Most members of the UMBC community who drive between the university’s main campus and its south campus don’t know that they’re passing a bit of Baltimore’s cultural and religious history along the way. Tucked on a hill near south campus is the motherhouse of the Oblate Sisters of Providence – a Catholic religious community founded in the United States by women of African descent.

During her studies at UMBC, Sharon Knecht ’99 and ’03 M.A., history, became involved in helping the Oblates tell their uniquely American story. In the following essay, Knecht shares her experience as an archivist with the order:

Members of the Oblate Sisters of Providence (OSP) have lived in the Baltimore suburbs surrounding UMBC since the 1930s, decades before the university itself arrived on the scene. As a longtime resident, I knew that this order of women religious of African descent existed here. I would see them from time to time— in the local shops or in the post office—and wonder about them.

Eight years ago, however, I was led, through God’s providence, to become part of the OSP’s extended family. The master of arts degree in historical studies at UMBC requires students to complete two internships. Among the possibilities offered to me for an internship was working in the archives of the Oblate Sisters of Providence—and the chance to satisfy my curiosity about these nuns.

I called the order’s archivist, Sr. Reginald Gerdes, OSP, and applied for the post. Her acceptance of my application in 2002 commenced an amazing journey which continues to this day.

The order of the Oblate Sisters of Providence is the oldest order of women religious of African descent in the world. Father James Joubert, a French-born Sulpician priest, and Mother Mary Lange, a West Indies immigrant, created the new group in 1829 in Baltimore with a mandate to teach and care for African-American children. The Oblates opened their first school, St. Frances Academy, in 1828, and it is the oldest continuously operating black Catholic school in the United States.

From this humble beginning, the Oblate Sisters of Providence grew into a community of over 350 sisters who served in the order’s missions in eighteen states, several Caribbean countries and Nigeria. Over the past 180 years the order’s members have served their communities by creating and maintaining schools and orphanages and providing other social services. The archives of the order are located at the Oblate Sisters’ motherhouse, which is adjacent to UMBC’s South Campus. It is a repository for a variety of invaluable historical materials about the Roman Catholic Church in the United States: organizational records, Catholic African-American periodicals and newspapers and over 600 rare books dating from the late 1600s to the 1840s. The collection also includes a variety of materials detailing the Oblates’ activities in their missions throughout the United States, Central America and Cuba. These manuscripts have been useful to a variety of academic, religious and local history scholars, as well as genealogists and students.

Taken together, the collection is an amazing treasure trove. But two elements of it grabbed my attention from my first days working in the archives. The first is an extensive collection of 19th and 20th century photographs that document the lives and labor of African-Americans. The second is an impressive collection of eight 19th century needlework samplers created by African American schoolgirls.

The conservation and preservation of both collections became my highest priority. In 2003, I began writing grant proposals to the National Publications and Records Commission to request funding to create an electronic finding aid and a searchable database of archival images. I also pursued and won permission from the Oblate Council to assemble a book to tell the order’s story using photographs from the collection. With preliminary funding from actor Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, I selected 250 images and secured a publisher for Oblate Sisters of Providence: A Pictorial History, which was published in 2007 and is close to selling out its second printing.

Saving the eight schoolgirl samplers for future generations was also a priority. Through generous donations from needlework guild and private donors, all the samplers are stabilized, encased in archival cartons, and stored in climate-and-humidity-controlled conditions.

My relationship with the Oblates has continued long past my internship, and has blossomed into a career and a vocation. My work at the motherhouse includes helping the Oblate sisters with their computers and marketing items on the community’s website.

Over the years, the number of sisters in the order has dwindled to 75 women. But though their numbers are diminished, the members of the Oblate community’s faith, and strength, and determination to do the will of God have not faltered.

When the recent financial crisis interrupted construction of a new addition on the motherhouse property to house the elderly and infirm sisters, the Oblates moved forward and found new and different ways to support their needs and serve their community.

