UMBC celebrated a banner year in 2016. In thousands of ways, big and small, this golden anniversary has been full of moments to remember for the university community.

Here are twelve top highlights:

Retrievers in Rio — When an ESPN reporter asked Cleopatra Borel ‘02, interdisciplinary studies, what qualifying for the shot put finals at the 2016 Olympic Games meant to her, she responded simply, “Everything.” Borel represented Trinidad and Tobago at her fourth Olympic Games and finished seventh on the global stage. Mohamed Hussein ‘14, mechanical engineering, a current master’s student in engineering management, represented Egypt in the 200 meter individual medley, competing head to head with Ryan Lochte.

Earlier in the year, UMBC swimming and diving standout Emily Escobedo ’17, psychology, finished in the top 10 in the 200m breaststroke at the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials after winning bronze in the 200 meter breaststroke at the NCAA finals and becoming the first Retriever to earn All-American status in the pool.

Researchers of Distinction — Michael Summers, Robert E. Meyerhoff Chair for Excellence in Research and Mentoring and University Distinguished Professor of chemistry and biochemistry, became the first UMBC faculty member to be inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors a scientist can receive. Summers was recognized both for his groundbreaking work on the HIV-1 retrovirus and his longstanding commitment to training the next generation of leading scientists, from high school through postdoctoral levels.

Kate Brown, professor of history, was named a 2016 Carnegie Fellow for research on the long-term health consequences of nuclear disaster. “I’m hopeful that this fellowship will help bring greater visibility and support to the high-level scholarship that exists in the humanities and social sciences,” said Brown.

Goldwater Scholars — Andreas Seas ‘17, Naomi Mburu ‘18, and Daniel Ocasio ‘17,  all chemical engineering majors, received the highly selective and prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship. Ocasio shared, “As a first generation college student, I feel extremely fortunate to be pursuing higher education, let alone a career in scientific research. To me, earning the Goldwater Scholarship is recognition of all those who made it possible for me to further my academic development.”

Leader in Education — UMBC partnered with Baltimore City Public Schools and the Northrop Grumman Foundation on a $1.6 million initiative to support Baltimore students, teachers, and communities. Meanwhile, Shalonda Holt ‘07, biological sciences, was named 2016 Washington Post Teacher of the Year and Howard County Teacher of the Year, and Corey Carter ’08, biological sciences, ’10 M.A.T., was named 2016 Baltimore County Teacher of the Year.

CAREER Awards — Matt Pelton, assistant professor of physics, and Helena Mentis, assistant professor of information systems, both received the prominent National Science Foundation CAREER Award. Pelton explores how nanoparticles act in liquids to understand how mechanical energy flows at the nanometer scale. Mentis focuses on surgical telemedicine, exploring how surgeons can use gesture-based tools to share expert knowledge in the operating room.

NASA Collaborations — NASA renewed its support for the Goddard Planetary Heliophysics Institute—a joint venture of UMBC; the University of Maryland, College Park; and American University—for up to $20 million over the next five years. This follows the 2015 renewal of UMBC’s Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) partnership with the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, for up to $46 million over five years.

Virtual Reality Lab — UMBC’s PI² Immersive Hybrid Reality Lab opened, giving students and faculty the ability to interact with data in a more visual way, and reducing the distance between researchers and the information they work with, whether they are studying wind farms or blood flow in the human body.

Tech Boom — UMBC faculty won four new Maryland Innovation Initiative (MII) awards to develop their ideas into commercial applications. This brings the university’s total MII awards to $2.4 million, one of the highest levels in the state.

Faculty Diversity — A two-part Marketplace radio series highlighted UMBC’s initiatives to train, hire, support, and retain a diverse faculty, shining a spotlight on UMBC postdoctoral fellow Keisha Allen, education, and her experience transitioning from graduate student to faculty member, supported by faculty mentors.

Record Alumni Support — A record number of alumni donated to UMBC in this calendar year. Retriever alumni contributed more than 500 gifts to student scholarships and over 1,300 gifts to the University’s Greatest Need Fund alone.

Golden Anniversary — Thousands of Retrievers came together as a community—alumni, faculty, staff, and students from all five decades of UMBC history—to celebrate the remarkable story of UMBC at a 50th anniversary weekend festival.

