It’s all too easy to take successes for granted, especially when you see them every day around campus. At UMBC, the concept of pushing students of all backgrounds and academic levels to succeed is such a part of campus culture, we sometimes forget that’s not necessarily standard practice at other schools.

So when UMBC President Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, III, challenged audiences at the TED2013 conference in California last month to set higher expectations for all students at all levels of education, we were delighted — but not at all surprised. During his session — which fell within a grouping of talks based around the idea “The Spark” — Hrabowski explained how setting high standards for all students lets many who might otherwise be left behind excel. Case in point, he told the group:

“What makes our story especially important is that we have learned so much from students who are typically not at the top of the academic ladder.”

Read the TED blog’s take on Dr. Hrabowski’s talk.

UMBC sets incredibly high standards for its students. Professors and students know it will take a lot of hard work, but the results speak volumes. Our students and alumni are better for being pushed. Dr. Hrabowski touches on a few such examples in his talk.

Just as we sometimes take successes for granted, it’s also easy for forget that without the financial backing of UMBC’s donors, our efforts would be futile. Thank you for believing in Dr. Hrabowski’s message, and for supporting UMBC’s students!

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The rhetoric about “cyberwar” is getting out of control.

For something that was supposed to ignore borders and bring the world closer, the Internet is fostering an awful lot of nationalism right now. We’re seeing increased concern about where IT products and services come from: U.S. companies are worried about hardware from China, European companies are worried about cloud services in the U.S., and Russia and China might each be building their own operating systems to avoid using foreign ones.