By Lorie Logan-Bennett, Assistant Director, Career Development Center

UMBC's largest annual job fair, Career Fair 2002, is scheduled for October 10 from 12 noon to 3:30 p.m. in the RAC arena. If you want to get more out of the fair than just the free giveaways, follow these tips:

1. Resume? What resume? -- Visit the Career Development Center (CDC) for assistance with composing or updating your resume - it can never be too perfect!

2. We've made the list, you check it twice -- View a list of participating employers at www.careers.umbc.edu. To ensure a good first impression, research those organizations you're interested in before the fair.

3. Why should we hire you? -- Prepare and practice your introductory "commercial." For example: "Hello! I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Jane Doe and I'll be graduating this December with a degree in "x." I've always been interested and impressed with your organization's "y" (i.e., information you've uncovered in your research) and I was really glad to see that you're here today. I've had two internships doing "z" and am very interested in learning more about your opportunities."

4. "Now… what does your company do?" -- Prepare good questions to ask employers. Do ask about current opportunities, their hiring process, what they're looking for in a candidate, etc. Don't ask about salary, benefits, or anything you could have easily learned through some quick research.

5. Suit up! -- Dress professionally! This means interview attire (i.e., a conservative, tailored, business suit). Remember, this will be the first impression you make - make it a good one!

6. Don't be caught short -- Bring an adequate number of copies of your resume. Bring more than you think you'll need.

7. Develop a game plan -- Review the handout you receive when you sign in. In addition to a floor plan, handouts will list the employers in attendance and will provide information on what majors they are interested in (don't let this limit you, though), the recruiter's names, and contact information. Use his to organize your plan of action.

8. Step on up! -- Approach the employers you're interested in. Give a good, firm handshake; make eye contact; smile and project enthusiasm; and deliver your prepared (but not canned) "commercial." Provide clear and concise answers and ask prepared, intelligent questions. Offer your resume to the employer.

9. Prepare for the future -- Pick up available literature and ask for a business card before you leave the employer's booth so that you can follow up with the recruiter after the fair.

10. Don't let this be goodbye -- Compose and send a brief thank you letter thanking the employer(s) for his/her time and re-expressing your interest in the company/organization. Employers meet with possibly hundred of students at a fair; don't let them forget you!

For more information, contact the Career Development Center at (410) 455-2216, Math/Psych 204, careers@umbc.edu, http://www.careers.umbc.edu.

UMBC mechanical engineering professor Uri Tasch was first exposed to farm life while spending summers on kibbutzim in his native Israel. A few years ago, Tasch, a well-recognized engineer in the field of robotics, got involved in making Holsteins more high tech when he helped a colleague with an automatic milking machine project.

Now Tasch has designed a revolutionary device that can save dairy and livestock farmers millions of dollars a year. Earlier this month, The Maryland Daily Record recognized the invention's potential by naming Tasch as one of the 2002 Innovators of the Year.

Tasch's device -- the Reaction Force Detection (RFD) system -- is a modern solution to the age-old farming problem of lameness. Cows frequently turn up lame due to injury, arthritis, or infection. Although lameness is treatable, it's very difficult to detect, even for trained veterinarians. By the time a cow is noticeably limping or favoring a leg, the condition has gotten worse, leading to a financial loss for the farmer from reduced milk yields and increased vet bills.

The RFD system is a walk-across platform with sensors that automatically measures the force and duration of an animal's steps, factors in its weight, and then uses computer analysis to precisely pinpoint which leg might be causing problems. The RFD system has been licensed for development by DEC International, a New Zealand-based leader in the dairy automation field.

UMBC mechanical engineering graduate student Parimal Rajkondawar has worked on the RFD project for three years, and is happy to be part of an invention with such potential for real-world impact. "This is a real-time problem causing millions of dollars of losses," says Rajkondawar.

Tasch, Rajkondawar and the rest of their research team are now enthusiastically exploring applying the RFD system for horses, chickens and even lab animals. "It's really exciting to see how the project that includes my Ph.D. thesis will be commercialized all over the world in the coming years," says Rajkondawar.

By Mark Terranova, Assistant Director, The Shriver Center

Thomas Huxley wrote, "The great end is not knowledge, but action." Within this quote lies the very heart of community service and civic engagement - using what we know to do what should be done. Here at UMBC, we know a lot. What makes us great is what we do with it.

UMBC has a strong foundation and dedication to engagement. One of the recurring themes at this year's Convocation was a challenge to students to become engaged; to step out of their comfort zone - and to avoid taking the easy road of "disengagement". Many students answered this call immediately - participating in a community service event on the Saturday morning of Labor Day weekend. Many more have already signed up for community service opportunities through the Involvement Center in Office of Student Life, the Residential Life Office, Athletics, the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, the Honors College, the Public Affairs Scholars Program, Women's Studies and many others who actively participate in the UMBC Serves initiative with The Shriver Center. This initiative is a direct call to civic engagement through community service to our students, faculty and staff. It is a call to action that is answered by hundreds of students and dozens of faculty already this year.

Engagement goes beyond community service. Many students and faculty become engaged in the community through the Professional Practice programs through The Shriver Center - applying their knowledge and skills to serve real world challenges in the workforce and the returning to campus with new questions and solutions to problems. Students also seek to become engaged though work, research, performance, or student government. Our students truly become engaged while here at UMBC.

Throughout the year many opportunities to become civically engaged may become available to our faculty and staff. Whether it is through the integration of service-learning into a course; hands on work with outstanding student groups like Best Buddies, Habitat for Humanity, and many others; or action-based research though the disciplines to address local and pressing community issues - our civic involvement through engagement defines us not only as what we do but who we are. The acceptance of this challenge is one of the many distinguishing characteristics of this institution, and through our commitment to our surrounding community through service, we can distinguish ourselves not only as an exceptional university but also as exceptional citizens in our community.

