Robert Provine, professor of psychology, will read from his new book, Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccupping, and Beyond, at the Ivy Bookshop on Tuesday, October 16 at 6:30 p.m.

In Curious Behavior, Provine boldly goes where other scientists seldom tread – in search of hiccups, coughs, yawns, sneezes, and other lowly, undignified human behaviors. These instinctive acts can be valuable tools for understanding how the human brain works and what makes us different from other species.

The Ivy is located at 6080 Falls Road, Baltimore, MD 21209, and is owned by alumnus alumnus Ed Berlin ’70, history. More information about the event, inclusing a link where you can RSVP, can be found here.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-Xq6zn5v0]

In fall 2011, Michele Osherow, associate professor of English, and Manil Suri, professor of mathematics, collaborated to jointly teach a freshman seminar, “Mathematics and What It Means to be Human,” in which they explored the connections between the two disciplines.

They are discussing their collaboration, and its challenges, in a three-part series on The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In the first part of the series, the two discuss what led them to teach the class, and their experiences in planning it.

“Ever since the word problems my father forced on us at dinner, I’ve always been terrified of math,” Osherow says. “Manil had made the math in the play [Arcadia] interesting and almost familiar; the complexities hypnotized me a bit… Might the allure of mathematics captivate the incoming freshmen? Hard to tell, but if it could, I was sure Manil was the person to supply it.”

“When Michele tantalized me with a whole semester’s worth of such highs with a class full of enthusiastic (OK, at least captive) students, the endorphin factory in my brain went into high alert,” writes Suri.

In the second installment of the series, the two discuss the challenges of teaching the course (including their own conflicts), and watching their students discover the connections between the disciplines.

“I think the students liked those days when Manil and I went at it. I liked those moments, too, because I not only had to confront another perspective head on but also had to challenge my own. I loved seeing the baffled expressions of the students while their instructors disagreed; the things we were asking them to consider were perplexing and appropriate,” writes Osherow.

“They’d now glimpsed the future: the digitalization of the humanities, the emphasis on statistical and quantified evidence, the interconnectedness of human experience,” says Suri.

In the third, and final, installment, the two professors write about the students’ final projects (“Mathematically deepest of all was an instrumental composition that musically interpreted what it means to be a sine (or cosine) function—by a humanities scholar inspired to take calculus this semester,” writes Suri) and the ultimate value of the class.

“Though there are a lot—I won’t say infinite, but an impressive batch of natural numbers’ worth—of moments I’d redo if I could, I would not have missed out on co-teaching this seminar, tricky as it was. There is a language to mathematics, and I’m devoted to seeing what language produces and provokes.,” Osherow concludes.

Kimberly Moffitt, assistant professor of American studies, appeared on Midday with Dan Rodricks on Tuesday, October 9 to discuss the upcoming election.  Moffitt discussed both the presidential election and Maryland ballot initiatives with Rodricks, the other guests, and callers.

The first topic the group covered was the widespread consensus that Barack Obama lost the first presidential debate.  This led to Mitt Romney’s poll numbers going up despite the fact that the unemployment rate fell below 8 percent.

“Visuals make a difference for us. Being able to see Romney come out and be aggressive, seem confident and show us that he had the ability to be a president is what really stuck with the American people, and that is what carried us through the weekend, instead of talking about the job numbers. [The job numbers] didn’t hold water for us, but the visual of seeing him on that split screen with Obama who seemed very reserved and not his usual self, is what made the huge difference,” Moffitt said.

The full interview can be heard online here.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded researchers from UMBC’s Center for Aging Studies a three-year research grant totaling $1,366,702 to examine “The Subjective Experience of Diabetes among Urban Older Adults.” This ethnographic study seeks to inform targeted interventions to improve diabetes-related outcomes among underrepresented populations. Results may be used to design more sensitive and culturally appropriate education and self-management programs.

The Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE) welcomes  Dr. James Connolly, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Northeastern University, as guest for the seminar “Organizing Urban Ecosystem Governance through Environmental Stewardship in New York City” this Friday, October 12th.

The seminar is the latest for CUERE’s Fall 2012 Seminar Series, which has been held annually since 2003. It begins at 2 PM, and will be hosted in Room 206 of the Technology Research Center, and is free and open to the public. 

Former Retriever midfielders Terry Kimener ’09, American studies, and Peet Poillon ’10, interdisciplinary studies, were part of the United States national lacrosse team which conducted an intrasquad scrimmage yesterday (October 7) at the Capital Lacrosse Classic at Landon School in Bethesda. This was the latest step for the U.S. team as it prepares for tryouts next summer before the 2014 Federation of International Lacrosse World Championships in Commerce City, Colo.

The scrimmage was also a preview of the Champion Challenge from Jan. 25-27 in Orlando, Fla., when the defending gold medalists will scrimmage at least one NCAA team.

This will be Kimener’s first competition in the red, white and blue.  In his sixth MLL season, the three-time All-American (2006-08) and 2008 America East Player of the Year had a break-out season with the Denver Outlaws in 2012, scoring 17 goals and adding 18 assists.

His Outlaw teammate Poillon tied for ninth in scoring in 2012 with 40 points (24-13-40) and surpassed the 100-point plateau (75-32-113) in his fifth MLL season. Poillon was a Second Team All-American for UMBC in 2009.

