After three decades of transformational leadership at UMBC, President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III has announced his plan to retire at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year.

President Hrabowski is nationally celebrated for his results-driven commitment to inclusive excellence, collaborative approach to leadership, and mentorship that pairs high expectations with strong support. Through his time at UMBC, these qualities have become core to the university’s unique culture and community. They have also inspired national and global recognition. 

During President Hrabowski’s tenure, UMBC has ascended in the national rankings. U.S. News ranked UMBC the nation’s #1 “Up and Coming” university for six years, 2009-14. In 2015 they transitioned to recognizing the nation’s “most innovative” national universities, featuring UMBC every year since the list launched. For the past decade, U.S. News has also consistently ranked UMBC among the nation’s leading institutions for Best Undergraduate Teaching. 

Visitors to campus often see President Hrabowski walking down Academic Row. He greets students by name, asking about their classes and post-grad plans, listening, and offering encouragement. That personal level of care has become part of UMBC’s DNA. It’s a quality that draws thousands of new students to UMBC each year and inspires UMBC’s national recognition as a model for supporting student success.

Advocating for students

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1950, Hrabowski was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He graduated from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics, and earned his M.A. in mathematics and Ph.D. in higher education administration/statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

President Hrabowski came to UMBC as vice provost in 1987, when UMBC was just two decades old, and has served as president since 1992. He is a national leader in science and math education, with an emphasis on the participation and achievement of underrepresented minority students. 

Among many high-profile, high-impact leadership roles, President Hrabowski chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced a landmark 2011 report on expanding underrepresented minority participation in STEM. Barack Obama named him to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans in 2012. The following year, his TED talk “Four Pillars of College Success in Science” made waves worldwide, going on to receive more than one million views.

He emphasizes, “collaborative strategies have been at the core of it all.”

Learning from Meyerhoff

At the national level, President Hrabowski is also known for partnering with Robert Meyerhoff to found the Meyerhoff Scholars Program in 1988, to increase the diversity of STEM leaders. Science describes the program as the “gold standard for providing a path into academic research” for students from underrepresented groups. 

So far, UMBC has graduated more than 1,400 Meyerhoff Scholars with STEM degrees. More than 800 have already earned graduate or professional degrees. According to NSF data, UMBC is now the nation’s top producer of Black graduates who go on to a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering. 

These graduates include alumni like COVID-19 vaccine developer Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett ’08, M16, now an assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard. More than a dozen other institutions have replicated the Meyerhoff program, from Penn State and UNC to UC Berkeley and UCSD (supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative).

Supporting scholars

Meyerhoff has also had ripple effects within UMBC. Through the program, UMBC faculty and staff learned about what kinds of support most benefit students: hands-on research experience, intensive (even intrusive) advising and mentorship, and mutual peer support built on a cohort model. These findings have inspired programs like UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology Scholars and STEM BUILD at UMBC, reaching an ever-expanding number of students.

UMBC’s focus on providing a distinctive educational experience is evident across disciplines. The Linehan Artist Scholars, Sondheim Public Affairs Scholars, Humanities Scholars, Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars and several other programs provide hands-on learning, thoughtful reflection, and community support, preparing future leaders.

Whether they stay in Maryland or travel the world, UMBC’s 85,000 alumni carry with them a unique approach to co-creating communities. That approach is grounded in mutual respect and support, intellectual curiosity, and achievement through collaboration.

“Excellence is never an accident“

Behind UMBC’s accolades are students persevering every day to achieve their dreams, supported by caring faculty and staff. Over the last decade, UMBC has increased its six-year graduation rate for full-time freshmen from 55.7% to 69.2%. And UMBC has become known for welcoming and supporting transfer students, including a large number of first-generation college students. 

This year, the pioneering University Innovation Alliance selected UMBC as a member. This public research university consortium works to boost student success through sharing and scaling approaches that work.

