President Hrabowski has been named to the 2012 TIME 100, the magazine’s annual list of “the 100 most influential people in the world.” The list, now in its ninth year, recognizes the selectees’ activism, innovation, and achievement.

“The TIME 100 list is about the infinite possibilities of influence and the power of influence to change the world,” says Richard Stengel, TIME Managing Editor.

In writing about President Hrabowski, the only college president on the list, and UMBC, TIME highlighted the university’s transformation from a regional institution to a national model for research universities in the United States:

“When you think of the top science universities in the U.S., schools like MIT and Caltech may jump to mind. But perhaps the most envied science program in the country is at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.”

UMBC’s success in undergraduate teaching and research hinges on the creativity and hard work of the university’s faculty, staff, and students. Many of our most innovative programs also would not be possible without the support of our alumni, partners, friends, and state and local leaders.

As President Hrabowski told The Baltimore Sun: “My success and the campus’s success are the same. People appreciate what we’ve done at the university, and I enjoy telling the story.”

This honor is truly a tribute to the entire UMBC community. You can read all that TIME had to say here, and highlights from other media coverage are below.

The Baltimore Sun: “In the past decade, UMBC has opened an on-campus research park, attracted minorities to the sciences with its Meyerhoff Scholarship program — which has been replicated at institutions across the country — and paired undergraduates with top scientists … UMBC’s humanities programs have also emerged as some of the strongest in the nation.” — The Baltimore Sun

WBAL TV: “To build a culture of learning really takes a great effort on the part of the faculty, the students and the administration, and he’s willing to make that commitment.” — Tim Nohe, president of the UMBC Faculty Senate and associate professor of visual arts

ABC 2: “What he does here is what reflects in these awards … It’s not because Doc is here that were receiving this. It’s because Doc has made such a difference here that we’re receiving this.” — Jeremy Brickey, UMBC senior

CBS Baltimore: “We are not just a role model anymore for diversity. We are a role model for changing how education works, and it’s all started by Freeman.” — Mike Summers, HHMI investigator and professor of chemical and biochemical engineering

The Washington Post: “Hrabowski unquestionably ranks among the five or 10 most important college presidents in the nation. In a two-decade tenure, he has elevated UMBC from commuter school to top-flight research university.” — The Washington Post

Jen Dress, assistant director of Student Life was honored at the national convention of ACPA College Educators International with the Commission for Student Involvement’s Outstanding Mid-Level Professional Award.

Dr. Lee Calizo, director of Student Life was honored at the national convention of ACPA College Educators International, with the Standing Committee for Women’s Research and Scholarship Award.

K. Jill Barr, assistant dean for Graduate Enrollment Management, recently returned from a consulting trip to Qatar University. Barr was asked by the American Bar Association to provide guidance on the development of student services and a career services office for the law school at Qatar University. She will return this fall for a follow-up visit.

Bill Shewbridge, director of UMBC’s New Media Studio, spoke to Urbanite about the role technology plays on campus and in the lives of students.

“There is a tendency to think that students are digital natives,” says Bill Shewbridge, the director of the new media studio at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). “But uploading a picture to Facebook doesn’t make you a producer, much less an informed consumer.”

A television producer-turned-professor, Shewbridge discovered this after embarking on UMBC’s digital storytelling project eight years ago. To tell digital stories—short videos, usually for a particular class, that combine scriptwriting, interviewing, and research—students first needed to be taught video editing, audio recording, and image processing. Now, UMBC offers a multimedia literacy lab, a one-credit course taken concurrently with another class, where students learn those skills.

The article, “The Wired Campus,” appeared March 30 in Urbanite.

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school, has published a new book of poetry, “Unacknowledghed Miracles.” In his review, Dr. Richard Berlin writes: “Once again, Robert Deluty’s poems had me hooked from beginning to end. On dazzling display are the characters Deluty embraces with his warm, sly sense of humor—the skinny and obese, professors and hookers, husbands and wives, children and grandparents, and of course, Jews and Gentiles. Deluty’s deft embrace of our shared humanity is his greatest gift. And his ability to share his heartfelt observations through poetry is an ongoing miracle.”

Copies of “Unacknowledged Miracles,” as well as of Deluty’s other books, are on sale at the UMBC Bookstore.

Marie desJardins, computer science and electrical engineering, competed in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Brooklyn last weekend. She placed 44th out of 593 solvers, 22nd (of 568) in the “B” category (solvers who haven’t competed in the A (elite) or B finals), and 5th (of 87) in the Mid-Atlantic. She was the 8th ranked woman in the tournament, and the top-ranked woman in the Mid-Atlantic region. She also earned an “I Beat Dr. Fill” button for outscoring the crossword-solving computer program, “Dr. Fill.”

The tournament page is here: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/

Rankings: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/2012/standings/rank.htm

Dr. Fill: http://www.crosswordtournament.com/articles/bg031112.htm

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Before the first note sounds, the dance studio—with its heavy black tape stripes lining the floor—s like an enormous blank page of sheet music. Then, Ferdinand Maisel leans into the keys of the black grand piano in the corner, and suddenly students in sweats and bare feet dot the staff with whole-note pliés and staccato jumps.

Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.

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Lindsey Loeper ’04 acknowledges the futility of trying to keep pace with the hands of the watch and the rapidly turning pages of the calendar. No matter how quickly she and other members of the Special Collections team archive the stacks of UMBC documents they receive every day, there are always more coming. History never stops happening at a university that’s still building its story.

Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.

Tim Sparklin, Compliance Officer  from the Office of Research Protections and Compliance has been elected President-elect of the Northeast section of the Society of Research Administrators (SRA).

Sophomore forward Chase Plummer was selected to the America East Conference Second Team, it was announced today at the University of Harford, site of the 2012 championships.

At the end of the regular season, the 6’6″ Plummer was the only player in the conference to be ranked in the top five in both scoring (fourth) and rebounding (fifth).

He produced one of the most prolific sophomore seasons in UMBC’s 26-year NCAA Division I history, scoring 446 points, one shy of the all-time record for a sophomore, set by Peter Mulligan in the 2001-02 campaign.Plummer, who finished the campaign at 15.4 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per contest, also become just the fifth player in school history to record 400 points and 200 rebounds in a single season. He also etched his name in the single season free throw shooting lists, converting the sixth-most (119) in a single season in school history and attempting the third-most (180).

A co-captain as a sophomore, Plummer scored in double figures in 11 consecutive games, from Jan. 17-Feb. 22, averaging 18.4 points per game in that stretch. He had five double-doubles, including a 24-point, 14-rebound effort at Canisius on Feb. 18. His top scoring game was a 28-point effort vs. Hartford on Feb. 7, when he converted 11 of 14 field goal attempts.

Plummer is the seventh Retriever in nine years of UMBC’s play in America East to earn second team honors. Only Jay Greene (2008) and Darryl Proctor (2008, 2009) have been selected to the first team.