All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Carlo DiClemente, Psychology, Appointed to National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Carlo DiClementePsychology Professor Carlo DiClemente has been appointed to the National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The council advises and makes recommendations to the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) secretary, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) director on research program and policy matters in the field of alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

The council consists of 15 members appointed by the HHS secretary who are leaders in scientific disciplines relevant to NIAAA activities, including public health, behavioral and social sciences, public policy, law, health policy, economics, and management.

DiClemente’s research focuses on smoking cessation, motivation and stages of change for a variety of health behaviors, understanding the mechanism of change in alcohol and substance abuse, and Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) training in medical residency programs.

Last year, DiClemente received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Addictive Behaviors Special Interest Group (AB-SIG) of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT). To learn more, click here.

The National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism appointment is a four-year term. To learn more about the council, click here.

George La Noue, Public Policy and Political Science, Writes Op-Ed for The Chronicle of Higher Education

As many college athletic programs are preparing for the postseason and finishing fall regular season schedules, there has been an ongoing public discussion about the future of “mid-major” athletics. George La Noue, professor emeritus and research professor of public policy and political science, wrote an op-ed published in The Chronicle of Higher Education in which he analyzed the current state of mid-major athletic programs and discussed what he called their “muddled future.”

George LaNoue

“While media attention is overwhelmingly focused on big-time intercollegiate athletics, a crisis is developing for most of the 351 Division I institutions that cannot afford to play at that level,” wrote La Noue.

La Noue discussed how the NCAA changed its governing structure this year to give more influence to 67 universities in the Power Five football conferences, which left the mid-major programs outside of those conferences to face financial challenges.

“Those colleges are now faced with substantially increasing their athletic expenditures to try to preserve the pretense of Division I status. The Power Five institutions have budgets of three, four, or even five times as much as that of most mid-majors. They also now have NCAA authority to offer enhanced ‘full cost’ multiyear financial-aid packages to their recruits. The current playing field is decidedly not level. Division I is an unhappy family. Institutional choices for the leftovers will not be easy.”

To read the full op-ed titled “The Muddled Future of Mid-Major Athletics,” click here.

Leading the Way: Supporting Students Beyond the Classroom

Dr. Ana María Schwartz Caballero, associate
professor of Spanish and second language
education, is something of a fixture here at UMBC: she’s worked at the university in various capacities for the past 30 years, mostly bouncing between the Language and Education Departments, but always making sure to stay closely involved with students.

However, you won’t find her just on UMBC’s campus. Since Dr. Schwartz Caballero is heavily involved in Baltimore’s Hispanic and Latino community, you’re just as likely to find her running a meeting of the Latino/Hispanic Faculty Association. Or walking through City Hall with the rest of the members of Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s Hispanic Commission. Or presenting her research on language teaching and learning to the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages.

So, it should come as no surprise that Dr. Schwartz Caballero was selected to receive the 2014 NFL Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award at a special presentation ceremony during the Ravens’ September 28 game.

It should also come as no surprise that she chose to donate the $2,000 grant that came with the award to UMBC’s Esperanza Scholarship Fund. “My heart has always been with the students I work with and the community here at UMBC,” says Dr. Schwartz Caballero. “I couldn’t think of giving money to anyone else.”

Which is exactly why she chose the Esperanza Scholarship: it supports undergraduate and graduate students of Latino or Hispanic ancestry and/or students committed to the advancement of minorities, especially of Latino or Hispanic descent. And, as faculty advisor for the Hispanic/Latino Student Union, as well as a member of the UMBC Hispanic and Latino Student Admissions Advisory Group, Dr. Schwartz Caballero knows that students need all the support they can get. “I know that students struggle. They work hard, juggling jobs and schoolwork, and that can be very stressful.”

For students of immigrant families, though, it can be even more difficult. “Students from families that are just beginning to be established here often lack the financial support available to others,” explains Dr. Schwartz Caballero. “And, in many cases, the students themselves, on top of working and going to school, are also supporting their families however they can.”

And Dr. Schwartz Caballero is doing what she can to help, too. “It takes a long time to build up the funds for something like that [the Esperanza Scholarship], and any donation can help build that base. I just hope it makes someone’s life a little easier.”

Support the Esperanza Scholarship Fund.

Pres. Hrabowski Calls for Institutional Culture Change at White House Summit

photo 1On Thursday, President Hrabowski attended the second White House Summit on College Opportunity. The summit gathered together hundreds of college presidents and heads of foundations and non-profit organizations, as well as President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Biden.

