THE UMBC COMMUNITY:
Quality, Achievements, Contributions
STUDENTS
Our student body is among the most diverse nationally (40% minority,
including 21% Asian, 15% African American, and 4% Hispanic and Native
American). The freshman class of 1,432 students includes hundreds of
valedictorians, 4.0 students, and students with SAT scores at the highest
end (above 1550), demonstrating our increasing attractiveness to high-achieving
students and the success of our special scholars programs—the
Humanities Scholars, Linehan Artist Scholars, Sondheim Public Affairs
Scholars, Meyerhoff Scholars, and Center for Women & Information
Technology Scholars programs.
The graduate population of approximately 2,380 students includes an
increased number of domestic students (83%), women (53%), and minorities
(20%). Our doctoral enrollments remain strong, and we continue to attract
large numbers of working professionals to master’s programs responsive
to the growing needs of businesses, school systems, and other employers.
Our total headcount enrollment of 11,798 represents an increase of 148
students above our headcount total a year ago and has produced an annual
FTE enrollment of 9,291 in FY 2007, 118 above our total in FY 2006 and
78 below our projected increase of 196 FTE students this year. Among
our challenges in building enrollment are UMBC’s relatively small
program base (Figure 2), fluctuations in the information technology
market, and a continuing loss of out-of-state students because of higher
tuition costs. The campus is aggressively responding by implementing
a variety of strategies, including adding several relatively inexpensive
and often-requested undergraduate programs (e.g., media and communications
studies), initiating new master’s programs for working professionals,
expanding teacher education options and financial support, and increasing
investment in getting our message out to prospective students. We are
encouraged that these efforts have helped us to narrow the gap between
projected and actual enrollments this year and that applications for
fall 2007 are up substantially.
Figure 2
Producing well-prepared graduates for Maryland's workforce is one of
UMBC's most important and lasting contributions to economic development.
Graduates move easily into the workforce in areas related to their majors
– from engineering and IT firms to public and social service agencies
and public school systems throughout the State
Student Scholarship, Achievement, and
Intellectual Competition
Providing undergraduates
with wide-ranging opportunities for research, creative achievement,
and intellectual competition both on and off campus is a vital part
of our culture. As a result, the student body includes Goldwater
and Jack Kent Cooke Scholars, Merck, NSF GEM,
and Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies Fellows, several Fulbright
winners, and a National Geographic intern. Other students have
received prestigious awards from the American Mathematics Society, the
Center for Medieval Studies at the University of York (England), and
the American College Theatre Festival. UMBC’s National Society
of Black Engineers chapter won the national Academic Technical Bowl
Competition for the second year in a row. And this past April, our much-heralded
Chess Team won the President’s Cup in the “Final Four”
of college chess. Finally, the NCAA’s 2006 Academic Progress Report
ranked our women’s swim team and men’s basketball and cross
country teams in the top ten percent of colleges and universities nationally.
Well Prepared Graduates
Thousands of area physicians, attorneys, teachers, scientists, engineers,
IT workers, artists, policy-makers, and other professionals are among
UMBC alumni. The National Security Agency (NSA), for example, employs
hundreds of UMBC math, computer science, and language graduates. The
campus will continue producing large numbers of graduates in these and
other areas responsive to Maryland’s workforce needs, including
many graduates who are active in business start-ups and work in local
entrepreneurial ventures. Our graduates contribute directly to the quality
and supply of the State’s workforce, two of the most critical
factors in relocation decisions by companies.
Particularly noteworthy are data from the American Society for Biochemistry
and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) showing that UMBC ranked first nationally
in the total number of undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry degrees
awarded to African Americans in 2004-05 (18 degrees). The ASBMB also
ranked UMBC seventh nationally in overall chemistry and biochemistry
degree production (63 degrees) and fourth nationally in the total number
of chemistry and biochemistry degrees awarded to Asian Americans (23
degrees).
