UMBC: About UMBC

Introduction

Each year at this time, we gather as a community to take stock of our progress and challenges. This is an especially important year in our development because of the challenges posed by global, national, and State economic adversity. During such periods, we come to know the character of people and of institutions. UMBC has faced adversity before, and each time, through our actions, we have shown what is most important to us. In each communication about budget developments this year, we have focused on two fundamental guiding principles – protecting the academic program and supporting people, including our students, faculty, and staff.

These guiding principles have framed our discussions among campus leaders in recent months and at our annual campus retreat the past two days. Given the economic climate, we focused on collaborative steps we can take to continue making progress on our two most important strategic goals: providing a distinctive undergraduate experience and building research and graduate education. More specifically, we discussed four areas critical to achieving these strategic goals: student retention and graduation rates; infrastructure supporting research, scholarship, and creative activity; the environment and sustainability; and campus safety and security. We left the retreat not only with a clearer picture of our budgetary challenges, but also with a renewed sense of purpose and commitment, and feeling stronger in spirit than ever before as an institution.

One of the reasons for our resilience and strength, despite the difficult times, is the stability of our faculty and staff, coupled with our ability to attract outstanding new talent nationally. Many of you here today have given your careers – your professional lives – to this institution over a number of years. You know we have weathered tough times before. Others are relatively new to UMBC, attracted in recent years by our growing national reputation for excellence in teaching and research, and for being a vibrant, diverse, and supportive community.

This past year has been remarkable in terms of campus leaders coming together to respond to the budget situation, and I want to thank the Faculty Senate’s immediate past President, Terry Worchesky, and current President Tim Topoleski for their support and active engagement through shared governance. We also are grateful to our Staff Senates, including last year’s and this year’s Professional Staff Senate Presidents, Anne Roland and Rehana Shafi, and Non-Exempt Staff Senate President Michael Dick, whose presidency spans both years.

Fiscal Update

I am beginning this report on the state of the University with our budget, which is foremost on everyone’s mind. All of us have been reading and hearing news reports about declining State revenues and steps the Governor is considering to address the ongoing situation. First, it’s important to point out that over the past couple years, the Governor, working with Chancellor Kirwan, has consistently shown his support of higher education and the University System by reducing the System’s budget by smaller percentages than the budgets of most other State agencies. It’s clear the Governor and other State officials recognize the long-term value of investing in higher education. Nevertheless, as State revenues have shrunk, the System’s budget has been reduced. For UMBC, this has meant a cumulative reduction since FY 2008 of nearly $11.5 million ($1 million in FY-08, $5.9 million in FY-09, and $4.5 million this year to date). These cuts have included one-time reductions totaling $2 million (including furloughs) and reductions in our fund balance of approximately $4.5 million. Together, these two approaches represent nearly 60 percent of the $11.5 million reduction in recent years. Our base budget has been cut by approximately $5 million. It’s also important to see the “big picture” and to put the budget cuts in perspective. This year’s reductions totaling $4.5 million to date represent approximately 1.3 percent of our total operating budget of about $345 million – more than a third of a billion dollars – including funds from State, Federal, and other sources. Again, I cite these figures not to paint a rosy picture, but rather to put them in perspective. And I should point out that the System continues discussions with the Governor’s Office about additional cuts in the light of the Governor’s comments this past weekend regarding the likely shortfall of nearly $500 million more in State revenues this year.

Throughout this period, campus leaders and I have been working together constantly – analyzing the reductions and weighing campus options to minimize their impact on academic programs and people. As you know, we have had to make some very difficult decisions, including having to lay off 22 staff, eliminating about 40 unfilled positions, implementing furloughs and an ongoing hiring freeze, reducing financial assistance to students ($200,000 thus far), and deferring more than a million dollars in badly needed facilities renewal projects. Campus leaders will continue working together, relying on our system of shared governance, to address persistent budget challenges – always with the academic program and people in mind.