One of the newest ways to become involved in community service is through CollTown's 9/11 Remembrance Project. All members of the UMBC community are encouraged to pledge hours of service to a non-profit organization of their choosing. For more information visit www.umbc.edu/9-11 or contact Lee Hawthorne at hawthor@umbc.edu or Cally Rockwell at rockwell@umbc.edu.

Each month this column will highlight community service and civic engagement here at UMBC. I invite our entire campus community to participate in these discussions to increase our knowledge, and more importantly I invite you to participate in the many UMBC Serves activities planned for this year to increase our action.

UMBC's Center for Art and Visual Culture (CAVC) presents "Maria Elena Gonzalez: Selected Works 1996 - 2002" from September 12 through October 26. The exhibition, curated by Renée van der Stelt, CAVC projects coordinator, features recent sculptures and drawings by emerging artist Gonzalez, a Cuban-American artist from New York City. The exhibition will also introduce her public sculpture called Magic Carpet/Home, which will be installed in City Springs Park, near five Baltimore public housing projects, in the spring of 2003. An educational outreach program will accompany the exhibition and public sculpture.

Gonzalez has been investigating the possibilities of formal sculpturefor over a decade. Her work accesses elements of sculpture while reworkingwhat these elements represent, complicating our interaction with form toevaluate identity, emotion, history and the nature of metaphor.

Gonzalez lives and works in Brooklyn. Her drawings, sculptures and installations combine a minimalist aesthetic with a highly personal content, employing powerful metaphors along the way. The events of her life are seen through unpredictable subjects such as cakes, champagne glasses, baseballs and flying carpets. Her work focuses on the body and self with the intention of moving between public and private space. She is committed to changing the standard way of looking at art, by eliminating the distance between object and viewer. Gonzalez incorporates tactile materials, encouraging viewers to do what is often forbidden: touch the art. Her work contains rich and beautiful surfaces such as wood, rubber, lead, tile, feathers and smoke.

A recent focus of Gonzalez's work is the Magic Carpet/Homeprojects. After consultation with the Baltimore City Department of Parks andRecreation, as well as neighborhood organizations and residents, Gonzalezwill install a Magic Carpet/Home sculpture in Baltimore's City Springs Parkin spring 2003. Each Magic Carpet/Home replicates the floor plan for atypical neighborhood apartment, printed on the soft black rubber that isused to surface playgrounds. An undulating structure is built to float the"carpet" above the ground. The dimensions of each piece are determined bythe square footage of the apartment references. After consulting withBaltimore City's Department of Public Housing, she selected a 766square foot one-bedroom apartment from Douglas Homes as her architecturalfloor plan for Magic Carpet/Home.

An intensive educational outreach program for four K-12 schools near City Spring Park will commence in September 2002 and will culminate with theMagic Carpet/Home installation in the spring of 2003. A 36-page brochure,containing an interview with the artist and an essay by Mark Alice Durant, UMBC associate professor of visual arts, will be available at the Center.

The Center for Art and Visual Culture (formerly known as the Fine ArtsGallery) is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building. Admission is free. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm. For more information, visit www.umbc.edu/art or call x53188.

Beginning this month, Insights presents regular profiles of newfaculty, department chairs and program administrators for the 2002-2003academic year.

John Rennie Short
Professor and Chair, Geography & Environmental Systems

As the both the new chair and the newest faculty member of the Geography and Environmental Systems department, John Rennie Short brings an impressive research record coupled with the energy and vision to lead UMBC further into the cutting-edge of his field.

Short comes to UMBC after spending the last decade at Syracuse University. "I decided to come to UMBC primarily because I thought it would be an interesting challenge to build the reputation of a department at a young and innovative university," says Short. "I also liked the commitment to research here."

Short's extensive list of publications on subjects as varied as urban studies, globalization, and the history of cartography clearly illustrates his position as a distinguished researcher. Over the last four years, he has individually or collaboratively written or edited no less than seven books. He also recently completed a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Short received his M.A. from the University of Aberdeen and his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol.

Short's recent research examines the impact of the Olympic Games on their host cities. His research focuses on ways in which cities use the development necessary to host the Olympics to create a lasting positive contribution to city life for all of its citizens. This work will bring him to present before the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland in November.

Cindy Schaeffer
Assistant Professor, Psychology

Cindy Schaeffer brings to UMBC innovative research in the prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency among society's most troubled children. Prior to her arrival at UMBC, Schaeffer was a National Institutes of Health Post-doctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Schaeffer is an expert in the use of Multisystemic Therapy, a type of therapy that addresses the broad range of social problems experienced by juvenile offenders through intervention in their natural environments among families, schools, and peer groups. She earned her B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Lou Cantori on NPR
Lou Cantori, professor of political science, discussed U.S. policy toward Iraq on National Public Radio along with the co-author of a recent Newsweek cover story.
http://www.kpcc.org/programming/airtalk/.

Mina Cheon's Exhibition Reviewed in PeekReview.Net
An exhibition by UMBC alumna Mina Cheon, also known as Minaliza1000, was reviewed in peakreview.net.
http://peekreview.net/articles_reviews/minaliza_ed.html.

Donald Norris in the Washington Post
Donald Norris, director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis Research (MIPAR), was quoted in the September 13Washington Post story, "Ehrlich and Townsend Zero In on Differences."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10917-2002Sep12.html

Tom Rabenhorst in the Baltimore Sun
Tom Rabenhorst, lecturer and director of instructional cartography in the Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, and his wife, Carol, were the subject of a September 16 Baltimore Sun feature, "Mapping Uncharted Paths."http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/carroll/bal-ca.patapsco16sep16.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dheadlines

UMBC Soccer in the Baltimmore Sun
A feature on UMBC's soccer team appeared in the September 18 Baltimore Sun.http://www.sunspot.net/sports/bal-sp.rowland18sep18.story.

Mark Street in City Paper
Mark Street, assistant professor of visual arts, is featured in the September 11 City Paper.
http://www.citypaper.com/current/film.html

Technocation in the Daily Record
In his September 9 Technocation column, Vice Provost Craig Weidemann says the composition of students attending higher-education institutions today reflects a number of major changes.
http://www.mddailyrecord.com/guestbook/techno0907.html

Beginning this month, Insights presents regular profiles of newfaculty, department chairs and program administrators for the 2002-2003academic year.

