Alan Kreizenbeck, chair of theater, has been selected by the Japan Studies Association to be a participant in the 2012 Freeman Summer Institute on Japan. The Institute will operate at Hawaii Tokai International College in Honolulu from Sunday, May 20 thru Friday, June 8, 2012.

The workshop aims to provide knowledge about Japan that faculty can use for curriculum development at their home institution. Kreizenbeck will be developing a course that focuses on various forms of Japanese theatre such as Noh, Kabuki, Kyogen and Bunraku.  Most expenses are covered by the Freeman Institute, and additional fees are covered by the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Asian Studies Program.

Visit the latest issue of UMBC Magazine online to read some great new stories — and view exclusive web extras! This issue includes features on:

• UMBC professor of political science Thomas Schaller talking about the success of his book, “Whistling Past Dixie,” and putting the 2012 presidential race into perspective.
• The coolest jobs (you never knew existed) at UMBC, including a glass blower, rat caretaker and more. (Plus, video!)
• We’ve also got a story about one of the biggest controversies in UMBC history: the 1969 literary magazine that featured nude photographs from a rising star in the Washington, DC art scene.

We’ve got some great alumni stories in this issue, too, from a really special alumni story told and drawn by comics whiz Monica Gallagher ’01, as well as UMBC employee George Vitak ’73; TV cameraman and children’s television producer George Stover ’73 and distinguished artist Kelley Bell ’06.

We’ve also got stories about everything from our Shady Grove campus anniversary, to tattoos of the new dog logo, to poet faculty member Michael Fallon, to research that may help children’s vaccinations become more effective, to “How to be Fast,” featuring an interview with track coach David Bobb ’02. We even made a  video in which members of the magazine staff put Coach Bobb’s suggestions to the test!

Read the latest issue of UMBC Magazine.

The rat notices a new person in the room. Rosie Mills notices the rat nervously noticing, and pulls him from his cage, patting him gently on the head. She whispers to him: “I know who is a grump.”

Mills has cared for and monitored the rats used in UMBC’s psychology research for more than 25 years, and has never changed her perfume so as not to scare the skittish creatures. “They’re used to their people. Did you know rats scare easier than birds, even?”

Read more at umbc.edu/magazine.

Sophomore forward Chase Plummer was selected to the America East Conference Second Team, it was announced today at the University of Harford, site of the 2012 championships.

At the end of the regular season, the 6’6″ Plummer was the only player in the conference to be ranked in the top five in both scoring (fourth) and rebounding (fifth).

He produced one of the most prolific sophomore seasons in UMBC’s 26-year NCAA Division I history, scoring 446 points, one shy of the all-time record for a sophomore, set by Peter Mulligan in the 2001-02 campaign.Plummer, who finished the campaign at 15.4 points per game and 7.4 rebounds per contest, also become just the fifth player in school history to record 400 points and 200 rebounds in a single season. He also etched his name in the single season free throw shooting lists, converting the sixth-most (119) in a single season in school history and attempting the third-most (180).

A co-captain as a sophomore, Plummer scored in double figures in 11 consecutive games, from Jan. 17-Feb. 22, averaging 18.4 points per game in that stretch. He had five double-doubles, including a 24-point, 14-rebound effort at Canisius on Feb. 18. His top scoring game was a 28-point effort vs. Hartford on Feb. 7, when he converted 11 of 14 field goal attempts.

Plummer is the seventh Retriever in nine years of UMBC’s play in America East to earn second team honors. Only Jay Greene (2008) and Darryl Proctor (2008, 2009) have been selected to the first team.

From Diane Lee, Dean of Undergraduate Education

Thank you for your outpouring of compassion and support for the Meyerhoff Scholars Program since I shared the sad news about the passing of our colleague LaMont Toliver, who served as the program’s Director and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education.

I want to share details with you about the services for LaMont.

On Wednesday, March 7, a viewing will be held with the Toliver family from 5 to 7 p.m. at March Funeral Home West, located at 4300 Wabash Avenue, Baltimore, 21215. (The funeral home will also be open for viewing hours from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and you can view directions here.)

On Thursday, March 8, a “Family Hour” and viewing will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. at The People’s Community Baptist Church at 31 Norwood Road, Silver Spring, 20905 (view directions here). A service will be held immediately following the viewing.

Members of the UMBC community are welcome to attend these events. Flowers may be sent to the church.

Students also are planning an on-campus memorial service, and I will let you know the details when they are available. Additionally, information will be posted to the Meyerhoff website, where you can also share your memories of LaMont.

UMBC earned an Honorable Mention on the Princeton Review’s list, “Top Undergraduate Schools to Study Video Game Design for 2012.”

The list salutes 32 undergraduate schools and 18 graduate schools for their outstanding game design education programs.

The Princeton Review chose the schools based on a survey it conducted in 2011-12 academic year of administrators at 150 institutions offering video game design coursework and/or degrees in the United States and Canada. The survey which included more than 50 questions, covered a wide range of topics from academics, curriculum, and faculty credentials to graduates’ employment and career achievements. School selections were based on a comprehensive analysis of data that analyzed the quality of the curriculum, faculty, facilities, and infrastructure, plus the school’s scholarships, financial aid and career services.

AP’s latest coverage of Maryland’s same-sex marriage bill focuses on both Gov. O’Malley’s message in signing the legislation and the referendum effort now underway to repeal it.

Donald Norris, professor and chair of public policy at UMBC, suggests that liberal voters who come out to support Obama’s re-election could offset those who turn out in support of the referendum. He further argues that a weak GOP presidential candidate could fail to inspire conservative voters to show up at the polls, decreasing votes for the referendum. Read the full article via USA Today, The Washington Post, NPR or ABC News.

“As Maryland and Washington join six other states in approving same-sex marriage, it’s clear that the era of politicians exploiting the issue for political game appears over,” argues UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller in his latest Salon column.

Schaller traces shifting positions on same-sex marriage over the last 16 years — among both voters and politicians — focusing particularly on conservative Ken Mehlman. A former Republican strategist who managed Bush’s 2004 campaign, Mehlman now argues in favor of same-sex marriage rights, which he sees as consistent with conservative beliefs in the economic freedom, personal responsibility and family values.

Schaller concludes that “despite Santorum’s earnest attempts to reinvigorate culture war politics,” same-sex marriage no longer functions as a wedge issue in national elections.

When he retired this week from Howard County’s fire service, as the department’s deputy chief for operations, Charles Sharpe told the Baltimore Sun that his favorite part of the job was training new emergency responders on special-operations work, which he first studied at UMBC 20 years ago.

Sharpe says his training in water and rope rescues “truly proved to be of tremendous value” during his work as a search manager responding to Hurricane Katrina. He still returns to UMBC’s Emergency Health Services department annually to instruct students in a three-day search and rescue training program, a tradition which he plans to continue this year.

The Hilltop Institute at UMBC — a non-partisan health research organization dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of vulnerable populations — has released a new issue brief in a series examining hospital community benefits after the Affordable Care Act.

The brief, titled “Partnerships for Community Health Improvement,” discusses a variety of options for collaboration in assessment, planning, priority setting and implementation of health improvement initiatives. It also provides examples of diverse collaboration models already in place among public health agencies, nonprofit hospitals and communities, and examines their efficacy as “powerful forces for promoting community health improvement and systemic change.”

This series is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kresge Foundation.