by David Hoffman and Craig Berger

UMBC turns 50 next Monday, and will mark the occasion starting this weekend with a celebration beyond anything our campus has ever seen. (We'll be there, and you should be too!).

In anticipation of the big event, let's talk about the birthday gifts we'd like to give UMBC to celebrate the end of its first half-century and the dawn of its next (#BDayGifts4UMBC).

Here's what we'd choose

• Historical markers telling the amazing stories behind familiar features of campus life. How did the free hour come into being, and who had the idea for a campus pond? What role did students play in transforming The Commons' Student Organizations Space from a storage room into a social hub? What stately brick building once stood in the shadow of the mighty oak behind the Stadium Lot? (OK, there already is a marker for that one, but we bet you haven't noticed it).
• A presidential debate at the new Events Center during the 2020 election cycle. (If this event lives up to its potential, how could they refuse?).
• Free drinks at Starbucks any time a faculty member and student show up together; or an undergraduate with a graduate student; or staff members from departments in different divisions. Let's make it even easier to build connections that cross the usual lines.
• Endowed chairs and professorships to support research on civic agency and imaginative approaches to social change. We care about those things a lot, and they're a UMBC specialty. Let's make it easier to learn from what we're all doing and share it with the world.
• A Creativity Center for student organizations, fully staffed and stocked with supplies and equipment for all kinds of projects, with ample storage space for everything from kinetic sculptures to rockets and more.
• A student-run coffee house designed and conceptualized with interdisciplinarity in mind. Environmental Science majors and Sustainability Interns could contribute to the design of environmentally sustainable business practices. Engineering majors could assist with the design of the physical space. Students minoring in Entrepreneurship could facilitate the development of a community-minded business plan. The space would serve as an informal hub for student organization brainstorming and collaboration, an intimate performance venue (perhaps booked by the Student Events Board), and a monument to the idea that UMBC students from various backgrounds can join together and design a gift that keeps on giving.
  
• An emergency fund that could be tapped whenever a student experiences unexpected hardships that threaten their ability to continue their education at UMBC. Students would work with alumni to drive fundraising for the scholarship. 

THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. A NEW DATE WILL BE POSTED SOON

The University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) is hosting the PROMISE STEM GRAD EXPO  on Saturday, October 15, 2016 in the SMC Campus Center on UMB’s campus. This interactive event is being designed to inform, engage, and encourage underrepresented and under-served groups to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. With an emphasis on biomedical and related research areas, participants will receive a wealth of information about graduate school. Undergraduate students and career professionals considering a return to school for graduate studies will walk away with the ability to confidently apply to  graduate school and finance their  graduate education. The event will feature informative workshops, and conversations with deans, faculty, and current graduate students. Representatives from local colleges and universities will be on hand for a graduate fair to answer your questions.

This is a FREE event. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

• Date & Time: Saturday, October 15, 2016, 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
• Location: University of Maryland Baltimore, Southern Management Corporation Student Center – 621 W. Lombard Street SMC 2nd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201

This event is sponsored by PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP-T), and The Graduate School at the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Please mark the date. Stay tuned to this page for regular updates, and additional information.

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Photo credits: “Gene deletion may shed new light on the development and progression of autism,” by Vlad Serephim – Creative Commons, http://thejupital.com/creative-commons-gene-deletion-may-shed-new-light-on-the-development-and-progression-of-autism/, Historical PROMISE Photo – 2009 NEWSWISE:  http://www.newswise.com/articles/four-university-of-maryland-baltimore-students-fulfill-promise, Caption: Credit: University of Maryland, Baltimore, Newest PhD graduates of University of Maryland, Baltimore PROMISE program: (l to r) Jocelyn Reader, Trudy Smith, Stacey Simmons Williams, and Marishka Brown. Besides exceling academically Williams also gave birth to her daughter in her first academic year.

The University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) is hosting the PROMISE STEM GRAD EXPO  on Saturday, October 15, 2016 in the SMC Campus Center on UMB’s campus. This interactive event is being designed to inform, engage, and encourage underrepresented and under-served groups to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. With an emphasis on biomedical and related research areas, participants will receive a wealth of information about graduate school. Undergraduate students and career professionals considering a return to school for graduate studies will walk away with the ability to confidently apply to  graduate school and finance their  graduate education. The event will feature informative workshops, and conversations with deans, faculty, and current graduate students. Representatives from local colleges and universities will be on hand for a graduate fair to answer your questions.

