Addressing the Scarcity of Roles for Women

Inaugurated in 2006, UMBC’s annual IN10 International Short Play Competition seeks to address the scarcity of strong roles for young women in contemporary American plays. By creating a national competition for 10-minute long plays that feature solid acting opportunities for young actresses, the Department of Theatre hopes to help commence a new era in contemporary American playwrighting. The national winner is awarded a cash prize and performances at the Festival. Additionally, each year the IN10 Festival commissions new works by noted American playwrights.

This year’s festival, which runs March 4 through 8 in the UMBC Theatre, features new theatrical works for young actresses and all audiences, including the winning play of UMBC’s IN10 International Short Play Competition, Confirmed Sighting by Patrick Gabridge.

Artistic Director Susan McCully has commissioned new works by renowned playwrights Lee Blessing, Kia Corthron and Caridad Svich:

Into You (Lee Blessing): Following her recent assault, a nursing student implicates her roommates in brutal game of crime and punishment when she exacts a secret revenge.

Trickle (Kia Corthron): Supply-side economics works its dramatic arch through the lives of five women in this cunning play about who gets bailed out and who is dumped upon.

Confirmed Sighting (Patrick Gabridge): A young professor searching for a rare bird in an Arkansas swamp finds an unlikely ally in a savvy local, but can she be trusted?

Stepping on Water (Caridad Svich): Lotti’s restlessness and yearning to escape her insular hometown takes poetic flight through her passionate longing for the beautiful Spanish girl next door.

The Festival features direction by Colette Searls and Jennifer L. Nelson, set design by Daniel Ettinger, sound design by Terry Cobb, dialect direction by Lynn Watson, light design by student Matthew Klein, and costume styling by students Christiane Markus and Ulrich Lindqvist.

A performance schedule and ticket information are available online.

(2/27/09)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Black + Gold = Green

Green is the new black and gold on Thursday, February 5, as both the National Teach-in on Global Warming and Recyclemania kick off at The Commons Main Street. Both events are geared toward educating the campus and area communities about global warming and the importance of recycling through a series of activities, panel discussions, art displays and more.

Through its participation in the National Teach-in on Global Warming, UMBC joins more than 600 colleges and universities nationwide to discuss and reiterate the importance of finding solutions to global warming. UMBC will showcase its sustainability initiative and celebrate what the Climate Change Task Force (CCTF) has done so far in order to fulfill the climate commitment President Freeman Hrabowski signed in 2007.

The day’s events include a fair of local green businesses, government agencies and climate action groups at The Commons Main Street; sustainability performing and visual arts works and films; campus-wide open classes on global warming across disciplines; and a panel discussion on action and legislation to avert climate change. On the panel will be Wayne Gilchrest, former Maryland congressman and co-chair of the Climate Change Caucus; Sarah Zaleski, coordinator of the Baltimore City Office of Sustainabilty; and Donald Boesch, professor of marine science and president of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) and Chairman of the Maryland Governor’s Climate Change Commission.

“UMBC students, faculty and staff have a unique opportunity to take part in the National Teach-in on global warming and learn about the challenges we face and about the policies we need to implement on campus and at all levels of government,” said Virginia McConnell, professor of economics and co-chair of the CCTF.

Alongside the Teach-in will also be the start of UMBC’s annual Recyclemania, a ten-week recycling competition in which schools nationwide collect and record the weight of products about to be recycled. Although the official kick-off is February 5, a two-week trial period began for UMBC and other colleges and universities on Sunday, January 18, in order to get accustomed with collecting and reporting.

2009 marks the third year in which UMBC has participated alongside more than 400 schools nationwide in Recyclemania, capturing several second-place awards in various categories in 2008. Faculty and staff are encouraged to participate, and students will have opportunities to participate in various recycling based activities on February 5 at The Commons. Free T-shirts and more information on recycling also will be handed out. Students are invited to bring recyclable materials to the event for collection.

