With the coronavirus pandemic causing disruption and shutdowns across the country, universities have had to transition, quickly, to remote learning.

Gift to Expand Maryland Smith’s Office of Transformational Learning COLLEGE PARK, Md. (Sept. 14, 2018) – Students and faculty at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business will benefit from a new $1 million gift from longtime benefactor Allen J. Krowe ’54. Krowe’s funding will be used to expand the Office of Transformational Learning to support excellence in teaching and learning.

Students in the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith of Business Innovo Scholars Consulting Program are helping the university implement a groundbreaking diversity initiative. Commissioned by the Registrar’s Office, the students investigated critical issues and made recommendations for implementation of the “Policies and Procedures Governing Preferred/Primary Names and Sex/Gender Markers in University Databases.” The bill was passed in spring 2017 by the University Senate and President Wallace Loh. 

This summer, part-time MBA students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business consulted with HUNGRY Catering, a sharing economy based platform in Washington, D.C., that is revolutionizing office catering by providing exclusive access to top chefs making incredible food.

University of Maryland undergraduates put their innovation and problem-solving skills to the service of their fellow classmates. Jamie Grossarth, Ananth Shrivatsan, Sylviane Alexion, and Isaac Adeeku presented their proposal for improving the application process to the university's education abroad programs to members of the University Cabinet as their final project for the fall 2016 Innovo Scholars Consulting program on Dec. 16, 2016.

Many universities face academic and administrative business processes that are inefficient and ineffective, yet seemingly immune to improvement. Despite significant investments of human, capital, and IT resources, there can be little resulting payback. 

New technologies and employer expectations are pressuring traditional colleges to innovate instruction. Despite predictions of higher education disruption, “smart and agile institutions will respond and even thrive alongside new competitors in this changing environment,” says Sandra Loughlin, Smith School’s director of learning and innovative instruction, the Office of Transformational Learning.

A Silicon Valley startup called the Minerva Project has put traditional colleges and universities on notice. Minerva students live together in rental housing and engage in experiential learning, but they don’t go to lectures or take final exams. “Higher education doesn’t work well anymore,” the system’s founder says. However, an initiative at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.