– Originally published on UMBCRetrievers.com

Dr. Freeman Hrabowski hosted the second annual 1966 Society dinner on September 19 in the 4th Floor English Department Conference Room in UMBC’s new Performing Arts and Humanities Building. The 1966 Society celebrates those individual members who have identified the UMBC Foundation in their estate plans.

Guests had a terrific view of the campus and the Baltimore skyline as they enjoyed their evening.

During dinner, Dr. Jessica Berman, Chair of the Department of English, welcomed them to the English department and described how introductory courses are being redesigned to improve students’ writing skills and incorporate new technology.

Earlier that day, the 1966 Society members were invited to attend the ceremonial ribbon cutting and ground breaking for the Performing Arts and Humanities Building by Maryland Governor Martin O’ Malley; a presentation on cultural spaces hosted in partnership with the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance, and an outdoor festival of arts and humanities. The evening ended with a Humanities Forum lecture featuring Pauline Yu, President of the
American Council of Learned Societies.

Please contact Kim Robinson at trowbrid@umbc.edu or 410-455-3700 if you have included the UMBC Foundation in your estate plans so we can invite you to next year’s dinner.

In one month Maryland voters will decide whether to allow undocumented immigrants who graduate from Maryland high schools and meet other requirements to pay in-county/in-state tuition at local community colleges and public universities. Until now, voters had little information to go on about the Dream Act’s likely effects, but a new report from UMBC professors T.H. Gindling (economics) and Marvin Mandell (public policy) offers hard data on its economic impacts.

“Private and Government Fiscal Costs and Benefits of the Maryland Dream Act” is a working paper funded by the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR) at UMBC. The conclusion: For each annual cohort of students who utilize the Dream Act, total net benefits to the economy are approximately $66 million.

The Baltimore Sun heralded the study’s detailed analysis and concluded: “The emotional, philosophical and moral debates stirred by the referendum on this issue are certainly important. But on a practical level, there is no question: The Dream Act is good for Maryland.” The Washington Post and WYPR’s Maryland Morning featured additional comments from researchers Gindling and Mandell.

Access the full working paper and a policy brief summarizing the study at umbc.edu/mipar.

Update (10/16/2012): Additional coverage has appeared in the Gazette, Daily Record Baltimore Sun, Washington Post, DC Examiner, Westminster Patch and Lutherville-Timonium Patch. WYPR’s Inside Maryland Politics, Immigration Impact, Capital News Service (1, 2), ABC2News and WBAL and have also reported on this study.

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, takes your questions.

Q. When you speak about UMBC’s achievements, you always stress the contribution made by your predecessor as president: the late Michael Hooker. What is his legacy at UMBC? What role did he play in your life as a mentor and friend? — Richard Byrne ’86, English

A. Michael Hooker was capable of seeing what others did not think possible. He clearly saw the great potential of UMBC to become an increasingly important institution of higher education in our country.

He had no trouble saying that UMBC was going to be the best university of its size and its kind in the country. And it sounded like hyperbole. Except he really believed it.

Michael also saw that the entire Baltimore region could go to the next level by focusing on higher education. He got a number of people to visit the university. He also began to see taking people to the roof of [the Administration Building] as a way to allow them to see the campus – and the campus connection with downtown Baltimore. I take people to the roof because Michael taught me to take people to the roof.

Wherever Michael Hooker went, whether it was to Massachusetts, or to North Carolina, or when he was here at UMBC, people called him a whirlwind. He had a way of moving with great energy and excitement. People were either fascinated with him, or they were bothered by what he said. And Michael preferred people being bothered by what he said to being boring.

I was always taken by his intellectual curiosity. He was always excited by what was new at UMBC, and he was seeking it out and asking questions – be it in the labs or in the theatre productions.

When I first visited here, and I was not necessarily thinking of moving to this university, Michael said to me: “You’d be good for UMBC. And UMBC would be good for you. It’s time for you to move to another position.” And at first it somewhat upset me. I thought: “This man doesn’t know me. How dare he say what’s best for me?” But he had a way of saying it with confidence. And as intellectual as he was, he used his gut in making decisions. He saw that he could trust me.

He told me on the first day I came to work here as vice provost: “You’re going to be president of this place one day.” And I said: “Yeah, right, Michael.” I was always saying that to him: “Yeah, right, Michael.”

We were constantly memorizing things and reciting them together. Poetry, or things we had read. He was always pushing me. Another quality Michael possessed, however, was that he listened. My argument to him was that we needed to make sure that all of UMBC’s students – graduate and undergraduate – were having a good experience. He listened, and then he said: “Well, do it. Make it happen.” He liked bringing people with good ideas around and having them take those ideas to reality.

Michael had tremendous pride in UMBC as an institution, even after he left. When you look at the True Grit statue outside the Retriever Activities Center, that was Michael, too. If you asked him what he did at UMBC that really mattered, he’d say that he wanted that dog out front. As a symbol. At the time, it seemed like a kooky idea. But whenever Michael came back to campus, he would point to it.

To the very end, when Michael was dying and I went to see him at National Institutes of Health, his eyes reflected his spirit. He was still elevating and supporting me. He wanted to hear about UMBC. He always sang UMBC’s praises.

To send a question to President Hrabowski, click here.