Convocation Address
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III
President, UMBC
Tuesday, August 30, 2005

(Watch a video of Convocation 2005)

It’s our yearly tradition to welcome freshmen and other new students at Convocation, and I want to talk briefly to you this afternoon about dreams and values and the importance of community. Ours is a special community, committed to nurturing people, ideas, and values that support excellence and service. Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw inspires us with his thoughts on community:

My life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have…for [only] a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.

We want everyone in the UMBC community to dream and be inspired. Author Zora Neale Hurston, whose book Their Eyes Were Watching God was published during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1930s, begins her book,

Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some, they come in with the tide. For others, they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time. That is the life of men [and women].

We want you to dream and to develop the skills and values that will empower you to achieve your dreams. When many of your parents and I were in college, it was not unusual to hear the President or Dean say, “Look to your left; look to your right; one of you will not graduate.” Now, I want you to look at the student on your left, and then at the student on your right. Our goal is to make sure that all three of you graduate.

We will do our part: we are committed to offering you a distinctive undergraduate experience that values the life of the mind and supports your intellectual and personal development. Your UMBC education is about hard work and high achievement, character and integrity, relationships built on civility and mutual respect. It’s also about seeing life as a journey – like those taken by Freeman and George Dyson, father and son in The Starship and the Canoe – and about asking the “big” questions.

What does it mean to be part of the rapidly changing, information-driven global community? According to Netscape’s co-founder Marc Andreessen, today, “a 14-year-old in Romania or Bangalore or the Soviet Union or Vietnam has all the information, all the tools, all the software easily available to apply knowledge however [he or she] want[s]” – though I would add, only if the youth is advantaged. Poor children, unfortunately, may not have that access – in any nation. What are the implications of these developments for the world’s economic superpowers and historically impoverished nations?

What does it mean to be part of American Society, where the gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” is enormous? The net worth of the nation’s wealthiest one percent exceeds that of the bottom ninety-five percent, and the net worth of the top ten percent is almost $1.5 million compared to just over $1,000 for the bottom quarter. America’s schools face an egregious achievement gap, with African American and Latino twelfth graders performing at the same level as white eighth graders. What are the implications for the nation’s future?

What does it mean to live and thrive in this university community? It begins with understanding and appreciating how privileged you are to be in college, given that not even thirty percent of Americans earn college degrees. It also means connecting with faculty and staff through courses and experiences that promote research, mentoring, advising, co-curricular experiences, community service, and leadership. It means supporting and learning from other students. Throughout your college career, you can play a major role in each other’s success – as study partners and collaborators in the lab, in performances, and on projects; as partners in civic engagement; as teammates on the athletic field; or simply as friends.

Throughout college, you will learn not only about relationships, but also about diversity of people. UMBC is a microcosm of our nation and the world – with students and faculty from nearly every state and scores of countries. You will meet people from all over the globe, representing a variety of backgrounds in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, politics, sexual orientation, and culture. Take the time to reach out to each other and beyond your “comfort zone” – you will be surprised how much you can learn.

In our community, we all share a common goal – seeking the truth. In The Starship and the Canoe, while father and son may have been disconnected physically and emotionally, each was on a journey to seek his truth. On your journey, we hope that you will recognize connections among disciplines. As you study literature, for example, you’ll also be studying history, sociology, psychology. As you learn about life sciences, you’ll also be learning about mathematics, computer science, and even philosophy – as you reflect on ethical issues related to human life and technology.

It is our hope that you’ll also come to recognize and appreciate the connections among people. Relationships are at the core of our campus community: my future is connected to your future, and yours to mine. The whole of our community is greater than the sum of its individual parts. While each of us is a distinct individual, all of us are seeking the truth and looking for connections – with each other, across disciplines, and in the larger world. Seeking truth as a member of the campus community – and as a citizen of our nation and globe – poses an enormous challenge each day. Here in the academy, you can expect to see people who learn from each other – even as they sometimes have different perspectives and agree to disagree. Yet we are inspired by our own success and that of others. Each day, we can fulfill our need to dream and be inspired.

As you begin your UMBC experience, we hope that you will become passionate about your education. I often talk about Samuel Beckett=s novel, Molloy, in which the main character is enraptured by what he sees when he observes the dancing behavior of bees. Molloy says, “Here's something I could study all my life and never understand." The lesson from Beckett is that none of us ever reaches the end of our education – the more we learn, the more we appreciate how much more there is to know. I am convinced that the keys to a rich life are maintaining a passion for learning and being part of a community through meaningful relationships.

