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

In any job market, but especially in a tight economy such as we're currently experiencing, it's important to understand exactly what employers are looking for in an ideal candidate. Your first guess might be technical skills, a high GPA, or related experience that employers are in search of. Of course, all of these are important variables. But according to a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges Employers (NACE), it is, perhaps surprisingly, the less concrete qualities employers most wanted from the college students they hire. In order of importance, as ranked by participating recruiters, these traits are:

-- Communication skills
-- Honesty/integrity
-- Teamwork skills
-- Interpersonal skills
-- Motivation/initiative
-- Strong work ethic

These qualities were desired across industries and positions, demonstrating that it's just as important for technical and science students to develop and communicate their skills in these areas as it is for humanities and social science majors to do so.

"While employers rate communication skills as one of their most desired characteristics, they also report that they are the skills that are most lacking in today's job candidates," says Marilyn Mackes, NACE executive director. " There is such a heavy emphasis on effective communication in the workplace that college students who master these skills can set themselves apart from the pack when searching for employment." So what can you do to develop not only your communication skills, but all the above mentioned "soft" or transferable skills? You might consider:

-- Joining, or even better, starting, a student group or club: Activities will allow you the opportunity to fine tune your interpersonal skills and work on group (i.e., team) initiatives/programs. As your involvement progresses, so will your skill development.

-- Getting (and keeping) a part-time job: What better way to demonstrate a work ethic and motivation?!

-- Taking classes outside your major: It's especially wise to look for courses which will force you to develop you writing and public speaking skills.

-- Volunteering: While demonstrating initiative, commitment to community, and some level of integrity; you'll also have the chance to develop a wide range of skills from listening, program management, and organizing to problem solving and customer/client service.

Don't forget, though, that taking action to develop the skills employers look for is only the first step. It's also important that you know how to effectively communicate -- in written and verbal form -- your acquisition of these crucial skills. Don't hesitate to contact the UMBC Career Development Center for assistance with resumes and interviewing, the primary vehicles for communicating what it is you have to offer a prospective employer.

So now that you know what employers want, how you can get it, and where to go for help in marketing it, don't delay -- start your skill acquisition today!

By Mark Terranova, Assistant Director of Service Learning, The Shriver Center

This year, UMBC is happy to create and observe it own "Volunteer Week" to celebrate the commitment to the community that is so evident at our campus. In such challenging times it is often necessary to remember how much we have here at UMBC and how important it is to share our resources with others.

Through the combined efforts of the Office of Student Life, The Student Involvement Center, Residential Life Office, Leadership@UMBC, Hillel, the Physical Plant, Athletics, Golden Key International Honour Society, Pre-Med Society, the Young Alumni Association, and The Shriver Center, this week will showcase the exciting work done year round by our students, faculty, and staff with the community. I invite you to participate in any or all of the events listed below in order get engaged, stay engaged, or invite someone new to become engaged in the outstanding work this campus does with the community.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5
Super Sweep Thing 4
Participate in Mayor O'Malley's Annual Spring Clean-Up. Please wear comfortable, closed-toe shoes and wear casual clothes that are okay to get dirty! Be prepared to have some fun and help beautify Baltimore! For more information please contact me at terranov@umbc.edu.

SUNDAY, APRIL 6
CHAI Volunteer Day
CHAI (Comprehensive Housing Assistance, Inc.) is having a volunteer day where volunteers will assist senior citizens with cleaning their homes for Passover. They need student volunteers to help out in Northwest Baltimore. We will be able to provide transportation. For more information about CHAI visit www.chaibaltimore.org and to volunteer contact Jody at ext. 5-2637 or Jpeskin@umbc.edu.

MONDAY, APRIL 7
Getting Your Organization Involved in Volunteerism
5-6 p.m., Room 2B24, The Commons
Got Service? Giving back to the community is often a high priority for UMBC student organizations. Let the Student Involvement Center help your organization you're your service projects and utilize our community service resources.

TUESDAY, APRIL 8
UMBC Serves Day
11 a.m. - 2 p.m., Main Street, The Commons
Interested in volunteer and service opportunities? Take time to meet with representatives from The Shriver Center, the Office of Student Life, Residential Life, and other departments that offer service opportunities.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9
Leaders Recruiting Leaders
Student Athlete Day, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., RAC
UMBC will welcome students from Lansdowne Middle School for a day with student athletes and leaders. This program will strive to motivate, encourage academic excellence, and emphasize commitment and civic-mindedness. Sponsored by Athletic Community Outreach and the Student Athletic Advisory Committee.

