LEGISLATIVE TESTIMONY
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III
President, UMBC

February, 1999

THE STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY

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Achievements	FY2000 Operating Budget Requests
Connections and Partnerships	FY2000 Capital Budget Requests
Diversity	Graphs

I am delighted to be here to talk about UMBC and to respond to questions you may have on our FY 2000 budget request.

UMBC is greater Baltimore's public research university, emphasizing graduate programs in the sciences, engineering, and public policy, and built on a strong undergraduate liberal-arts-and-sciences core. Among the nation's research universities, we are distinctive because of our emphasis on undergraduate education, reflecting our tradition of linking research and teaching. We offer degrees in 28 undergraduate, 27 master's, and 19 Ph.D. programs; enroll 10,100 students (including 8,600 undergraduates); employ 1,800 full- and part-time faculty and staff; have nearly 32,000 alumni (85% living in Maryland); have an operating budget of almost $180 million, including $48 million per year in contracts and grants; and have a physical plant valued at over $300 million, consisting of 500 acres, 40 buildings, and almost 2.5 million square feet of space.

Founded in 1966, UMBC has built in just over three decades a strong foundation reflecting the efforts of many people, including State leaders and our faculty, staff, and students. It also reflects three decades of careful thinking, ambitious planning, and hard decisions. In building the faculty, staff, and a strong student body, we have learned that talented people attract other talented people. One impressive measure of our success is the vote this past year by Phi Beta Kappa, the nation's most prestigious scholarly honor society, establishing a chapter at UMBC. Of Phi Beta Kappa's 255 member institutions, UMBC is one of the youngest public campuses ever to gain admission, rivaling some of the University of California's most prestigious campuses in this regard. Further, Newsweek's latest national college guide calls UMBC "a powerhouse in Baltimore...offering a topnotch, rigorous education to scholars," and groups us with Cal Tech and three other institutions as "schools with a mission."

Another milestone, reflecting UMBC's mission and aspirations, is the campus's surging physical growth and transformation -- from the new Physics Building and Fieldhouse Addition now under construction, to our new athletic fields and developing Research Park. We also envision several new or renovated facilities that are much needed -- from a state-of-the-art Engineering/Information-Technology Building, an exciting University Commons, and new student housing to the renovated Biological Sciences and Chemistry-Physics Buildings.

UMBC continues to reach new levels of achievement because we are successfully focusing our attention and energy in two areas: (1) student and faculty achievement, and (2) building strong connections to the larger community, involving economic development and service. We know you are proud of our achievements as we attract positive attention to Maryland and new investments in its future.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Success of UMBC Students

• UMBC's freshman class, with almost 1,300 new students, is our largest in a decade and among the most diverse nationally (36% minority overall, including 15% African American, 18% Asian, and 3% Hispanic and Native American). It includes hundreds of valedictorians and 4.0 students, and the top quartile's mean SAT is 1356. This year's typical freshman was a member of the National Honor Society. Further, our 84% retention rate for rising sophomores is our highest ever.

• UMBC undergraduates have extraordinary opportunities to conduct research -- not only at UMBC and in Maryland, but throughout the country and abroad. Students' recent summer laboratory experiences have taken them to some of the best laboratories in the world, including NIH, AT&T Bell Labs, Allied Signal, Silicon Graphics, Lucent Technologies, NASA/Goddard, MIT, the University of Chicago, Cornell, and medical schools at Harvard, Johns Hopkins, UMB, Erasmus University in Holland, and Israel's Tel Aviv University. A number of our juniors and seniors have presented papers at national conferences, and several have published their research in refered journals (e.g., Science, Journal of Molecular Biology, Protein Science).

• UMBC students continue to excel in intercollegiate academic competition -- from chess and debate to Model United Nations and College Bowl. The Chess Team, for example, as recently reported on the front page of the Washington Post, captured the Pan-American Chess Tournament championship -- the "World Series" of college chess -- defeating or placing ahead of such teams as Harvard, Penn, and Stanford. The championship was UMBC's second in three years.

