Where can UMBC engineering and computing students mingle with friends and mentors over sweet treats, test their knowledge and design skills in friendly competition, and network with potential employers? If it’s February, the answer is the annual Engineering and Computing Week, a traditional celebration of technology, held each year at UMBC to coincide with National Engineers Week. 

The UMBC chapter of the engineering honors society Tau Beta Pi, in collaboration with various student engineering organizations on campus, organizes the week of activities each year. This year, the line-up of events featured a mix of social activities, such as painting and crafting, presentations from student organizations, and chances for teams to compete in games testing engineering knowledge and design skills.

UMBC chapters of the Information Systems Security Association, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, Engineers without Borders, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers all helped organize sessions. UMBC CyberDawgs, a group of UMBC students who share a common interest in cybersecurity, also participated. 

Students could also join faculty, staff, and alumni from the College of Engineering and Information Technology at an evening reception at the Guinness Brewery near UMBC to socialize and network.

“I think the biggest success from the week was the great turnout and engagement we got from the students,” says August Phelps, a mechanical engineering senior and vice president of the UMBC chapter of Tau Beta Pi.

He says the event showcases the wide variety of engineering-focused student organizations at UMBC, which hold events throughout the year and offer great opportunities for students to develop leadership skills and form lasting connections with their peers. 

“I hope attendees left feeling more connected as a community,” he says.

Cierra K. Reeves knew there was a wide world of careers she could pursue with a psychology degree, but it took some prayer, a conversation with her mother, and a chat with her advisor before she settled on a minor in management in aging services that would define her next steps. Cierra is a non-traditional, online learner who was looking for advice on how to focus her studies. After speaking with James Hamilton, director of academic advising in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, she honed in on the minor from the Erickson School of Aging Studies. She now sees herself working toward opening a facility that uses art therapy for older populations. Tell us all about it, Cierra! 

Q: Briefly introduce yourself. What’s one essential thing you’d want another Retriever to know about you? 

A: My name is Cierra K. Reeves, and I am a woman of God on this beautiful journey called life. I am a psychology major minoring in management of aging services with the goal of opening my own facility geared towards art therapy in the geriatric field. I love all things art, and I love to help others and see others smile. And I feel like what I’m doing now is my calling because I’m able to combine my love for art and helping people. 

Q: Tell us about someone in the community who has inspired you or supported you, and how they did it. 

A: One person in particular that has helped to fuel, inspire, and ease my nervous system in this entire process, has been, Mr. James Hamilton. He is my tried and true advisor. He is so patient, and his career story has helped to motivate me and has kept me pushing along in school when things feel tough. I believe he is most definitely a Godsend! 

He always gives me a motivational nugget to keep going. He’s so calming to my spirit and he’s just so patient. And I feel like I really need that. I look for people like that because in this world we’re always hustling and bustling. Not many really take time with people, but he’s dedicated to his job and serving others in that role. 

My mom has also inspired me to follow my dreams—despite any adversity she always strives for greatness. She always stands in her authentic self and embodies and empowers me to do the same. She’s taught me how to stay physically active and how to better take care of myself now that I am getting older.

Q: Tell us what you’re excited about in your academic area. 

A: I have had the privilege of growing up with my elders and they have most definitely inspired my love for the geriatric field. My great-grandmother, Dr. Lucy Mason Reeves Jones, was the first African American female podiatrist in Baltimore. I remember growing up with her and how she taught me to make carrot juice and the importance of expanding my mind and vocabulary. And I remember being around my elders and my grandmother—my mom’s mom (Beona Campbell), my favorite grandmother—who was just so, so strong. I mean, so resilient. She taught me about fashion, about thrifting, about keeping God close and just instilling those morals and values in me at a young age. 

I’ve always kept older people close to me. And so when I learned about the management of aging minor and took my first class, I loved it. 

Q: How did you know what you wanted to study? 