Lee Boot, Research Faculty, Imaging Research Center

Since obtaining his M.F.A. from the Maryland Institute College of Art in1982, Lee Boot has worked as both an artist and an educator. His videoart has been exhibited nationally and internationally in venues such asThe Contemporary museum in Baltimore, the Pittsburgh Center for the Artsand the Johannesburg Biennial in South Africa. He taught secondaryschool for more than fifteen years in the Baltimore area.

In his media work, Boot explores the potential for artists, after a century of highly specialized activity, to reintegrate with society and play an importantrole in addressing broad cultural issues. In 1999, he received a majorgrant from the National Institutes of Health to create Making Euphoria,a short film that presents, to the layperson, pivotal neuroscience thatcan help them build engaging lives. He is currently engaged inextensions of that project, as well as new research to produce mediaaddressing root issues in education and the environment.

Boot divides his time between research at UMBC and his own media company,InfoCulture. He lives with his wife and two children in Baltimore,Maryland.

Frank Cox, Assistant Professor of Music

Frank Cox has performed in numerous festivals and new music ensembles,including the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, the Group forContemporary Music, and SONOR, as well as at the 1980 and 1982 SpoletoFestivals, the 1983 Banff Summer Chamber Music Festival, the XenakisFestival and Darmstadt Revisited Festival at UCSD, and at the DarmstadtFestival since 1988, where he received a special citation for celloperformance in 1990.

Cox received a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Indiana University, a Master of Arts degree in composition from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in composition at the University of California, San Diego. He studied with Brian Ferneyhough, Roger Reynolds, Joji Yuasa, Steven Suber, Fred Fox, Harvey Sollberger, Fred Lerdahl, and Jack Beeson. He received an Alice M. Ditson Scholarship and Dissertation Fellowship at Columbia University, Regent's Fellowship and a Dissertation Research Fellowship for Outstanding Research at UCSD, a full scholarship to the 1990 June in Buffalo Festival, and full scholarships for the 1988 and 1992 Darmstadt Festivals. He was awarded a StipendiumFellowship at the 1990 Darmstadt Festival, won 2nd prize in the Los AngelesArts Commission competition in the spring of 1991, and was co-winner of theKranichsteiner Musikpreis (highest award for composition) in the 1992Darmstadt Festival.

Anna Rubin, Director of Interdisciplinary Arts and the Linehan Scholars Program, and Associate Professor of Music

Anna Rubin is a composer of electroacoustic and instrumental music. Herworks have been heard on four continents. She has received commissions fromWNYC Radio, The New York State Council on the Arts, Thomas Buckner, as wellas by numerous instrumentalists. Her work has also been supported by grantsfrom the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Ohio State Arts Council.

Rubin's numerous compositions have been written for varied media includingchamber ensembles, orchestra, chorus, digital audio and live electronics.Her works for computer-generated tape, instruments and voice often drawtheir lyrical and dramatic power from the voice. Whether sung, spoken orcried, whether instrumental or electro-acoustic, her works explore extremesof the human condition: a father's nightmares, starvation in the Arctic, thehorror of the Holocaust.

Colette Searls, Assistant Professor of Theatre

Colette Searls comes to UMBC from California where her most recent directingcredits include Maria Irene Fornés' musical Promenade, and Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream at the University of California, Irvine. She hasdirected several original mixed media puppet plays, including Weight of theHead which appeared at New York's HERE Theater's 2000 Puppet Parlor. Ms.Searls spent several years running an artist-in-residence program forincarcerated and at-risk youth, which received the Bravo TV Network'snational Arts for Change award in 1997. Performance credits include aprincipal role in Claire Braz-Valentine's Women Behind the Walls, co-created with incarcerated women, and performed inside Soledad state prison. More recently, she toured with the California Commedia Troupe to Spain where she performed and assisted with mask training at Madrid's La Sala MiradorTheater. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Ms. Searls received her B.A. from theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and her M.F.A. in Directing from UC Irvine.

By Jack Prostko, Director, Faculty Development Center

It's the start of another academic year and most UMBC students, enthusiastic and motivated, are eager to get started in new pursuits. At the same time, instructors have energetically outlined plans for their courses and explained to students what must be done to succeed. But as the semester progresses and coursework settles into a demanding routine, students' interest sometimes begins to wane. For many students, meeting academic goals can start to seem less certain as complexity and ambiguity set in. Are there ways to ensure that motivation will remain high throughout the semester and that students will continue to be engaged in a course?

Research shows that professors can do a variety of things to help sustain student motivation. For example,

*Set clear goals for the course and explain these goals to students.

*Make frequent assignments and give timely feedback to students.

*Use examples that show the relevance of the material.

These actions are, of course, entwined. Goals need to be revisited during the semester, and need to be related explicitly to the assignments. Relevant examples should help students understand their progress toward larger objectives.

But one crucial way to help students maintain motivation is to help them see that they are succeeding not just in learning the material, but in learning how to learn better. Student success doesn't depend simply on hard work and long hours. Students also need to understand how to work effectively, and develop skills to meet academic challenges, many of which are new. While basic study skills are transferable, there are also discipline-specific strategies that help students master course content and some discussion of these strategies can be built into all courses. In short, another way to keep students motivated is to suggest learning strategies that help students master the specific material in the course. If students see themselves becoming better at mastering material (and more efficient at it), they are likely to invest more time and energy in a class.

Some students -- especially freshmen -- may need to commit significant time to learning academic study skills. For these students, resources exist on campus to help them focus on and hone their skills. A new initiative, part of the recommendations of the Honors University Task Force, is introducing a common set of goals into courses that already exist (English 100Y, Education 199) as the first stage in the process of developing a set of Student Success courses. (A more comprehensive course, LRC 101: College Learning and Study Skills, has continued to be popular with students, from freshmen to seniors.) These goals include improving library, time-management, study, communications, and other skills necessary for academic success. Students with significant problems adapting to university demands should be encouraged to seek these courses out-and perhaps also request tutoring assistance from the Learning Resources Center.