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FACULTY
UMBC has approximately 550 State-supported full-time faculty members who
teach and conduct research, 198 full-time research faculty funded from
contracts and grants, and 301 part-time faculty. They are dedicated to
their students and their work and are accountable through a rigorous process
of review for promotion and tenure. Because of our emphasis on hands-on
experiences for students, faculty work to connect to students not only
through teaching, but also in their research. These experiences lead to
substantive faculty-student interaction in labs, studios, and other settings,
and to student internships. Awards
& Recognition
Another measure of the quality of our faculty is its impressive per
capita ranking for such major competitive awards as Fulbright,
Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships,
comparing favorably, for example, with William & Mary, the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and the University of Virginia (Figure
5). In fact, UMBC has recently had several Fulbright Scholars,
an NIH Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
winner, a U.S. Department of State Jefferson Science Fellow,
a Mellon Research Fellow, a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement
Fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, an American
Association for the Advancement of Science Mentoring awardee, several
NSF Career Award winners, an Optical Society of America
Fellow, an IBM Faculty Award winner, and the Maryland
Chemist of the Year. UMBC faculty members also are consistently
among the recipients of the prestigious NSF Career Awards for
young scientists. During 2001-05, our faculty held more career awards
than colleagues at Yale, Cal Tech, Brandeis, and Tufts. Faculty members
also have won a variety of major awards and distinctions from leading
professional and disciplinary organizations.
Figure 5
As State support for higher education has fluctuated over the years,
chiefly because of changes in the economy, faculty hiring also has fluctuated
and has not been commensurate with enrollment increases, new programs,
and institutional plans and aspirations. The size and quality of UMBC’s
faculty will largely determine for many years our level of success as
a research university. We must continue to hire outstanding faculty
to meet enrollment shifts, replace retiring faculty, and replace faculty
we lose to other universities and corporations with whom we compete
intensely.
It is important not only to build our faculty complement, but also to
retain faculty by providing the necessary support structure for research
and teaching and competitive salaries. Faculty drive the campus’s
research enterprise, attracting revenue-generating grants and contracts,
creating research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students,
and developing new knowledge and innovations leading to technology transfer.
Retaining faculty is important also because of the costs associated
with replacing them.
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Research
We help to anticipate and shape the future by producing new knowledge
through the faculty’s research – either individually or
through partnerships with corporations or public agencies. The authors
of The Top American Research Universities, An Annual Report from
The Lombardi Program on Measuring University Performance (2004),
state that research institutions change very slowly over time, and yet
their data on Federal research expenditures show that among major research
universities in the nation, UMBC’s rise in the rankings exceeded
that of all other institutions between 1993 and 2002. Our research is
important, in part, not only because it addresses scientific, technological,
and public-policy issues facing society, but also because it gives our
undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to work with us on
these issues – from AIDS and computer security to Medicaid policies
and the K-12 academic achievement gap. Faculty members also publish
cutting-edge articles and books across the academic spectrum.
One reason for the faculty’s rising productivity has been the
creation of several research centers. This past year, for example, UMBC
has been collaborating with Princeton, Rice, Johns Hopkins, and Texas
A&M Universities on a new Engineering Research Center (ERC) on Mid-Infrared
Technologies for Health and the Environment funded by the National Science
Foundation. The Center is developing engineering technologies using
light for ultra-sensitive chemical sensing that will have important
public-health and environmental applications. The ERC’s work,
involving our Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR),
whose Director serves as the consortium’s Deputy Director, will
create opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and will
also likely result in new product lines and markets. Other major research
initiatives are being conducted by our Center for Urban Environmental
Research & Education (CUERE), Howard Hughes Medical Institute Laboratory,
Goddard Earth Sciences & Technology (GEST) Center, Joint Center
for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), Center for History Education, Center
for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, and the Maryland Institute for
Policy Analysis & Research (MIPAR). UMBC enjoys a particularly strong
relationship with NASA. In fact, we rank seventh nationally among universities
in NASA funding. NASA’s support continued to grow this year, with
a new, five-year cooperative agreement establishing the Center for Research
and Exploration in Space Science and Technology. The partnership links
UMBC, the University of Maryland-College Park, the NASA Goddard Space
Flight Center, and the Universities Space Research Association in astrophysical
exploration.
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PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION, TRAINING,
and SERVICE
Consistent with our mission, we also serve as a center of professional
development, working with agencies and business and industry in the
Baltimore-Washington region. Some of our major partners include school
systems in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, Lockheed Martin, Northrop
Grumman, Maryland’s Department of Business & Economic Development
(DBED), and NSA. Through UMBC Training Centers, LLC, and our Division
of Continuing & Professional Studies, we offer individuals and organizations
customized credit and non-credit certificate, training, and graduate
programs on-campus, on-site, online, and at the Universities at Shady
Grove in Rockville.
We are especially committed to developing effective K-16 initiatives.