Long before most of you were born, perhaps even before your parents were born, in 1963 I had the privilege of being a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham, Alabama. I went to jail with Martin Luther King and learned one very important lesson – that even children can make important choices that will affect not only their own lives, but the lives of others. It’s because of that experience that I know that each of you has the potential to be an important leader in our society – not 20 years from now, but now. Each of you has a story that can inspire you and others. Know your story. Talk to your parents and grandparents about their stories and the challenges and obstacles they’ve overcome. In every case when men and women have succeeded, it’s because they didn’t give up – they made a decision to move forward on their journey in spite of the odds.

As you begin your UMBC experience, allow yourselves to be inspired by the journey ahead. Let the journey call passionately to you as it did to Tennyson’s Ulysses, the Greek hero and king. Though old and weak toward the end of his life, Ulysses sets out in search of more adventure.

…Come, my friends.
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world…
For my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the happy isles…
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and…
That which we are, we are –
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Again, welcome to the UMBC community, and best wishes on your journey.

UMBC reaffirms its commitment to a distinctive undergraduate experience and to support faculty development and research with the reorganization of the former College of Arts and Sciences into the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences and with the creation of the Office of Undergraduate Education.

Deans John W. Jeffries and Geoffrey P. Summers expect the newly reorganized colleges to expand scholarship, research and creative achievement experiences for both students and faculty. “The smaller colleges allow for more focused development of student programs and curricula and will make it easier to concentrate on additional resources for faculty as well,” said Summers, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.

Jeffries, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, added, “Collaboration is at the heart of UMBC, and we will continue to develop interdisciplinary research and programs for faculty and students.”

Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education Diane Lee said that the Office of Undergraduate Education’s mission is to provide an honors experience to every undergraduate by collaborating with departments and programs across campus. “We take the ‘honors university in Maryland’ tagline very seriously,” said Lee. The office works closely with student affairs, enrollment management and financial aid, and directs the University’s academic integrity and undergraduate research initiatives, among others.

In addition, the Office of Undergraduate Education now provides a central location for student academic affairs issues—formerly handled in the college offices—to assure consistency in how policies and rules are enforced, monitored and known across campus. Teresa Viancour, associate professor of biological sciences, joins the office as associate vice provost for undergraduate education, and will handle student questions and concerns about policies, course requirements, grades, petitions for course waivers and medical leave, for example. The office also takes a proactive approach to these issues—through programs like Campus Connect for new students, as well as First Year Seminars and faculty mentor initiatives—in order to foster student engagement and understanding of academic requirements.

A conversation with Jeffries, Lee and Summers about their priorities for the coming year will be featured on the UMBC homepage in September.

The following listings provide the latest location and contact information for the Office of Undergraduate Education and the two new colleges; watch Insights and the UMBC homepage for future updates.

Information on the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Information on the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

Information on the Office of Undergraduate Education

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Physics Building, Third Floor
410-455-2385, (fax) 410-455-1095

John W. Jeffries, Dean
410-455-2386, jeffries@umbc.edu

The Dean’s Office directory is available online.

Other Important Updates:

*Janie Stevenson, formerly assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, has joined the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences as assistant dean. She can be reached at 410-455-3228 or jstevens@umbc.edu.

*Rick Welch, formerly dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will be teaching and conducting research in biology and history as well as working with the interdisciplinary program, Human Context of Science and Technology. His new office is in room 721 of the Administration building, and he can be reached at 410-455-2044 or welch@umbc.edu.

College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Physics Building, Second Floor
410-455-2513, (fax) 410-455-1072

Geoffrey P. Summers, Dean
410-455-2513, gsummers@umbc.edu

Dean’s Office Directory

Janie Stevenson, Assistant Dean of Financial Management
410-455-3228, jstevens@umbc.edu

Kathy Lee Sutphin, Assistant Dean for Instructional Projects
Biological Sciences, Room 447
410-455-2271, sutphin@umbc.edu

Cathy Allison, Executive Administrative Assistant
410-455-2513, allison@umbc.edu

Dorothy Caplan, Executive Administrative Assistant
410-455-1707, dcaplan@umbc.edu

Other Important Updates

*The College is temporarily using the physics department’s phone extension. Summers expects the College will move to the University Center at the end of the fall semester.

Office of Undergraduate Education
Administration Building, Tenth Floor
410-455-2859, (fax) 410-455-1210

Diane Lee, Dean and Vice Provost
410-455-2859, dlee@umbc.edu

Dean’s Office Directory

Teresa Viancour, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
410-455-2267, viancour@umbc.edu

Jill Randles, Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
410-455-3715, jrandles@umbc.edu

Theresa P. Davis, Director, Learning Resources Center
Academic IV, Room 460
410-455-2442, tpdavis@umbc.edu

Janet McGlynn, Director of Communication and Outreach
410-455-5754, mcglynn@umbc.edu

Andrea DeSantis, Executive Administrative Assistant
410-455-6805, desantis@umbc.edu

Barbara Smith, Administrative Assistant
410-455-2300, bsmith@umbc.edu

August 29, 2005

Due to construction around the recreational court areas of the RAC,
there is a change in tomorrow's Convocation lineup location for faculty
and staff. Please assemble in the lower level hallway of Sondheim Hall
at 2:30 pm.

