Erin Appel ’00, political science, Erin O’Keefe ’10 M.P.P, public policy, and Angela Scott ’99, interdisciplinary studies, are among the 2014 Leading Women Winners. Leading Women honors women age 40 or younger for their career accomplishments. They were chosen for their professional experience, community involvement and a commitment to inspiring change.

Appel is a senior government relations associate for Capitol Strategies LLC and a court appointed special advocate who mentors a 17 year old boy in a residential treatment facility. O’Keefe is the director of the York Road Initiative, which addresses economic, physical and human needs along the Yong Road cooridor. Scott is an attorney and advisor for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Serices and was elected to the Maryland State Democratic Central Committee in 2010.

Click here to read more about the Leading Women winners.

CREDIT CARDS
You can quickly and easily make your year-end gift online. Gifts by credit card must be submitted no later than midnight EST on Wednesday, December 31.

CHECKS
Checks must be dated and postmarked by Wednesday, December 31, to be counted in the 2014 tax year. Please make checks payable to the UMBC Foundation and mail to the UMBC Foundation at 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250.

GIFTS OF SECURITIES
The gift of appreciated stock can be beneficial to UMBC and you. You may be eligible to take a charitable deduction for the market value of the securities, and could potentially benefit by avoiding capital gains tax and reducing your estate tax. You can request additional information about donating securities by visiting UMBC Foundation.

PLANNED GIVING
Planned gifts can be a significant benefit to you, your family, and UMBC. Bequests, charitable gift annuities, and charitable remainder trusts offer donors a variety of ways to support the university. For more information, visit our Planned Giving website. You can also contact Kim Robinson, Senior Development Officer, by phone at 410-455-3700 or by email at trowbrid@umbc.edu.

GIFTS IN KIND
A gift of personal property includes equipment, inventory, books, works of art, or other tangible property. Gifts of personal property are accepted by UMBC. Gifts in kind can be used to benefit the university, an academic department, or program as designated by the donor. If you are interested in pursuing this type of gift, please call Kim Robinson, Senior Development Officer, at 410-455-3700 or email her at trowbrid@umbc.edu.

QUESTIONS?
You may reach Dayna Carpenter, Director of Annual Giving, at 410-455-3377 or dayna@umbc.edu.

If you have already made your gift, thank you!

All contributions are administered by the UMBC Foundation for the benefit of UMBC.

CREDIT CARDS
You can quickly and easily make your year-end gift online. Gifts by credit card must be submitted no later than midnight EST on Wednesday, December 31.

CHECKS
Checks must be dated and postmarked by Wednesday, December 31, to be counted in the 2014 tax year. Please make checks payable to the UMBC Foundation and mail to the UMBC Foundation at 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250.

GIFTS OF SECURITIES
The gift of appreciated stock can be beneficial to UMBC and you. You may be eligible to take a charitable deduction for the market value of the securities, and could potentially benefit by avoiding capital gains tax and reducing your estate tax. You can request additional information about donating securities by visiting UMBC Foundation.

PLANNED GIVING
Planned gifts can be a significant benefit to you, your family, and UMBC. Bequests, charitable gift annuities, and charitable remainder trusts offer donors a variety of ways to support the university. For more information, visit our Planned Giving website. You can also contact Kim Robinson, Senior Development Officer, by phone at 410-455-3700 or by email at trowbrid@umbc.edu.

GIFTS IN KIND
A gift of personal property includes equipment, inventory, books, works of art, or other tangible property. Gifts of personal property are accepted by UMBC. Gifts in kind can be used to benefit the university, an academic department, or program as designated by the donor. If you are interested in pursuing this type of gift, please call Kim Robinson, Senior Development Officer, at 410-455-3700 or email her at trowbrid@umbc.edu.

QUESTIONS?
You may reach Dayna Carpenter, Director of Annual Giving, at 410-455-3377 or dayna@umbc.edu.

If you have already made your gift, thank you!

