Charlotte, North Carolina

UMBC made history on Friday night, as they became the first 16-seed in the history of men’s college basketball to beat a No. 1 seed in March Madness.

Snowflakes fell early Friday as the Retriever fans and spirit teams packed the UMBC transit buses in the Stadium Lot. Seven hours later, they landed in front of the Hilton hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina, greeted by 70 degree weather, and a grand reception before heading off to the Spectrum Center to watch the America East Champion Retrievers take on the No. 1 overall team in the nation, the Virginia Cavaliers.

Fans lined both sides of the hotel entrance, and the band played the “UMBC Fight Song” as the team processed out of the lobby, and boarded their bus. Much like last week, the Retrievers did not pay the fans or spirit team much attention, as they were fixated on the goal in front of them: to shock the nation.

Retriever fans packed the stands, directly across from the UMBC bench. Virginia may have had more color in the building, but Retriever fans rivaled them in noise, and the team gave them plenty to cheer about. The game started with each team missing a shot, and Virginia was the first to strike with a field goal. UMBC answered back immediately, as freshman-center Daniel Akin received the ball in the paint area, and put in UMBC’s first tournament points.

UMBC started the game with a solid defensive effort, which has been a key focus from head coach Ryan Odom all season. However, on offense they looked skittish, making mental errors that seemed to stem from the pressure of the atmosphere surrounding them. Looking up from the floor, you could see the tens-of-thousands of fans surrounding you, and the Retrievers took time to adjust.

They never let No. 1 Virginia pull away from them as a 16-seed in this situation normally would. Rather, the Retrievers stayed in the game. After senior-guard Jourdan Grant  made a three-point shot with 12:12 left in the half, the team gained confidence, taking their first lead just two minutes later on a three-pointer by sophomore-forward Arkel Lamar. From there, Virginia quickly regained the lead, and maintained it until with 4:39 left, during which senior-guard KJ Maura knocked down a three to tie the game 16-16.

A minute later, graduate-guard Jairus Lyles would give UMBC a late lead, with a three-point shot of his own. The score would hold at 19-19 after Virginia answered with three points of their own, until with 1:20 left in the half, when Arkel Lamar made a layup to give UMBC the lead. Virginia would answer, and UMBC would fail to convert on the other end of the court. UMBC drove up the court with 6 seconds left in the first half, and Lyles shot a mid-court three which would hit the rim, and bounce away from the court as the Retriever headed to the locker room tied with the No. 1 team in the country.

The second half started with a bang, as junior-forward Joe Sherburne converted an and-1 opportunity, and then a three-point shot. Virginia would score one point on a free-throw, and the Retrievers came right back to extend their lead to 7 on a layup by Maura with 17:38 left in the half.

The teams would continue to go back and fourth, but the Retrievers would eventually extend their lead to 8 as Lamar hit a three-point shot. The lead would quickly increase to 11 as Sherburne hit a three pointer.

Virginia could not keep up with the fast-paced, long-range game of the Retrievers. They showed glimpses of promise, but UMBC shut down the Cavaliers each time. The closest the Cavaliers came to the Retrievers was with 7:12 left in the game as they closed the gap to just 12 points.

But the Retrievers did not take their foot off the gas pedal. After a smart timeout by Lyles, they began to rebuild the lead as Grant made a basket to take the lead back to 14 with 6:50 left to go.

After the two teams traded blows for three minutes, the Retrievers continued to grow their lead to 17. The Virginia crowd grew silent, and the Retriever fans owned the Spectrum Center. With one minute left to go in the game, Grant hit a 3-point shot to seal the deal.

Jairus Lyles dribbled out the shot clock, leaving the game with about 6 seconds to go. Virginia would inbound the ball, and the clock would expire. The Retrievers had made NCAA history.

