March 15, 2012
TO:  The UMBC Community
FR:  Freeman Hrabowski, President and Philip Rous, Provost
RE:   Your Support Vital for Higher Education Budget

As the Maryland General Assembly works to address a $1-billion State budget gap, legislators are considering a number of budget plans that would reduce Governor O’Malley’s proposed budget for the University System of Maryland (USM) and negatively impact USM campuses.  Budget cuts currently proposed for the System range from $5.3 million to nearly $20 million.

It is vital that faculty, staff, students, and alumni take time to urge legislators to continue the strong support they have shown higher education in the past.  Approving the Governor’s proposed budget for the USM would provide new resources enabling USM campuses to limit the FY-2013 tuition increase for in-state, undergraduate students to 3 percent.  At a time when budget cuts in many other states are forcing public campuses to raise tuition 10 to 15 percent, this support for higher education is exceptional.

Please email your legislators and urge their support for the Governor’s budget and access to high-quality, public higher education.  Go to: http://capwiz.com/usmd/home.  Click “Elected Officials” on the red tab at the top of the page to find your legislators.  Click “Take Action” in the middle of the page to compose a letter using the text provided by USM.

Thank you.

“[T]he 2012 presidential election is effectively over right now,” suggests political science professor Thomas Schaller in a provocative new Salon column this week. Despite the twists and turns of the GOP primary, he argues, “All of the available data indicate that Romney will be the Republican nominee by end of spring, and Barack Obama will be the victor come fall.” So what is at stake in the GOP primary in Schaller’s eyes? The identity and future prospects of the Republican party.

Schaller’s latest Baltimore Sun column focuses on Rush Limbaugh’s remarks about Sandra Fluke and his later apology to her, following the loss of several show sponsors. Schaller writes, “What the talk show host should apologize for is his obvious and rather profound ignorance about contraception.”

It’s been a busy week in the media for Donald Norris, UMBC public policy chair and director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research. Norris offered expert comments for four articles on public policy in Maryland, focusing on current debates in the state legislature.

In “Some State Agencies Want More of Your Money,” Norris explains that proposed state fee increases face an uphill battle as “[p]aying anything for government goods and services has become conflated with taxes.” Norris argues that alternative doomsday budget plans based on severe cuts are unlikely to pass in another Sun article, later suggesting in the Gazette that it is more likely Maryland will gradually shift the cost of teacher pensions onto local jurisdictions to close the state’s budget gap.

Finally, Norris commented in the Sun on the indictment of Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold on corruption charges, stating: “It’s going to affect absolutely everything he says and does…When he tries to stay in office and wait for a trial, during that period of time, county government is going to be on trial.”

Today the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) announced that UMBC is one of 21 graduate schools selected to participate in a study to examine completion and attrition among underrepresented minorities in STEM doctoral programs. The project, is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF.) and will compare data across a diverse set of institutions, including some that have been funded by NSF’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. The purpose of this research is to better understand the factors that promote successful completion and the policies and practices that hold promise for increasing completion and reducing attrition. Each institution will receive $30,000 in funding to participate.

As part of the study UMBC will:

• Collect and report completion and attrition data for all underrepresented minority students entering STEM doctoral programs in academic years 1992-93 through 2011-12.
• Complete and submit data on program characteristics and policies, practices, and interventions that might impact completion and attrition for all STEM Ph.D. programs offered by the institution.
• Field a web-based student survey, developed by CGS, covering a set of topics addressing completion and attrition in STEM doctoral programs.
• Host a two-day site visit for CGS project staff to conduct focus groups with students and interviews with graduate deans, faculty, and other university personnel.
• Highlight the institution’s participation in this effort by taking part in national discussions on the topic of Ph.D. completion (e.g., at CGS Annual Meetings and/or Summer Workshop sessions).

The projected release date of the study’s findings is June, 2014.

UMBC Goes Medieval

As a child, Lauren Bucca loved reading fictional books about medieval times.  As she got older, she devoured historical books on the period, exploring a world populated by real events and people.

So when she came to UMBC, Bucca decided to major in English to study more of the literature from her favorite period.  Last fall, at the start of Bucca’s junior year, a new opportunity opened up: UMBC began offering a minor in medieval and early modern studies. Bucca, of course, signed up.

“It complements my English major very well because I can have a more focused education by studying the period I like best,” she said. “It’s been fascinating to learn how history is interwoven with literature.”

