All posts by: Magazine Editor

Postcards from True Grit: CAHSS alumni send their well wishes to admitted students

With college admissions season kicking into high gear, we got a few on-campus alumni together last week to send personalized notes to students accepted into the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS). Retrievers shared their memories and well wishes with accepted students across Maryland and all around the country.

The project caught on off-campus, as well: all told, we had 61 alumni from a variety of CAHSS majors send out over 1,400 postcards to prospective students. We can’t wait to meet the Class of 2021!

Photo courtesy of Mimi Dietrich ’70.

To learn more about opportunities to get involved as an alum, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, or visit our website!

A Culture of Caring: Student philanthropy takes off with the Stay Black and Gold Fund

Diverse. Innovative. Up-and-coming. Those are just three words often used to describe UMBC’s campus and culture. Another word, one that’s no less a part of who we are, is caring. We care about our students’ success, both academically and in their home lives. With initiatives like the Stay Black and Gold Fund, an emergency fund for students whose financial need stands between them and their studies, we’re creating that culture of caring from the ground up.

Unlike many scholarship and grant programs on campus, the Stay Black and Gold fund is a student-led initiative. A committee of representatives from the Student Government Association (SGA), the Student Alumni Association (SAA), and other groups on campus, with the help of a staff advisor, will review emergency aid applications from their peers and decide how awards are allocated. While the idea has been around for years, it’s finally coming to fruition thanks to the work of dedicated students like Lillianne Keplinger.

The current sophomore and SGA Senator was inspired to take action on the fund last spring, when she was serving as Assistant Director for Leadership Development for SGA. “I’m a student who takes out loans, and I realize that not everyone is…able to,” she says. “ So it’s unfortunate for people that have to leave the institution because they can’t afford school.” The fund will assist students who experience unexpected life crises that affect their ability to pay for current tuition, fees, books, and other school-related expenses.

Along with with fellow SGA Senator Chiamaka Ugboh and SAA Vice President Ariana Nogin, Keplinger has been working with departments across campus to finalize the committee’s membership and secure an advisor. The fund is already accepting contributions from students, alumni, parents, and friends online.

Leanna Powell ’08, English, UMBC’s Assistant Director of Annual Giving, has worked closely with the students throughout the process. “We hope this will…become a way to help students understand the real impact of philanthropy on campus, and help them become leaders in giving,” she says.

Whether you’re on or off campus, by making a gift today, you can help build and sustain UMBC’s culture of caring.

— Julia Celtnieks ’13

Power and Artistry: UMBC’s practice organ, donated by Dr. Charles Nicholas, makes its public debut

If you’ve never heard organ music in person, the first thing that strikes you is the complexity of the sound that comes from within it. At a recent concert showcasing an instrument donated to UMBC by Charles Nicholas, Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, the organ’s power and artistry was on full display for a standing room-only crowd on February 10.

“I was blown away, for one thing,” said Nicholas, following the recital and historical lecture by Paula Maust, an adjunct professor in the Music Department. Maust played an array of pieces to show the range and history of what’s known as “the king of instruments,” including a piece by Frank Ferko played solely with the feet.

The instrument itself, donated in honor of the professor’s parents, Charles and Barbara Nicholas, sits in a practice studio in the Performing Arts and Humanities Building. As Music Department chair Linda Dusman told the crowd, the nation is facing a shortage of trained organists, so having an instrument on which to practice gives students an immediate leg up for employment, post graduation. (They previously had to seek out local churches for practice.)

In addition to the Ferko piece, Maust’s recital covered both sacred and secular pieces, all designed to show the organ’s versatility of sound. The organ has two keyboards: a board-full of buttons (known as “stops”) to alter the sounds made by the keys, as well as a full range of floor pedals that are played with the feet.

Dusman thanked Nicholas and his wife, telling the audience, “Dr. Nicholas’s generosity is going to make this extraordinary music available for generations of students and the communities that they’re going to serve, so thank you so much.”

Nicholas and his wife, Janice, said they enjoyed the show very much.

“I’ve been a fan of organ music all my life and I have never heard any of these pieces before, and I’m very impressed,” he said. “I’m glad that people are getting use out of this, so I’m just delighted.”