High Honors — U.S. News again honored UMBC as a national leader in innovation and teaching and a top global university. Times Higher Education named UMBC one of the world’s best universities for teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international outlook, and one of the top young universities worldwide for the fifth consecutive year. In its annual Best Colleges guide, Princeton Review wrote:

Arguably the “best public college in Maryland,” UMBC is an “extremely diverse school” that manages to maintain a “small community feel.” And from the moment you set foot on campus it’s evident that the university is focused on “providing exceptional education and research opportunities for students.”

To hear the latest UMBC news as it happens in 2017, follow UMBC on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat (@UMBClife), and UMBC News, and sign up to receive the UMBC News “Top Stories of the Week” email.

Images: All photos are by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC unless otherwise noted.

UMBC has accumulated a rich history in its first 50 years, rising from a patch of Baltimore County farmland through the social and political turbulence of the mid-20th century to become a university nationally recognized for the quality of its education and its commitment to diversity. This year’s annual Hilltop Society dinner, in addition to being a “thank you” to our donors, carried on that story, as guests dined amid the “UMBC at 50: Sharing the Past, Building the Future” exhibit at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

The exhibit was curated by Tom Beck and Lindsey Loeper ’04, American studies, with the help of various partners across campus. It features more than 200 items from UMBC’s archives. Official documents, letters, photos, physical artifacts, and a continuous video loop all help to tell the story of UMBC, from long before the ground was broken until today. (It’s open to the public through December 15, but if you can’t make it to campus, it lives online as well.)

With such a storied past behind us, it’s only fitting that the two students who spoke at the event be excellent examples of UMBC’s present and future. Bentley Corbett-Wilson ’17, music, this year’s student body president, has been involved with the Student Government Association (SGA) since his very first semester here. He spoke at length about how his UMBC experience has shaped his understanding of the world, and how UMBC’s commitment to shared governance empowers students to speak out on what matters to them.

“It is not uncommon for students to passionately express concerns about an issue on campus, and find that it has been solved the next semester by simply reaching out to SGA, campus departments, or other administrators on campus,” he said. “The potential that SGA has to help move this campus towards an even higher level of greatness is immense, and I’ve been honored to help guide the organization to do exactly that.”

Corbett-Wilson is also a recipient of the Sprint to the End Scholarship, which was established to help upperclassmen in need complete their degrees here. “I want to thank you all […] for your generosity to this community and its students,” he said.

Jeffrey Carr ’19, interdisciplinary studies, told the audience that while he wasn’t sure what to expect when he first got to UMBC last fall, he took the advice of Dr. Jason Schiffman, a psychology professor who spoke to Carr’s orientation group, to heart: “It’s cool to be smart at UMBC, [and] this place will be what you make it.”

His intellectual curiosity led him to the Discovery Scholars Living-Learning Community, which provides opportunities and resources for undecided first-year students to forge their own academic path. Carr said that the support he received from both his fellow students and the faculty and staff members involved in the program gave him the confidence to branch out and try new things. In the past year and a half, he’s competed in the Pan-American Chess Championships with the UMBC B-Team, become a Peer Mentor for Discovery Scholars, and even joined the baseball team…as its statistician. (Carr hopes to work in baseball management after completing his degree.)

“Through the generous contributions of my donors […] and backed by the support network obtained through the living-learning community, I don’t think I could have had a better experience up to this point,” he said.

Throughout our past and into our present, UMBC has remained a place that students, no matter their background or interests, can make their own. With your generous support, we hope to continue that legacy far into our future.

— Julia Celtnieks ’13; all photos by Marlayna Demond ’11

The Baltimore Sun has named UMBC one of the region’s top places to work for the fourth consecutive year. The 2016 list includes organizations across all sectors, and UMBC is again the only university and only government institution to rank among the top 10 large employers, as well as among the top 100 employers of all three size categories.

The “Top Workplaces” ranking is based on scores from a confidential employee survey that measures job satisfaction, organizational health, and employee engagement.

On a national level, The Chronicle of Higher Education has named UMBC an outstanding academic workplace for seven consecutive years. UMBC was the only Maryland four-year institution to be recognized on the list in 2016. The Chronicle also gave UMBC the distinction of appearing on its “honor roll” for the fifth time, honoring the university’s excellence in nearly all possible recognition categories.

President Freeman Hrabowski has previously shared that workplace rankings like these “[affirm] what we all know: UMBC is a place that supports people, values collaboration, and fosters trust, respect, and enthusiasm for helping our students succeed.”

Image: UMBC spirit cupcakes from Founders Day Celebration 2016. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

During UMBC’s 50th anniversary celebration weekend, alumni, faculty, staff, and students gathered for a lighthearted event to reflect on the student experience over the years at the university. The panel discussion, led by George Derek Musgove ’97, history, associate professor of history, looked at how campus culture has evolved since UMBC was founded in 1966.