Enrollments & Programs

Given the budget cuts to date, and the possibility of further reductions, it’s more important than ever to meet our projected enrollments, which generate essential revenues. It’s encouraging to report that fall enrollments are healthy, reflecting strong recruitment and retention efforts and our work to build several academic programs approved the past couple of years. We have widely promoted UMBC’s selection by U.S. News Best Colleges Guide as one of the nation’s top five “Up-and-Coming” national campuses, and by Princeton Review as a “Best Value” campus.

Regarding this year’s student body, we will again enroll more than 12,000 students, including approximately 1,550 new freshmen – virtually the same number of new freshmen we enrolled a year ago. The new class, one of our largest ever, includes National Merit and National Achievement Scholars, Regents and Maryland Distinguished Scholars, and a number of valedictorians. Overall, we have students from every state and nearly 150 countries, and we are sending many abroad to study throughout the world. We’re also enrolling roughly 1,100 new transfers (a five-percent increase over fall 2008). Our residence halls are at capacity, housing nearly 4,000 students, including three-quarters of all new freshmen and almost half of our full-time undergraduates. (Our Residential Life staff received the Association of College & University Housing Officers’ Outstanding Service Award, presented each year to one institution for its contributions to the profession.) We also are expecting an increase in graduate enrollment (above the 2,650 graduate students who enrolled a year ago). We anticipate approximately 1,000 new graduate students, including substantial numbers of domestic students, women, and international students. It’s especially significant that graduate enrollment has grown by more than 80 percent over the past decade and is approaching a quarter of our total enrollment. Our new students show great promise, and we’re committed to helping them succeed.

We also have worked to build strong foundations for recently launched undergraduate programs in Media & Communications Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, Management of Aging Services, Public Health (Health Administration & Policy), and Game Development (Computer Science), as well as graduate programs in Aging Services, Geography & Environmental Systems, and Systems Engineering. Moreover, the Continuing & Professional Studies division plays a vital role, working with Deans and Department Chairs, by attracting more than 300 students in programs offered at Shady Grove, including bachelor’s programs in History, Political Science, Psychology, and Social Work, applied master’s programs in Geographic Information Systems and Industrial & Organizational Psychology, and corporate training programs taught by UMBC Training Centers. The division also is planning for new enrollments with a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) grant.

Capital Projects and the Environment

The FY 2008 capital budget appropriation of $2.7 million has enabled us to plan and design the new Performing Arts and Humanities Facility, our number-one capital priority. Faculty, staff, and students have contributed substantially to the design process, and we’re requesting construction funds in FY 2011 and hope to break ground in summer 2010. The facility will be another major milestone in the campus’s physical transformation, which, over the past decade-and-a-half, has included adding new buildings in engineering and information technology, physics, and public policy; renovating our biology and chemistry facilities; adding more than three-quarters of a million square feet of new space for student apartments, the Commons, an addition to the Retriever Activities Center, and new athletic field and stadium facilities. Let me commend our Facilities Management staff on the overall appearance of the campus and the great job they do maintaining our facilities.

Earlier this year, we also completed construction of another new building in the research park, housing Erickson Corporation’s IT operations and new Retirement Living TV network. The new facility is the last of five buildings located in the park, including two completed this past year – the U.S. Geological Survey’s Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Water Science Center and a multi-tenant facility housing engineering, IT, and life-science firms. Our research park tenants continue offering excellent work opportunities for students and collaborations for faculty. The park is part of bwtech@UMBC Research & Technology Park, which also includes our South Campus business-incubator facilities (located adjacent to I-95). In total, bwtech@UMBC houses approximately 50 companies in different stages of development and employing approximately 1,250 staff and 125 students (internships and full-time positions). bwtech@UMBC also is a catalyst for distinctive entrepreneurial programs, including, for example, ACTiVATE, which for the past five years has trained nearly 100 mid-career women with significant business and/or technical experience, who have gone on to launch 25 new technology companies. Recently, ACTiVATE received a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to launch a technology entrepreneurship partnership with the National Institutes of Health in which women entrepreneurs with ACTiVATE will work with NIH scientists and the agency’s technology transfer office to convert scientific studies into startup companies.

