On July 1, Philip Rous will become provost at UMBC after serving for a year as the interim provost. In his 22 years at the university, Rous has filled key leadership positions – including president of UMBC’s faculty senate and dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS). UMBC Magazine spoke with him about his view of the university. Q. UMBC is known for its exceptional undergraduate education experience. How has the university earned that reputation? A. The importance attached to undergraduate education has been here ever since the founding of the university. Those who came to teach… Continue Reading Over Coffee with Provost Rous
UMBC Magazine welcomes your letters to the editor on any issue related to the content of the magazine. Readers can email comments to byrne@umbc.edu. Faxed comments are accepted at 410-455-1889. Readers can also send letters to “Letters to the Editor,” UMBC Magazine, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Administration Building, Baltimore, MD 21250. THE NAKED TRUTH Our article in the Winter 2012 issue (“Blow Up”) drew a number of terrific responses. It is amazing that photographs of dancers taken 42 years ago are an issue to be examined again in 2012. It is likely that these photographs still might offend the Maryland Senate… Continue Reading From You – Summer 2012
HOMEFRONT HELPERS During World War II, millions of Americans kept snapshots and letters from loved ones deployed overseas. In the last decade’s wars, military families have had many more options to stay connected: email, cell phones, Skype, and (when the Pentagon says so) Facebook. Thousands of military families also have acquired Flat Daddies: life-sized, laminated, waist-up photographs of absent fathers (and, less commonly, mothers). Flat Daddies, which were first marketed in 2003, have come in for a certain amount of ridicule. (Esquire magazine honored them in its “Dubious Achievement” awards in 2007.) But Rebecca A. Adelman, an assistant professor of… Continue Reading Discovery – Summer 2012
PERFECT BLEND The UMBC Gospel Choir started in 1976 as a small, student-run organization. These days, it’s a key part of the university’s musical community, performing on-campus and boasting more than 40 dedicated members under the direction of Janice Jackson ’79, music. The choir’s traditions give the group both continuity and a “family feel,” says Comfort Oke ’13, the group’s official historian. Members gather every Wednesday night at 8:45 p.m. in the Fine Arts Recital Hall. Each session begins with Bible study and then an hour of practice. As rehearsals draw to a close, students link arms and share things… Continue Reading At Play – Summer 2012
Geographically, Silicon Valley is far away from UMBC. In fact, the Apple Campus at 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California is 2,850 miles from UMBC. And Google’s headquarters is 2,846 miles away in Mountain View, California. But “Silicon Valley” isn’t just a place. It’s also an aspiration – a beacon that’s bright enough to attract some of the best global technology talents and entrepreneurs. Considering the attention that UMBC has received in recent years for its strengths in undergraduate teaching and learning, it’s no surprise that a number of UMBC graduates have taken the education they got inside Hilltop Circle… Continue Reading To You – Summer 2012
Before the discovery of insulin in 1922, children and adults who developed Type 1 diabetes usually died within a few months of the disease’s onset. That all changed when insulin became widely available, but women with diabetes still faced another challenge: significant odds that their offspring would be born with birth defects. Even today, women diagnosed with diabetes (either Type 1 or Type 2) before they become pregnant have a greater risk of having a child with a severe birth defect than nondiabetic women. In her laboratory at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mary Loeken ’80, M.S., biological sciences,… Continue Reading Lowering the Odds – Mary Loeken ’80, M.S., BioSci
Before the discovery of insulin in 1922, children and adults who developed Type 1 diabetes usually died within a few months of the disease’s onset. That all changed when insulin became widely available, but women with diabetes still faced another challenge: significant odds that their offspring would be born with birth defects. Even today, women diagnosed with diabetes (either Type 1 or Type 2) before they become pregnant have a greater risk of having a child with a severe birth defect than nondiabetic women. In her laboratory at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mary Loeken ’80, M.S., biological sciences,… Continue Reading Lowering the Odds – Mary Loeken '80, M.S., BioSci
With Matt Belzer, Director of Jazz Studies UMBC’s music department is known for pushing boundaries in new music – including its jazz studies program, headed up by director Matt Belzer – who’s excelled as a teacher, composer and performer. UMBC’s jazz studies program is four years old now, and it boasts three official ensembles (including a “large” ensemble) and many unofficial student groups. Jazz is woven into America’s cultural fabric, but many people are still unfamiliar with or intimidated by jazz music. “Folks sometimes feel on the outside looking in…. But that’s also part of the appeal of jazz,” Belzer… Continue Reading How to Appreciate Jazz
UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III takes your questions. Q. Considering that Time magazine named The Protestor as its 2011 Person of the Year and knowing your own active involvement in the civil rights movement, what are your thoughts on the amount of violent opposition present-day protesters are facing across the nation? — Joseph Cooper IV ’08, English A. People have the right to protest. I have to remind people about that at times. America was built out of protest. If we had not protested, we would not have America. At the same time, a number of institutions have… Continue Reading Up On the Roof – Winter 2012
Picture this: It’s a cool, crisp night and you’re cruising north up Interstate 95, with the city of Baltimore rising up before you. The image of a metropolis can rise and fall with its skyline and its immense iconic representation of the city’s civic aspirations. Much of Baltimore’s story is written in its skyline. There’s the urban renewal that spawned the National Aquarium and the twin stadiums of South Baltimore, for instance. The city’s history is also etched there in places such as the famous and distinctive Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower, which was built in 1911 at the corner of Eutaw… Continue Reading Tower Transformer – Kelley Bell '06, MFA
Picture this: It’s a cool, crisp night and you’re cruising north up Interstate 95, with the city of Baltimore rising up before you. The image of a metropolis can rise and fall with its skyline and its immense iconic representation of the city’s civic aspirations. Much of Baltimore’s story is written in its skyline. There’s the urban renewal that spawned the National Aquarium and the twin stadiums of South Baltimore, for instance. The city’s history is also etched there in places such as the famous and distinctive Emerson Bromo-Seltzer Tower, which was built in 1911 at the corner of Eutaw… Continue Reading Tower Transformer – Kelley Bell ’06, MFA
Back in 1985 and 1986, when I was the editor of UMBC’s literary magazine, Bartleby, one of my professors gave me something I have kept for more than 25 years: a copy of the UMBC literary magazine distributed to students in February 1969. The 1969 literary magazine is a part of the university’s folklore, largely because the inclusion of a series of soft-focus photographs of two nude dancers caused a sensation off-campus among the local community and state legislators. But the magazine’s appearance also kicked off an era of student and faculty protest at UMBC – and provided the first… Continue Reading To You – Winter 2012