If the history contained in the archives where I work every day tells us anything, it is that struggles and challenges are not new to the Oblates. That same history also reveals that hard work and a belief in God’s providence can see the order through this crisis as it has so many times before in the Oblates’ 180 years of caring and service.

When Reid Thompson ’85, biological sciences, was named chairman of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Neurological Surgery this past fall, it was yet another big step forward on a road that began at UMBC.

The recipient of the Outstanding Alumnus in Natural and Mathematical Sciences in 2008, Thompson credits UMBC with giving him a wide-ranging store of knowledge that has helped to shape him as a surgeon, a researcher and an administrator.

“One of the things I learned at UMBC was a different way of looking at the world,” says Thompson. “A broad way of looking at the world that comes from liberal education.” Thompson’s encounters with the broader world began before UMBC. He came to university from Deerfield Academy, a New England prep school, and he had spent a good amount of time in his teenage years in Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia, where his father was working as a plant geneticist.

He was planning on attending Emory University when his parents – who had relocated to Maryland – asked him to consider a school closer to home. UMBC’s fledgling Honors Program – now the Honors College – was one attraction. But it was a prominent reminder of Indonesia in the form of UMBC’s Gamelan Angklung – an ensemble that played traditional Indonesian music – that really sealed the deal.

“I told Honors Program assistant director Barbara Ireland that I’d spent time in Indonesia,” says Thompson, “and she said that there was a really interesting guy at UMBC named Mantel Hood, who ran the ethnomusicology program. And Mantel had been the first person to bring the Indonesian Gamelan to this country – first at UCLA and then at UMBC. It was one of the only Indonesian Gamelans in the country. At UMBC. I had studied Gamelan in Indonesia, so it seemed like the stars were aligning.”

Thompson recalls that he was a student with a taste for philosophy and literature as well as biology. UMBC and the Honors Program also gave him early chances to acquire leadership skills as the student representative on curricular committees, where he remembers that campus leaders were eager to hear student points of view. “I remember sitting around a table with department chairs,” says Thompson, “and saying to myself: ‘They actually care what I think.’”

But it was the study of the human brain that most fascinated Thompson as an undergraduate. And when he finally settled on pursuing that study via a career in medicine, Honors Program assistant director Barbara Ireland (whom Thompson cites as a key mentor) arranged for Thompson to work in The Johns Hopkins University laboratory of one of America’s leading neuroscientists, Joseph T. Coyle, who eventually left Hopkins to become Eben S. Draper Chair of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School. An undergraduate’s path to a career as a neurosurgeon began to open up.

The lure of neurosurgery, says Thompson, is the chance to work closely with the brain itself on a daily basis. “To be in an operating room and see the human brain is an unforgettable thing the first time you see it,” Thompson recalls. “As a neurosurgeon, every day I get to see the brain. Neurosurgeons get to feel the human brain, and marvel at it.”

Thompson took his medical degree from Hopkins in 1989. In his career, Thompson has excelled as a surgeon, a researcher, and an administrator. An expert in surgical treatments for patients with complex brain and spinal cord tumors, Thompson was recruited to Vanderbilt by George S. Allen, chairman of the university’s neurological surgery department, to become both vice chairman of the university’s neurological surgery department and the head of its Brain Tumor Center. When Allen retired late last year, Thompson was promoted to chairman of the department.

Thompson admits that juggling surgery, research and administration is not always the easiest of tasks. “For a surgeon,” he says, “there’s always a gravitational pull to the operating room.”

But his opportunities to develop as a researcher and an academic leader have led him to discover that “I can see a larger picture. I’m seeing what it means to have your imprint on a department, and on a new generation of neurosurgeons.”

Thompson insists that his experiences at UMBC – the study of liberal arts as well as sciences – have also influenced his view of what’s needed to excel as a neurosurgeon. “You need to master a certain technical level of skill to do what we do,” he says. “But I think there’s more to it than that. There’s talking to patients about what could be potentially a fatal diagnosis. Caring for patients in a meaningful way requires more than technical skill.”