THURSDAY, APRIL 10
Service through Sandwiches
7 p.m. - 9 p.m., Room TBA, The Commons
Come and join youth from the Choice Tutoring Program to assemble peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for a local soup kitchen! Please RSVP to Rachel at rwolp@umbc.edu.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12
Fort McHenry Restoration Field Day
8:15 a.m.-1:00 p.m.Hands-on community service activity! We will be helping the Aquarium to restore, monitor, and maintain a tidal wetland adjacent to the Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine. This wetland is one of the few remaining in the lower Patapsco River watershed. If you would like to join Golden Key International Honor Society and Pre-Med Society in this effort, please email Ladan at lfakor1@umbc.edu.

Please contact any of the departments listed above to find out more information about any or all of the events. We look forward to your participation!

Astrid Sperling is a talented swimmer who hails from Halle, Germany, a town south of Berlin. She has spent seven years honing her gift, attending a high school geared to athletes, and even qualified for the European Junior Championships. As a teenager, Sperling traveled all over the world -- Denmark, South Africa, Spain, and the Czech Republic. "That was one of the best things -- getting to see so many places," Sperling comments. So exactly how did her travels lead her to the other side of the ocean in Baltimore, MD? Enter the job she had as a nanny in nearby Columbia.

Sperling spent a year employed as a nanny and it was during this time that she researched possible scholarship opportunities at universities. "I sent out letters to different universities to see if there were any scholarships available and a list of my times," Sperling says. Her search for an educational institution that could also feed her love for swimming was answered at UMBC, where Sperling started attending in the winter of 2001. Now a junior interdisciplinary studies major, Sperling is gearing up for the United States Nationals, where she will compete in the 100 and 200 backstroke. The event will be held April 1 through 5 in Indianapolis.

At the ECAC Championships, Sperling won the 100 backstroke in a school-record time of 57.00. She also posted an ECAC record and NCAA "B" cut time of 2:00.53 to take the 200 backstroke.

Looking at Sperling's accomplishments, no one would ever think that she went two years without swimming. "It was too much stress, managing school and swimming," she says, reflecting on her senior year of high school. Once she moved to America, Sperling took her second year off, but returned with a renewed passion and dedication for the sport in 2000. Her training was obvious to all when she recorded 2:00.53 in the 200 backstroke.

Sperling commends Coach Chad Cradock and Assistant Coach Tom Himes with motivating her to work as hard as she can. "I like to be pushed," she explains. Her affection for her team members and the coaching staff is obvious, as is her distress at the thought of her graduation next year. "I'm really sad because I only have one year of swimming left," Sperling says.

With the season over, Sperling competes with the Retriever Aquatic Club. "It's up to the athlete," Sperling reflects, "I need something to look forward to. I need a goal."

- Jennifer Leigh Gibson

President Hrabowski Named to Governor's Commission
President Freeman Hrabowski was named to Governor Robert Ehrlich's Commission on the Development of Advanced Technology Business. Members of the commission include 20 venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and academics from across Maryland.

Rachel Brinkley Named President of Association of Student Financial Aid Officers
Rachel Brinkley, director of financial aid, was elected president of theMD-DC-DEL Association of Student Financial Aid Officers. She will represent all of the public and private institutions in the region at both the Federal and State level.

Walt Schulz Named Vice President of MBIA
Walt Schultz, director of operations for techcenter@UMBC, was named vice president of the Maryland Business Incubation Association (MBIA, www.mdbusinessincubation.org). MBIA was created to provide a united voice for the advancement of business incubation in Maryland.

Student Richard McNey Awarded Press Association Internship
Richard McNey, a senior English major who will be graduating in May,has been awarded a summer internship by the Maryland-Delaware-District ofColumbia Press Association. The organization, which comprises all of the dailynewspapers and most of the weekly newspapers in the region, places collegestudents in paid summer internships with its member publications. McNey willbe working for the Easton Star-Democrat on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

During his undergraduate career at UMBC, McNey has worked as a regular contributor to The Retriever Weekly, UMBC's student newspaper.In addition, he has worked for two semesters as an intern with the BaltimoreBusiness Journal where his articles appear on UMBC's Techport Web site.

Last October, McNey attended the Associated Press Managing EditorsConference's student program and wrote for The Gazette, the conference's newspaper. He is a member of the Golden Key Honor Society and Sigma Tau Delta (English Honor Society. A resident of Pasadena, McNey also works part-time for the Anne Arundel County Recreation and Parks department as a park ranger at Lake Waterford Park.

