INTRODUCTION:
Responding to Challenging Times
My students, colleagues, and I wish to thank the Legislature for the support you and the Governor have given higher education in general, and UMBC in particular, as we work to build capacity and quality. With your help, we have been able to expand student access and success by continuing to strengthen the quality of teaching and research, as well as academic and general support for students. The USM emphasis on effectiveness and efficiency has resulted in our maximizing use of State funds while instituting a variety of accountability measures. The State’s support has been especially significant during this most recent fiscal crisis. We realize that Maryland higher education certainly has been treated more favorably than higher education systems in many other states. We are very encouraged by proposed legislation to continue the State Higher Education Investment Fund and by the long-term higher education funding targets recommended by the Commission to Develop the Maryland Model for Funding Higher Education.
We know that the State is doing all it can in the short term to support our campuses and our students, and we understand the need to participate in the necessary sacrifices – from furloughs to budget cuts. To meet our budget reductions, we have had for some time a general hiring freeze with limited exceptions, which has included not filling positions as vacancies occur, combining staff positions, and implementing selected layoffs among the professional staff. As we work hard to minimize the effect of the budget reductions for students, we must also acknowledge that our campus is stretched. Recent cuts and growing enrollments mean that some services, such as student advising, are being reduced and new programmatic initiatives, such as a quantitative curriculum for life sciences majors, are being postponed. As faculty members have retired or left for other positions, we have not been able to fill some of these vacancies. We are doing our best to provide the courses our students need by using part-time faculty and increasing class size, but in some programs we are able to offer courses required for graduation only one semester per year. The development of science and engineering research facilities has been delayed, reducing our capacity to compete for federal research grants. We have also deferred facilities maintenance and repair projects, adding to a backlog of work that totaled more than $30 million as we entered FY 2009.
To help families in their support of students during this period, we have been active in identifying student jobs on campus (nearly 1,000 students work on campus, not including graduate assistants) and connecting students with part-time employment in the region related to their majors. We also have increased our need-based financial aid pool by 10 percent this year, are offering families payment plans, and have extended the period of time for payment. Finally, we have engaged in entrepreneurial activities, including revenue-generating training courses, additional grant writing to national agencies and private foundations, and fundraising from individuals, foundations, and corporations.
Because of our fiscal challenges, we have had to be even more focused on core priorities, which for us include protecting the academic program and supporting students, faculty, and staff during these difficult times. Most important, even during these difficult times, we have achieved a great deal. I am delighted to report to you on UMBC’s progress and respond to questions you may have regarding our FY 2009 and FY 2010 budgets.
OUR VISION:
Academic Excellence, Economic Development, and Social Vitality
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 recognized among the nation’s research universities because of our emphasis on undergraduate education, reflecting our tradition of linking research and teaching, coupled with our bold vision and entrepreneurial spirit. It is an amazing story that we have come so far so fast, in just 43 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.
My colleagues and students were delighted recently by national rankings recognizing our excellence, value, and diversity. This past fall, U.S. News & World Report ranked UMBC among the top five “Up and Coming” national universities (along with George Mason, Clemson, Southern California, and Arizona State). The Princeton Review recently identified us as one of the nation’s “Best Value” colleges and universities and ranked us second on its “Most Diverse Student Population” list.
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 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 12,270 students (including 9,610 undergraduates and 2,660 graduate students) and employ approximately 1,860 full-time and 380 part-time faculty and staff. Our operating budget is $345 million, including nearly $88 million annually in sponsored funding for research and training. More than 50,000 alumni, nearly three-quarters of whom live and work in Maryland, contribute to the nation’s 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 constantly fueling discoveries and innovation on campus, and increasingly we are building on these strengths in collaboration with others. Our core facilities in mass spectrometry, imaging, and high performance computing support both faculty research and companies. 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 and other partnerships with support from NASA (we now rank second nationally in NASA-funded university research grants and cooperative agreements – Figure: Funding from NASA) 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 Studies), the environment (through our Center for Urban Environmental Research & Education-CUERE), health care (through our Hilltop Institute, formerly the Center for Health Policy Development & Management), and teacher education (through the Center for History Education and the Center for Excellence in STEM Education).
