Today’s Baltimore Sun suggests the next 90 days will likely be the most important that remain in Martin O’Malley’s tenure as Maryland governor. Reporters Michael Dresser and Erin Cox write, “As the General Assembly opens its 2013 session Wednesday, O’Malley will be looking to cap a record that many people believe he will use as a springboard for a future presidential run.”

Key issues to be debated include the death penalty repeal, assault weapons ban and offshore wind power, all of which have national resonance. Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, told reporters, “Objectively, if you look at what he’s proposed and what he’s gotten, he’s gotten a lot of what he proposed,” but a few more wins this legislative season give him the strong record he would need to take to Iowa and New Hampshire if he seeks the presidency in 2016. Norris stated, “If he gets the death penalty nullified and wind energy, those kinds of things appeal to the liberal base of the Democratic Party.”

In the Baltimore Business Journal, Norris commented more specifically on a potential increase in the state gas tax this session, noting that the CEOs of major Maryland companies would need to get behind such a bill to move it forward, given previous concerns that lawmakers could redirect money out of the Transportation Trust Fund.

Norris also spoke to the Gazette about the upcoming 2013 session, suggesting bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazine clips are likely to pass even if some conservative Democrats unite with Republicans to oppose them, and that overall, the Republican Party’s limited influence in the state is “not enviable.”

Captain B. Donald Andrasik ’05, psychology, has published a book on his experience eating gluten-free while deployed in Afghanistan with the United States Army.

“I hope to draw attention to our service members who need these accommodations to thrive. Being at war and on a gluten free diet is a distinct hardship, and if you know what you are getting into you understand there’s no easy meal,” he explained in a press release for “Gluten Free in Afghanistan.”

Andrasik started a gluten free diet at 15 years old, after having symptoms related to celiac disease. He currently works as a logistics officer with a unit based in Havre de Grace, Md., in the Maryland National Guard.

Read more about the book here.

Jess Myers, director of the Women’s Center, appeared on the “Marc Steiner Show” on Tuesday, January 8 to discuss rape and the fight for women’s rights, from India to Ohio.  Meyers, along with guests Allison Kilkenny of Citizen Radio and The Nation and Winston Ross of Newsweek and the Daily Beast, discussed a recent case from Steubenville, Ohio, where high school football players and their friends live tweeted the rape of a sixteen-year-old girl.

Myers discussed the conversations that she expects to have with students about the case and the culture surrounding it.

“There’s an interesting dynamic between how we educate, in my experience, students, on issues of misogyny when some people get it and others don’t.  And how try to find that middle ground where we can have conversations and discussions without people feeling like they’re being challenged in ways that they can’t understand their role.  I’m curious to see what conversations we will have around this when the students come back,” she said.

The full segment can be heard here.

By day, Sheg Aranmolate is finishing his medical degree at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. By night, he has written two books — the latter of which, a novel entitled Bountiful Famine, recently was nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

We recently asked the native Nigerian, who graduated from UMBC in 2005 with a bachelor’s in biochemistry and molecular biology, and 2006 with a master’s in applied molecular biology, a few questions about his UMBC experiences and what it’s like juggling a writing career with the challenges of medical school.

Q:  Can you tell us a little about how you found out about the IMPAC nomination, and what it means to you?

A:  I would love to say that I was working down the street one day and I saw a billboard ad informing me of my nomination or that I overheard my nomination on the radio as I was driving to the gym. However, I must confess that I actually found out about my nomination for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary award via an email that was forwarded to me from my publisher.  My excitement and gratitude to be nominated for one of the world’s richest and most prestigious literary awards is beyond words. The IMPAC award is similar to the Grammy’s for music and the Oscar’s for film, and because nominees for the award are selected by librarians all over the globe, and more amazing to be one of the youngest authors at age 29 (John McGregor was 26 when nominated in 2002) and for my debut novel to be nominated for this award, all I can say is that I’m very grateful and thrilled about the possibly of winning the 100,000.00 euro prize. On a psychological point of view, being the only Nigerian on the list and having being selected by a library in Czech Republic, the nomination as boosted my confidence as a writer and further compelled me to write more novels in the future. I can now say with pride (not the malignant type of pride) that I’m an award nominated novelist and perhaps internationally recognized.

Q:  How do you balance your creative life with the busy life of a medical student?

A:  I personally believe that every one of us is creative in one way or the other, and I further believe that creativity should be a way of life and that being said, it should come as easy as, say,  tying your shoes or brushing your teeth, well that’s if you like brushing your teeth. On a serious note, I see creativity and imagining as a way for me to escape the sometimes harsh realities of the world that we live in. As a result, at time when I get stressed out as a medical student or overwhelmed by the suffering of patients’ in my care, I use writing, sketching, painting or photography as an outlet to relieve stress.

