SGA candidate applications for 2018-2019 are due on Monday, March 26th at 12:00 noon ET. The candidate application can be found here. 20 positions will be elected next month (April 23-25; voting will take place on MyUMBC): President, Executive Vice President, Vice President for Student Organizations, Treasurer, 11 Senators, and 5 Finance Board Representatives.

The SGA Senate

Membership: The Senate’s members include 11 Senators elected by the student body. In addition, the Senate can add up to three nonvoting First Year Ambassadors each fall. Also, the President, Executive Vice President, Vice President for Student Organizations, Treasurer and SGA Advisor, as well as UMBC’s President and Vice President for Student Affairs, are ex-officio (nonvoting) members of the Senate.

The voting members elect a Speaker, who runs the weekly meetings and organizes the Senate’s work, and an Assistant Speaker, who helps the Speaker and organizes members’ participation on UMBC committees.

UMBC graduate programs are among the best nationwide, according to the 2019 U.S. News Best Graduate Schools rankings, released today. The rankings recognize a dozen UMBC graduate programs including nine top-100 programs from a broad range of fields, with all three UMBC colleges represented. They are based on a survey of more than 20,500 academics and professionals, plus data on over 2,000 programs, indicating the quality of each school’s faculty, research, and students.

Graduate programs in UMBC’s College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS) appear on five separate lists across a broad range of scientific fields: biology, chemistry, math, physics, and statistics.

“Our graduate programs use cutting-edge research led by outstanding faculty to train the next generation of leaders in science and education,” said CNMS Dean Bill LaCourse. “These rankings are a reflection of our commitment to student success through rigor, passion, and inclusive excellence.”

UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) appears on six lists, representing computer science plus five different engineering fields: chemical, computer, electrical, mechanical, and environmental.

“The successes of the academic programs and people from our college are directly connected to the strengths we bring together in computing, information systems and engineering,” says COEIT Dean Keith J. Bowman. “Our education and research programs benefit from being part of a university that fosters leadership, innovation and collaboration across a campus that values excellence that is also inclusive.”

Dean Bowman came to UMBC in August 2017 with strong commitments to advancing research that benefits society and elevating student success, as two core aspects of maintaining high-caliber graduate programs.

UMBC’s School of Public Policy was also again included among the best in the country in this year’s U.S. News graduate rankings. “The UMBC School of Public Policy has a distinguished track record of preparing students for careers in every sector of public life,” says Scott Casper, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS). “Its faculty are not just outstanding teachers, but also nationally recognized researchers in fields ranging from health and education policy to public management, law, and regulatory economics.”

The UMBC School of Public Policy welcomed Susan Sterett as its new director this past fall. She shares, “We are so excited to be building on our excellent history as we participate in important interdisciplinary initiatives, particularly in the area of health policy. Our faculty and graduate students are partnering with communities to improve our schools, serve the city of Baltimore, and spread understanding concerning cities and the economics of public policy.”

U.S. News also recognized UMBC’s psychology and fine arts graduate programs, both in CAHSS, as leaders in their fields in rankings released last year.

Today’s announcement is just the latest in a long line of U.S. News accolades for UMBC. The 2017-18. U.S. News & World Report college guide ranked UMBC the #7 Most Innovative university in the nation, #13 top national university for Strong Commitment to Undergraduate Teaching, and one of the nation’s top universities overall on its latest Best National Universities list.

Also earlier this year, Times Higher Education recognized UMBC as one of the world’s top universities for the sixth consecutive time. The Center for World Universities honored UMBC as one of the best universities worldwide, in the top two percent of higher education institutions. Highlighting the university’s combination of outstanding academics and affordability, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance named UMBC a Best Value College for the eighth year in a row.

Banner image: Ph.D. recipient at UMBC graduate commencement, winter 2017. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC men’s basketball Director of Basketball Operations, Griff Aldrich is heading to Longwood University to become their head coach according to various reports. Aldrich just completed his second season with the Retrievers, serving one season as an assistant coach, and this past season as the Director of Recruiting, and Basketball Operations.

With all of the insanity surrounding the NCAA tournament, and the historic win by the Retrievers against the #1 overall seed Virginia Cavaliers, murmurs about Aldrich’s departure had gone under the radar, but reports from Longwood have been mentioning Aldrich’s name for weeks.

