After 35 years of service as a staff member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Executive Administrative Assistant Teresa Lupinek has decided to retire. In a message sent out to the UMBC community on March 1, President Freeman Hrabowski announced that Lupinek would retire on April 1, describing her as someone who “approached each of her roles with incredible professionalism, integrity, and poise.” A farewell reception was held in the Library Gallery on March 6 to celebrate her time of service at the university.

Lupinek’s career at UMBC began in January of 1984, when she took her role as an office secretary in the Biological Sciences building. She would type up letters that then-Chairman Keith Porter dictated, and also typed exams and grants for other faculty members. This work allowed her to learn how to type on a word processor, a machine similar to a typewriter but with the technological editing capabilities of the Word or Google Docs applications. “I didn’t even know where to turn it on until I was trained,” recalls Lupinek. Although she admits her tasks were serious, Lupinek enjoyed the university’s environment, describing it “as a fun place to work.”

She eventually transitioned to work in the Career Center, where she took charge of business duties and training students and staff, as well as leading graphic print production for Career Center events. Then in 2012, she became the Executive Administrative Assistant to President Hrabowski, where she “excelled in supporting the President’s Office with scheduling and the creation of meeting briefings and agendas in a highly demanding, fast-paced environment,” according to a message sent out by Hrabowski. Hrabowski also credits Lupinek for collaborating with campus leaders regarding the recognition of non-exempt staff within the Plan of Organization, “resulting in the creation of the Non-Exempt Excluded Staff Senate shared governance group.”

During her time here at UMBC, something that really stood out to Lupinek was, as she recalls, “the ongoing culture of UMBC under good leadership — first with Chancellor Michael Hooker and then with President Freeman Hrabowski — to inclusively contribute to the success of our students.” While Lupinek notes that UMBC has had its trials, she believes that the university nevertheless has held strong to these beliefs.

As for her retirement plans, Lupinek says, “I look forward to enjoying more time with family and cultivating long neglected interests.” Lupinek also hopes to see new talent stepping up to take over her role as Executive Administrative Assistant. Meanwhile, she will miss the friendships she has established over her time at UMBC, as well as witnessing “students developing their paths to accomplishing good things.” As for the legacy she plans on leaving behind, Lupinek commented on it being one of “respect, encouragement and ongoing love for learning.”

"Academic culture is a curious and conflicted thing.  On the one hand, it holds out the allure and occasionally the reality of being a 'community of scholars.' On the other hand, it is a culture infamous for fragmentation, isolation, and competitive individualism--a culture in which community sometimes feels harder to come by than in any other institution on the face of the earth"

--Parker Palmer in Creating Campus Community, 2002.

No matter how long you’ve taught, there is always something you can learn from your colleagues. But if, as Parker Palmer laments in the quote above, you generally prepare and teach your classes in isolation, you may wish you had more opportunities to have the kinds of conversations that would enrich your teaching practice, help you improve student engagement, and deepen your sense of belonging to a community of scholars. Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) at UMBC fill this niche: An FLC is a cross-disciplinary group of 6-12 faculty who meet regularly throughout an academic year in a casual atmosphere to investigate a teaching-related topic of mutual interest. 

The Faculty Development Center is currently seeking proposals for new FLC topics. Funding is available to support 3-4 new FLCs in 2019-20. Any UMBC faculty or staff member with an interest in investigating a particular need, issue, or opportunity related to teaching and learning may propose a topic for a year-long FLC that they would like to participate in with colleagues. Proposals should describe the importance of the topic in 1-2 paragraphs in order to entice other UMBC faculty/staff to join the FLC. Approved topics will be announced in late April.

The deadline for topic proposals is April 1, 2019. Please forward your proposal to fdc@umbc.edu.

Some current and recent FLCs have devoted their attention to topics such as:

• Writing questions to foster deep learning and engagement 
• Cultivating critical thinking: Integrating information literacy into course content
• Flipping the classroom
• Getting students to READ: Scaffolding students’ Reading, Engagement, Analysis, and Discovery through texts
• Improving student writing: Exploring evidence-based feedback methods
• Teaching sustainability & climate change
• Incorporating student technology into the classroom

For further information about Faculty Learning Communities at UMBC, please consult the FLC page on the Faculty Development Center's website. If you would like to discuss your idea in more detail, please contact us at fdc@umbc.edu.

On Mainstreet Ellicott City, tucked away in a tiny corner next to Taylor’s Collective, is the Artists’ Gallery. The Artists’ Gallery showcases local artists’ work and helps them promote their pieces to the community. 

In the gallery, one can expect to find a variety of media from oils to ceramics, woodcuts to photographs and everything in between. Currently on exhibition until March 24 is Leah Lewman’s “Fire and Flood” collection.

Lewman’s inspiration comes from the severe flooding during 2016 and 2018 of Historic Ellicott City. In her artist statement, Lewman writes, “The earth is constantly changing. With the toll that humans are taking on the planet, nature seems to be defending itself with geological extremes—fire and water.”   

The entire breadth of “Fire and Flood” presents eerie images of towns being destroyed by nature.