“I’d like to see more people recycle on campus and help educate others about recyclable materials,” said Donna Anderson, manager of landscape and grounds. “Wherever there’s a recycling bin, please use it. And if there isn’t, let Facilities Management know, and there will be one there in the future.”

The Teach-in kicks off at 11 a.m. at Main Street in The Commons, and activities will continue throughout the day. For more information, visit the sustainability website at www.umbc.edu/sustainability. A link at the top of the page will include a full listing of events.

For more information about Recyclemania, visit www.recyclemania.org/ or contact Donna Anderson at dleak@umbc.edu.

(1/27/09)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Born Leader

Carlos Urtecho ’10, political science, never thought of himself as a leader. Instead, leadership found him.

It started in 2005 with Conexiones, an organization striving to meet the needs of Hispanic/Latino children in Howard County schools. Urtecho quickly became involved with the theatrical group, “Teens from the Hood,” a collaboration project between Conexiones, Alianza de la Comunidad and the Foreign-born Information and Referral Network. The group performed at churches, libraries, summer camps and community events to warn people about the dangers of smoking. 

During his junior year of high school, Urtecho was discouraged by the lack of unity amongst Hispanic students and their parents at Mt. Hebron High School in Ellicott City, Maryland. With the help of the Conexiones, he founded a group called the “Los Vikingos Hispanic Club” to bring students and parents together at his school.

“This was my first leadership role, and I learned a lot about starting a student organization from the ground up,” he said. “I didn’t know it then – but that experience would really help me in my future leadership roles in college.”

By the time he graduated from Mt. Hebron, Conexiones awarded him a college scholarship for his outstanding leadership. In 2006, he attended George Mason University, where he continued serving in leadership roles. He was a resident assistant, an orientation leader, a tour guide and the recruitment chairman and founder of the Delta Chi Fraternity.

Wanting to be closer to his family, Urtecho transferred to UMBC in spring of 2008 and wasted no time in getting involved on campus. He met with Greek Life and Leadership, asking what it would take to bring the Delta Chi Fraternity to UMBC.

Now, two years later, Urtecho is bringing Delta Chi to UMBC and will serve again as a founding father.

“Having Delta Chi on campus at UMBC will be a great addition to the other fraternities because it will strengthen Greek life,” he said. “The opportunity to become a founding father is a chance for UMBC students to redefine Greek life from the inside out.”

Being a founding father comes with opportunities to determine traditions, values and images that will remain at UMBC for years to come, according to Urtecho. He feels UMBC is the perfect place to start these new traditions. The Delta Chi Fraternity will be officially expanding to UMBC in February 2010.

Urtecho also serves as a tour guide, a resident assistant and president of Campus Crusade for Christ. The group has grown from seven people to 120 since he became president. After graduation, he plans on pursuing a master’s degree in higher education administration and working in residence life. He has maintained his relationship with Conexiones, serving as their alumni coordinator.

“I am very thankful for Conexiones for exposing me to the beauty that is leadership at such an early age.”

(1/19/10)

Brian Maguire, Emergency Health Services, Wins Fulbright

Brian Maguire, clinical associate professor of emergency health studies (EHS), has won a 2009 Fulbright Scholarship to expand his groundbreaking research on the occupational risks among ambulance personnel. Maguire will spend four months in Australia in 2010, working on his research and teaching at three Australian universities: Edith Cowan, Charles Sturt and Flinders.

Maguire’s previous research projects were the first to document the occupational injury and fatality rates among emergency medical services (EMS) personnel in the U.S. EMS workers face a host of on-the-job health risks: everything from common back injuries, strains and sprains to more serious injuries caused by ambulance accidents and assaults by patients.

“The occupational injury and fatality rates for American EMS professionals are far above the national average,” said Maguire, a former New York City paramedic, emergency services manager and health care administrator. “But because of a lack of research on the topic, it’s been hard to convince people outside the profession of the serious occupational hazards. As a result, little has been done to make the job safer.”

