- September 01, 2026
- By Sala Levin ’10
Among the roles that University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines played on Monday morning as he welcomed students, faculty and staff to the first day of the Fall 2026 semester, perhaps the least expected was fashion police. Or, perhaps it was the most expected, given Pines’ penchant for Terps apparel.
“I want to see you in your Terps gear every day!” he lightheartedly exhorted a group of residents at Discovery House, the just-opened apartment building for graduate students. “Okay, you don’t have to wear it every day. Just every other day.”
Motoring around campus on a red golf cart, Pines distributed turtle pins, asked passersby how their first day was going, snapped selfies, checked out a student’s summer research project and stopped by a class on AI and ethics.
He also ran into old acquaintances: in the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building, Pines spotted Facilities Management employee Leidy Fernandez, who he knew from his time as dean of the A. James Clark School of Engineering. “How’s your daughter doing?” he asked. “Let me see photos.”
Pines, who began the day with a message to the community expressing confidence in Terps’ readiness for the year ahead, spread that enthusiasm wherever he went. Take a ride with Pines to see how the start of the new academic year played out.
Annyah Willis ’29 (left), from Cecil County, Md., and London Jones ’29 (right), from Washington, D.C., were on their way to class in Tawes Hall when they encountered Pines.
Brian Moyer, field technician in Professor Kate Tully’s Agroecology Lab, shows Pines how he has simulated marshy conditions in a greenhouse. To study the impact of salinity and rising sea levels on coastal Chesapeake Bay land, Moyer has created an experimental setup that mimics tidal motion at specific times of day. The Agroecology Lab is supported by a Grand Challenges Team Award.
Joohyung Song, a doctoral student in electrical and computer engineering, shows Pines the research he’s conducting as part of Clark Distinguished Chair Professor Saikat Guha’s Photonic Quantum Systems Group. “All of you are doing cutting-edge work,” said Pines. “This is just how it was when they set up the telegraph signal—someone had to do it first.”
At Discovery House, the new apartment building exclusively for graduate students, Pines hobnobbed with students from not just Maryland but Pakistan, Estonia and Jamaica. He introduced them to the attributes of a terrapin: their fearlessness, their ability to move only forward and their boldness in emerging from their shells to take a risk.