HARPER, LIBERIA – International correspondents for the UMD Hare have offered an explanation for the strange absence of Maryland Day festivities in College Park last weekend: the annual open house for the University of Maryland was mistakenly hosted in Maryland County, an administrative division of the African nation of Liberia.

The event proceeded as intended on April 27th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and was reported by the majority of attendees to have been “a lovely evening.” Despite this, a record low attendance was recorded due to the decidedly long walking distance from the free parking space on campus.

Upon recognizing the mixup that had occurred during planning, University administration decided to proceed with the event anyway, inviting attendees to throw cute little Testudos into the North Atlantic Ocean, spectate Maryland Football’s Red vs. White game via satellite TV, and more.

“Unsurprisingly, they couldn’t take any groups into the wind tunnel this year,” commented Hare international correspondent Arby Trairie (InfoSci ‘26, studying abroad.) “I believe Phi Mu Alpha had to cancel their vocal showcase as well since their flight from Dulles got delayed. Everyone still wanted music though so they rolled in some speakers and played a Smash Mouth album. Reminded me of orientation day.”

The Department of Geographical Sciences at UMD has provided useful information to University administration regarding the location of the University of Maryland to ensure the planning error does not happen again next year. On the morning of April 28th, a campus-wide emergency alert reading “Wait, Maryland is a state?” was sent to all students and faculty, soon followed by another alert reading “Darryl this isn’t the group chat.”

Several residents of Maryland County expressed interest in applying to UMD thanks to Maryland Day, but were uneasy about the rumored increase in tuition fees to recover from the massive expense incurred bringing the event overseas. Speaking of which, please consider an anonymous donation to the UMD Hare next Giving Day (or sooner!) to reimburse the long-distance call bill we racked up speaking with our correspondents.

Image Credits: Kenlynn Ingham and Helen Hutchinson