One such initiative is the recent $10-million, multi-year Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education Project involving UMBC,
the Baltimore County Public Schools, and NSF to strengthen student achievement
and teacher proficiency in STEM fields in selected high-needs elementary,
middle, and high schools. This work will be expanded and strengthened
through a $5-million gift from George and Betsy Sherman establishing
the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program at UMBC. The program will
dramatically increase the number of UMBC graduates who move immediately
to public school teaching careers in science, math, and technology.
Another example is the work of our Center for History Education, which
has won approximately $5 million in grants from the U.S. Department
of Education in conjunction with public school systems in Baltimore
City, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, and Howard Counties, among others, to
help strengthen history instruction in elementary, middle, and high
schools. Other examples include our partnerships with both the Anne
Arundel and Howard County Public Schools to provide professional development
programs for scores of teachers in mathematics, science, English, and
ESOL, and the work of our Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture,
which works with area schools to strengthen arts education for K-16
students. In partnership with the Montgomery County Public Schools and
Montgomery College, we also recently helped to launch The Institute
for Global and Cultural Studies at Wheaton High School. The program
not only challenges students to deepen their understanding of the world,
but also builds students’ college-readiness skills in reading,
writing, and research. Qualified students may enroll in free college
courses offered at Wheaton and can earn guaranteed admission to UMBC
and Montgomery College.
Our Center for Health Program Development & Management (CHPDM) is
a multi-faceted health services research organization. Under contract
with Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH),
the Center has become nationally recognized for its work in helping
Maryland control costs and improve the quality of healthcare in the
State. The Center works with DHMH and other public and private organizations
in developing and evaluating healthcare programs and policies. Similarly,
our Shriver Center continues to provide applied experiences each year
for more than 1,000 students through internships, co-ops, and community
service positions in hundreds of organizations in the U.S. and abroad.
The Center has attracted millions of dollars in grants and contracts
in recent years from national and State agencies and foundations, and
is serving hundreds of at-risk youth through its nationally acclaimed
Choice Program.
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TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
We have been a model for developing partnerships focused on technology
development and commercialization. The campus operates two major complexes
to support these growing activities – techcenter@UMBC
and bwtech@UMBC – and our faculty, staff, and students
work actively with business, industry, and government in combining our
public responsibility with our technical expertise.
The techcenter@UMBC includes five buildings located on 30 acres
and houses approximately 170,000 square feet of research, office, and
conference facilities. Located on I-95, just minutes from BWI Airport
and within view of thousands of north- and southbound travelers daily,
the facility (UMBC’s South Campus) leases space to more than two
dozen early-stage biotech and IT/engineering-related firms employing
more than 200 workers. For its incubator companies, the center provides
a variety of university resources, including low-cost office/lab space,
shared administrative services, access to UMBC’s library and computing
resources, access to faculty expertise, and availability of business,
legal, marketing, and technical advice. The General Assembly, DBED,
and Baltimore County all strongly supported UMBC’s efforts to
acquire these facilities, which are an excellent example of UMBC’s
collaboration with business and government in the interest of economic
development and enhancing the region’s quality of life.
The 41-acre bwtech@UMBC, located immediately adjacent to our
central campus, includes two major facilities and now has development
commitments for its remaining three sites. The existing 62,500-square-foot
RWD Technologies’ Applied Technology Lab, with its staff of 250,
and a 60,000-square-foot multi-tenant building, completed in fall 2004,
will soon be joined by the U.S. Geological Survey regional water science
center, a 110,000-square-foot multi-tenant facility developed by Corporate
Office Properties Trust, and a $20-million building being constructed
by Erickson Retirement Communities to house its Retirement Living cable
television channel and its IT division. A recent, independent study
(by the Sage Policy Group, Inc.) of the economic impact of bwtech@UMBC
and techcenter@UMBC reports that 841 jobs are located in the
facilities, and that these employees are engaged in work that has produced
more than 2,000 additional jobs statewide. The study also reports an
$11 return in tax revenue on each State dollar invested. Moreover, both
the techcenter@UMBC and bwtech@UMBC emphasize tenant
interaction with faculty, staff, and students, and those interactions
are on the rise. Over the past two years, on-campus tenant companies
have employed 127 students as interns and part-time staff and 70 UMBC
alumni. In addition, more than 70 faculty members have research collaborations
and other partnership activities with tenant companies.