“The Fulbright award will permit me to work toward developing lessons learned and best practices to protect the lives and health of emergency services personnel around the world.”

The UMBC EHS department provides the only graduate program of its kind in the world. For over a decade it has been providing graduate education online and has drawn students from Europe, Asia, Africa and all over the U.S. The department has been providing emergency medical services (EMS) education since 1982, including a bachelor’s degree, certification programs that have been offered on-site in dozens of countries and a program that trained the 10,000 members of the National Disaster Medical System.

Maguire has been a member of the EHS faculty since 1999. He is associate director of the emergency health services graduate program and director of the Center for Emergency Education and Disaster Research (CEEDR). He has been a consultant to the Department of Homeland Security and numerous health departments in the areas of bio-terrorism and disaster preparedness, an international consultant for systems development as well as a committee member for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the American Ambulance Association in the areas of ambulance and workforce safety.

(4/16/2009)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Bringing the Peace Corps Home

One lesson Katie Long brought home from volunteering in Honduras for the Peace Corps in 2005-07 is that fun and games can have a positive social and health impact on underserved communities.

Long is now using recreation and fun to strengthen communities around Patterson Park in Baltimore as part of her public service placement as a graduate student in the Peaceworker Program at UMBC’s Shriver Center. The Peaceworker Program is designed to find ways for returning Peace Corps volunteers to serve their local communities when their missions abroad are completed.

As the recreation and Latino outreach coordinator for the nonprofit Friends of Patterson Park, Long works with Baltimore City Parks and Recreation and local groups to use sports, health and recreation programs to build community around Patterson Park. Programs range from nutrition classes and physical fitness boot camps to volleyball, soccer and a tennis program designed for urban children who don’t normally have access to the sport.

“The Friends of Patterson Park tries to use the sports and fun activities you do at a park as a way to contribute to the community and to promote health and physical fitness and outreach to the growing Latino community,” said Long, who will earn a master’s degree in intercultural communication (INCC) and certification in ESOL at UMBC this spring.

This year’s National Peace Corps Week — celebrated the first week of March — celebrates the “third goal” of the Peace Corps as envisioned by its founder, Sargent Shriver: “that someday we are going to bring it home to America.”

The Shriver Center’s Peaceworker Program has been pursuing the “third goal” since it was created in 1994 by Shriver, a native of Maryland. Over 120 returned Peace Corps volunteers have earned graduate degrees as Peaceworker fellows by combining their studies with public service positions focused on addressing urban issues in the Baltimore region.

Ten of the 14 current Peaceworker fellows  are enrolled in graduate programs at UMBC.

Peaceworker fellow Amy Panoni, who will earn her master’s in public policy at UMBC this May, is working as a special projects coordinator for My Sister’s Place, a Catholic Charities of Baltimore facility for homeless women and their children. 

Panoni created the agency’s job readiness curriculum and as part of her master’s degree oversees and evaluates other programs, such as life skills workshops and a rental assistance program called “Homeward Bound” that provides homeless families with housing and support services.

UMBC INCC student Duncan Cohen, who returned from the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa, in 2009, is doing conflict resolution work with the Community Conferencing Center in Baltimore. Cohen is a second generation Peace Corps volunteer and his grandfather was a colleague of Shriver’s when the Corps was founded in 1961.

Graduates of the Peaceworker program also continue to have an impact on the Baltimore-Washington region. Nearly 80 percent of all fellows came from outside the Baltimore region, but 60 percent have settled and remain engaged in service careers in local communities.

“With 100 percent of Peaceworker alumni continuing in service careers and more than half staying in our region engaged in community service careers, the Shriver Peaceworker Program is proving to be a creative class infusion for the City,” said Peaceworker director Joby Taylor.

View an episode of DigitalStories@UMBC featuring Katie Long’s Peace Corps service in Honduras: www.umbc.edu/oit/newmedia/studio/digitalstories/projects.php?movie=SC_Katie.flv

 (3/1/10)

Catch the Fever!

