Maria Satyshur ’11 is helping keep UMBC and our amazing students in the headlines. This recent grad just published an article in the Arbutus Patch. The article profiles two UMBC students who cycled across the United States to support the fight against cancer. From the article:

Now that summer is coming to an end, most of us are reminiscing about lazy afternoons at the pool or our favorite vacation spot. But UMBC students Omar Bukhari and Adam Gerber are reflecting on their amazing 70-day journey, biking 4,000 miles from Baltimore to San Francisco to help support the fight against cancer with an organization called 4k for Cancer.

Read the full article.

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From UMBC Magazine Fall 2011: How to Grow Your Big Idea.  Featuring Dean Bill LaCourse, Vivian Armour, and Gib Mason. Video by Jenny O’Grady.

From President Freeman Hrabowski and Interim Provost Philip Rous

We are delighted to let you know that UMBC has again been recognized as a national leader in innovation and undergraduate teaching in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges guide.

For the third year in a row, UMBC tops the U.S. News ranking of national universities everyone should be watching—a designation recognizing that we consistently find new ways to improve students’ educational experiences.

U.S. News also ranks UMBC fourth on the list of top national universities “where the faculty has an unusual commitment to undergraduate teaching.” UMBC is tied with Yale University and ranks just ahead of Brown and Stanford universities.

Our faculty and staff lead the way nationally, finding new ways to understand and enhance student learning and to engage students in the process of discovery.

For example, the University has redesigned its foundational science, engineering, and psychology courses to promote student engagement. The changes have not only produced higher pass rates, but also have encouraged more students to prepare for careers in these fields. Model scholars programs for undergraduates in the humanities, arts, and social sciences also promote engaged learning.

The culture of innovation at UMBC is possible because of the hard work of our faculty and staff, who strongly support the success of our students, and because of our students, who inspire us every day. This national recognition also results from the support of the Governor, the Legislature, and our alumni and friends.

Thank you for all you do to support UMBC.

UMBC public policy faculty have offered valuable perspectives on local politics in the lead-up to the Baltimore City primary election, appearing in print media as well as on TV and radio. Most recently, Eric Zeemering, a new assistant professor of public policy, spoke about the role of Baltimore’s city council president on WYPR. He noted, “a lot of power can come to an individual through their ability to persuade and lead other people towards decisions. And the council president can exercise that persuasive power both on the City Council as a whole and on the Board of Estimates.”

Donald Norris also appeared on WYPR, discussing the always-contentious issue of redistricting on the program “Maryland Morning” with Todd Eberly, a UMBC alumnus and now assistant professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Norris also reflected for the Baltimore Sun on the final push for votes in city’s mayoral primary as well as early fundraising by Howard County Executive Ken Ulman ahead of the next statewide election.

Joseph Schmitz ’80, sociology, a former principal and 20-year veteran within the Harford County Public School System, has been named executive director of high school performance for that system, a press release from HCPS announced.

According to the Harford County Dagger website:

Mr. Schmitz served as assistant principal of Edgewood High School before being promoted to principal of Edgewood High and then Fallston High schools. Prior to his administrative experience, Mr. Schmitz taught at Edgewood High for six years.

“Mr. Schmitz has served in administrative positions at the high school level for 13 years,” said Harford County Superintendent of Schools Robert M. Tomback, who recommended his hiring to the Board. “He will bring the knowledge and experience necessary to be successful in this position.”

Read the full story here.

Read more alumni stories on Retriever Net, UMBC’s online alumni community.

From Freeman Hrabowski and Philip Rous

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the campus is noting the significance of this time in several ways. Our community is remembering the victims and the far-reaching impact of the attacks with a number of campus events designed to support reflection, service, and healing.

For those who may need support, counselors will be available in the Counseling Center from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Monday to talk with people about feelings related to 9/11.

The campus remains vigilant about suspicious activities and threats. The UMBC Police are regularly in contact with federal agencies and receive daily briefings from Maryland public safety officials regarding terrorist activities and threats. Currently, there are no credible threats against any Maryland colleges and universities.

Our campus has an emergency preparedness plan in place, and we encourage you to think about your own personal plans as well. A first step is to make sure that you are signed up to receive University text alerts on a mobile device. To register, please log on to your myUMBC (http://my.umbc.edu) account and click the “alerts” tab at the top.

It has been a big week for UMBC’s social science faculty in the national media. A new feature in the Chronicle for Higher Education highlights UMBC’s Erickson School, noting its success with attracting students to careers in aging services through new and engaging multimedia and interdisciplinary courses. Dean Judah Ronch says the number of students enrolled in aging-related courses at UMBC has grown from 290 to 750 over the past two years. Program graduates have moved on to work in industries from consumer goods to travel and transportation, in addition to traditional sectors like senior housing and medical services.