“Watching these guys smile and not just did these guys have passion in the end there but throughout the game. I think its pretty easy to tell from everybody in the arena these guys have passion, these guys love to play this game,” said Coach Odom after the game. “It means a lot to them. And it was just a special special … You know particularly the game our defense the first half helped us out,” he continued. “To go in 21-21 at halftime you know after not shooting it particularly well. Obviously Virgina had a lot to do with that. It was tremendous, it gave our guys some life there, they felt like they could play with them. Our spacing was tremendous and we were able to get some shots off in transition that would not normally happen if we didn’t get stops. Obviously these guys were tremendous, all the guys came and did what they particularly do which is defend well.”

“It’s crazy man, we’re the first 16 seed to beat a one seed, and to have the UMBC community behind us means the world to me,” said Grant. “We went from 4 wins, to 25 wins, a tournament win, and an America East Championship, it’s the best feeling I’ve ever had.”

The Retrievers play 9 seed Kansas State on Sunday at 3 p.m., if the Retrievers win Sunday they will advance to the Sweet 16 in Atlanta, GA.

“I just wanna give credit to our fans. They traveled a long way to come down here and support us it really helped us during the game so shout out to them,” said Jairus Lyles.

Since the beginning of Fall 2017, 12,370 parking permits have been issued to UMBC students, staff and faculty. There are, however, only approximately 7,200 parking spaces at UMBC. The ratio between permits and available parking spots has left students struggling to find parking spots.

Many students want to park in the Commons garage and inner loop because these locations are close to campus. However, they are forced to look elsewhere due to the lack of available space. Director of parking services Chuck Boddy says, “After 12:00 p.m., you’re going to have to shoot for Poplar or Stadium lot. Not a lot of people check those areas.”

Though some students feel like there are insufficient spaces, Parking Services reports that there were always open spots last Fall. “We haven’t been 100 percent full since the beginning of the [Fall] semester,” Boddy says. “We weren’t even close to 100 percent this beginning of the [Spring] semester. Demand goes way down in the Spring.”

The Walker Avenue garage, Commons Drive garage and Administration Drive garage have an estimated 1,100 spaces combined. The 29 lots on campus total to about 4,400 parking spaces. On-street parking adds an additional 1,500-1,600 spaces.

Parking services guarantees that all UMBC students can receive permits. UMBC parking is less restricted compared to the University of Maryland College Park, where only upperclassmen are eligible to register for parking.

Parking spaces at UMBC are the most congested on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. “Ultimately, everything is based on scheduling,” says Boddy. “If we had more Friday classes, maybe it would help balance the parking.”

On Fridays, parking lots and garages tend to be emptier due to the lack of students taking classes. Some students avoid Friday classes to stay home or spend the day out, while others have religious conflicts on Fridays. Junior computer science major Adam Snyder says, “I try to avoid Fridays so I can celebrate the Sabbath.”

Commuters favor parking spots that are close to campus. Parking spaces in the Commons garage and inner loop fill before noon. “The best place for me to park is in the outer loop,” Snyder says, “[those spaces] rarely gets taken and I always know where I am.”

Sometimes searching for a space takes over twenty minutes. “The most it ever took was 25 minutes for me,” Snyder says. “But a friend of mine once took forty minutes.”

A new parking system is set to debut this Fall. Boddy says it will measure the total occupancy of the Commons garage and display parking availability. “If [students] saw it was full beforehand, they wouldn’t have to worry about wasting time going up four levels,” says Boddy.

UMBC Parking Services receives most of its revenue from permit sales and visitor parking fees. Parking ticket revenue is an additional source of income. 6,000 violations were issued since the beginning of the Fall 2017 semester. “Most of them are due to invalid permits,” Boddy says.

Boddy says building more parking spaces might be economically infeasible. “One space in the garage costs about 19,000 to 20,000 dollars. For a flat lot, a space costs about 4,000 to 5,000 dollars,” he says. “If the garage needs some leveling or clearing of forests, it can cost 27,000 to 28,000 dollars per space.”