But even experienced students will benefit from explicit guidance in improving their academic skills. For example, students proficient in reading fiction and poetry may need help in understanding better ways to read and study a research article in chemistry or psychology, while a skilled physics student might struggle to figure out how to take notes on Locke or Kant. Paying some attention to learning strategies by building a discussion of them into a course-and then developing assignments that require students to test their abilities-can motivate students to become more effective learners. Academic skills need constant revisiting as students (indeed all of us) move into greater and greater complexity in our work; rarely do we encounter anyone who claims to have mastered time-management sufficiently to never have to think about it again.

There are dozens of books that students can use to help them improve their basic skills, for example, the book adopted by the new Success Course instructors, Skip Downing's On Course: Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life; or the latest edition of a classic text, How to Study in College, by Walter Pauk.

Students can also be encouraged to find help on the Web at sites like the following:

Virginia Tech: Study Skill Self-help Information

Columbia University's Augustine Club

California Polytechnic State University: Academic Skills Center

Academic Resources Center at Sweet Briar College

For more specific general suggestions on Motivating Students, see:

"Motivating Students," in Tools for Teaching, Barbara Gross Davis

"Motivating Students," Idea Paper No. 1 by William E. Cashin

By Edward Orser, Professor of American Studies

At a time when Baltimore's city parks face dire budget constraints and the superintendent recently was forced to resign for the alleged inefficiency of his bureau, there is good reason to reaffirm the foundation laid for the park system in the first half of the twentieth century by the landscape architectural firm founded by Frederick Law Olmsted and to apply Olmsted-inspired insights to the challenges confronting city parks in the years since.

My own research and civic involvement on the West-side Gywnns Falls Valley provide the basis for both convictions about the park system. I have conducted research with a student team to produce an exhibit and booklet on the history of Gywnns Falls/Leakin Parks, served as urban historian for the Gwynns Falls Trail Master Plan and co-authored a recent brochure outlining a driving tour of Baltimore's West-side park spaces.

Continuing the nationally-renowned work of their father, the Olmsted Brothers -- son, Frederick, Jr., and stepson, John -- completed a major master plan for Baltimore in 1904 and follow-up reports in 1926 and 1940. Fundamental to the plans was the vision of an integrated system of diverse landscapes -- multipurpose parks, playgrounds, stream valley parks and parkways -- knit together to serve the needs of a growing metropolis for green space and recreational opportunities.

The Olmsted Brothers valued the near-pristine landscape of the upper Gwynns Falls Valley, which had "the character of a wooded gorge" and "scenery [that] is remarkably beautiful of a picturesque and sylvan sort seldom possible to retain so near a great city." But the same could not be said for the lower portion, an area of historic usage as a transportation artery, mill site, and location for functions best performed outside the settled city, like stockyards and butchering.

Portions of the Olmsted plan for the Gwynns Falls were implemented over time with the expansion of parkland along the stream valley, aided by a bequest from Baltimore lawyer Thomas Leakin which made possible the acquisition in the early 1940s of the Crimea, formerly the summer estate of Thomas Winans, nineteenth-century locomotive designer and railroad builder.

The 1904 Olmsted report called for the city to acquire and protect the major stream valleys before development overran and despoiled them. The substantial portion of the Gwynns Falls Valley annexed to the city in 1918 by mid-century indeed had witnessed the kind of development the Olmsted Brothers had prophesied. Today, urban neighborhoods along the valley run an economic gamut -- from some of the city's most impoverished to relatively stable and even more affluent communities.

Over the past half century Baltimore's parks have suffered from increasingly tight city budgets and been assigned low priority among competing urban needs. However, the Gwynns Falls Trail represents a major recent initiative in the tradition of the Olmsted vision of greenways. The planned 14-mile hiker-biker trail will traverse the Gwynns Falls from Leakin Park's Crimea area to the Inner Harbor. The initial 4.5-mile section is already in use; the second phase is under construction; and the final harbor linkage is to begin shortly.

So, what would be the elements of a year 2002 Olmsted-inspired vision for the Gwynns Falls Valley?

*Projects like the trail promise to fulfill the Olmsted concept of park connections, and these need to network into surrounding neighborhoods as well.

*Today's concentration of population necessitates greater provision for multipurpose park uses, as in the recent development of recreational facilities at Leon Day Park, named for the Negro League great.

*Stream valley parks in a highly urban setting require substantial management and upkeep not envisioned a hundred years ago.

*The health of a stream valley park in the new century will only be as strong as the health of the neighborhoods that surround it, so parallel neighborhood revitalization efforts are imperative.

If you're interested in the Olmsted impact on Baltimore's park system and the kinds of issues I've raised here, you might want to obtain a unique brochure published by the Friends of Maryland's Olmsted Parks and Landscapes, outlining a driving tour of major West-side parks - Druid Hill, Gwynns Falls/Leakin, and Carroll. As an urban historian, I served as co-author on a team that included landscape architects, landscape architectural historians, civic activists and designers. For a copy of "Baltimore's Public Landscapes: From Private Estates to the Public Domain," (available at a cost of $5) contact me or write to the Friends of Maryland Olmsted Parks and Landscapes, PO Box 16244, Baltimore, MD, 21210-0244.

By John Fritz, Director of New Media Learning and Development

Maybe you're curious about UMBC's latest national news coverage, or you log into myUMBC to add money to your campus ID card or just have your browser's "Home" button set to www.umbc.edu. However you arrive, if you do so on a Friday afternoon, you're likely to witness a metamorphosis quite rare in higher education: a completely different looking home page each week.