In Lewman’s piece “Whole Town Underwater,” an old-town street is being overwhelmed with water and, in the distance, a red car is being carried away by the current. Lewman writes, “Humanity has tried its best to create solid, unchanging cityscapes to safely house the growing population, but at a certain point, nature always seems to take back what is rightfully hers.”

In “Whole Town Underwater,” this human landscape is being washed away by nature. Water covers about two-thirds of the wood panel which represents how merciless nature is towards the landscapes built by humans. People find comfort in believing that their homes are permanent and that their structures are sound, but, in reality, everything humans build is only temporary. Nature dictates the lives of people.

Thus, human shelters are dependent on natural phenomena.  Lewman’s pieces do not exclusively deal with flooding, they also depict the power of fire. Lewman writes, “But change isn’t only here [Ellicott City]—fires in California are erasing ever more of the human landscape than the water is here in our little town.”

Her piece “Burning House” depicts a crumbled house being destroyed by flames, with smoke drifting through the air and calm gray mountains standing in the distance. Lewman uses bright yellows and oranges for the fire and contrasts these warm colors with the cool, dreary gray colors of the house and background.

This contrast emphasizes the power of the fire and the dramatic lighting shows the strength of the flames. While the house is burning in the foreground, the mountains in the background lie unaffected and rest in a silent calmness.

A stream can constantly change its path and move in different directions, prairies can handle constant cycles of wildfires and still regrow—man-made buildings are unable to change their locations or resist natural phenomena.

Lewman’s pieces show the incompatibility between the man-made landscape and the natural landscape. As humans claim more of the natural world and reap its resources, nature retaliates with its own destruction. “Fire and Flood” helps viewers to remember the power of nature and the temporary nature of our own existence.

We have an abundance of binders (multiple sizes and colors) available for the taking!  

Please contact Amy Barnes:
amyb@umbc.edu
5-3979
PUP 252

In a world where intersectionality is a central part of our view of society, people cannot shy away from their own hybrid identities and their attempts to balance them. Celeste Ng plays with this notion in “Little Fires Everywhere,” her second novel which soared to the top of bestseller lists when it was published in 2017. Characters in Ng’s novel struggle with the concept of identity and how it plays a role in their lives.

Set in the 90s, “Little Fires Everywhere” follows two families living in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a planned community with strict scripts guiding everyday life. When Mia Warren and her daughter, Pearl, move into the Richardson’s rental apartment, the two families’ worlds become inexplicably intertwined.

Mia is an artist who is running from a secret past and protecting her daughter from harsh truths. Elena Richardson is a strong-willed matriarch of four children: perfect and popular Lexie, handsome and athletic Trip, sweet and sensitive Moody, and strange and rejected Izzy. Pearl inserts herself into the seemingly perfect and harmonious lives of the Richardsons and finds much more than she bargained for.

At the center of the slow-growing turmoil and secrets between the Warrens and the Richardsons is another complex plot. Just a year before, Mia’s coworker, Bebe Chow, left her baby, May Ling, at a fire station, unable to provide her daughter with the proper care. In present day, Elena attends the first birthday party for little Mirabelle McCullough, a sweet Chinese baby adopted by the McCullough’s, a well-to-do couple friendly with the Richardsons.

When Bebe finds her child and begs for her back, the tight-knit community erupts into conflict. Some residents of Shaker Heights question what it means to be a loving and able parent while others wonder if an affluent white family can properly raise a Chinese child with respect to her culture. Meanwhile, Mrs. Richardson learns startling information which raises questions about Mia and Pearl’s identity, and the Richardson children deal with secrets of their own. At the center of everyone’s struggle is a deep-rooted greed that no resident of Shaker Heights can seem to escape.

Though the cast occasionally seems to be made up of caricatures rather than well-developed characters, Ng succeeds in encouraging readers to look upon their own carefully constructed society and recognize the flaws within it. The residents of Shaker Heights are not afraid to judge those around them, particularly outsiders, yet they are unable to apply that judgement and criticism to their own lives. Ng reminds her readers of the troubles that come from this failure.

Ng’s portrayal of mothers and motherhood in general is also notable. Many of the female characters in the novel have taken on some sort of maternal role with varying levels of struggle and success. Ng forces her reader to consider what it means to take on a maternal identity and the impact this identity can have on one’s life.

In “Little Fires Everywhere,” Ng offers a refreshing perspective of 90s suburban life, infusing it with our own modern cultural crises of identity. The gossip-loving and frenemy-filled community of Shaker Heights acts as a breeding ground for the exciting drama that readers look forward to in a good read. With witty prose and many compelling plots, Ng presents readers with a satisfying, light-hearted novel.

Dean Scott Casper continues UMBC’s strong partnership with Maryland Humanities and the Greater Baltimore Alliance as a new board member

The Sadie Collective is made up of undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students from across the country, including student leaders from UMBC. Along with Opoku-Agyeman, the group includes conference co-organizer and head of logistics Olusayo Adeleye ’20, M28, economics and mathematics. Yasmin Graham ’19, mechanical engineering, served as event photographer. Bethany Woosen ’19, economics and mathematics, participated in the conference, along with other Black women in math, economics, and related fields from across the country.