• UMBC students are distinguishing themselves after graduation. The majority move easily into the work force in areas related to their majors -- from AT&T, Computer Sciences Corporation, and Black & Decker to social service agencies and public school systems throughout the State. Internationally based Computer Sciences Corporation, for example, has hired well over 100 UMBC graduates in recent years. The National Security Agency employs over 500 UMBC math, computer science, and language graduates, and Maryland Cartographics, Inc., founded by a 1975 UMBC geography alumnus, now employs primarily UMBC geography graduates. Among our 32,000 alumni are thousands of physicians, attorneys, engineers, teachers, computer science/information-technology staff, and other professionals working in the public and private sectors.

• A third of our graduates go immediately to graduate or professional schools across the nation -- most recently ranging from Harvard, Duke, and Stanford to MIT, Georgia Tech, Hopkins, and UMB. In fact, among Maryland's public institutions, UMBC graduates often have the highest acceptance rates to UMB's Schools of Medicine, Law, and Pharmacy.

• One key measure of the strength of our programs and students is the numbers of bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees awarded in Chemistry and Biochemistry. A recent American Chemical Society survey indicates UMBC produced more 1996 graduates in Chemistry/Biochemistry (49) than such nationally recognized schools as Brandeis, Brown, the California Institute of Technology, the University of California campuses at Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Oberlin, Ohio State, Princeton, and Yale. UMBC also produced as many, or more, Chemistry/Biochemistry Ph.D.s (10) in 1996 as Brown, Dartmouth, Drexel, Georgia Tech, Johns Hopkins, the University of Illinois-Urbana, Syracuse, Tufts, Vanderbilt, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Washington University.

• Recent UMBC graduates have won a variety of awards and include a British Marshall Scholar, Goldwater Scholars, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellows, and Rhodes Scholarship finalists.

• Our new graduate students are also impressive, coming to us in large numbers especially in public-policy areas from Maryland's work force, including State and local government positions, and from leading universities around the world to study science and engineering.

• UMBC has awarded 245 Ph.D. degrees the past five years, and the recipients are working in industry, government, and universities in Maryland and throughout the nation.

Faculty Recognition, Productivity, & Accountability

• UMBC faculty are highly committed and accountable to a rigorous process of faculty review for promotion and tenure. The review involves an annual review of all faculty by department chairs (continuing throughout each faculty member's career), and students' evaluation of every faculty member's teaching performance each semester (via a student course evaluation questionnaire).

• Because of UMBC's heavy emphasis on "hands-on" experiences for students, our faculty work to connect their own research and teaching with students' interests, leading to substantive faculty/student interaction in labs or to student internships. Each year, large numbers of UMBC students benefit from legislative, legal, administrative, industrial, and community service internships as well as social work and education field placements.

• Despite heightened national competition, UMBC's contracts and grants for research and training continued to grow this past year -- to $47.6 million (a 4.2% increase over $45.7 the prior year), and we expect to achieve $50 million in the current fiscal year -- nearly a 40% increase over two years ago, when our contracts and grants totaled $36.1 million.

• Among our faculty, we have NSF Young Investigators; Fulbright Scholars; NIH Merit Award winners; DuPont Young Professors; National Endowment for the Humanities, Getty Foundation, and Mellon-Pew Fellows; Congressional Fellows; Cottrell and Dreyfus Foundation Scholars; the Carnegie Foundation's Maryland Professor of the Year; and the winner of the Marraro Prize for literature on Italian History (the leading award in the field).

• UMBC biochemist Michael Summers, the only Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator at a public campus in Maryland, directs UMBC's HHMI Laboratory, which is determining the 3-dimensional structures of key components of the AIDS virus and developing new therapeutic approaches for treating AIDS. The projected revenues associated with this long-term grant total $40,000,000 and support research infrastructure (facilities and equipment) as well as associated researchers and students (graduate and undergraduate). Dr. Summers has forged active partnerships with several companies and agencies, including Ayer Pharmaceuticals, Scheering Plough Pharmaceuticals, Guilford Pharmaceuticals, and the National Institutes of Health.

CONNECTIONS

Beyond the campus, the community sees UMBC increasingly as a model university for developing partnerships in economic development and service. These partnerships allow us to combine our public responsibility with our technical and policy expertise -- from (1) providing computer training programs to dozens of companies and (2) offering bio-regulatory training courses to corporate and agency professionals, to (3) offering math and science tutoring and instruction in chess in Baltimore City and County public schools.

