Dave Giegerich ’88, a well known Baltimore-Washington area musician, has passed away. Giegerich founded the Hula Monsters, and had played at the White House and the Kennedy Center.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

As his Food Network show “Ace of Cakes” comes to an end, celebrity chef Duff Goldman ’97 is expanding his immensely successful Charm City Cakes business to Los Angeles, says the Baltimore Sun.

Read the Sun story here.

February 10, 11 & 12, 2011
8 p.m., UMBC Theatre

Contact: Thomas Moore
Director of Arts & Culture
410-455-3370
tmoore@umbc.edu

You may view or download this release as a pdf file.

UMBC presents the acclaimed Baltimore Dance Project, the professional dance company in residence at UMBC, in concert on February 10, 11 and 12, 2011 at 8 p.m. in the UMBC Theatre.

Baltimore Dance Project returns with a mix of heart-warming, mind-bending, vigorous, inventive, creepy, and entertaining dance. The company features the choreography of artistic directors Doug Hamby and Carol Hess, "two of the most exciting choreographers in Maryland," performances by award-winning dancers Sandra Lacy and Adrienne Clancy, and a crew of twelve outstanding dancers.

Featured on the program:
• The mysterious, jarring and dramatic Nacht by Doug Hamby, in which three women explore the confines of a surreal nightmare.
• Where Were You? choreographed and performed by Adrienne Clancy and Sandra Lacy (a Maryland 2010 Choreographers Showcase selection).
• Private Property, an edgy dance by Carol Hess about personal space and voyeurism, featuring a dancer and camera artist/filmmaker interacting with live, real-time large scale video.
• A new work by Doug Hamby.
• A new work by Carol Hess.
• A new work featuring Sandra Lacy.

Admission
General admission: $15.00. Students and seniors: $10.00. UMBC students: $7.00.
Box Office: www.missiontix.com or 410-752-8950.

General Information
UMBC Arts website: http://www.umbc.edu/arts

Images for Media
High resolution images are available online:
http://www.umbc.edu/newsevents/arts/hi-res/
Photo credits: Enoch Chan, Lindsey Vait

Directions
• From I-95 take exit 47B. Take Route 166 toward Catonsville and then follow signs to the UMBC Theatre. Parking is available in The Commons Garage.
• From I-695, take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue) and continue one-half mile to the entrance of UMBC at the roundabout intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road. Turn left and follow signs to the UMBC Theatre. Parking is available in The Commons Garage.
• Online campus map: http://www.umbc.edu/aboutumbc/campusmap/

Huguens Jean, '03, '11, Ph.D., electrical engineering, and Clifford Muse '11, information systems, returned to Haiti in March 2010, after the devastating January earthquake, to fulfill their grandfather's last request of them. As he was dying of cancer, he asked that at his funeral they celebrate his life and "find the joy." "I had no idea what that meant until we encountered these people in Haiti," said Jean, "These images of life continuing on."

The brothers missed their grandfather's funeral when the earthquake made travel to Port-au-Prince impossible, but they resolved to find a way to honor his memory. The new documentary film Lift Up," co-directed by Jean and UMBC alumnus Philip Knowlton, records their journey back home.

The film will be screened at 8:00pm this on Thursday January 27 in the UMBC Commons Skylight room. Admission is free.

All public photocopying in the Library now defaults to duplex (two-sided) copying. Patrons may change to simplex (one-sided) photocopying by following instructions posted at the photocopiers.

Dave Giegerich ’88, a well known Baltimore-Washington area musician, has passed away. Giegerich founded the Hula Monsters, and had played at the White House and the Kennedy Center.

Read the full story in the Washington Post.

Thanks to Wikicommons

We all know College is expensive for students…

But spending on campuses may be even more painful for the state governments that fund public universities.

For this reason, global tuitions have been on the rise during this recession.

Students in the United Kingdom have shown the most outrage to these hikes, but American scholars are also feeling the pinch.

Despite the out-cry of students (who are seeing more than their pizza funds at risk) rises in tuition may be the right thing to do.

At least this is what Nobel laureate Gary Becker and author Richard Posner argue:

Charging low tuition to everyone, as public colleges do for residents of the state in which the college or university is located), does not make economic sense; it merely as I said provides windfalls to families willing and able to pay the full tuition. …

This situation presents a case for a virtuous tax increase (raising a fee for a public service is the equivalent of a tax): the increase helps to close the state’s fiscal gap; the burden of the increased tax is borne entirely by the well-to-do; and some of the higher revenue can be used to subsidize students unable to afford the higher tuition.

In other words, the wealthy will go to college whether it is cheap or not, and as most of those in college are better off than the average American why not use tuition as a “tax”.

Posner and Becker note that one section of academia does follow this system as private universities

charge very high tuition (though not high enough to cover all their costs—but they have other sources of funds, such as alumni donations), but grant scholarships or loans to students whose families can’t afford the tuition.

Over at Economix, David Leonhardt agrees but warns that it is important to remember that

there is typically no guarantee that financial aid will keep pace with tuition. If public colleges raise tuition, they will probably have a hard time increasing financial aid to keep pace, given the current troubles with state finances.

So what is to be done? Take our Poll below:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.