Dr. Hrabowski participated in a panel on innovation, along with Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, Arizona State President Michael Crow, Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative Founding Director Candace Thille and Udacity founder Sebastian Thrun. In the panel, Dr. Hrabowski focused on the need for institutional culture change in order to develop and implement truly effective higher education innovations that support student success. “One of the challenges is that we sometimes pit one culture against another,” he says. “Math and science are part of the liberal arts. We need people who can think broadly, put technology in perspective.”

Watch video of the Summit below. Dr. Hrabowski’s panel begins at 59:50.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcsIq92XZqw]

Read coverage of the Summit below.

Tracking the Second White House Summit (The Chronicle Storify)
At Second Higher Ed Summit, Obama Administration Mixes Praise and Accountability (Inside Higher Ed)
White House summit calls for using data to boost graduation rates (The Hechinger Report)
White House summit seeks to boost college graduation rates (Christian Science Monitor)

Julie Rosenthal, Asian Studies, in the Baltimore Sun

Asian Studies Food Pantry2

The Baltimore Sun recently published an article about a series of volunteer opportunities organized by the Jewish Federation of Howard County on Christmas Day. Last year, 250 volunteers participated throughout the day, and this year, the Jewish Federation is partnering with Food on the 15th and the Asian Studies Food Pantry program for low-income Asian seniors.

Asian Studies Program Management Specialist Julie Rosenthal is founder and director of Food on the 15th and was quoted in the article discussing the overall impact of the volunteer program.

“We are partnering with the Jewish Federation for Mitzvah Day because we want to provide a rewarding experience for children of any age and their parents,” said Rosenthal. “Helping to deliver food to a low-income senior citizen building in Howard County brightens the day of not only the residents living at the building that are receiving the delivery, but also the students, parents and families doing the delivery,” she added.

To learn more about the Asian Studies Food Pantry program, click here. To read the full article in the Baltimore Sun, click here.

Thomas Schaller, Political Science, Op-Ed in the Baltimore Sun, in the Daily Beast

Tom SchallerIn his latest column in the Baltimore Sun, Political Science Professor and Chair Thomas Schaller wrote about his views on what he notes as recent systemic manufacturing of distorted news stories. He described the Benghazi investigation, the IRS controversy, ACORN, and Shirley Sherrod as recent examples that have been prevalent in the national conversation. To read Schaller’s full column, click here.

Schaller was also quoted in a December 5 article in the Daily Beast in which he commented on Republican control of state legislatures and Congressional delegations in the South. To read the full article, click here.

Dennis Coates, Economics, in Capital New York

Dennis CoatesIn a recent article published in Capital New York, Economics Professor Dennis Coates discussed the economic impact of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, home to the New Jersey Nets. The article described how businesses within and immediately surrounding Barclays have been benefiting from the Nets recent move from North Jersey to Brooklyn, but Coates described how it’s unclear that the arena’s impact on business is a sign of economic growth.

“Did people not eat dinner before the Barclays Center?” said Coates. “Did they not go out to restaurants before the Barclays Center? They did, just not there.”

He added, “if the eating and drinking happens inside the stadium instead of outside, you’re taking money from moderate income business and giving to wealthy owners. If you think that’s a good idea, you’re going to be happy with the outcome.”

To read the full article titled “The Barclays effect,” click here.

Roy Meyers, Political Science, in USA Today

Roy Meyers (UMBC)Political Science Professor Roy Meyers was quoted in a recent USA Today article that analyzes a federal budget action in which the Obama administration moved nearly $4 million in health insurance subsidy payments from one Treasury account to another. The budget director described the transfer as a way to improve efficiency. In response, the House of Representatives filed a lawsuit last month calling for part of the Affordable Care Act to be struck down.

Meyers was asked about the move by then Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell: “The Burwell change of the accounts is a very interesting strategy, and one that’s been used before, but I don’t know if it’s legal,” said Meyers, who studies the federal budget process.

Meyers was recently inducted as a National Academy of Public Administration Fellow. To read more, click here. To read the full article in USA Today, click here.

Christopher Swan, Geography and Environmental Systems, in the New York Times

Chris SwanChristopher Swan, an associate professor of geography and environmental systems, was quoted in a recent New York Times article about an urban ecology study that found millions of tiny insects are consuming the equivalent of 60,000 frankfurters a year in Manhattan. The study concluded that street litter and discarded food is a major source of food for rats and other pests.