During the semester, nearly 10,000 people visit UMBC's Web site every day. Of those, almost half start with the campus home page. That's not terribly surprising, but did you know the home page feature window consistently ranks in the top 15-20 of all pages? Last week, when Newsweek named UMBC a "Hot" school, the accompanying "window" nearly cracked the top 10 for the first time with more than 2,000 page views? This suggests a lot of you are watching (and returning) to the home page, which is exactly what you want with a site. Quite simply, dynamic content like the window feature, daily Campus Life links, Today@UMBC, news headlines and Featured Site help make UMBC's home page "sticky." Users tend to return.

The window concept is simple, but the execution isn't: change the home page photo each week (not so bad) AND write a new, timely and interesting story to match it. That's tough. UCLA, Buffalo and others are also putting a lot of work into home page features. But few schools I know are doing this on a weekly basis. Even if external visitors don't scan the archive that accompanies each feature, its growing length suggests substance.

Of course that's good news for UMBC, but it's also good for all of the department and organization sites connected to it. Since a home page serves as a Web site's primary navigation, it's important that people be able to easily start from and return to it to find what they're looking for. And maybe be surprised by something they aren't.

So, who actually cleans the home page window, and how are stories selected? Typically, the window is part of a Monday morning meeting about online content in the Office of Institutional Advancement. Key sites include Techport, news, campus life, Insights Weekly and the Graduate School site, which is currently being redesigned.

In addition Online News Editor Eleanor Lewis meets with Marketing Director Sara Sommerville every other month to coordinate the Window's long-term schedule with strategic university needs -- graduate recruitment is big right now -- develop future assignments for their OIA colleagues Charlie Melichar, Chip Rose, Miriam Tillman and Dave Daniel, and generally try to anticipate what might be topical.

Many stories come from existing publications the campus might not see often, like the Graduate Admissions view book or the university's annual report edited by Sandra Dzija and Karen Baxter. Associate Director of Creative Services Peggy Boney '94, who designed those publications and the UMBC home page, also designs the window feature page, with occasional backup from Jim Lord and Kristin Brings.

"The window certainly is a collaborative effort that helps market the university to prospective students, parents, businesses and friends," says Lewis. "But I think it's also helped build community."

If you'd like to increase traffic to your site, here are a few tips to consider:

Track your site. UMBC uses WebTrends and can create a profile for your site if it's hosted on the main webserver-sorry, we can't track personal pages. To request a WebTrends profile, send email to webdev@umbc.edu and include the URL of your site.

Tell users when you add content. Provide a "What's New," "Announcements," or "About This Site" section. A pet peeve: Don't make these secondary links users have to click to open. If it's new, it should be important enough to give it space on your home page where people won't miss it.

Don't go it alone. Just as the home page window is collaborative effort within OIA, cultivate the habit and culture of talking about your Web site with colleagues in your department or organization. Nobody has all the answers, and you'll actually learn a lot from each other about how real people use the web. If you don't have someone to talk to, consider joining the UMBC Web Developers group for announcements.

And of course I hope you'll make a link to the UMBC home page. We'd like all your new visitors to know where they can find more cool sites.

Tech Watch appears in Insights the first Wednesday of each month.

As we approach the first anniversary of September 11, 2001, UMBC students, faculty and staff are working together to organize events that honor the U.S. citizens and foreign nationals -- including alumna Angela Houtz '96 -- who lost their lives, and allow us to reflect on a national tragedy without precedent. The entire campus community is invited to join in a series of programs to be held on September 11 and throughout the month.

Highlights on September 11

From 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., The Women's Center (RAC 226) will open its doors as a quiet place for meditation, silent prayer and reflection.

At 8:30 a.m., the campus is invited to gather in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Rotunda for a public Program of Remembrance. It will begin with a moment of silence at 8:48 a.m., the time of the first attack one year ago in the series of tragic events that took the lives of several thousand U.S. citizens and foreign nationals. Anyone wishing to express remembrances related to September 11, 2001 is invited to take their turn at the podium. Solemn display of the U.S. flag and a small exhibition of the flag as a symbol will be placed in the Rotunda. The exhibition, which includes materials from Special Collections and the serials holdings of the Kuhn Library and Gallery, continues through November 1.

At 1 p.m. (free hour) on September 11, a Community Memorial Gathering will be held in the U.C. Ballroom. Students, faculty and staff are invited to come together for a time of unity and peace that will include remarks by President Freeman Hrabowski, the new presidents of the Student Government and Graduate Student Associations, and other students, faculty and staff; a moment of silence; and reflective musical performances by faculty and students in the music department.

At 7 p.m., the Student Government Association and the Graduate Student Association will lead the campus in a candlelight vigil on the Terrace of The Commons.

Teach-ins

UMBC faculty, staff and special guests will lead teach-ins and other learning events throughout the month on topics ranging from current U.S. foreign policy to ancient examples of human inhumanity. Teach-ins will be led by Lou Cantori, professor of political science; Robert Freeman, Honors College instructor; Jay Freyman, associate professor of ancient studies; Devin Hagerty, assistant professor of political science; Amos Levi, director of Hillel; and staff from the English Language Center.

For More Information

A complete schedule of events -- including a reading of names, exhibitions, expression boards and other opportunities for reflection -- will be available soon via a printed calendar and Web site. Insights Weekly will also continue to provide updated information.

Meet Phil Shockley, a junior information systems and political science major and the new president of the Student Government Association.

Why did you choose to attend UMBC?

When I first began my college search, I did not want to stay within Maryland. UMBC was actually quite far down on my list of schools. However, when I was a junior I came to UMBC on a visit day, before I had a chance to visit any of my top schools. My visit was great. I enjoyed listening to the student panels and meeting actualprofessors. I also met the previous director of the Honors College, Jay Freyman, and many admissions counselors, including Lori Smith-Watson. They were so friendly. I even remember President Freeman Hrabowski speaking and remember being so impressed that a university president took some time to talk to students who were just visiting and had not yet committed to attending UMBC.

Later in the year, I had the opportunity to visit some of my top schools, one of them being Duke University. I was totally unimpressed with Duke's visit day. There were no student panels and no professors. Plenty of staff members were there, but theywere very uninterested in those visiting and were even quite rude at some points. While I did not have such a bad experience at other schools, none even compared to the "UMBC Experience" and it convinced me to come here. Not to mention the fact that it was a great deal and my mom wanted me to stay closer to my home on the Eastern Shore.