— Richard Byrne ’86

Gamers Delight

A video game called “Closure” featuring a mysterious world plunged into darkness co-created by UMBC sophomore Jon Schubbe won an Independent Games Festival (IGF) award for “Excellence in Audio.”

The game was also nominated in two other categories out of six possible IGF honors: “Technical Excellence” and the “Nuovo Innovation Award.” Closure was co-created by Tyler Glaiel, a student at Digipen Institute of Technology in Washington state and Chris Rhyne, a game developer from California.

Closure is a 2-D puzzle platform game in which parts of the world in blackness don’t exist physically. Your character illuminates his immediate surroundings by carrying small orbs of light. Everything in light exists and everything in darkness is a void.

“It is impossible to overstate how big a deal this is. The IGF is the Sundance Film Festival of video game development and winning this award makes Jon a leading practitioner in his field,” said Neal McDonald, assistant professor of animation and interactive media in UMBC’s Department of Visual Arts.

Schubbe, a visual arts major with a concentration animation and interactive media,  has been creating his own video games since he was 13. Winning the IGF award means he and his co-creators will likely be able to create a downloadable version playable on one of the three major video gaming consuls – the X-Box 360, Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii.

It’s a major coup for an undergraduate student, but Schubbe said that doesn’t mean he is aspiring to work for a major video game developer. His dream is to do art and animation for small independent game developers or small animation studios.

“In the game industry now a lot of the indie developers are afraid that the mainstream developers are pushing the market towards a Hollywood-style feel for just about every game,” said Schubbe. “Keeping creative control as an independent developer allows you to create games that don’t feel like they were churned out on an assembly line.”

Watch a demo video of “Closure” online.

(5/14/10)

“Playing Pericles”

In UMBC’s version of “Pericles,” fields of corn are created with corn flakes, a watering can easily floods the town and toys come to life – all while the world is magnified in abstract images on screens in the Imaging Research Center (IRC). “Playing Pericles,” a joint collaboration by the IRC and Departments of English and Theatre, asks its audience: What does it mean to play – and – do you remember how?

Funded through a grant from the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship, the three groups have been working on the production since early September 2009. Quickly discovering the playful nature of the play, they decided to take a different approach to a Shakespeare classic.

“I used to watch my son and daughter play with toys, and they would just make up stories that would go on for hours,” said Alan Kreizenbeck, associate professor of theatre. “It seems like ‘Pericles’ was kind of like that. There are parts where you can see that Shakespeare is inventing stuff, so I thought wouldn’t it be cool to take toys, and make this like kids playing with toys.”

While Kreizenbeck thought of acting possibilities with toys, Assistant Professor of English Michelle Osherow turned her students into dramaturges during the fall semester, working tirelessly on understanding the play. They prepared study guides for actors, helped edit the script accordingly and edited videos on the idea of play that will be featured before the show begins.

“You had to be really open-minded to sign up for this project,” said Osherow. “My students wanted to help make Shakespeare more accessible and friendly, and through exploration and imagination, they were able to achieve that.”
Eric Smallwood, IRC technical director, worked on images for the screens with the help of students. The pictures chosen mirror the action taking place in the play, sometimes magnifying the toy in an actor’s hand or displaying a real cornfield or flood. Hoping to better convey moments, the screens enhance the understanding of this text.

“All students involved in this have really gone the distance and embraced the toys and playful nature we’re taking on,” said Osherow. “This is not an easy Shakespeare play, and they have all had such a collaborative spirit.”

Osherow, Kreizenbeck and Smallwood feel that the collaborative project has made them each more creative and playful personally. They are hoping to work together on more projects in the future.

“I’d love to think about further collaborations and fresh ways to present Shakespeare to people who are afraid of his texts,” said Osherow.

Even after the play is performed, “Playing Pericles” will live on. The performance will be videotaped and distributed to educational classrooms, serving as a tool for deeper understanding about social change using Shakespeare’s texts.