Affording construction fees requires UMBC to issue bonds. “Eventually, all that money has to be paid back,” Boddy says. “This could increase permit costs and other transportation fees.”

Other construction projects might cause parking spaces to be removed. “All that construction is annoying. It shuts down other things and gets in the way,” Snyder says.

“If the next garage is built,” Boddy says, “it will likely be for the replacement of parking lots lost due to new construction of a building.”

In urban areas, 15 percent of all land is vacant space. There’s a lot that can be done with the vacant lots in Baltimore. Formerly space used for residences, Baltimore City now has plenty of empty lots that can be used for other purposes. For geography and environmental systems professor Christopher Swan, these are areas that can be turned into green space.

His research interests include community ecology, biodiversity, urban ecology, and the ecology of rivers and streams. For six years, Swan and his graduate students have been transforming these previously vacant lots into green spaces that can be both environmentally and socially beneficial.

Swan’s project is meant to solve a problem that remains prevalent in many urban areas. He says, “One problem in urban environments is the increasing percentage of vacant land. This is land where buildings once stood, they’ve been vacated … The question is: what do you do with this land? Are there environmental problems with it?” According to Swan, the answer begins in the soil: “The soil is very unsuitable for native plants. It often has pollutants in it, so that when water hits it, it runs off very quickly.”

This has implications due to the species of plants it tends to attract. “We get a lot of non-native species. That matters because the sustainability action plan in many cities is to bring back native species,” he said. “So, instead of having weeds, we’d like to see the species that naturally occur in the region.”

Soil samples in urban areas frequently carry pollutants such as heavy metals, including lead. Often, extracting a layer of soil reveals building materials which are not conducive to healthy soil. This makes it difficult for native plant species to grow in and without them, pollinators will ignore the area. These pollinators are crucial for a healthy ecological balance.

Swan’s work takes place in Harlem Park in West Baltimore, which is known for having issues with poverty and crime. But Swan’s attitude towards his work and the community is undoubtedly positive: “When we go out, folks talk to us … Most folks are interested, we get thank yous … I make a point of saying ‘hello’ to everyone.”

Yet, there is some criticism. “There are some folks that would prefer these areas to be parks, and when I walk in and do what I’m doing, it appears that I have control over the property,” said Swan, “UMBC licenses the property from the city, so I can’t do everything they want.”

There is also an economic benefit to Swan’s work. He said, “If you look at the distribution of vacant lands, it’s in areas of economically disadvantaged people. So the percentage of vacant lands is very high where poor people [live]. These areas are not kept up, often are a haven for crime, trash is usually left there.” Green space can often be sold to developers that can further improve it.

Swan’s work has earned him recognition from the Atlantic, but he remains humble and thanks the graduate students who have worked with him. “I didn’t do this alone,” he said. “I have a previous graduate student Anna Johnson and  I have a current graduate student Dorothy Browy, who are critical in getting this going and maintaining the work. There’s been a bunch of undergraduate interns at UMBC that have helped out.”

It’s thanks to their work that Charm City has a little more green in it.

With spring commencement just around the corner, the topic of post-graduation plans is on many students’ minds. Some students are being accepted to graduate schools while others are on the hunt for a job. But UMBC’s Peace Corps Prep program wants students to consider another opportunity — one that is perfect for any student with an interest in culture, public service and humanitarian aid.

According to the organization’s website, “The Peace Corps is a service opportunity for motivated change-makers to immerse themselves in a community abroad, working side by side with local leaders to tackle the most pressing challenges of our generation.” UMBC’s Peace Corps Prep program recently held a series of events called Peace Corps Week in order to generate interest and create awareness of this opportunity.