Also, remember that today, Monday, August 29 is the LAST DAY to pickup
your regalia for the ceremony. Due to staff shortages, regalia will no longer be available for faculty and staff to pick up at the RAC on the day of Convocation.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Horace Newcomb, director of the prestigious George Peabody Awards Program, will speak at UMBC on “Studying Television in the Post-Network Era: Responses to a Changing Media Industry.” The lecture, scheduled for Thursday, September 15, at 4 p.m. on the 7th floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library, celebrates the recent establishment of UMBC’s upper-level undergraduate Certificate in Communications and Media Studies.

Newcomb, who holds the Lamdin Kay Chair for the Peabody Awards in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, pioneered UMBC’s first popular culture and mass media courses as an American Studies faculty member in the mid-1970s. During those years he also served as television columnist for the Baltimore Sun.

A widely respected scholar in mass media studies, he is author of "TV: The Most Popular Art," (Doubleday, 1974), co-author of "The Producer’s Medium" (Oxford, 1983) and editor of six editions of "Television: The Critical View" (Oxford, 1976-2000). From 1994 to1996 he served as Curator for the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, with primary duties as editor of "The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia," considered the definitive library reference work for the study of television.

Newcomb’s research and teaching interests are in media, society and culture, and he has written widely in the field of television criticism and history. Recent lectures in the U.S. and abroad have focused on cultural exchange and international media industries. Known during his years at UMBC as an outstanding teacher, he was named one of three Outstanding Teachers in the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin in 1989.

The Peabody Awards, established in 1941 and based at the University of Georgia, are considered the most prestigious recognition of distinguished achievement by radio and television networks, stations, producing, organizations, cable television organizations and individuals. In 2004, 32 awards were made, including one to WBAL-TV for a series of reports on the Chesapeake Bay, credited with spurring state environmental policies, and Bill Moyers was recognized for his life-time of contributions to electronic media.

The lecture is sponsored by the Department of American Studies, the Social Sciences Forum and the Humanities Forum. For further information, contact the Department of American Studies at 410-455-2106.

Margie Burns, English, Writes Weekly Column for the Prince George’s Sentinel
Margie Burns, a member of the adjunct faculty in the English Department, is now a weekly columnist for the Prince George's Sentinel. She will write on current events and topics of general interest in the public discourse. Burns also has a blog, http://www.margieburns.com, which is updated two or three times per week.

8/05/05

Tyecia Powell, ’05, Hired as Assistant Head Coach for Marist College Women’s Basketball Team
Tyecia Powell, ’05 English, is one of two new assistant head coaches for the Marist College women’s basketball team. Powell, who also received a certificate in Elementary Education, will be primarily responsible for player development, working with post-position players, academic advisement, and community outreach.
http://www.collegesports.com/sports/w-baskbl/stories/080305aae.html

State of the University Address
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III
President, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Fall Opening Meeting
Tuesday, August 23, 2005

(Watch a video of the State of the University Address)

(Members of the UMBC community may post their recent honors or achievements at the end of this address.)

Each year, I welcome the chance to report to you on the University’s achievements and talk about our challenges and hopes for the coming year. In short, we continue to make impressive progress, reflecting the commitment, talents, and success of our students, faculty, and staff.

This year’s Fall Opening Meeting and this address on the state of the University immediately follow our annual retreat, where campus leaders have been discussing our future. At the retreat, we reaffirmed our dual goals of providing a distinctive undergraduate experience and building research and graduate education. We also discussed implementation of our Strategic Framework for 2016, the campuswide plan developed by the Planning Leadership Team under the Provost’s guidance, as we anticipate our 50th anniversary that year. (Next year will be UMBC’s 40th anniversary.) We focused special attention on two major topics: (1) academic program planning, conducted this past year by the campus to give specificity to the Strategic Framework across disciplines; and (2) creating a culture of execution to implement our plans. In “the spirit of execution” – a phrase I use often – our conversations targeted two of UMBC’s highest priorities: student retention and PeopleSoft. We also heard about preparations for our ten-year Middle States accreditation visit next spring and our upcoming ABET engineering review.