Economic Development

• We are particularly excited about the success of our Technology Center (acquired two years ago from Lockheed Martin). The complex is located on I-95, just minutes from campus and BWI Airport, and within view of thousands of north- and southbound travelers daily. This impressive complex includes five buildings located on 30 acres and houses approximately 170,000 square feet of research, office, and conference facilities. The facility is 99% leased and houses emerging biotech and infotech companies employing over 200 workers.

  UMBC is grateful to the Governor, General Assembly, Department of Business & Economic Development, and Baltimore County for their strong support during the acquisition process. The Technology Center is a visible example of UMBC's collaboration with business and government in the interest of economic development and enhancing the region's quality of life.

• Also housed in the Technology Center is our business incubator for small, brand-new biotech and infotech companies. While working to become mature businesses, these incubator companies benefit from a variety of university resources (e.g., low-cost office/laboratory 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).

• UMBC is making substantial progress in developing its Research Park. Its infrastructure was completed this year, and the Research Park Corporation is now aggressively negotiating to identify a developer to begin construction of the first building later this year. Through cooperative research and training, the Park will provide significant competitive advantages to both the companies locating there and the University. Anticipated economic benefits include the addition of hundreds of professional and technical personnel on-site and substantial annual county real estate taxes. The Park will encourage technology development and transfer, collaborative research-and-development and training, and new employment opportunities for students and graduates.

• UMBC is collaborating with the Department of Business & Economic Development, other USM campuses, and Johns Hopkins University on the Maryland Applied Information Technology Initiative (MAITI). One of MAITI's primary objectives is eliminating the gap between the State's information-technology workforce needs and insufficient numbers of graduates in these areas from Maryland colleges and universities. Each year, UMBC typically produces the largest number of graduates in computer science and information systems among public and private institutions in the State. In fact, UMBC ranks first nationally among research universities in computer-science degree production, based on the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education (UMBC is followed by Hopkins, NYU, George Mason, Pittsburgh, Texas-Austin, Illinois-Urbana, and Stanford).

• We continue building multi-level partnerships with NASA-Goddard, through the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, and with the National Security Agency in optical communications (NSA has donated substantial scholarship funds and computing equipment).

• UMBC's growing corporate support is due in part to efforts by our Board of Visitors, which includes many of Maryland's leaders. The Board has helped us expand our strategic alliances with various companies -- BGE, Becton Dickinson, RWD Technologies, Danaher Corporation, and Texaco, for example -- producing internships and scholarships for students, financial support for labs, and research collaboration.

• Our partnerships involving technology transfer and commercialization of faculty inventions have enormous potential for contributing to economic development and garnering new resources for the campus. In just the past three years faculty research has resulted in 51 invention disclosures and 29 patent applications being filed.

Private Giving

• This past year, UMBC launched the $50-million Campaign for UMBC to build endowment support for student scholarships, faculty research, endowed professorships, faculty and staff development, and other programmatic initiatives. The campus has already raised $31 million -- over 60% of its five-year campaign goal -- including seven $1-million gifts supporting programs ranging from the sciences and engineering to the arts and community service.

• This past year, our partnerships reflected substantial private investment in the campus by corporations, foundations, alumni, faculty, and staff. Total private giving totaled nearly $11 million (the third highest total among USM campuses and a 22% increase over the previous year's $9.0-million total).

Service

• UMBC's partnerships with public agencies are flourishing, from outreach to the schools throughout the State to our ongoing collaboration with State agencies, including the Maryland State Department of Education, the Department of Juvenile Services, and the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

• UMBC's nationally recognized, multi-million-dollar Shriver Center continues to provide applied experiences each year for nearly 1,000 students through internships, co-ops, and community service positions at 500 organizations in the U.S. and in 50 countries.

• UMBC's Center for Health Program Development & Management is providing high-quality services to the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene not available within the Department. These range, for example, from (1) sophisticated studies and (2) major Federal waiver applications to (3) managing large data files used to evaluate program costs and quality and (4) overseeing clinical case management aimed at controlling costs and improving quality of care for Maryland's highest-risk, highest-cost Medicaid patients.