Are you involved in any research pertaining to your major?

While I am not involved in any direct research pertaining to my major, I did prepare a research paper last semester under the direction of Professor Tom Schaller. I analyzed the eight gubernatorial state of the state addresses for content and then presented my findings. This summer, I participated in the Governor's Summer Internship Program and wrote a policy paper, with a group of my peers, about HIV/AIDSPrevention in Baltimore City. We presented our paper to the Governor in August.

Are you involved with any other clubs or organizations?

I am a member of several organizations on campus, including the College Democrats, the Golden Key International Honor Society, Hillel Jewish Student Group, the former Honors Student Association, the Information Systems Council of Majors, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership HonorSociety, the Political Science Council of Majors, and the President's Student Advisory Council.

How did you get involved with SGA?

I was involved in SGA quite heavily throughout my high school years, but I was never able to obtain an executive board position. I ran repeatedly but was unsuccessful at each attempt. However, that did not cause me to give up. Last year, a friend and I ran together as senators in order to see what SGA was like at UMBC. Throughout my tenure as a senator, I represented information systems majors. I also had the opportunity to become the chair of the Senate FinanceCommittee and helped formulate the executive budget for this current year. I had no idea when the committee was meeting and discussing the budget issues that I would be working under it the next year. I also chaired the Policy Rules Committee and worked to fix some inconsistencies in the SGA governing documents by bringing the issues to a student referendum.

I enjoyed my experience as a senator. Later in the year, I was approached by a friend about running with her for the position of SGA president and vice president. At first, I was unsure of my abilities to perform such a role; however, after considering my past experience, consultation with my loyal friends and advisors, and a lot of prayer, Tiffany and I decided to run together in order to make UMBC a better place for all of its students, faculty and staff.

So far, the experience has been a great one. While there were some challenges confronting us this summer, I believe the organization has worked hard this summer to set itself up for success this academic year.

What are SGA's plans for the coming year?

This year, the main goal of SGA is to work with the campus community and let them know that we are a resource for them on campus. We represent all students, resident and commuter, freshman and upperclassman. The SGA wants all students to find the UMBC community a great place to advance both themselves and their education. We want each and every student to feel as though they are welcome and have a voice.

As far as specific campus-wide concerns, we are going to work with the university to update some of the current athletic fields on campus. Several have been taken away for new construction projects and while we understand the desire of the university to grow, it is also important to make sure that those we are left with are in the best possible shape.

We want to promote events sponsored by the Office of Student Life in orderto give students the opportunity to remain on campus and take part inthe UMBC community.

Improving communication around campus is also very important. Taking full advantage of the VideoNet system in The Commons and also creating a new tool for campuswide advertisement through the Internet are top priorities.

We will hold town hall meetings on a monthly basis, in order to provide students the opportunity to voice their concerns directly to the members of the SGA and the administration.

How can students get involved in SGA?

The Student Government Associated of UMBC is divided into three branches, similar to the federal government. We have an executive, legislative, and judicial branch.

The Executive Branch is composed of an executive cabinet. It has nine members total, including both the president and vice president of the SGA. Applications for cabinet positions are usually available each spring and interviews are normally heldthroughout the summer.

The Legislative Branch is composed of two separate bodies, the House of Organizations and the Senate. The Senate represents the academic side of UMBC, encompassing various academic disciplines, along with resident and commuter students. The House of Organizations represents the organizational side of the students, including organizations such as cultural, ethnic groups, Greek life, honorsocieties, religious organizations, service, etc.

The Judicial Branch is composed of five justices. A justice serves a term of two years. Each spring, the seats of those whose terms have expired become available and can be filled by students. The Judicial Branch is the adjudicatory body for the SGA, deciding on cases as brought to them by a student petition, the Senate,the House, or the SGA President.

Therefore, numerous ways exist for students to take part in SGA. They can run for seats within the Senate and the House of Organizations. Elections are held each spring, however some seats are not filled at that time. As long as students meet some eligibility requirements they can come to the SGA offices, which are located on the second floor of The Commons (2B13 - 2B15), for information on how to file an application to run.

Even if students don't want an "official" SGA position, their help is always welcomed. We are always in need of volunteers. If any student has an idea they want to propose or to provide feedback as to where SGA needs to do a better job, they are always welcome to stop by our offices and speak to us. We welcome all student concerns because after all, we are here to represent them!

What are your plans post-UMBC?

Upon my graduation from UMBC, I plan on attending law school. Once I receive my Juris Doctorate, I hope to enter into the political arena. My goal is to one day be the governor of Maryland and possibly the president of the United States.

Watch Insights this fall for regular updates from Phil on SGA activities!

UMBC has been named one of a dozen "Hot Schools" by the Kaplan/Newsweek 2003 "How to Get Into College" guide, which hit newsstands across the country on August 26.

UMBC joins some prestigious company on the list of "Hot Schools," including the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Boston College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Pepperdine and Arizona State University.

This year's hot schools were selected based on academic prowess, affordability, location, and, of course, surging popularity. The guide notes, "With a tough economy, the hottest schools may well be the best bargains - those offering excellent academics at more affordable prices. That's why our list for 2002-03 is dominated by some of the country's top publics."

The Kaplan/Newsweek profile references the fact that UMBC is ranked 16th in the country in NASA funding and that 40 percent of students go on to graduate and professional schools right after graduation. The average member of this year's freshman class, UMBC's largest ever, has an average SAT score of nearly 1220 and was a member of the National Honors Society. Incoming Honors College students have an average SAT of 1400 and a high school GPA of 4.2.

The article credits a variety of factors that have helped UMBC build a stronger national reputation, including creating an environment where "it's cool to be smart." UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski discusses the broad variety of things to do at outside of the lab and classroom. "Many students design their own curricula," Hrabowski says. "This is a place where you'll find students thinking about the hard questions of society."