The event, titled “An Unofficial, Totally Tongue-in-Cheek, Slightly Zany History of Campus Culture at UMBC,” featured alumni Steven Fedder ‘72, American studies; Shari Elliker ‘83, interdisciplinary studies; and Oliver Myers (M1) ‘94, M.S. ‘96, Ph.D. ‘07, mechanical engineering, who all shared memories of their time as students.

“UMBC students, faculty, and administrators have exercised creativity, intelligence, and often a good deal of reckless abandon in their efforts to fashion the campus culture here out of whole cloth,” shared Musgrove at the beginning of the event, setting the stage for the discussion. “The story of their efforts is inspiring.”

Steven Fedder talked about his experience being part of one of the first classes at UMBC when he arrived on campus in 1969 and reflected on how students in the late sixties and early seventies helped lay the foundation and shape the campus culture at the university.

Shari Elliker explained how she became involved with the campus radio station, eventually becoming the station manager, which helped sparked her interest in her career.

As a member of the first cohort of the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, Oliver Myers talked about his moving experience when he met President Hrabowski for the first time and how it inspired him to work even harder as a student.

“[Dr. Hrabowski] has some form of connection with just about all of us that relates to us on an individual level,” explained Myers.

Myers explained how the Meyerhoff Scholars would frequently gather for study sessions to talk through homework assignments and described how the students would always engage with scientists and other professors when doing site visits at laboratories.

“We were asking serious questions about developing cures for cancer and how we use composite materials in the mechanical engineering lab. We were asking questions to national laboratories about rocket development and robotics,” shared Myers.

As a Meyerhoff Scholar, Myers said he frequently had the opportunity to meet with top officials when they visited campus, which offered him unparalleled opportunities to connect with world leaders in science and government.

Following the panel presentation, several alumni in the audience engaged with the panelists in a lighthearted discussion about their student experiences over the years at UMBC. To watch the complete event, click below.

Images: Top: Oliver Myers speaks during the event; Middle: Steven Fedder talks about his experience as a student. All photos by Jay Baker.  

In a half-century, UMBC has graduated more than 70,000 people, and the university’s alumni have gone on to rewarding and impactful careers in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and STEM. “That has been the story of UMBC,” said President Freeman A. Hrabowski in an interview on Maryland Public Television, just ahead of UMBC’s 50th anniversary. During the network’s Education Spotlight week, Hrabowski discussed with Jeff Salkin UMBC’s success since it opened its doors in 1966, as well as important national education issues, including diversity and paying for college.

“People marvel at the quality of education here,” Hrabowski told Salkin. “We are one of the top institutions in innovation, and we have redesigned courses,” he said. “We give students chances to work in labs, but also in companies and school systems, and people get great jobs.”

Many students at UMBC today are the children of people who attended institutions in the University System of Maryland and found successful careers, he noted, sharing, “What American families see when they come to college is that people who complete those experiences are able to get better jobs and are able to take care of their families.”

President Hrabowski also offered advice for students on how to make the most of their college experience, particularly visiting the “Career Center and attending career fairs beginning in the first semester of freshman year.” Emphasizing the importance of internship opportunities, he said, “There are wonderful experiences and opportunities in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, we just have to expose the students to them and they will do well. The challenge is to make sure they take advantage of the opportunities.”

The lessons students learn at UMBC prepare them to contribute to society in meaningful and significant ways, Hrabowski continued, describing that it is important for students to go outside of their comfort zones and learn how to work with people different from themselves, to become “people who can serve as a bridge in explaining the problems.”

“What we need in America is the opportunity to talk to people different from ourselves, to remember to listen, to open our ears and our minds and our hearts, and to solve the problems,” Hrabowski said.  

UMBC’s 50th anniversary was featured in several news outlets, including:

Why College Rankings Are a Joke (The New York Times)
UMBC’s Puppy Parade (The Baltimore Sun)
UMBC 50 Anniversary Celebration (The Baltimore Sun)
Over 50 years, UMBC has cultivated a research mission from former pastures (The Baltimore Sun)
UMBC celebrates 50th anniversary (The Baltimore Sun)
A Catonsville university turns golden (The Baltimore Sun)
At age 50, UMBC just getting started (The Daily Record)

Image: Dr. Hrabowski, September 2016. Photo by Jim Burger.

