By Jack Wynn

The University Senate discussed the state of the University of Maryland and numerous proposals at a meeting Wednesday afternoon. 

The senate’s sixth meeting of the year featured an address from University President Darryll Pines. Pines discussed recent exciting moments on campus as well as the direction of the college. 

One highlight from Pines’ speech was his celebration of the David C. Driskell Center, which opened at the Cole Field House in 2001. Driskell, who passed away in 2020 as a result of covid, is credited as being one of the founders in the field of Black art history.

 “His books and exhibitions were groundbreaking in showing the range and diversity of artists who were not always known or recognized by the general public,” Pines said. “One of my first actions when I became president was to expand the prominence of David Driskell’s work.”

Pines said he even hung up some of Driskell’s work when he first moved into his new office.  

Pines also gave a shout out to Jeanette Epps, a Maryland ‘94 alumni who recently took an expedition to space. 

“I happened to be lucky, I was on her dissertation committee, I was in her defense,” Pines said. “She came back to the university and said “I want to be an Astronaut” about sixteen years ago… It’s a very unique club to be in, we are very proud of her.”

Other highlights from Pines’ address included a celebration of 90 years of Testudo at UMD and the discussion of new initiatives to improve the campus. Initiatives that would commit more funding and resources to fields such as action against climate change, improving school safety and an emphasis on literacy were discussed as well. 

Pines also showed a brief video from “#NowATerp Day,” where Testudo, the marching band and other university officials visit four accepted Maryland applicants in person to congratulate them on their acceptance. 

“Behind all the 60,000 [applicants] and the 24,000 admitted students, there’s a human being behind that,” Pines said. “That’s what our work is really about, making their lives and transforming lives to give them a world class education at the University of Maryland.”

The senate passed numerous proposals, one being a way to make the job site Workday more accessible for students.

Jack Blanchard, associate provost and professor at UMD, gave a presentation on hopes for the “ElevAte” program, which is expected to improve technology, training and user-friendliness on Workday. The program will transition Human Resource/Human Capital Management, Finance and Student Information systems to a cloud-based system rather than a mainframe based one.

“This is something I’m really excited about,” Blanchard said. “This is why you vote [for] the university to start moving to a modern cloud-based system.”

“Our student’s systems are antiquated,” Blanchard said. “Our students come on campus and do not understand why they’re using 30-year-old technology … This is what we’ll deliver to them: something modern.” 

One such proposal involved the renaming of the community health Bachelor of Science to “Public Health Practice” to limit confusion about the program. 

Yang Tao, a professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering, followed Blanchard with a presentation of his own regarding prescription insurance changes for previous, current and future Maryland retirees. A motion to implement Tao’s plan was passed after much deliberation over its language.

“It is very exciting to see the direction UMD is going in,” Chinyere Osuji, an associate professor and senator at the University of Maryland said. “It makes me feel like I made the right decision coming here, good things are happening.”

Featured Image: The University Senate meeting on March 6, 2024 at the University of Maryland. Photo by Jack Wynn.