All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Once again, UMBC has been named one of the top national universities “where the faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching”

USNews-2013UMBC was ranked #6 on U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges Guide’s list of schools with the “Best Undergraduate Teaching,” along with such universities as William and Mary, Berkeley, Princeton, and Brown.

UMBC has also again been named the top national university for “promising and innovative changes.” This is the 5th consecutive year that UMBC has topped this “Up-and-Coming” list.

“I’m encouraged that our colleagues around the country continue to recognize the quality of our academic program. Our faculty and staff are consistently looking for creative ways to strengthen teaching and learning on our campus, and we are proud that this has made us a leader in redefining excellence in undergraduate education,” says President Freeman Hrabowski. “Each fall, I see the result of our hard work as I welcome yet another outstanding class of undergraduates.”

This continued recognition points to what makes UMBC unique: our community successfully combines a deep commitment to undergraduate education with achievements in graduate education and research. Our investments in undergraduate student success and steady efforts by our faculty and staff to maximize student engagement and success are attracting ever-larger numbers of talented, diverse students. This year, we welcomed a record-breaking incoming class of 1,660 freshmen. These students are planning to study in a wide range of disciplines.

Most important, we continue to assess student outcomes and explore new ways to advance teaching and learning. For example, the Hrabowski Fund for Innovation invests in faculty initiatives that fuel creativity and enterprise, helping more students from all backgrounds to excel. Our iCubed study, funded through the National Science Foundation, is examining the effectiveness of a variety of learning activities for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) students. And our STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is building a national model for ensuring more transfer students complete four-year degrees.

Congratulations to our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and supporters who make UMBC a national model for educational excellence.

Freeman Hrabowski shares UMBC culture, values and history with incoming students at 2013 Convocation

At the 2013 UMBC Convocation, held on Tuesday, August 27, President Freeman Hrabowski welcomed incoming students and shared UMBC’s continued national recognition, the importance of the civil rights movement in opening the doors for diversity in education, and what it takes to succeed at UMBC – and in life.

Dr. Hrabowski spoke to a crowd of more than 1,500, sharing his experience growing up during the civil rights movement and how those tumultuous times ultimately led to social and political change that made it possible for many more Americans – of all backgrounds – to attend college and earn degrees.

Dr. Hrabowski also discussed the state of higher education in America, citing the need to increase our numbers of college graduates. “Nearly half of all students who begin college do not graduate. At UMBC, however, we fully expect that you will graduate – and we will do everything we can to support you,” he said.

Shifting the conversation to UMBC priorities and expectations, Dr. Hrabowski assured the new students the campus community is dedicated to support as well as challenge them. “Our goal for each of you is that you graduate prepared to lead a meaningful, productive life,” he said. “You are here chiefly to prepare for the rest of your life – and you will have the greatest influence on your own success.”

Read his full Convocation speech »

UMBC Soccer: Caringi Earns NSCAA and America East Top Weekly Honors

Senior forward Pete Caringi III (Perry Hall, Md./Calvert Hall) started his season with a bang and netted national recognition from the NSCAA, the America East Conference, Top Drawer Soccer and College Soccer News.

Caringi was named the NCAA Division I Men’s Disney Soccer/NSCAA Player of the Week for games ending Sept. 1. He also earned Player of the Week honors from the America East Conference and was selected to Teams of the Week in both Top Drawer Soccer and College Soccer News.

Caringi earned three Player of the Week awards from the America East Conference in 2012.

Caringi recorded his fifth and sixth career multiple-goal efforts in back-to-back contests. He now has 28 career goals and needs one more to move into a tie for tenth place on the school’s all-time goals list.

Exhibition Curated by Lisa Moren, Visual Arts, Previewed in the Washington Post

3_elahi_hawkeye_7in_300_cmykCyber In Securities curated by Lisa Moren, visual arts, and presented by the Washington Project for the Arts, received a positive review from the Washington Post, labeling it as a display that “should be one of the fall’s most discussed local exhibitions.”

Read the article at the Washington Post’s website: “Fall gallery shows: ‘Cyber In Securities,’ ‘Silver Clouds,’ ‘This is Labor’”

The exhibition features work by 13 artists or teams, “who contemplate the role of information-gathering, including surveillance by intelligence and law enforcement agencies. . . All use technology to comment on technology and its implications.” 

Cyber In Securities is on view through Sept. 27 at Pepco Edison Place Gallery. Learn more about the exhibition here.

Image: Hasan Elahi, Hawkeye, 2012

Eric Zeemering named Fulbright Canada Scholar

Dr. Eric Zeemering, an assistant professor of public policy, has been named a 2013-14 Fulbright Scholar by Fulbright Canada. He will spend five months at the University of Ottawa investigating how urban sustainability is defined in Canadian cities, with special attention on how social policy and programs are integrated with economic and environmental initiatives.

Dr. Zeemering’s research and teaching interests focus on public management, intergovernmental relations and urban policy (see video below).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzVW-RaTDiY&w=560&h=315]

To learn more about Dr. Zeemering’s work, read his upcoming profile in UMBC Magazine, online and in print later this month.