The retreat set the tone for today’s event. To gauge the campus’s progress, I re-read the evaluation report written by the 1996 Middle States team. Among its findings, the team cited “a breathtaking and exciting” vision, “an unusually dedicated faculty,” “an outstanding undergraduate student body that is among the very best in American public universities,” an “exceptional degree of shared governance,” “the University’s proactive outreach strategy to forge effective partnerships,” and “integration of its…mission and student service and outreach.” The team cautioned, however, that because of insufficient funding, “The next ten years…will be characterized by a strong element of risk, which will necessitate the careful balancing of the needs of students and faculty against significant uncertainty.”

Recently, these and other strengths were reaffirmed by the external review team commissioned by the Regents and Chancellor Kirwan to evaluate my presidential performance over the past five years. Some of you talked with the team, which included Presidents of the City University of New York, the University of Delaware, and the former head of the State University of New York at Albany. I pointed out to them that the campus’s progress has resulted largely because of the efforts of many talented, hardworking people. The team concluded that, “One cannot leave UMBC with anything other than a sense of awe at the extraordinary accomplishments it has achieved…[but] that much work still needs to be accomplished [to] continue to build [the] full-time faculty,” strengthen “the funding base,” “shore up some of the academic and administrative infrastructure,” and make “choices…with respect to investments.” In short, they found UMBC to be vital and strong in spite of serious financial challenges.

As we approach our 50th anniversary, we must continue to be guided by our Strategic Framework, which helps us make the case for needed funding, both public and private. In this light, let me now report to you on the current state of the University, highlighting changes that have occurred this past year.

The area of greatest change, perhaps, involves our academic organization and the President’s Council. We especially want to welcome Lynne Schaefer, who joined us July 1st as Vice President for Administration and Finance after a national search. She has substantial experience, having served as administrative vice president at two other universities, President of the Michigan Education Trust, and earlier as a budget analyst in that state. We are fortunate to have recruited her here, and I know you will enjoy getting to know her. Other changes involve leaders not new to the campus, but who have taken on new responsibilities – Scott Bass, Vice President for Research, and Jack Suess, Vice President for Information Technology. We also have several new Deans, including Kevin Eckert, Dean of the Erickson School of Aging Studies, John Jeffries, Dean of Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences, Diane Lee, Dean of Undergraduate Education, and Geoff Summers, Dean of Natural & Mathematical Sciences. All have distinguished themselves on this campus, and we have great respect for them. Let me also thank Rick Welch, former Dean of Arts & Sciences, and Shlomo Carmi, who has announced that this will be his final year as Dean of Engineering & Information Technology. Both have contributed substantially to UMBC’s progress.

When we look around campus, we see an ongoing physical transformation. Most important this year, we completed multimillion-dollar renovations to the Chemistry Building and in October will dedicate the building in honor of Robert and Jane Meyerhoff, whose philanthropy has helped position UMBC among the leading producers of American chemists and biochemists of all racial and ethnic backgrounds. This year, we also completed an addition to the Retriever Athletics Center. Most important, we received preliminary planning money from the State for our new Performing Arts & Humanities Building. This facility is our number-one capital priority for the remainder of this decade, and the Vice Presidents and I (along with others) are intensely focused on it, working with the Chancellor, Regents, Governor’s staff, legislators, and others who can be supportive. This facility promises to create a regional and national appreciation of UMBC as a cultural destination.

Visitors invariably comment on our impressive facilities. To put this year’s developments in perspective, let me remind you that since 1999, we have made about $300 million in capital investments from the State and other sources – not including our growing Research Park and Technology Center. New buildings in engineering and information technology, physics, and public policy, and major renovations of our biology facilities have substantially advanced our core mission in instruction and research. Adding more than three-quarters of a million square feet of new space for student apartments, the Commons, and new athletic field and stadium facilities also has helped to transform the campus, not just physically, but also in terms of campus environment, which is now far more residential with substantially more student activities and campus life than what we saw just a few years ago.

It also is significant that our 12,000 students have never been more academically talented or more diverse. Next week, we’ll welcome more than 1,400 new freshmen, including many with extraordinary academic records. Much of the credit for recruiting this outstanding class goes to our Enrollment Management staff, led by Yvette Mozie-Ross, our new Assistant Provost – and a UMBC graduate. Our freshmen, transfers, and graduate students will benefit from our intense commitment to increasing retention and graduation rates. The campuswide undergraduate Retention Committee, co-chaired by Diane Lee and Charlie Fey, is implementing aggressive strategies targeting new students. Students at greatest risk are those without declared majors and those struggling academically in the first semester. Our students deserve every opportunity to succeed, especially given the cost of their education. To help them meet higher tuition costs, we will be focusing even greater effort on identifying internship and employment opportunities related to their majors and career interests. A task force headed by Charlie Fey has been exploring ways to expand campus work opportunities. Higher retention rates also mean greater revenue for the campus – revenue to provide even stronger support to students, faculty, and staff.

