Dear FM Team:
I’m sorry I can’t be there to thank you in person, but I could not let the opportunity of you all gathered together pass without expressing my deepest appreciation for how you have shown up for our community this winter. On behalf of the faculty, staff, students, fans, family and friends of the University of Maryland community, I offer you my heartfelt gratitude and thanks for all your hard work in dealing with the recent winter weather and keeping our campus running.
Somewhere in the last couple weeks I heard that if the January 25 storm had delivered only snow we would have had 20 inches. I can’t help but think that would have been better. I know that you toiled in miserable weather conditions—including sleet and ice—and through the nights in your efforts to make our roads and walkways passable. I know that many of you stayed overnight in hotels, so you could make it to campus to do this difficult and exhausting work, sleeping away from your families and leaving your own homes and driveways still to be dealt with after the storm was over and our campus more accessible.
This was in many ways an unprecedented situation. As if the snow and ice weren’t enough, we had frigid temperatures, contributing to thaw and freeze cycles that must have felt like two steps forward and one step back, necessitating repeated efforts to clear the same places again and again. The temperatures impacted our interim boiler plant, resulting in steam issues, and caused water main breaks and falling ice. This storm was really a perfect storm that presented a complex set of challenges to address in order for us to be able to open our campus. But you rose to meet all of them, just like you do every day, to ensure we have a safe, secure and sustainable environment for our education, research and innovation.
FM is truly the backbone of our institution, and your 24/7 dedication in the face of hazardous conditions was nothing short of remarkable, admirable and commendable. Be it our 87 miles of sidewalks, 20 miles of roads or dozens of parking lots and facilities, no part of our campus was untouched by your caring hands and “get it done” attitude. Our campus is home for tens of thousands of people, and you made sure it stayed that way during the toughest season of the year—and perhaps one of the toughest winters our campus has experienced in nearly two decades.
As we all look forward to spring, I hope that we begin to have much better weather. But whenever the weather, whatever the temperature, I know that because of you, I and Terps everywhere have confidence that our campus will remain a warm, welcoming, and safe place because of the work you do every day year-round.
Thank you again, and I wish you all my very best.
Sincerely,
Darryll J. Pines
President
Glenn L. Martin Professor of Aerospace Engineering