On September 19, 1966, 750 freshmen arrived at UMBC and began taking classes in one of three building that made up the campus. Fifty years later, community members gathered together to share their memories of UMBC’s early days in the gleaming, new Linehan Concert Hall. The event was a special UMBC 50th anniversary edition of Baltimore’s popular Stoop Storytelling Series, which features “‘ordinary’ people telling the extraordinary, true tales of their lives.”

Mimi Detreich ‘70, American studies, set the stage by helping the audience imagine what it was like to be a student at UMBC during the first years. “We had professors who we had never heard of before, we had no idea what they were like, and we had no idea that they were really as new as we were to this whole thing,” she said.

When Louie Sowers ‘70, American studies, arrived at UMBC in 1966, she knew that she wanted to play sports in college because she loved playing volleyball during her high school years. At that time, UMBC only offered intercollegiate sports for men. “My sophomore year rolled around, and there were still no women’s sports. I was getting a little nervous because I really wanted to play volleyball, so I decided that I needed to be a little proactive,” she said. Sowers met with the athletic director who told her that if she could collect enough signatures of women interested in playing volleyball, he would hire a coach. “Evidently, I was pretty good at begging people,” she recalled, “because I came back with 66 names, and he hired us a coach.”

Ed Berlin ‘70, history, owner of The Ivy Bookshop in Baltimore, also arrived at UMBC in 1966 and recalls that the UMBC social scene was fairly quiet at first, before the campus began inviting top musicians like Otis Redding and Lou Reed to perform on campus. In those early days, he helped throw a Halloween party, and painted some wooden fences white as part of the decorations. After the party began he heard shrieks from people as they realized there were white stripes on their costumes from leaning against party decor. Being at UMBC was rewarding, he said, “I appreciate every second that I was here.”

In 1966, Simmona Simmons ‘74, American studies, now UMBC’s outreach and special projects librarian, started her first staff position at the library. After taking the state test, she applied to the first job opening that she saw, which happened to be at UMBC. During her time at UMBC, Simmons has seen the library move and expand, and she has continued her education, completing her bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees. “The whole experience at UMBC was gratifying,” she said. “As UMBC grew, I grew with UMBC.”

Diane Tichnell ‘70, political science, says she arrived at UMBC ready to “wow” the community with her journalism skills. She began working on the school newspaper during her sophomore year, and at first was given small assignments, until her editor asked her to interview the leader of a group coming to campus to give a seminar. “That moment was a life-changing experience for me, when Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panthers for Self-Defense, started talking to me,” she recalls. “I couldn’t write fast enough to get down everything he said.” Tichnell’s experience at UMBC was one that changed the way she thought about causes. “They are not abstract, they are people who are putting themselves out there for the rest of us.”

When William Rothstein, faculty emeritus of the department sociology and anthropology, was interviewing for the job opening at UMBC, he was told that there was no campus for him to visit, so the interview was conducted in New York City. He was offered the job and began working at UMBC in the fall of 1966, where he continued to teach until he retired in 2013. “The first years at UMBC were notable because most of the faculty were new PhDs, like myself, and not much older than the students,” Rothstein said, adding that there were even faculty-student basketball and softball games. “So many things had to be decided in the early days when you were creating the university, as well as teaching and doing research.”

Donna Banks Hekler ‘70, English, recalled meeting Albin O. Kuhn, the first chancellor of UMBC, in the cafeteria while she was eating lunch with a friend in UMBC’s early days. She spoke about how Kuhn was always interested in hearing about students’ experiences. “He really wanted to know what was working and more importantly, what wasn’t working, what needed to be changed. What did we think?” she said. Heckler shared that Kuhn’s true love was farming, and that when he retired he moved back to his farm. “He planted crops, and he nurtured those and tilled the soil and did the harvest. And he did the same thing here. He planted a university, and he grew it and he nurtured it and he loved it.”

When audience members were offered the chance to come to the stage, John Titchener, emeritus associate professor of philosophy, and Allan Holtzman ‘70, history, also told short stories about their time at UMBC.

The final Stoop Story presenter was President Freeman A. Hrabowski, who jumped forward a few decades to tell a story about the early 1990s, a challenging time for university budgets in Maryland. President Hrabowski shared how, at a moment when arts and humanities programs were at risk, the UMBC campus showed up to support students’ access to a broad liberal arts education. “When times are tough, and it’s about character, people come together,” Hrabowski said. “I’m a strong believer that working class people, middle class people, should be exposed to the best, because they’re going to be the leaders one day.”

