OUR VISION:
Academic Excellence, Economic Development, and Social Vitality
I am delighted to report to you on UMBC’s progress and respond
to questions you may have regarding our FY 2008 and FY 2009 budgets.
UMBC is a public research university, emphasizing graduate
programs in the sciences, engineering, public policy, and human services,
and building on a strong undergraduate liberal arts and sciences core. We
are distinctive among the nation’s research universities because
of our emphasis on undergraduate education, reflecting our tradition
of linking research and teaching. We are an exciting campus with
a bold vision and entrepreneurial spirit. It is an amazing story
that we have come so far so fast, in just 42 years. Your investment
in us has generated a high return for the State, and we are determined
to continue attracting and educating growing numbers of students who
will enter Maryland’s workforce and reflect the diversity of
our State.
We also are recognized increasingly as a major resource for
both building the State’s economy and addressing its social concerns. We
foster economic development primarily through (1) research and training-related
contracts and grants; (2) technology development, including the activities
of bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park; (3) partnerships involving
continuing education and business outreach; and (4) workforce development.
We now enroll approximately 12,050 students (including 9,470 undergraduates
and 2,580 graduate students); employ approximately 1,830 full-time
and 365 part-time faculty and staff; have an operating budget of roughly
$331 million, including nearly $88 million annually for research and
training; and have more than 49,000 alumni, nearly three-quarters of
whom live and work in Maryland and contribute to its economic and social
vitality. We offer bachelor’s and selected master’s
and Ph.D. programs in the physical and life sciences, social and behavioral
sciences, engineering, mathematics, information technology, education,
and the humanities and visual and performing arts.
Brainpower and talent are fueling discoveries and innovation on campus,
and increasingly we are building on these strengths in collaborations
with others. We are creating multi-level partnerships that connect
faculty and students with companies, agencies, foundations, and school
systems – and these partnerships enable us to leverage State
funds. For example, we have been able to develop major new research
centers with support from NASA (we now rank second among the nation’s
universities in NASA funding – Figure 1) and from IBM,
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the Department
of Defense, the National Security Agency (NSA), and other organizations. Other
partnerships with Federal and State agencies have allowed us to leverage
State funds and contribute to the policy arena in gerontology (through
the Erickson School for Aging, Management, and Policy), the environment
(through our Center for Urban Environmental Research & Education-CUERE),
health care (through the Center for Health Policy Development & Management),
and teacher education (through the Center for History Education).
Figure 1
A particularly exciting recent partnership with IBM establishes
UMBC as a center of excellence in cell computing. This initiative
is only the second such center in the nation (the first was at Georgia
Tech). The center positions the campus as a research and education
leader for the next generation of high-performance computing and enhances
our ability to attract top science and technology talent. The
center also increases our capacity to support high-performance computing
needs of companies and State and Federal agencies, including especially
those coming to Maryland through the BRAC process.
Two other exciting partnerships reflect our growing strength and
national reputation in earth and environmental science. The first,
a recent $3-million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, provides real-time, wireless, online monitoring of
Baltimore’s Gwynns Falls watershed. The grant expands upon research
and fieldwork by CUERE in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Princeton University.
The second, a $2.9-million NSF grant, establishes a new doctoral
training program in “Water in the Urban Environment.” The
funding, from NSF’s highly competitive Integrated Graduate Education
and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, will support 20 Ph.D. students
working with more than 30 faculty from nine UMBC departments and six
partner institutions on the ecological, economic, engineering, public-health,
and policy-related impact of urbanization on the Chesapeake Bay region’s
water resources.
We also are excited about having raised more than $5-million
dollars to complement a recent $2-million investment by the Ewing Marion
Kauffman Foundation in UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship,
which enables us to infuse innovation and leadership throughout our
curriculum. The Kauffman Foundation is working to cultivate entrepreneurship
in settings outside of business schools, and UMBC was one of only nine
campuses selected, along with Arizona State, Brown, Carnegie Mellon,
Georgetown, NYU, Purdue, Syracuse, and the University of Wisconsin,
Madison. More than 300 students a year participate in the Alex.
Brown Center’s courses and programs.