— Jenny O’Grady

Throughout the Ages: Past, present, and future converge at annual Hilltop Society Dinner

UMBC has accumulated a rich history in its first 50 years, rising from a patch of Baltimore County farmland through the social and political turbulence of the mid-20th century to become a university nationally recognized for the quality of its education and its commitment to diversity. This year’s annual Hilltop Society dinner, in addition to being a “thank you” to our donors, carried on that story, as guests dined amid the “UMBC at 50: Sharing the Past, Building the Future” exhibit at the Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery.

UMBC Archivist Lindsey Loeper ’04, American studies, introduces the exhibit to guests.

The exhibit was curated by Tom Beck and Lindsey Loeper ’04, American studies, with the help of various partners across campus. It features more than 200 items from UMBC’s archives. Official documents, letters, photos, physical artifacts, and a continuous video loop all help to tell the story of UMBC, from long before the ground was broken until today. (It’s open to the public through December 15, but if you can’t make it to campus, it lives online as well.)

Bentley Corbett-Wilson ’17, music, one of the evening’s two student speakers, addresses the crowd.

With such a storied past behind us, it’s only fitting that the two students who spoke at the event be excellent examples of UMBC’s present and future. Bentley Corbett-Wilson ’17, music, this year’s student body president, has been involved with the Student Government Association (SGA) since his very first semester here. He spoke at length about how his UMBC experience has shaped his understanding of the world, and how UMBC’s commitment to shared governance empowers students to speak out on what matters to them.

“It is not uncommon for students to passionately express concerns about an issue on campus, and find that it has been solved the next semester by simply reaching out to SGA, campus departments, or other administrators on campus,” he said. “The potential that SGA has to help move this campus towards an even higher level of greatness is immense, and I’ve been honored to help guide the organization to do exactly that.”

Corbett-Wilson is also a recipient of the Sprint to the End Scholarship, which was established to help upperclassmen in need complete their degrees here. “I want to thank you all […] for your generosity to this community and its students,” he said.

Jeffrey Carr ’19, interdisciplinary studies, speaks at the 2016 Hilltop Society Dinner.

Jeffrey Carr ’19, interdisciplinary studies, told the audience that while he wasn’t sure what to expect when he first got to UMBC last fall, he took the advice of Dr. Jason Schiffman, a psychology professor who spoke to Carr’s orientation group, to heart: “It’s cool to be smart at UMBC, [and] this place will be what you make it.”

His intellectual curiosity led him to the Discovery Scholars Living-Learning Community, which provides opportunities and resources for undecided first-year students to forge their own academic path. Carr said that the support he received from both his fellow students and the faculty and staff members involved in the program gave him the confidence to branch out and try new things. In the past year and a half, he’s competed in the Pan-American Chess Championships with the UMBC B-Team, become a Peer Mentor for Discovery Scholars, and even joined the baseball team…as its statistician. (Carr hopes to work in baseball management after completing his degree.)

“Through the generous contributions of my donors […] and backed by the support network obtained through the living-learning community, I don’t think I could have had a better experience up to this point,” he said.

Throughout our past and into our present, UMBC has remained a place that students, no matter their background or interests, can make their own. With your generous support, we hope to continue that legacy far into our future.

— Julia Celtnieks ’13; all photos by Marlayna Demond ’11

To You – Fall 2016

Could you get UMBC President (and head Retriever) Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, to say “Woof! Woof! Woof!?”

Dan Bailey and Lee Boot, the visionaries behind the Imaging Research Center (IRC), did it early in UMBC’s 50th anniversary campaign.

Bailey is a professor of Visual Arts who recently retired as director of the IRC. Boot is an affiliate associate professor of visual arts who became the new director of the center this past fall. Together, they lent their talents to creating a video that challenged UMBC alumni, students, faculty, and staff to be one of the hundreds of Retrievers who would reach out to the more than 70,000 UMBC alumni and spread the word about the university’s anniversary.

When the two men got UMBC’s president in front of the camera last year, they asked him about one of the university’s call-and-response athletic cheers: “UM! BC! UM! BC! UM! BC! Woof! Woof! Woof!”

Bailey managed to get Hrabowski to say it. Just as a warm up. But the warm up made the cut, and ended up being one of the highlights of the video. And UMBC’s president has led the cheer often in the months that have followed.