Header image: Simmona Simmons speaks at UMBC Stoop Stories event, September 17, 2016. All images by Jim Burger.

An inaugural GRIT-X event held during UMBC’s 50th anniversary weekend featured some of the university community’s most fascinating new research and creative work.

Faculty and alumni from across disciplines presented a series of engaging talks before an enthusiastic audience in Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall. Hosted by Karl Steiner, vice president for research, GRIT-X featured three sets of 10-minute talks that covered topics from the process for creating a successful theatre company to dealing with contaminants of emerging concern in local watersheds.

“We really wanted to put a program together that…gives a glimpse at the diversity of programs and groundbreaking, impactful research and the many thought-provoking topics that many of our alumni and faculty are working on,” explained Steiner at the beginning of GRIT-X.

Several talks centered around what faculty and alumni are doing locally in and around Baltimore.

Kiirstin Pagan ’11, theatre, and Katie Hileman ’12, acting, shared how a dream that started when they were undergraduates at UMBC has led to the creation of the award-winning Interrobang Theatre Company, which is set to produce its seventh show later this year. Pagan and Hileman explained how they started the company and why they chose to remain in Baltimore after graduating.

“We love Baltimore,” shared Hileman. “We see it as a place of potential and growth, and it’s a place where artists are doing their work because they feel passionate about it…it’s also a place that’s really receptive to new and interesting work.”

Focusing on environmental impacts, Lee Blaney, an assistant professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, explained how everyday items like antibiotics, sunscreens, and fragrances, once they are consumed, become contaminants that impact Baltimore streams.

Lee Boot, director of the Imaging Research Center (IRC), described how visual knowledge and information can reflect and influence how people think about the world. He described a current IRC project titled “The Art of Transformation,” where UMBC students, faculty, and staff are working with community organizations and residents in Baltimore to try to develop culture-based solutions and approaches to community development.

“This entire enterprise where university people and community people are working hand-in-hand is a collaborative effort without a real hierarchy,” said Boot.

Many presentations focused on public policy, civic engagement, and social issues. Tyson King-Meadows, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, discussed how voters react to what they hear and see depending on their own lens and who is delivering the message, and how they insulate themselves from information that they don’t agree with, resulting in what King-Meadows cautions is a less empowered citizenry.

Drawing on her book Beyond the Checkpoint – Visual Practices in America’s Global War on Terror (University of Massachusetts Press 2014), Rebecca Adelman, associate professor of media and communication studies, shared how an experience she had at an airport security checkpoint helped sparked a research project where she investigated American visual culture of the Global War on Terror and its impact on society.

Thomas Schaller, professor and chair of political science, examined the decline in civics education in high schools and how it should influence teaching college students about politics and their significance in such a polarized and partisan climate.

Karsonya Wise Whitehead ’09 Ph.D., language, literacy, and culture, reflected on the letters that she has written to her two sons as they have grown. She emphasized how the power of the written word can be a teaching tool and window into navigating parenthood.

“When people read letters to my black sons and they see my love for my sons poured out onto the page, it is a different experience. It’s a different way of connecting. It’s a way of taking the research off of the page and putting it into your lives,” said Whitehead.

Vanderlei Martins, professor of physics, highlighted UMBC’s efforts to research how pollution is influencing Earth’s energy balance and precipitation.

In a presentation about “disruptive innovation,” Govind Rao, professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering, talked about transformative UMBC inventions that have the potential to save millions of lives, such as a cardboard incubator for premature infants, currently being tested in India, and a suitcase-size device to manufacture medicines on-demand.

“I’m hoping that we continue to make positive change for the rest of the world,” said Rao.

Read more about UMBC’s 50th anniversary weekend, and watch the full video of the GRIT-X event below.

Photos: Header image: Vanderlei Martins. All images by Jim Burger. GRIT-X at UMBC, September 17, 2016. 

On September 19, 1966, the first students began classes at UMBC. Fifty years later to the day, the UMBC community gathered for a special Founders Day celebration to reflect on the first generation of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who paved the way for university to become a national model of inclusive excellence.

Before a full crowd at the Retriever Activities Center (RAC), Robin Mayne ’69, American studies, UMBC’s first graduate, presented a letter she wrote to UMBC’s current freshman class and to future UMBC students over the next fifty years. It will be placed in a time capsule that will be opened in 2066.

Mayne described how her liberal arts education at UMBC inspired her to become a lifelong learner and provided her with the critical thinking skills needed to grapple with the complexities of today’s world.

