Before most U.S. universities decided to close for the second half of the 2020 spring semester due to COVID-19, Associate Professor Toby Egan in the School of Public Policy and the Robert H. Smith School of Business, anticipated that expanding breakouts of COVID-19 in Europe and Asia would soon put the U.S. in a difficult situation.

Campus shutdowns across the United States at the mid-March onset of the coronavirus pandemic included a shutdown of executive education open enrollment and custom programs delivered on campus.

In March, as hospitals around the country were struggling to equip first responders with the personal protective equipment they needed to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, Hobie Cohen had an idea. He had a 3D printer at home and wasn’t using it. Why not put it to work making face masks?

With so many lives upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Maryland’s Student Crisis Fund has been working hard to help fellow Terps fulfill their needs. Much progress has been made, but the work must continue. During the pandemic, many University of Maryland students have experienced financial hardships. For some, it was a loss of income. For others, unexpected medical expenses. Many others incurred new expenses from temporary living arrangements.

As COVID-19 restricted access to the gym, Daniel Mazour had an idea. The entrepreneur, currently enrolled in Maryland Smith’s Online MBA program, decided to co-launch an online alternative that would allow people to pursue health and wellness from home.

The University of Maryland will make SAT and ACT scores optional for the spring and fall 2021 freshman and transfer application processes, the Office of Enrollment Management announced today.

A Maryland Smith alumna made the roster of InStyle magazine’s Badass 50 — and she’s got some advice for you. "Just be brave," says Aliya Jones, MBA ’18. "Be brave by being safe. Be brave by sitting with uncomfortable feelings. Be brave enough to recognize when you're not OK. And be brave enough to get the help you need."

When COVID-19 prompted a mid-March campus “Terp” shutdown it also halted TerpTax, a 6-year-old, free on-campus tax-filing service. Maryland students – mostly Maryland Smith accounting majors and including both master’s students and undergrads – had been assisting student peers and low-income members of the surrounding community, as both walk-ins and by appointment, from 6-9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays in Room 3522 of Van Munching Hall.

“Maryland Business: Rebooted” Starts Online July 13 To help Marylanders get back into the workforce and prepare for the new economic and business environment, The University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business has developed an online business program — free to all residents of the state of Maryland. Maryland Business: Rebooted, starts July 13, 2020, and is designed especially for individuals who have been managing or working in small and medium-sized companies.

Delicately balancing data privacy and public health concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic have created roadblocks for accurate contact tracing around the world. But two recent Maryland Smith graduates are hoping to be part of the solution. When tasked with a project on leveraging big data, master’s students Laura Klett, MFin ’20, and Gabriel Castro, MFin ’20, realized they shared a mutual interest in improving current contact tracing methods. They teamed up to find a way to positively impact their local communities.