The Baltimore Sun is celebrating UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski as a 2020 Business and Civic Hall of Fame honoree. A special feature in The Sun highlights important moments in Hrabowski’s life and career, and his impact as one of the nation’s top higher education leaders. 

“For over 30 years, University of Maryland, Baltimore County President Freeman A. Hrabowski III has walked Academic Row, the main stretch of campus lined by academic buildings, stopping students he knows by name outside of buildings to chat about their studies and lives,” the paper notes, sharing a scene familiar to many in the UMBC community. Hrabowski explained that “getting to know more than just students’ names is part of the human experience, something he learned from his parents who were educators themselves.”

The publication describes Hrabowski’s involvement in the 1963 Children’s Crusade, his early work in higher education, and his lifelong focus on educational equity. “His civic-minded outlook led him to focus on equity to ensure that UMBC would provide an equal-opportunity education to everyone,” The Sun notes. 

Transformational leaders

This year, the Hall of Fame recognizes 13 leaders “for their transformational efforts to improve our community.” In addition to Hrabowski, several have important connections to UMBC. Marin Alsop, who served as music director for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for 14 years, received an honorary doctor of fine arts degree from UMBC in 2019. Mary Ann Scully has volunteered with the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship and the UMBC Board of Visitors.

Mary-Ann and Walter D. “Wally” Pinkard Jr. are longtime partners of UMBC, primarily through the France-Merrick Foundation, which has supported UMBC France-Merrick Scholars and the UMBC Sondheim Scholars Program. The France-Merrick Foundation also enabled the University to create a green roof on the UMBC Administration Building in support of environmental and sustainability initiatives. 

Hope for the future

The Sun’s Hall of Fame feature highlights comments from numerous state leaders. In Hrabowski’s profile, University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay Perman and Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegate Adrienne Jones ’76, psychology, comment on his confidence and pride in UMBC students and alumni.

“And even now,” at a moment of uncertainty and new challenges, “President Hrabowski proudly talks of hope for the future,” the paper shares. “As an educator, he believes that part of UMBC’s mission is to prepare students to become leaders while also understanding the importance of history, what it means to have a healthy democracy, how to be civically engaged.” 

Most important, Hrabowski told The Sun, is “understanding that our future does not depend on one person, but on all of us.”

The Sun designated The Choice Program at UMBC as its charitable partner this year, and will donate a portion of the Hall of Fame publication proceeds to support the program’s work. The Choice Program provides case management, resources, and empowering opportunities for Maryland youth.

Featured image: President Hrabowski addresses UMBC graduating class of 2018. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

For the 11th year in a row, UMBC has been recognized as a 2020 Great College to Work For. UMBC is the only university in Maryland represented on this year’s list.  According to survey results conducted by ModernThink, UMBC achieved recognition in the following categories:

• Collaborative Governance
• Respect and Appreciation
• Work/Life Balance
• Confidence in Senior Leadership
• Teaching Environment 
• Diversity
• Tenure Clarity and Process

“This recognition is particularly meaningful as faculty and staff completed the survey in January-April 2020, a time of very rapid change and uncertainty, when remote work and learning began,” says Valerie Thomas, chief human resources officer and associate vice president for human resources.

“UMBC really is a community and that is perhaps most evident in the administration’s belief in shared governance,” says Bobby Lubaszewski, president of UMBC’s Professional Staff Senate. Lubaszewski ‘10, English and history, is assistant director of marketing for the Division of Professional Studies. He shares, “We are constantly looked at as a model of strong shared governance by our peer institutions  because the administration actually listens to what we have to say.”

UMBC Together

UMBC is working to maintain connections within the University community at a time when most faculty and staff are working remotely. The UMBC Together group was convened to develop resources, provide spaces to connect, and share opportunities to bridge the gap in the current virtual environment. 

“To me, UMBC Together signifies a community, being a part of a family that challenges you, comforts you when you need it, asks hard questions, laughs with you, and helps put you in a position to be your very best,” says Greg Simmons, M.P.P. ’04, public policy, vice president for Institutional Advancement.

Shared values

The University’s commitment to diversity resonates especially strongly with faculty and staff. One employee shared with the survey group, “UMBC’s diverse, welcoming environment truly allows students, staff, and faculty to learn and develop beyond what the standard university experience has to offer.”

In an ever-changing environment, many employees share that they feel heartened by the University’s response to challenging issues. “In these difficult times UMBC has continued to go above and beyond to support its faculty and staff by putting our safety first in response to COVID-19, and by repeatedly demonstrating its unwavering commitment to eradicating structural racism and other forms of inequality,” says Orianne Smith, associate professor of English and Faculty Senate president. 

In addition to this Great Colleges accolade, UMBC has also been named to Money’s 2020 Best Colleges in America list, the 2021 U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges rankings, and Princeton Review’s The Best 386 Colleges 2021 edition.

Banner image: UMBC Academic Row. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

9/18/20

Two years ago, our campus community came together and demanded to be heard.  Faculty, staff, and students sat down with President Hrabowski and campus leadership to voice urgent concerns over how UMBC prevents and responds to reports of sexual misconduct.  That group of activists became known as the “Sunday Group.” Through protests, conversations, and listening sessions, the Retriever Courage initiative was created to address our community’s experiences and to make UMBC a safer, more caring, living, learning, and working environment for all.

Change requires the courage to speak out, listen, learn, and take action.  Our community showed tremendous courage two years ago when we began the mission of Retriever Courage and it has continued to show courage as campus-wide changes were made. Thanks to our community’s continued commitment to this work, we have been able to complete many of the recommendations made for our campus, including making an online Title IX reporting form that permits anonymous reporting, a new campus card with resources listed on the back, creating and staffing the Office of Equity and Inclusion, and establishing the Inclusion Council. 

We have been able to accomplish a great deal in the last two years, but there is more to do and we are committed to doing it in collaboration with the ongoing anti-racism work happening in our country, and on our campus, right now. The Inclusion Council, which was formed to advise the Office of Equity and Inclusion and whose members serve as ambassadors for the office across campus, has launched working groups, one of which is focused on sexual misconduct and harassment to help with this work. There are also other campus partners working with the Office of Equity and Inclusion in an advisory capacity. This work remains important to our campus community.  

While COVID-19 has disrupted our world and changed how our community comes together, it has not changed our commitment to the values of Retriever Courage.  Our community faces new challenges now and we must adapt to address the barriers created by an online world.  We are still listening and we are still working. 

Nadia BenAissa ‘20

Member, UMBC Inclusion Council 

Co-Founder, We Believe You