If you have an idea - or even if you don’t have an idea - you should consider research! The URA Program offers a support system, but ultimately provides you with the independence and freedom to do whatever you want.

Read more about Hannah's research by visiting the link below...

There will be two ceremonies this December in the Retriever Activities Center (RAC).

• Graduate Commencement will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, December 20 in the RAC
• Undergraduate Commencement will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, December 21 in the RAC

As previously announced to the campus, Professor Rebecca Boehling, the Director of the Dresher Center, will become Director of the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany, in January.  A distinguished scholar of the Holocaust, World War II, and early postwar Germany, Dr. Boehling has served as the founding Director of the James T. and Virginia M. Dresher Center for the Humanities, making it a highly visible and important presence on campus in supporting and advancing scholarship in the humanities.  We are all indebted to her for outstanding work with the Dresher Center and her role as a champion of the humanities and the liberal arts.

I am delighted to announce that Jessica Berman, Professor of English (and Affiliate Professor of Gender + Women's Studies, and of Language, Literacy, and Culture), will become Director of the Dresher Center in January, 2014, when she returns from a year's leave.  Dr. Berman is the author of two heralded books on modernism, co-editor of the book series Modernist Latitudes at the Columbia University Press, and a Board Member of the American Comparative Literature Association.  She has also served as Chair of the UMBC Research Council and for the past six years has chaired the Department of English.  We are fortunate indeed to have a scholar of Professor Berman's stature and skills bring her experience and vision to the Dresher Center.

I am delighted as well to announce that Professor Beverly Bickel of the Ph.D. Program in Language, Literacy, and Culture (and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Gender + Women's Studies) will direct the Dresher Center from January 2013 through December 2013.  Dr. Bickel is a talented administrator, who has most recently served as Acting Director of LLC, and an innovative scholar in such areas as new media and globalized communication and culture.  Under her leadership, the Dresher Center will continue to move forward in supporting and enhancing the humanities and humanities scholarship at UMBC.

The Dresher Center has become a major institution on campus thanks to the leadership of Dr. Boehling.  I know that Professors Berman and Bickel will sustain and build upon the achievements and momentum established by Professor Boehling.  They will be supported in this by Professor John Stolle-McAllister of the Department of Modern Languages, Linguistics, and Intercultural Communication, who this semester has taken on the positions of Director of the Humanities Scholars Program and Associate Director of the Dresher Center.

Hunter with fans from Aquinas College.

“Welcome to AASHE rising!” said Hunter Lovins, tipping her hat to a packed house during her opening keynote for AASHE 2012. The Natural Capitalism Solutions president and founder made the business case for sustainability in higher education, urging audience members to start thinking of sustainability as an investment. Why? Here are a few takeaway quotes:

The Human Impact

“Okay I’m scared,” said Lovins of recent climate change projections. “The extreme weather that we’re seeing lately? This is the fingerprint of global warming and of course there is real human impact…hundreds of thousands of people across Africa are at risk of starvation because of climate change. “

“Sustainability isn't about saving polar bears, it's about jobs; it isn't about environmentalists telling you how to live your life, it's about increasing the quality of life in our community; it's about American entrepreneurialism. It's how to enhance our national security and unleash the greatest prosperity this country has every known.”

“We need to reinvent curriculum in every academic institution and teach students what it means to do business honorably in this time in history in which all living systems are at risk.”

To Influence Policy

“You’re gonna pay less more if you have good policy.” Lovins gave the example of Germany, which thanks to solid policies supporting renewable energy produces 28 more times more solar power than California (which enjoys 70 percent more sun).

“Don’t ever think that you have no power…every day every one of us votes with our hours. When all is said and done, our time is all we have. So: organize.”

"Goddamn go vote."

To Remain Relevant

• 68% of college applicants say that a school’s commitment to sustainability is part of their decision making process
• 96% of young workers want to work for a green company

“Remember, there’s a business case here,” said Lovins. “Everything you do to meet the STARS score card is driving your competiveness as an institution because you can now say to applicants: we are walking the talk.”

“With tuition increasing at 2x rate of inflation, higher education [as we know it] may be about to become extinct. Universities are at some risk of becoming irrelevant.”

"You gotta watch this video."

“Is TED the new Harvard?” Lovins asked the audience as she encouraged that higher education embrace technology like mobile learning as companies like TED-Ed are doing.

On this note, Lovins ended her keynote address with a world premiere of her new mobile learning venture, "Tell It Ed: Where the TV documentary meets the lecture." (Look for more information on the Natural Capitalism Solutions website in the coming days.) A partnership between Sustainable Business Consulting, In the Telling, Pearson, BGI and Natural Capitalism Solutions, the online open classroom will offer video narratives with transcripts, web resources, slides, digital documents and animations.

AASHE wants to know: Do you agree with applying the business case to sustainability in higher education? Tell us your perspective in the comments section.