Funding from NASA
FY2006
UMBC researchers are leading a six-university team on a $7.5-million, five-year Assured Information Sharing Lifecycle grant from the U.S. Department of Defense. The UMBC group, collaborating with colleagues from Purdue, the University of Illinois, University of Michigan, and University of Texas at Dallas and San Antonio, is working to translate recommendations by the 9-11 Commission for more effectively sharing classified information into an effective, secure technology network.
A particularly exciting recent partnership with IBM establishes UMBC as a center of excellence in cell computing (the Multicore Computing Center). This initiative is only the second such center in the nation (the first was at Georgia Tech) and 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 those coming to Maryland through the BRAC process. In December, we received a new gift from IBM to support the Center, which is now validating climate change models generated by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Program for Climate Change.
Other exciting partnerships reflect our growing strength and national reputation in earth and environmental science. A recent $3-million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 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. In addition, with support from NSF and NOAA, CUERE has created a Computational & Visualization Lab, a high-tech facility to track environmental changes related to flash floods, follow the movement of road salt through the water system, and monitor the path of nutrients through the urban water cycle to the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Working in collaboration, and with support from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, UMBC, the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) operate the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST), which brings together NASA Goddard researchers and scientists from the Maryland campuses. CRESST research will initially focus on the study of neutron stars, black holes, and extremely hot gas throughout the universe. CRESST also is working to increase involvement of minority and women scientists in space science research and to facilitate university student participation in such research.
We also are excited about having raised more than $5 million to complement an earlier $2-million investment by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, enabling 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 originally selected, along with Arizona State, Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Georgetown, NYU, Purdue, Syracuse, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Hundreds of students a year participate in our Alex. Brown Center courses and programs.
ACTiVATE, another exciting entrepreneurship initiative, is our applied training program for women seeking to become technology entrepreneurs. Since its creation in 2005, 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 92 women and launched more than 25 companies built on technology developed on Maryland campuses and in Federal labs.
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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 136st out of 659 campuses nationally in Federally funded research in science and engineering, up from 200th in 1996 and 141st a year ago (Figure: Federal R&D Expenditures). This leap is especially significant because most other nationally ranked institutions are substantially larger and older (and often include medical centers).
Federal R&D Expenditures
2007
We also have developed special honors programs in the humanities, the arts, and public policy to reflect our strengths in these areas. In fact, we 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 also are one of only two public campuses 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. 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, 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 both the nation is focusing intensely on strengthening its position in the global economy and 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 9,749 (+20%) (Figure: FTE Enrollment); sponsored contracts and grants grew by more than a third, from $64 million to almost $88 million (Figure: Research Grants and Contracts); total degrees conferred per year increased from approximately 1,800 to 2,450 (+36%); and the number of students living on campus increased 62% – from 2,350 to 3,800 – representing nearly half of our full-time undergraduate population and three-quarters of our freshmen.
FTE Enrollment
FY2000 - FY2009
Research Grants and Contracts
FY1998 - FY2008
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 more than $25 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, and strong support from the University System, 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 (38% minority, including 18% Asian, 16% African American, and 4% Hispanic and Native American). The full-time freshman class of 1,557 students includes hundreds of valedictorians and 4.0 students, reflecting our increasing attractiveness to high-achieving students and the success of our special scholars programs—the Humanities, Linehan Artist, Sondheim Public Affairs, Meyerhoff, and Center for Women & Information Technology Scholars programs – and our prestigious Honors College.
The graduate population of approximately 2,660 students includes increased numbers of domestic students (84% of our graduate enrollment), women (55%), and minorities (21%). 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 fall 2008 total headcount enrollment of 12,268 represents an increase of 227 students above our headcount total a year ago and has produced an annual FTE enrollment of 9,749 in FY 2009, 338 above our total in FY 2008 and 242 above our budgeted FY 2009 FTE enrollment target of 9,507. Among our challenges in continuing to build enrollment are UMBC’s relatively small program base (Figure: Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. Programs - UMBC and Peers), 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 for the past two years, with applications for fall 2009 also up substantially.
Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. Programs
UMBC and Peers
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 (2007 to 2008) for full-time freshmen was 87.4 percent, compared to 81.7 in fall 2004 (Figure: Percent of First-Time, Full-Time Freshmen Retained After One Year). It is particularly noteworthy that the latest freshman-to-sophomore retention rate among African American students – 91 percent – is even higher than our overall rate. In addition, our overall fall-to-spring semester freshman retention rate increased from 91.9 percent (fall 2005 to spring 2006) to 93.7 percent (fall 2008 to spring 2009).
