Dear University Community,

We invite you to join us for an address from UMBC’s President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, next Wednesday.

• Wednesday, March 12, 2014
• AOK Library (http://www.umbc.edu/aok/main/index.html)
• Gallery (1st Floor, next to the Circulation Desk)

In addition to his role as UMBC’s president, Dr. Hrabowski chairs the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/26/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts

More about President Hrabowski: http://president.umbc.edu/

• UMBC Graduate Community: RSVP on http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/19707
• University System of Maryland Graduate Students (outside of UMBC): RSVP by replying to this post in the comments with your name, department, and university.

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This event is shared with the University System of Maryland as part of the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation (PROMISE: AGEP-T) project.  

An article published March 4 in Capital News Service examines the Common Core State Standards and how college students studying education and soon entering the world of teaching are preparing for it.

Education Professor and Chair Eugene Schaffer is quoted in the article describing UMBC’s curriculum and the department’s understanding of the need to prepare students for the Common Core:  “We know that the people that graduate this coming spring will be entering the classrooms and will be teaching Common Core,” Schaffer said. “This is a great concern of ours.”

Schaffer also commented on internships that are completed in the classroom by students who work closely with mentors: “When they’re [interning] for a full semester, they’re teaching the skills they have developed, and a lot of that is related to Common Core,” he added.

Associate Professor of Education Jonathan Singer is also quoted in the article when describing education courses at UMBC: “Methods courses have specific lessons geared toward explaining what Common Core is,” Singer said. “They have three or four lesson plans they have to develop in connection to Common Core.”

You can read the full article in Capital News Service by clicking here.

UMBC Training Centers’ Center for Leadership & Innovation has introduced Lead to Innovate, a program offering noncredit Certificate Programs in Leadership and Innovation. The program is designed to help improve organizations by allowing leaders to effectively change their organization in a positive way. The Certificate in Leadership, a 10-day program, emphasizes individual and organizational leadership, while the Certificate in Innovation, also a 10-day program, focuses on adopting an innovative framework and building an innovative environment.

UMBC employees are eligible for 50% discount, and tuition reimbursement (with the approval of your manager) for this program. All courses for the program are offered at UMBC Training Centers’ state of the art facility in Columbia, MD. Classes for the program will begin April 21. Click here for more information.

Brian Cullum, chemistry and biochemistry, has been elected as an SPIE fellow for his achievements as an innovator in photonics and sensors. SPIE’s announcement of the honor recognizes Cullum specifically for “pioneering research on intracellular SERS nanosensors and optical sensing techniques for both environmental and biological monitoring.”

As the head of the Center for Translational Nanobioscience, Cullum focuses on developing nanotechnology for biomedical and defense related applications. He also founded and chairs Smart Medical and Physiological Sensor Technology, an annual international conference.

SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics and Fellows are honored for their technical achievements and service to the general optics community.

Congratulations to Brian Cullum on this achievement!

In an op-ed published March 4 in The Baltimore Sun, Political Science Professor Thomas Schaller comments on public attitudes of gay rights and efforts to allow discrimination against gays being struck down in recent years.

“Public attitudes about gay rights have changed dramatically in recent decades. Solid majorities, especially among younger Americans, now support marriage equality and other standards of equal treatment,” he writes.

In his column, Schaller cites the recent news of a bill passed by the Arizona legislature and later vetoed that would have permitted those with religious objections to deny services to gay customers:  “Consider the fact that anyone could start a new religion tomorrow and declare that their so-called moral objections allow them to deny service to groups they find repellent, including conservative evangelicals. Citing religion to justify hate sets a very dangerous precedent,” Schaller writes.

You can read the full op-ed titled “Hate if you must, just don’t act on it” in The Baltimore Sun by clicking here.

(courtesy of npr.org)

You could call Sarah Palin many things. Eccentric hockey mom, charismatic TV pundit, bizarre chapter in the history of vice-presidential candidates—just to name a few.

How about eastern European political guru?

Inconceivable as it sounds, Palin seems now to have been justified in predicting a Russian invasion into Ukraine back in 2008.

And if you thought she might let us forget about it, think again.

Indeed, Russia’s parliament has given the green light for President Vladimir Putin to deploy ground forces into Crimea, a region of particular interest due to its strong Russian affiliations.

So, is outright war the next inevitable step? Will the US and the EU be further drawn in? Are greater foreign policy aspirations dancing in Ms. Palin’s head even as we speak?

Let us know your thoughts.