UMBC'S DIVERSITY: A NATIONAL MODEL

UMBC is seen throughout the country as a national model for educating all types of students in the arts and sciences and engineering. Attention we have received from NIH, NSF, NASA, the White House, the National Research Council, American Council on Education, Pew Charitable Trust, and others confirms that we are on the proper course and moving rapidly. We are excited about becoming a university that attracts and supports the best and the brightest in the nation.

• UMBC is an historically diverse institution, distinguishing us from many colleges and universities in the country. Our diversity is an integral part of the University's fabric.

• We see today an even richer diversity among our students, faculty, and staff. Students have come to UMBC from every jurisdiction in Maryland, 45 states, and 80 other nations. Thirty-two percent are minority (15% African American, 14% Asian, and 3% Hispanic and Native American). Further, 20% of our faculty and 27% of our staff are minority.

• UMBC has gained national recognition for its success with minorities and women in science. The University was one of six institutions nationally to receive the first annual U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, made in 1996 by the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy and NSF.

• More recently, the former Presidents of Harvard and Princeton cited UMBC for its success in educating minorities in their highly acclaimed book, The Shape of the River (1998), focusing on the positive influence and outcomes of diversity in higher education.

• NSF has indicated UMBC has one of the largest concentrations of bright African American students majoring in science anywhere in the U.S. In fact, the Washington Post reported this past year that UMBC is the only Maryland institution ranked in the top 15 nationally in producing African Americans going on to medical school. Further, a recent study published in the Journal of Science Education & Technology reported that UMBC and the College Park campus are the top two predominantly white institutions in the nation producing African Americans going on to earn science and engineering Ph.D.s.

• The Meyerhoff Scholars Program currently enrolls 205 students in a broad range of scientific and technical fields, and 144 Meyerhoff graduates are now pursuing graduate and professional degrees in the sciences at many of the nation's finest universities.

SUMMARY OF FY 2000 BUDGET REQUEST

Operating Budget

The U.S.M. Board of Regents and the Governor have shown a significant vote of confidence in UMBC through the General Fund Support recommendation for the campus this year. The operating overview included in the legislative analyst's report outlines the campus' FY 2000 budget. UMBC's budget reflects the campus' commitment to deliver high quality instruction, particularly in the science and technology disciplines. UMBC is successfully providing the quality in undergraduate and graduate programs that Maryland employers demand. UMBCs' funding allocation begins addressing our campus' historical under funding and expensive mission, although it does not fully offset the disparity between our funding and that of our current peers.

Our success in increasing regional and national recognition for the University has meant an increase in the number of talented students applying, which in turn has created heightened demands on campus infrastructure and faculty and staff resources. As a result, any cut to the public higher education budget will have a negative impact on the campus' ability to deliver instruction, particularly in critical science and technology areas. Today, UMBC is about 200 FTE students over the projected FY2000 budget request currently before you and student applications for next fall are 800 ahead of last year at this date. Continuing workforce demands, addressed in part by the Governor's expanding student scholarship programs, will only increase instructional demands on the campus at a time when classroom space, laboratories, equipment and faculty are already at a premium.

Ninety percent of UMBC's undergraduate students are Maryland residents. I ask the General Assembly to help UMBC meet the needs of these students, their families and the Maryland businesses that will employ them. UMBC's FY 2000 budget supports enhancement for undergraduate education, technology and much needed support services including the following:

Undergraduate Education

Special attention will be paid to achieving UMBC's goal of stimulating intellectual engagement through research experiences for undergraduates. These students will be better prepared to enter the workforce upon graduation or to continue their training in graduate and professional schools. This priority is a natural component of UMBC's mission as a research university with a particular emphasis on undergraduate education.

UMBC currently produces hundreds of graduates each year in science, engineering, and other technical areas. The current funding request will enable us to continue responding to the State's workforce needs in these areas, to recruit and retain high-quality faculty, expand course offerings, and provide more internship experiences for undergraduates. The campus will be adding funds for 15 faculty lines, instructional operating support, scholarship support, and staffing and operational support of student services. This undergraduate initiative is intended to provide new faculty and operating expenses in areas central to our mission, including Computer Science/Electrical Engineering and Information Systems. Enrollments in these areas have increased more than 50% since 1993, from approximately 1,300 to more than 2,000, reflecting undergraduate and graduate student growth and our new program in Computer Engineering. We expect similar, if not greater, growth over the next several years, particularly in our high demand majors. This growth will be further fueled by the Governor's scholarship initiatives and the commitment of the MAITI program to double the number of science, engineering and technology graduates in the State.

