Now: It's not too early to submit your DRF requests to reimburse your state accounts for spring scholarships!

5/1: 9:00am-12:00pm: New Administrator Training. 

1:30pm-4:00pm: Dashboard Training. Both training sessions will be held in the Chancellor's Conference 

Grants Administration Training

We will be holding Grants Administration training during the last week of March. We have two sessions scheduled so you can choose the one most convenient for your schedule. Dates and location are listed above. 

We will cover the following subjects:

• Why run a grant through USMF?
• When should you get USMF involved?
• What role does the Sponsored Programs Office/ORAA play?
• What are the expectations of the department and of USMF?
• How can Financial Edge help?
• How is the grant managed?

Please contact Randy Possehl or send us a note letting us know which session you plan to attend by March 22nd. This will allow us to tailor the training to your needs.

FY 14 Spendable Income

FY 14 allocations were sent to units the week of March 4th. If you did not receive information for your unit please send us a note. Allocations have also been added to Dashboard as future spendable income. FY14 allocations were based on the market value of your endowment on December 31, 2012.

Please remember that the FY 14 allocation represents only a portion of your available spendable income if you have carry forward funds. Spendable income is automatically carried forward for two years. You may carry forward to FY 14 any unused spendable income balances for FY12 and FY13.

Spendable income from FY11 must be used before June 30, 2013. Any unused spendable income from FY11 will become non-spendable after that point.

By policy we do not allow spendable income when a fund's market value on December 31st is less than the historical gift value. However, please be reminded that clients may request an exception by completing the Under Water Funds Spending Request.

The request should be submitted no later than May 31st for review by the USMF Board of Directors.

What Wye means to the USM Foundation?

Well, we have to go all the way back to 1937. That was the year that Arthur A. Houghton, on a sightseeing excursion to the Eastern Shore, decided to buy the Wye Plantation in Queenstown, MD. The Wye Plantation was once the home of William Paca, one of the early governors of Maryland and the only non-Anglo-Saxon signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Houghton was CEO of Steuben Glass, a division of Corning Glass Company, and great grandson of the founder of Corning Glass Works. Upon purchasing the Wye Plantation, Mr. Houghton hired Jim Lingle as manager. Mr. Lingle's dream was to "create greater beef cattle than the world had ever known; cattle that would be great in size, great in quality and economically profitable."

Mr. Houghton wanted to apply principles of the corporate world to the cattle business with regards to his herd, and in the 1950's asked the animal husbandry department at the University of Maryland, College Park to help with performance testing, research, and record keeping. In the late 1960's the cattle industry transitioned to large-framed cattle and the Wye Plantation was perfectly positioned to take advantage of this change as they had been ahead of the trend producing large cattle from the inception of the herd, which allowed them to establish a lasting impact on the national Angus herd.

In 1979, Mr. Houghton, who was a member of more than 100 organizations dedicated to education and the arts, donated the Wye Herd to the University of Maryland at College Park. The USM Foundation had been newly created, and the Wye Herd was its founding gift. The Wye Angus program continues today as part of the UMCP College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. So when a USM Foundation staffer starts talking about a bull market it might not be a comment on what's happening on Wall Street!

For an in-depth history of the Wye Herd you can visit the following page or purchase The Breed of Noble Bloods by James B. Lingle.