National stage

At UMBC, Retrievers quickly learn what’s possible in a community that pairs high expectations and robust support, and empowers students to pursue their passions. UMBC is the reigning national mock trial champion, defeating Yale in last year’s finals, and UMBC’s Cyber Dawgs have won national and regional championships. UMBC has won or tied for first place ten times at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. 

In 2018, UMBC made basketball history as the first No. 16 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in an NCAA men’s tournament. In addition to conference championships in several sports during President Hrabowski’s tenure, men’s soccer rose to the NCAA semifinals and UMBC produced top national athletes in swimming and track and field. 

Retrievers are regularly recognized as some of the world’s leading emerging researchers, as Rhodes Scholars and Goldwater Scholars. They explore the world as Fulbright Scholars and partner to support communities as Newman Civic Fellows.

“The UMBC story is one of excitement about learning and learning how to work with people different from oneself,” says President Hrabowski. “We are saying to the country and to young people that you don’t have to be rich to be the very best. Middle class institutions can produce some of the best thinkers in the world.”

Inspired by students

Over three decades, President Hrabowski has set the bar for educational leadership and earned the highest national honors a university president can receive. He’s written four books and mentored fellow university presidents through a Harvard leadership program. More than 40 universities nationwide—from Harvard and Princeton to University of Michigan and Arizona State—have granted him honorary degrees. But UMBC students are the legacy that makes him feel most proud and inspired. 

“We have shown the country that we are a model of inclusive excellence,” President Hrabowski shares. “UMBC is just 55 years old, but we have worked very hard to make history. And we will always be a part of this nation’s history because we produce leaders, including thousands of teachers, lawyers, social workers, and entrepreneurs shaping our communities.”

“Our students, from undergraduate to Ph.D., represent best in class,” he says. “When you think about the UMBC alumni who serve as the head of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab, the president of Clemson, the speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates, and the first Black woman to create a vaccine in the history of the world, you can’t help but think of how well UMBC prepared them for those roles.”

Setting the standard

University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents Chair Linda Gooden shares, “People seek out Freeman’s advice because they understand that, in many ways, he’s set the standard for supporting students to success—and I mean all students: students from every background, every race and ethnicity, every income level.” 

This carries through to other areas of his leadership, she notes. “He’s set the standard for collaborative leadership and continuous organizational improvement,” says Gooden. “He’s set the standard for creating a culture that brings out people’s best character and best effort. We’ve known every day of his long career how profoundly lucky we are to have him.”

Ongoing growth

Looking ahead, President Hrabowski is excited to see what UMBC will become and achieve. 

Cumulative investment in campus construction has grown from $118 million to $1.2 billion over the past three decades. This includes the addition of the Performing Arts and Humanities Building, Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Building, Chesapeake Employers Insurance Arena, and research and teaching spaces in downtown Baltimore. UMBC also has a vibrant presence—12 programs and more than 600 students—at the Universities at Shady Grove.

The bwtech@UMBC Research and Technology Park houses 131 companies and organizations that employ nearly 1,900 people. And UMBC’s research and development expenditures now surpass $84 million annually. 

“Students and student achievement are at the center of everything we do,” President Hrabowski reflects. “At the same time, we support all people as they grow, including our faculty and staff. The dreams and aspirations of everyone in our community inspire us to keep working to be our best selves. There are so many amazingly talented people at UMBC, and we will continue to attract amazingly talented people at every level.”

Next steps

The USM Board of Regents and Chancellor Perman will soon launch a national search for the next president of UMBC, with details announced as they are available. President Hrabowski notes, “I have no doubt that they will work with the campus to attract a leader who appreciates UMBC values and shares our passion for being the very best at what we do.”