Percent of First-Time, Full-Time Freshmen Retained After One Year
Strong transfer student enrollment 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 this past year, we began Maryland’s first chapter of the Tau Sigma National Honor Society.
We also are experiencing considerable growth at Shady Grove, where we offer undergraduate programs in social work, psychology, political science, and history, and graduate degrees in industrial and organizational psychology and geographic information systems.
In doctoral education, we are one of 22 universities (e.g., Cornell, Duke, UCLA, UNC-Chapel Hill, Yale) participating in the Council of Graduate Schools’ Ph.D. Completion Project. UMBC ranks first nationally in public policy Ph.D.s awarded and is among the top three Ph.D.-granting universities in the U.S. in the production of IT degrees at the undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. levels.
Percentage of Bachelor's Degree in Science and Technology
2007
Student Scholarship, Achievement,
and Intellectual Competition
Providing undergraduates with wide-ranging opportunities for research, creative achievement, and intellectual and athletic 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; and several Fulbright winners. Other students have received prestigious awards from the American Mathematics Society and the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of York (England), and we are among the most frequently invited participants in the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival. This past year, UMBC’s National Society of Black Engineers chapter won the National Academic Technical Bowl Competition for the third year in a row. In intercollegiate athletics, our men’s basketball team made University history in 2008 by capturing the America East conference championships and going on to the NCAA Division-I tournament to play Georgetown (our women’s basketball team made its first appearance the previous year in the NCAA Division-I tournament, having won its conference championship). 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. Overall, our student-athletes perform extremely well academically. In fact, in fall 2008, 73 percent had grade point averages 3.0 or higher, including 16 with 4.0s and 81 with 3.5 or higher. And this past December, our much-heralded Chess Team tied for first place in the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Chess Championship and is advancing to the “Final Four” college chess tournament in April.
Thousands of our students have been selected for a variety of prestigious internships, study abroad experiences, and part-time employment often connected to their majors. For example, several of our graduates are studying at Cambridge this year, and four undergraduates were recently selected as U.S. State Department Internship Fellows.
Responsive Program Initiatives
Although UMBC has a narrow program base in comparison to its institutional peers (Figure: Bachelor's, Master's and Ph.D. Programs - UMBC and Peers), we have strategically introduced a small number of programs in recent years that are responsive to student and market demands.
As communication technology becomes increasingly digital, interactive, and pervasive, our new bachelor’s program in Media and Communication Studies represents an exciting, interdisciplinary response to the need for citizens, generally, and the workforce, in particular, to be able to communicate across a range of media and cultural contexts. The program emphasizes critical media literacy and intercultural communication. Some current majors have had internships at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the Discovery Channel, the U.S. House of Representatives, and Comcast Sportsnet.
We also are in the second year of our new undergraduate major in Gender and Women's Studies, an interdisciplinary program that emphasizes the importance of historical, cross-cultural, and international perspectives and critically examines issues of gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, and ability. Graduates will pursue careers in business, education, public service, healthcare, social services, law, politics, and communications.
UMBC's new Games, Animation, and Interactive Media (GAIM) program builds teams of students with arts and computer science backgrounds to learn real-world, industry-ready skills in video game design. The resulting experience can be applied to careers in Maryland's gaming sector or the computer graphics, aerospace, architecture, and healthcare fields, among others. The Baltimore/Washington region is ranked third in the number of computer game companies nationally, and employers are recruiting talented programmers and artists to meet demand.
Well Prepared Graduates
Producing well-prepared graduates for Maryland's workforce is one of UMBC's most important and lasting contributions to economic development. Thousands of physicians, attorneys, teachers, scientists, engineers, IT workers, policy-makers, social workers, artists, and other professionals are among UMBC alumni living and working in the State. NSA, for example, employs hundreds of our 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.
We are partnering with the State on the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Enrollment/Research Business Plan to address the need for more university-level academic programs at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) and Fort Meade. With support from the BRAC Higher Education Investment Fund, UMBC will offer new, hybrid online graduate coursework in electrical engineering and engineering management, as well as noncredit professional and scientific training for relocating professionals. In addition to existing courses and programs in administration and management, business technology administration, engineering, information systems, and project management, we have additional programs in Communications Engineering and Biotechnology, as well as a Contract Administration certificate.