Honors College Students Participate in National Conference onUndergraduate Research
Two Honors College students from the Department of English are participating in the 17th National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Utah March 13-15. Ilse Schweitzer, student of Gail Orgelfinger, will discuss "King Arthur the Tyrant and the Scottish Call for Freedom." Maura Smyth, mentored by Christoph Irmscher, will present her research on "The Poetry of Edwin Morgan: A Dive into the Slippery World of Language."

Among other honors, Ilse and Maura are recipients of the 2002-2003 Provost's Undergraduate Research Award. Invitation to participate in the NCUR event is a prestigious honor based on a rigorous proposal review process, with papers being selected out of a very large number of submissions. Ilse and Maura will meet with over 2,000 undergraduates and faculty from throughout the United States. The UMBC campus community will have an opportunity to hear these and many other presentations at the annual Undergraduate Research & Creative Achievement Day on April 30.

Stephen Holden and Roy Meyers Speak at American Society for Public Administration Conference
Panelists at the American Society for Public Administration National Conference on March 18 include Stephen Holden, assistant professor of information systems, ("Leveraging IT Through e-Government") and Roy Meyers, associate professor of political science ("Federal Budget Outlook).

Bob Nielsen Helps Evaluate National Council Programs
Bob Nielsen, director of environmental safety and health, served on afocus group appointed to evaluate the National Safety Council's trainingprograms and assist with the development of upper level managementclasses. Nielsen is a member of the Safety Council of Maryland's Boardof Directors and is vice president of its School and College Division.

By Jack Prostko, Director, Faculty Development Center

Now that we have almost reached the midpoint of spring semester, instructors may want to check with students to discover what's working well in a course and what might be improved. Mid-semester evaluations can be much more useful than end-of-semester evaluations, which come too late for us to make improvements that benefit the students giving us feedback.

One of the most useful means of getting this feedback is to have a small group evaluation (SGE) performed -- essential a short focus group session which I run for any professors willing to sacrifice 20 minutes of class time. Students are divided into groups and asked to discuss the course and provide specific information on what is helping them learn material and what might be strengthened.

When I run these evaluations, students usually confirm an instructor's feelings about the class -- that some aspects are wonderful but that other things may not be working as planned. In particular, students often comment on what has helped them become engaged in the course, especially if it is a large lecture class. As various reports have shown (confirming what most of us already know), "the average student's attention span is between ten and twenty minutes" (Davis, p.99).

Lecturing for long periods of time allows us to cover a lot of material, but may be less effective in helping students learn than dividing the class period into segments of lecture followed by brief classroom activities. These occasional breaks reinforce learning by encouraging students to consolidate what they know and allowing them to identify what they do not understand.

Long PowerPoint lectures can be particularly troubling for students who may feel overwhelmed with the amount of material to digest. After dozens of slides of information, students can no longer retain -- let along apply -- every detail, no matter how significant they all may seem.

Professors here at UMBC use a variety of techniques to vary the structure of a lecture class, and student feedback shows that these teaching practices are quite effective. In brief, here are some examples of how long lectures can be packaged into segments with periods of class participation. After lecturing for 15 or 20 minutes, introduce:

*Short writing exercises. Instructors ask students to explain a principle or idea, or to apply information in a new setting. Such writing need not be collected or graded to be useful to students. You may even ask students to exchange papers or discuss their ideas in pairs.

*Problem-solving exercises. Choose a problem that can be handled in 5 to 10 minutes; students might discuss the problem with a neighbour or in a small group.

Pair activity or small group work. A popular cooperative learning technique is called Think-Pair-Share, in which students are asked to ponder a question briefly and discuss it with a partner; after this several pair or group responses are used as the basis for a short discussion led by the instructor.

*Games. Content from any course can be included in simple variations on familiar games (tic-tac-toe; bingo; jeopardy) to reinforce learning. Author Steve Sugar will discuss how to use games in teaching at a workshop sponsored by the Faculty Development Center and the Office of Information Technology on Tuesday March 18 from noon to 1 p.m. in the Commons, room 318. To register for the workshop, go to www.umbc.edu/brownbag.

Other professors organize more complex activities, such as role-plays, debates, case studies, or reports from teams working on outside projects. All of these are useful ways to supplement lecture with activities that reinforce learning -- and more information on all of them can be found at the Faculty Development Center.

And finally, consider having a small group evaluation run in your course; to do so, simply call me at ext. 5-1829 or e-mail me, prostko@umbc.edu. The information students provide can be very useful in making small changes that might have a great effect in the classroom.