We also expect to enroll about 2,200 graduate students this fall, including growing numbers of domestic students, women, and minorities. Let me congratulate both Scott Bass and Janet Rutledge, recently promoted to Senior Associate Dean of the Graduate School, for their work in this area. We also are producing large numbers of doctorates each year, including 77 this past year, and our new Ph.D.s go on to impressive post-doctoral positions or employment. One persistent challenge is retaining more doctoral students (which we did this past year); we are one of 20 research universities to receive funding from the Council of Graduate Schools to develop effective retention initiatives. Another challenge is to enroll more master’s students in applied programs in response to the needs of businesses, school systems, and other employers. We also are developing more revenue-generating training and research initiatives and enrolling more students in post-baccalaureate certificate programs. Both the UMBC Training Centers and DPET, under John Martello’s leadership, are making impressive strides in this area, providing important training and resource-generating activities.

Despite the challenges we face, our success this year has been university-wide. Our students continued to excel in intellectual competitions – from winning their third consecutive national “Final Four” championship in chess, placing high in the Mini-Baja engineering competition, and taking first place in the National Society of Black Engineers’ Academic Tech Bowl (beating MIT and Stanford), to receiving three Goldwater scholarships, a Fulbright fellowship, and being recognized as finalists for the Marshall and Truman awards. Under Vice Provost Lynn Zimmerman’s leadership, we’ve launched a new campus program to identify and mentor highly promising students to achieve even more success in winning prestigious scholarships. Also, our graduates were highly successful in their placements, ranging from graduate programs at Brown, Cornell, Harvard, and Cambridge to positions with Microsoft, T. Rowe Price, school systems, and the Peace Corps. (Students may post honors and awards received within the last year at the end of this address.)

Many of our faculty also have distinguished themselves this year. For example, Lisa Moren, in visual arts, was named a Fulbright scholar and will lecture at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague; Kevin Eckert became a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America; Andrew Sears, in information systems, was selected as an IBM faculty award winner for the second year in a row; Shawn Bediako, in psychology, and Matthias Cinyabugama, in economics, both promising new minority faculty members, received Henry C. Welcome fellowships from the Maryland Higher Education Commission; GEST researchers Robert Schiffer and Joan Rosenfield were elected fellows of the American Meteorological Society; and Chris Irmscher, in English, Tom Field, in modern languages & linguistics, and Marjoleine Kars, in history, were all named National Endowment for the Humanities fellows. Professor Kars’s award comes on the heels of her Mellon research fellowship a year ago. Scores of other faculty across our full spectrum of disciplines have attracted awards and major grants, published books, received patents, and had other creative achievements. (Faculty and staff may post honors and awards received within the last year at the end of this address.)

Faculty and staff also have been instrumental in our efforts to build strong partnerships with State and Federal agencies, companies, and foundations, producing substantial research-and-training funding. Over the past two years, we have shifted our external funding mix to include substantially more Federal awards, resulting in our rising national reputation among research universities and in growing revenue through Federal indirect cost recovery. We continue to expand our research portfolio, with NASA as our largest funding source, and NSF and NIH as our next two heaviest Federal supporters. Our success is due heavily to the work of our centers, including the Center for Advanced Studies in Photonics Research, our Goddard Earth Systems Technology Center, the Center for Urban Environmental Research & Education, our Howard Hughes Medical Institute lab, the Joint Center for Astrophysics, and our Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, among others. Significant funding also has come from a variety of sources for activities ranging from K-16 math-science initiatives and the Center for History Education to the Center for Health Program Development & Management, the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis & Research, and the Choice Program and other activities in the Shriver Center.

We are especially encouraged by the continuing support by NSF and others involving our special initiatives focusing on women and minorities in science and engineering – from our ADVANCE program for women faculty’s recruitment and advancement, and CWIT (our Center for Women and Information Technology), to our Promise and Alliance for Graduate Education & the Professoriate programs to increase the numbers of underrepresented minority graduate students in these fields. UMBC received one of only four prestigious Clare Booth Luce professorships awarded nationally this year, enabling us to hire a new woman assistant professor in chemical & biochemical engineering. In fact, women now make up the majority of tenure-track positions in that department, which may be unique in the country. Most important, over the past five years, we have doubled the number of women faculty in science and engineering tenure-track and tenured positions.

In this positive light, we have continued planning UMBC’s next major capital campaign, with its ambitious $100-million goal by 2010. We are now in the campaign’s quiet phase, having raised more than $40 million, including this year’s $4-million gift from the Erickson Foundation to create the Erickson School. We will focus on building endowment support for student scholarships, faculty research, and endowed chairs and professorships. Also this year, as a result of $6 million in donations to support the Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars, we named the Social Sciences Building and dedicated the campus’s first statue in honor of Walter Sondheim. We also are deeply grateful to faculty and staff who contributed to UMBC’s Annual Fund. Thank you for your generous spirit.