The 2003 issue marks the second time UMBC has been recognized by the Kaplan/Newsweek Guide. The 1999 issue called UMBC "a powerhouse in Baltimore" as part of a list of "Schools on a Mission."

Why do you think UMBC is a hot school? Email Insights@umbc.edu.

Responses

UMBC wins 2001-02 Northeast Conference Commissioners Cup for the 4th straight year!
Carolyn Cullen, parent of a UMBC athlete

I am a handicapped individual that "gadeated" in 1999. I was able to accomplish this goal only because UMBC offered individual such as I
1)an in-class note taker
2)extended test time
3)chances to do extra-credit
4)great & caring professors

I am very proud to say that I graduated from UMBC with a BA in English and a Minor in Journalism. I always say during my motivational talks that I do 3 to 4 times a month that UMBC is a "Hot-School," well actually I say "UMBCis a great school!"
Judy Kressig '99

Did you know that approximately 316 UMBC alumni work on campus? There's a great resource for this growing constituency in the UMBC On-campus Alumni Chapter, led this year by its new president, David Servary '71. This year's officers also include Beverly Conner '87, vice president, and Michele Wolff '89, secretary.

Servary, associate director of administration for the Dean's Office, College of Engineering, has worked at UMBC since 1994, when he returned to his alma mater to work for the Office of Sponsored Programs. He credits fellow on-campus alumni Bob Dietrich '70 and Yvette Mozie-Ross '88 for getting him involved with the on-campus alumni chapter.

"For me there is a sense of being a stakeholder - the university helped me get started in my career, and now I have the opportunity to give back. It's an exciting place to work and our chapter gets terrific support from Samantha Davis and Stephanie Day '96 in Alumni Relations," he explains.

The chapter was founded in 1995 and a constitution was drafted and approved by the UMBC Alumni Board in 1998. Its purpose is to promote a relationship between UMBC and its on-campus alumni and with other alumni, parents and friends; to act as an extension of the UMBC community; to be a vehicle for communication through planned events; to embrace a sense of community and to recognize commitment and contributions of on-campus alumni; to encourage career development networks; and to serve as a resource for students and new staff members and employees. The group also hopes to secure and promote ways to encourage staff development.

In addition to educational and professional development programs, this semester's chapter events include trips to the Vagabond Theatre in Fells Point and the Walters Art Museum. Meet your fellow on-campus alumni in the Retriever Activities Center and the Office of Information Technology during special campus tours, and get the latest on how UMBC's campus is growing during a campus bus tour with Mark Behm, vice president for administration and finance. The group also hosts a "Schmooze or Lose" networking workshop for students and passes out candy bars during finals week.

On-campus alumni can also become involved with the chapter's Steering, Staff Development/Resource and Student Development/Resource Committees.

Davis says, "Our On-campus Alumni Chapter is an enthusiastic group whichprovides important resources and opportunities for social events andcommunity building. They are always looking for input, so all alumni whowork at UMBC are encouraged to get involved."

For more information, email Servary or visit www.umbc.edu/alumni/OCA.

On August 6, UMBC Director of Athletics Charles Brown announced the hiring of Phil Stern as head women's basketball coach.

"We are very excited to have Phil Stern at the helm of our women's basketball program," said Brown. "We believe that Phil is the person that we have been looking for to jump start our team in a very positive way. He's turned two collegiate programs around, and I'm confident that he will do the same thing here at UMBC."

"I am extremely excited about the opportunity given to me by Charles Brown and President Freeman Hrabowski," said Stern. "UMBC has all of the resources necessary both athletically and academically to compete at a very high level. I look forward to getting to know the returning players and revitalizing UMBC women's basketball."

Stern, the eighth head coach in UMBC's history, has spent the last four seasons as the head coach at the University of South Carolina-Aiken (Division II), where he revitalized a floundering program. Stern enjoyed a 64-47 (.577) record with the Lady Pacers, but was an even more impressive 44-13 (.772) over the past two years. In the three seasons before Stern's arrival, USC Aiken went a combined 20-61.

Last year, USC-Aiken made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance and captured the school's first Peach Belt Conference Regular Season Championship. The Lady Pacers won their second consecutive North Division Title, finishing with a 22-6 overall record and were 24th in the WBCA/ESPN/USA Today Division II Coaches Poll. USC Aiken has also fared extremely well in the classroom, finishing 14th in the WBCA Division II Academic Poll with a team grade point average of 3.43 during the 2000-2001 season. Prior to Stern's arrival in July 1998, the team GPA stood at 2.10.

During his tenure at USC Aiken, Stern was recognized both within the Peach Belt Conference as well as nationally. He was selected by his peers as the Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year after the 1999-2000 and 2001-02 seasons. Stern was honored nationally when he was named the WBCA District III Coach of the Year in 2002 and the Women's Division II Bulletin Coach of the Month for December 1999.

He was also the architect of a revival at Dowling College (Oakdale, New York), where he spent two seasons. In the three years previous to his arrival, Dowling won only 22 games. However, in just his first season, Stern led the Lady Lions to a 16-12 record and the school's first winning season. Dowling enjoyed a winning record again the following year.

Stern received his first head women's coaching job at Holy Child High School (Westbury, NY) where he compiled a 52-13 mark with three conference titles and three state tournament bids in his three seasons at the helm.

A native of Oceanside, NY, Stern is a 1994 graduate of Concordia, where he played basketball and baseball. Stern earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business Education.

David Dalrymple, Sophomore, Computer Engineering

Flatterland by Ian Stewart (Perseus Publishing, 2002)
Flatterland is a 21st century sequel to the 19th century bestseller Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. It explores not just three dimensional space, but curved space, finite space, hyperbolic space, and much more. This book is a great introduction to non-Euclidian geometry and is recommended for those who enjoy math. It doesn't just teach math -- it also amuses with distorted pop songs and other such cultural fun.

