It’s not just the first hint of fall foliage—the University of Maryland campus is glowing a definite red this week with crimson lights from Memorial Chapel to Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center.

Homecoming 2024 festivities kicked off Sunday night with SEE’s Homecoming Comedy Show, featuring Emmy award-winning comedian John Mulaney, and now, there’s tons of new ways to show off your Maryland pride leading up to the big game.

THE STATELY 23-STORY HOTEL OPENED AT the height of the Jazz Age, but less than a year later, Wall Street’s 1929 crash snuffed out revelry in the opulent ballroom and secret speakeasy. That’s when the property, then one of Baltimore’s tallest buildings, supposedly began accumulating ghosts: failed businessmen, wiped-out tycoons, even a bankrupt couple reputed to have jumped to their deaths on a downtown street with their young daughter.

Before teen superstar Bryce Harper burst onto the scene, president mascots raced along the outfield fence and D.C. crowds danced to the tune of “Baby Shark,” the Major League Baseball team now known as the Washington Nationals was situated a little north of the border.

Twenty-two-year-old A hated that they’d had to start wearing a bra earlier than classmates and desperately wanted to be flat-chested. As a teen, while watching a show on weight loss, they saw a man wrap himself in plastic wrap to sweat off a few pounds—and thought, “What if I shrink-wrapped my chest?” The flaw in this plan quickly became apparent: They couldn’t breathe.

In the United States, the wealthy live on average 10 years longer than the poor, and Black people can expect to live an average of five fewer years than white people. Now, supported by a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging, University of Maryland-led research will examine why these disparities persist, and how to address them.

Who’ll get in the best zinger? Will Trump combust over crowd-size claims? Will Harris’ polarizing laugh punctuate the proceedings at Tuesday night’s presidential candidates’ debate?

Whether we like it or not (or engage in it ourselves), discussion of the face-off at water coolers, around dinner tables and on TV news sets seems as likely to focus on trivialities as true issues.

Early on summer mornings, while mist lingers on the river and great egrets pick their way along the shore, the Anacostia’s beauty rests easy. While the air is still cool, residents of Prince George’s County and D.C. bike, walk and row along a stretch of the Bladensburg waterfront.

Expanded on-campus services for substance use treatment, a wellness ambassadors group for graduate students and peer-led workshops in living-learning communities are among the new initiatives at the University of Maryland this fall to support mental health.

As an elementary school student at West Baltimore’s P.S. 103, young Thurgood Marshall was so rambunctious that his teachers often sent him to a quiet room in the basement, where he was instructed to read the U.S. Constitution. By the time he finished elementary school in 1921, the late U.S. Supreme Court justice later said, he’d memorized it.

A University of Maryland review of scientific literature suggests domestic cats can contract the rapidly evolving bird flu H5N1, potentially putting owners, veterinarians and others at risk if the virus continues to circulate unabated.