Q:  What, in particular, inspired you to write Bountiful Famine?

A:  This is a very interesting question because growing up as a child, I don’t want to say that I had some type of dyslexia, but I was always a slow reader as a child or maybe I just never developed reading quickly. I used to imagine a lot of things that I saw and so I would imagine my own stories and imagined how books ended from the cover. But then, I was fortunate enough to be on a television show called Oprah’s Big Give, which was a national television show where she selected 10 people from around the country to make a difference in the communities and to show the power of giving and philanthropy. I was 23 when I was picked for that show and I saw that as a platform for me to inspire others. I have always had the zeal to inspire people and so after that the show, I wrote my first book iACTUATE — a book on my personal philosophies about life. After the publication of my first book, I came to realize that story telling is a better way to inspire people because they get to paint a picture for themselves rather than having the author tell them what to do or how to think. This, I must say, is the main reason why I wrote Bountiful Famine. It was a way for me to show some of my experiences and to show people that pain and suffering are universal to every human being and to show that love exists even in the worse conditions; humanity still prevails even when society fails.

Q:  What activities did you participate in at UMBC? Do you feel like your UMBC experience helped you achieve your writing and academic goals? If so, how?

A:  One thing that I can proudly say is that I participated in several activities while in UMBC and these activities greatly and positively shaped me to the man that I am today. Does this sound too cliché? Humor aside! While I was in UMBC, I worked as Maintenance Assistant and also as a Residential Assistant for the Residential Life. During my tenure, I learned the importance of hard work, and the values of professionalism and integrity. I also learned to become a more compassionate leader towards the residents that were under my watch. I worked for 3 years in research under the guidance of Dr. Bieberich in the Department of Biology at UMBC, where I learned the basics of research science and the importance and impact of cancer on our society. I was a part-time (unpaid) writer for the Retriever Weekly newspaper, where I pioneered a biweekly column on fitness, wellness and inspiration – famously or perhaps infamously titled “The Fitness Guru.” This was the inception of my aspirations to become a writer because I saw firsthand how my words acted as a powerful tool that inspired many of my readers to change for the better. On a lighter note, I was UMBC’s Homecoming Prince for the year of 2004, I believe, and I remember vividly the excitement that I felt when I was crowned and when I received the $75.00 gift card to Arundel Mills mall for a shopping spree. This was an oh, so, prestigious recognition, you have no idea. I have many other activities that I participated in while at UMBC and due to space limitation and because I don’t want to bore with every single detail, I will refrain for now and spare you the agony (just kidding). Overall, I must say that UMBC was great to me, and as an international student from Nigeria, UMBC was more that I could have asked for from an institution for higher learning – it was a place where young boys and girls were turned into young men and women respectively.

Q:  What’s next for you as a writer? And what are your goals for after med school?

A:  As far as my writing career goes, I’m currently jotting down some super-fresh ideas, I mean very super fresh ideas, for a new psychological thriller plot and I’m flirting with the idea of writing another novel in the near future. From a medicine standpoint, I presently have a keen interest in surgery because like writing, surgery employs the use of the surgeon’s imagination and also because of the subtle differences between humans, no two surgeries are the same. My overall goal and plan in medicine is to use my skills and knowledge to make the world a better place for generations to come. Perhaps, I might conduct some missionary-type trips to under-developed regions in the world and maybe even get involved with international NGO’s. I like to keep an open mind and let the ever changing world to be beacon to my future accomplishments.

The donor roll for FY12 — which covers giving from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012 — is now available online. In addition to a listing of all donors, the donor roll also includes listings of:

• The Hilltop Society
• The 1966 Society
• Consecutive Years of Giving (5-9, 10-14, 15-19, 20+)
• 1st Time Donors

Thank you to everyone who supported UMBC in FY12! View the donor roll here.

Dan Marohl ’01, geography and environmental systems, has been chosen as a captain and co-captain of Baltimore Bombers lacrosse by his teammates, the Baltimore Sun reports.

Read the Baltimore Sun story here.

Marohl, who plays forward for the Bombers, previously played with the Ottawa Rebel and the Philadelphia Wings of the National Lacrosse League, as well as the Minnesota Swarm, the Sun writes. Formed in 2012, the Baltimore Bombers will compete this year as part of the North American Lacrosse League.

A member of UMBC’s Athletic Hall of Fame, Marohl was a two-time All American for UMBC in 1999 and 2000 and UMBC’s Outstanding Male Athlete in 2000. He also competed in the North-South All Star game in ’00 and is a member of UMBC’s Lacrosse’s All-Time team. The Edgewater, Md. native is currently fifth on all-time scoring list with 103 goals (11^th ) and 89 assists (third). He competed at both attack and midfield and led UMBC in goal-scoring with 34 as a freshman in 1997. Marohl was a member of the 1998 and 1999 NCAA Division I playoff teams. He produced a pair of 50-point seasons, and was just one of four UMBC Division I players to reach that mark. His brother Steve Marohl ’93, history, is also a member of the UMBC Athletic Hall of Fame for lacrosse.