Be sure to attend a performance of “Playing Pericles” at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 7, and Saturday, May 8, or on Sunday, May 9, at 4 p.m. All performances will be in the Information Technology and Engineering Building, Room 108 (the IRC). Admission is free with one canned item to benefit Food on the 15th, a community service project that delivers groceries to economically challenged seniors in Howard County. Reservations are strongly encouraged as the IRC will only seat 40-50 people. Call the Theatre Box Office for more information at ext. 5-2476.

(5/3/10)

Pictures of Progress

From the gruesome photograph of a lynching victim to the moving footage of Jackie Robinson’s first major league game, the images of the Civil Rights era motivated people to act, whether those actions were ignited by injustice or inspired by achievement. Yet there had never been a comprehensive examination of the ways images mattered throughout the struggle.

Six years ago, Maurice Berger, senior research scholar at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture (CADVC)  at UMBC, set out to change that.  With the backing of his colleagues at CADVC and two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Berger began sorting through visual artifacts from the Civil Rights era to find those that best told the story of the decades-long struggle for Civil Rights.

“I have never felt more passionate about a project,” Berger said.

Now approximately 230 photographs, objects and video clips have come together to form For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights, an exhibition co-organized by CADVC and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture that will open at New York’s International Center for Photography on May 21.

“My father was a Civil Rights supporter before most white people even acknowledged the movement, so my initial inspiration comes from the dialogue I had with him as a young child,” said Berger. He has been studying and writing about race relations in many contexts—ranging from the historical to the personal—for over 25 years.

For All the World to See is the first exhibition to showcase the visual artifacts of the Civil Rights movement.  During the era represented in the exhibition, from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, images were becoming an important part of society: photo magazines grew popular and people increasingly got news from their televisions. These mediums not only reported on events, but reflected and influenced society’s perception of the movement with how they chose to present African Americans.

“I want viewers to see that efforts to combat racism and segregation during the Civil Rights era were waged not only with fiery speeches and nonviolent protests but also, significantly, with pictures, forever changing the way political movements fought for visibility and recognition,” said Berger.

During the time Berger spent working on the exhibition, he was also writing a book of the same name. The book, which was published this year by Yale University Press, provides a historical background for the images and provided the script for the exhibition.  “The exhibition and the book influenced each other in innumerable ways,” said Berger.

The exhibition was designated a “We the People” project by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The goal of the “We the People” initiative is to support projects that explore significant events in America’s history and advance knowledge of the issues that define America.

For All the World to See will be on view at the International Center of Photography until September 12.  Then, it will head to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History from June to October of 2011.  The exhibition’s last stop will be at UMBC, from September 2012 until January 2013.

(5/7/10)

Excellence Across Disciplines

On May 6, UMBC will become home to an honor society that reflects the diversity of student interests when the newest chapter of Phi Kappa Phi is installed.

“Phi Kappa Phi is the oldest all-discipline honor society in the country,” explained Beth Wells, assistant vice provost for academic affairs. It accepts students of any major who are in the top 10 percent of their senior class or the top seven and a half percent of the junior class. Distinguished graduate students, alumni, faculty and staff can also be invited to join.

Phi Kappa Phi members are eligible for fellowships, grants and awards through the society, which awards over $800,000 annually. “There’s quite a bit of support. The enterprising student can really do well,” said Marilyn Demorest, professor of psychology.

UMBC students have traditionally been invited to membership in Phi Kappa Phi through the University of Maryland chapter, which covered five of the University System of Maryland’s institutions. But because chapter leadership was spread over the five schools, not many events took place on each campus. And when it came time to nominate students for fellowships, the chapter was limited to sending just one nominee.

The idea to create separate chapters was introduced last year, and the old University of Maryland Chapter was closed to new members last June. This spring, four new chapters will replace it. UMBC’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi will be known as the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campuses (UMB-UMBC) chapter, a designation that will be shared with University of Maryland Baltimore.