Our success has produced increased investment in the campus and heightened visibility. State and national press coverage of the University is now commonplace – we’re either making news or providing expert commentary regularly. We’re also attracting many more people to campus who want to learn about us. Over the past year, the campus has hosted visits from representatives of national agencies, corporations, other universities, school systems, and other organizations. Faculty, staff, and students have traveled extensively, talking not only about their own interests and experiences, but also about the UMBC experience.

Heightened attention and increased investment also require greater accountability to ensure that our image reflects substance. As most of you know, State auditors have just arrived on campus to begin a six-month review of our operations over the past three years. Their examination, along with Federal audits of our growing activities, the upcoming Middle States and ABET accreditation visits, and our annual budget hearings in Annapolis all require us to stay focused on quality, responsiveness, and accountability.

Our top administrative priority continues to be PeopleSoft implementation. While the process has been extremely challenging for all of us, we have made meaningful progress this past year: implementing a new program that improved payroll distribution from the State; refining and enhancing the retroactive payroll adjustment process; implementing a leave-management system; beginning testing of the electronic payroll interface with the State; correcting errors that occurred during the first year of running PeopleSoft; and strengthening PeopleSoft training. The new systems are giving us greater internal control in fiscal and personnel management; because of the challenges we have encountered and fiscal constraints, we recently decided to delay implementing the student administration system until fiscal year 2008 in order to continue improving the experience of the end users in preparation for SA. Though we have made a significant investment in additional staff to meet the increased workload demands of PeopleSoft, we still face problems related to training, staffing, financial support, business processes, and communications, all of which need to be addressed through our planning process. Most important, I want to thank all of you who have been working hard to make these new systems work in your units. Your commitment, perseverance, and positive approach are deeply appreciated.

The passion and spirit that motivated our founders continue to serve us well today. Regardless of the challenges we face, we will succeed by putting people first – supporting students and doing everything possible to increase retention and graduation rates; supporting faculty in their research and teaching; supporting staff as they work with students and colleagues; and responding to the needs of our external constituents, from corporations to our scholarly communities. We often say here that, “Success is never final.” Our continued success will depend on our determination to build a culture of execution.

I often ask people how long they have been here, and I’m always struck by their responses, particularly because so many of you have given your careers to this campus. Whether you’ve been here more than 30 years or just arrived, your contribution makes us who we are. UMBC is a professional and personal experience for each of us.
We can all mark our time here in relation to the University’s development – we are growing together. I’m celebrating my 19th year on campus this fall and my 14th as President, and I want you to know how much I appreciate the support you have given me throughout the years. By working together, we will continue making progress. We have become a distinctive model in American higher education – combining the traditions of the liberal arts academy, the creative intensity of the research university, and the social responsibility of the public university.

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

(At his State of the University Address, President Hrabowski invited members of the UMBC community to share their recent achievements. Students, faculty and staff may post informaton on recent honors and awards received within the last year in the comment box below.)

Two prominent members of the greater Baltimore business community are assuming new positions in their ongoing volunteer leadership roles with UMBC. Mayo A. Shattuck, III is the new chair of the UMBC President’s Board of Visitors. Greg Barnhill will succeed Shattuck as chair of the external advisory board for the UMBC Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. The appointments became effective July 1.

Shattuck, now the chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer of Constellation Energy, was the impetus behind a generous gift of $1 million from the Alex. Brown Foundation in 2000 to start the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. As the new chair of UMBC's Board of Visitors, an advisory board, he succeeds Earl L. Linehan of Woodbrook Capital, Inc. Shattuck received his B.A. from Williams College and his M.B.A. from Stanford University.

The Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship works closely with the Baltimore business community to establish entrepreneurial learning opportunities and business experiences for UMBC students.

Barnhill, a partner and member of the Board of Brown Advisory Securities, will help guide the Alex. Brown Center’s mission of developing entrepreneurs for the region. Barnhill and Shattuck have served together on the Center’s board.

"We're very grateful to Mayo Shattuck for his leadership and active involvement in establishing and guiding the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship," said Vivian Armor, director of the Alex. Brown Center. "We've made tremendous progress over the past few years, and we're excited about the opportunity to work with Greg Barnhill to continue to expand our initiatives."

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, said, "Mayo Shattuck is a major asset for greater Baltimore. UMBC is honored to have him as one of our leading ambassadors in the business community."