Due to the hype surrounding UMBC, this will probably not be the only part of the staff to be affected. With the many head coaching vacancies in college basketball, assistant coaches Eric Skeeters, Bryce Crawford, and Nate Dixon are all likely to get extensive looks from other schools that are trying to duplicate UMBC’s recent success. Under head coach, Ryan Odom this group of coaches has collectively turned around UMBC’s basketball program, winning only 4 and 7 games respectively in the two seasons before their arrival.

Of course, the biggest name being discussed is Ryan Odom himself. At a national level, Odom’s name has been linked to job openings, such as that at the University of Pittsburgh. However, Athletic Director Tim Hall has reportedly reached out to coach Odom, and offered him a new deal. Odom was previously under contract for 7 years, but with 5 years remaining on his deal, he has achieved enough to earn a pay raise, and with power-5 conference schools being linked to Odom, Hall had to get ahead of the game.

Many power-5 teams spend more on their basketball teams alone, than UMBC does on it’s entire athletic department. UMBC has no shot to outbid any of those teams in regards to retaining Odom’s services, so their best bet is to keep him as happy as possible by including incentives on his deal, and hope that none of those schools decide to offer Odom a contract. Though he is still under contract, it is customary in the sports world for teams to allow coaches to pursue better opportunities, so that they may attract other coaches with high aspirations in the future.

For now, there is only speculation on the remaining coaches futures. Griff Aldrich left his mark on this program, helping to recruit freshman-forward Brandon Horvath, freshman-center Daniel Akin, and freshman-guard Josh Rosario. Aldrich also helped to get 3-point marksman, and red-shirt junior-guard Ricky Council II from Providence. Upcoming recruits from Aldrich include freshman-guards Jack Schweitz, RJ Eytle-Rock, and Jose Placer. He also recruited junior-guard Kaelin Jackson from Temple College, who averaged 25.8 points per game last season.

Introductory Institute: June 17-July 14, 2018

• Participate in special-topic workshops that highlight the many specialties and research areas in the information sciences
• Take part in professional development seminars led by industry and research experts that focus on graduate school applications, mentoring, résumé building, and networking
• Complete two-week modules on research design and programming (beginner and advanced sessions) taught by PhD teaching fellows from top-tier iSchools
• Form research teams and work with advisors to design a yearlong research project

• Each team is supported by a research advisor
• Students gain experience with project management tools and collaborative technology
• Interdisciplinary project topics blend social and technical aspects

• Develop a research poster and copresent your team’s project
• Learn about submitting your project to the iConference and other leading research conferences
• Network with the new cohort of i3 Scholars and join the i3 Alumni Association

• Receive full funding for program expenses, including transportation to and from Pittsburgh, campus housing, and meals
• Earn a stipend while you complete the program: $1,200 for the Introductory Institute | $600 for the Concluding Institute
• Prepare for the GRE with free training sessions

The information sciences focus on helping people to discover better information, design and use better technology, and make better decisions to solve problems. Whether those problems are in business, medicine, education, the arts, or any number of other fields, information professionals are able to grapple with the challenges and opportunities of the digital age.

i3 welcomes students from all majors and academic disciplines. The information sciences are incredibly diverse and interdisciplinary. With so many different specializations, students can find a program that meets their interests.

Research Project Publications
i3 Scholars work remotely to complete their yearlong research projects under the guidance of an advisor. Once they complete the program, i3 Scholars are encouraged to submit their projects for publication at academic conferences. Over 30 projects have been published at conferences such as iConference, CSCW, and IEEE SeGAH (a sample of past projects is listed below). i3 Scholars receive travel funding to present their work at conferences.

• Perceptions of the Privacy and Security of Virtual Reality
• #Depression Among Immigrant College Students: Findings from a Systematic Literature Review of 10 Years of Social Media and Depression Research
• Yes, You Can Touch This: Designing Prototypes for Interactive Museum Spaces
• Beyond the Scope: Using Motion Capture Data from Bronchoscopy Simulations to Build Feedback Models
• Towards the Creation of Cognitively Salient Wayfinding Aids for Emergency First Responders
• #ReproHealth: A State-Based Investigation of Reproductive Health Rights Policy and Social Media Activity
• To Give or Not to Give: How Does Emotion Evoked from Crowdfunding Videos Influence Donations
• iGo Green: A Life Cycle Assessment of Apple's iPhone
• Entering the Boys' Club: An Analysis of Female Representation in Video Game Culture
• Social Network Identity: Facebook, Twitter, and Identity Negotiation Theory

Early Wednesday morning after last Tuesday’s “A Day to Remember” Concert a grisly murder took place outside the new Event Center building. Caught on the building’s much lauded security cameras, one Barnabas Billington, a junior studying High-Velocity Poetry, was attacked and killed by a masked assailant over what appears to be a parking dispute. This attack was noted as particularly gruesome and drawn out, seemingly done using only squirrel-based weaponry, allowing the late Mr. Billington to call for help on one of the campuses many blue light phones.