“We did go through a formal process of submitting a petition, creating bylaws and identifying potential charter members. It was rather abbreviated because they already had a history with each of the campuses,” said Demorest.

The 22 charter members for the new chapter include President Freeman Hrabowski and other campus leaders from UMBC and UMB. Over 700 students and alumni have been invited to be initiated at the installation ceremony, which will be held in the University Center Ballroom, of which about 500 are UMBC students. This includes the students who became eligible this semester, as well as students who became eligible after the University of Maryland chapter was closed.

As students are initiated, they will be invited to sign a chapter membership book, which the charter members will also sign. (UMBC alumni who were initiated into Phi Kappa Phi under the former chapter will remain members of that chapter, or they can change their chapter designation by calling 800-804-9880, ext. 11).

Now that UMBC is home to a Baltimore-specific chapter, organizers hope that Phi Kappa Phi will be more active on campus. Potential events include bringing speakers to campus and research presentations by members. “These are things we can do now that we have more than one person on the campus involved,” said Demorest.

(4/30/10)

Research, Scholarship and Creativity

Virtual dance spaces. Why people drink diet coke, fail to lose weight and continue buying it. The implications and effects of male breast cancer on survivors. The reduction of cosmic radiation among NASA. astronauts. 

This is just a sampling of the topics to be presented at two upcoming UMBC events that celebrate the research and creative achievements of undergraduate and graduate students.

The 14th annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD)  will be held Wednesday, April 28, followed by the 32nd annual Graduate Research Conference (GRC) on Friday, April 30. Both events recognize the research and creative achievements of undergraduate and graduate students by displaying their innovative and groundbreaking work.

Presented by the Office of Undergraduate Education, URCAD gives students valuable experience preparing for graduate school or future careers, and in many cases, competitive grants of up to $1,500 over an academic year to support selected work. More than 200 presentations or performances are scheduled for this year’s event.

“URCAD is truly a celebration of the robust quest for research and creative achievement that is a hallmark of UMBC,” said Joseph Morin, chair of the URCAD Faculty Committee and associate chair and lecturer of music. “All disciplines are represented including the virtual world where, this year, visitors can travel as an avatar through student-designed art galleries. The size, scope and depth of URCAD makes it clear that UMBC provides ‘outstanding opportunities for undergraduate research and creative projects’ as reported by U.S. News & World Report.”

Sponsored by the Graduate Student Association, the GRC on Friday, April 30, will include more than 110 graduate student oral and poster presentations ranging from gerontology to molecular biology. This year’s GRC keynote speaker is Tamara Lewis ’92, psychology, a member of the UMBC Alumni Board. Lewis is an education program specialist at the Maryland State Department of Education in the Division of Accountability and Assessment.

“With more than 110 presentations, graduate students are eager to share their research with their colleagues, faculty members and alumni,” said Jenness Hall, executive director of the GSA. “It is a wonderful day to show off these bright, articulate researchers.”

Selected highlights of 2010 URCAD and GRC presentations and performances include:

