UMD Marks Official Transition to Big Ten Today with Campus Celebration

COLLEGE PARK, Md., July 1, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Maryland marks its historic move to the Big Ten Conference today with an on-campus celebration. UMD students, faculty, staff and community members will join together to commemorate the transition at an event with performances by The Mighty Sound of Maryland Marching Band and UMD Spirit Squad.

The event, taking place from 12 – 1:30 p.m. on Mitchell Field, will also feature:

• Remarks from President Wallace Loh, Director of Athletics Kevin Anderson and Johnny Holliday, who serves as the voice of the Terrapins during athletic events;
• TERPRIDE, a retro-fitted bus featuring interactive games, music and a chance to win prizes; and
• A new B1G ice cream flavor.

"This is truly a 'B1G' moment for us athletically and academically," says University of Maryland President Wallace D. Loh. "We celebrate campus wide because the benefits of membership in the Big Ten span the whole institution."

Today's celebration commemorates more than just a change for athletics. As a member of the Big Ten Conference, UMD has also become a member of its academic arm – the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC). As a member of the CIC, UMD's students, faculty and staff will have the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues across all Big Ten institutions.  Some examples of these cross-institutional collaborations include:

• Research in the area of traumatic brain injury;
• Student leaders visiting Capitol Hill to advocate for research grants and affordable textbooks;
• Access to research materials multiplied from more than 4 million volumes in the UMD libraries to over 90 million volumes in the combined collections of the CIC libraries;
• Joining forces to commission plays to inspire new works by and about women, an initiative only possible through combined financial resources;
• Maryland doctoral students now have the opportunity to work alongside Smithsonian researchers through the Smithsonian CIC Fellowship Program;
• Through technology, unique courses from other CIC universities will be available to Maryland students; and
• For our faculty, the CIC offers an academic leadership program to help develop emerging education administrators.

The university's celebration of its new place in the Big Ten Conference will continue through the fall, including a campus-wide launch event on the first day of classes, Sept. 2, featuring B1G games and giveaways; and Homecoming weekend celebrations from Oct. 16-19.

About the University of Maryland
The University of Maryland is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 37,000 students, 9,000 faculty and staff, and 250 academic programs. Its faculty includes three Nobel laureates, two Pulitzer Prize winners, 49 members of the national academies and scores of Fulbright scholars. The institution has a $1.8 billion operating budget, secures $500 million annually in external research funding and recently completed a $1 billion fundraising campaign.

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SOURCE University of Maryland