April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and the Women’s Center is hosting its 5th consecutive Take Back The Night (TBTN) on Thursday, April 13th. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of questions about what Take Back the Night exactly is, why it looks the way it does, and how students can get involved. To help get those questions answered this year, we’ve doing a “What You Need to Know” series focused on TBTN so stay tuned for more posts over the next couple of weeks. This first post in the series focuses on the history and purpose of TBTN.

The crowd waiting for UMBC’s TBTN 2014 to begin.

In 1971 in New York a group of women and survivors hosted the first-ever rape speak-out that was organized by the group the New York Radical Feminists. A few years later, one of the first “Take Back the Night” marches was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in October 1975.

Despite some advancements and more attention being paid to sexual violence, we still live in a society where over forty-five years later  there is still a need to speak out against rape and sexual assault. There is still a need to say, “It happened to me.” “I believe you.” “You are not alone.” “It is not your fault.” And, so this is why we host Take Back the Night each year at UMBC and why it still happens worldwide.

UMBC (from what we can tell from the archives), held their first TBTN event in the early 2000s for just a few years. Campus stopped hosting it for several years so as to be in solidarity with other area colleges by participating in Baltimore City Hall’s Take Back the Night. But, by 2013, it made the most sense for us to bring back our own Take Back the Night. So the Women’s Center with support from UHS’s Health Education, Greek Week, and a BreakingGround grant did just that. Since then, this campus-wide rally and march against sexual violence has been a signature Women’s Center event every April.

Each year the Women’s Center hosts survivor speak-out followed by a campus march against sexual assault. When marchers return, UMBC’s TBTN spends the rest of the evening doing “craftivism” art healing projects and hosting a community resource fair. A smaller version of the Clothesline Project is also serves as a backdrop to the evening’s events.

The survivor speak-out at UMBC’s TBTN 2016

Stay tuned for more posts explaining the significance of each portion of Take Back The Night!

The march against sexual violence at UMBC’s TBTN 2015

For more information about UMBC’s TBTN (check out Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter too by searching the hashtag #UMBCTBTN):

• A BreakingGround post about how the 2013 TBTN came to be – Our Own ‘Take Back the Night’
• Read a blog post written by a UMBC alum related to TBTN 2005 at UMBC.
• The Women’s Center 2016 TBTN roundup
• The Retriever Weekly photo gallery of TBTN
• The Women’s Center visual recap of TBTN 2015
• Stop by the Women’s Center on April 11, 12, and 13th to make a rally sign for the march!

Stay tuned for the next installment of what you need to know about TBTN 2017! 

On behalf of Great Minds in STEM, Genevieve Montoya (Academic Affairs Specialist) would like to invite SWE members from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to participate as STEM Civic Service Leaders, “College Captains,” at the upcoming Viva Technology Student Day Program on Friday, April 7, 2017.

Viva Technology is Great Minds in STEM’s National K-12 Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education awareness program. The program is designed to enlighten teachers, parents and K-12 students about the many ways engineers and scientists impact our daily lives. With the help of college students from surrounding universities, we are able to provide “near peer” role-models for the students who participate in the program. Through a series of hands-on STEM activities, we help participating students understand the correlation between their math and sciences studies and the many exciting careers in STEM. This is a great opportunity for university students to work with K-12 students and inspire them to consider higher learning and careers in STEM. We provide each College Captain with a $100 stipend for a full-day program; which will be distributed individually or collectively for a student organization fundraiser.

The program will be hosted at:

Woodlawn Middle School

3033 St. Lukes Lane

Baltimore, MD 21207

Friday, April 7, 2017

From 6:45am – 3:45pm

Interested students may register through the following link: http://www.cvent.com/d/25q94h

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Genevieve Montoya at gmontoya@greatmindsinstem.org.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Lee Blaney receives NSF CAREER Award to address contaminants of emerging concern in urban streams

March 28, 2017 12:38 pm Megan Hanks

Lee Blaney, assistant professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering, has received a prestigious CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance his research on contaminants of emerging concern and their effects on the environment. The grant, totaling $500,000 over five years, will support Blaney’s research on pharmaceuticals, hormones, and personal care products in the local Gwynns Falls watershed.

“We congratulate Dr. Blaney on his NSF CAREER Award, a recognition of his commitment to impacting and engaging the UMBC and greater Baltimore communities through his research and teaching,” said Karl V. Steiner, vice president for research.

Contaminants of emerging concern include pharmaceuticals and personal care products, such as antibiotics, hormones, sunscreens, and fragrances. Sewer leaks can introduce these everyday chemicals to urban streams, contaminating the environment. Recently, the American Society of Civil Engineers gave wastewater systems in the U.S. a grade of “D.” Blaney explains that it is crucial for these systems to be upgraded to maintain water quality and protect the environment.

Blaney will work alongside the Baltimore Department of Public Works and other stakeholders in the Gwynns Falls watershed to complete his research and put his findings into action. He explains, “This project has a strong potential for broader impacts. It will provide a wealth of information on the occurrence and effects of contaminants of emerging concern in our local environment that can be extrapolated to other urban systems around the world.”

Blaney will use screening tools that identify the presence of wastewater in urban streams to locate sewer leaks that may be adversely affecting streamwater quality and that require repair. In waterways affected by wastewater, contaminants of emerging concern have already been detected in the tissue of both vertebrates and invertebrates, highlighting potential concerns to human and ecological health through antibiotic resistance, endocrine disruption, and other toxicity mechanisms.

This CAREER award also recognizes Blaney’s commitment to increasing the number of women and underrepresented minority students in environmental engineering research through collaboration with UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology, Meyerhoff Scholars Program, STEM BUILD Program, and programs supporting community college alumni completing their undergraduate degrees at UMBC. In addition, Blaney will develop and launch a citizen science program in Baltimore City to increase opportunities for community members to connect with their environment, collect important environmental data, and increase their scientific literacy.

“I cherish the role of teacher-scholar, and I am honored to receive the CAREER Award,” Blaney says. “This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication that I bring to work everyday. The CAREER Award reinforces my approach and will allow me to continue to integrate my research and teaching programs in new and exciting ways.”

UMBC faculty have received 34 NSF CAREER awards since 1995 across a number of fields, including engineering, physics, information systems, and computer science.