With the campus’s expansion in recent years – the result of both State-funded capital improvements and building out the research park – we have paid increasing attention to the environmental impact of our actions on the campus landscape, building on our strengths in environmental education and research initiatives. Two years ago, I joined several hundred presidents in signing the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment to express our concern about global warming. I also appointed our Climate Change Task Force, co-chaired by Economics Professor Virginia McConnell and Administration & Finance Vice President Lynne Schaefer. The Task Force has been spearheading our efforts to reduce greenhouse gases in order eventually to achieve climate neutrality. The Task Force has been busy this year, completing both an inventory of the campus’s greenhouse gas emissions and a campus energy audit (which resulted in signing a contract with Noresco, an energy services contractor, to finance and complete several energy saving projects on campus), and launching the campus’s sustainability website. We also are on schedule to complete our Climate Action Plan in mid-September, the long-term plan which will guide us in the years ahead as we work to achieve climate neutrality (i.e., zero carbon footprint). Also, we’ve been designing our new Performing Arts & Humanities Facility to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) certification, which involves meeting rigorous standards for environmentally sustainable construction. We are very fortunate to have so many faculty in wide-ranging fields with expertise in environmental and earth sciences research and education, many of whom serve on the Environmental Council, an ad-hoc group of faculty experts led by Economics Professor Scott Farrow. Faculty also were instrumental in UMBC’s successful participation in the National Teach-In on Global Warming this past February. Faculty across disciplines – from Economics, Anthropology, and English to Biological Sciences, Geography, and Physics – integrated climate-change themes into their courses. The Teach-In also included an environmental fair featuring local green businesses and sustainability efforts, as well as a panel discussion moderated by Dr. Ray Hoff, Director of our Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, which focused on “Planet in Peril: Responses to Climate Change.”

Student Achievements

Our 2009 graduates were a particularly impressive group, winning a variety of awards and going on in large numbers to top graduate schools and promising professional careers. They include a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Gilliam Fellow, a MERCK Undergraduate Scholar, and several NSF Graduate Research Fellows who’ll be studying at Duke, Northwestern, UCal-San Diego, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Other graduates are beginning doctoral and professional programs at top schools across the nation – from Princeton in chemical physics, Hopkins in medicine, George Washington University in international affairs, and Duke in law and environmental science, to NYU in art history, Penn in biomedical engineering and vaccine development, Baylor Medical School in neurobiology, and the Universities of Illinois and Colorado in mathematics. Other graduates are launching careers with a variety of public school systems in Maryland and beyond and with major companies, agencies, and foundations – from ExxonMobil, Microsoft, and Lockheed Martin to the U.S. State Department and the Social Security Administration.

This was another banner year for UMBC students participating in intellectual and athletic competitions. Our irrepressible Chess Team again won the “Final Four” of college chess, taking the 2009 President’s Cup for the fifth time in the past nine years. Our student chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), a club of hands-on engineering students who design, build, and run an off-road vehicle in endurance races, finished seventh out of 100 student teams at the Baja East championship in Auburn, Alabama, finishing ahead of teams from Georgia Tech, Hopkins, Cornell, Bucknell, Virginia Tech, and other fine schools. Our intercollegiate athletics program and student-athletes also had another outstanding year. Their performance in recent years has made all of us “Retriever Believers.” Athletic Director Charlie Brown and his staff have every reason to be very proud. The men’s lacrosse team, which included four “All Americans,” again won the America East conference championship and participated this June in the 2009 International Friendship Games in Japan. The men’s swimming and diving team also claimed the America East championship, and the men’s basketball team advanced to the finals of the conference tournament. Academically, our student-athletes continue to distinguish themselves. Women’s tennis standout Cornelia Carapcea was a 2009 co-salutatorian, graduating with a perfect 4.00 gpa while double-majoring in Information Systems and Financial Economics. She also was one of three student-athletes inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, along with Cliff Bridges (track and field), and Sarah Ball (volleyball). Also, the women’s volleyball team, with one of the highest team grade point averages in the nation, was recognized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association with an award for academic achievement. And overall, approximately half of all student-athletes had gpas for the year of 3.0 or higher.