The video also proved to be a success. UMBC found the hundreds of volunteers it needed to attract the thousands of alumni who have turned up at numerous events to celebrate UMBC’s 50th anniversary – especially the daylong celebration on September 17, 2016 that we chronicle in this commemorative issue of UMBC Magazine.

The IRC has been one of the key partners in the UMBC50 effort from beginning to end, from their work on a new campus storytelling portal Retriever Stories, through the video shoot, and even in dazzling time-lapse video work by Bailey to document the construction of the stage for the 50th anniversary celebration and the delightful mix of sounds from the UMBC Symphony. It is a sample of Bailey’s work that you see on the cover of this issue.

The IRC is one of the most-celebrated engines of research innovation on UMBC’s campus. Among its many projects are collaborations with renowned Baltimore political cartoonist Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher, (“US Democrazy”) and UMBC professor of history Anne Rubin (“Sherman’s March”). They have also created important (and deeply researched) three-dimensional digital windows into the history of early Baltimore and Washington, DC.

Their latest project is MUSE: Mapping UMBC’s Social Engagement – a visual mapping of UMBC’s engaged scholarship and service activity in the Baltimore area, built with a new IRC software called MapTu, which combines geographic mapping, concept diagramming, and media hosting.

Bailey and Boot were among the hundreds who answered the call to help tell UMBC’s story to thousands of alumni. This issue of the magazine shows the impact that the work of these hundreds had over the past few years of planning and preparation for the 50th anniversary celebration.

The reward? All the stories from UMBC alumni you will read in these pages about how, together, we built a university on a hilltop that shines brightly through our region, our state, and far beyond.

— Richard Byrne ’86

A Lens on UMBC History

Richard Chisolm ’82, interdisciplinary studies, has a unique vantage point on UMBC’s history. He lived on the edge of campus as the university grew. In this essay, the award-winning documentary filmmaker and recipient of UMBC’s Alumnus of the Year award in 2001 explains how his career path was influenced by proximity to the university.

“How did you get into filmmaking?”

For over three decades, I’ve been working as an independent cinematographer and documentary filmmaker, travelling the world, interacting with remarkable humans on both sides of the camera, and being a messenger of information, education, and entertainment. It is an unpredictable, financially sporadic, and sometimes dangerous profession. But it is life affirming, personally rewarding, and at times amazingly impactful.

Sometimes my assignments are highly creative and involve collaboration with a large professional crew and talented actors. Others are humble affairs with a small team observing and recording lives and events to be shared with a wide audience. I feel very fortunate to love what I do and be able to make a living doing it. Someone recently suggested I use the term ‘funemployment’ to describe my lifestyle and it fits me perfectly. Over time I’ve learned to fully enjoy a balance of workdays and days in between.

I’ve answered the “How did you get into filmmaking?” question a thousand times, a thousand ways, and with a thousand variations. But I have never been able to answer it without including the story of my time at UMBC.

For many years, people I met outside of Maryland had no knowledge of my alma mater. If rushed, I’d just say “University of Maryland” and not worry about the imprecision. Happily, the conversation has changed over the years. Now when I mention UMBC to the outer world, people often already know about it and usually have a high regard for its “rock star” president. (If the situation allows, I relish in boasting that I have repeatedly “hung out” with Freeman Hrabowski in person!)

For me, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County is much more than the place I went to college. It is literally where I grew up, from ages 9 to 22. My late father, Guy Chisolm, an architect and builder, was hired to help plan and construct the new campus. He stayed on as director of the physical plant until retirement. The state provided our family with an old existing house on the grounds in which to live.

For me as a kid, UMBC was a huge wild landscape in my back yard, surrounded by a perpetual construction site. By the time I was a teenager attending Catonsville High School, it was a surreal, six building treeless ‘set’ for my early experimental films. (As a childhood artist, I had turned to filmmaking when my older brother gave me a Super-8 camera system that I believe was a re-gifted wedding present.)

