College Park

More than 100 students and members of the University of Maryland, College Park community attended a tear-filled ceremony Tuesday night to mourn Stephen Rane, a 22-year-old student who classmates and friends remembered as a wisecracking, kind-hearted young man. Rane was killed early in the morning by his roommate outside his home in a neighborhood near the campus, police said. Police say Dayvon M. Green, a graduate student, killed himself after shooting Rane and another roommate, who was released from the hospital as of Wednesday afternoon.

Perhaps the editors of The Sun can explain why a story about a stressed-out student at the University of Maryland includes not only where his parents live but also what they paid for their house and its current assessed value ("UM student charged in threat was 'stressed out,'" March 13). The front page story about 19-year-old Alexander G. Song, who is alleged to have threatened a shooting rampage on campus, first seems to steer off course by reporting that the accused does not have an adult criminal record but notes that he did receive a traffic ticket for failure to stop at a sign and received a $90 fine.

A facility intended to be a "brain center" for U.S. weather and climate prediction activity opened Monday at the University of Maryland, College Park. Officials including Sen. Barbara Mikulski, led a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 268,000-square-foot center at 2 p.m. The building houses more than 800 employees of NOAA's Center for Weather and Climate Prediction. The employees moved from an antiquated facility in Camp Springs, in southern Prince George's County, to the new $100 million NOAA facility on the campus of M-Square, a university research park.

The University of Maryland College Park campus police are investigating an assault on a female student while she was sleeping in her residence at Leonardtown Apartments. The woman awoke at about 3:30 a.m. Sept. 9 to find an unknown man in her bed and fondling her breasts and torso, police said. She screamed and he fled the apartment. The victim glimpsed the assailant through her window and described him as curly headed and wearing a striped shirt, police said. Police have released a video that shows a person of interest running from the area of the incident.

Editor's note: Each week, InsideMdSports.com provides this blog with a Maryland recruiting feature that previously appeared as premium content on its site. It's safe to say Maryland has established itself as a serious player for Potomac junior Dion Wiley . Wiley, a highly sought shooting guard regarded by many as a top-50 prospect in the Class of 2014, visited Maryland unofficially Saturday, and then decided to return Sunday to watch the team play pick-up games.

More than 100 people crowded into an intimate memorial service Saturday morning for Stephen Alex Rane, a senior at the University of Maryland, College Park who police say was killed Tuesday by his housemate. "We've witnessed a horrific tragedy this week," said the Rev. Jim Moyer, pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church outside Philadelphia. During the 40-minute service, mourners made little other mention of the circumstances of Rane's death. Instead, family and friends took the solemn occasion to share thoughts about how, over his 22 years, the gregarious young man brought them joy, taught them life lessons and stood by them.

The University of Maryland, College Park will use a $1.1 million grant from defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. to establish a new honors concentration in cybersecurity, school officials announced Monday. With the program, which will accept its first students for fall 2013, the university is attempting to gain a foothold in a growing discipline already taught at the U.S. Naval Academy and the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Maryland is considered rich ground for cybersecurity training because of the presence of the National Security Agency headquarters at Fort Meade and the plethora of government and private technology offices in the region.

Mary Ann Rankin, a former longtime administrator at the University of Texas at Austin known for creating the innovative UTeach program to produce math and science teachers, was named provost at the University of Maryland, College Park. Rankin, who will start as College Park's No. 2 academic administrator in October, is currently the CEO of the Dallas-based National Math and Science Initiative. Like UTeach, the public-private partnership was designed to produce more graduates and teachers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)

A bomb squad responded to a possible "explosive device" in College Park early Friday morning, a Prince George's County fire spokesman said. Authorities were called to the 5000 block of Edgewood Road where they removed a suspicious package forcing the evacuation of three homes, department spokesman Mark Brady said. No injuries were reported. "Basically we use procedures that remove any working component so that it become inoperable," Brady said. Forensic tests are being completed on the package but he said, "it definitely had all the appearances of an explosive device.

Maryland could boast one of the top 10 research universities in the country, simply by establishing a formal bond between programs that already exist. That's the message Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller is pushing after he proposed Monday that the state university system study a merger between its Baltimore and College Park campuses. "If you're in favor of the state of Maryland, it's a win-win," said Miller. "It could give great stature to both universities and to the state.