Also this week, UMBC economic professor Dennis Coates offered his expertise in sports economics for a Washington City Paper story on diminished seating at FedEx Field. Don Norris, public policy department chair, reflected on redistricting in Maryland for the Washington Post, arguing that those managing the process have placed political self-interest ahead of fairness and civic values: “It’s not about good government. It’s not about democracy. It’s about control.”

Shaped by 9/11

In the summer of 2001, Rebecca Adelman was fresh out of college, working a temp job and searching for a sense of direction. When terrorists struck the World Trade Center on September 11, the heart-wrenching footage of the wreckage, victims and first responders affected her deeply. �I felt this sense of urgency,� Adelman says. �I needed to make some decisions about what was going to happen in my life.�

Ten years and one Ph.D. later, Adelman explores imagery of the War on Terror as an assistant professor of media and communication studies at UMBC.

It�s often said that the events of September 11 changed the course of history. To some UMBC faculty, particularly those early in their careers, the attacks also changed the course of their life�s work.

As the UMBC community remembers the 9/11 attacks through campus programming and reflection, it also notes how those events fundamentally impacted UMBC students, faculty and staff across all disciplines and university departments.

Seth D. Messinger, associate professor of anthropology, was a Columbia University Ph.D. student at the time of the attacks. He considered a career studying addiction, until hundreds of veterans began returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq as amputees. �In 2004, my recollection is that there were 60 service members with traumatic limb loss,� says Messinger. �Today that number is over a thousand.�

Messinger specializes in the social reintegration of US military service-members following traumatic injury. His work explores how veterans recovering from limb loss refashion their senses of self and identity during rehabilitation. He asks, �How do you know you�re well when you�ve lost a limb?�

Jeffrey T. Mitchell, clinical professor of emergency health services, focuses on related questions. Namely, how can we support the mental health of first responders in crisis situations? Mitchell has become an authority on psychological first aid and stress management for emergency response personnel. His writing addresses topics ranging from suicide prevention in the military, to mitigating the psychological effects of terrorism, to mental health care in police departments after line-of-duty deaths.

Another UMBC professor developed a process that helps those first responders act more quickly. When letters containing a mysterious white powder showed up at media and government offices in the weeks after September 11, it took authorities about 48 hours to determine if the substance was anthrax. Today, a new process developed by Chris Geddes, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, with colleagues at UMBC�s Institute of Fluorescence, can quickly identify bioagents such as anthrax and salmonella. (see a video of the process here)

The impacts of the 9/11 attacks are not just far-reaching�nationally and globally�they are also deeply felt throughout the UMBC community. The UMBC Office of Student Affairs will host a series of commemoration events on campus to provide students with an opportunity to remember and reflect. For information on these programs, including a service project to benefit U.S. troops and a film screening with facilitated discussion, contact Fritzie Charne-Merriwether.

Read more about the events UMBC has planned to commemorate the anniversary.

(9/6/11)

A team of UMBC researchers has received a four-year, $1.8 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop an online infrastructure intended to vastly improve how scientists study land change. The new toolbox aims to allow researchers to rapidly share, compare and synthesize local studies and combine them with global datasets of human and environmental variables. A planned social-networking component would also allow researchers to more easily find one another and collaborate.

The simplest description: “A globally relevant Google scholar,” says Erle C. Ellis, the principal investigator on the grant and associate professor of geography and environmental systems at UMBC.

The toolbox, a “Global Collaboration Engine” (GLOBE), will facilitate the growth of land change science, an emerging field of study that is focused on understanding how human use of land affects the terrestrial biosphere, atmosphere and other Earth systems. You can read more about the work here, in Ellis’ own words.

The project is highly interdisciplinary, involving environmental, geographic, computer and information scientists at UMBC. Joining Ellis on the research team as co-principal investigators are UMBC researchers Tim Finin, professor of computer science and electrical engineering; Wayne G. Lutters, associate professor of information systems; Tim Oates, associate professor of computer science and electrical engineering; and Penny Rheingans, professor of computer science and electrical engineering and director of the Center for Women and Information Technology.

The University of Pennsylvania Law School reports that Christopher DiPompeo ’04, economics, attained a highly-coveted clerkship in the U.S. Supreme Court for Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. He started his clerkship in July.

DiPompeo earned his law degree from UPenn in 2009, having served nearly half of his law school career as editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Read the full article here.