When the issue of my higher education arose, a fortuitous event took place in my life. I came home from school one afternoon to find my sister Susie (a UMBC freshman at the time) chatting with a long-haired hippie standing next to a shiny and vastly expensive 16mm film camera on a tripod. Right there at the intersection of Wilkens Avenue and Hilltop Road was the intersection of my boyhood and my vocation! I may have blacked out temporarily, but I do remember learning that my sister’s friend was a UMBC film major who was working on his class project. The very idea that I could possibly attend this university with access to state-of-the-art equipment instantly became an obsessional goal. I applied to no other college, graduated high school, and entered UMBC in 1975.

I chose to live with my parents while attending college, mostly for economic reasons, but partly because our house was closer to the Fine Arts Building than the actual dorms. (Yes, I measured it.) It was awkward when one of my professors recognized my last name and asked if I was related to that man he or she had been complaining to about air conditioning, lighting, or carpet issues.

But UMBC was a paradise of creativity and professional career development. The film/video area was new, endowed with the best gear available, and supported an eclectic mix of prestigious faculty. We all thrived in a communal atmosphere of unprecedented freedom and experimentation. My filmmaking cohort would easily spend forty to sixty hours in Fine Arts, sometimes sleeping on couches or afloat the screening room’s king-sized waterbed (eventually removed by more prudish leadership in the 1980s).

As a sophomore, I began to get occasional day work as a production assistant on this or that commercial, documentary, or educational film out in the real world. For my senior thesis project, I made a half-hour documentary about what goes on behind the walls of an art museum (shot at what was then called the Walters Art Gallery) that somehow managed to air nationally on PBS. I was far from exceptional, but rather I was in the company of many other students who were also able to flourish there in all sorts of motion picture media.

The department was considered the best in the mid-Atlantic south of New York and – to this day – I run across dozens of UMBC alumni working on professional film and TV production crews. And this was also the place where I would meet and fall in love with my wife of thirty plus years. Meg graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in Visual Arts/Film, declined acceptance to New York University’s prestigious graduate program in Cinema Studies, and attended the University of Maryland Medical School. (She is now an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.)

See more about Richard Chisolm at www.richardchisolm.com.

You may also enjoy:
The Alumni Awards
The Visual Arts Golden Ball

Back Story – Fall 2016

UMBC’s 50th anniversary coincided with the release of Our UMBC: A Strategic Plan for Advancing Excellence. It is a road map for UMBC’s future in key areas including academic research and scholarship, student experience, innovative curriculum, and how the university connects with the world outside it. UMBC Magazine talked about Our UMBC with Provost Philip Rous, who led the effort, and with two alumni – former alumni board President Bennett Moe ’88, visual and performing arts, and UMBC’s coordinator for student organizations Romy Hübler ’15, Ph.D., language, literacy, and culture – involved in creating the plan.

What principles in drafting the plan created the circumstances for its successful launch?

Bennett Moe: Inclusion was a big part of the plan. The plan from the very beginning was largely based on including a wider array of constituents than ever before.

Romy Hübler: It was three year long process, but it was necessary to figure out what – at the core – people care about. And then come back and share important developments. Share the mission statement. It felt like a constant loop of feedback that was not only collected but then also acted upon.

Philip Rous: What I wanted – and what the community wanted – was a vision for the university that was the community’s vision…. Sometimes strategic plans fail because they are siloed. We wanted to think about the interest of the entire community. One thing about the plan that sometimes people don’t notice is, that when you look at the plan, there is almost zero mention of a specific unit or division…. It reflects the fact that this is a community vision. It also reflects the fact that we understand that to accomplish almost all of our goals, we are going to have to work together across divisions, and units, and traditional lines. That is a very contemporary view of an academic institution. Most places don’t have that view. To do the things we want to do, say, student success, we have to involve everyone.

What should alumni look for as they read the plan? How can they become involved in pushing it forward?

Moe: A lot of our alumni stay in the area. A big focus of the plan is our regional impact. And that’s where our alumni work…. There’s also a sense of pride in how the university has progressed among alumni.

Hübler: Building relationships. It’s a commitment that will become the roots of the change we want to see at UMBC. Mentorship relationships, or creating ways for students to meet with alumni on a regular basis.

Moe: What brought me back to campus was exactly that. It wasn’t just about connecting with students. It was connecting with fellow professionals in my field.