Fulbright Canada Bright Blue logo (1)Fulbright Canada is a binational, treaty-based organization created to encourage mutual understanding between Canada and the U.S. through academic and cultural exchange.

UMBC ranked as a top college where students get ‘best bang for their buck’

According to a recent PolicyMic ranking, UMBC is listed as a top ten school where students get the ‘best bang for their buck’ in terms of cost, graduation rates and starting salary, and debt at time of graduation.

Using recent data for average student debt upon graduation, starting salaries, tuition and room and board for four-year universities, six-year graduation rates, and percentage of students who qualify for Pell grants as rough indicators, the rankings identified the top dozen schools that are performing above average.

Christopher Corbett, English, in the Wall Street Journal

Christopher Corbett reviews Michael Daly’s Topsy: The Startling Story of the Crooked Tailed Elephant, P.T. Barnum and the American Wizard, Thomas Edison, the story of dueling impresarios and the American appetite for curiosities surrounding a grim and poignant recount of the public electrocution of a so-called rogue circus elephant.

“‘Topsy’ is a fascinating but disturbing story, a skillfully told and admirably researched reminder of a time not as long ago as we’d like to think,” said Corbett. “The material is sometimes thin, more the making of a long magazine piece than the subject for a 345-page book, but it is full of fabulous characters.”

Rick Forno, Cybersecurity, in the Baltimore Sun and SpiderOak Blog

“First The New York Times; now the Canton Kayak Club?

The website for the group of urban paddling enthusiasts was the victim of an apparent hacking Wednesday and Thursday, bearing an image of a man on a horse with a spear and the messages “NO WAR!” and “All Hail the Islamic world, we’re here!,” wrote Scott Dance of the Baltimore Sun.

Dance interviewed UMBC’s Rick Forno for the piece. These days cybersecurity is more than just technology.

“In cyber security nowadays having a good situational awareness of world events is crucial,” said Rick Forno, assistant director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Center for Cybersecurity.”

Read more: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/technology/blog/bs-bz-canton-kayak-club-website-hacked,0,5296086.story#ixzz2dr99CXuU

Forno was also recently interviewed by SpiderOak University about the topic of cybersecurity.

Freeman Hrabowski, Mike Summers Offer Ideas for Improving Science Education

“If you could make one change to improve science education in the United States, what would it be?” asked the New York Times in a special feature published Monday, September 2. Nineteen people answered the question, and among them were President Freeman Hrabowski and Mike Summers, HHMI Investigator and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.

“We need to create opportunities to excite students about how math and science connect to real life,” said Hrabowski, adding that he would like to see more programs offering teachers the chance to apply their skills outside of the classroom. “A teacher who has worked summers in green construction engineering can show their students how they’ve used geometric concepts.”

Mike Summers said that he would like to see more students come into the lab to work on real-world problems. “When things like that happen, the kids begin self-identifying as scientists. They stop thinking that a science career can be theirs 10 years from now — an eternity to an adolescent. They think of themselves as scientists, now,” he said.

Also quoted in the piece were Najib Jammal and Deon Sanders, the principal and a student at Lakeland Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore. UMBC’s Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars program recently began a multi-year partnership with the school. Through the partnership, Sherman Scholars, along with Shriver Center Peaceworkers and Choice Program caseworkers, will work with school leadership to develop school- and family-centered strategies that address student and community needs.

Jammal said that he wanted students to be able to apply their STEM learning to projects that benefit their community, and Sanders summed it up by saying, “I need science and math education to be more about life.”

Emerald Christopher, graduate student, at 50th anniversary of March on Washington

UMBC graduate student, Emerald Christopher, joined tens of thousands of other supporters to acknowledge the importance of women leaders in the March on Washington at the 50th anniversary of the movement, held last week.

Christopher wore a shirt emblazoned with the names “Audre & Gloria & Angela & bell” – a nod to the famous feminist and womanist thought leaders Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Angela Davis, and bell hooks. Having women political figures address the rally was great, Christopher said, but she questioned where the African-American women thought leaders were.

UMBC Celebrates Present, Future During Fall Opening Meeting

At the Fall Opening Meeting on Thursday, August 22, President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Philip Rous celebrated the present and future of UMBC.

Hrabowski outlined recent university achievements during his annual State of the University address.

“We are increasingly known as a national model of inclusive excellence and innovation in American higher education,” he said. “We have built strength in research across the disciplines.  We can take great pride in knowing that the rest of the nation is beginning to understand what we already know – that we are a very special place.”

The full text of his speech can be read here.

Rous discussed the UMBC strategic planning process, entitled “Our UMBC: A Strategic Plan for Advancing Excellence.”

“This is an incredible time of opportunity for ourselves and UMBC,” he said. “We are standing at a threshold where we can extend our vision for the University.” Rous also emphasized that there will be opportunities for campus involvement as the plan is being created. More information can be found at planning.umbc.edu.

Speakers at the Fall Opening Meeting also included incoming freshman Evan Leiter-Mason, a Sondheim Scholar majoring in economics and political science; incoming transfer student Sophia Venero, who will be majoring in Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in biological science; and incoming graduate student Adegboyega “Ade” Akinsiku, who will be studying in the Human-Centered Computing program.

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