We also are attracting increasing national attention as a model for producing minority science-and-engineering graduates. In June, Science, the leading journal of scientific research, news, and commentary, recognized UMBC and UCal-Berkeley as America’s two preeminent institutions in this area. In fact, Science noted that the University of Michigan, Cornell, and Louisiana State University are replicating aspects of the UMBC and Berkeley programs. Morehouse College, in Atlanta, also has modeled its program for high-achieving students in science after UMBC’s Meyerhoff Program. Because of our success in this area, I’ve had the honor this year of chairing the National Academies’ Committee on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science & Engineering Workforce Pipeline. What’s particularly significant about UMBC’s work in this area is that the lessons we’ve learned are benefiting all of our students and are being noticed nationwide. Moreover, our success in both attracting outstanding students from all backgrounds and helping them succeed academically is why The Princeton Review, in its rankings of U.S. colleges, The Best 368 Colleges: 2009 Edition, ranks UMBC second among the nation’s “Most Diverse Student Populations,” taking into account not only the statistical diversity of our student body (38 percent), but also survey responses from students and administrators. Yet, we recognize the need as a community to be even more inclusive as we think about representation of different groups among the faculty, staff, and students. For example, we have instituted special efforts to increase the number of Latino students, and the results have been positive (e.g., a 45-percent increase in the number of Latino freshmen this past fall, from 42 to 61, and hopefully a similar increase this fall). The campus also is in the process of conducting a pilot study, involving focus-group discussions, to help us understand more fully the experiences and perspectives of students from a variety of backgrounds, identities, and orientations.

Faculty & Staff Achievements

Our faculty also have distinguished themselves this year. In the spring, for example, we recognized Presidential Teaching and Research Professors Ramachandra (Ram) Hosmane, in Chemistry & Biochemistry, and Tom Cronin, in Biological Sciences, whose work reflects the faculty’s commitment to students in the classroom, to research, and to mentoring. Regents’ Faculty Award recipients included Taryn Bayles, in Chemical Engineering, who received the Regents’ Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring, and Jason Loviglio, in American Studies and Media & Communication Studies, who received the Regents’ Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching. Cheryl Miller, in Public Policy and Political Science, received the President’s Commission for Women Achievement Award.

Other faculty earning prestigious awards include Kate Brown, in History, who received a Guggenheim Fellowship to complete her research and book, Enriched by Plutonium, on the secret manufacture of deadly plutonium in two cities – one American, one Russian. We also had two Fulbright Award recipients, Stephen Miller, in Biological Sciences, who will be collaborating with the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and Brian Maguire, in Emergency Health Services, who will extend his research on protecting first-responders to Australia. Other awardees include Theodosia Gougousi, in Physics, and Haijun Su, in Mechanical Engineering, who both won NSF Career Awards this year; Theresa Good, in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, who was elected a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering; Gary Carter, in Computer Science & Electrical Engineering (CSEE), who became a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers; and Curtis Menyuk, also in CSEE, who was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. The list of other faculty receiving awards and fellowships across the full spectrum of disciplines is too long to include in my remarks; immediately attached are additional examples.