Chancellor Perman says of President Hrabowski, “I don’t think I’ve ever met a person who so powerfully inspires excellence. And that’s exactly what his legacy is—a commitment to inclusive excellence that lives on in UMBC, its students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”

UMBC anticipates welcoming its next president in early 2022. Still, says President Hrabowski, “UMBC will always be a part of me. It has helped to define who I am. Wherever I am, I will be talking about the wonderful place that is UMBC.”

For more information, visit umbc.edu/president.

Featured Image: President Hrabowski speaks with UMBC students on campus, under the flags in The Commons. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Today, the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) announced UMBC as its newest member. The pioneering consortium of public research universities boosts student success through sharing and scaling approaches that work. UMBC and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (N.C. A&T) are the first two universities selected to join the network since its founding in 2014.

Increasing graduation rates

During President Barack Obama’s College Opportunity Summit in 2014, the UIA’s eleven founding institutions set a target of graduating 68,000 additional students over ten years, including half from low-income backgrounds. In just six years, they have already exceeded that goal. Together, they have graduated more than 73,000 additional students, increasing graduates from low-income backgrounds by 36 percent and graduates of color by 73 percent. 

Now, the UIA is on track to reach double its original goal by 2023. Supporting this increase will be fresh, data-driven ideas from UMBC and N.C. A&T. 

Both institutions have a long history of supporting students from underrepresented groups, including low-income and first-generation students and students of color. In ten years, UMBC increased its six-year graduation rate for full-time freshmen from 55.7% for the fall 2005 cohort to 69.2% for the fall 2014 cohort.

“We have seen very positive trends in UMBC’s student retention and graduation rates, but this is an important opportunity to dive deeper into our data, and to look at how we can better support students who are struggling,” says Katharine H. Cole, UMBC’s vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. “It’s our responsibility to understand the challenges students face at the most granular level possible, and to provide resources to help them reach their goals.”

Leaders in student support and achievement

In the next phase of its work, the UIA will focus on eliminating disparities in educational outcomes based on race and ethnicity, in addition to disparities by income, first-generation college student status, gender, and geography. The UIA has described the addition of “like-minded institutions” UMBC and N.C. A&T as core to this expanded focus.

UMBC opened in 1966 as the first public university in Maryland to include students of all races, and is federally designated as a minority-serving institution. The university prioritizes experiential learning opportunities, including internships, service-learning, and research. Eighty-seven percent of UMBC graduates head directly into a job, advanced degree, or both. A majority of those employed interned or worked for their employer as UMBC students. 

Yvette Mozie-Ross. Photo courtesy of Mozie-Ross.

“As a historically diverse institution that has had success in supporting and promoting underrepresented student achievement, we look forward to bringing our experiences and insight to this critical work as part of the UIA collaborative,” says Yvette Mozie-Ross ’88, UMBC’s vice provost for Enrollment Management and Planning.

N.C. A&T is the nation’s largest public Historically Black College and University (HBCU). The university graduates large numbers of Black students in mathematics, statistics, engineering, and agriculture. 

U.S. News & World Report has named both UMBC and N.C A&T leaders in innovation and in undergraduate teaching. According to the National Science Foundation, UMBC and N.C. A&T are also the #1 and #2 universities in the nation, respectively, in producing Black graduates who go on to earn a Ph.D. in the natural sciences and engineering.

Sharing insights and tools

“When thinking about the next chapter of the UIA, we reviewed the outcomes and mission of every R1 and R2 institution in the country,” says UIA Executive Director Bridget Burns, referring to U.S. universities with top Carnegie Classifications for research activity. “A&T and UMBC immediately stood out for their leadership and demonstrated commitment to student success,” she notes.

Living out this commitment through the UIA will include sharing data on the efficacy of different approaches to supporting students. It will also include sustained focus to implement, test, and refine strategies to remove impediments to student success.

“I have long admired the ambitious work of the University Innovation Alliance,” says UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “Over the last two decades we have worked tirelessly to create a culture that is committed to innovative teaching, relevant research, and creating a supportive community to help inspire students, and we are excited to share our insights and tools with the UIA community.” 