• Antioxidants, such as Vitamin C, minimize and prevent the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and heart disease. However, Phillip Kang ’11, chemical engineering, has found that current methods of determining antioxidant amounts in supplements and food may not reflect bodily responses. His research aims to better categorize antioxidants, allowing diseases to be treated in a more specific and effective manner.
• Cara Gibson ’10, American studies, examined the way Diet Coke is marketed as a “health” product in an increasingly unhealthy society. Focusing on advertisements, she studied who the marketing campaigns are targeted towards and what keeps customers coming back for more even as they fail to lose weight.
• While in Argentina, Vivian Ekey ’11, Africana studies, observed Afro-Argentine cultural events and conducted interviews with Afro-Argentine leaders. She used her research to identify factors that unite and divide groups of African descent in Argentina, and her conclusions bring to light difficulties that Afro-Argentine leaders may face when speaking on behalf of a diverse population.
• In his presentation about preimplantation genetic screening (reproductive technology marketed toward infertile couples), Richard Blissett ’10, bioinformatics and computational biology, argues that until the method is proven effective, it should only be offered in clinical trials. Until then, there should be greater efforts to communicate properly with patients and clinicians about risks.
• NASA predicts that, during a three-year trip to Mars, astronauts will be exposed to various types of cosmic radiation. Lauren Long ’10, psychology,and Kirsty Carrihill-Knoll ’10, management of aging services,tested this theory with radiated rats, and information gained may lead to improved methods of protections against cosmic radiation.
• By using the program Active Worlds, Franki Trout ‘12, dance, Danielle Viens-Payne ’10, modern languages and linguistics, and Kelly-Lynne Russell ’11, English, constructed an art exhibition in a virtual space that explores the idea of dance as something in which everyone participates in every moment of the day. Blurring the line between dancer and non-dancer, visitors must strain, bend and stretch their bodies in different positions to view works of art throughout the exhibition.
• Michelle Renay Wilson ’10, visual arts,reveals the true story of three male breast cancer survivors. Through photos and written narratives, Wilson records the physical and psychological effects of this disease, and conveys the importance of awareness and early detection as critical to long-term survival.

Solid Gold Scholars

Two UMBC students were awarded Barry M. Goldwater scholarships for the 2010-2011 academic year. The Goldwater scholarship is awarded to sophomores and juniors who have excelled in science, mathematics or engineering.

Nathaniel Kim ’11, B.S. Chemistry and B.A. Political Science, and Geoffrey Clapp ’11, B.S. Mathematics and Computer Science, have both done substantial amounts of research during their time at UMBC. Both students will be presenting at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day on Wednesday, April 28.

Research is an essential part of the Goldwater application: each applicant must draft a research proposal in order to be considered for the award (they do not have to complete the research). Students must also be nominated for the award through their institution. A maximum of 300 awards are given out each year. This year, 278 awards were distributed among 1,111 applicants.

“Nate and Geoff had very solid applications, and they had great letters of recommendation. We had no reservations whatsoever about recommending them,” said Simon Stacey, associate director of the honors college, who helps to shepherd students through the process of applying for prestigious scholarships.

Though both students excel in their fields, they have very different interests and goals.

Kim hopes to earn his Ph.D. in chemistry and to one day become a university professor. “The support of my mentors has been integral to my success, and that really has put the impetus on me to give back to others,” he said.

He admits that he isn’t sure exactly where his political science degree fits into his future plans, but he can foresee a day when his two passions may intersect. “There aren’t enough scientists writing policy, and there aren’t enough politicians who know about the science of what they’re talking about,” he said.

Clapp plans to earn a Ph.D. in applied mathematics.

“I thought about applying for the Goldwater in my sophomore year. Then I looked at the research requirements and thought I had a lot of work to do, so I pretty much dedicated the last year to advancing my research,” said Clapp. The research outlined in his application is the same research that he will be presenting at URCAD: a mathematical study of how lamprey eels move.

“The hard work that they’ve done for the past two or three years is what gets them the scholarship,” said Stacey. “We know what a winning candidate looks like, and I think UMBC is a place that can have even more than two a year.” An institution can nominate up to four students each year.

The scholarship comes with up to $7,500 that the recipients can put towards tuition, housing and even books. But for both Kim and Clapp, the prestige of winning the award—which is one of the few awards that undergraduate students in these fields can earn in order to set themselves apart from their peers—is more valuable than the monetary prize.

And for Clapp, there was an even sweeter reward than money or recognition. “My parents were pretty amazed,” he said. “They got me an ice cream cake.”

(4/23/2010)

Sweat Free

Sweatshirts, hats and shorts. Jackets, T-shirts and pants. UMBC logo merchandise is now made under fair labor practices, thanks to the Fair Labor Standards Advisory Group (FLSAG). The group, appointed by President Freeman Hrabowski, is chaired by Assistant to the President and Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations Lisa Akchin and includes representatives of campus senates and members of the UMBC Solidarity Coalition, who brought this issue to campus administrators.