Several staff members also were recognized for their work this year. The Regents recognized Ralph Murphy, in Biological Sciences, with the Regents’ Staff Award for Exceptional Contribution to the Institution. Our own Presidential Distinguished Staff Award winners this year include Sandy Campbell (Professional Staff), in Institutional Advancement, and Sue McMillian (Non-Exempt Staff), in the Provost’s Office. Lorie Logan-Bennett, in the Career Services Center, received this year’s Jakubik Family Endowment Staff Award. Ellen Hemmerly, Executive Director of the Research Park Corporation, and Diane Lee, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, were selected as two of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record. Ellen also was one of 25 winners of the 2009 SmartCEO Brava! Women in Business Achievement Awards. It’s also significant that dozens of UMBC staff members, both Professional and Non-Exempt, completed university degrees; earned professional, trade, or industry certifications; were elected officials in their professional, trade, or industry associations; and presented at professional conferences. Kudos to all of our award-winning faculty and staff.

Research & Sponsored Programs

Another major priority this year, and in the future, is to continue expanding our research portfolio and increasing our sponsored programs, which totaled approximately $89 million this past fiscal year. Faculty and staff have built strong relationships with external partners – from NASA, NSF, and NIH to the U.S. Department of Education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, and other research universities. These partnerships not only produce funding and major research-and-training opportunities for faculty and students, but also contribute to our rising national reputation. In Federal funding, NASA remains our largest source, and we continue to rank second nationally in NASA university research grants and cooperative agreements. NSF and NIH are our next two heaviest supporters. And despite the national economy’s downturn, we are hopeful of increasing our Federal contracts and grants this year, having already submitted 70 new proposals in response to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Our research success depends increasingly on multi-disciplinary approaches and the work of our centers, including the Goddard Earth Science & Technology Center (GEST), the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), our Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) lab, the Center for Research & Exploration in Space Science & Technology (CRESST), the Joint Center for Astrophysics, our NSF Engineering Research Center with Princeton, Hopkins, Rice, and others, the Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research (CASPR), and the Center for Urban Environmental Research & Education (CUERE). Some indications of our emergence as a leader in environmental sciences include the fact that Science Watch, which monitors worldwide trends and performance in basic research, ranks our faculty third in the number of geosciences publications and citations, and JCET’s U.S. Air Quality Smog Blog, a daily diary interpreting and analyzing air quality across America using data from NASA satellites, EPA monitoring networks, and other data sources.

In an initiative launched this past year, UMBC leads a multi-campus team on a $7.5-million, five-year Multi-Disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. The UMBC group is collaborating with colleagues from Purdue and the Universities of Illinois, Michigan, and Texas to translate recommendations by the 9-11 Commission for more effectively sharing classified information into a technology network that both works well and is secure. Also, responding to growing demand by Federal and company labs for access to advanced scientific equipment, we’ve been successful in creating core research facilities in proteomics, scientific imaging, photonics, and high-performance computing (Multicore Computational Center, MC2, in partnership with IBM) that can be shared by scientists and engineers. In a recent development, UMBC received a five-year, $1.3 million award from NSF to establish the Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research, in which we are the lead institution with Georgia Tech and UCal-San Diego participating as co-sites. The campus also recently received two awards to fund numerous research assistantships in Biological Sciences and Physics through the U.S. Department of Education’s GAANN (Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need) program.

Other significant funding and partnering success stories include a variety of initiatives ranging from K-16 math-science education to history and the arts. These initiatives involve our Imaging Research Center, Center for History Education, Center for Art, Design & Visual Culture, the Hilltop Institute (formerly the Center for Health Program Development & Management), the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis & Research, and the Choice Program and other Shriver Center activities. Also, I’m very pleased to announce that Scott Farrow, in Economics, just received a $200,000 MacArthur Foundation grant to launch the journal of the new Society of Benefit-Cost Analysis.