Our Erickson School, highlighted in the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, 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 a few years ago, which matched a $5-million gift from the School’s founding donor, John Erickson. The Erickson School produced its first graduates at the undergraduate and graduate levels this past December. The master’s degree recipients range from the CEO of Broadmead retirement community in Baltimore County to the Director of the Baltimore County Department of Aging. Many of the graduates are already making a difference in the lives of older adults and changing the way society thinks about aging. There are currently 29 students in our Management in Aging Services master’s program, while courses in our Aging Services undergraduate program have attracted more than 150 students. The School’s Executive Education Program now offers 9 courses, and our Center for Aging Studies has attracted $10 million in research funding.
We recently celebrated 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. Hundreds of program graduates, many of whom have earned Ph.D., M.D./Ph.D., M.D., or M.S. degrees, are serving in faculty and post-doctoral research positions at universities throughout the country – from Harvard to Duke – or working as researchers in companies ranging from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Becton Dickinson to Rohm & Hass.
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FACULTY
UMBC has 483 State-supported full-time faculty members who teach and conduct research, 231 full-time research faculty funded from contracts and grants, and 304 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 the faculty’s 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: Average Awards Per Year Per 100 Faculty). In fact, UMBC has recently had several Fulbright Scholars, an NIH Presidential Early Career Award winner, a U.S. Department of State Jefferson Science Fellow, Mellon Research Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellow, National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, IEEE Fellow, American Physical Society Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow and Mentoring awardee, an Optical Society of America Fellow, American Institute for Medical & Biological Engineering Fellows, IBM Faculty Award and IBM Innovation Award winners, American Council of Learned Societies’ Digital Innovation Fellow, Huntington Library Fellow, an MSDE Outstanding Change Agent Award recipient, and the Maryland Chemist of the Year. Our faculty also are consistently among recipients of the prestigious NSF Career Award for young scientists (including half of our faculty in Chemical & Biochemical Engineering). In fact, from 2004 to 2008, the faculty held more career awards than colleagues at Georgetown, Cal Tech, Brandeis, Tufts, SUNY-Binghamton, and William & Mary. We also ranked 13th in prestigious arts and humanities awards per capita among public universities in the study, The Rise of the American Research University.
Average Awards Per Year Per 100 Faculty
2004 - 2008
UMBC is playing a leadership role in helping to increase the number of women professors in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The University's NSF-supported ADVANCE program has helped to double nearly the number of female tenured and tenure-track STEM faculty at UMBC over the past six years.
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. As the budget permits, 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 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 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 by Science Watch for citation impact (the number of times peer professors cite UMBC faculty work in their own research papers). 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. Our Departments of Information Systems and Public Policy were ranked eighth and tenth, respectively, in their fields by Academic Analytics, LLC’s most recent 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 funds, 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 only 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).
Faculty also continue seeking solutions to critical problems involving health and environmental issues. Swedish biotech firm Vironova has licensed patented technology developed in the laboratory of UMBC’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Michael Summers that may lead to new anti-HIV drugs. Computer Science professor Hillol Kargupta won an IBM Innovation Award and grant this fall for research on sensor technology to monitor and adjust aviation emissions. And CUERE senior research scientist Stuart Schwartz is studying pervious concrete, a building material designed to decrease the flow of storm water and pollutants into the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways. In addition, the Erickson School’s Center for Aging Studies has received a $2-million grant from the National Institute on Aging to examine the caregiving needs of older, childless American women who are without familial support.
One reason for the faculty’s rising productivity has been the creation of several research centers. For example, UMBC is collaborating with Princeton in one of just 15 NSF-supported Engineering Research Centers (ERC) in the nation. The ERC is developing engineering technologies using light for ultra-sensitive chemical sensing. 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 research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students and will likely yield new products to protect public health and the environment. Other major research initiatives are being conducted by CUERE, our HHMI Laboratory, Goddard Earth Sciences & Technology (GEST) Center, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), Center for History Education, Center for Art, Design, & Visual Culture, the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (MIPAR), and the Hilltop Institute, which focuses on health care issues.
UMBC has also received a major commitment over five years from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation to support innovative research in UMBC’s Imaging Research Center. The first phase of the commitment involves a two-year project entitled Advanced Research in Collaborative Interactive Online Media. The commitment will make us even more competitive in seeking additional public and private support and will help us attract and retain talented faculty, staff, and students in this area.