“At [UMBC’s] core was engagement of both students and faculty in studies, creativity, community, political action, and social awareness and responsibility,” shared Mayne. “In the 50 years since those beginnings, these commitments have not diminished, but have only expanded and intensified.”

Vrinda Deshpande ’20, mathematics, formally thanked Mayne and accepted her letter on behalf of the freshman class. She reflected on her desire, and that of her fellow new Retrievers, to build on the foundation they are inheriting. “With these lessons, I know that my class’s next four years will reflect the same dedication that the first graduating class had to education and changing the world for the better,” Deshpande said.

The program also included top photos from the 50th anniversary celebration weekend and a living history that was presented by faculty, student, staff, and alumni leaders, documenting significant milestones over the university’s 50-year history.

President Freeman Hrabowski delivered the 2016 State of the University Address, reflecting on the university’s growth and achievements over the last 50 years. He highlighted rapid increases in UMBC’s research funding and partnerships, as well as the university’s economic impact. He also spoke to the impressive accomplishments of 70,000 UMBC alumni and the university’s commitment to issues of social justice and equality.

President Hrabowski also highlighted a New York Times story by columnist Frank Bruni, published during UMBC’s 50th anniversary weekend, that praised the university for serving as a national model of inclusive excellence—being a place where students of all backgrounds can achieve great things.

“From the ceiling of the student commons hang flags of countries from which students have come. There are more than 100,” wrote Bruni. “It’s a kind of kaleidoscope, and as I walked under it with Freeman Hrabowski, U.M.B.C.’s dynamic president, he stressed the school’s determination to ‘connect students to people different from themselves and lives different from their own.'”

“This has been a 50-year experiment in Catonsville,” Pres. Hrabowski explained in his remarks at Founders Day. “Can you bring people together from all races, backgrounds, and religions, and have them learning how to work together, to live together, and to listen to each other? That’s what we’re in the process of doing in our country, and it’s what we believe we are doing on this campus and will do even more of in the time to come.”

After commemorating UMBC’s first 50 years, President Hrabowski closed the Founders Day celebration by emphasizing that there is plenty of work still to be done in achieving sustained future success.

“We are forward-looking and responsive. We have a strong focus on inclusive excellence. We believe in high expectations and a passion for learning. But most important, we still believe in hard work.”

Read more about UMBC’s 50th anniversary celebration in The Baltimore Sun article “Over 50 years, UMBC has cultivated a research mission from former pastures” (with video).

Images: UMBC 50th Anniversary Founders Day Celebration, September 19, 2016. Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC. Video by New Media Studio. 

Thousands of Retrievers came together as a community on Saturday night—alumni, faculty, staff, and students from all five decades of UMBC history—to celebrate the remarkable story of UMBC.

In UMBC’s first Commencement program, Diane Juknelis Tichnell  ’70, political science, wrote, “The present class of graduates is the first in a long line of innovators who are not to be considered products of UMBC, but rather constant producers of all that gives it character and quality… The campus, ever-growing and changing, will bear the indelible imprint of those who participated in its all-important first steps on a course untried.”

On the night of the anniversary festival, September 17, 2016, the founding generation of Retrievers who together created and shaped UMBC over the course of its first 50 years, had an opportunity to honor that achievement, salute one another, and set the stage for the next half-century. Together they cheered for a dazzling display of fireworks at the top of UMBC’s hilly campus, transforming from a flurry of twinkling stars to astounding fireballs. Center stage, before the backdrop of fireworks, was the UMBC Symphony Orchestra—a microcosm of UMBC’s inclusive excellence—performing Stravinsky’s gripping Firebird.

Saturday began with the Roots of Greatness Luncheon, honoring UMBC’s founding faculty and staff, as well as those who have won Presidential and Regents’ awards through the history of the university. Wendy Salkind, professor emerita of theatre, opened the program with a comment made by UMBC’s founding chancellor, Albin O. Kuhn, in the first issue of what would become the Retriever newspaper. “We do not expect UMBC to be quite like any other campus,” Kuhn wrote, continuing, “You will find many open doors to the offices of faculty and staff who are anxious to make UMBC an outstanding center for educational adventure.”

“That’s been true for 50 years now,” said Salkind.