Web Resources

Articles on "Interactive Lectures" available at the Network for Cooperative Learning, www.csudh.edu/SOE/cl_network/

Books Available at the Faculty Development Center:

Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

Davis, Barbara Gross. "Personalizing the Large Lecture Class," in Tools for Teaching. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

Foyle, Harvey C. (ed). Interactive Learning in the Higher Education Classroom: Cooperative, Collaborative, and Active Learning Strategies. Washington, DC: NEA, 1995.

Stanley, Christine A. and Porter, M. Erin. Engaging Large Classes: Strategies and Techniques for College Faculty. Bolton, MA: Anker, 2002.

Sugar, Steve. Games that Teach: Experiential Activities for Reinforcing Training. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer, 1998.

March, 9, 2003. Datelines, Ithaca, New York; Stony Brook, New York; Elon College, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; and Fairfield, Connecticut. In all of these towns on a seasonal Sunday afternoon, the refrain of a UMBC Retrievers' victory was heard loud and clear.

The first dispatch came in from Head Tennis Coach Keith Puryear. Despite his women's team enormous success over the past several years, UMBC (6-1 this season) had never defeated the strong program from Cornell University. But on this day, the ladies used four singles victories to edge the Big Red, 4-3, and extend their winning streak to six straight.

Then, word came down from Long Island, New York, where Don Zimmerman's men's lacrosse team had the unenviable task of playing Stony Brook, an NCAA qualifier a year ago, as the Sea Wolves opened their new 8,200-seat Stadium. The Retrievers had not played in 16 days, but held USB scoreless for over 42 minutes as they built an 8-0 lead and posted a 12-6 victory. UMBC will put their 2-0 record against 6th-ranked Georgetown's 2-0 mark on Saturday in the first game the squad will play at home in 2003.

Next to phone in was Head Softball Coach Joe French. The Retrievers had posted a dramatic victory over James Madison to win the Elon (NC) Phoenix Classic. UMBC had blown a 4-2 lead in the top of the seventh, but collected a pair of two-out RBI hits in the bottom of the frame to defeat JMU, 6-5. Senior Abbie Kahn (Fairfax, VA) got the game-winning hit and was named Tournament MVP.

An exuberant Murray Davis left word that senior Huguens Jean had rewritten the record books at the ICAAAA Indoor Track & Field Championships at Boston University. Jean, who recently won the high and triple jumps to become the Most Valuable Athlete at the NEC Championships, won Sunday's high jump with an effort of 7'1.25". That mark was a new facility record and propelled the Oakland Mills graduate to next weekend's NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

To cap it off, the women's basketball team continued its improbable run, as the 7th-seeded Retrievers knocked off #3 Monmouth, 48-40, to become UMBC's first Division I basketball team to reach a conference championship game. A day earlier, Phil Stern's team had knocked off #2 Quinnipiac at the NEC Tournament held at Sacred Heart University. They take on #1-seeded St. Francis (PA) this Saturday at 4 p.m. in Loretto, PA.

The final record of the day belonged to The Retriever Sports Hotline. Running Time: 7:31.

Robert Provine in Discover
Professor of Psychology Robert Provine's work on laughter is featured in the current (April) issue of DISCOVER magazine. The article focuses on research done on campus in collaboration with UMBC undergraduates and includes photos taken in The Commons and in Provine's lab in the Department of Psychology. The full article is not available online at this time.

Robert Carpenter on the Marc Steiner Show and in the Baltimore Sun
Robert Carpenter, assistant professor of economics, was part of a panel of economists on WYPR's Marc Steiner Show on March 17. They discussed potential slot machine revenues, proposed tax increases and what the numbers mean to the State budget and Maryland citizens.

On March 27, Carpenter's independent study of slots was featured in the Baltimore Sun story, "Slots bill seen as favoring tracks."
www.sunspot.net/bal-md.slots27mar27.story

Devin Hagerty on the Marc Steiner Show
Devin Hagerty, assistant professor of political science, was a guest on WYPR's Marc Steiner Show on March 19. The topic was the history, role, and future of the United Nations.

Ellen Handler Spitz in Chronicle of Higher Education
An essay on Mister Rogers by Ellen Handler Spitz, professor of art history in the Honors College, was published in the March 28 Chronicle of Higher Education.
Click here to read the essay.

IRC in Computer Graphics World
UMBC's Imaging Research Center's work on the Cone project is the cover story of this month's Computer Graphics World magazine.
http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=169009">http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=169009">http://cgw.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=Articles&Subsection=Display&ARTICLE_ID=169009.