Another exciting entrepreneurship initiative is ACTiVATE, our applied
training program for women seeking to become technology entrepreneurs. It
has been instrumental in increasing the number of women entrepreneurs
commercializing groundbreaking research developed in labs throughout
Maryland and starting new businesses. ACTiVATE has trained 70 women
and launched 12 companies based on technology developed at Maryland
universities and Federal labs. 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,
recently received the Association of University Research Parks’ 2007
Innovation Award, in addition to the U.S. Association for Small Business
and Entrepreneurship’s award for Best Specialty Entrepreneurship
Education Program.
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THE STATE OF
THE UNIVERSITY:
Facing Challenges From a Position of Strength
We continue our rapid development as a major research university. In
fact, NSF ranks UMBC 141st nationally in Federally funded research
in science and engineering, up from 200th in 1996 and 147th a year
ago (Figure 6). This leap is especially
significant because most other nationally ranked institutions are substantially
larger and older (and often include medical centers).
Figure 6
We also are among a relatively small number of colleges and universities
with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter (we were one of the youngest campuses
ever to earn this distinction), reflecting our strength in the liberal
arts. We remain the only public campus in Maryland with a Howard
Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and are a two-time recipient
of the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics,
and Engineering Mentoring. We also have been designated
by NSA as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance. Further,
we are among a small number of universities to have received both
a multi-million-dollar NSF ADVANCE grant, in recognition of our strengths
in preparing women in science and engineering (we also were named
one of the “Best 50 Colleges for Women” by CosmoGIRL! magazine),
and a major grant through NSF’s Alliances for Graduate Education
and the Professoriate (AGEP) program to prepare more minority Ph.D.s
in science. We have become a national model for preparing students
of all backgrounds in science and engineering, including especially
minorities and women, at a time when the nation is focusing intensely
on securing and strengthening its position in the global economy
and when America’s demographic profile is shifting dramatically.
While our State-supported budget has grown, overall, in recent years,
so too has the campus. Since 2000, the number of full-time-equivalent
students increased from nearly 8,100 to 9,421 (16.3%) (Figure 2);
sponsored contracts and grants grew by more than a third, from $64
million to almost $88 million (Figure 5); total degrees conferred
per year increased from approximately 1,800 to about 2,450 (36%); and
the number of students living on campus increased 62% – from
2,350 to 3,800 – and from one-third to nearly half of our full-time
undergraduate population, including nearly three-quarters of our freshmen.
Figure 2
Figure 5
While these kinds of changes have contributed to UMBC’s continuing
transformation, they also have generated new demands on our operations
that seriously tax our capacity to respond. One way the campus
has responded is by emphasizing efficiency and effectiveness measures
through business improvements, outsourcing, energy management, external
partnerships, and new revenue generation. Relying on these measures,
over the past five years, we have reduced or avoided costs by $28 million.
Our current strengths and solid foundation reflect the efforts and
commitment of State leaders, our faculty, staff, and students, and
years of careful thinking, ambitious planning, and hard decisions,
with support from the University System and the Board of Regents and
our Board of Visitors. We have managed for results, and the State’s
investment and confidence in us have yielded solid returns.
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THE UMBC COMMUNITY:
Quality, Achievements, Contributions
STUDENTS
Our student body is among the most diverse nationally (37% minority,
including 18% Asian, 15% African American, and 4% Hispanic and Native
American). The freshman class of 1,439 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 2,580 students includes
increased numbers of domestic students (84% of our graduate enrollment),
women (55%), 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 12,041 represents an increase of
243 students above our headcount total a year ago and has produced
an annual FTE enrollment of 9,421 in FY 2008, 130 above our total in
FY 2007 and 52 above our budgeted FY 2008 FTE enrollment of 9369. Among
our challenges in continuing to build enrollment are UMBC’s relatively
small program base (Figure 4), fluctuations in the information
technology market, and higher out-of-state tuition costs. The
campus’s aggressive response to these challenges has resulted
in our exceeding projected enrollments this year, with applications
for fall 2008 also up substantially.
Figure 4
Higher retention rates, of course, contribute to strong enrollments,
and we are excited that our retention rates are rising. In fact,
our overall freshman-to-sophomore-year retention rate (2006 to 2007)
for full-time freshmen was 84.6 percent, compared to 81.7 in fall 2004 (Figure
3). It is particularly noteworthy that the freshman-to-sophomore
retention rate (2006 to 2007) among African American students – 91.6
percent – is even higher than our overall rate, and is among
the highest for African American students in the State. In addition,
our overall fall-to-spring semester freshman retention rate increased
from 91.9 percent (fall 2005 to spring 2006) to 94.2 percent (fall
2006 to spring 2007).