For international students planning onstudying in the United States, the I-20 formestimates basic mandatory expenses, such as tuition and fees, meal plans, health insurance (if required), and textbooks. But having funds to cover these expenses doesn't help with budgeting for personal expenses, such as clothing, school activities, and entertainment.

Current international students should follow these three tips to budget for and slash the costs of personal expenses—and prospective students should take note, too.

[See how international students can start saving for college.]

1. Reduce academic expenses to boost personal funds:Smart textbook shopping and saving leftover change from purchases add extra money for international students to distribute to other areas of their budgets. With textbooks, often the money used to estimate costs on your I-20 is based on purchasing new books, says Michelle Larson-Krieg, director of international student and scholar services at the University of Colorado—Denver.

However, professors are becoming more cognizant of textbook costs and will often wait to change to a newer edition to increase availability of used books for students, says Pat Kirby, international student coordinator for Missouri's Westminster College.

Students can save hundreds of dollars by a combination of renting textbooks, shopping on websites such as Half.com and Amazon.com, using electronic textbooks, and checking out available textbooks from public libraries, Iowa State UniversityInternational Recruiter Timothy Tesar says.

[Find out how to get cheap college textbooks.]

In addition, save the change in your pocket at the end of each day, says Dottie Durband, director of the Red to Black student money management office at Texas Tech University. Fifty cents stashed for personal expenses five times per week adds up to $40 in a 16-week semester.

2. Budget and shop wisely for clothing: To develop a clothing budget, a student must first consider the amount and type of clothing needed and then subtract already owned items. Durband recommends students shop for new items based on what they don't have from this list: casual clothing for classes; some business casual outfits if seeking a part-time job; and one nice suit or a couple of business professional separates that can be mixed for a university function, religious service, or even a party.

For campus-specific recommendations, Durband recommends E-mailing the student money management center because staff members "can answer questions about clothing needs related to details such as climate, region, prices, places to shop, and local events." To save money on clothing, she suggests "shopping for gently worn clothing or accessories at thrift stores, consignment stores, and local garage sales."

Renuka Raja Rao, India country coordinator for the United States-India Educational Foundation and a former graduate school student at Syracuse University, similarly suggests students shop at discount stores such as Target and Walmart. Off-season sales also provide savings.

[Learn more about cutting U.S. college costs.]

3. Plan social activities carefully: To find out about expenses for social activities on your campus, E-mailing "the student government president or country-specific international student organization is a great way to make a connection and to inquire about costs of living abroad," Durband says.

Students can get advice on strategies for reducing transportation, dining, and entertainment expenses. For instance, Nikita Sacheva, a student from India in her second year at University of Chicago, has managed to never take a cab. She plans most of her off-campus outings based on when the free shuttle her campus offers runs to downtown Chicago.

Other times, she takes public transportation for $2 each way. She also attends a lot of on-campus events within walking distance. "I've been to theatre shows, ballet shows, and dance classes on the weekend and they're a lot of fun," she says. "Some shows have a minimal fee, like a dollar or two." When she dines out with friends, they choose a restaurant they can all afford. Students can view menus online beforehand to check prices.

Budgeting can begin even earlier: Before leaving your home country Rao suggests visiting your local EducationUSA advising center. They keep track of everything from the cost of hamburgers to movie prices near U.S. universities, she says. Pre-departure orientations are also offered to prepare students—and their budgets—for studying and living in the Unites States.

Reyna Gobel, frequently quoted as an expert on student loans and college costs, is the author of "Graduation Debt: How To Manage Student Loans And Live Your Life" and "How Smart Students Pay for School: The Best Way to Save for College, Get the Right Loans, and Repay Debt." She has appeared on PBS's Nightly Business Report and speaks regularly at CollegeWeekLive.

Has the promise of e-government fulfilled expectations? Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, has co-authored a new article in Public Administration Review on the trajectory of local e-government in the United States, comparing it with early predictive writings on the topic.

In “Local E-Government in the United States: Transformation or Incremental Change?” Norris and Christopher G. Reddick (U Texas-San Antonio) describe how local local e-government has not produced the results predicted by early analysts. With limited interactivity, local e-government today is mainly about delivering information and services online; in other words, it is a one-way communication tool. Further, the authors expect this trend to continue for the foreseeable future.

Click to read abstract (open) or full article (requires subscription).

The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture’s oral history project, For All the World to Hear: Stories of the Struggle for Civil Rights, is featured on the front page of this month’s Beacon.