Carol Hess in Baltimore Sun
Carol Hess, chair of the Department of Dance, was quoted in a March 9 Baltimore Sun story on the state of dance in Baltimore.
www.baltimoresun.com/features/arts/bal-as.dance09mar09.story

Tom Schaller in Baltimore Sun
Tom Schaller, assistant professor of political science, was quoted in a March 9 Baltimore Sun story on Mayor O'Malley and Governor Ehrlich, "Is this state big enough for the two of them?"
www.sunspot.net/bal-pe.rivals09mar09.story

Center for Art and Visual Culture Exhibition in Lifetimes and Gay Life
The Center for Art and Visual Culture's exhibition, "Nayland Blake: Some Kind of Love: Performance Video 1989-2002," was featured in the March 5 issue of Lifetimes (Patuxent Publishing) and the March 7 issue of Gay Life.
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?show=localnews&pnpID=812&NewsID=435388&CategoryID=8978&on=0

www.bgp.org/march07_03.html/arts.html

Lacrosse's Greg Wojtech in the Baltimore Sun
On March 12, the Baltimore Sun profiled senior lacrosse player Greg Wojtech.
www.sunspot.net/sports/college/lacrosse/bal-sp.menlaxnotes12mar12,0,1091490.story?

Mix garbage, empty paper towel rolls, and the suggestion of rotten food and you have some of the theatre department's main characters in the theatre department's current production, Fanto: A Mysterious Vaudeville. Sound slightly repulsive? It's not. This play has come from the creative genius of professor Colette Searls, a relative newcomer to UMBC, but not to the theatre or world of puppetry. Searls has directed many plays that mix puppetry with live actors, including Weight of the Head, which ran at New York's HERE Theater's 2000 Puppet Parlor.

When someone thinks about puppets, Kermit the Frog or a "Sesame Street" character usually come to mind, something goofy for children to enjoy and learn from. "In the United States, when we think of puppetry, we think of a child's birthday party or the Muppets. We tend to relegate it to children's theatre," Searls says.

Fanto, aimed at a more adult audience, attempts to defy certain stereotypes that are linked with puppet theatre. "What I'm doing is not geared to making people laugh or being cute," Searls explains. While it is for a more mature audience, Fanto is something that all can enjoy. "It's not pretentious or so cerebral that you need an advanced degree to understand… it's for everyone."

In this new production, the puppets are being controlled by actors garbed in black, something that is known in the business as black theatre. "Most of the time the actors will not be seen very well -- the puppets will appear to be floating," Searls says.

Because the puppets will be the most visible thing on stage, the focus on the new creations will be intense. Enter Don Becker, a Virginia-based artist who constructed two of the puppets specifically for the production of Fanto. The remaining puppets were created by the actors. "It's like watching garbage coming to life," Searls says.

Fanto is a series of 10 to 12 unrelated scenes, linked together through the use of puppets. The lack of a specified plot gives the production a snapshot feel. Searls agrees with this sentiment. "The curtain blinks like an eye," she says, "Each time the curtain opens there is a new act."

Lying underneath it all, Fanto deals with emotions, with universal feelings. "My aim for this is to make it appealing on a human level," Searls says, "to express simple undistilled emotions."

Watch the New Media Studio's video about the production. (Real Player required.)

Fanto: A Mysterious Vaudeville runs through Sunday, March 16. All shows are at 8 p.m., except for Sunday, March 16, which is at 4 p.m. Admission is $5 and all proceeds go towards the Department of Theatre Scholarship Fund. Call (410) 455-2476 for reservations. Not suitable for infants and toddlers.

- Jennifer Leigh Gibson

Students in Taryn Bayles' Introductory Engineering Science course testtheir hot air balloon and heat transfer theories in the atrium of the Engineering/Computer Science Building.

View online movie (3 min.)
www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/real/tarynbayles.ram

Download real player
www.realone.com

Produced by Bob Kuhlmann and Damion Wilson of UMBC's New Media Studio.

By Mikhel Kushner, Director, UMBC Women's Center

Women's History Month, an annual recognition of women's accomplishments both past and present, has quickly become a natural element of the academic landscape. The ease with which we now anticipate relevant programming matches the ease with which we forget that the celebration is a relatively new phenomenon with a formal Presidential Proclamation in 1992 just five years after a National Women's History Month Resolution received bipartisan support from the U.S. House and Senate. These acts were intended to expand the celebration of Women's History Week and International Women's Day (March 8) and have succeeded in doing so.