Rous: Typically there are two parts to strategic planning. The plan itself, and then actually moving forward. This plan has recommendations and goals, but it is not explicit in a tactical sense. We know where we want to go, and what is essential to get us there. But this is not exactly a linear process… So there’s still a lot to talk about and to think about as we move along. We’re going to have to bring in a lot of people as we move those conversations forward. Alumni have a very special perspective on the institution, which is why I am glad so many people wanted join us in this process. They have invested years of their lives in our institution, embedded in our fundamental mission of the university. Those are perspectives we would never get if we did not include alumni in the discussion.

Moe: When we started, [the Alumni Association] wanted alumni to have a stronger voice in the direction of the university. The participation of alumni in this process shows that the university wants that as well.

Rous: At UMBC, our alumni are very invested in the same set of shared values of the university – the most important of which is student success – through their experience with the university…. Our alumni have a very great stake in this institution. How this institution evolves, and its reputation, has a huge impact on our alumni.

Hübler: This idea of the university as a community is in a way unique to UMBC…. People who work here and go to school here really feel invested. They don’t only think of themselves but of the community as a whole, and how we can work beyond our silos so everyone can thrive here.

Rous: The title of the plan is “Our UMBC.” It’s ours. It’s our vision of the institution. It’s not the vision of one person, or an outside force telling us what to be…. There’s a sense of a confidence in our own vision and our own path.
— Richard Byrne ’86

Read Our UMBC: A Strategic Plan for Advancing Excellence at strategicplan.umbc.edu

House (of Grit) Party

UMBC celebrates its 50 years in style

Saturday, September 17, 2016 was a day to remember for any Retriever who made it to campus to join in the biggest celebration of black and gold pride ever.

Over 3,300 alumni, students, faculty and staff from across the campus community came together to attend the event – which included a puppy parade, storytelling, hands-on demonstrations and lectures across disciplines, athletics events, and a dazzling display of fireworks to cap it off. We wanted to share that day – including some of the best stories from faculty and alumni – with our readers.

Also in this feature:

Deep Roots

Pies, Nerds, and Frampton

Fab (Four) Storytellers

Enjoying the sunshine and ale crafted by alumni founded Suspended Brewing Company in the beer garden.

The UMBC community gathers in the House of Grit.

UMBC a cappella group the Cleftomaniacs performs.

Science demonstration in the Thinkers Tent at the House of Grit.

Members of UMBC’s first graduating class share memories at the Class of 1970 happy hour on Friday night.

Kids find the plush life with Retriever memorabilia at the House of Grit.

President Hrabowski celebrates philanthropy with alumni at the Alpha Kappa Alpha/Lamda Phi Reunion Friday night.

Future UMBC alumni get hands-on experiences with gaming and prototyping at the Makers Tent in the House of Grit.

Alumni sign a beam that will be placed in UMBC’s new state-of-the-art Events Center.

Mascots meet at the Puppy Parade, as True Grit gets a grip on some of the Chesapeake Bay Retriever puppies

Mascots meet at the Puppy Parade, as True Grit gets a grip on some of the Chesapeake Bay Retrievers in attendance.

The UMBC community counts its syllables creatively at UMBC Haiku in the Thinkers Tent.

Imaging Research Center director Lee Boot talks about “Putting Humpty Together Again” at Grit-X.

UMBC’s varsity cheerleaders help get alumni into the black and gold spirit at the Dawg Pound.

Alumni from the Honors College gather to celebrate one of the key programs in UMBC’s academic excellence.

A chance to get behind the wheel of Baja SAE off-road vehicle was on offer at the Makers Tent in the House of Grit.

UMBC took shape plastic brick by plastic brick in a Lego display of campus.

Rebecca Adelman, associate professor of media and communications studies, talks about citizenship and surveillance at Grit-X.

Doggone! UMBC canines strut their stuff at the Puppy Parade.

Really Really Big Breakfast and Bingo were on the menu at the RAC on Friday night.

Student and alumni performers make a joyful noise all day long on the House of Grit Community Festival stage.

Alumni Awards – October 6, 2016

The 2016 Alumni Awards recipients were honored at the Linehan Concert Hall, UMBC. Learn more about our past award winners

2016 winners with President Freeman Hrabowski and Alumni Board President John Becker ’01

Grit & Greekness

Sorority and fraternity memories shone out at the Grit & Greekness Event held at the Columbus Center on October 15, 2016.