Figure 3
Transfer student enrollment growth (10 percent this year) also has
contributed to healthy enrollments. Our primary feeder schools
continue to be Montgomery, Anne Arundel, and Howard Community Colleges
and the Community College of Baltimore County. To recognize the
academic achievement of our transfer students, we have begun Maryland’s
first chapter of the national honor society, Tau Sigma.
We also anticipate considerable growth over the next few years at
Shady Grove, where we offer four undergraduate programs in social work,
psychology, political science, and history, and a new graduate degree
in industrial and organizational psychology. This fall we will launch
a graduate degree program in Geographic Information Systems.
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 Gates Cambridge, Goldwater and Jack
Kent Cooke Scholars, Merck, NSF GEM, Department
of Energy Computational Science 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 recently won the national Academic Technical Bowl Competition
for the third year in a row. And this past December, our much-heralded
Chess Team placed second in the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Chess Championship
and advances to the “Final Four” of college chess, which
UMBC will host in April. This past year, the women’s
basketball team made its first appearance in the NCAA Division I
championships, and our men’s basketball team is currently in
first place in the America East conference. Finally, the NCAA’s
most recent 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 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 and the nation’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 recently ranked first
nationally in the total number of undergraduate biochemistry degrees
awarded to African Americans (18 degrees in 2005). The ASBMB also ranked
UMBC seventh nationally in overall biochemistry degree production (63
degrees) and fourth nationally in the total number of biochemistry
degrees awarded to Asian Americans (23 degrees). UMBC also ranks
second in IT degrees awarded by major U.S. research universities according
to Computing Research News.
UMBC is partnering with the State in connection with the Base Realignment
and Closure (BRAC) Enrollment/Research Business Plan to address the
need for more university-level academic programs in northeastern Maryland.
We will offer undergraduate, graduate, and non-credit programs in the
classroom and online through our partnership with Cecil Community College.
In addition to existing courses and programs in administration and
management, business technology administration, engineering, information
systems, and project management, the University has created new bachelor’s
degree programs in Communications Engineering and Biotechnology, as
well as a Contract Administration certificate.
Our Erickson School, highlighted this week in the Wall Street
Journal, is the first professional school in the nation to integrate
the study of business management, public policy, and human aging. We
are grateful for the State’s start-up support, which matched
a $5-million gift from our founding donor, John Erickson. The Erickson
School is now fully operational with students in both undergraduate
and graduate programs. This fall, we launched our Management in Aging
Services master’s program, while our Aging Services undergraduate
program is in its second year with nearly 300 students. The School’s
Executive Education Program now offers 11 courses, and our Center
for Aging Studies has attracted $8 million in research funding.
This April, we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Meyerhoff
Scholarship Program, now a national model for preparing high-achieving
students from all backgrounds in science and engineering and increasing
the numbers of underrepresented minorities pursuing research careers
in these fields. In fact, UMBC is among the nation’s leading
universities in graduating African Americans who go on to complete
Ph.D.s in science and engineering. We will recognize the achievements
of hundreds of program graduates, half of whom have earned Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D.,
M.D., or M.S. degrees and are serving in faculty and post-doctoral
research positions at universities throughout the country – from
Harvard to the University of Michigan – or working as researchers
in companies ranging from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Becton Dickinson
to Rohm & Hass.
Among the by-products of the Meyerhoff Program has been the development
on our campus of a community of scholars and a climate of success benefiting
all students. In fact, UMBC ranks nationally in awarding undergraduate
degrees to minority students in the following areas: in Computer
and Information Sciences, 3rd among Asian American, 8th among all minorities,
and19th among African Americans; and in Biological Sciences, 22nd among
African Americans and 36th among all minorities.
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FACULTY
UMBC has 473 State-supported full-time
faculty members who teach and conduct research, 227 full-time research
faculty funded from contracts and grants, and 292 part-time faculty. They
are dedicated to their students and their work, and our full-time
instructional faculty 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
7). 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,
an Optical Society of America Fellow, an IBM Faculty
Award winner, an American Society of Engineering Education
Sharon Keeler Award for Women in Engineering Education winner,
and the Maryland Chemist of the Year. UMBC faculty
members also are consistently among recipients of the prestigious NSF
Career Awards for young scientists. During 2003-07, our
faculty held more career awards than colleagues at the University
of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Georgetown, Cal Tech, Brandeis, and
Tufts. Faculty members also have won a variety of major awards
and distinctions from leading professional and disciplinary organizations.