A: During the pandemic, I really honed in on what God wanted me to do, and I had a lot of time to reflect and pray upon that. And I was given this answer: psychology. I’ve always been interested in psychology, but I was always nervous to pursue it because I know that it’s really, really difficult. 

But I’ve always loved the challenge. I’ve always been into books. I just love to learn. I love to expand my mind and learn new things. And so this felt like the perfect avenue, especially because when the pandemic was happening, I started to think to myself like, ‘Okay, what could I do to fulfill the purpose that God has for me, but also give back to the community and also make sure that I will be okay for my family monetarily and that I would also feel fulfilled in?’

Q: What’s the one thing you’d want someone who hasn’t joined the UMBC community to know about the support you find here? 

A: Some teachers and faculty will go above and beyond when it comes to helping you learn. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Always use your voice, because your voice matters. 

James Hamilton, director of academic advising in CAHSS, has been instrumental in Cierra’s academic trajectory, but he wants to make sure she’s not alone in finding her path. Since 2017 when he started, Hamilton has built out the advising capacities in CAHSS and brought on multiple professional advisors to walk CAHSS students through the first few years of their studies. 

Previously faculty members were responsible for the day-to-day advising needs of most students, but Hamilton recognized the need for dedicated advisors to translate the academic requirements for students in order to promote student success and retention. 

“Our goal has been to offer centralized advising services for students’ first and second year with a professional advisor,” says Hamilton. “Then, for the third and fourth years, they would be with a faculty member where that mentoring role could take place. Because at that point, they already know about their requirements and how to register and how to do all of the nuts and bolts stuff, so they can use their time with faculty member talking about career options, internship opportunities, study abroad, mentoring, and more.” 

*****

UMBC’s greatest strength is its people. When people meet Retrievers and hear about the passion they bring, the relationships they create, the ways they support each other, and the commitment they have to inclusive excellence, they truly get a sense of our community. That’s what “Meet a Retriever” is all about. 

Learn more about how UMBC can help you achieve your goals.

Written by Ian Anson, associate professor of political science, UMBC

With the 2024 U.S. election over and done with, political analysts and both major parties are already turning their attention to the upcoming midterm elections in 2026.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 33 Senate seats will be up for grabs. The Democrats are as desperate to retake control of Congress as Republicans are to keep it. A Democratic-controlled Congress in 2026 would do everything in its power to halt President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in its tracks.

To edge out their opponent, candidates in highly competitive districts will have to win over some voters who rejected their own party’s presidential candidate in 2024. Democratic candidates will need to get support from at least some Trump voters; Republicans will need some support from Kamala Harris voters.

Despite the intensely polarized U.S. political environment, a significant number of Americans routinely cross party lines to support both Democratic and Republican candidates at the polls. When it happens on the same ballot, this is called ticket-splitting.

Just who are these voters, and when do they choose to split their tickets?

I am a political scientist who studies American voting behavior. I see these questions as key to understanding how long Trump’s total control of government will last.

Split tickets in North Carolina and Arizona

Ticket-splitting created some surprising election returns in 2024, mostly benefiting down-ballot Democrats.

For instance, Republican Donald Trump won North Carolina by around 3 percentage points, but voters elected a Democrat, Josh Stein, for governor by a margin of almost 15 percentage points. Several hundred thousand North Carolinians split their tickets to produce this outcome.

More than 100,000 Arizonans likewise split their tickets in 2024, electing Trump with 52% of the vote, yet rejecting the Trump-aligned Senate candidate Kari Lake in favor of Democrat Ruben Gallego.

Many experts believe that candidates such as Gallego and Stein were simply perceived as less extreme than their opponents, and so they lured moderate voters and even some Republicans.

In this theory, extreme MAGA-aligned candidates win primary elections because they attract the most partisan voters. But they turn off many people in the general electorate.

Marylanders split their tickets

One of the most extreme examples of ticket-splitting in 2024 was in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland.

Cardin was a retiring three-term Democrat who had last won reelection in 2018 by an astronomical margin of over 34 percentage points. Initially, many expert analysts saw the seat as safe for Democrats.

