spring 2015

Up on the Roof – Spring 2015

UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III takes your questions. UMBC and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), have a longstanding relationship that dates back to the founding of UMBC in 1966. Recently the partnership has grown deeper, with increased ties in research and other areas. How important is this relationship between our universities and where is it heading in the future? – Richard Byrne ’86 Two institutions are rarely as closely connected as UMBC and UMB. That is especially true when you take note of the difference in our ages. UMBC is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary, which makes… Continue Reading Up on the Roof – Spring 2015

Top Gear – Marla Streb ’91

If there were such a thing as extreme sports fairy tales, Marla Streb ’91, M.S., marine estuarine science, would be fairy godmother of that daredevil realm. Once upon a time, at the relatively advanced age of 28, Streb walked away from a career as an AIDS research biologist and fashioned herself into a world champion mountain bike racer and gravity goddess. As a career move, it was akin to selling your master’s degree in marine-estuarine environmental science for a handful of magic beans, but Streb made it work – and marvelously. Before her transformation, Streb rode bicycles as a hobby.… Continue Reading Top Gear – Marla Streb ’91

Top Gear – Marla Streb '91

If there were such a thing as extreme sports fairy tales, Marla Streb ’91, M.S., marine estuarine science, would be fairy godmother of that daredevil realm. Once upon a time, at the relatively advanced age of 28, Streb walked away from a career as an AIDS research biologist and fashioned herself into a world champion mountain bike racer and gravity goddess. As a career move, it was akin to selling your master’s degree in marine-estuarine environmental science for a handful of magic beans, but Streb made it work – and marvelously. Before her transformation, Streb rode bicycles as a hobby.… Continue Reading Top Gear – Marla Streb '91

To You – Spring 2015

As the university and our alumni begin to plan for UMBC’s 50th anniversary in 2016, those of us who put together UMBC Magazine have been thinking hard about the history of the institution and how we tell its story. You saw some of the results of that process in our Fall 2014 issue, in which we recalled some of the greatest moments in the history of UMBC athletics. And you’re about to read more about our university’s past in this Spring 2015 issue, as we tell the stories behind some of the most prominent pieces of public art – some… Continue Reading To You – Spring 2015

The News – Spring 2015

Walking the Walk A February 18 visit to UMBC by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was a chance to shine a national spotlight on the university’s leadership in innovative teaching and K-12 partnerships. “Teachers, principals, community leaders, families and the students themselves have helped to bring about some of the biggest and boldest changes in American education in decades to prepare all of our children for college, careers, and life,” said Duncan to an audience that filled the concert hall in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. “These changes include higher standards, better support for teachers, a powerful focus… Continue Reading The News – Spring 2015

Space in Time

As UMBC celebrates its newest work of public art, we look back at the university’s legacy of public works on campus. By Lindsey Loeper ’04 and Richard Byrne ’86 One of the key elements of UMBC’s history as a campus has been the institution’s search for a definition of its mission and purpose. Founded in the blossoming of a baby boom generation of students in Maryland and beyond that needed more teachers, classrooms and desks to fulfill the dreams of a college education, the university was buffeted by the same cultural, economic and political forces faced by the state and… Continue Reading Space in Time

Narrative Arc – Stephen Morgan ’72

Sometimes a person’s journey to become one of the state’s most effective CEOs is surprisingly direct. Take Stephen Morgan ’72, psychology, who is the executive director of The Arc Baltimore. Morgan began his career at the organization as an undergraduate, teaching at a summer camp for disabled adults. Fast forward to 2014, and the Maryland Daily Record names him as one of “Maryland’s Most Admired CEOs.” It’s an achievement that Morgan observes is as much about the organization as it is about his leadership. “The award is flattering,” he says, “but what I like is that it’s for the ‘most… Continue Reading Narrative Arc – Stephen Morgan ’72

How To – Spring 2015

Build a Major League Sports Museum Mike Gibbons ’75, English was making a film about baseball in 1981 when a research expedition led him to Baltimore’s Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum. He liked the place so much that he stuck around – first as a volunteer, then rising to become the institution’s executive director.Thirty-two years later, Gibbons’ vision now spreads over two downtown sites. Visitors to the Babe Ruth Birthplace can still stand in the very room where the Bambino was born. But since the creation of The Sports Legends Museum and Maryland Sports Hall at nearby Camden Yards in 2005,… Continue Reading How To – Spring 2015

Discovery – Spring 2015

Develop and Displace It’s rare that an author’s first book is hailed as a “trailblazing piece of scholarship.” Yet Rumor, Repression, and Racial Politics: How the Harassment of Black Elected Officials Shaped Post-Civil Rights America (University of Georgia Press, 2012) by George Derek Musgrove ’97, history, an associate professor of history at UMBC, received raves for its exploration of a paradox that has cast a long shadow over American political culture. “Just as the Civil Rights Act of 1965 allowed for the desegregation of American politics and the election of a black President in 2008,” Musgrove observes, “so too did… Continue Reading Discovery – Spring 2015

Book Smart – Joseph Howley ’06

“Roman poets were a lot like rappers,” observes Joseph Howley ’06, ancient studies, who is an assistant professor of classics at Columbia University. It’s the kind of observation – presented as an almost offhand remark – that typifies Howley’s approach to the discipline. As a scholar particularly attuned to the unexpected, Howley thinks the modern fixation on Roman poetry, as opposed to other classical texts, has tended to constrict our perceptions of Roman experiences. His current research on different aspects of the book as a physical and technological object in ancient times sets out to radically broaden that understanding. “A… Continue Reading Book Smart – Joseph Howley ’06

Beyond Watson

Computers can crunch mind-boggling arrays of data. They can even win quiz shows. But are there more powerful applications of this analytical power yet to come? Claudia Pearce ’89 M.S., ’94 Ph.D., computer science, is the Senior Computer Science Authority at the National Security Agency (NSA). The winner of UMBC’s Alumna of the Year Award in Engineering and Information Technology in 2014, Pearce is diligently seeking the answer to that question. Watson is IBM’s Deep Question Answering system. You might recall that when Watson was put to the test against human contestants on the television quiz show, Jeopardy!, the system… Continue Reading Beyond Watson

Back Story – Spring 2015

The magical run to the NCAA Final Four by the UMBC’s men’s soccer team this past fall got two of our alumni – Brian Hodges ’07 and ’10, M.A., who played varsity basketball, and Miguel Calderon ’12, who played varsity soccer – thinking about why the university has been able to cultivate scholar athletes who excel in the classroom as well. Top-flight college athletics are woven deeply into the American experience. For generations, fans have cheered their alma maters (or even schools that they adopt as favorites) on to victory. But the student-athletes have been and should be the main… Continue Reading Back Story – Spring 2015

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