• UMBC Office of Residential Life -- Desk Manager - Residential Life -- ID# 9248235
• UMBC Office of Residential Life -- Maintenance Assistant - Residential Life -- ID# 9248233
• UMBC Office of Residential Life -- Resident Assistant - Residential Life -- ID# 9248234
  

Institutions of higher education (IHEs) may seem to be doing just fine in these uncertain times: enrollments continue to increase; students are graduating in record numbers; and funding appears to be relatively stable. Unfortunately there is a flip side to this assessment: tuition is increasing well beyond inflation and income growth; preparedness for the workplace continues to slip making the value of the degree drop; and state and federal funding (direct and indirect) are dropping and will likely drop even more in the future. As I look at the future of higher education I see three things institutions must do better to survive (not just succeed but survive). In thinking about this my list began with RELEVANCE and RESPONSIBILITY so I thought if I added another “R” word I could slip a “3R’s” into the framework. I admit I struggled with the third “R” and after rejecting “resilient, rigorous, realistic, and re-envisioned,” I chose RELATIONSHIPS. Below I argue that these elements are essential to the future of higher education – and three elements most likely for failure.

Higher education will only succeed if it is RELEVANT in its programs and in its research to the needs of society and the needs of students. IHE’s must provide their graduates with the skills and knowledge to solve the vexing problems we face as a society. These problems include addressing climate change, not only through mitigation but also through adaptation. These programs will include those that specifically address technological solutions (i.e. green jobs) as well as those that ensure that all students have a citizen’s knowledge and skills to create a sustainable society. IHEs must ensure that their graduates can solve problems through systems thinking, understanding consequences, and multi-generational considerations. Programs must also meet the needs of the individual for a personally fulfilling life that include entrepreneurial opportunities for economic success and personal needs for intellectual fulfillment that fit into a sustainable society. In addition, IHEs should direct the research they support towards the production of knowledge that solves those vexing problems and helps us understand how to live sustainably.

A relevant IHE is in part a RESPONSIBLE IHE but responsibility requires more. IHEs need to be responsible in their practices, their purchases, and their investments. IHEs play a special role in modeling professional behavior to the professionals-in-training (students) that they prepare. From the facilities they provide to the chemicals they use, IHEs provide examples of how to behave (or not behave) to create a sustainable future. Likewise, the purchasing choices of IHEs model decision-making as well as create (or fail to create) opportunities for sustainable supply chains. The choices made by IHEs in how they invest their billions of dollars of endowments can support (or fail to support) technologies and services that will create the sustainable future. As important the practices, purchases, and investments are in demonstrating responsibility, the key responsibility of institutions is to wisely use the funds they collect to educate their students. If IHEs are to meet their social (and fiscal) responsibilities, they must develop strategies that provide affordable, relevant, rigorous education to their students.

Finally, (although I would invite you to add additional “R’s”) it is important that IHEs recognize, cultivate and support RELATIONSHIPS with the outside world. Public relations and alumni relations are typically the relationships most valued by IHEs, but many IHEs have found that community relationships (be it the local community or the international community) are the most difficult (and often the most important) to establish and maintain. The hardest part about community relationships is that (unlike public relations) they require as much listening as they do speaking and IHEs are not typically the best listeners. Nonetheless, without community relationships, IHEs will lose the support and the context they need to succeed over the long run.

In most of the world, higher education is held in high regard and supported in a variety of ways. As both a public good (society benefits) and a private good (individuals benefit), higher education is scrutinized from both perspectives. Failure to provide social and individual benefits (i.e. to be relevant) will lead to institutional failure. Failure to meet social and individual responsibilities will also lead to institutional failure. Failure to develop the necessary relationships that ensure relevance will lead to failure. Attention to sustainability throughout an institution can resolve the failures of relevance, responsibility and relationships. Time is of the essence.

Environmental Health Research Experience Program (EH REP) at the University of Washington Seattle

The Environmental Health Research Experience Program (EHREP) is a funded nine week, summer experience for undergraduates with interest in an interdisciplinary field that uses the tools of science to solve human health problems related to the environment. EHREP provides students with hands on experience in laboratories of leading researchers, introduces them to key environmental and occupational health issues while offering research exposure that will help them become competitive for graduate school.  Students will work full-time under the supervision of a faculty mentor and will receive a stipend of $5,200. 

 The program is meant for students underrepresented in the sciences.  The deadline for student applications is February 15, 2012. 

Miss Representation

GSA Movie Screening

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

7:00pm

Lecture Hall 1

UMBC ID = FREE (limit 2/ID)

Ticket #: 37 of 185

The Laramie Project

Wednesday, November 30, 2011 - Sunday, December 11, 2011

UMBC Theatre

UMBC ID = $5.00

General Admission = $10.00

• Wednesday, 11/30 @ 8pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Thursday, 12/1 @ 4pm - Ticket #: 6 of10 -- This is a FREE showing!
• Friday, 12/2 @ 8pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Saturday, 12/3 @ 8pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Sunday, 12/4 @ 4pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Thursday, 12/8 @ 8pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Friday, 12/9 @ 8pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Saturday, 12/10 @ 8pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10
• Sunday, 12/11 @ 2pm - Ticket #: 1 of 10