The 2009 Homecoming Weekend, “Retriever Fever,” is sure to start with a fire – literally.

On Thursday, October 15, the lawn of Erickson field will be filled with students talking and laughing, reconnecting and waiting to see a flame take fire. The annual Bonfire and Outdoor Movie began five years ago after Thomas Locastro ’09, a student on the First Year Council, sparked the initial idea as a way for students to gather with one another and connect. After he completed the necessary paperwork, a new tradition was born.

And this year, along with favorite traditions of the past – other new traditions will be born.

“We’re a young place, and Homecoming is still a young event,” said Greg Simmons (MPP, ’04), vice president of institutional advancement. “This year we’re building a foundation and a platform so that, through co-programming and collaboration, traditions will give alumni a way to stay connected with UMBC.”

Before the bonfire will be an event that was previously held off-campus in Annapolis: the Alumnus/Alumna of the Year awards. Seven alumni will be recognized at the Albin O. Kuhn Library, 7th Floor, for their professional and personal achievements along with their service to the University. This year’s winners have backgrounds in a number of fields including engineering, the arts and humanities, natural and mathematical sciences and social sciences.

And as the sun sets in the background of the awards ceremony, a glow will reflect from Erickson Field as the Bonfire begins. Many of the events at this year’s Homecoming will be close in time and physical location, creating a vibrant hub of activity – another new tradition for UMBC’s Homecoming.

“This year we thought hard about what was missing from previous years and tried to fill in the gaps,” said Stanyell Bruce, associate director of alumni relations and co-chair of the Homecoming Committee. “Although many past Homecoming traditions remained in the 2009 lineup, a variety of new events have been added to the calendar to ensure there were activities for everyone in the UMBC community.”

From 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, October 17, there will be a string of consecutive events for all members of the UMBC community. Committee members said that most events purposely overlap and are close in location so that individuals can participate in most events. Saturday begins with a 5K race fit for runners of any age or speed followed by the men’s soccer game at 1 p.m.

“I’m encouraging everyone to come out and cheer on the men’s soccer team as they embark on a record breaking year in soccer,” said Kevin Gibbons O’Neill ’86, assistant athletic director for fundraising and Homecoming co-chair.

Around the same time as the game, The Commons will turn into “Retriever Fever Fest” – with family friendly activities perfect for faculty, staff and alumni. Other highlights include the Honors College Reception and the Chapter of Young Alumni happy hour. The weekend will end with a performance by comedian Demetri Martin.

For a list of Homecoming highlights, click here.  

For a complete listing of events, click here.

(10/9/09)

Celebrating Student Research & Creativity

Bringing Jane Austen’s writing to life through dance. The ethics of Wall Street’s shadow markets. Turning algae into green energy. The history of POW war crimes trials. How Pakistani honor killings impact women and men. More accurate friend recommendations for Facebook. How blogging might change Iran.

These are just a few of the topics to be found at two upcoming campus events that put UMBC students’ intellectual curiosity and artistic creativity front and center.

The 13th annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD)  will be held Wednesday, April 22, followed by the 31st annual Graduate Research Conference (GRC) on Friday, April 24. Both events are extraordinary opportunities to discover original research and to enjoy free arts performances and exhibits.

Led by the Office of Undergraduate Education, URCAD gives students valuable experience preparing for graduate school or future careers, and in many cases, competitive grants of up to $1,500 over an academic year to support selected work. Nearly 200 student participants are involved with 165 scheduled presentations or performances at this year’s event.

“URCAD embodies and celebrates UMBC’s commitment to creativity, research, scholarship and a distinctive undergraduate experience,” said Teresa Viancour, associate vice provost for undergraduate education. “The outstanding professional maturity and social impact of student work presented at URCAD underscores the truly high quality of our students and the substantial commitment of faculty and staff who teach and mentor them. UMBC really is quite a special place.”