For our work involving diversity, we continue to receive national visibility, particularly for successful initiatives focused on women and minorities in science and engineering – from WISE (our Women in Science & Engineering program), ADVANCE (our NSF program for recruiting and advancing women faculty), and CWIT (our Center for Women & Information Technology), to the McNair and Meyerhoff undergraduate and graduate Scholars Programs for preparing minority researchers, and our PROMISE and AGEP (Alliance for Graduate Education & the Professoriate) programs to increase the numbers of minority graduate students in STEM fields. Significantly, we are one of the nation’s few campuses where women hold the majority of tenure-track positions in chemical and biochemical engineering. More generally, since 2000, when WISE was launched, the number of women faculty in STEM departments has more than doubled (from 20 to more than 40) with at least a doubling in all ranks.

Fundraising & “Friend-raising”

In the light of all these positive developments, and despite the challenging economic times, we have held our own this year in both fundraising and “friend-raising.” During FY-09, we raised more than $10.3 million, including major gifts from the Erickson Foundation, the Robert & Jane Meyerhoff Foundation, the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and IBM. Moreover, we have raised more than $99 million toward our $100-million goal for the seven-year Campaign for UMBC, which we expect to reach this fall. During the campaign, we have been building endowment support across all of our disciplines, reflecting our campaign priorities including student scholarships, fellowships, and internships, faculty development and research, and endowed chairs and professorships. While our endowment total today of $45 million reflects the market’s tumble and a 25-percent decline from a year ago, the decline is actually less than that experienced by many universities because of astute financial management by the USM Foundation. It’s also significant that despite the decline, our total endowment is still greater than it was three years ago ($43 million) and compares very favorably to the $3.5 million total in 1996. Moreover, it’s very encouraging that donors with outstanding pledges are continuing to meet their commitments and pay into the endowment. We also are working to engage alumni more fully in the life of the campus and to develop a strong foundation of alumni giving. It was particularly instructive to listen to alumni at the retreat talk about their experiences here at the University and hear their suggestions about getting alumni back to campus. The new UMBC Magazine has been well received and has created excitement among alumni and other members of the University community. In fact, the magazine received the University & College Designers Association’s Award of Excellence – all the more notable because its designers are all UMBC alumni. Creating a culture of philanthropy is critical in our development, and all of us have a role to play. I especially want to thank faculty and staff who have supported the Campaign for your generous spirit.

We also are attracting to campus a constant stream of people eager to learn about us. This past year, again, we’ve welcomed leaders of national agencies, corporations, foundations, other major universities, and school systems. And our faculty, staff, and students have traveled extensively, speaking about their own interests and experiences, and also about the UMBC experience. More and more people are learning about us.

National Visibility

Our achievements continue to increase our visibility, including more attention in the national media. Most exciting, U.S. News & World Report’s just-released Best Colleges Guide ranks UMBC #1 among all “Up and Coming” national universities for having “recently made the most promising and innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus, or facilities.” (A year ago, we ranked fifth in this category.) Also in the latest U.S. News report, we rank among the top five national universities – tied at #4 with Stanford – in the category ranking faculty for their “unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching.” (Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale are the other institutions in the top five in teaching.) Finally, U.S. News includes UMBC in its unranked list of the nation’s top 20 schools in giving students opportunities for “undergraduate research/creative projects” (i.e., “intensive and self-directed research or creative work that results in an original scholarly paper or product that can be formally presented on or off campus”). Others in the top 20 range from Carnegie Mellon, Duke, Georgia Tech, Hopkins, and MIT to Princeton, Stanford, Swarthmore, UCal-Berkeley, UNC-Chapel Hill, and Williams College. Needless to say, these are remarkable achievements for the University and reflect brilliantly on our faculty, students, and staff.