Figure 7
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 our 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; 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.
In fact, faculty research in the geosciences was ranked third nationally
for citation impact (the number of times peer professors cite UMBC
faculty work in their own research papers) by Science Watch.
According to Science Watch, the only other U.S. universities
with more frequently cited research on the environment, water,
soil, atmosphere, pollution and climate change were Harvard and Georgia
Tech. The Departments of Information Systems and Public Policy
were ranked eighth and tenth respectively in their fields by the 2007
Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, which measures the number of
books and journal articles written by faculty members, the number of
times other scholars have cited these publications and the grant monies,
honors and awards the faculty members received. UMBC historians
have a long record of excellence in scholarly research and publication.
Within the past decade the department (with an average of just 16 full-time
tenured and tenure-track faculty) has produced more than 50 books.
Their publishers include many of the most prestigious university presses
(e.g., Oxford, Princeton, Harvard, University of North Carolina, University
of Illinois, Johns Hopkins).
One reason for the faculty’s rising productivity has been the
creation of several research centers. For example, UMBC is collaborating
with Princeton, Rice, Johns Hopkins, and Texas A&M Universities
on an Engineering Research Center (ERC) on Mid-Infrared Technologies
for Health and the Environment funded by NSF. 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, is creating opportunities for undergraduate and graduate
students, and its work will likely yield 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). NASA’s
support continues to grow, including a five-year cooperative agreement
establishing the Center for Research & Exploration in Space Science & Technology
this past year. This 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
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 supporting the University System of
Maryland’s initiative to graduate more students qualified to
teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in Maryland
schools. One such initiative is a $10-million, multi-year 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 has now been 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 STEM graduates who move immediately to public school
teaching careers. Another example is the continuing 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.
In STEM education, we also serve as the Statewide affiliate for two
key initiatives for generating excitement among K-12 students in STEM
disciplines. We were approached by the Maryland State Department
of Education to become the university affiliate for Project Lead
the Way, in which 25 schools in Maryland have begun teaching engineering
courses. Project Lead the Way provides innovative programming
for K-12 students, including “Gateway to Technology” courses
for middle school students and “Pathway to Engineering” courses
for high school students. UMBC provides a Professional Development
Summer Training program for current high school teachers interested
in participating in teaching the Project Lead the Way curriculum
at their schools. UMBC also hosts the FIRST (For Inspiration &
Recognition of Science & Technology) Lego League
Competition, where 600 middle school youth from across Maryland match
wits in hands-on, research-based competition using state-of the art
Robotic Lego kits, and creating excitement about basic physics and
engineering principles. We partner with Northrop Grumman Corporation
to sponsor the event and support creation of 10 new LEGO teams at
middle schools serving low-income families in the greater Baltimore
area.
Other examples of outreach in support of professional development
include our partnerships with both the Anne Arundel and Howard County
Public Schools to provide training programs for scores of teachers
in mathematics, science, English, and ESOL, and the work of our Center
for Art, Design, & Visual Culture, which works with area schools
to strengthen arts education for K-16 students. The Center’s
most recent project, entitled “Mapping the Community,” placed
UMBC cartography and graphic design students from our Geography and
Visual Arts Departments as mentors to elementary and high school students
from Baltimore City and County, helping the students conduct research
and create maps focusing on important issues in their communities. Some
of the students’ mapping projects will be exhibited at the Walters
Art Museum this April. Also, we continue to partner with the
Montgomery County Public Schools and Montgomery College to support
the Institute for Global & 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 earn guaranteed admission
to UMBC and Montgomery College.
In addition, our Center for Health Program Development & Management
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 1,200 students through
internships, co-ops, and community service positions in more than 500
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
Over the past 20 years, we have been a model for developing
partnerships focused on technology development and commercialization,
and our bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park supports
these growing activities; and our faculty, staff, and students work
actively with business, industry, and government in combining our public
responsibility with our technical expertise.
bwtech@UMBC includes two sites: one houses a 41-acre acre
research park, while the other houses a 30-acre business incubator
and accelerator. The research park, located on our campus, currently
includes three major facilities and has development commitments for
its two remaining sites. Existing facilities include the
62,500-square-foot RWD Technologies’ Applied Technology Lab,
with its staff of 250; a 60,000-square-foot multi-tenant building,
completed in fall 2004; and the 23,500-square-foot U.S. Geological
Survey regional water science center, completed in spring 2007 and
occupied by more than 60 USGS scientists and support staff. Two
facilities soon to be added include a 110,000-square-foot multi-tenant
building 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 IT division.