The GRC is a partnership between UMBC and University of Maryland, Baltimore and is sponsored by UMBC’s Graduate Student Association (GSA). Through its mentorship, support, outreach, social life and advocacy efforts, the GSA serves the more than 2,600 graduate students on campus. This year’s GRC keynote speaker is Marla Oros, president of the management consulting firm the Mosaic Group. The day will include 72 oral and poster presentations by UMBC and UMB graduate students.

“The GRC gives graduate students a special opportunity to present their research to the entire UMBC community,” said Katisha Smith, GSA vice president and a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering.  “As the biggest fan of UMBC graduate students, the GSA is proud to plan and host the GRC each year. We hope this event help students sharpen their presentation skills and take pride in their hard work, dedication and passion for knowledge.”

Selected highlights of 2009 URCAD and GRC presentations and performances include:

• A team of economics and philosophy students analyzed the business ethics of Wall Street’s “shadow market,” the unseen transactions of credit default swaps, hedge funds and other speculative products that contributed to the current economic crisis.

• “Letters from Jane,” by senior dance and English major Mary Rzasa combines literary history with choreography to bring Jane Austen’s letters to her elder sister Cassandra to life. Rzasa worked with UMBC dance alumna Elena Consoli ’07 to combine voice, music and dance sequences based on Austen’s life and filmed on location at historical sites in Hampshire, England into a 20-minute video.

• Autumn Marie Reed, a graduate student in Language, Literacy and Culture, studied honor-related violence in Pakistani culture. She will also present on this topic later this year at the annual conference of the International Society for Language Studies.

• Sophomore interdisciplinary studies major Yelena Dewald examined how the Internet and blogging are impacting youth culture, dissent and tradition in Iran, where the majority of the population is under 30 years old.

• A team of chemical and biochemical engineering students developed a design for an industrial-scale plant to produce biodiesel and ethanol biofuels from algae.

• Senior computer science major Roger Guseman worked with faculty and doctoral student mentors to create algorithms that could help social networking sites like Facebook increase accuracy when recommending potential new friends for their users.

• Information systems graduate student Huimin Qian is working on touch-based mobile phone technologies to help provide sighted tech users with safer driving directions and to improve mobile tech interfaces for the blind.

URCAD will be held on Wednesday, April 22, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the University Center and Fine Arts Building. In addition to a morning session devoted to live dance performances, an afternoon session will focus on video and animation. For more information, visit the URCAD Web site.

The 2008 Graduate Research Conference will be held on Friday, April 25, 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the University Center. For more information, please visit the GSA’s Web site.

(4/16/09)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Celluloid Deities

Can street paintings and advertisements be studied as art? And can examining other cultures inform our answer to that question?

Preminda Jacob, an associate professor of art history and theory in UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts, replies in the affirmative to both questions. In her new book, Celluloid Deities (Lexington Books), she examines the collision of cinema, politics and religion in South Indian culture at street level. Movie posters in the city of Chennai, she found, not only advertise a film – they can also be improvised into religious shrines or impart a political message.

“The street is a great equalizer of the visual experience,” she told an attentive crowd at a presentation of her research at UMBC. Jacob also created a Web site, www.celluloiddeities.com, that extends her research on what she calls the “multitudinous signs that jostle for attention” into startling images and video.

Jacob has received several fellowships to support her research, including a J. Paul Getty Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities and a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship from the Center for Media, Culture and History at New York University.

Slideshow: Celluloid Deities

Video: UMBC mathematics professor and author Manil Suri interviews Preminda Jacob on UMBC’s “In the Loop.”

This story appears in the Winter 2009 issue of UMBC Magazine.

(10/2/09)

Chemistry Discovery Center Serves as Model for Physics, Math

Watch a video on UMBC’s Chemistry Discovery Center:

Created by Professors Ralph Pollack and William LaCourse, the multi-faceted Chemistry Discovery Center has spurred similar tutorial-style environments in the Departments of Physics and Mathematics and Statistics.

