William R. Soltesz ’72, financial economics and mathematics, one of UMBC’s early Student Government Association presidents, passed away on September 13 at his home in New Jersey. He was 62 years old.

Soltesz, who grew up in Catonsville, served as president of the SGA from 1970 to 1971, and “was pivotal in working with faculty and students to keep the university open during a time when many other fledgling universities closed due to student riots and political pressures related to the Vietnam War,” his obituary reports.

Read an essay about these times at UMBC by Soltesz’s classmate, former Retriever Weekly editor Manus O’Donnell ’72, English, here.

Soltesz later received his M.B.A. from Loyola University in Baltimore, and served as vice president or chief financial officer for several Fortune 500 companies, including Alexander and Alexander and Sara Lee’s Shasta Beverages Division in Baltimore. At the time of his passing, Bill had served as the C.F.O. of Budd Van Lines in Somerset, NJ for over 20 years. He served on the Chester Borough (N.J.) Zoning Board and enjoyed swimming, the study of foreign culture and history through extensive world travel, and studying the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

Tracy Soltesz ’01 and father Bill Soltesz ’72

Soltesz’s daughter, Tracy Soltesz ’01, political science, recalls that her father was especially touched by the teaching of Dr. John M.Titchener, emeritus professor of philosophy, who worked with Soltesz closely on various SGA initiatives throughout his tenure. Soltesz is also survived by a son, two brothers, and two grandchildren.

Interment will be this Friday, November 9, at 2:30 p.m. at the Lake View Memorial Park, 2724 Liberty Road, Sykesville, MD, 21784. A memorial reception will be held afterwards from 4 to 6 p.m. at The Rumor Mill Fusion Bar & Restaurant at 8069 Tiber Alley, Ellicott City, MD, 21043. Alumni and friends are welcome to attend and share stories. For questions, please email kesrya@gmail.com.

Courtesy of the New York Times

President Barack Obama has won four more years in office defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Becoming the  2nd Democratic President to win his bid for re-election since Bill Clinton in 1996, and the only since FDR who has won re-election with unemployment over 7.2%. As he gets ready for his second term he states that “that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.”

Washington Post Electoral Map

Narrowly winning the popular vote, President Obama carried key battleground states Colorado, Ohio,Virginia, and now Florida, with a diverse voting coalition behind him made up of women, minority and young voters.

CNN Exit Poll

During his acceptance speech last night he stated “You’ve made me a better president, and with your stories and your struggles, I return to the White House more determined and more inspired than ever about the work there is to do”.

 Highlights of President Obama’s Re-election Acceptance Speech

Electoral campaigns for the White House and both houses of Congress cost more than $6 billion dollars. Historic gains were seen in the Senate, New Hampshire elected the nation’s first all-female delegation.Democrats will retain their control of the Senate after winning several closely contested races, while the Republicans will sustain control over the U.S. House of Representatives.

In 2008, his election was a vote for hope, in 2012, working side by side with our nations elected leaders from both parties, hopefully his reelection carries a guarantee of change moving forward.

Will these two parties work together to improve this nation in the next four years? 

• College is not merely preparation for life. It is life.

• People always respond to the entire context of a communication, not just to the words it contains.

• Criticism reveals and reflects upon the critic.

• In-the-moment negative emotions such as guilt or fear can be extremely useful in illuminating a situation. They can provide clues about the motives, understandings, insecurities and emotional states of other people, especially those whose behavior is sparking the negative emotions. They can deepen self-understanding. The trick is to learn to read these emotions without either suppressing or being overwhelmed by them.

• Sometimes the hardest thing in the world to see is what is right in front of you.

• People sometimes view choices you make for yourself, but which they would not (or did not) make for themselves, as judgments against them. This is all the more true if the path you choose is one which, at some level, they regret not having chosen. It is easy to be confused by their resulting hostile reactions, but it would be a mistake to be deterred by them.

• Every new insight subtly alters your knowledge and perspective about everything you thought you already knew. Each new experience subtly alters your perspective on every aspect of your past.

• You aren’t really from somewhere until you go somewhere else.

• Changing the world for the better does not mean seeking a stable point beyond which the world stops changing. People need to be involved in ongoing, challenging, cooperative work to advance the common good. An essential aspect of being human is confronting and contributing to the mitigation of life’s imperfections.

• Love involves giving and receiving permission to be who you truly are.

• A mouse trapped in a maze never sees the maze, only a series of straight paths and corners.

• Knowledge derived from breaking things or processes down into their smallest component parts is incomplete. It excludes the broadest patterns, most subtle and profound connections and deepest meanings.

• All people yearn, at some level, to become whole, connect authentically with the universe, be who they really are and fulfill their potential.

• What feels like inability and weakness may actually be undiscovered or unrevealed talent and strength.

• Winning an argument is not the same thing as achieving progress toward the objective at the heart of the argument. Sometimes winning an argument can hinder such progress.

• Staying too close to an admired person for too long can stunt one’s growth. When the admired person is nearby, adopting the person’s admirable behaviors and thought processes may feel presumptuous or unnecessary.

• All conscious perceptions involve value judgments and assumptions, as do all descriptions of things or situations in the world. No word can precisely express any objective meaning.

• A part of the judgment involved in human perceptions is the filtering and prioritization of inputs. In order to focus on the highest-priority information, people take vast portions of their experiences and environments for granted. They adapt to their environments unconsciously, absorbing and relying on a common set of values and assumptions, some of which they might reject if they ever became fully aware of them.

• Instincts, intuitions, emotions and dreams are extremely important sources of knowledge. The knowledge they reveal is intrinsic: located within the unconscious mind and relatively untainted by conditioning. Much intrinsic knowledge relates to people’s own true identities and deepest yearnings. The suppression of intrinsic knowledge causes depression and anxiety, and stunts personal growth.

• Symbols need not take the form of words, numbers and pictures. All things, people, actions and failures to act are symbols. Symbols can reveal fundamental truths because the unconscious mind invokes intrinsic knowledge to decode them.

• The contributions of the greatest scientists, poets, authors, artists, builders and leaders change not just our experience but our capacity to imagine. As a result of great works, there are more available thoughts.

• Great teachers empower students to think new thoughts, and expand the scope of their free will.

• Excellent teaching is not primarily about transmitting academic content from the mind of the teacher to the mind of the student, but about liberating knowledge and capacities already present in the student.

• True teaching transforms the teacher. True leadership transforms the leader. True love transforms the lover. True life is transformation.

UC Berkeley Amgen Scholars Program An Undergraduate Summer Research Program
in Science and Biotechnology

The Amgen Scholars Program is a national program to increase research opportunities for students committed to pursuing careers in the sciences. This program provides outstanding science undergraduates with research experience and increases participants’ competitiveness as candidates for admission to prestigious graduate and professional institutions. Additionally, this program encourages participants to pursue a Ph.D. or the joint M.D./Ph.D. degree and research careers in the sciences and biotechnology. Applicants from diverse populations and backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

2013 Program Dates: May 27 - August 2, 2013