Our business incubator and accelerator are located at UMBC’s
South Campus, overlooking Interstate 95, just minutes from both our
central campus and BWI Airport and within view of thousands of north-
and southbound travelers daily. The site includes five buildings
housing approximately 165,000 square feet of research, office, and
conference facilities. We lease space to more than 30 early-stage
biotech and IT/engineering-related firms employing hundreds of workers. For
the incubator companies, we provide 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
(originally a Martin Marietta Research lab site), 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.
A recent, independent study (by the Sage Policy Group, Inc.) of the
economic impact of bwtech@UMBC reports that nearly 850 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, bwtech@UMBC emphasizes tenant interaction
with faculty, staff, students, and alumni producing research collaborations,
employment, and internships.
Our Office of Technology Development works closely with tenant companies
and faculty, pursuing strategies for commercializing faculty inventions
and technology transfer designed to contribute to economic development
and garner new resources for the campus. 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 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 increased our licensing revenue over the past few years. Examples
of faculty research with potential commercial applications range from
developing technologies to fight AIDS and cancer to creating a lightweight “skin” that
protects aircraft from shrapnel.
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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). In September, 2006, 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, and we have already raised $82 million toward that goal. Our
current endowment (as of June 30, 2007) exceeds $57 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 have built endowment support (Figure 8) 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 8
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 2009 Budget Request
Operating Budget
UMBC’s FY 2009 budget request of $343.2 million reflects
an increase of $12.1 million (3.7%) over FY 2008. The change
is due primarily to a $4.3-million increase (5.2%) in the State General
Fund appropriation and $3.3 million from the new Higher Education Investment
Fund. Tuition revenue is generated by a budgeted enrollment of
9,465 FTE students, which reflects a 0.5% increase over our FY 2008
actual enrollment of 9,421 FTE students and a 1.0% increase over our
budgeted enrollment target for FY 2008 of 9,369 FTE students. Auxiliary
and self-supporting operating-unit revenue increases $1.5 million (2.9%),
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 2009 funding increases are required to meet
such mandatory expenses as wages and fringe benefit increases; higher
utility, facilities renewal, insurance, and debt-service costs; and
need-based financial aid responsive to access initiatives. The
Higher Education Investment Fund provides much needed funding to support
record-breaking numbers of students at UMBC; to enhance research facilities
to allow for continued growth in externally funded research on the
campus; and to cover the portion of our mandatory cost increases that
would normally come from an undergraduate tuition rate increase.
Capital Budget
UMBC is not requesting any capital funds in FY 2009. The
funds provided in FY 2007 and FY 2008 for planning and design of a
Performing Arts and Humanities Facility are sufficient to complete
this process. We are grateful to the Governor and the General
Assembly for their continued support of this important building. The
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,
Philosophy, and our Center for the Humanities. (It is significant
that the plans for the new facility proved instrumental in a half-million-dollar
gift this past year 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 have 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 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 two specific recommendations made by
the DLS analyst that are of great concern to UMBC: (1) a proposed additional
budget cut, and (2) building an annual 1% efficiency and effectiveness
reduction into our base budget.
In response to the DLS recommendation for an additional $6.8 million
reduction in the USM budget, it is important to consider how each of
our campuses has been asked to reduce already, both this year and next,
at a time when enrollment and related expenses are growing. This
past summer, for example, following the legislative session, the USM
was asked to cut $12 million – UMBC’s share of that reduction
was $1.0 million. As we developed the FY 2009 budget, UMBC was
asked to reduce mandatory expenses by slightly more than $800,000 in
order to meet an efficiency and effectiveness target of 0.5 percent
of State appropriations and tuition budgets. Further, as our
budget was finalized through the Governor’s recommendation, an
additional $657,000 were deducted from our budget. All of these
reductions, now totaling more than $2.5 million, are seriously limiting
our ability to meet the demands of larger enrollments on our campus.
