The Hilltop Institute’s Hospital Community Benefit Program has just released a new online resource: the Community Benefit State Law Profiles.

The profiles are a compilation of hospital community benefit laws and regulations across the United States, analyzed in the context of the Affordable Care Act’s community benefit framework. They include data on tax exemptions that most states make available to nonprofit hospitals. Readers can access this information through a new interactive map, or see a summary table for side-by-side comparisons of different state policies.

A companion issue brief, “Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA: The State Law Landscape” (pdf), presents the profiles’ findings and begins the analysis of each state’s community benefit landscape and its significance in the context of national health reform.

The Hilltop Institute at UMBC is a non-partisan health research organization dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations. Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program is the central resource created specifically for state and local policymakers who seek to ensure that tax-exempt hospital community benefit activities are responsive to pressing community health needs. The program is funded through the Kresge Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

It’s all too easy to take successes for granted, especially when you see them every day around campus. At UMBC, the concept of pushing students of all backgrounds and academic levels to succeed is such a part of campus culture, we sometimes forget that’s not necessarily standard practice at other schools.

So when UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, III, challenged audiences at the TED2013 conference in California last month to set higher expectations for all students at all levels of education, we were delighted — but not at all surprised. During his session — which fell within a grouping of talks based around the idea “The Spark” — Hrabowski explained how setting high standards for all students lets many who might otherwise be left behind excel. Case in point, he told the group:

“What makes our story especially important is that we have learned so much from students who are typically not at the top of the academic ladder.”

Read the TED blog’s take on Dr. Hrabowski’s talk.

UMBC sets incredibly high standards for its students. Professors and students know it will take a lot of hard work, but the results speak volumes. Our students and alumni are better for being pushed. Dr. Hrabowski touches on a few such examples in his talk.

Just as we sometimes take successes for granted, it’s also easy for forget that without the financial backing of UMBC’s donors, our efforts would be futile. Thank you for believing in Dr. Hrabowski’s message, and for supporting UMBC’s students!

The Department of Geography and Environmental Systems presents our next seminar of the 2012-2013 academic year, The Recognition, Regulation and Research of Headwater Streams in the Contemporary Landscape. The seminar will be presented by Dr. Sean M.C. Smith, University of Maine at Orono, School of Earth and Climate Sciences and Bryand Global Sciences Center. The seminar is next Wednesday, March 13, at noon in Sondheim 001.

For more information, click here or contact Andrew Miller at miller@umbc.edu.

A new Governing magazine article examines a recent study by UMBC professors T.H. Gindling (economics) and Marvin Mandell (public policy) on the economic impact of Maryland’s Dream Act, which extended in-county/in-state tuition at local community colleges and public universities to undocumented immigrants who graduate from Maryland high schools and meet other requirements.

The article notes that 13 states have similar “tuition equity” laws in place and more than a dozen additional states are considering proposals for them. “As state lawmakers think about offering in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants,” suggests J.B. Wogan, “the UMBC study could offer a model for weighing long-term net benefits and costs.”

Summarizing Gindling and Mandell’s report, Wogan writes, “For government at all levels, the total impact would be a net gain of $39.6 million. For society as a whole, they estimate a total economic benefit of $63.6 million.”

See the website of UMBC’s Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR) for the original working paper: “Private and Government Fiscal Costs and Benefits of the Maryland Dream Act.” Coverage of the study has previously appeared on NPR, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Baltimore Sun and other news outlets.

Thomas F. Schaller’s new Baltimore Sun column critiques the concept of “liberal media bias.”

Schaller writes, “Yes: The opinion media generally skew liberal on social issues related to abortion, gay rights, religion and maybe — maybe — guns. But that’s about the extent of it. On issues of war and peace, taxes and spending and government regulation, the corporate-owned American media are frequently anything but liberal.”

Read the full column on the Baltimore Sun website.

“Martin O’Malley is on the short list of Democratic presidential contenders. Can he win?” So reads a headline in this month’s Baltimore Magazine, which delves into O’Malley’s political background and aspirations, personality and reputation. Donald Norris, professor and chair of public policy at UMBC, comments in the article on O’Malley’s experience.

“He has a lot going for him as a potential candidate,” says Norris. “He’s run a city government, a state government, and managed to balance the budget every year. He came into office [as governor] at the start of the recession, balanced the budget, and at the same time, has come close to closing the state’s structural deficit.”

As for O’Malley’s prospects, Norris responds to recent poll numbers indicating 58% of Marylanders don’t think O’Malley should run for president by saying that ultimately he believes the majority of Marylanders would support an O’Malley bid.

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, recently spent several days in southern Appalachia as part of a program at the University of the South sponsored by the Yale University School of Medicine and Scholastic Books.

During her visit, Spitz spoke on “Reflections on Children’s Cultural Lives.” Spitz’s lecture was the third event in the annual Easter semester lecture series presented by Community Engaged Learning, the University of the South’s academic community engagement program. This annual series features a range of speakers from all over the world. Speakers address a variety of topics of concern for people living on the Cumberland Plateau and in surrounding communities.

Spiz was also a guest lecturer in “Child, Family, and Community Development in Rural Appalachia,” a psychology course developed out of a partnership between Sewanee’s Psychology Department and Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center. The purpose of the program is to help children and families in poverty-stricken Appalachia and to build community and foster a rich cultural life.

In addition to lectures, meetings, classes, Spitz also read aloud to four groups of small children in Grundy County. She read “Trumpet,” “A Birthday for Frances,” and “Miss Agatha’s Lark.”

On Saturday, March 16, Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, will participate in a panel discussion in New York City about what we can learn from the perennial controversies about children’s books that are “too dark.”

Spitz will be joined on the panel by author Lois Lowry and former New York Times children’s books editor Julie Just.  The event will take place at 2:00 p.m. at the New School’s Arnold Hall, 55 West 13th St., New York, NY.

At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 5, Robert Provine, professor of psychology, will discuss “Curious Behavior” and his concept of “small science” at the Goddard Space Flight Center. This talk, part of the Goddard Scientific Colloquium series, will be Provine’s 4th colloquium at Goddard.

The talk will be held in the Building 3 (Goett) auditorium. Access to the Goddard Space Flight Center is limited to those holding Goddard badges or official visitors; if you would like to attend, contact Scientific Colloquium at (301) 286-0660 or by e-mail more than 48 hours beforehand.

Robert Provine, professor of psychology, will lead a discussion at the DC Science Café on May 21.  The DC Science Café, which is sponsored by the DC Science Writers Association, aims to give the general public an opportunity to participate in lively and important discussions about the consequential scientific discoveries and issues of our times.

The discussion will be held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Busboys and Poets’ 5th and K St., NW location. Provine’s discussion will focus on “Curious Behavior,” the subject of his book “Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond.”

A flyer for the event is below.