According to the Daily Record, the Maryland Democratic Party is accusing MDPetitions.com (used to help petition three state laws to referendum over the last year) of violating campaign finance laws. Website founder Del. Neil C. Parrott has responded by saying, “Here we have the Maryland Democrat party trying to use scare tactics” to prevent voters from striking down the referenda.

Donald F. Norris, professor and chairman of UMBC’s Department of Public Policy, comments that with so many hotly debated issues on the ballot this year, Maryland is getting a taste of types of accusations that more politically-diverse states experience regularly during the election season. Norris notes that using online tools such as MDPetitions.com to put issues on the ballot is a major way that Maryland conservatives are trying to increase their reach; he predicts that in the next General Assembly session laws will likely be adopted to “restrict the ability to petition legislation to the ballot.”

Norris also discussed early voting and the same-sex marriage referendum in the Gazette.

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the Graduate School, has published 23 poems in the October 2012 issue of The Faculty Voice.

UMBC is pleased to announce today a $2.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build a national model for ensuring more transfer students earn degrees in science, technology, engineering and math. Anne Arundel Community College, the Community College of Baltimore County, Howard Community College and Montgomery College will work with UMBC on the “STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative.”

Sarah Gantz of the Baltimore Business Journal wrote:

“Transfer students account for about 38 percent of UMBC’s new students in STEM fields and largely come from the initiative’s partner community colleges.

“How they succeed depends quite a lot on the transition and this is one of the really important issues of why a standard bridging model doesn’t work,” said Philip Rous, provost at UMBC.”

The foundation’s grant will allow UMBC and its community college partners to:
Better align their STEM curricula, reducing lost credits and the need for students to retake courses. Improve academic and career advising, heavily utilizing online tools.
Create programs, such as peer mentoring and transfer seminars, to better support students during the transition from a two-year to four-year college. Develop a robust “Transfer STEM Scholar Pathway” that lays out a clear program of study, from community college to university to graduation. Disseminate guiding principles and best practices to the national higher education community.

Alexandra Tilsley of Inside Higher Education wrote:

“Transfer students in STEM fields face the any community college transfer might face: courses that don’t line up, credits that don’t transfer, trouble adjusting to the class size or format, a lack of a community feeling. Those problems, however, are often more acute for STEM students. After all, 500-person lecture classes are more common in science departments, and requirements are often more stringent in those fields, too; an engineering student who takes the wrong class in his first year at community college will likely have a harder time finishing a bachelor of science degree in four years than an English student would have with a bachelor of arts.

“There are all sorts of differences,” said Bill LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at UMBC. “And yes, we have students coming from high school, but there are all kinds of first-year programs. Transfer students … come in not knowing exactly what to do because we never gave them the grounding to understand what it takes or what it entails.”

Supported by a three-year grant from the Gates Foundation, this project will not only serve as a national model, but also stands to directly benefit more than 1,000 Maryland students in the next few years and thousands more in years to come.”

In less than ten years, jobs requiring postsecondary education or training will account for more than 60 percent of all new jobs in the United States, and demand for workers in the STEM fields will be particularly acute. Accordingly, Maryland has set a goal of raising the proportion of the state’s adults with college degrees to 55 percent by 2025, with an added emphasis on STEM degrees. The state’s goal mirrors a national one supported through the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative recognizes that shaping the transfer process to better support students is crucial to meeting the nation’s education goals. The initiative builds on the Gates Foundation’s existing postsecondary work, as well as UMBC’s longstanding commitment to helping students of all backgrounds succeed in the sciences. The university’s highly-successful Meyerhoff Scholars Program, for example, serves as a national model for sending students on to earn Ph.D.’s in the STEM fields.

This post originally appeared in UMBC Insights.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is pleased to announce today a $2.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to build a national model for ensuring more transfer students earn degrees in science, technology, engineering and math. Anne Arundel Community College, the Community College of Baltimore County, Howard Community College and Montgomery College will work with UMBC on the “STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative.”

Sarah Gantz of the Baltimore Business Journal wrote:

“Transfer students account for about 38 percent of UMBC’s new students in STEM fields and largely come from the initiative’s partner community colleges.