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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, NSA, and DBED. Through our Division of Continuing & Professional Studies, we offer individuals and organizations customized credit and non-credit graduate, certificate, and training 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. A $5-million gift from George and Betsy Sherman funds our Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program (which currently enrolls 20 students) to increase the number of STEM graduates who move immediately to public school teaching careers. We also have attracted substantial Federal support for our efforts. One such initiative has involved a $10-million, multi-year grant for a Math-Science Partnership (MSP) among 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. The project has been extended recently with $600,000 in additional NSF funding for UMBC to continue supporting professional development of current STEM teachers. We also have received a $2.2-million grant through the NSF-Discovery Research K-12 Program that bolsters our ability to provide professional development for STEM teachers. In addition, we have received a $750,000 Robert Noyce Teacher Preparation Program grant (Noyce was among the first Silicon Valley scientists) that provides scholarships and customized learning experiences for undergraduates studying to become secondary STEM teachers. Also in STEM education, we serve as the Statewide affiliate for two key MSDE initiatives for generating excitement among K-12 students in STEM disciplines. For one initiative – Project Lead the Way – in which 25 Maryland schools have begun teaching middle school and high school engineering courses, UMBC provides a Professional Development Summer Training program for teachers to become proficient with the engineering curriculum. UMBC also hosts the FIRST (For Inspiration & Recognition of Science & Technology) Lego League Competition, where 600 middle schoolers from across Maryland match wits in hands-on, research-based competition using state-of the art Robotic Lego kits. 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 the work of our Center for History Education, which has won approximately $6 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 to help strengthen history instruction in elementary, middle, and high schools. We also have partnerships with Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Charles, Howard, and Queen Anne’s County Public Schools to provide training programs for scores of teachers in mathematics, science, English, and ESOL, and our Center for Art, Design, & Visual Culture works with area schools to strengthen arts education for K-16 students.
In addition, The Hilltop Institute conducts research, analysis, and evaluation for State and Federal agencies, foundations, and other non-profit organizations. The Institute is nationally recognized for its expertise regarding Medicaid issues and in improving publicly funded health care systems to increase access and positive outcomes for vulnerable populations. Moreover, the 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 daily 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. bwtech@UMBC includes two sites that house approximately 50 biotech and IT/engineering companies: one site, located on the UMBC campus, is a 41-acre acre research park housing established companies; the second site, on our South Campus, is a 30-acre business incubator and accelerator that houses developing firms.
The research park is fully built out with five major facilities, including the 62,500-square-foot RWD Technologies’ Applied Technology Lab, with a staff of 250; a 60,000-square-foot multi-tenant building, completed in fall 2004; 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; a 110,000-square-foot multi-tenant building developed by Corporate Office Properties Trust; and a $20-million building constructed by Erickson Retirement Communities to house its Retirement Living cable television channel and IT division.
Our business incubator and accelerator are located at 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 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. The incubator and accelerator recently received Baltimore County’s 2008 New Directions Award for their contributions to the County's economy.
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.
Success with our licensing efforts has also 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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SUSTAINABILITY
Our campus community is working to address global warming every day. Through our research and academic programs, we are producing knowledge and a generation of new leaders to move the world toward dramatically reduced use of greenhouse gases. I have signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, and the campus community is engaged in a variety of initiatives to reduce our carbon footprint on campus and beyond. Our Climate Change Task Force is developing an action plan (due in fall 2009), and we are keeping the campus and external communities apprised of our plans and environmental research through our sustainability website (www.umbc.edu/sustainability). Our greenhouse gas inventory was completed in fall 2008, and the first phase of a campus energy audit also has been completed. We successfully worked with Maryland’s Department of Budget & Management to plan for and fund LEED certification for our Performing Arts & Humanities Facility. Our Facilities Management department now has two LEED-accredited professional staff members, and a current staff member now serves as associate director of campus energy, utilities, and sustainability.
Earlier this month, we joined with more than 500 universities and other institutions nationwide in conducting a campuswide National Teach-in on Global Warming. We showcased our sustainability initiative and celebrated what the Climate Change Task Force has achieved so far. The Teach-in included open classes on global warming across disciplines; a fair of local “green” businesses, government agencies, and climate action groups; sustainability performing and visual arts works and films; and a panel discussion on action and legislation to avert and respond to climate change. Panelists included Donald Boesch, President of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and Chair of the Governor’s Climate Change Commission; former Maryland Congressman Wayne Gilchrest; and Sarah Zaleski, Coordinator of the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability.