"Greg Barnhill brings 28 years of investment industry experience to this position with the Alex. Brown Center," said Shattuck. "That background, coupled with his extensive participation in various civic projects throughout the Baltimore region, position Greg well to continue expanding the Center’s impact on UMBC students."

Barnhill is well-known for his extensive activity in civic activities throughout the region. He played a lead role in the winning bids that made Baltimore and Annapolis stopovers in the 1998 and 2002 Volvo Ocean Race, an around-the-world sailing regatta. More recently, he was co-chair of the finance committee for the 2005 Miss USA pageant, broadcast live from the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore.

"My ongoing relationship with UMBC faculty and students has shown me that the University, through the Alex. Brown Center, is an ideal resource in providing students who make an entrepreneurial impact in our community," said Barnhill.

Dylan Powell, Ph.D. Candidate, in NASA News
The research of Dylan Powell, Ph.D. candidate in Atmospheric Physics, was featured in NASA News. The article, “Sea Ice May Be on Increase in the Antarctic: A Phenomenon Due to a Lot of 'Hot Air'?” was published August 16.
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/environment/sea_ice.html

Donald Norris, Public Policy, in the Baltimore Sun
Donald Norris, professor of public policy and director of MIPAR, wrote an Op/Ed piece, “Profit and Public Rehabilitation,” in the Baltimore Sun on August 23 about former Maryland state police superintendent and Baltimore City police commissioner Edward T. Norris (no relation), convicted last year of stealing public funds and of filing false tax returns. Prof. Norris is critical of the decision by WHFS-FM (105.7) to give Norris a daily talk show and calls the development “a cynical, if not hypocritical, use of infamy as a way to profit from that infamy.”
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.norris23aug23,1,5319061.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

techcenter@UMBC CEOs in the Maryland Gazette
Paul Silber, In Vitro Technologies, and John Sohl, COLUMBIA Technologies, are featured in the Maryland Gazette's special publication "Maryland's 25 CEOs You Need to Know." The supplement was published August 19.

UMBC in the Daily Record
UMBC was mentioned in the Daily Record on August 19. The article, “In With the Old and the New; Baltimore Co. Focused on Both,” discusses Baltimore County’s expanding economic diversity.

8/19/05

Warren Belasco, American Studies, in U.S. News & World Report
Warren Belasco, professor of American Studies, commented on the condition of the United States during the 19th Century in “Utopia In A Cereal Bowl,” a U.S. News & World Report article. The August 15-22 issue examined how the U.S. changed the world of food.

Kerri Burneston, ’99 Visual Arts, in Urbanite
Fluid Movement, a water ballet co-directed by Kerri Burneston, ’99 Visual Arts, was profiled in “Fluid Movement Wants You: The Diary of a Water Ballet Director.” The August 2005 Urbanite article chronicled Author Joe Burton’s role as director.

Louis Cantori, Political Science, Interviewed by the Associated Press
An Associated Press reporter in Cleveland interviewed Louis Cantori, emeritus professor of political science, about the loss of 16 Marine reservists from Ohio in “Mass Casualties Push War Sentiments Back to Forefront.” The article was published on August 6 and appeared in several newspapers across the nation and internationally on August 6 and 7. Newspaper placements included the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury-News.
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/news/state/12320800.htm

Erickson School of Aging Studies in the Catonsville Times
The advisory board of the Erickson School of Aging Studies was announced in the “Education Notes” section of the Catonsville Times on August 15.
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=351&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1126887&om=1

President Hrabowski and Jack Suess in the Mason Gazette Online
Freeman Hrabowski, president of UMBC and Jack Suess, vice president for Information Technology, were mentioned in “Mason and Educause Produce Computer Security Video” on August 11 in the Mason Gazette Online, a George Mason University publication. Hrabowski and Suess participated in a discussion on confidential data and safeguarding the security of university computer systems.
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/index.php?id=7014

Donald Norris, Public Policy, in FCW.com
Donald Norris, professor of public policy and director of MIPAR, provided a definition of e-democracy in “Britain Outpaces the United States in e-democracy,” an August 8 article in FCW.com.
http://www.fcw.com/article89814-08-08-05-Print

Manil Suri, Mathematics, in Urbanite
An excerpt of Manil Suri’s novel, The Death of Vishnu (2001), appeared in the August 2005 issue of Urbanite. Suri is a professor of mathematics.