Our Office of Technology Development is housed in bwtech@UMBC
and works closely with tenant companies. It also plays a vital role
in supporting our new ACTiVATE initiative, an applied training program
for women seeking to become technology entrepreneurs. The program, established
in 2005 with a three-year, $600,000 NSF grant and support from the Maryland
Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) and corporate sponsors, has
trained 41 women and launched eight companies based on technology developed
at Maryland universities and federal labs.
Finally, we continue pursuing strategies for commercializing faculty
inventions and technology transfer designed to contribute to economic
development and garner new resources for the campus, in addition to
supporting local companies. Increased emphasis on identifying applied
uses of faculty research and on faculty collaboration with industry
has resulted in increased invention disclosures. In fact, The Business
Gazette has reported that UMBC has “fared better than the
industry standard, receiving one invention disclosure for $1.45 million
of research.” Success also with our licensing efforts has substantially
increased our licensing revenue over the past few years.
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PRIVATE GIVING
I am delighted to report that our fundraising
efforts continue to be very successful. We completed our first capital
campaign in June, 2002, raising $66 million (and surpassing our five-year,
$50-million goal by nearly a third). This past September, we announced
a $100-million capital campaign. Although we are the youngest member
of the University System of Maryland, our fundraising goal is the third
highest in the System. We have already raised $72 million toward our
goal, and with $17 million pledged so far this year, FY 2007 is already
our best fundraising year ever. Our current endowment (as of December
31, 2006) exceeds $48 million, a dramatic increase over the past decade
when our endowment totaled only $3.6 million. Major gifts by corporations,
foundations, alumni, faculty, and staff both during our first campaign
and since its completion have built endowment support (Figure 6)
for student scholarships, faculty research, endowed professorships,
faculty and staff development, and other programmatic initiatives ranging
from the sciences and engineering to teacher preparation, the arts,
and community service.
Figure 6
Our success in fundraising is particularly significant because Maryland,
unlike other states (e.g., Virginia, North Carolina), has not enjoyed
a long tradition of private giving to public institutions. (In fact,
before 1990, the campus had never raised a million dollars in any year.)
We consistently set aggressive fundraising goals and have worked especially
hard to surpass them. We have consistently demonstrated that top-flight
programmatic initiatives – led by faculty and staff – can
attract donors, and our successes have helped the public understand
the difference that private giving and endowment can make. Alumni, corporations,
and all Maryland citizens can take pride in our privately supported
achievements.
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SUMMARY
of FY 2008 Budget Request
Operating Budget
UMBC’s FY 2008 budget request of $325.1 million reflects an increase
of $7.5 million (2.4%) over FY 2007. The change is due primarily to
a $4.2-million increase (5.3%) in the State General Fund appropriation.
Tuition revenue is generated by a budgeted enrollment of 9,369 FTE students
and reflects a one-percent increase over our FY 2007 actual enrollment
of 9,291 FTE students. Auxiliary and self-supporting operating-unit
revenue increases $1.4 million (3.2%), in part through direct sales
by various units, and by fee increases identified in the tuition and
fee schedule. Resources will be allocated to expand summer and winter
course offerings, and to continue enhancing student life outside the
classroom.
The FY 2008 funding increases are required to meet such mandatory expenses
as wages and fringe benefit increases; higher utility, facilities renewal,
insurance, and debt-service costs; need-based financial aid responsive
to access initiatives; instructional support and student services costs
related to higher enrollments; and increased technology support costs.
Capital Budget
UMBC is grateful that the Governor’s proposed capital budget
for FY 2008 includes $3.625 million for design development of a Performing
Arts and Humanities Facility. The proposed facility will provide space
to meet the current and future curricular, research, and student-life
needs of the UMBC community and will house the Departments of Theater,
Music, Dance, Ancient Studies, English, and Philosophy, as well as the
Shakespeare Association of America (which resides at UMBC) and our Center
for the Humanities. (It is significant that the plans for the new facility
proved instrumental in a recent half-million-dollar gift to name and
expand the role of the Center for the Humanities.)
Intended primarily as a facility for teaching and research in the arts
and humanities, the Performing Arts and Humanities Facility will play
a large and essential role in our required general education curriculum.
It is so central to our academic mission that virtually every undergraduate
will use the facility’s classroom and spaces. Maryland employers
often remind us how important it is that our graduates, whether in science
and engineering or the liberal and fine arts, be able to think and communicate
clearly – writing, speaking, problem-solving, and thinking critically
and creatively. Our arts and humanities departments and programs provide
such a foundation for all of our students, in the process educating
well rounded citizens and strengthening Maryland’s workforce.