Accountability

As I am quick to point out, external attention and investment require a consistently high degree of accountability to ensure that our image is substantive. With sustained growth in contracts and grants, for example, Federal and State funding agencies are routinely conducting more audits. Therefore, we have been working this year to strengthen post-award policies, processes, and services for external awards. To date, we’ve made improvements to the PeopleSoft systems for better performance and developed a plan for further enhancements; we’ve created a quick reference guide for faculty to use in time-and-effort reporting; and we’ve surveyed different groups to understand the most challenging issues they face related to administering external awards. We also were pleased with the outcomes of this year’s State Legislative Audit, which identified a relatively small number of items to address since the previous State audit in 2006, reflecting our tremendous progress across areas. Finally, University System auditors have continued working with us this past year, helping us strengthen our compliance efforts in a variety of areas. Such regular scrutiny reminds us of our responsibility to stay focused on quality, responsiveness, integrity, and accountability.

Also this year, we have continued focusing on three major priorities identified by the Regents and Chancellor Kirwan: (1) closing the achievement gap, which, for UMBC, means reaching parity between the six-year graduation rates of African American and white transfer students, and of transfer students and full-time, first-time freshmen; (2) addressing climate change, on which our Climate Change Task Force is taking the lead; and (3) supporting Maryland’s STEM-related competitiveness, which we are doing in numerous ways, from producing STEM graduates (we have nearly twice the percentage of STEM bachelor’s degree recipients as any other USM campus) and supporting faculty research and technology development, to building STEM-education partnerships with surrounding school systems using major NSF funding.

PeopleSoft Update

PeopleSoft implementation also remains an important administrative priority. We continue making progress, with our systems giving us increasing internal control and transparency in fiscal and personnel management, and greater capability and capacity involving student information – through the Student Administration system’s admissions, financial-aid, student-records, and student-billing modules. We have been well served throughout the implementation process by the project team, academic advisory committee, project governance structure, and our consulting implementation partner. Students and faculty are gaining access through the myUMBC portal to a variety of self-service functions, from class registration, advisement information, and transcripts, to bills, financial aid information, and other features. Our multi-year PeopleSoft initiative now touches virtually every administrative and academic unit, and almost every student, faculty and staff member. Training for users remains an important priority. Again, thanks to all who have worked so hard the past several years to implement these new systems in your units. We continue to appreciate your commitment and positive approach.

Concluding Thoughts

This past year, the UMBC community showed its true character through our successful Maryland Charity Campaign. Despite difficult times, we chose to move beyond ourselves and our problems and to focus on the needs of others. It is this same strength of character that will sustain us during this period. We know how to be constructive and innovative in solving problems. We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.

Now in our fifth decade, we will continue to succeed by continuing to put people first – supporting and guiding students as they learn and grow; supporting faculty in their research and teaching; supporting staff in their work with students and colleagues; and responding to the needs of our growing external constituents.

Whether you’ve been here for decades or recently arrived, you make a difference through your contributions. I’m celebrating my 23rd year on campus this fall and my 18th as President – and I want you to know how much I appreciate the support you have given me throughout the years. We have become not only an Honors University in Maryland, but a distinctive model in American higher education – combining the traditions of the liberal arts academy, the creative intensity of the research university, and the social responsibility of the public university.

As I say every year at this time, it is an honor each day to serve as President. Thank you.

Additional Examples of Faculty Recognition and Awards

Anne Spence, Mechanical Engineering, was appointed by the Governor to the Career & Technology Education Task Force.

Barry Lanham, History, won the National Oral History Association’s prestigious Postsecondary Teaching Award.

Hillol Kargupta, Computer Science & Electrical Engineering, received the IBM Innovation Award for his work on distributed data stream mining.

Andrew Sears, Information Systems, received the IBM Faculty Award for his work on cognitive abilities of an aging workforce.

Tom Field, Modern Languages & Linguistics and Intercultural Communication, was named the Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Kriste Lindenmeyer, History, received the Association of Marquette University Women’s Visiting Chair Fellowship (2011-2012).

Rebecca Boehling, History & Dresher Center for the Humanities, was named an American Institute for Contemporary Studies Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University.

Terry Bouton, History, was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians (2009-2012).

Anindya Roy, Mathematics & Statistics, was appointed Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association.

STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY ADDRESS