In response to the DLS recommendation that the USM permanently incorporate
the one-percent efficiency and effectiveness savings into its current
services budget, UMBC would be harmed by further reductions. The
campus has worked diligently to identify targets for cost savings,
greater efficiency and productivity, and improved effectiveness. In
fact, since FY 2006, we have specifically reduced our annual current
services budget by nearly $5.5 million. These reductions occurred
during a period in which the number of UMBC students served rose by
nearly 400 headcount and 250 FTE students. Our challenge is to
continue delivering the quality of education that our students expect
despite fewer resources. We request that no further reductions
be imposed, and that the authority to determine future efficiency and
effectiveness initiatives rest with the Board of Regents.
OPERATING BUDGET
& PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Enrollment in Teacher
Education Declines While Graduates Employed in Maryland Schools
Increase
The President should comment
on efforts to increase enrollment and retention in the teacher training
program.
Campus
Response:
The campus is implementing major initiatives supported through private
fundraising and grant writing that are designed to increase the numbers
of students entering and graduating from teacher education/training
programs. In recent years, we have raised approximately $10 million
in private support from the Gudelsky, Rouse, and Sherman Family Foundations
to recruit and support students planning to become teachers. The
majority of these funds (including George and Betsy Sherman’s
recent $5-million gift) will support students committed to teaching
math and science in public schools, particularly in challenging school
settings. Also in recent years, we have attracted more than $15
million in grants from NSF and NASA to offer graduate-level teacher
education. We are using these grant funds both to prepare current
science-and-engineering professionals to earn master’s degrees
and transition into teaching careers, and also to provide many veteran
elementary and middle school STEM teachers with professional development
opportunities designed to strengthen their instructional skills. We
are working particularly closely with Baltimore and Anne Arundel Counties
on these major grant-supported professional development efforts.
In addition to these initiatives, we also are focusing on curricular
initiatives to increase enrollment and retention in the teacher training
program. Because we do not have a major or minor in Education
(instead, students major in a content area and separately earn a teaching
certificate), we are developing content courses and degree opportunities
in various disciplines (particularly STEM fields) tailored for prospective
teachers. A bachelor’s degree program for prospective teachers
in physics is the first such program, and plans are underway for similar
bachelor’s programs in chemistry and math. In biology,
we have a special break-out group for undergraduates with an interest
in teaching and offer them opportunities to work in after-school programs
in structured and supportive environments.
Besides these STEM-related initiatives, we also are working to attract
and retain teachers in other disciplines. For example, as the
site for Maryland’s Center for History Education, UMBC is offering
professional development for history teachers, and we also have instituted
an accelerated pathway into our Master’s of Arts in Teaching
(MAT) program by allowing bachelor’s degree recipients to apply
nine of their undergraduate courses toward their graduate teaching
degree requirements.
Retention Rate of African American Students Exceeds All
Students; Gap in Graduation Rates Increases
The
President should comment on the factors contributing to the success
in retaining and graduating students.
Campus
Response:
Student success is among our highest priorities and at the core of
our campus culture – and we give special emphasis to high academic
achievement. For example, we have instituted a variety of special
scholars programs across disciplines for talented minorities, women,
and students in general – in science and engineering (Meyerhoff
Scholars Program), the arts (Linehan Artist Scholars Program), public
affairs (Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars Program) information technology
(Center for Women & Information Technology Scholars) and the humanities
(Dresher Humanities Scholars Program). These and other programs
have attracted millions of dollars of private support for our endowment
and student success. We have been working to give all students
with the kinds of support we provide to students in our special scholars
programs.
Our efforts to create a student-centered environment – academic
and student-support – that promotes students’ retention
and graduation are wide-ranging. For example, we have created
new academic programs in response to student demand and workforce needs,
hired professional advisors in high-volume majors, and engaged students
in applied experiences including research, internships, service-learning,
and study abroad. We also have made our business functions available
online, expanded our co-curricular opportunities, invested in new residence
halls, and increased tutoring across disciplines.
Moreover, because national and UMBC data indicate that substantive
first-year experiences are critical to student success, we have worked
to be particularly supportive of students in their first year. All
new freshmen and transfers have the opportunity to enroll in an academic
First-Year Seminar and our Introduction to an Honors University Seminar. We
also have created several Living-Learning Communities so that students
with common interests can live and study together in our residence
halls. We have initiated the New-Student Book Experience, which
brings new students together in small groups with faculty and staff
to discuss a common reading at the beginning of the academic year. Data
show that these efforts, coupled with an “early-warning” system
for students earning below a grade of C at midterm, careful advising,
and academic support in the form of peer mentors, certified tutors,
and online tutorials have had a very positive impact on student success.