Xenocide by Orson Scott Card (Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 1991)
If you've ever read Ender's Game or any of the books in that series, Xenocide is a good next choice. It serves as a sequel to Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead, making it third in the six book Ender series. Three species (maybe four, as it is undecided by those in the story as to whether one of them is a species or a virus) are intertwined in a dangerous mix on the planet Lusitania that could send humanity to destruction. Thus, the governing body of all settled worlds, Starways Congress, has assembled a fleet of warships to destroy Lusitania in order to alleviate all their problems. However, the people of Lusitania do not want to be destroyed, and make use of a mysterious "secret computer program" to make the fleet disappear. The task of finding out what happened to the fleet is left to Gloriously Bright, a superintelligent young woman who can no doubt solve the problem. The secret computer program emerges as a sentient being itself, and Gloriously Bright is forced to choose life or death for Lusitania and the computer program. Be prepared for a book that is better than Speaker for the Dead, but not quite as good as Ender's Game, though still very good.

Marilyn Goldberg, Chair, Ancient Studies

The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif (Anchor Books/Random House, 1999)
The Map of Love is a wonderful combination of a love story and an intimate view of the Nationalist movement, both set in turn-of-the-century Egypt. "This is a story conjured out of a box; a leather trunk that travelled from London to Cairo and back...It is the story of two women: Isabel Parkman, the American who brought it to me, and Anna Winterbourne, her great-grandmother to whom it had originally belonged." So the author, Ahdaf Soueif, pulls the reader into the time when Britain had just taken Egypt from the ailing Ottoman Empire and an English aristocrat falls in love with an educated landowner and Nationalist. The book was a finalist for the Booker Prize.

Stephanie Lyon, Senior Research Analyst, Center for Health Program Development and Management

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan (Random House, 2001)

This is a fascinating and well-written exploration of the interactions between us(humans) and four plants: apple trees, tulips, marijuana, and the potato. Theauthor posits that each plant evolved to respond to a particular desire on our part, the apple to our desire for sweetness of taste, tulips for beauty, marijuana for intoxication, and the potato to our desire for control. The book includes a history of each plant and interesting horticultural information. For example, Johnny Appleseed's apples were not of much use for eating, but satisfied the desire of early settlers for alcohol in the form of hard cider.

Chris Steele, Director of Program Development, Program Development Unit, Professional Education and Training

Spectacular Happiness: A Novel by Peter D. Kramer (Scribner, 2002)
Chip Samuels is an English teacher, part-time handyman, and devoted husband and father. He is also a one-man protest movement. Egged on by an ex-girlfriend, Chip has been blowing up trophy homes along the beaches of Cape Cod. The fastidiously crafted explosions capture the public's imagination -- and rather than being reviled as a terrorist, he finds himself the idealized center of a media circus.

The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch (Penguin USA, 1985)
The author, a poet and an undertaker in a small Michigan town, presents twelve literary essays about the disruption death causes to his fellow townspeople, reflecting on the languages of love and grief and the lessons of mortality.

Steven Wiley, Sophomore, IFSM

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (translated by A. W. Wheen) Ballantine Books, 1996 (originally published 1922)
A gripping, realistic war story which served to humanize the young troops of the vanquished German army a few years after the end of the Great War, later known as World War I. One cannot help but sympathize with the narrator, Paul Bäuman, who struggles to retain his sanity and resolve as he and his friends press on through a mostly miserable existence, wishing only to survive another day and return home. The novel, as written by Remarque, who actually fought in the German military, became a classic because of its extraordinary sense of humanity in the face of desperation and death.

The Unkindest Cut by Joe Queenan (Hyperion, 1996)
The humorist and entertainment columnist recalls how he, as the subtitle of the book states, "made his own $7,000 movie and put it all on his credit card." If the writer's goal of the earlier part of the twentieth century was to write the "great American novel," maybe with today's advances in feature filmmaking, all of us can aspire to write and direct the great American movie, or so thinks Queenan at the beginning of the book. After all, if Robert Rodriguez could make El Mariachi with some friends for only $7,000 (a figure that the author quickly finds out is mostly bogus- more hype than fact), it should certainly be possible to make one for a few dollars less. On his humorous quest to make "the cheapest movie ever made," Queenan learns the hard way that most of the time you get what you pay for, and that the nature of movie-making demands that you keep paying until you are satisfied with the result, and have a very deep hole in your wallet.

Bad Astronomy by Philip Plait (John Wiley & Sons, 2002)
In his excellent explanation of all things cosmological, Plait helps debunk popular notions of astrological significance, false impressions of lunar events, and theorists like Velikovsky. This, however, is anything but a dreary "I'm right, you're wrong" polemic. Rather, it is a fairly lighthearted work from someone who could easily go into much greater scientific detail, but opts instead to give simple answers to common problems, so as to keep the interest of even the most astronomically ignorant (myself included). The author's love for and knowledge of the subject at hand come through very well and, as I just noted, Plait cleverly walks the fine line between condescending to some readers and bewildering others with mountains of math.

Larry Wilt, Director, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery
Monkey Bridge by Lan Cao (NY: Viking, 1997).This is a work of fiction but it evidently arises from the author's personal experience as a Vietnamese American who is a recent immigrant. It is quite engaging and would be good beach reading, even though it is richer in human insight than the typical summer page turner. It spans and connects the perspectives of two continents, two cultures and three generations. Of course the UMBC Library owns a copy.

Science fiction readers might try Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson (NY:Bantam Books, 1992). Though it is now ten years old, it still presentsa vision of a future that we have not quite reached but could possiblyreach. It's key notion, an online virtual environoment called "the street," presaged and inspired the efforts of antarcti.ca (see http://antarcti.ca/about.html) to organize information in a geographical format. It is a great read, full of reasons to believe that your Pentium III desktop computer is just a crude precursor ofthings to come. Of course the UMBC Library owns a copy, but it is in the non-circulating science fiction collection, so you want to check the public library or buy a copy.

Do you have a favorite book you'd like to share? Email Insights@umbc.edu. Please include title, author, publisher and a brief paragraph explaining why you are recommending the book.