UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller has published a new commentary in the Baltimore Sun exploring presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s positions on the hot-button issues of abortion rights and the individual mandate for health insurance. In “Rick Santorum’s moral flexibility,” Schaller suggests that the politician has changed his positions on these issues over time not due to personal reflection, but “in the interest of party cohesion.”

Inside Higher Ed reported that on Tuesday, January 10, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and U.S. Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter joined other Obama administration officials and higher education luminaries at the White House to make the case that an engaged citizenry will bolster the country’s democracy and economy.  The meeting follows a report  prepared by the National Task Force on Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement that makes the case for an elevated level of civic knowledge and democratic engagement among college students.

Among the attendees at the White House event was Catie Collins ’12, the UMBC student government association president.  She said that such engagement “can be a great tool for students to get to know the world around them.” Collins serves as the nation’s only undergraduate student on the steering committee of the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP), which has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and Association of American Colleges and Universities to develop this initiative.

The story, “Call for Civic Learning,” appeared on Inside Higher Ed on January 10. Read more about Collins’ attendance at this event here.

Empowering Students as Change Agents

UMBC is one of several universities working closely with the White House to launch a new effort to promote engaged citizenship. The initiative officially kicks off January 10 with “For Democracy’s Future: Education Reclaims Our Civic Mission,” an all-day event at the White House featuring U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and education leaders from across the country.

Catie Collins, UMBC Student Government Association president, serves as the nation’s only undergraduate student on the steering committee of the American Commonwealth Partnership (ACP), which has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education and Association of American Colleges and Universities to develop this initiative. She will attend the White House event, which will also stream live at www.whitehouse.gov/live (2:00-4:00 p.m. ET and 5:30-6:00 p.m., with Secretary Duncan’s remarks).

This will launch what the White House describes as “a national conversation about the importance of educating all students, from grade school to graduate school, for informed and engaged citizenship” (see press release). It also coincides with the release of two reports from the Department of Education, “A Crucible Moment: College Learning and Democracy’s Future” and “Civic Learning and Engagement in Democracy: A Road Map and Call to Action.”

UMBC has emerged as a leader in the movement to energize campus and community engagement. In a time of widespread skepticism about the capacity of our democracy to respond to society’s needs, UMBC programs and partnerships are demonstrating the power of individuals to foster meaningful change and renewal.  

This work is deeply embedded in a campus culture that builds community from diversity and celebrates ingenuity and resourcefulness. Over the past decade, UMBC has developed campus and civic engagement projects that have served as national models, such as Prove It!, featured in a video at the White House event.

Prove It! is an annual, campus-wide contest that funds student-led projects to improve UMBC, such as a program to convert waste oil from campus eateries into biodiesel fuel for university vehicles. Prove It! has been a powerful way to spread our student government’s core message: all UMBC students can apply their skills and energy to addressing community challenges.

In Fall 2012, UMBC will launch BreakingGround, a campaign to connect and make more visible courses, events and activities that embrace a culture of civic agency. BreakingGround will highlight the potential of UMBC students, faculty and staff to become problem solvers, resource creators, coalition builders and agents of social transformation.

To learn more about BreakingGround and UMBC’s role in the American Commonwealth Partnership, contact Communications Manager Dinah Winnick, dwinnick@umbc.edu. Press inquiries for the event “For Democracy’s Future” should be sent to Sara Gast, Sara.Gast@ed-gov. To become involved in the national initiative, visit http://civicyouth.org/democracyu.

(1/9/12)

Constantine Vaporis, professor of history and director of the Asian studies program, has published a new book. Voices of Early Modern Japan: Contemporary Accounts of Daily Life during the Age of the Shoguns is part of  ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Press’s “Voices of an Era” series. 

The book spans an period of Japanese history ranging from the unification of the warring states under Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th century to the overthrow of the shogunate just prior to the mid-19th century opening of Japan by the West.  Much of what we think of as quintessentially Japanese emerged during the time of the Tokugawa shoguns, including Kabuki theatre, sushi, sumo wrestling, woodblock prints and the tea ceremony. Vaporis’s book brings that time to life through the voices of those who experienced it, focusing on the day-to-day lives of both the rich and powerful and ordinary citizens.