In fact, we recently increased the writing requirements in our General
Education Program (mandatory for all undergraduates), responding in
part to industry’s needs for highly literate employees. These
revisions to our General Education Program will make arts and humanities
courses even more available and appealing to students in all fields,
thereby increasing the demands on those departments that will be housed
in the new facility. The facility also will be one of UMBC’s most
public buildings, unique in southwest Baltimore County and the surrounding
area, serving the needs of the Greater Baltimore community through performances
and outreach activities. Indeed, the facility will be instrumental in
creating a regional and national appreciation of UMBC as a cultural
destination.
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RESPONSES
to Legislative Analyst's Comments on UMBC
Let me begin by reemphasizing some of the points
made by the Chancellor and other colleagues regarding three issues of
great importance to the System and our individual campuses: (1) enrollment
funding, (2) program enhancement funding, and (3) the transfer of additional
money to the fund balance.
In response to the DLS recommendation to reduce funding for enrollment
growth, the Chancellor emphasized the importance of the MHEC Funding
Guidelines in determining and meeting costs in order to maintain academic
quality. We encourage the State to provide support for enrollment growth
in keeping with the guidelines. Moving, as DLS suggests, to funding
additional students on a “marginal” cost basis would diminish
the quality of our academic programs if we continue to grow. The Chancellor
has reminded us that our K-12 public education system is funded on an
average cost basis in order to maintain quality, and we should fund
our public universities in the same fashion. On our campus, the enrollment
funding has been critical to maintain academic quality, while expanding
access. We are committed to increasing enrollment to help absorb the
baby-boom echo and a growing number of students coming from Maryland’s
community colleges. A loss of funds would prevent the designated growth
institutions from appropriately serving those additional students and
providing them with the support they need to succeed (e.g., hiring faculty
to teach more students, ensure course availability, and control class
size to avoid delaying time-to-degree, while also offering students
advising, tutoring, counseling, and other services).
In response to the DLS recommendation to reduce funding for program
enhancements, the Chancellor pointed out that the proposed reduction
would essentially eliminate funding for genuine enhancements related
to important strategic priorities for our State. We concur, especially
knowing that UMBC’s proposed program enhancement funding of $500,000
would provide critically needed support for programs that meet student
and workforce demands in the sciences, engineering, and economics –
programs that have experienced substantial enrollment growth in recent
years without commensurate increases in support.
Finally, in response to the Analyst’s recommendation to transfer
additional funding to the fund balance at the end of FY 2008, the Chancellor
noted that the proposed transfer would be tantamount to cutting the
budget because it would make the dollars unavailable to spend on key
priorities. He also noted that this is a very tight budget, with a net
increase in the State-supported budget of only 3.4% (2.6% for UMBC).
While there is a 6.8% increase in General Funds (plus one-time health
care savings), that is only half the funding revenue for the State budget.
The other half is tuition, and with the State’s desire to freeze
in-state tuition rates this year, we cannot look to that source to cover
our costs. It also is important to remember that the System has been
very responsible in strategically managing its fund balance in order
to maintain its high credit rating. UMBC concurs and is committed to
setting aside one percent of its unrestricted funds to be placed in
the fund balance by the end of FY 2008 (which is reflected in the Governor’s
budget). At the same time, we find ourselves working hard to make ends
meet, while satisfying both our one-percent fund balance requirement
and the one-percent efficiency and effectiveness cost-reduction mandate.
A requirement to set aside even more of our funds would seriously hamper
our efforts to maintain the quality of our programs and expand access.
UMBC is committed, for example, to addressing the shortage of highly
qualified teachers (particularly in STEM fields) in K-12; a loss of
funding, however, would make it much more challenging to continue to
offer effective programs to provide professional development for current
teachers.
OPERATING BUDGET
ANALYSIS
Governor’s Proposed Budget
– Issue
The President should comment on any progress
UMBC has made in determining the correct research and public service
expenditures.
Campus
Response:
The analyst is correct in pointing out the differences in unrestricted
Research and Public Service expenditures. Although total expenditures
for FY 2006 in the Research and Public Service programs are correct,
there is a question regarding distribution of unrestricted and restricted
expenditures between the two programs. The following table shows what
the actual FY 2006 expenditure distribution should have been:
