Prof. Jordan A. Goodman, Chair, Physics Department

By Jordan A. Goodman,
Physics Chair

Dear Readers,

This month, I'd like to take a moment to remind you about the eighth annual Terrapin Pride Day, to be held February 10, 2004. This is a day for friends of the University of Maryland to travel to Annapolis and lobby our state legislators to protect higher education in Maryland.

Last year, the State of Maryland, facing economic challenges, drastically reduced its financial support of the University, leaving us with an $81 million budget shortfall. The campus managed to preserve academic quality. However, we were forced to reduce services and staff and to raise tuition by approximately 21 percent, causing financial hardships for many of our students. Additional cuts this year could have extremely detrimental effects on the University.

Terrapin Pride Day is an opportunity for us to remind our state government of the value of the University. We provide an education that either meets or exceeds the quality of the nation's top public universities - and we are doing it for a much more affordable cost than most of our peers. We are also an economic engine, producing nearly $6 of economic activity for every $1 appropriated to us by the State. We educate some of the brightest young minds in the nation today. Through our numerous collaborations, we provide the federal government with innovative research, talented students and the best and the brightest of college graduates. We create jobs and stimulate the economy - in Maryland and beyond. The University of Maryland is a worthwhile investment.

In 1988, and then again in 1998, the state legislature promised to protect this investment and to provide affordable access to high quality public education for its residents. This commitment was what allowed us to improve so significantly in the last 15 years, attracting world-class faculty (like our new world-class AMO Physics group), drastically increasing sponsored research, forming closer relationships with government laboratories and private industry, moving up in the national rankings and recruiting a top-notch class of students that gets better and better every year. If the State of Maryland renounces this commitment and imposes additional budget cuts, the University is in great danger of losing the precious ground that it has worked so hard to gain over the last several years. To keep the best and the brightest here at Maryland and to continue to grow and progress, it is imperative that our legislature keep its promise.

To communicate these ideas to our state's law-makers, we need as many voices as we can get. Faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni and friends: we ask for your support. If you live in Maryland, then you pay taxes in Maryland and you can vote in Maryland. That means that your opinion is valued in Annapolis. So, I hope you'll join us on February 10, 2004 to support the University and say "no more cuts" to higher education.

Terrapin Pride Day will feature presentations from Dr. C.D. Mote, president of the University of Maryland, Mr. Ralph Friedgen, football coach for the University of Maryland, Mr. Mike Miller, president of the Maryland State Senate and Mr. Mike Busch, speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates. There will also be ample time to visit with Maryland legislators and voice your support for higher education.

If you are unable to attend Terrapin Pride Day, but would like to support the University of Maryland's important lobbying efforts, please contact Ross Stern in the Office of Legislative and Community Affairs at 301-405-8359 or stern@deans.umd.edu.

In the last several years, we have made tremendous progress, transforming the University of Maryland from a good state university to an exceptional academic institution that competes on a national stage and plays an integral role in the Maryland community, as well as the world-wide scientific community. If we work together, we can preserve that transformation and continue to progress.

For more information about the University's lobbying efforts, please click here. Also, you can always contact me at 301-405-5946 or goodman@umdgrb.umd.edugoodman@umdgrb.umd.edu.

Sincerely,

Jordan A. Goodman
Professor and Chair