The Winter 2012 issue of Issues in Science and Technology includes a writeup describing a project that Lee Boot, associate director of the Imaging Research Center, and IRC staff created for the National Academy of Sciences. The Seeintuit project, an exhibition and data collection center exploring the intuitive processes of the human brain, appears in the Archives section of the magazine and features an image of an artwork by professor Boot that is now in the permanent collection of the NAS. This collaboration between Mr. Boot, the IRC, and the NAS is ongoing (a third project is slated to begin at the end of January 2012) and is aimed at finding new ways to connect the general public with science content.

This issue of Issues magazine should be available online soon at http://www.issues.org/.

Lexie Macchi, a graduate student in the Department of Visual Arts and graduate assistant at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, was profiled in The Village Voice on Thursday, January 5. On page 5 of her interview she discusses her work at the CADVC and her studies at UMBC.

Gary Kachadourian, an MFA student in Imaging and Digital Arts, has received a $25,000 grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Painters and Sculptors Grant Program. The Painters & Sculptors Grant Program was established in 1993 to assist individual artists. The grants are given to acknowledge painters and sculptors creating work of exceptional quality.

Mr. Kachadourian will have work on display at UMBC from January 26 through February 18 at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture’s MFA Imaging and Digital Arts Thesis Exhibition.

UMBC professor Donald Norris, chair of public policy, appeared on WJZ (CBS Baltimore) last night, commenting on Republican Nancy Jacobs’s campaign for the Congressional seat Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger has held since 2003. “It’s very, very hard to beat an incumbent, and I think it’s going to be very hard for anyone–Nancy Jacobs or whomever–to beat Dutch Ruppersberger,” Norris explained. He argued current public sentiment about politics may not be positive, but “it’s less an anti-incumbency mood than it is an anti-Washington, anti-Congress mood.”

Norris also commented in the Gazette on the possibility of state referendums on same-sex marriage and the Dream Act on the same ballot in 2012, suggesting that could benefit supporters of both issues more than opponents.

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school, has published a new book of poetry, “A Scratch On The Wall.”
In his review, Ronald Pies writes: “Robert Deluty’s latest collection takes its cue from William Faulkner’s observation that the writer ‘wants to leave a scratch on [the] wall… that somebody a hundred, or a thousand years later will see.’ Indeed, whether it is the ‘renowned scientist/ requesting to be buried/ holding his reprints’ or ‘the frightened man/ wishing he could be bold/ outside his dreams,’ Deluty’s memorable poetic characters often embody the deep desire to ‘leave a scratch’ on the wall of immortality. As a writer and poet more aware of life’s brevity than most, Deluty has already left much more than a ‘scratch’ on that wall. His gemlike poems inscribe both our darkest fears and fondest hopes—and do so with humor and empathy for the human predicament.”

Copies of “A Scratch On The Wall,” as well as of Deluty’s other books, are on sale at the UMBC Bookstore.

While a student at UMBC, Hasina Jamal Stearns ’09, computer engineering, founded the publishing company Fred & Barrel, Inc.  Now, the company’s first book, Guy, a philosophical play by Cinna, is available in the UMBC bookstore. Stearns is the editor-in-chief and illustrator.

Guy—a hybrid novel, play, and movie script—tells the story of Guy, a tall handsome tennis player who thinks deeply about mankind and life. At least, he does in the first act. He would continue to ruminate about such things if he weren’t so swamped with homework and projects. He spends most of his time in an old children’s insane asylum, which is now being used as a studio and research center by architecture students. One day, he decides not to return to campus and instead opts let his whim take him to wherever he is destined.

Other UMBC alumni contributed to the book: Truc Nguyen ’07 helped connect Stearns to its designer; Andrew Shoenfeld ’07 took the cover and illustration photos; Tim Brosius ’08 created the website and Hariklia Karagiannis ’09 edited the website.

Stearns is currently a graduate student at American University studying producing for film and video. One of her inspirations for this course of study is this book, which she hopes to turn into a movie.

Another book that Stearns hopes to eventually publish was written Jamie C. Heard, a UMBC student who passed away in 2008. She is working with Issa Legall ’09 to make this a reality.

– Originally published on UMBC Insights