Both interested in modernizing curriculum in physics, Lecturers Eric Anderson and Lili Cui wanted to better engage students in introductory courses. In the fall of 2007 they established a tutoring center in the Physics building where students perform experiments, complete worksheets and problem solve in group settings. Students spend two hours in the tutorial room three times a week for a four-credit class. They receive support not only from a faculty member but from a teaching assistant and two learning assistants.

“A lot of our teaching and learning assistants want to be physics teachers,” said Cui. “They have teaching in mind from the start and really encourage the students.”

“There’s someone there supporting the students, giving them positive feedback and helping them work through problems,” said Anderson. “The students work really hard and bond with the assistants easily.”

The Math Center, though different in terms of tutorials, has a similar approach when it comes to assisted teaching. The Center, which opened in late fall 2008, employs both tutors and teaching assistants who specifically want to become teachers.

“Math majors who want to be teachers are ideal for these positions,” said Nagaraj Neerchal, chair and professor of Mathematics and Statistics.

Neerchal hopes to offer a hybrid version of the traditional Math 106 course that will include both lecture and computer time, specifically using the tutoring program ALEKS. The program will tackle algebra, a subject in which many students struggle.

“Students who have trouble with the traditional Math 106 course will continue to have difficulty in subsequent classes,” said Neerchal, “The hybrid course will be the best of both worlds.”

The Chemistry Discovery Center continues to flourish with a retention rate of 96 percent in fall 2007 and 97 percent in spring 2008. Eighty-four percent of students in Chemistry 102 now have a C or better. With an increase in students, the bar is also starting to rise higher. Students who were getting Bs are now getting As.

The method behind the Chemistry Discovery Center allows each student to be an active participant in a group without the use of technology.

“There are no paper or pencils – all white boards,” said LaCourse. “We use this method so the students depend on someone. It generates people working together as a team, learning competence and how to trust.”

The real-world approach of the Chemistry Discovery Center requires students to be accountable for their own work and those in their group. This gives students the opportunity to learn in a community-based setting, an option not always available in lecture-style classes.

“This is a new method of learning often done at small schools,” said LaCourse. “We’re taking the entire chemistry class and catching mistakes early on before they’re engrained.”

(2/20/09)

© 2007-08 University of Maryland, Baltimore County � 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 � 410-455-1000 �

Chess Champions

The UMBC Chess Team captured first place at the Pan American Intercollegiate Championships held in South Padre Island, Texas, December 27-30, beating rivals University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) and the University of Texas at Brownsville (UTB). UMBC placed ahead of 27 other teams including Yale, Princeton, Stanford and New York University.

UMBC has now won or tied a record nine Pan-Am titles and is ranked among the best college teams in the country. UTD challenged UMBC in the past, winning the championship in both 2007 and 2008 � but not this year.

UMBC beat UTD 3-1 on Tuesday, December 29, followed by a 2.5-1.5 win over UTB later that day. Top-ranked college players Leonid Kritz ’12 and Sergey Erenburg ’11, both grandmasters, helped the team advance throughout the tournament.

�This may be the greatest chess accomplishment for UMBC because it came against the strongest competitive field ever assembled on college chess,� said Alan Sherman, director and founder of the chess program and associate professor of computer science.

Other members of UMBC�s A team are Giorgi Margvelashvili ’12, Sasha Kaplan ’11 and Sabina Foiser ’12. Many of the players attend UMBC on chess scholarships, playing at least two hours a day. Three of the top four have 4.0 grade point averages.

The Pan-Am is the most celebrated intercollegiate chess tournament in the Western Hemisphere The Retrievers won their first Pan-Am title in 1996. They embarked on a five-year championship streak from 1998 to 2002. Since its 1946 inception, dozens of universities throughout the Americas have participated. The tournament is open to any college or university team from North, South, or Central America.

For more information, click here.

(1/4/10)