Pushing the university to meet its climate goals is a grassroots effort by students, faculty and staff. A Greener UMBC? by Richard Byrne Passing the Sniff Test by Laura Lefavor ’13 Zip and Volt by Laura Lefavor ’13 Raising the Roof by Chelsea Haddaway
UMBC scholars and artists are laying the foundation for a more sustainable world right here at home. Finding a Green Future by Richard Byrne and Joel N. Shurkin Earth Tones by Jenny O’Grady Beyond Definition by Dinah Winnick The Long View by Nicole Ruediger Plotting a New Course by David Glenn Seeds and Synergies by David Glenn
Postcard from Pyongyang – Brian Souders ’09, Ph.D. language, literacy and culture In Good Company – Isaac Kinde ’05, biological sciences Ninja Star – Adam Grossman ’06, environmental science, M.S. ’98, civil engineering Gathering Threads – Amy Segreti ’05, English
Check out some great web extras to accompany stories in our Fall 2013 issue, including interviews, videos and more… Sustainability at UMBC Read more about UMBC’s efforts to create a sustainable campus at UMBC’s sustainability site. View it here. How To Sew (A Flag) and Tell (A Great American Story) Learn more about the Stitching History Project here.
UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, takes your questions. In 2007, you signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment. Are we making progress to become a more sustainable UMBC? – Richard Byrne ’86 Any priority that becomes critical to the future of the university will require attention from people at all levels of the institution, whether we are talking about increasing the number of students from low-income backgrounds who succeed at the university, or strengthening our reputation and visibility in the arts and humanities. The President, the provost, the deans, the faculty, the staff and the students have… Continue Reading Up on the Roof – Fall 2013
UMBC alumna Mary Slicher founded one of Baltimore’s leading advocacy groups for the homeless forty years ago. Now her organization is finding a new home of its own. By Elizabeth Heubeck ’91 With a discernible bounce in her loping gait, Mary Slicher ’73, sociology approaches the double doors of a formidable stone building that dates back to the 1950’s. A stubborn folding metal gate renders the building’s inside areas off-limits to intruders, and as Slicher pushes her weight against the gate and it finally slides to the side, she flashes a ready smile and tosses her long wavy black hair… Continue Reading Finding a Way Home
UMBC professor of psychology Robert Provine’s “small science” makes big strides in explaining human behavior. By Chelsea Haddaway Twenty five right-handed UMBC students sit cross-legged in their chairs in a classroom, shoes and socks removed, with the ankle of one leg resting on the knee of the other. Slowly, they stroke the soles of each foot with their fingertips, recording what they feel using first one hand, then the other. The students are testing an idea that professor of psychology Robert Provine stumbled on as he soaped his own foot in the shower one day. It tickled more than he… Continue Reading Curious About Us
America’s urban landscapes have long been a battleground in wars against bedbugs, roaches, rats and flies. In a new book, UMBC professor Dawn Biehler traces that conflict’s history across boundaries of class and race. By Richard Byrne ’86 Illustrations by Joanna Barnum Most city dwellers feel nothing but loathing and fear when they see the rats and roaches that often plague their neighborhoods. And even visitors to the big city can panic when bedbugs infest their hotel beds. So what sort of researcher likes to dig into the vexed dynamics of our interactions with such pests? Dawn Biehler, an assistant… Continue Reading Pest Panic
Team Player – Stephanie Hill ’86, computer science and economics Composition as Conversation – James Polchin ’89, political science and English A Sense of Play – Kathleen Warnock ’80, interdisciplinary studies Giving Back – Greg Cantori ’84, geography
Brendan Mundorf ’07 is one of the world’s best (and toughest) lacrosse players. Now he’s bouncing back from an injury to pursue a professional championship. By Jeff Seidel ’85 Brendan Mundorf ’07, sociology, still smiles when he remembers his first lacrosse stick: a beautiful blue STX Hi-Wall. The stick was a gift from his grandmother, given to the two-year-old Mundorf after a trip to see his Uncle Matt play for Mount St. Mary’s lacrosse team. He used it practically non-stop in all kinds of weather, shooting balls at a goal or the side of his grandparents’ shed. The future UMBC… Continue Reading Behind the Mask
For Manil Suri, Math + Fiction + Ambition = A Career > The Sum of Its Parts by Mark Athitakis Last October, UMBC professor of mathematics Manil Suri planned to end a session of his Introduction to Numerical Analysis class with a short video presentation he had created called Pride and Prejudice on the Complex Plane. The class is a 400-level course on complex matters like fixed-point iteration, Taylor series, and the mean value theorem. But Pride and Prejudice on the Complex Plane is breezy six-minute PowerPoint riff on imaginary numbers (such as the square root of -2). The presentation… Continue Reading The Write Equation
For All the World to See – the award-winning exhibit created at UMBC on the role of visual culture in America’s Civil Rights movement – makes a triumphant return to campus. Introduction by Richard Byrne ’86 Photo essay text by Maurice Berger, Research Professor and Chief Curator at UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture One major victory in the preservation of American memory over the last 40 years is the prominence now enjoyed in that narrative by our nation’s long, bloody and (in many respects) still-unfinished Civil Rights struggle. Indeed, the iconic images of that journey toward equality… Continue Reading Staging the Struggle