The article explores the nature of the project and features interviews with its coordinator and CADVC Curator of Collections and Outreach, Sandra Abbott, and two speakers, Shirley and John Billy, whose harrowing story is detailed within the piece. The related gallery exhibition currently on display in the CADVC, For All The World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, is also mentioned. Read the article, “Civil Rights Stories Finally Heard“.

For All the World to Hear premiered with a preview of the event at UMBC on November 15, and will continue it’s tour, performing at museums, parks, libraries and college campuses through February. For All the World to Hear returns to UMBC Friday, February 15. Learn more about the project at foralltheworldtohear.org.

Finding Meaning in Math

Michele Osherow admits it: she was a math-phobe.

As a professor of English and the dramaturge for the Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Osherow had managed to avoid the subject— until the Folger chose to stage the play Arcadia, which is based on the lives of mathematicians.

“I was stuck,” she said, “because I did not understand the sophistications of mathematics at all.”

Osherow turned to her UMBC colleague Manil Suri, a professor of mathematics and novelist, for help. She enjoyed their discussions so much that she invited him to talk to the actors; the actors found him so helpful that the theatre invited him to talk to the community; the community’s reaction was so positive that a video of Suri’s presentation has been viewed nearly 7,000 times.

Their joint effort might have ended there had Osherow not been leading UMBC’s Humanities Scholars program at the time, in which freshmen take a seminar that is usually team-taught by faculty in two different disciplines.  “I couldn’t help but wonder if the excitement that I felt hearing mathematics described by Manil might be extended to these freshmen,” Osherow says, acknowledging that she felt some guilt for subjecting unsuspecting humanities students to mathematical concepts.

Suri saw things differently. “I was so excited – these poor humanities students had been deprived of math, and now I was going to bring them mathematics,” he said.

That tension—Suri’s excitement for math combined with Osherow’s discomfort with the subject— created a unique experience for freshmen last fall.

“I was pretty cautious at first,” said Christine Cruz ’15, history and political science.  “As it turned out, math was so much more interesting than I gave it credit for. There is so much about it that actually applies to the humanities, and I discovered many connections between the two.”

Those points of connection were what the professors sought out in the course, starting with the assigned summer reading: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a novel with a self-proclaimed mathematician as the protagonist. If students were surprised to be reading a book that featured math, Suri was in for a surprise as well.

“Suddenly I had thirteen papers to grade. I’ve never graded a paper before; I don’t think I’ve ever even written a paper before.  It was horrifying – I spent three hours and hadn’t even graded one,” he laughed.

But the conflicts between the disciplines went deeper than questions of grading. One issue that confronted the two professors often was that of precision. Suri, as a mathematician, was accustomed to starting with a complicated problem and finding a concrete answer; in the humanities, students are taught to start with a specific source, such as a poem, and finish with a multilayered interpretation.

“Manil would say ‘mathematics is such a precise discipline,’ and I would say, ‘but so is poetry.’  The difference is that with poetry, the precision occurs in the creation of the piece,” said Osherow.

Over the semester, Osherow and Suri exchanged hundreds of e-mails, revised the syllabus and spent their weekends planning the next class.  They explored topics such as patterns in literature, the media representation of mathematicians and how math can tell a story.  Several months after the class ended, there are still topics that can prompt good-natured arguments between them, such as Osherow’s push to include King Lear because of the concept of “nothing,” which recurs throughout the play.

“If you told me a year ago that I would start off a lesson on King Lear by saying ‘King Lear was really bad at math,’ I would have said you were crazy,” Osherow said. Though Osherow included the text partially because, as a Shakespeare scholar, she felt that it was something she understood well, her own comprehension of it evolved throughout the class discussions. Although the professors set out to discuss the play as it related to the mathematical idea of “zero,” they soon discovered that the play also explored human worth and how that worth is calculated.

Exploring themes in the text that were new even to the professors teaching them was both challenging and fascinating for students. “[The King Lear unit] was something I struggled with,” said Desiree Sterling ’15, interdisciplinary studies. “Yet, it was still a connection worth considering and I was inspired by the interesting ideas exchanged during this unit.”

The course wrapped up with students creating projects that combined math and the humanities. For both the students and the professors, the course has affected their thinking in lasting ways. “I think the students figured out a way to exist in a world, and a university, where they’re going to have to approach topics of different degrees of difficulty that are both within and without their field,” said Suri.

Cruz agrees. “The course showed me I have the capacity to understand more about difficult subjects than I gave myself credit for, and it also helped me branch out and think critically in ways that I hadn’t before,” she said.

“It was absolutely a challenge, but I am very proud to have participated in this seminar,” said Osherow. “I think that a place like UMBC, which so fosters interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and research, was the ideal place to do it.”

Read a related article by Osherow and Suri in “The Chronicle of Higher Education”

Below, see a video where Osherow and Suri discuss the course:

(3/13/12)