Because women's hopes, dreams and hard work have often gone unnoticed and unrecognized, directed attempts at communicating the contributions made by women have been necessary over the years. The UMBC community has responded with vigor to this challenge, as well as to assure a climate that allows women to achieve and contribute to our community every day. Not only has Women's History Month been widely recognized, but a multitude of programs inviting discourse and support around gendered experiences have developed and find support on campus. UMBC houses a Women's Center, a Women's Studies Program, the Center for Women and Information Technology, Voices Against Violence, Women Involved in Learning and Leadership Program, Women In Science and Engineering groups and a President's Commission for Women.

As a result of a commitment to women through these and other programs, any given month's events at UMBC reflect a celebration of women. Consequently, the face of Women's History Month is changing. Women's achievements and experiences are woven into the everyday landscape to a greater degree then ever before. Nevertheless, women's lives and work deserve to be honored as inequity still rings true. With this in mind, the Women's History Month Committee invites special reflection on women accomplishments and potential this March.

For a list of Women's History Month events, visit www.umbc.edu/womenscenter/whm2003.html#whm2003.

UMBC's efforts to build a comprehensive, supportive environment for women and minority graduate students were recognized by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), who awarded the university's Graduate School the CGS/Peterson's Award for Innovation in Promoting an Inclusive Graduate Community.

There has been a 50 percent rate of attrition for doctoral students at U.S. graduate schools that have persisted over the past 20 years-and among minority students, this figure is even higher," said Graduate School Dean Scott Bass, who accepted the honor on December 5 at CGS' annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

"We must diversify and support our graduate student population for the nation to remain a world leader in science, engineering and technology," Bass said. "I'm receiving this award today on behalf of the entire UMBC community. This is at the core of our academic mission."

It is not the first time the Graduate School has been recognized for its leadership in minority recruitment and retention. In 2002, Janet Rutledge, associate dean of the Graduate School, was instrumental in landing a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to establish the Maryland Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (MAGEP), a consortium of universities led by UMBC that includes the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. MAGEP seeks to expand the principles of UMBC's Meyerhoff Program throughout other disciplines to build graduate student recruitment, mentoring and professional development statewide.

Rutledge, the first African American female to receive a Ph.D. from Georgia Tech's electrical engineering program, knows firsthand the challenges minority Ph.D. students face. "There's a feeling of invisibility," says Rutledge, who concentrated on the scarcity of minority science Ph.D.'s as program director in the Division of Graduate Education at the National Science Foundation prior to coming to UMBC.

>UMBC is reaching out to prospective graduate students through its Graduate Horizons events -- begun in 2001 -- which usually draw close to 100 undergraduates from across the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Participants get an overview of UMBC and attend workshops on how to prepare for and be successful in graduate school. They also learn about what it means to have a Ph.D. "This is an opportunity for students to hear from a variety of people how a Ph.D. gives you flexibility in your career," says Rutledge.

Graduate Horizons participants visit departments to meet faculty and students and learn firsthand about graduate programs. Nathaniel Upshaw, a mathematics and computer science major at Alabama A & M University, who hopes to obtain a Ph.D. in computer science, says, "The departmental visit gave me the opportunity to ask questions about the department, hear personal testimonies from students, view the facilities and see what UMBC has to offer me."

In addition to expanding its recruitment programs, the Graduate School is looking at potential ways to provide more mentoring for all students and at what special issues minorities face. Bass and Rutledge believe the key to getting more minorities and women to excel in science, math, engineering and technology programs is better mentorship between faculty and graduate students.

"I'm a product of the national minority engineering education movement of the 1970's," Rutledge says. "There was a big emphasis on mentoring. If we're to achieve the diversity we're looking for with graduate students, we must mentor."

UMBC's faculty is also dedicated to the Graduate School mission. Michael Summers, the only Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in Maryland and winner of the 2000 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, recently volunteered to expand the Meyerhoff graduate biomedical program. Summers started with two minority students and has since grown the program to include 31 students across six departments.

"Our faculty sees this opportunity to be unique in the nation, and they have seized on it," Bass says. "At other campuses, often this type of mission is peripheral; you'll see an office of minority affairs on the side somewhere. But here, as administrators, we're just responding to faculty who really want to do this. They're saying 'Give us the tools and we'll do it.' "

Perception. I see a white man with the bluest of eyes wearing overalls. He has dirt underneath his fingernails and tattoos. What does this tell me? That he is uneducated? That he is unintelligent? That he is lazy? None of these ideas are true, they are all misconceptions. Everything I think I see is wrong. Legally, this man is African-American, he received a Master's Degree in Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts, and his latest exhibit, "Some Kind of Love," is a culmination of decades of tireless work. His name is Nayland Blake.

