By: Ben Sutherland

We realize Mondays are less fun than a root canal so start your week off with a smile (unless you actually have to get a root canal).

Here are some fun sites to make the day a little less painful.

Check out ten bits of trivia. For example,

Captain Crunch’s first name is Horatio.

I will risk missing a flight if I feel like I’ve potentially left one of my phones at home,” [Christiana Ike] said. “I definitely wish that I was not so attached because that attachment has caused me problems.

Very Little Stars on Vimeo.

Romans 5:6-11 (NIV)

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Reflection

There are certain foods that we grew up eating that hold a sense of nostalgia or sentimental appeal, and there are also foods that we would go to whenever we were sick. These types of food are commonly call, comfort foods. However our true and real “food’ and true and real “comfort” is what God has done for us in Christ Jesus: that while we still sinners, Christ died for us, and we have now been reconciled to God through Christ. Our ultimate need and therefore heart comfort was to be reconciled with God. That is exactly what He did when He came and rescued us, and made the way for us to know Him and find our deepest need satisfied in Him. This is the real “food” and the real “comfort” that we are invited to experience and receive in Him.

Responding to the Transmission

Today let’s remember this truth: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He has satisfied our deepest need and our most needed comfort in life. In this truth and therefore reality for our lives, let’s live as those who have received God’s reconciliation and rescue, really loving God and freely loving others. Spend some time praying and asking for the Spirit’s presence and empowering to live this out in tangible ways. With each step and with each decision let’s trust in how God is leading our lives, being satisfied in Him and all that he has done for us.

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, takes your questions.

Q. When you speak about UMBC’s achievements, you always stress the contribution made by your predecessor as president: the late Michael Hooker. What is his legacy at UMBC? What role did he play in your life as a mentor and friend? — Richard Byrne ’86, English

A. Michael Hooker was capable of seeing what others did not think possible. He clearly saw the great potential of UMBC to become an increasingly important institution of higher education in our country.

He had no trouble saying that UMBC was going to be the best university of its size and its kind in the country. And it sounded like hyperbole. Except he really believed it.

Michael also saw that the entire Baltimore region could go to the next level by focusing on higher education. He got a number of people to visit the university. He also began to see taking people to the roof of [the Administration Building] as a way to allow them to see the campus – and the campus connection with downtown Baltimore. I take people to the roof because Michael taught me to take people to the roof.

Wherever Michael Hooker went, whether it was to Massachusetts, or to North Carolina, or when he was here at UMBC, people called him a whirlwind. He had a way of moving with great energy and excitement. People were either fascinated with him, or they were bothered by what he said. And Michael preferred people being bothered by what he said to being boring.

I was always taken by his intellectual curiosity. He was always excited by what was new at UMBC, and he was seeking it out and asking questions – be it in the labs or in the theatre productions.

When I first visited here, and I was not necessarily thinking of moving to this university, Michael said to me: “You’d be good for UMBC. And UMBC would be good for you. It’s time for you to move to another position.” And at first it somewhat upset me. I thought: “This man doesn’t know me. How dare he say what’s best for me?” But he had a way of saying it with confidence. And as intellectual as he was, he used his gut in making decisions. He saw that he could trust me.

He told me on the first day I came to work here as vice provost: “You’re going to be president of this place one day.” And I said: “Yeah, right, Michael.” I was always saying that to him: “Yeah, right, Michael.”

We were constantly memorizing things and reciting them together. Poetry, or things we had read. He was always pushing me. Another quality Michael possessed, however, was that he listened. My argument to him was that we needed to make sure that all of UMBC’s students – graduate and undergraduate – were having a good experience. He listened, and then he said: “Well, do it. Make it happen.” He liked bringing people with good ideas around and having them take those ideas to reality.

Michael had tremendous pride in UMBC as an institution, even after he left. When you look at the True Grit statue outside the Retriever Activities Center, that was Michael, too. If you asked him what he did at UMBC that really mattered, he’d say that he wanted that dog out front. As a symbol. At the time, it seemed like a kooky idea. But whenever Michael came back to campus, he would point to it.

To the very end, when Michael was dying and I went to see him at National Institutes of Health, his eyes reflected his spirit. He was still elevating and supporting me. He wanted to hear about UMBC. He always sang UMBC’s praises.

To send a question to President Hrabowski, click here.

Traditions don’t start easily. Someone has to plant the seeds. Attract attention to them. Nurture them. Allow them both to grow and take root.

The image on the cover of the Fall 2012 issue of UMBC Magazine is one tradition that has taken root at the university. UMBC’s presidential insignia – worn by the university’s president at every commencement – was a gift from the university’s Alumni Association that recognized the school’s milestone 30th anniversary in 1996.

The insignia was purposely created to have a contemporary look that reflected the innovation that characterized the institution. The insignia’s design includes not only the university seal, but also incorporates three symbols that represent the key pillars upon which UMBC stands as a proud public university in Maryland: teaching, research and service. There are also visual references to the iconic Albin O. Kuhn Library in its design – rooting the insignia firmly in campus space.

At the time of its completion in 1998, UMBC’s director of alumni relations Joan Williams observed that she hoped the insignia was “just the beginning of many more traditions to come.” But little did she know that the president who first wore the insignia 14 years ago would still be the university’s leader in 2012.

Our cover story in this issue examines the 20 years of transformation at UMBC that have occurred under the leadership of Freeman A. Hrabowski, III. (See “From Aspiration to Achievement”).

Stability also helps nurture traditions. UMBC’s two decades with Hrabowski at the helm have given the university the ability to innovate in an environment of continuity – and thus advance the commitment to teaching, research and service that are part of the design of the university and its insignia.

As a young university with a growing sense of its legacy and its promise, the students, faculty, and staff of UMBC make history every day. And alumni can do it, too. Everything that happens at UMBC now lays the foundation for the university’s future.

For instance, every year that there is a bonfire at UMBC Homecoming brings that conflagration another step away from being an “annual event” and one step closer to being a “tradition.” And every year that The Retriever Weekly publishes during the first week of school – as it has since 1966 – makes the university’s student newspaper more of an institution.

Both the bonfire and The Retriever Weekly will figure prominently in this year’s UMBC Homecoming 2012. The bonfire will be set at dusk on Wednesday, October 10. And a reunion of staff members of The Retriever Weekly will happen on Saturday, October 13, at 2:30 p.m.

We hope to see you at Homecoming 2012. You will see how UMBC nurtures the traditions it has as it creates new ones – and you can help us make history in continuing them.

— Richard Byrne ’86