This interdisciplinary minor is a natural complement to UMBC’s course offerings, said Kathryn McKinley, associate professor of English and the program’s director. “Faculty members in these periods have collaborated for a long time,” she said. “This minor is a way of pooling resources for students and enhancing and strengthening their path of study.”

“In the arts, humanities and social sciences, we encourage students to take a multi-disciplinary approach to their studies because it deepens their understanding of a topic,” said John Jeffries, dean of the college of arts, humanities and social sciences.  “This new minor allows students to explore this fascinating and important period from a variety of perspectives.”

“Medieval and early modern studies is an internationally established discipline,” and McKinley said. “UMBC is uniquely situated to have access to archival materials related to the subject.” Just twenty minutes to the north, the Walters Art Museum has one of the largest collections of medieval art and books of hours in the country, and the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is an invaluable source of material for Shakespeare scholars. “Universities do not always have such outstanding regional resources,” she said.

McKinley recently took advantage of these resources by taking students in her Medieval Dream Visions course, an upper level English course, to the Walters to view medieval manuscripts. “I loved hearing Mr. Will Noel [curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters] discuss the manuscripts,” wrote Bucca in response to the trip. “It was incredible to see how meticulously the words were drawn on the pages and the illuminations that were copied from one manuscript to the other.”

The 6-course, 18-credit medieval and early modern studies minor requires students to take two English courses, two history courses and two courses in a discipline of their choice, which might include art, music, modern languages and linguistics, or Asian studies.

Meeting the requirements was not a challenge for Elizabeth Forney ’14, English. “When I signed up for the minor, I had already taken many of the classes required,” she said. “I have yet to take the history classes required but I look forward to them.”

For Forney, and many other students, a minor in medieval and early modern studies is the first step toward more intensive study of the period. “I plan on concentrating on the medieval period in graduate school,” Forney said. “Deciding to take the minor just made sense.” She plans to focus on medieval literature in graduate school and eventually teach high school English and do research.

McKinley said that many students find themselves fascinated with the period. “It’s so distant from modern culture,” she explained. “Students enjoy studying a period in which, for example, genres are much more fluid and alchemy was taken seriously.” She said that courses included in the minor, such as Images of Joan of Arc (ENGL 345) and Art and Society in the Renaissance (HIST 358), are already popular offerings from the departments, and that more courses that fit with the minor are being discussed.

The first medieval and early modern studies minors are expected to graduate in Spring 2012.

(3/13/12)

Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher, editorial cartoonist for The Economist and UMBC artist-in-residence, was featured on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show last week (interview begins 19 minutes in). KAL discussed his coverage of the 2012 presidential election, the power of caricature and global importance of freedom of expression, and his own career trajectory as a cartoonist.

At UMBC KAL advises student bloggers in their coverage of current events and politics on USDemocrazy.

When asked to chronicle her life since college, illustrator Monica Gallagher did so in the way that meant most to her: in comic book form.
Check out her essay from the Winter 2012 issue of UMBC Magazine:

 
A designer, illustrator and comicker living in Baltimore, Gallagher graduated magna cum laude from UMBC in 2001 with a degree in visual arts, emphasis on animation. While at UMBC she learned Japanese, traveled to Greece with the ancient studies department, fainted in a yoga class, participated in film festivals, worked in the photo cage, stayed up way too late in the computer lab, got hit in the head with a volleyball, and has many, many other awesome memories.
 

When asked to chronicle her life since college, illustrator Monica Gallagher did so in the way that meant most to her: in comic book form.

Check out her essay from the Winter 2012 issue of UMBC Magazine:

A designer, illustrator and comicker living in Baltimore, Gallagher graduated magna cum laude from UMBC in 2001 with a degree in visual arts, emphasis on animation. While at UMBC she learned Japanese, traveled to Greece with the ancient studies department, fainted in a yoga class, participated in film festivals, worked in the photo cage, stayed up way too late in the computer lab, got hit in the head with a volleyball, and has many, many other awesome memories.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slni3GRhM0Q]

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.

Ellen Handler Spitz, honors college professor of visual arts, will visit Belgrade, Serbia over spring break to give a talk on her book “Art and Psyche.”  The book was recently translated to Serbian.

While in Belgrade, Spitz will talk with faculty members at the University of Belgrade and give a lecture at Kolarac.  She will also visit the city of Novi Sad.