For the third year in a row, we also are participating in Recyclemania, a 10-week annual recycling competition in which more than 400 schools nationwide collect and record the weight of products collected on campus that are about to be recycled. This past year, UMBC captured several second-place awards for its efforts.
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PRIVATE GIVING
I am delighted to report that our fundraising efforts continue to be successful. We completed our first capital campaign in June, 2002, raising $66 million (surpassing our five-year, $50-million goal by nearly a third). In September, 2006, we announced a $100-million capital campaign. Our fundraising goal is the third highest in the System, and we have already raised $95 million toward that goal. Our current endowment (as of December, 2008) is approximately $45 million (down from $59 million at the end of FY 2008, reflecting the market’s recent downturn), which is still 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 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.
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 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.
I also want to note my colleagues’ and students’ strong commitment to giving to help those less fortunate. Even during these difficult economic times, we set institutional records in the 2008 Maryland Charity Campaign with increases greater than 30 percent over the previous year for both the number of donors and contributions. Faculty, staff, and students made 930 gifts to the 2008 campaign totaling $160,000, compared to 703 gifts totaling $123,000 in 2007. Fifty percent of our faculty and staff participated.
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SUMMARY
of FY 2010 Budget Request
Operating Budget
UMBC’s FY 2010 budget request of $349.3 million reflects an increase of $5.3 million (1.5%) over FY 2009. The change is attributable in part to a $1.3-million increase (1.4%) in the State General Fund appropriation, which includes funds to offset a tuition freeze for Maryland resident undergraduate students. Tuition revenue is estimated based on maintaining the same level of enrollment as in FY 2009 of approximately 9,750 FTE. This represents an increase of 338 FTE students over our FY 2008 actual enrollment.
The FY 2010 funding increases are required to meet such mandatory expenses as health care cost increases; higher utility, facilities renewal, insurance and debt-service costs; need-based financial aid responsive to access initiatives; 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 2010. The funds provided in FY 2007 and FY 2008 for planning and design of a Performing Arts & 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 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 new 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
OPERATING BUDGET
& PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
Graduation Rate Reaches Highest Point; Graduation Gap Narrows
The President should comment on the factors contributing to the success in retaining and graduating students.
Campus
Response:
Increasing student retention and graduation rates has been among our top campus-wide priorities since the late 1990s. We have added a small number of academic programs in recent years that are responsive to student and market demands and have enhanced our ability to attract, retain, and graduate more students (e.g., Media & Communication Studies and Games, Animation & Interactive Media). We also have developed a number of student-success initiatives and tracked the effectiveness of these efforts to understand and build upon what works. Our most effective initiatives include first-year experiences that engage new students in small learning communities (including our Introduction to an Honors University course and the New-Student Book Experience), redesign of large introductory courses to incorporate hands-on, problem-solving sessions, and more intrusive advising intervention. As an example, students participating in the active learning environment of our highly successful Chemistry 101 Discovery Center are achieving pass rates that are 14.4 percent higher than those in Chemistry 101 courses that used more traditional teaching models. Since 2002, the percentage of students earning As or Bs in Chemistry 101 has increased from 40 percent to 53 percent. As resources are available, we hope to extend this successful model to foundational math, physics, and biology courses as well.
We also 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 substantial private support for our endowment and student success. We have been working to give all students the kinds of support we provide to students in our affiliated scholars programs. Moreover, we have 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.
Anticipated Fiscal 2009 Reductions
The President should comment on how UMBC, given the insufficient balance in the State-supported portion of its fund balance, will be able to meet its allocation [$1.7 million] of the [USM’s] $20-million transfer to general funds.
Campus
Response:
To meet its fund balance reduction target of $1,735,000, UMBC will be required to pull funds from its facilities replacement reserves in auxiliary departments, including student housing and food services, the bookstore, and The Commons, and a number of other balances in self-supported units. The $1,735,000 target is nearly 9 percent of total unrestricted net assets as of year-end FY 2008.
The President should comment on which program areas will be reduced to meet the expected budget level
Campus
Response:
In total, during FY 2009, UMBC faces budget reductions, fund-balance recapture, and employee furloughs totaling more than $6 million. Our top priorities in making these reductions are protecting the academic program and supporting students, faculty, and staff. Nevertheless, given the magnitude of these reductions, all program areas have been required to scale back.