"Some Kind of Love," now on view at the Center for Art and Visual Culture, is an exhibit that deals for the most part with perception. What you think something is, it is not. What you think you see, you do not. "The first thing I say to someone is "what does it look like," Blake explains. Among the work on display is Feeder 2, a life-sized gingerbread house. "The thing that ties most of my work together is for the most part the things I make are the things everyone encounters everyday with a sort of twist to them," Blake says.

The twists that life brings in the form of self-discovery are an ongoing theme in Blake's work. Many of his pieces deal with the sexual and racial issues that touch so many lives. "One of the themes going on in the show is my exploration of the question of what does racial identity mean," Blake says. "It's a theme I am very involved in investigating because of my own background."

Blake comes from an inter-racial marriage -- his mother is white and his father is African-American. In the state of New York, Blake is legally recognized as an African-American man. "The history of race relations in this country is so much a flashpoint for emotion," Blake says. "I use art to understand my own history and explore life by making an object. A lot of objects in this show deal with the issues surrounding sexuality and relationships."

Definition is another prevailing theme in Blake's exhibit. The need to instantly categorize or label things is something he feels very strongly about and this issue shines through in his art. "We want everything to be defined," he says, "For me, making the object is exploring the space of not knowing."

The motivation for Blake's creations comes from the need to explore not only his own psyche, but for his audience to explore themselves, as well. "These works are something to push your thoughts against. In this day, art gives us a place to explore the shape of our own thoughts."

Although most of Blake's works are sculpture, his video work dominates the exhibition. "I think of it all as sculpture because it all involves object," he says. In Gorge, Blake is videotaped being fed for one hour. "At some points, it seems tender, at others, it appears violent."

The native New Yorker offers advice to his audience. "Don't be afraid of your reactions," Blake says, adding, "If you want to laugh, then laugh." Blake takes ideas and gives them breadth and depth. "I take images everyone has and make it a reality, make it physical," he says in reference to Feeder 2. His art is not meant for one specific group of people. "Everyone is equipped to gain something from the work," he says.

Read more about Blake's exhibition in Insights.

The Center for Art and Visual Culture (CAVC) is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building. CAVC is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building. Call (410) 455-3188 for more information.

- Jennifer Leigh Gibson

This article was originally published in The Retriever Weekly.

A retrospective of work by Nayland Blake, whose work addresses issues of race and sexuality, is now on view at the Center for Art and Visual Culture. "Some Kind of Love: Performance Video 1989-2002," runs through March 22.

The exhibition combines work from the past 13 years of Blake's performance-based installations and includes several large-scale environments, objects and videos. Historically researched and often literary-inspired, Blake explores complicated and subtly mixed concepts such as identity, race, relationships, and representation, often using playful and subversive images often linked to childhood.

David Deitcher writes in the exhibition catalogue, "[for almost twenty years] Nayland Blake's sculptural installations and performances have revealed a wide range of interests, from popular culture to vanguard subversion; from Camp to the queer body in the age of AIDS; from Sadean and psychoanalytic texts to the toxic legacy of American racism. Like so many American artists whose work has emerged during the 1990s, Blake's projects have often dealt with identity, which they envision as a compound process rather than a fait accompli."

Blake, a native of New York City, received his MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in 1984. He has had solo shows at the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York, the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston, San Francisco Artspace, and other venues.

"Nayland Blake: Some Kind of Love: Performance Video 1989-2002" was organized by the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, and curated by Ian Berry in collaboration with theartist.

Click here to read more about Nayland Blake.

The Center for Art and Visual Culture (formerly the Fine Arts Gallery) is located on the first floor of the Fine Arts Building. CAVC hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information call (410) 455-3188. Click here for a schedule of upcoming visual arts events.

This spring, the Humanities Forum continues with the theme "Global Challenges to Modernity." Center for the Humanities Director Thomas Field says, "We are delighted to be able to provide the UMBC community with an opportunity to examine some of the deeper reasons for anti-U.S. and anti-Western unrest. Our spring lectures include UMBC faculty member John Stolle-McAllister, who has worked with indigenous communities in Mexico; Benjamin Barber, the author of Jihad Versus McWorld; and Karen Armstrong, whose work on religious fundamentalism holds some extremely important keys to understanding why we are where we are."

All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call the Center for the Humanities at (410) 455-6798.