Visual Arts Golden Ball

Creative costumes were all the rage at the Golden Ball hosted by the Visual Arts program and its alumni on October 15, 2016.

Accomplishment & Aspirations

The UMBC campus unites on Founders Day to take stock of the past and look boldly into the future.

September 19, 2016 was the official anniversary of UMBC’s founding in 1966, and the university held a ceremony including students, faculty, staff, and alumni that celebrated a number of qualities that had helped it grow over five decades into a major public research university: talented students, shared governance of the campus, and visionary leadership.

Among the highlights of the ceremony included an address to the campus by UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, and a letter from UMBC’s first graduate, Robin Mayne ’69, American Studies, to the UMBC students of 2066. (The letter will be placed in a time capsule celebrating campus life in 2016.) Plus: Lots of black and gold pride, including balloons.

Founders Day Speakers (from left): Bentley Corbett-Wilson ’17, president, Student Government Association; Damian Doyle ’99, president, Professional Staff Senate; Matt Baker, vice president, Faculty Senate; Robin Mayne ’69; Greg Simmons ’04, MPP, vice president, Office of Institutional Advancement; Provost Philip Rous; President Freeman A. Hrabowski; Deanna Cerquetti, president, Graduate Student Association; Dottie Caplan, president, Non-Exempt Staff Senate; John Becker ’01, president, Alumni Board of Directors; Vrinda Deshpande, UMBC Class of 2020.

Founders Day Speech

by UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III

Good Afternoon!
Welcome to all – alumni, students, faculty, staff, and friends! This is such a special moment for UMBC – one of twelve institutions in the University System of Maryland, led by Chancellor Robert Caret and the Board of Regents, chaired by James Brady.

The Maryland General Assembly authorized a new campus for Baltimore County in 1963, and it was 50 years ago today that UMBC opened in 1966 on what had recently been 432 acres of farmland. That day, we had 750 students, 45 faculty members, 35 support staff, 3 new buildings, and 500 parking spaces. Staff had literally been sweeping floors and assembling desks the night before students arrived.

Albin O. Kuhn – the University of Maryland’s VP for Baltimore Campuses and later appointed UMBC’s first Chancellor – called opening day his most personally satisfying experience. “We opened on the day we were supposed to, right on schedule,” said. “Buildings were ready to be occupied; sidewalks were installed; the faculty was here. There were blackboards and even chalk.”

This is a moment that allows us to consider what our aspirations have been over the years; reflect on 50 years of growth, grit and greatness; celebrate all that we have achieved together; and aspire yet again – as success is never final.

UMBC in the National Context

We can better understand UMBC’s growth over the last half-century if we consider the national context in which our campus was founded and subsequently grew.

Most people today are surprised when they learn that in 1940, on the brink of World War II, just five percent of whites and only 1 percent of blacks in America had earned a college degree. Many people would also be astonished to learn that, at that time, most of the prestigious universities in the world were in Europe. Only a handful of American universities could be called “research universities.”

After World War II, all of this changed, quite dramatically. The GI Bill provided the opportunity for many young people—mainly white men—to go to college. Spurred to action by launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union in 1957, Congress passed the National Defense Education Act of 1958 – which provided the federal funding for students in the sciences, area studies, and foreign languages. The Higher Education Act of 1965, a key piece of Great Society legislation, was passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson, further expanded federal postsecondary support. The Pell Grant program, which today provides extensive need-based federal student aid, was created in the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1972 under
President Richard Nixon.

And it worked. The percentage of Americans with a college degree increased to six percent in 1950, and then to about 10 percent by the mid-1960s, when UMBC was founded.

Other forces also created positive change in society and in higher education. Together, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ensured that the expansion of access to higher education could be inclusive, extending beyond just whites to African Americans, and to other minorities.

So UMBC was founded at a time of great expansion in access to higher education. We were created to play a key role in facilitating that growth in Maryland, and we had a special place in this expansion. We were the first university in Maryland that welcomed students of all races and backgrounds from the moment we opened our doors.