CAHSS Dean Emeritus John Jeffries; Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Political Science George La Noue; Yasmin Karimian ‘11, political science; and David Bennett ‘11, political science, spoke before a full University Center Ballroom about the process of researching and writing La Noue’s new book Improbable Excellence: The Saga of UMBC. “UMBC has developed a new model,” said La Noue. He predicted “the quest for excellence will become a permanent part of UMBC culture.” [watch video]

At GRIT-X, later that afternoon, faculty and alumni presented a series of engaging talks demonstrating UMBC’s broad impact in research, scholarship, and creative achievement. Speakers covered topics from the process for creating a successful theatre company to dealing with contaminants of emerging concern in local watersheds.

“We really wanted to put a program together that…gives a glimpse at the diversity of programs and groundbreaking, impactful research and the many thought-provoking topics that many of our alumni and faculty are working on,” explained Karl Steiner, vice president for research. [watch video]

The House of Grit was one of the largest attractions of the 50th anniversary celebration. Named for UMBC’s character and spirit, this community festival showcased programs and communities from across the university.

A Lego model of campus, constructed by Jason Burik ‘00, psychology, proved particularly popular for visitors of all ages. The Dawg Pound, hosted by UMBC Athletics, also drew crowds, showcasing UMBC scholar-athletes signing autographs, a display of UMBC’s NCAA trophies, games, a photobooth, and a performance space.

At the UMBC Racing team’s station, guests explored two Baja racing cars alongside footage from past races that showed the challenge and excitement of steering a vehicle along treacherous courses. Students, alumni, and future Retrievers, some who couldn’t yet reach the pedals, enjoyed a chance to sit in the driver’s seat.

3D-printed braille rings developed by UMBC’s Prototype and Design (PAD) lab and an interactive “Cranes in Motion” display, which enabled visitors to guide the motion of animated birds on a screen, were crowd favorites. Guests also had a chance to build and race their own boats from upcycled materials, and to use items like bouncy balls, playing cards, and frying pans to create unique percussion music.

Through Celebrate Science, held in UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences facilities, kids had a chance to make slime, sort M&Ms to learn about mathematical concepts, detect sunspots, see a model of a satellite, play with magnets, and explore how a square block can roll.

Visitors later gathered for the long awaited Puppy Parade [watch live video]. Featuring dozens of dogs of all ages and breeds, UMBC’s own True Grit, dancers, and musicians, the parade was a highlight in Baltimore Sun coverage of the festivities.

George Derek Musgrove ‘97, history, associate professor of history, moderated a lighthearted alumni panel on the UMBC student experience over the years. Steven Fedder ‘72, American studies; Shari Elliker ‘83, interdisciplinary studies; and Oliver Myers (M1) ‘94, M.S. ‘96, Ph.D. ‘07, mechanical engineering, shared memories of their time as students. Myers reflected on his unique experience as part of the first class of Meyerhoff Scholars, and how UMBC offered him unparalleled opportunities to connect with world leaders in science and government on their frequent visits to campus.

Immediately after the alumni panel, visitors ran to catch the start of a special UMBC edition of the popular Stoop Storytelling Series, featuring moving personal tales from UMBC’s earliest days [watch video]. UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski shared his own memory of the UMBC community coming together to protect and advocate for humanities programs when their future was uncertain. “I am a strong believer that working class people, middle class people, should be exposed to the best,” said Hrabowski, “because they are going to be leaders.”

Leaving the emotional event, guests emerged from UMBC’s Performing Arts and Humanities Building to find the sun had set. In the heart of the House of Grit they saw a crowd of thousands of Retrievers and their families gathered around a massive, brightly lit stage, buzzing with excitement, ready for one final performance to begin. Visitors and organizers alike had high expectations, and the finale—with its soaring music and momentous firework display—surpassed them all. [watch Baltimore Sun video]

“Hearing the fireworks right behind me and the huge crowd cheering, watching the blinking bracelets, and pulling as rich of a sound as possible from my viola was a sensory feast,” shares Sarah Hansen, M.S. ‘15, biological sciences, a member of the orchestra and UMBC communications manager. “This is my community. That finale brought together the UMBC family in a way that has never happened before, and reminded me that I will always be a UMBC alumna, and UMBC will always be my home.”

Header image: Fireworks display at UMBC’s 50th anniversary celebration. Photo by Dan Bailey. Additional photos by UMBC staff and freelance photographers.

UMBC’s long-awaited celebration of 50 years of grit and greatness has arrived. Thousands of Retrievers and their families will gather on campus for the September 16–19 weekend to honor UMBC’s journey. The campus will welcome Dawgs of all decades, from the pioneers of the first graduating class to today’s visionaries who are imagining UMBC’s next 50 years.

