It was a Maryland connection meant to be. Despite Lauren Niffenegger Lumpp ‘09 and Nick Lumpp ‘09 both studying at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, Lauren in accounting and Nick in finance, it was a bus that never showed up during their first few weeks in College Park that brought them together. 

Craig and Lisa Adler, both 1979 graduates of the University of Maryland, are making a significant estate gift to support students and scholarships, aiming to create lasting impact and expand access to education through the university’s Forward campaign long term.

University of Maryland’s Financial Wellness Hub opened in McKeldin Library, offering peer mentoring, workshops and classes on budgeting, investing and loans, aiming to improve financial literacy for students, faculty and staff across campus.

Smith faculty led an AI literacy workshop where students used interactive tools and peer presentations to explore practical applications, emphasizing AI as a collaborative assistant while highlighting its limits and role in improving academic, professional and entrepreneurial outcomes.

As the Musk-OpenAI trial unfolds, Smith’s Samuel Handwerger says the case centers on nonprofit law, examining whether OpenAI’s shift to a for-profit model with Microsoft may have violated rules barring private benefit and conflicted with its charitable mission.

A case at a volunteer tax site highlights a gap in U.S. tax reporting that leads students to underreport taxable scholarship income, according to Samuel Handwerger, as forms and software often fail to prompt required calculations and the IRS lacks matching data.

Smith associate professor Sean Cao, co-founder and director of the Smith AI Initiative for Capital Market Research, received two best paper awards for research showing how humans and artificial intelligence work together to improve stock analysis and corporate disclosure in capital markets.

Stephen Loeb, retired University of Maryland Smith School professor and former department chair, was named a leading accounting ethics scholar by the Journal of Accounting Literature, which cites his foundational research and ranks UMD first among institutions in the field.

The Financial Information Systems and Cybersecurity Forum examined emerging cyber fraud threats, research and policy issues, while honoring the 25th anniversary of the Gordon-Loeb Model. Faculty and experts highlighted evolving scams, data-driven insights and the model’s lasting influence on cybersecurity investment decisions.