One event was a panel focused on the topic of cultural identity and what role a person’s identity plays in their service. The panel, moderated by junior health administration and public policy major Luwam Gebreyesus, included six Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs): Justin Maridable-Tabor, a sustainable agriculture volunteer who served in the Philippines from 2008-2011; Alissa Harvey, an education and public health volunteer who served in the Republic of Georgia from 2010-2012; Anthony Scavone, a community economic development volunteer who served in Mali and Senegal from 2011-2014; Christopher Mullen, a sustainable agriculture volunteer who served in Guatemala from 2006-2008; Malcolm Clyburn, a community health volunteer who served in Mozambique from 2014-2016 and Heather Douglas, a community health volunteer who served in Mozambique from 2004-2007.

The panelists covered topics from the cultural norms of their host countries to the experience of living with a host family to how non-visible identities play into a volunteer’s experience. Maridable-Tabor, for example, spoke of his experience as a gay man in the Peace Corps living within a conservative household. Upon learning about his sexuality, his host family called the Peace Corps office, which then sent a representative to mediate between him and the family. Maridable-Tabor recounted: “That was, for lack of a better word, a shitty situation.”

Douglas also faced issues relating to her cultural identity while serving in Mozambique. During her service, she wore her hair in dreadlocks, which was viewed as a hairstyle worn only by homeless people and stoners. “It’s like my hair became so much more of an identity and a part of Heather than anything else that I brought to my position in Peace Corps,” reminisced Douglas.

Both female volunteers on the panel, Harvey and Douglas, struggled with sexism and gender norms while abroad. Harvey was repeatedly propositioned and proposed to. She also noted that the standards of women’s behavior, dress and habits were extremely conservative in Georgia where women were expected to remain virgins until marriage and to wear cross necklaces as signifiers of their purity.

Douglas, too, received many solicitations from men in her village, but the topic was even more complicated for her as a queer woman. However, Douglas was able to transform the difficulties she faced as a queer volunteer into learning opportunities for her fellow volunteers, eventually conceiving a program called the “Peer Support Network.” According to Clyburn, who served nearly ten years after Douglas, this program has since become an integral part of the Peace Corps’s program in Mozambique.

As for what advice the RPCVs have for interested students and future volunteers? “Be open-minded,” says Maridable-Tabor, who is also a recruitment officer for the Peace Corps. “When you apply to the Peace Corps, one of the things that people start to do is build up expectations: I want to change all these people, I want to do something meaningful.” But in reality, Maridable-Tabor says, volunteers have to learn to value their small victories and be proud of the differences they can make in even a single person’s life. “It’s very daunting to look at two years of my life [and ask,] are we doing anything? But it paid off in the end.”

Students interested in the Peace Corps are advised to contact Jaleel Johnson, UMBC’s Peace Corps recruiter, or visit peacecorpsprep.umbc.edu for more information.

On March 14, donors and students gathered for UMBC’s the annual Endowed Scholarship Luncheon. Endowed scholarships provide support in perpetuity, so a gift made today benefits generations of students.

For students who receive their scholarship for multiple years, the luncheon was an opportunity for donors and scholars to reconnect with each other. Others met their benefactors for the first time and learned what motivated them to invest in UMBC.

Sheldon Caplis, former vice president of Institutional Advancement at UMBC, spoke of his introduction to philanthropy as a child. Although his parents were from humble backgrounds, they gave what they could afford, frequently ignoring the racial divide of the times. Today, Sheldon and Jamie Caplis honor the memory of their parents through the Joseph Caplis and Joseph Waldman Scholarship, which supports students in the Meyerhoff Scholars Program.

Tristan Mountcastle, a senior majoring in political science with a minor in Spanish, talked about discovering his passion for teaching through his volunteer work at area schools. While we take literacy for granted, there are many youth in our region who cannot read. Tristan wants to open the world of literacy to these students. Tristan is a Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar and a recipient of the Pittman Family Scholarship. Because of this support, he is able to graduate debt-free. Tristan met Ken ’79 and Patricia ’78 Pittman at the luncheon and personally thanked them for investing in his education.

Learn more about ways of supporting UMBC and future generations of Retrievers.

– Carmel Krause

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC Magazine.