As a result of FLSAG deliberations, UMBC has adopted a code of conduct describing the fair labor standards required by vendors producing merchandise. The full code of conduct can be seen here. All merchandise for fall 2011 orders will be subject to the new code. UMBC has also joined 180 colleges and universities as a member of the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), a non-profit governmental organization that assists campuses with enforcement of manufacturing codes of conduct through education, compliance monitoring and remediation negotiations. 

“Like much clothing manufactured today, university-logo merchandise is usually produced in overseas factories,” said Akchin. “In fact, the fair labor issue extends to nearly all clothing people buy – not just university logo. This makes it challenging for campuses and apparel suppliers to ensure that fair labor practices are followed by suppliers. With this new code, we can ensure that merchandise will be made under safe conditions.”

 “We’ve all heard about mistreated workers, and it all comes back to our economic system,” said Stefanie Mavronis ’12, political science. “Through our work, we hope that other people understand what’s happening outside our bubble and recognize that these are humans – just like us. There are real people on the other end, and we are benefitting by exploiting them.”

Mavronis is a member of the Solidarity Coalition and has been passionate about fair labor standards since she was in high school. Although the Coalition is small in size, the group often partners with other on- and off-campus organizations to pursue a similar goal: ending harmful mistreatment of workers.

To engage the campus further, the Solidarity Coalition will present “Sweatshop Workers Speak Out!” on Thursday, April 29, 6-8 p.m., in the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery. This event will feature a Bangladeshi garment worker and a representative of home-based workers in Pakistan. It is co-sponsored by the International Labor Rights Forum, IWW, Red Emma’s Bookstore, The United Workers, Women Involved in Learning and Leadership, Gender and Women’s Studies, Media and Communications Studies and UMBC’s President’s Office.

“This event will be the biggest we’ve ever had,” Mavronis said. “I think it will be interesting to see what people ask and also how these workers see themselves in the bigger picture. We look forward to the campus learning more about this important issue.”

Other groups involved in FLSAG include representatives of the Professional Staff Senate, Graduate Student Association, Student Government Association, the Administration and Finance Division and the General Counsel’s Office. All Senates were invited to participate, and the University Steering Committee was engaged throughout the process.
For more information on the Solidarity Coalition, click here.

(4/23/10)

Striking a Balance

The professional challenges of balancing care-giving responsibilities for an aging parent and a full-time job can be significant and daunting.

UMBC�s Wellness in the Workplace program has partnered with the Erickson School to create a workshop designed to help UMBC employees who face difficult caregiving situations related to aging.

On April 30, three leading experts from the Erickson School will provide guidance and advice on caregiving in a workshop titled �Striking a Balance: Eldercare in the Workplace.� The workshop will be held in The Commons 331 from 10-11:30 a.m.

The workshop will be led by Interim Dean Judah Ronch, professor Bill Thomas, author of �What are Old People For?� and M.A. in Aging Services alumnus Steve Gurney �08, founder and publisher of the regional publication – Guide to Retirement Living.

Employees caring for aging parents often find that new family dynamics and the responsibilities of caregiving are difficult to balance with work, said Ronch.

�Whenever you�re dealing with the aging of a parent you�re going to face an entirely new family situation. You�re family is not alone in having this kind of difficult adjustment,� Ronch said.

The workshop will offer new perspectives on aging and will include time for participants to ask questions about eldercare, including balancing the burden of care-giving among family members, transitioning a parent from home care to nursing care and making end-of-life care decisions.

�We want to take advantage of something that�s unique to UMBC — the Erickson School has a specific approach to aging and the organizations that serve families of elders and we want to share that expertise with our fellow staff an faculty on campus,� said Thomas.

Click here to register. Space is limited � Registration deadline is April 22.

Watch the Feb. 24, 2010 Wellness in the Workplace workshop on Eldercare featuring Judah Ronch, Bill Thomas and Steve Guerney.

(4/21/10)