The anniversary weekend spotlights over a hundred features, including special events, family activities, performances, soccer games, reunions, tours, and socials.

On Friday night, ahead of Saturday’s headline events, will be “Really, Really Big Breakfast and Bingo,” a sold-out midnight breakfast and prize-filled game night.

Saturday’s first large event, the Roots of Greatness Luncheon, will be held 11:30 – 1:30 p.m. in the University Center Ballroom, honoring founding faculty and staff, along with past and present faculty and staff awardees. John Jeffries, emeritus dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, will interview George La Noue, emeritus professor of public policy, about his new book, Improbable Excellence: The Saga of UMBC.

Throughout the day, 1 – 6 p.m., visitors will experience the House of Grit Community Festival near the new Performing Arts & Humanities Building, exploring tents with engaging activities for all types of Retrievers.

In the Uniters tent, visitors can watch as a Lego model of UMBC—created by Jason Burik ’00, psychology — grows over time, seeing campus architecture shift from 1966 to 2016.

In the Makers tent, visitors can pick up their own 3-D printed ring from UMBC’s PAD Lab, try games developed by UMBC Game Developers Club, and check out the UMBC Racing Team’s off-road Baja vehicle. Visitors to the Explorers tent will have a chance to control a life-size virtual whooping crane, explore the Spiro Collection of ancient artifacts, and get a glimpse of Baltimore in 1815. The Thinkers tent features hands-on science activities, a “magic planet” miniature earth with vivid projection, and haiku-writing station with the staff of Bartleby. The Solvers tent includes activities with the UMBC Percussion Ensemble and UMBC’s kinetic sculpture, Kraken Upcycle, featuring an opportunity to build musical instruments and catamarans with recycled materials.

The Festival also includes a main stage with music and dance performances, and the Dawg Pound, a dedicated space for UMBC Athletics and the university’s intellectual sports teams, like Mock Trial and Ethics Bowl. UMBC Olympian Mohamed Hussein ‘14, mechanical engineering, a current master’s student in engineering management, will sign autographs 1 – 1:30 p.m., 2 – 2:20 p.m., and 4 – 5:30 p.m.

For festival-goers who want a glimpse of today’s cutting edge UMBC research, GRIT-X, held 2 – 4:30 p.m. in the Linehan Concert Hall, will feature a series of brief, engaging talks by leading innovators among UMBC faculty and alumni. Topics range across the arts, humanities, and social sciences, from “When Your Arts Becomes Your Business” and “Our Environment is on Drugs” to “Beyond the Checkpoint: Rethinking Citizenship and Surveillance” and “Reaching for the Skies: Sun, Pollution, Clouds, and Climate.”

The weekend will feature two UMBC soccer games: a men’s soccer game vs. The George Washington University on Saturday at 3 p.m., and women’s soccer game vs. Delaware State University on Sunday at 1 p.m., both in Retriever Soccer Park.

Following Saturday’s game will be a Puppy Parade, 5 p.m., outside of the Performing Arts & Humanities Building, featuring dogs of all ages and breeds. A Picnic Dinner will be served before a special edition of Baltimore’s Stoop Stories series, with seven UMBC storytellers sharing true, personal tales from UMBC’s earliest days.

Visitors will gather from events large and small across the university, 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. in the House of Grit festival area, to celebrate Freeman, Firebird, and Fireworks! The program is described as “a fantastic finale featuring remarks by President Freeman Hrabowski and a fireworks display as bright as UMBC’s future, including a performance from Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ by the UMBC Orchestra.”

For the afterparty crowd, UMBC will host a Decades Dance Party (21 and over), 8:30 p.m. – midnight, in the Performing Arts & Humanities Building. Students can enjoy the Cosmic in the Commons party (under-21 event) hosted by (seb) in the UMBC Commons.

Retrievers on campus Sunday can relax and revive with coffee and waffles at a community brunch, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. in True Grit’s Dining Hall.

On Monday, September 19, marking the day UMBC’s first students started classes 50 years ago, the university will celebrate Founder’s Day. All members of campus are invited to President Hrabowski’s Founders Day State of the University Address, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. in the Retriever Activities Center, to celebrate this golden anniversary with cupcakes and reflections on the past—and next—50 years.

A full calendar of 50th anniversary weekend events is available on the Celebrate UMBC50 calendar. The House of Grit page offers details on activities in the main festival area. Online registration for ticketed anniversary events has closed, but on-site registration will be available. Community members who aren’t able to join in the festivities can follow #UMBC50 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Header image by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.