Featured image: Amanda Knapp and Katharine Cole speak with students in UMBC’s Academic Success Center, 2019. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 unless otherwise noted.

Cover of the new Chronicle report.

A new report from the Chronicle of Higher Education features UMBC’s peer-based work to boost faculty diversity. For decades, UMBC’s strong reputation for inclusive excellence has focused on student diversity. The new UMBC case study in “Diversifying Our Campus: Key Insights and Models for Change” expands that conversation.

The article notes that UMBC received National Science Foundation support to “revamp hiring processes, write more-inclusive job postings, and craft diversity plans for hiring and recruiting” in 2003. This $3.2 million Institutional Transformation Grant sought to promote the recruitment and advancement of women in STEM, and UMBC saw a 70% increase in women tenure-track STEM faculty. At the same time, the university’s recruitment of scholars from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups lagged.

UMBC adopted a new model called STRIDE: Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence, developed at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. A half-dozen faculty now serve as STRIDE fellows, working directly with search committees and departments to improve their processes. 

Frank conversations

As the article notes, “fellows have frank conversations with hiring committee members about how to retool their searches.” They bring in competing institutions’ job ads and have hiring committee members critique old UMBC job listings. They also help departments shift gears from recruiting for individual faculty openings to continuously recruiting by building relationships with emerging scholars in their fields.

STRIDE Fellow Nilanjan Banerjee, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, describes in the article how he shared data with his department on the connection between more diverse faculty and greater research funding and productivity. He then helped the department retool their process to advertise positions more widely and dig deeper into the CVs of candidates.

Seeing results

Autumn Reed, assistant vice provost for faculty affairs, directs the STRIDE program. She notes that initially, “there was a lot of resistance and a lot of skepticism” about STRIDE fellows connecting with hiring committees. But now that departments see other units successfully hiring candidates from underrepresented groups, they want to connect.

The article also highlights UMBC’s faculty diversity postdoc programs, through which 12 former fellows have been converted into tenure-track faculty members at UMBC.

Keisha McIntosh Allen is one of several scholars recruited to UMBC as a postdoctoral fellow for faculty diversity. She is now an assistant professor of education. Her research focuses on how race, culture, and identity influence the educational experiences of Black and Brown youth, including how teachers can engage students through asset-based and humanizing pedagogies.

Together, UMBC’s efforts to hire and retain more racially and ethnically diverse faculty have had an impact. In 2011-12, 9% of tenured and tenure-track faculty were Black, Latinx, or Native American. That increased to 15% in 2020-21.

Student Affairs leadership

Earlier this month, the Chronicle featured Nancy Young, vice president for student affairs, in a virtual roundtable on the Future of Student Affairs. The forum reached a national audience of more than 2,000 registrants. 

Viewers were eager to learn about how the COVID-19 pandemic has heightened or made more visible students’ needs for support, particularly students from disadvantaged, underrepresented, and vulnerable communities. The event was designed to “bring together student-affairs leaders to explore how the profession is adapting to new demands and the evolving campus landscape.”

Focus on connections

Young shared UMBC’s approach to campus safety during the pandemic and the transition back to more on-campus activities. Speaking more broadly about the future, she shared, “I think that what we’re seeing right now is an acceleration of many trends that were already underway,” whether in online learning, the kinds of careers students are preparing for, or the support they need.

At the same time, Young noted, “there are also many things that are going to stay the same, and that people can’t wait to get back to” post-COVID. In particular, she says, students just want to hang out with their friends. 

With this in mind, Young and her team have been working closely with student leaders and student groups. They’ve sought to better understand how the university can support students’ work to connect with each other, and to engage first-year students in particular. 

At a time when we are “no longer able to bump into people in the hallways,” she says, this means there is “more intentionality” and more active listening. And these thoughtful approaches have built lasting connections that will bolster the university community for years to come.

Banner image: Nilanjan Banerjee. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.