To meet our budget reductions, we have had for some time a general hiring freeze with limited exceptions, which has included not filling positions as vacancies occur, combining staff positions, and implementing selected layoffs among the professional staff. As we work hard to minimize the effect of the budget reductions for students, we must also acknowledge that the campus is stretched. Recent cuts and growing enrollments mean that some services, such as student advising, are being reduced and new programmatic initiatives, such as a quantitative curriculum for life sciences majors, are being postponed. As faculty members have retired or left for other positions, we have not been able to fill some of these vacancies. We are doing our best to provide the courses our students need by using part-time faculty and increasing class size, but in some programs we are able to offer courses required for graduation only one semester per year. Also having to delay research facilities and space development limits our ability to bring in federal research grants. We also have deferred facilities maintenance and repair projects, adding to a backlog of work that totaled more than $30 million as we entered FY 2009.
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ISSUES
Distribution of Institutional Aid
The President should comment on efforts to increase expenditures going toward need-based aid and on the amount of merit and mission and athletic aid awarded.
Campus Response:
With support from the Governor and the General Assembly, UMBC has met its commitment to increase need-based financial aid annually by at least 10 percent each since FY 2006. We hope to do the same in FY 2010. We have held steady on merit and mission aid in recent years, using such strategies as capping the annual scholarship amounts and raising money from private and government sources to supplement institutional aid.
Average Student Debt Increases
The President should comment on factors underlying the decreasing percentage of undergraduates receiving financial aid while the average undergraduate debt burden increases. The President should also address efforts being undertaken to reduce the debt burden of undergraduate students, particularly those students with the greatest need.
Campus Response:
Students are borrowing more because costs are increasing (fees, books, housing, travel, etc.). Also, the average Estimated Family Contribution (EFC) for a UMBC student has continued to rise, which means that students are less eligible for Pell and other Federal grants and need to rely more heavily on loans. Instead of paying out-of-pocket, families are borrowing to bridge the gap.
In an effort to support our neediest students and to reduce the debt burden on our graduating students, we have taken a number of steps. FY 2010 is the third year we are increasing our need-based financial aid pool by 10 percent. We have also worked with our private donors to encourage them to include a needs test in new scholarship programs they have decided to support. We also have placed caps on our merit-only awards in order to free up scholarship dollars to go toward our neediest students who are also merit-eligible. This effort has been focused especially on transfer students.
Also, the campus was delighted this past fall when The Princeton Review identified us as one of the nation’s “Best Value” colleges and universities.
Out-of-State Tuition and Fee Revenue
The President should comment on efforts being undertaken to recruit and increase enrollment of out-of-state undergraduate students.
Campus Response:
We enrolled 899 out-of-state undergraduate students in fall 2007, representing 9.5 percent of our total undergraduate enrollment. The fall 2008 figure was 896, or 9.3 percent of total undergraduate enrollment. Using numerous strategies, highlighted below, we are hopeful that we will be able to increase out-of-state enrollment and reverse recent declines.
- Implementing an institutional marketing effort focused on increasing awareness of UMBC in targeted out-of-state markets, specifically northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
- Partnering with Baltimore Collegetown Network, a consortium of colleges and universities promoting Baltimore as the destination for college-bound students.
- Hosting out-of-state admissions receptions for admitted and prospective students and parents living in selected markets, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York (and, in the future, adding receptions for families in northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.).
- Implementing a modest incremental increase ($1,000 to $1,500) in previous out-of-state merit award amounts to attract more qualified students.
- Offering a limited number of $2,500 discounts to qualified admitted out-of-state students not previously eligible for merit awards.
- Creating out-of-state ambassadors through tuition discounts in select club sports. These athletic ambassadors are expected to attract a number of additional out-of-state students from these markets.
- Widening scope of eligible programs in the Academic Common Market to increase potential applications and yield in selected geographic markets (e.g., Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia) in which we currently do not see large numbers of enrollments. These students will help increase the visibility and awareness of UMBC in these geographic markets.
- Hosting a campus overnight program for admitted out-of-state students to provide an opportunity for them to experience campus life.
- Expanding scope of Alumni Admissions Referral program ($50 application fee-waiver) to include all UMBC alumni with targeted outreach to out-of-state alumni.