“How they succeed depends quite a lot on the transition and this is one of the really important issues of why a standard bridging model doesn’t work,” said Philip Rous, provost at UMBC.”

The foundation’s grant will allow UMBC and its community college partners to:
Better align their STEM curricula, reducing lost credits and the need for students to retake courses. Improve academic and career advising, heavily utilizing online tools.
Create programs, such as peer mentoring and transfer seminars, to better support students during the transition from a two-year to four-year college. Develop a robust “Transfer STEM Scholar Pathway” that lays out a clear program of study, from community college to university to graduation. Disseminate guiding principles and best practices to the national higher education community.

Alexandra Tilsley of Inside Higher Education wrote:

“Transfer students in STEM fields face the any community college transfer might face: courses that don’t line up, credits that don’t transfer, trouble adjusting to the class size or format, a lack of a community feeling. Those problems, however, are often more acute for STEM students. After all, 500-person lecture classes are more common in science departments, and requirements are often more stringent in those fields, too; an engineering student who takes the wrong class in his first year at community college will likely have a harder time finishing a bachelor of science degree in four years than an English student would have with a bachelor of arts.

“There are all sorts of differences,” said Bill LaCourse, dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences at UMBC. “And yes, we have students coming from high school, but there are all kinds of first-year programs. Transfer students … come in not knowing exactly what to do because we never gave them the grounding to understand what it takes or what it entails.”

Supported by a three-year grant from the Gates Foundation, this project will not only serve as a national model, but also stands to directly benefit more than 1,000 Maryland students in the next few years and thousands more in years to come.”

In less than ten years, jobs requiring postsecondary education or training will account for more than 60 percent of all new jobs in the United States, and demand for workers in the STEM fields will be particularly acute. Accordingly, Maryland has set a goal of raising the proportion of the state’s adults with college degrees to 55 percent by 2025, with an added emphasis on STEM degrees. The state’s goal mirrors a national one supported through the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The STEM Transfer Student Success Initiative recognizes that shaping the transfer process to better support students is crucial to meeting the nation’s education goals. The initiative builds on the Gates Foundation’s existing postsecondary work, as well as UMBC’s longstanding commitment to helping students of all backgrounds succeed in the sciences. The university’s highly-successful Meyerhoff Scholars Program, for example, serves as a national model for sending students on to earn Ph.D.’s in the STEM fields.

Former UMBC baseball standout Zach Clark ’06, psychology, has been added to the Baltimore Orioles’ roster, the Baltimore Sun reported yesterday.

Clark, who pitched and was a designated hitter for the Retrievers, has spent seven years in the Orioles farm system, most recently with the Bowie Baysox.

Read the Baltimore Sun story here.

He was profiled in a recent UMBC Magazine story here.

Read more about Clark in two recent news releases from UMBC Athletics:

• Clark Throws One Inning, But Western Division Falls in Double-A All Star Game

• Clark Named to Double-A Eastern League All Star Game for Baysox

The U.S. State Department counts Arabic as flat out one of the most difficult languages to learn. For Loren Siebert ’93, computer science, however, the study of a language that started as a hobby has blossomed into a career that blends both tech and teaching skills.

The founder of LinguaStep, an online language learning service praised by students for being both speedy and effective, was featured in Salon last week as part of a story explaining how Siebert has partnered with the U.S. military to develop language programs for soldiers serving in Iraq.

On a lark, the story says, Siebert decided to take lessons in Arabic at the University of California, Berkeley. He found the language beautiful, but incredibly challenging. Finding little in the way of online resources for learning Arabic, he began to develop a software to fill the teaching gap. In 2006, he launched LinguaStep.

“Arabic is a language of memorization,” [Siebert] said. “You just have to drill the words into your head, which unfortunately takes a lot of time.” He thought, “How can I maximize the number of words I learn in the minimum amount of time?”

Read the full story here.

Meet Krista, a sophomore studying animation and interactive media. Someday she hopes to create video games that educate as much as they entertain. And, like so many of her friends in disciplines across the board at UMBC, she is an innovator-in-training.

