Modzelewski, Dick Nolan, Mike Tice, and Randy White; and NBA players Lonny Baxter, Len Bias, Steve Blake, Keith Booth (current Maryland assistant coach), Bison Dele, Juan Dixon, Len Elmore, Steve Francis, Sarunas Jasikevicius, John Lucas (#1 overall draft pick overall in 1976), Tony Massenburg, Tom McMillen, Joe Smith (#1 overall draft pick in 1995), Chris Wilcox, Buck Williams, MLS players Maurice Edu and Taylor Twellman, and former Denver Bronco, turned WWF superstar Darren Drozdov.

Over the years, the University's faculty has included four Nobel Prize laureates.^[23] The earliest recipient, Juan Ramón Jiménez, was a professor of Spanish language and literature and won the prize for literature in 1957. Four decades later, physics professor William Phillips won the prize in physics in 1997. In 2005, emeritus professor of economics and public policy Thomas Schelling was awarded the prize in economics for his contributions to game theory. Schelling joined the University in 1990 after teaching at Harvard University for several years. He is widely recognized in the field of conflict resolution with one of his most prominent works, The Strategy of Conflict. In 2006, adjunct professor of physics and senior astrophysicist at NASA John Mather was awarded (alongside George Smoot) the prize in physics for "their discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation". The University also has two Fields medal winners associated with it, Sergei Petrovich Novikov, professor of mathematics, won the prestigious medal in 1970 and an alumnus, Charles Fefferman who received his degree in physics and mathematics, won the medal in 1978.

Since the 1990s, several donors have distinguished themselves for their sizable gifts to the university. Businessman Robert H. Smith, who graduated from the university in 1950 with a degree in accounting, has given over $45 million to the business school that now bears his name, and to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, which bears his wife's name.^[24] Construction entrepreneur A. James Clark, who graduated with an engineering degree in 1950, has also donated over $45 million to the college of engineering, which also bears his name.^[24] Another engineering donor, Jeong H. Kim, earned his Ph.D. from the university in 1991 and gave $5 million for the construction of a state-of-the-art engineering building.^[25] Philip Merrill, a media figure, donated $10 million to the College of Journalism.^[26]

Currently, about 10% of Maryland's student body are involved in Greek Life. Many of the fraternities and sororities at the school are located on Fraternity Row and the Graham Cracker, which are partially controlled by the University.

Greek recruitment rates fell sharply after the death of a pledge in 2002, but have picked back up to earlier levels in 2006. ^[27]

Sororities		Fraternities
Alpha Chi Omega 1937 (recolonized 1948) Alpha Delta Pi 1940 (closed 1985, recolonized 1986) Alpha Epsilon Phi 1943 Alpha Gamma Delta 1947 (closed) Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Delta Phi 2002 Alpha Nu Omega 2000 Alpha Omicron Pi 1924 Alpha Phi 1961 Alpha Theta Gamma 2003 Alpha Xi Delta 1934 (closed 2000) Delta Delta Delta 1934 Delta Gamma 1945 Delta Phi Epsilon 1960 Delta Sigma Theta	Gamma Phi Beta 1940 (closed) Kappa Alpha Theta 1947 Kappa Delta 1929 Kappa Kappa Gamma 1929 (closed 1993) Kappa Phi Gamma 2003 Lambda Theta Alpha 1995 Phi Sigma Sigma 1936 Pi Beta Phi 1944 (closed) Sigma Gamma Rho Sigma Delta Tau 1952 Sigma Kappa 1940 Sigma Psi Zeta 2003 Tau Beta Sigma 1957 Zeta Phi Beta 1973 Zeta Tau Alpha 1990	Alpha Chi Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi 1940 Alpha Gamma Rho Alpha Kappa Psi 2007 Alpha Nu Omega Alpha Phi Omega 1947 (co-ed service) Alpha Sigma Phi Alpha Tau Omega 1930 (recolonized 2000) Beta Theta Pi (closed) Chi Phi Delta Chi Delta Sigma Phi 1919 Delta Tau Delta Iota Nu Delta Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. Kappa Alpha Order Kappa Alpha Psi Kappa Kappa Psi 1955 Lambda Chi Alpha Omega Psi Phi Phi Gamma Delta 1979	Phi Delta Theta Phi Iota Alpha Phi Kappa Tau Phi Kappa Psi (colony) Phi Sigma Kappa 1897 (closed 2002) Pi Delta Psi Pi Kappa Alpha Pi Kappa Phi (closed) Sigma Alpha Epsilon (closed 2004) Sigma Alpha Mu (closed 2006) Sigma Chi (closed) Sigma Nu 1917 Sigma Pi (colony) Sigma Phi Epsilon 1949 Tau Epsilon Phi Tau Kappa Epsilon Theta Chi Zeta Beta Tau Zeta Psi 1976

The Power Shift conference took place in the Cole Fieldhouse, from November 2-5, 2007. Power Shift was the first ever nationwide youth climate change summit, involving thousands of young people from across the nation.

The University of Maryland, College Park Campus has been featured in many notable films. Its close proximity to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland with its tradional, federal style campus makes it an ideal location for a collegiate setting.

• National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)
• Life 101 (1995)
• [St. Elmo's Fire] (1985)

• University of Maryland, College Park – official website
• The Diamondback - the student newspaper
• WMUC - the college radio station
• University of Maryland Terrapins - official athletic website

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