UMBC has again made the Kiplinger’s Personal Finance list of the 100 best values in public higher education. The list ranks four-year colleges and universities that “deliver academic quality and affordability.” This marks the fourth year in a row UMBC has appeared among Kiplinger’s best values. On the 2013 list, UMBC ranks 78 for in-state students and 61 for out-of-state ones, both up from last year. Four other Maryland universities made the list, highlighting the state’s commitment to both affordability and excellence in public higher education.

Kiplinger’s assesses quality and affordability based on a number of factors, including retention and graduation rates; student-to-faculty ratios; tuition and fees; and financial aid. The full methodology is available here. The complete rankings are online here.

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school and associate professor of psychology, has published a new volume of poetry, “The Inventor as Observer.” In his review, Richard M. Berlin writes:

“In his 39th book, Robert Deluty continues his long record as the contemporary poet whose work is guaranteed to make me laugh out loud one minute and bring tears to my eyes the next.  His craft has evolved to what seems like an effortless level of mastery in poems filled with sly observations, surprise, word play, and his trademark warmth and wit.  Who else could write a book that includes the mind-set of a mastiff, exhausted poets, car mechanics, children, professors, and an illiterate man living on Brooklyn’s Avenue X. Like its predecessors, this collection of poems sparkles on every page.”

“The Inventor as Observer,” as well as all of Deluty’s other books, may be purchased at the UMBC Bookstore.

The department of American studies has received a civic engagement grant from the Maryland Humanities Council for the project, “Looking Forward from the 45th Anniversary of the Catonsville Nine Actions.”Civic Engagement Grants support public programs that promote informed dialogue and civic engagement about critical issues identified by the grant applicant.

The Catonsville Nine were nine activists who burned draft files to protest the Vietnam War. On May 17, 1968 they went to the draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, took 378 draft files, brought them to the parking lot, poured home-made napalm over them, and set them on fire.

The project consists of classroom visits, a public tour of sites in the story of the Catonsville Nine, film screenings, a public dialogue, and the creation of mobile mapping software highlighting key sites. The department hopes to engage students, community-based activists, the general public and the community of Catonsville about not only the historical significance of the actions of the Catonsville Nine, but also how we think about social protest, civic duty, and citizenship for our time.

“The University of Maryland, Baltimore County chess team tied four other college teams for first place at the Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship on Sunday — maintaining its record as one of two colleges with the most top finishes in the history of the international event,” wrote Kevin Rector in the Baltimore Sun.

The UMBC chess team tied for first place December 30, 2012 in the Pan-Am Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship, advancing to the 2013 President’s Cup, known as the “Final Four” of chess.

The team headed into the 2012 Pan-Am Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship with a record nine titles to its name. The competition known informally as the Pan-Am, was held December 27 to 30 in Princeton, New Jersey. Since the tournament began in 1946, dozens of universities throughout the Americas have participated. The Retrievers won their first Pan-Am title in 1996, and then embarked on a five-year title streak from 1998 to 2002.

This year, the Retrievers tied for first place with 3 other Universities: University of Texas, Dallas; Webster University, which had 2 teams; and the University of Illinois.
“It was an exciting finish. This was the strongest Pan Am in the history of the event. Twenty – three grandmasters as well as 5 teams rated over 2500 competed,” says Alan Sherman, Director of the UMBC Chess Program.

The UMBC team, all on chess scholarships, is composed of students not only with exceptional chess skills but also with strong academic records, Sherman says. UMBC requires students to maintain a 3.0 GPA to maintain chess scholarships.
The Retrievers last won the Pan-Am title in 2009, and took second last year. This year’s team will compete in the 2012 President’s Cup, the “Final Four of College Chess,” to be held in April 6-7, 2013 in Herndon, Va.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, MD (20 minutes south of UMBC), offers a wide array of valuable, paid internships for Undergraduates in the summer.  Please see the attached flyers. 

IMPORTANT NOTE: while the end date for applications is in March, Goddard is doing a FIRST CUT by Jan 30, so the good jobs will all be taken then.  PLEASE APPLY BY JAN 30!!

FLYERS:

Internships at Goddard

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