All contributions are administered by the UMBC Foundation for the benefit of UMBC.

In a recent National Journal article on a potential bid for the White House by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, Public Policy Professor and Chair Donald Norris was interviewed for the story and discussed how O’Malley’s relationship with the Clintons could affect the 2016 campaign.

“The Clintons and he are close,” said Norris. “He endorsed her the first time. I don’t know he could run against her without burning a lot of bridges he just doesn’t want to burn.”

Norris was also interviewed for a Baltimore Sun article about the future of the Republican Party in Maryland. “They’ve gone through this ‘pull to the right and then re-center’ dance before,” Norris said. “The tea party right and the fringe Republicans could continue what they’ve done: eating their young, going after each other in primaries to make the party even more conservative and, in turn, more marginal in the rest of the state.”

Political Science Professor and Chair Thomas Schaller has been in the news recently analyzing the future of the Democratic Party in the South. In a Bloomberg Politics article examining how Democrats will rebuild after the recent midterm elections, Schaller discussed what could be next for party.

“The irony for me is that even I would say, at this point, there’s no place to go but up for the Democrats,” Schaller said. “There’ve been five federal cycles, and in every single count there’re fewer Democratic officials from the South in almost all of those elections.”

“Look at the Republicans,” Schaller added. “At one point they had three of 53 house seats in New York and New England. They got to near zero. And they’ve clawed back in Maine, New Hampshire, and New York. If Democrats have a landslide cycle, that might mean three new senators from the entire South. That would mean they doubled their Southern numbers in the Senate!”

Schaller was also mentioned in a Daily Beast article which discussed a similar topic, and his most recent column in the Baltimore Sun builds off of what he discussed in his first book Whistling Past Dixie in the context of the most recent midterm elections. To read full versions of the three articles, click below:

Can Democrats Ever Compete for the Deep South? Should They Even Bother? (Bloomberg)
Dems, It’s Time to Dump Dixie (Daily Beast)
Nowhere to go but up for Southern Democrats (Baltimore Sun column)

On December 10, New York Observer published an article on the “Second Gilded Age” in New York City, in which it describes recent increases in spending among the wealthiest New Yorkers. Research by Public Policy Professor John Rennie Short is extensively quoted in the article. The full excerpt is below:

“In the collection of essays, Geographies of the Super-Rich, published last year, John Rennie Short, a professor of public policy at the University Maryland Baltimore County, refers to this period as the ‘Second Gilded Age.’ Mr. Short estimates that 103,000 people worldwide have a net worth in excess of $30 million, and this upper, upper class owns about 40 percent of global assets. The holdings of the 66 New Yorkers on the most recent Forbes 400 list (led by David Koch with $42.9 billion) adds up to an astounding $390.67 billion dollars—more than the gross domestic product of Thailand, a nation with 67 million people.

Mr. Short detects similarities between the two eras. Striking inequality was seen as evidence of Social Darwinism. And it is again, he suggests. ‘Wealth is justified not simply as a result of luck or connections,’ he writes, ‘but as a ‘natural’ phenomenon and hence immune to political change and social debate.’

He also notices contrasts. It was de rigueurfor elites in the late 19th century to live a life of leisure, but today’s captains of industry flaunt their industriousness. ‘The hardworking rich replace the idle rich,’ as Mr. Short puts it.”

To read the full article titled “Gilded Age 2.0: New York’s Richest CEOs, Artists, and Pro Athletes,” click here.

In November, Piotr Gwiazda, Associate Professor of English, participated in the 23rd Ars Cameralis Festival in Katowice, one of Poland’s most prestigious arts and literary festivals. On November 15, he gave a reading from his poetry in Polish translation at Kinoteatr Rialto. On November 17, he presented a lecture “Dreams of a Common Language: On Contemporary U.S. Poetry” at the English Language Institute of the University of Silesia in Sosnowiec.

In a video interview (interview in Polish), Gwiazda described his critical and creative projects. He also commented on the Ars Cameralis Festival.