Sept. 28, 2006

CONTACT:
Mike Lurie
Office: 410-455-6380
Cellphone: 443-695-0262
mlurie@umbc.edu

BALTIMORE – The Maryland Forum, a prestigious speaker series at UMBC in partnership with the Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Chamber of Commerce (AAACCC), will debut this fall with an appearance by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 24.

The Maryland Forum, held at the UMBC Retriever Activities Center, continues with three other notable speakers:

• Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Bob Woodward (7 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 8)
• Former Baltimore Orioles great Cal Ripken, Jr. (April, 2007, TBD)
• Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore (7 p.m., Tuesday, May 8, 2007)

“Our campus is delighted to be the host site for The Maryland Forum. Our mission as a public research university includes stimulating the intellectual and cultural life of the region. Therefore, we are also pleased that our partnership with The Maryland Forum will continue to build UMBC as a destination for cultural programming,” said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski.

Tickets for UMBC faculty, students and staff for each speaker are $5 (cash and campus ID account only) and can be obtained at the information desk in The Commons, beginning Oct. 9. When presenting their ticket, UMBC faculty, students and staff must show their UMBC identification card.

For the general public, tickets can be purchased by calling 1-866-49-FORUM, online at www.themarylandforum.com and by mail at AAACCC, P.O. Box 346, Annapolis, MD 21404. Prices are $100 for the series and $35 for a single lecture. UMBC alumni are offered the opportunity to buy up to two tickets at a discounted price of $85 (series) or $25 (single lecture).

The Maryland Forum offers an opportunity for the general public to interact with world leaders, Pulitzer Prize winners, former national and international statesmen and authors in an informal setting with a central, convenient location.

“Growing and nurturing the mind knows no jurisdictional boundaries,” said AAACCC President Bob Burdon. “We are grateful to UMBC and President Hrabowski for forming this partnership with us.”

Proceeds from the speaker series will benefit the AAACCC educational foundation, which supports education programs and scholarships throughout the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan region.