It is significant that UMBC's success in integrating technology is not limited to science and engineering, but extends across the curriculum, including the arts, humanities and social sciences -- from programs in Visual Arts (e.g., our Imaging Research Lab, used by undergraduates and graduate students in our M.F.A. program in Imaging & Digital Arts) to Modern Languages & Linguistics (our new International Media Center) and Geography (our Geographic Information Systems Lab).

Research & Graduate Education

Research and graduate education are fundamental components of UMBC's mission. To capitalize on the increased visibility of and interest in UMBC's graduate programs, especially those in the sciences, engineering, and public policy, the campus needs to increase its complement of graduate assistantships. Additional assistantships will permit us to compete more effectively for high-quality graduate students, enabling them to complete their degrees, and increase the number of students earning degrees in fields that meet identified State workforce needs. Additional resources will be used to enhance the Kuhn Library by adding to its subscription and book holdings and participate in the next upgrade of LIMS (Library Information Management System).

Information & Telecommunications Technology

UMBC's information-technology needs reflect (1) the special science-and-technology emphasis of our mission, (2) our existing strengths in these areas, and (3) our growing efforts to respond to Maryland's workforce needs both by producing an even larger portion of the State's IT graduates than we already do by providing state-of-the-art industry training in and science and technology. We must continue investing in an infrastructure that (1) meets students' programmatic and service-related needs, (2) supports faculty research, and (3) permits staff to work effectively and efficiently. Correspondingly, we need to invest in (1) technology-enhanced learning, (2) network infrastructure, and (3) administrative applications. We will continue integrating technology into program-delivery by upgrading classrooms and labs for multimedia and computer-based instruction. We also will work to make more of UMBC's academic program available via the Internet. For such initiatives to succeed, we must effectively incorporate technology both as a teaching tool in the curriculum and throughout the campus. Therefore, we are requesting 6 positions and operating funds to enhance technology in the classroom and strengthen our student-information and financial-management support systems.

Capital Budget

The Governor's proposed FY 2000 capital budget for UMBC includes two projects: (1) Central Power Plant and (2) Chemistry/Physics Building Renovations/Alterations.

Central Plant
FY 2000 $ 160,000

We are requesting funds to equip the office and the addition with standard equipment and furnishings, and to provide additional support equipment (UPS system) required to ensure the building's and built-in equipment's functionality. Construction, which began on June 30, 1998, is 50% complete. The chilled water storage tank located adjacent to the building addition is approximately 78% complete. The chilled-water tank (1,500,000 gallons) provides an opportunity to reduce operating expenses by producing chilled water at night, for use the next day. The projected completion date for the entire project is December, 1999.

Chemistry/Physics Renovations/Alternations
FY 2000 $ 565,000

The original building, constructed in 1971, has never had major capital renovation. Rather, it has been renovated "as needed" using facility renewal funds and as dictated by changing teaching and research methods. The building currently houses two departments: Chemistry & Biochemistry and Physics. With the opening of the new Science I (Physics) Building, next month the spaces vacated by the Physics Department will be available for renovation to accommodate the growing Chemistry Department. Renovations are planned for laboratories, offices, teaching labs, plumbing, lighting, telecommunications, and HVAC. To the extent possible, reuse of existing benches, equipment, and other built-ins will be integrated into the project. Further, over-sized corridor spaces will be recaptured for use, and energy-saving measures will be implemented. The interior layout design will be as modular as possible, depending upon size-and-building constraints. This modular approach will ensure future flexibility in the building's use. Growing enrollments and modern teaching methodologies make this project a high priority for the Campus.

 

RESPONSE to LEGISLATIVE ANALYST'S COMMENTS
Update on the Status of the New Residence Hall Project

The new residence hall will be located adjacent to the library, on the site that was formally occupied by the old barns that were used as physical plant shops. The barns have been removed and construction on the residence hall has begun. The project is currently on schedule to meet the targeted completion date of mid-August.

Graphs (click here to see all)

Major Awards to UMBC Faculty	Technology Development
Meeting Workforce Needs	Freshman SAT Scores
Private Support	Research Grants and Contracts Awarded

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