Remember this summer when screaming headlines and even screamier TV pundits declared a catastrophe at the US borders?

It was the pictures of thousands of unaccompanied minors from Central America got them gasping. It was deemed an “urgent humanitarian situation”  

Let’s back up a little and review some of the facts:

• Between 2011 and 2013, there was a 142% increase in unaccompanied minors taken into custody at the southern U.S. border. 
• Since October 2013, 70,000 children have arrived at the border
• The influx of children coming to the U.S. were from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. 
• Many children were fleeing to avoid gang violence and poverty. Other children were coming to reunite with family members in the U.S. 
• Unlike minors from Mexico and Canada, children from Central America are legally not allowed to be immediately deported. This comes from a 2008 statute that was created to fight trafficking. 

But wait… Why no screaming today? Is the crisis over? What happened?

Well, unaccompanied minors just aren’t coming as much as before. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson reported early in September:

“I am pleased in August the number of apprehensions along the southwest border declined again, reflecting a continued sharp decline in the number of unaccompanied children” 

At first, this seems like great news. Our Border Patrol is no longer overwhelmed by the influx. Now kids are finally being turned over to the Department of Health and Human Services in the standard 72 hours.

But what is causing this decrease? There are many reasons. 

First, the Mexican government has taken a larger role to stop migrants. Only recently, Mexican immigration officers, under pressure from the U.S., have aggressively been stopping migrants riding on the tops of  freight trains. 

Second, there has been much more education to deter migrants from setting off in the first place. Many rumors, including that migrants could receive “permisos”, are starting to be debunked.  Public-awareness campaigns in Central America also are educating parents that children will not be given papers in the United States. 

Though the numbers have dramatically decreased, should we be pleased as Secretary Johnson noted?

Many of the unaccompanied minors were seeking asylum to flee the madness in their countries. Violence in Central American has not decreased, and many minors are being forced back to dangerous places plagued with violence, gangs, and poverty.  This is the sad consequence of the new policies. 

Despite the huge decrease in numbers, the issue of immigration will remain a hot button issue in the US. It is only a matter of time before the breathless panicked screaming will start again.

Each year, the UMBC Alumni Association presents awards to honor alumni for their professional and personal achievements and service to the University. The 2014 awards will be presented on Thursday, October 9, 2014, at an awards ceremony in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building on the UMBC campus.

This year’s Alumna of the Year for Engineering and Information Technology is Claudia Pearce (’89 M.S. in Computer Science and ’94 Ph.D. in Computer Science) who is currently the Senior Computer Science Authority at the NSA. In her time at the NSA, Pearce has created development programs for computer science and information technology new-hires to NSA, a short-course series on high-end topics in CS and IT, a summer intern program and organized a distinguished lecture series. In addition, she has created a computer science grants program with the National Science Foundation, for computer science education and outreach. She has also served on the Advisory Board of the Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology.

Prior to becoming the NSA’s Senior Computer Science Authority, Pearce served as the Chief of Knowledge Discovery Sciences, where she directed a research team that created Knowledge Discovery applications.

From 2000-2003, Pearce was part of the Senior Technical Development Program. While involved with this program, Pearce collaborated with organizations such as the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab and Magnify Research, Inc., on topics such as “applications of data mining techniques to natural language processing.” As a Senior Computer Scientist from 1985-2000, Pearce conducted research in the area of databases and information retrieval systems.

Pearce received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Florida in 1973, graduating with High Honors and a Phi Beta Kappa distinction. She received an M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida in 1974. In 1989 she received an M.S. in Computer Science from UMBC.  She also received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UMBC in 1994.

Pearce has described UMBC’s campus atmosphere as “very collegial.” She goes on to describe her decision to attend UMBC vs. College Park, explaining that, “[When] I came to UMBC…it seemed like a really friendly place. It was very small at the time, so it seemed like it was accessible…whereas College Park was this really big, almost overwhelming kind of environment. And I liked the small environment, the close-knit environment that you get at UMBC.”

Pearce is currently involved in research at UMBC. Earlier this year, she helped to organize a workshop sponsored by the NSF and the Department of Defense, titled “Beyond Watson: Predictive Analytics and Big Data.”

The research that inspired the Beyond Watson workshop ties into questions that are relevant to information retrieval systems. Questions such as “how do you find the right documents out of very large collections of text?” and “what are the kinds of languages, tools, techniques, infrastructure [needed]…to build our own Watson?” Pearce notes that she’s “always been interested in databases, and in particular text and natural language databases, and this notion of answering questions.” Furthermore, information retrieval systems was the topic of her Ph.D. dissertation.

Claudia lives with her husband Jonathan Cohen in Glenwood, MD. She is “an avid snow skier, quilt maker and trumpet player.”

"Eco-Ambassadors" are a new team of 10 students who work with the UMBC Climate Action Steering Committee to offer the support, tools and resources to help connect and empower students to campus sustainability!

Eco-Ambassadors make it easy to figure out how to recycle/compost, find ways to drive less, easily conserve energy, and integrate sustainability in your service, learning, teaching or research. 

UMBC is constantly improving and updating our campus on everything from greener transportation to improved energy and recycling efficiency. We want to help keep you informed on green choices, remind you that you're not alone, and encourage everyone to have a greener impact! 

Sign up for an Eco-Ambassador program at this link!

What Eco-Ambassadors can do for you:

• Serve as guest speakers for groups and events such as:
• Courses 
• Student orgs
• Residential community groups
• Athletic groups
• Greek groups

• We work with your needs to bring fun ways to spread our message such as: 
• Campus green tours
• Fun games
• Guided round-table discussions/debates 
• Tabling for fairs
• Green pledge photo booth 
• Short presentations 

We are excited to work with you to strengthen and support everyone across campus to build a more compassionate, connected, healthy and engaged campus community!

We are always looking for your contributions, suggestions, questions on how we can  improve! Email sustainability@umbc.edu 

The Society of Research Administrators International / Chesapeake Chapter is soliciting presenters and session proposal ideas for the 2015 Chapter meeting to be held in Baltimore, Maryland at the John Hopkins University on March 20, 2015. You can present by yourself or with a panel or topics related to research administration, practices or procedures. The call for proposals will be posted soon to the SRA/Chesapeake Chapter website.

For more information or to forward an idea for a presentation, please contact Tim Sparklin, 5-2737 or sparklin@umbc.edu 

The purpose of the Joseph and Frieda Faiman Eisenberg/VPC Endowed Scholarship is to provide a $500 scholarship award to an outstanding UMBC undergraduate interested in becoming an entrepreneur.

This award is associated with UMBC’s Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. The scholarship will be awarded for the 2014-2015 academic year.

The student selected to receive this award should:

• Be a full-time degree-seeking student in good standing at UMBC
• Submit a personal statement about their interest in entrepreneurship
• Demonstrate an interest in becoming an entrepreneur
• Have a minimum of a 3.0 grade point average

APPLICATION DEADLINE: September 30, 2014

To apply, download the attached form and deliver to Vivian Armor by the date above.