Detail of the calligraphic citation of honor presented to the president of Uzbekistan.

I'am struck by the sights and sounds streaming across the campus during the summer months. Summer at the university is not a time of relaxation and reflection anymore. On the football practice field behind Byrd Stadium, our team is doggedly preparing for the fall season under new coach and alumnus Ralph Friedgen. The 250 members of the "Mighty Sound of Maryland" are also going through their intensive band drills, perhaps with fewer bruises to show for their own special talents, but similarly resolute. It is also the season when our landscapers are creating, replanting, resodding and revitalizing our beautiful campus--and beautiful it is.

While the vast majority of Maryland students are away for the summer, their numbers have been replaced by groups with an even broader range of ages and interests. In June, the University of Maryland hosted the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals for the fifth time--the last being 1997. Participants in this creativity-focused competition ranged in age from elementary school to college, organized into 700 teams from at least 15 countries and 30 U.S. states.

We are all preparing to accommodate what will be our largest--and most accomplished--entering freshman class. Fully 500 more freshmen than were expected have accepted our offer of admission, bringing the class size to 4,600. Admissions officers across the country yearly face the dilemma of predicting class size from the historical "yield" of students who accept an offer of admission. This year, more than 42 percent of those admitted to the university chose Maryland. This was definitely a remarkable and unexpected bump of 4 percent. Obviously, Maryland's first Final Four appearance in men's basketball placed us in the national spotlight, but acceptances to Maryland were running ahead of predictions as early as February.

This increase is a solid sign that many others are now seeing the University of Maryland as one of the finest public research universities in the nation, with its combination of rising national rankings, growing recognition of honors and scholars programs, wonderful new facilities such as the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, plus generous gifts from major donors to support our students and academic departments. Given these accomplishments, our increase in acceptance rates is more likely attributable to what is known as the "tipping factor," a theory that says good things about an institution can build momentum and tip the institution to a higher level. It definitely seems to have been a factor in decisions made by our newest incoming class--whose members have the highest average GPA in the university's history and SAT scores that match last year's high-water mark.

Although we are delighted that so many top students want to come to Maryland, this windfall presents some challenges. We are working diligently, for example, to find housing accommodations for these freshmen. In some instances, they will find themselves sharing a room with two, rather than one, other classmates. Plans are under way to staff the needed extra courses and support services so we can maintain the high-quality undergraduate education we provide to all students.

Among the entering freshmen this fall will be nine students selected from nine Baltimore City high schools. I am proud to welcome the inaugural class of the Baltimore Incentive Awards four-year scholarship program, an initiative created to recognize and promote academic excellence and leadership among students who have faced truly adverse life circumstances and prevailed. You will meet these students in this issue and perhaps in person as we honor them at the first annual Baltimore Incentive Awards Dinner on Sept. 20 in Baltimore. This is a program that is near and dear to my heart because of the opportunities it provides and the values it recognizes. I am confident that the program will become an important part of the university fabric and of Baltimore, too. Even as we continue to bring more talented students to the university, we are also expanding our outreach efforts to include an ever-widening circle of friends and partners around the globe. In June, I had the good fortune to travel with Donald Riley, vice president and chief information officer, Saul Sosnowski, director of the Office of International Programs, and Thomas Fretz, dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, on a trip to Uzbekistan in Central Asia that included a productive meeting with Uzbek President Islam Karimov, in which we explored possibilities for agricultural extension activities and a joint center for information technology and distance learning.

As you can see, the university continues to be very productive even under the spell of summer weather. I hope that you too are having a productive and enjoyable summer.

--C. D. Dan Mote, Jr., President