Krista also supports her education by working part-time as a phonathon caller, so she speaks all the time with alumni about their time at UMBC. She enjoys the stories – and the idea that so many memories have come together to build the UMBC of today.

Watch Krista’s video to learn more about her work, and check out the links below to see her progress in her studies!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7thtRhLKx14]

– Flight Rotoscoping

– Sunflower Seeds

– Krista’s Portfolio

The UMBC women’s soccer team raised $1300 for breast cancer research during its recent “Fight in Pink” contest on Oct. 14 against Stony Brook. The money will go directly to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a foundation that has become the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.

The Retrievers sold t-shirts prior to the event and held a silent auction throughout UMBC’s matchup with the Seawolves, in addition to accepting donations.

“I have to give credit to all the UMBC women’s soccer players who initiated the pink game,” head coach Leslie Wray said. “It was their idea to have a match that promoted breast cancer awareness and to help raise funds for Susan G. Komen by selling “Fight in Pink” t-shirts, that they designed.

“We would like to thanks the UMBC students, parents and fans who bought t-shirts to help women’s soccer raise money for this incredible cause,” Wray continued. “So many women are affected by breast cancer and for many of us it hits very close to home. I am glad the UMBC women’s soccer team could contribute to helping all the brave women who are fighting this disease.”

This story originally appeared on UMBC Retrievers.com.

Today’s Gazette reports on clergy in Prince George’s County who are encouraging parishioners to vote against the referendum to expand gambling in Maryland and in Prince George’s County in particular. But Laura Hussey, assistant professor of political science, remarks in the article that clergy who talk politics from the pulpit are less common than some might expect.

Hussey suggests that this is in part because the multifaceted nature of ballot questions, such as the gambling referendum, can make it difficult to take a clear religious stance. “It’s an issue that doesn’t lend itself to being easily decided by the average voter,” she says.

Update (10/27/2012): In a later Washington Examiner article, Hussey remarked on the meaning this election’s historic ballot measures have for voters in Maryland, an overwhelmingly Democratic state where presidential and senatorial races are usually a foregone conclusion. Hussey said, “Here citizens have an opportunity to weigh in, to cast a vote that means something.”

Exciting news about H1-B and STEM degree seeking students:

Geithner’s India Visit Sparks Hopes For More High-Tech Visas

October 22, 2012

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner recently met in New Delhi with Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, for the third meeting of the India-U.S. Economic and Financial Partnership. [See Joint Statement of Secretary Geithner and Indian Finance Minister Chidambaram at the 2012 U.S.-India Economic and Financial Partnership, 09.Oct.2012, U.S. Department of the Treasury.] U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Reserve Bank of India Governor Subbarao also participated in these discussions, meant to strengthen economic and financial ties between the United States and India.

According to InformationWeek, Secretary Geithner told his Indian counterpart that, "I think it's very likely that over time you will see a significant expansion of the role played by Indians and Indian companies in the American recovery," noting that "I think we're at the early stage, even acknowledging and recognizing the huge benefits to the American economy already of the scale of Indian investment and Indian talent in the United States." [See More Visas for Indian Tech Workers? by Paul McDougall, InformationWeek, 12.Oct.2012.] In India, all this talk of increasing economic integration - and especially of Indian talent - was seen as a signal that U.S. immigration authorities might make more visas available to Indian high-tech workers, InformationWeek reports.

For now, this is little more than wishful thinking, since the USCIS has not announced any intention to expand the H1B program. Moreover, as InformationWeek pointed out, such an expansion is unlikely to come in the heat of a presidential campaign, given the sensitivity of the outsourcing issue.

That said, even wishful thinking can lead to action if enough people want it, and it's not just Indians who want more H1B slots to be made available. American tech companies are pressing Congress to provide more H1B visas, so they can hire more STEM graduates from overseas. Congress, to its credit, is starting to pay attention; there is bipartisan support for some kind of STEM visa reform, but no agreement yet on how to do it. As sports fans say when their team falls short of a playoff berth: maybe next year.

Copyright © 2012, MURTHY LAW FIRM. All Rights Reserved