- Expanding existing telecounseling yield activities by conducting targeted outreach calls to admitted out-of-state students.
Future strategies include implementing a comprehensive international recruitment plan to cultivate relationships with embassy leaders, develop a stronger international admissions web presence, and participate in overseas recruitment activities.
Negative Intercollegiate Athletics Fund Balance
The President should comment on actions undertaken to reduce the deficit, the overall impact on the athletic program, and whether funds were transferred from other accounts to cover athletic program costs.
Campus Response:
Regarding the background of the deficit in our Athletics fund balance, in FY 2004, UMBC’s intercollegiate athletics program transferred from the Northeast Conference to the America East Conference to align with institutions with which we have much more in common academically and that share our vision of scholar-athletes. While the move has had many benefits, it also had some additional costs: (1) the entrance fee to the America East Conference was $250,000, and the annual dues are $87,500; (2) we incur increased travel expenses because member institutions are more geographically dispersed; (3) media and marketing requirements for television, radio, and print generated additional costs; and (4) America East Conference “sports of emphasis” (men’s and women’s basketball, soccer, and lacrosse) have increased the costs for scholarships and the number of coaches per team. Further, UMBC allocated a portion of the required budget reductions in FY 2005 to campus auxiliary units, and Athletics’ share was $325,000.
We have taken a number of steps to reduce the deficit. On the expense side, (1) team and administrative travel restrictions were put in place; (2) program and operating budgets were reduced, including smaller travel squads, using vans for local travel, and partnering with a private company for more favorable rates; (3) book scholarships were reduced for student-athletes on partial scholarships; and (4) the field hockey team was eliminated, and cost savings will increase as scholarship students graduate. On the revenue side, (1) fundraising efforts have increased, focusing on alumni, friends, and others with ties to UMBC athletics; (2) corporate sponsors were obtained for men’s and women’s lacrosse and soccer to offset Athletic program events and defray team apparel costs; (3) increased campus enrollments have resulted in higher revenue from the Athletics and Recreation fee; (4) season ticket sales will grow as the result of success in men’s basketball; (5) we anticipate expanded sale of athletic merchandise with revenue-sharing arrangement; and (6) the Athletic fee revenue budget was reviewed and adjusted in light of previous years’ shortfall.
We estimate that, at most, it will take eight more years to eliminate the fund balance deficit, and that the period could be shorter depending upon enrollment growth and fundraising efforts.
Achievement Gap Action Plan
The President should comment on factors leading to the gap between transfer students and the rest of students and on the efforts currently being undertaken to help reduce the achievement gap, specifically those programs targeted toward African American transfer students. The President should also comment on how UMBC plans to increase scholarships and financial aid for transfer students, given the pressures on the institutional aid budget.
Campus Response:
African American transfer students have a six-year graduation rate (48.2 percent) approximately 10 percentage points lower than that of transfer students overall (58.0 percent). The data are quite different, though, for African American students who enter UMBC as full-time freshmen: in fact, their six-year graduation rate of 64.4 percent is virtually the same as that of all students (65.0 percent). These encouraging data reflect a supportive campus culture, and we are working to apply the lessons we have learned about retaining and graduating freshmen to our transfer population, particularly African American transfers. Most important, we will have to be more intrusive in directing their efforts, especially for students interested in majoring in science and engineering. Often, many of these transfer students simply are not prepared for the rigor of the course work, particularly in science and engineering. Those transfer students who complete Associate of Arts degrees first are more likely to graduate. In addition, while many of our first-year programs are open to transfer students, too few take advantage of them. We are working to engage many more transfer students and have piloted for transfer students the Introduction to an Honors University (IHU) seminar that we routinely offer to freshmen, and will increase the number of IHU seminars for transfer students next year. We also plan to implement other strategies identified by a campus task force as resources are available.
The campus historically has provided merit scholarships for eligible transfer students. Since fall 2007, we have taken additional steps to support transfer students, particularly those with the greatest financial need. We have entered into direct partnerships with a number of community colleges to award scholarships to the very best transfer students. As noted earlier, we also have increased our need-based financial aid pool by 10 percent annually, and because our transfer students are among our most needy, this measure has been particularly helpful to them. Finally, through reallocation from merit aid pools, we have created a new transfer recognition award for merit-eligible and also financially needy transfer students. back
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