This is a FREE event. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

• Date & Time: Saturday, October 15, 2016, 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
• Location: University of Maryland Baltimore, Southern Management Corporation Student Center – 621 W. Lombard Street SMC 2nd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201

This event is sponsored by PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP-T), and The Graduate School at the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Please mark the date. Stay tuned to this page for regular updates, and additional information.

Share the registration link! https://stemexpo2016.eventbrite.com

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Photo credits: “Gene deletion may shed new light on the development and progression of autism,” by Vlad Serephim – Creative Commons, http://thejupital.com/creative-commons-gene-deletion-may-shed-new-light-on-the-development-and-progression-of-autism/, Historical PROMISE Photo – 2009 NEWSWISE:  http://www.newswise.com/articles/four-university-of-maryland-baltimore-students-fulfill-promise, Caption: Credit: University of Maryland, Baltimore, Newest PhD graduates of University of Maryland, Baltimore PROMISE program: (l to r) Jocelyn Reader, Trudy Smith, Stacey Simmons Williams, and Marishka Brown. Besides exceling academically Williams also gave birth to her daughter in her first academic year.

The University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) is hosting the PROMISE STEM GRAD EXPO  on Saturday, October 15, 2016 in the SMC Campus Center on UMB’s campus. This interactive event is being designed to inform, engage, and encourage underrepresented and under-served groups to pursue master’s and doctoral degrees in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. With an emphasis on biomedical and related research areas, participants will receive a wealth of information about graduate school. Undergraduate students and career professionals considering a return to school for graduate studies will walk away with the ability to confidently apply to  graduate school and finance their  graduate education. The event will feature informative workshops, and conversations with deans, faculty, and current graduate students. Representatives from local colleges and universities will be on hand for a graduate fair to answer your questions.

This is a FREE event. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

• Date & Time: Saturday, October 15, 2016, 8:00 AM – 3:00 PM
• Location: University of Maryland Baltimore, Southern Management Corporation Student Center – 621 W. Lombard Street SMC 2nd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21201

This event is sponsored by PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP-T), and The Graduate School at the University of Maryland Baltimore.

Please mark the date. Stay tuned to this page for regular updates, and additional information.

Share the registration link! https://stemexpo2016.eventbrite.com

—

Photo credits: “Gene deletion may shed new light on the development and progression of autism,” by Vlad Serephim – Creative Commons, http://thejupital.com/creative-commons-gene-deletion-may-shed-new-light-on-the-development-and-progression-of-autism/, Historical PROMISE Photo – 2009 NEWSWISE:  http://www.newswise.com/articles/four-university-of-maryland-baltimore-students-fulfill-promise, Caption: Credit: University of Maryland, Baltimore, Newest PhD graduates of University of Maryland, Baltimore PROMISE program: (l to r) Jocelyn Reader, Trudy Smith, Stacey Simmons Williams, and Marishka Brown. Besides exceling academically Williams also gave birth to her daughter in her first academic year.

Dear LLC friends.

We invite you to participate with the 2nd LLC graduate student conference entitled #IAM, Intellectual Activist Movements: Reconnecting University Scholarship and Community Action on Saturday, October 1, 2016.

Patricia Hill Collins defines intellectual activism as “the myriad ways that people place the power of their ideas in service to social justice” (On Intellectual Activism, Introduction, p. x).  In our program, we have an ongoing dialogue about the value of being an intellectual/activist. We offer this conference as a space of reflection and dialogue about the value of being an intellectual/activist: on lessons learned, on unanswered questions, on how changing socio-cultural landscapes interact with our work, and on what it means to be an intellectual activist in 2016 in Baltimore, the U.S., and internationally. The conference presents an opportunity to examine how your work enters this conversation as we ask: In what ways do our intersectional identities inform our work? What can we learn from earlier social movements that can further contextualize our current perspectives and methodologies for social change?  What is different today in our cultural and social landscapes, and how does that impact our work? How might we reimagine university-community connections in ways that respect the different but essential roles of thinking, writing, and acting, and the dynamic interactions between them?  

We really want to connect LLC students across cohorts, and we see our conference as an opportunity to facilitate our meeting and sharing of our research, community involvement and doctoral experiences. You can participate in a variety of ways: 

1. attend the conference and social hour; 
2. present your research or research interest as a micro talk; 
3. share an Art as Protest piece for that session;
4. volunteer to serve at the conference.

We really would love your participation on Sat. Oct 1st, 2016. You can visit the conference website at https://llcconference.wordpress.com/. If you are planning to come, please register at http://tinyurl.com/zchouas Breakfast and lunch will be provided at the conference site. If you are willing to participate in any form in the conference or if you have questions, please email us at llcgradconference@gmail.com.  We look forward to seeing you all there!