UMBC Residential Life Staff in the Catonsville Times“Students’ Search is On For Housing Off Campus,” details the methods UMBC Student Affairs staff employ to help students find off-campus housing. Ramona Arthur, director of off-campus student services, and Kim Leisey, assistant vice president for student affairs, were quoted in the August 15 article. Anthony Pereira, ’92, ’96 Information Technology, also offered advice to students looking for housing off campus.
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpid=351&show=archivedetails&ArchiveID=1126888&om=1

8/05/05

Dennis Coates, Economics, in the Cincinnati Business Courier
Dennis Coates, professor of economics, said Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner Jr. would benefit from selling his shares in the Cincinnati Reds. The paper’s July 15 article, Six investment groups have expressed an interest in buying the team, the paper reports in a July 15 article, “6 Groups Swing for Reds Control.” http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/07/18/story1.html?t=printable

Robert J. Hanyok, ’02, in the New York Times
Robert J. Hanyok, ’02 MA History, was in the New York Times on July 31 in “U.S. Study Pinpoints Near-Misses by Allies in Fathoming the Unfolding Holocaust.” The story profiled Hanyok’s research and analysis, “Eavesdropping on Hell,” which suggests that Allies knew about the German genocides but failed to react. Hanyok is a historian with the National Security Agency's Center for Cryptologic History in Fort Meade.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/international/europe/31holocaust.html

Donald Norris, MIPAR, in the Washington Post
Donald Norris, director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR) and professor of public policy, was quoted in “Steele Fundraiser Draws Rove, Democratic Attacks,” a Washington Post article on July 27 about a potential controversy sparked after Bush administration political adviser Karl Rove attended Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele’s fundraiser.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/26/AR2005072601340_2.html

Norris was also in the Baltimore Sun on August 2 in “O'Malley to Address National Press Club Today.” Norris said the exposure the mayor received will help to enhance his candidacy for the 2006 gubernatorial election.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal-md.omalley02aug02,1,4628079.story

UMBC Computer Students in the Catonsville Times
UMBC graduates and Towson University graduates comprise the greatest number of new employees as Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin expands its business with two new federal agencies in the Woodlawn area, according to the August 4 Catonsville Times’ article, “UMBC Computer Students Find Degree of Success.”
http://news.mywebpal.com/news_tool_v2.cfm?pnpID=351&NewsID=651277&CategoryID=11091&show=localnews&om=1

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski will deliver his annual State of the University Address at the Fall Opening Meeting on August 23, beginning at 11:45 a.m. in the UC Ballroom. Dr. Hrabowski’s address will reflect on campus developments and discuss the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for UMBC.

All faculty, staff, and students are invited and encouraged to attend as Dr. Hrabowski and Provost Arthur Johnson welcome the UMBC community back to campus for the 2005-06 academic year. Release time will be granted for staff to attend.

Following Dr. Hrabowski’s address, all are invited to enjoy a light fare buffet and visit the 2005 Success Fair, showcasing nearly 50 campus offices and programs that encourage success and retention by supporting students, faculty, and staff members in their work and study. Representatives from nearly 50 supportive programs and offices from throughout the campus will be present.

The full text of Dr. Hrabowski’s address will be available following the Fall Opening Meeting on the home page of the UMBC Web site.

As the fall semester draws closer, UMBC’s two new Deans, John W. Jeffries and Geoffrey P. Summers, are working to build the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, respectively.

The following listings provide the latest location and contact information for each college; watch Insights and the UMBC homepage for future updates.

Information on the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Information on the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (Web site)
Physics Building, Third Floor
410-455-2385, (fax) 410-455-1095

John W. Jeffries, Dean
410-455-2386, jeffries@umbc.edu

The Dean’s Office directory is available online.

Other Important Updates:

*Eva Dominguez is the College's new assistant dean of financial services. She can be reached at 410-455-2823 or edomin2@umbc.edu.

*Janie Stevenson, formerly assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, has joined the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences as assistant dean. She can be reached at 410-455-3228 or jstevens@umbc.edu.

*Rick Welch, formerly dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will be teaching and conducting research in biology and history as well as working with the interdisciplinary program, Human Context of Science and Technology. His new office is in room 721 of the Administration building, and he can be reached at 410-455-2044 or welch@umbc.edu.

*With the retirement of Victor Wexler, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, undergraduate student academic affairs issues across all colleges will now reside in the newly created Office of Undergraduate Education. Teresa Viancour, associate professor of biological sciences, has been named associate vice provost for undergraduate education. She can be reached at 410-455-2267 or viancour@umbc.edu.

College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences
Physics Building, Second Floor
410-455-2513, (fax) 410-455-1072

Geoffrey P. Summers, Dean
410-455-2513, gsummers@umbc.edu

Dean’s Office Directory

Janie Stevenson, Assistant Dean
410-455-3228, jstevens@umbc.edu

Cathy Allison, Executive Administrative Assistant
410-455-2513, allison@umbc.edu

Other Important Updates:

*The College is temporarily using the physics department’s phone extension. Summers anticipates additional administrative staff hires and a move to the University Center within the next few weeks.