In the article, Swan discussed the need for more urban ecology studies and how the recent study like the one conducted in New York City could serve as an example of how such research could be performed in the future.

“We don’t see studies like this in urban places,” he said. “The environment in a city is performing a function. In this case, it turns out that arthropods are removing refuse. Studies like this have to happen, and this is a pretty good one.”

To read the full article “Bugs in Manhattan Compete with Rats for Food Refuse,” click here.

Robert Provine, Psychology, in Mashable

Robert Provine“Although our laughter may be as distinctive as our speech, laughter is not infinitely variable. If we all laughed differently, we could not identify a vocalization as laughter,” said Psychology Research Professor and Professor Emeritus Robert Provine in a recent Mashable article.

The article, published December 1, examines why people have different laughs. Provine, who is author of Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccuping and Beyond, said “most classical laughs have a short, harmonic blast (‘ha’) of about one-fifteenth of a second duration, that repeats every one-fifth of a second. It’s hard to laugh in any other way. Try it. The result doesn’t sound very much like a laugh — at least not a convincing one.”

He adds, “linguists, psychologists and philosophers often have trouble dealing with such primal vocalizations, treating laughter as if it’s speech. Laughter — and crying — have more in common with the barking of a dog than speech.”

To read the full article titled “Why do people have different laughs?” click here.

Kate Brown, History, Named to Physics World 2014 Books of the Year List

History Professor Kate Brown has been named to the Physics World 2014 Books of the Year list for her book Plutopia: Nuclear Families, Atomic Cities, and the Great Soviet and American Plutonium Disasters (Oxford University Press, 2013). Physics World is a publication issued by the United Kingdom’s Institute of Physics. Below is an excerpt describing the process for selecting the ten best books of the year:

plutopia

“As in previous years, the entries on our ‘Book of the Year’ shortlist are all well written, novel and scientifically interesting for a physics audience. They represent the best of the 57 books that Physics World reviewed in 2014, being highly commended by external experts (the diverse group of professional physicists and freelance science writers who review books for the magazine) and by members of our own editorial staff, who helped winnow the field down to a shortlist of 10.”

In a blog post announcing the finalists, Physics World provided the following description for Brown’s book:

“This hard-hitting look at life in the ‘atomic cities’ that produced plutonium for the US and Soviet nuclear arsenals during the Cold War will make compelling reading for many physicists. Those who have a professional interest in radiation safety or the nuclear industry will have special reason to be outraged by the long list of environmental crimes described in Kate Brown’s important book, which also featured in a Physics World podcast earlier this year.”

The winner of the physics book of the year will be announced in a podcast on December 16. For more information, click here. The honor was the latest in a series of awards that Brown has received for Plutopia.

Appointment of Joyce Tenney as Acting Director of Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery

12662631454_73fd5871b4_zFrom: Philip Rous, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Antonio Moreira, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Joyce Tenney as Acting Director of the Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, effective November 24, 2014 through June 30, 2015. This appointment follows the recent announcement from Dr. Larry Wilt of his retirement from UMBC and his position of Director of the Library & Gallery on July 1, 2015 subsequent to taking a research leave starting January 1, 2015. A national search for a permanent Director will be launched with a target appointment date of July 1, 2015.

Joyce Tenney has had a long and very productive career as a member of the Library staff. She began as a student assistant in 1975 and was appointed Serials Librarian in 1983. Since 1983, Joyce has led the Serials Department through many changes and challenges, most notably the transition from print to online formats. She has supervised several other units in the Library on a temporary basis since that time. Currently, Serials, Circulation and Library Media Departments report to her as Associate Director. Ms. Tenney has also been very active on the Council of University System Faculty of USM, the USMAI and on the Maryland Digital Library.

Joyce is a UMBC alumna of the Ancient Studies Department, and has strong ties to UMBC. She has a deep commitment to ensuring faculty, staff and students have the research and teaching support needed at a research institution and a comfortable, inviting place to study.

While we will be celebrating Dr. Larry Wilt’s many accomplishments later in this academic year, we wish to express our deepest appreciation for all he has contributed during his 33 years of service to UMBC and his leadership for 24 years as Director of the Library & Gallery which he carried out with vision, passion, personal commitment and the utmost integrity.

Dr. Wilt’s primary research project for the first half of 2015 will address planning for mid-sized, research supporting, academic libraries.  In addition, he will be studying Spanish in a Medellín, Colombia immersion program and preparing to teach English in other countries.

Please join us in wishing Joyce Tenney much continued success in her new responsibilities.

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