UPCOMING HUMANITIES FORUM EVENTS

Picture Books and the Inner World of the Child
Ellen Handler Spitz, Professor of Art History in the Honors College, UMBC

Thursday, April 3 at 4 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

How do the picture books shown to us as young children shape our lives even into adulthood? Ellen Handler Spitz will explore the ways in which classic picture books transmit psychological wisdom, convey moral lessons, shape tastes, foster imagination and also implant subtle prejudices.

Sponsors: Friends of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery, Center for the Humanities

The Battle for God
Karen Armstrong, Faculty Member, Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism

Tuesday, April 15 at 7 p.m.
University Center Ballroom

Karen Armstrong is one of the most vigorous and incisive commentators on religious affairs writing today. Her many books include the bestselling A History of God and The Battle for God, in which she explores Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism as responses to modernity.

Sponsors: Center for the Humanities, Honors College, Summer and Winter Programs, Friends of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

The Daphne Harrison Lecture
David Driskell, Professor Emeritus of Art, University of Maryland

Wednesday, April 23 at 4 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

Artist, educator, philanthropist, collector and art historian, David Driskell is one of the world's leading authorities on African American art. He has organized groundbreaking exhibitions and has written extensively and lectured around the world on this topic.

This semester's Social Sciences Forum lecture series explores the implications of innovative research on some of our most pressing current issues.

"The Social Sciences Forum provides an opportunity for the entire UMBC community to hear from leading experts on a variety of topics on the cutting edge of social science research. The presentations are lively and followed by a question and answer session as well as an opportunity to chat informally with the presenter," says Marv Mandell, director of policy sciences and co-director of this year's Social Sciences Forum with political sciences professor Roy Meyers.

All Social Sciences Forum events are free and open to the public. For more information call (410) 455-2160.

UPCOMING SOCIAL SCIENCES FORUMS

Michael Edwards, Director for Governance and Civil Society, Ford Foundation
"From 'Past Imperfect' to 'Future Positive?': International Cooperation in the 21st Century"

Thursday, April 3, at 4 p.m.
University Center, room 312

Michael Edwards has worked in international development for the last twenty years, spending much of that time living and traveling in Latin America, Southern Africa, and South Asia. His writings have helped shape a more critical appreciation of the global role of civil society and to break down barriers between researchers and activists across the world.

Sponsor: Social Sciences Forum

Karen Armstrong, Faculty Member, Leo Baeck College for the Study of Judaism
"The Battle for God"

Tuesday April 15, at 7 p.m.
University Center Ballroom

Karen Armstrong is one of the most vigorous and incisive commentators on religious affairs writing today. Her many books include the bestselling A History of God and The Battle for God, in which she explores Christian, Jewish and Islamic fundamentalism as responses to modernity.

Sponsors: Center for the Humanities, Honors College, Summer and Winter Programs, Friends of the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery

Royce Hanson, UMBC Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education
Ray Hoff, UMBC Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET)
Elissa Levine, NASA Goddard
Virginia McConnell, UMBC Department of Economics
Interdisciplinary Studies Mosaic Roundtable: "Air Quality and Human Health in Baltimore."

Wednesday, April 23, at 1 p.m.
University Center, room 312

How does poor air quality in the Baltimore area affect our health? What do code orange and code red days really mean? Find out in this interdisciplinary discussion between UMBC faculty and Baltimore researchers.

Sponsor: Interdisciplinary Studies

Steven Larsen, Insurance Commissioner, Maryland Insurance Administration
The Proposed CareFirst Conversion

Thursday, April 24, at 4 p.m.
University Center, room 312

Maryland Insurance Commissioner Steven Larsen is a frequent presenter at health care conferences and has testified on health care issues before Congress. Prior to being appointed Insurance Commissioner in June 1997, he was chief legislative officer for former Governor Parris Glendening. His long career in government and private industry includes serving as counsel for the USF&G Corporation and the Economic Matters Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates.

Sponsor: the Center for Health Program Development and Management

Philip Rutledge, Professor Emeritus, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University
"Social Equity as a Third Pillar of Public Administration - Some Challenges for Policy Sciences"

Monday, May 5, at 4 p.m.
Albin O. Kuhn Library, 7th floor

Prior to joining the faculty at Indiana University, Philip Rutledge held a variety of executive positions in government, policy research centers and academic institutions, including service in the Johnson and Nixon administrations, the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. His teaching and research interests are in public policy formation, workforce development, environmental and social equity and international and comparative administration, specializing on Africa and developing countries.

Sponsor: Social Sciences Forum