Then, in February 2024, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who had previously ruled out a Senate run, surprised political analysts by entering the Republican primary. After winning the primary handily, Hogan eventually squared off against Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, in the general election.

Suddenly, a matchup that should have been Alsobrook’s to lose got competitive.

Hogan, who left office in 2023, was a successful Republican governor who won election twice in reliably blue Maryland. Perceived by many voters as an ideological moderate, he was also a vocal Trump opponent in a state that supported Biden over Trump in 2020 by around 33 percentage points. During his governorship, Hogan routinely outperformed MAGA-aligned Republicans who ran for Congress in Maryland.

Ultimately, Hogan did lose to Alsobrooks. She became Maryland’s first female U.S. senator and first Black U.S. senator. Yet Hogan came an incredible 17 percentage points closer to winning than Trump did. Kamala Harris beat Trump by 1.9 million votes, winning 63% of the electorate to Trump’s 34%.

This means that Hogan exceeded Trump’s vote total by over 300,000 votes. That’s an immense amount of ticket-splitting by Marylanders in 2024.

Who are the Hogan Democrats?

To better understand ticket-splitting in Maryland’s 2024 election, I analyzed a survey that my university conducted in Baltimore County. Baltimore County is a bellwether county that has backed the winning gubernatorial candidate in every election since 2006.

The UMBC Battleground Exit Poll surveyed 1,119 voters at election precincts across Baltimore County during early voting and on Election Day 2024. The results were weighted to ensure demographic representativeness.

This extensive survey shows that around 10% of all voters in Baltimore County supported the surprising combination of the Democrat Harris and the Republican Hogan.

In contrast, fewer than 2% of Trump voters split their tickets to back the Democratic Senate candidate Alsobrooks.

My team’s data analysis shows that roughly half of Harris-Hogan voters – 51% – were Democrats. These ticket-splitters included a higher percentage of white voters than the Democrats who supported both Harris and Alsobrooks. Around 37% of Harris-Hogan voters identified as Black, Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern or another nonwhite racial category, compared with 55% of Harris-Alsobrooks voters.

We found virtually no gender differences between Democrats who split their tickets to back a woman for president and a man for Senate and those who backed two women candidates.

Harris-Hogan Democrats tended to be better educated than other voting groups. Around 68% reported having a college degree, compared with around 51% of all survey respondents.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Harris-Hogan voters is their self-declared moderation.

On a seven-point ideological scale ranging from “very liberal” to “very conservative,” around 61% of Harris-Hogan ticket-splitters put themselves at the exact midpoint of the scale. Only around 42% of the full sample of Maryland voters categorized themselves as centrist.

Can moderates survive in Trump’s shadow?

As our study shows, Hogan’s popularity in Maryland is due in part to his appeal among moderates. This finding helps to explain how this Republican has remained popular among Democrats and independent voters.

However, Hogan still lost. Unlike in Arizona, where the Democratic Senate candidate Ruben Gallego won by wooing moderate Republicans, the tenuous balance of power in the U.S. House and Senate may have prevented some Democratic and independent voters in Maryland from crossing the aisle to support a moderate Republican.

Of course, Hogan also faced a formidable opponent. Alsobrooks had already emerged victorious in a tight primary against a well-funded and popular incumbent U.S. House representative, David Trone. I suspect a less-skilled Democratic candidate would have created even more Harris-Hogan voters.

Ultimately, my analysis of ticket-splitting in 2024 reveals that even in an era of entrenched polarization, many voters approach congressional and presidential races with different mindsets.

This dynamic will likely influence the next election cycle, too.

The party of the president often takes heavy losses in midterm elections. In 2026, congressional candidates – and Democrats in particular – will be doing everything they can to woo moderates.

This will be especially true if Trump’s aggressive policies, such as widespread government layoffs and mass deportations, prove unpopular.

Let the campaigning begin.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article and see more than 250 UMBC articles available in The Conversation.