However, as our competitors at the Retriever Weekly have pointed out, that shit don’t work.

As such poor Barnabas was rent limb from limb, expiring shortly before sunrise. The morning after his remains were discovered by multiple students who reported the crime to the UMBC police department. The department eventually sent someone out to tape off the area, and toss a tarp over the particularly bloody bits, but have not seemed to do much since then.

In order to find out more about the process in place, we at MBC News set up an interview with the UMBC PD’s media liaison, Officer Piggly.

We arrived at the UMBC precinct, a grey brutalist cube with almost as dreary a design as the preschool on campus. We were welcomed in the atrium by Officer Piggly and brought deeper inside. He informed us that, in order to more efficiently address our concerns, he would show us the day to day activities of the police on campus so that we would better understand things from his point of view.

That was not quite we signed up for, but we figured it was good enough. Our first stop was what appeared to be a case filing room. A few officers walked back and forth, carrying stacks of paper. Our guide grabbed a few folders and showed us how they were filed.

“We have a ton of cases to process through our department; theft goes here, public indecency goes there, and sexual assault…” He chuckled. “Sexual assault goes in the corner.”

He gestured to a corner in which a dusty rug was covering a large haphazard pile of manila folders. He tossed his last folder onto the pile, and went to move on, but we stopped him to ask how any of that was anything but a total miscarriage of justice.

“Eh, I’ve never heard any complaints. If anyone wanted to protest our processes, they certainly have a ton of public opportunities to do so. Like Take Back the Night! You know, the march and rally we sponsor to make sure the ‘victims’ feel ‘safe’.” He winked, and hurried us along to the next room.

We entered what appeared to be a server room, wherein a couple police officers sat at monitors browsing numerous social media sites.

“This is where we promote and protect students’ right to free speech!” Officer Piggly proudly declared. “These days, people are so sensitive that you can’t even say ‘Oy vey, the goys know!’ without someone calling you a Nazi.”

We posited that that did in fact seem like something a Nazi would say, to which Officer Piggly responded in annoyance.

“I’m sure it was ironic. Do you call everyone you disagree with a Nazi? I think that might make you the real Nazis.” We let that statement hang in the air, so he continued, “Besides, they help us out a bunch by finding rabble-rousers on campus. People who report these perfectly harmless posts might be the types to threaten free speech by organizing public demonstrations! So, we monitor them to stop any organization of protests before they can go anywhere.”

With that we moved to the last and largest room. Here a plethora of machines processed yellow envelopes and ticker tape. In the center of the room a deep pit lay, being attended to by numerous hooded figures who ferried large boxes full of money to the pit.

“Now this,” Officer Piggly began, full of pride, “is our largest operation. The Ticket Room. Now, parking enforcement handles the actual collection, but we provide a secure location for their processing, as well as… Other things.”

We did not press to learn the nature of those other things, instead we inquired about the pit that dominated the room.

“Now that there is our pride and joy. The Pit. We put all the money we make there, and when it fills up we use that money to build a new building on campus to put parking at an even tighter premium. Which makes even more parking violations, which fills up the pit faster. By our figuring we will hit a ticket-singularity by 2030, and then the Dark Lord Cashomet will rise and purge the world of entitled students who refuse to walk 20 minutes uphill everyday to classes they paid for.”

We nodded respectfully (if a bit nervously), and he led us through the rear exit of the building.

“Now, don’t you see why we’re too busy to deal with one little murder?”

Not really.

-Doctor Ector

Prof. Marjoleine Kars recently won year-long fellowships from three prominent research centers for the humanities: The National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, the Newberry Library in Chicago, and the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Prof. Kars has chosen to be an NEH Huntington Fellow in 2018-2019, where she will finish her book, Slaves Remastered: An Untold Story of Rebellion, Revolution, and Restoration in the Atlantic World (under contract with The New Press).