The Scene

UMBC Rock Climbing Club

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

7:30pm

Lecture Hall 1

UMBC ID = FREE

General Admission = $10.00

Ticket #: 1 of 183

[Title of Show]

Musical Theatre Club

8:00pm

Fine Arts Room 306

UMBC ID = FREE

General Admission = $5.00

• Thursday, 12/1 - Ticket #: 9 of 140
• Friday, 12/2 - Ticket #: 15 of 140
• Saturday, 12/3 - Ticket #: 18 of 140

X-Mas Bashment

Caribbean Student Council

Friday, December 2, 2011

8:00pm

University Center, Ballroom

UMBC ID = FREE (limit 1/ID)

General Admission = $5.00

Ticket #: 2 of 425

Yalda Night

Persian Student Association

Saturday, December 3, 2011

7:00pm

University Center, Ballroom

UMBC ID = FREE (limit 1/ID)

General Admission = $15.00

Ticket #: 25 of 326

Winter Concert

Saturday, December 3, 2011

8:00pm

Fine Arts Recital Hall

UMBC ID = FREE

General Admission = $10.00

Ticket #: 2 of 425

MS Thesis Defense

Analyzing the Growth of Hoeffding Trees

Mayank Sawhney
12:00-1:30pm Thursday 1 December 2011, ITE 346

Mining high speed data streams has become a necessity because of the enormous growth in the volume of electronic data. In the past decade, researchers have suggested various models for learning in both stationary and concept drifting data streams. Hoeffding Trees (Domingos & Hulten 2000) are one such model for mining stationary data streams. Several modifications of the nave Hoeffding Tree algorithm have been proposed to study data streams.

Our work analyzes the behavior of Hoeffding Trees when they are trained on infinite and experiments, we show that the Hoeffding bound suffers from an inherent shortcoming. Even after reaching a stage where accuracy asymptotes, Hoeffding Trees continue to grow. We examine this behavior in data streams with both nominal and numeric attributes. We also study enhancements made to the naive Hoeffding Tree algorithm and also evaluate different discretization methods.

In our work, we analyze how the Hoeffding bound relates to the information gain when splits are made and also when we send a random distribution as a data stream. We conclude that this behavior is a result of decisions made for the early growth of Hoeffding Trees and the induced randomness in an online setting. We also argue that the presence of this behavior will impact the use of Hoeffding algorithms in real world online applications.

Committee Members

• Dr. Tim Oates (Chair)
• Dr. Tim Finin
• Dr. Kostas Kalpakis

Bringing UMBC to Montgomery County for a Decade

When the Universities at Shady Grove opened, it was an innovative concept in higher education: a place where part-time students could attend classes from a variety of public institutions. And UMBC was one of the first universities to embrace the concept, joining the center from its start.

This fall, UMBC celebrates its 10th anniversary as part of the endeavor. In those years, USG has grown into a state-of-the-art center with more than 60 degree programs in partnership with nine USM schools, serving more than 3,650 undergraduate and graduate students. UMBC now offers a wide range of degrees at the center — bachelors degrees in management of aging services, history, political science, psychology and social work, and graduate degrees in industrial/organizational psychology and geographic information systems.

�UMBC is committed to providing degree programs tailored to the specific education and economic development needs of the Montgomery County region,� said USG Executive Director Stewart Edelstein. �It is a strong partner. Its presence on the USG campus has been strategic, focused and engaged.�

Students are able to tap into the quality of a UMBC education while staying close to home. Small class sizes, one-on-one contact with faculty and a variety of professional development services help UMBC students at USG maintain their professional focus while furthering their education.

�Many of my students have responsibilities to their families and communities and are unable to pursue a traditional college route by leaving home,� said Katie Morris, program director of UMBC�s baccalaureate social work program at USG. �UMBC at Shady Grove allows them to pursue an excellent education and remain connected to their home community.�

Looking forward, UMBC plans to expand its role at USG, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math education. �UMBC will continue to grow its presence on USG�s campus,� UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski said at a celebration commemorating the 10th anniversary. �It�s important to the county, and it�s important to the state.�

Edelstein welcomes such an expansion. �I look forward to the day when UMBC brings its mechanical engineering program to USG,� he said, �building on their nationally recognized success in graduating highly skilled scientists and engineers, specifically among minority student populations.�

For more information on UMBC at USG, visit http://www.umbc.edu/shadygrove/. You can read more about the 10th anniversary celebration here.

(11/28/11)

Maryland State Delegate Kirill Reznik (District 39 in Montgomery County) is seeking interns to work in his Annapolis office during the Maryland General Assembly's 2012 Legislative Session. Delegate Reznik serves on the Health and Government Operations Committee. While his committee primarily focuses on health care related topics, his office will focus on passing legislation on a variety of issues. This is an excellent opportunity to learn how the Maryland government operates and gain valuable experience working in a legislative body. Along with administrative work, interns will gain hands-on experience while researching legislation that will come before the Health and Government Operations Committee, working on constituent issues, and helping staff to pass legislation sponsored by the Delegate. Interns will also be encouraged to follow legislation of their personal interest as those bills work through the legislative process. Interns should be college students willing to commit at least two full days a week from the middle of January to the middle of April. All applicants are welcome, regardless of Maryland residency.