Regarding our graduation rates, we are very proud of the success of our
African American students and note that the recent gap (less than 2%)
between the graduation rates of African Americans and all students reflects
no more than a few students. Further, the retention rates of African
American students in the next cohort (2001) are at an all-time high,
suggesting that the six-year graduation rate for these students will
be even higher.
Research and Development Expenditures Continue to Increase,
Exceeding the Target
The
President should comment on the efforts to maintain or increase the
amount of research funding in light of the expected decrease in federal
research funding.
Campus
Response:
Our most effective strategy for continuing to generate substantial
research funding is to continue attracting some of the very best faculty
in the country. This strategy has resulted in stunning research
productivity in recent years. As noted earlier, we now rank
2nd among the nation’s universities in funding from NASA, our
largest Federal funding source, followed by NSF and the National Institutes
of Health (NIH). We believe we have the necessary brainpower
and entrepreneurial spirit to continue succeeding in attracting research
contracts and grants – despite the anticipated decrease in Federal
research funding. These contracts and grants can also help in
building the State’s economy and training scientists, engineers,
and other professionals. One of our greatest challenges is the
shortage of research space on campus.
It should be noted that the President’s proposed 2009 Federal
budget shows a reduction in funding for the Science Division at NASA. In
an effort to diversify funding opportunities, our faculty have begun
developing collaborative research efforts with NSF (whose budget the
President has recommended increasing), the National Oceanic & Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), and the National Institute of Standards & Technology
(NIST). Should NASA’s budget be reduced, these collaborations
will help mitigate possible funding losses. Proposed increases
to NSF’s budget should be very helpful to our faculty in engineering
and the physical sciences. Also, if the America Competes Act
is funded, it will provide competitive funding in areas consistent
with UMBC’s priorities, including STEM education, graduate student
assistantships, and interdisciplinary research in the physical sciences,
IT, and engineering.
Out-of-State Tuition and Fee Revenue
The
President should comment on when the university estimates that out-of-state
enrollment will stabilize, plans for out-of-state tuition increases,
and efforts to recruit and increase enrollment and out-of-state undergraduate
students.
Campus
Response:
As noted in DLS’s analysis, the campus has experienced a decline
in the numbers of out-of-state undergraduate students in recent years. The “good
news,” however, is that our overall enrollments have remained
robust because of healthy increases in the numbers of Maryland residents
we have enrolled. The other “good news” is that
we continue to attract large numbers of applications from out-of-state,
and growing numbers of these out-of-state applicants are admissible
because they have strong academic backgrounds.
The 33% increase in out-of-state undergraduate tuition and fees
the past four years – from $13,086 in FY 2003 to $17,354 in
FY 2007 (not including room and board) is the leading factor contributing
to the decline in out-of-state undergraduate enrollment. Needless
to say, we have been concerned about the lost tuition revenue (as
well as the impact on our diverse learning environment). In
response to this challenge, we hope that by freezing out-of-state
undergraduate tuition both this year and next, and by determining
the extent to which we need to provide a “discount” to
out-of-state students, particularly high-achieving students, families
will increasingly choose UMBC over their own in-state institutions. We
know, for example, that large numbers of students from New York consider
UMBC, but face much lower in-state tuition and fees. The differential
is substantial, for example, between in-state expenses at SUNY-Binghamton
(whose strong academic reputation is similar to UMBC’s) and
UMBC’s out-of-state tuition and fees – approximately $11,200
vs. $26,300 (including room and board).
I should add we are hopeful that as our intercollegiate athletic teams
(e.g., men’s and women’s basketball and men’s lacrosse)
continue to improve, our national visibility will increase. We
are encouraged by the fact that a year ago, our men’s lacrosse
team advanced to the NCAA quarter finals, and our women’s basketball
team won the America East Conference tournament and went to “the
dance” (the NCAA’s championship tournament). Moreover,
our men’s basketball team is currently in first place in the America
East.
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ISSUES
Resident Undergraduate Tuition
Frozen; Minimal Fee Increase
The President should comment on the tuition and fee schedule
and the impact on affordability.
Campus Response:
In recent years, our students and the campus have benefited from
the allocation of additional State appropriations in lieu of increases
in undergraduate resident tuition rates. Given UMBC’s
concentration of expensive programs in the sciences and technology,
as well as our mission as a public research university, it is reasonable
that our costs – and therefore our price through tuition – are
at the high end among Maryland’s public campuses. Affordability
will be influenced in the future to the extent that additional
State support can be provided to help cover unavoidable cost increases
and to provide aid to our students with financial need.
Distribution of Types of Institutional Aid
The President should comment on the amount of merit and
mission aid awarded and the amount awarded to students who had not
demonstrated financial need. The President should also address
plans to award more aid to students with greater financial need as
well as whether a student’s EFC is a factor in what type of
aid is awarded.
Campus Response:
It is important to point out that in FY 2008, we are awarding
far more undergraduate financial aid, both merit- and need-based,
than the $19.4 million in institutional aid noted in DLS’s
analysis. The following examples reflect additional need-based
aid. Through the National Science Foundation’s S-STEM
(Scholarships for Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics)
Program, we received two grants totaling $1 million, which we are
using to provide financial aid to 40 low-income, talented students
in STEM fields. Also, through the Gates Millennium Program,
we received $130,000 to provide financial support for four years
to two additional high-achieving, low-income undergraduates in science. In
addition, a portion of the millions of dollars we receive each year
from national agencies and private foundations to support students
in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program (also not reflected in the $19.4
million total) covers tuition for low-income students. These
funds – all from non-State sources – are critical to
our mission and efforts to produce large numbers of scientists and
engineers, including especially underrepresented minorities and women. As
a result of the Meyerhoff Program (a national model often compared
to the Jefferson Scholars Program at the University of Virginia and
the Morehead Scholars Program at the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill), UMBC is among the nation’s leading institutions in graduating
African American students who go on to complete Ph.D.s, M.D.s, and
M.D./Ph.D.s. The program also can be credited with keeping
many high-achieving college students in Maryland.
More generally, we have increased the base of our need-based financial
aid funding by a minimum of 10% per year since FY 2006. We
have met this commitment despite frozen tuition rates and minimal
increases in fees. In recent years, we also have been providing
more merit-based support for transfer students – our population
with the greatest financial need – including a new Transfer
Recognition Award to high-achieving transfer students with demonstrated
financial need.
Finally, in FY 2006, approximately 23% of our students who received
merit, mission, or athletic aid demonstrated need. Currently,
only 50% of our students receiving institutional aid of any sort
filed the FAFSA in 2006. We continue to encourage students
to maximize their funding resources by completing the FAFSA each
year.
Facilities Renewal
The President should comment on the efforts to address
the maintenance backlog and keep pace with ongoing maintenance requirements.
Campus Response:
UMBC recognizes that the funding allocated each year to cover
major facilities repairs and renewal is insufficient to keep pace
with growing needs. We are very grateful to the Board of Regents
for establishing a policy that requires systematically increasing
this investment over a period of years to reach a target of annually
spending 2% of the current replacement value of our buildings for
facilities renewal. Further, reflecting leadership by the Governor
and General Assembly, this increased investment has been funded in
FY 2007 and FY 2008, and is included in the Governor’s recommendation
for FY 2009. Only because of this increased investment by the
State have we been able to make dramatic strides in annual spending
on facilities renewal. It is important to note, however, that
we started this process with a very small base – our total
facilities renewal funding in FY 2006 was $118,000, while the replacement
value of our buildings totaled more than $600 million.
Taking into account only our most critical needs, we estimate that
our current deferred maintenance backlog totals $32 million. We
are working to address this challenge through several strategies. First,
we strongly support continued growth in State funding for this purpose. Our
internal facilities renewal fund in FY 2008 is $1.3 million, and
the USM provides an additional $1.3 million in bond funding annually
for this purpose. Two percent of the current replacement value
of our facilities is estimated to be more than $14 million.
In the meantime, we are evaluating the possibility of entering into
an energy performance contract that would result in an external party
implementing a number of facilities modifications that would generate
energy savings that would be sufficient to repay the cost. We
believe there are many such opportunities at UMBC that would also address
deferred maintenance items, including new roofs, windows and building
envelopes, replacing aged mechanical and electrical systems with more
energy efficient models, and more. We are also attempting to
accumulate additional funds to add to our pool by recapturing unanticipated
savings across the campus, adding $200,000 to $300,000 annually.
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