And look at us now. From our modest beginnings, we have built a foundation for excellence, and solidified our place as Doctoral University with Higher Research Activity, as designated by the current Carnegie Classification.

We have attracted national attention for what we have done well in our first 50 years. Our academic strengths in research and teaching have been celebrated in the New York Times, and in U.S. News and World Report, and featured on 60 Minutes. We’ve also been acknowledged for providing excellence for value by publications including the Princeton Review and Kiplinger’s. And The Chronicle of Higher Education has ranked us as a “Great Place to Work” seven years in a row.

Yet as we reach this milestone, it is imperative that we acknowledge the important work UMBC and other institutions of higher education must still do. Just 56 percent of students who start a bachelor’s degree nationally complete within six years. Raising that number is a task made more challenging by income inequality. More than half of students from families in the highest income quartile earn a bachelor’s degree by age 24, while only about one in 10 of those from the lowest income quartile do so.

America is failing these lower-income students. We must continue to elevate not just college readiness, but push forward on the work we do on campuses to ensure these students succeed when they get here.

The good news is that more people of every race, ethnic group, and gender are educated today than ever before. And UMBC has played a significant role in its first 50 years by becoming a national model for inclusive excellence in a research university that others now look to emulate.

UMBC Presidents (from top left): Albin O. Kuhn; Calvin Lee, Louis Kaplan; John Dorsey; and Michael Hooker.

Our Aspirations

At UMBC’s opening in 1966, Albin Kuhn said, “Just like a youngster, we don’t have all the answers, but we do want to develop our own personality and become part of the Baltimore metropolitan area.”

Over the next 20 years, after Dr. Kuhn had laid our solid foundation, the campus was steered through a challenging period of growth by Calvin Lee, UMBC’s second chancellor; Louis Kaplan, interim chancellor; and John Dorsey, our third chancellor.

Our fourth chancellor (and first president) Michael Hooker inspired UMBC to dream of reaching new heights.

At his installation in 1986, he said, “My [vision] …is for UMBC to be a model university for the 21st Century, and to be the best public university of its size in the country.”

Hooker argued that UMBC could capitalize on its potential and make this vision a reality by adopting four key principles:

Be progressive — forward looking
Be responsive — embracing our community and its needs
Be selective — find key areas in which UMBC could grow to become excellent
Be metropolitan — be a partner for the region, a force for addressing both its social problems and its economic development needs.

At my own installation as UMBC’s president in 1993, I remarked that at the founding of Stanford University – or even at its 25th anniversary – no one could have envisioned what it would one day become. The growth at Stanford – spurred on by the Second World War, the Cold War, and the rise of Silicon Valley – was still in its future.

At UMBC’s founding, no one could then have fully envisioned what the university might become. My point back then was that we needed to set our sights high:

“We are a university on the move. We know what we want to become and how to get there. We will work to become one of the best research universities of our size in the world, and we are determined that our dream will not be deferred.”

We still embrace this goal. Along with such great universities as Stanford, MIT, Carnegie-Mellon, Arizona State, Georgia Tech, and the University of Michigan, we rank highly on a nationally-recognized list of the most innovative national universities in the nation!

Our Growth

Our emergence as a model research university can be traced to many factors. We have an inclusive notion of leadership and shared governance. Many of our administrators today were once leaders in our faculty and professional senates. Our community is based on shared values. And, most of all, we believe in hard, sustained work for student success.

It has taken grit – and vision of what we could become – to achieve our goals. For our first 20 years, UMBC played its original allotted role as an institution whose students were primarily commuters. It was a wise bargain for a new university: commuters saved their money by living at home; the state saved money by forgoing the cost of residence halls. Only a small number of students lived on campus.

Yet this role did not give us the distinct identity we sought as a research university. Until the 1980s, the diplomas of our graduates did not yet say “University of Maryland, Baltimore County,” but simply “University of Maryland.” The omission reflected a particular mindset about who we were.

But as our campus matured, it was clear that we could become an even more valuable asset to the State of Maryland and the nation. Since the mid-1980s, we have grown into something else – an inclusive, student-focused, residential, research university.

We’ve had tremendous help from the State of Maryland and other sources, who have generously provided almost three quarters of a billion dollars in developing and building state-of-the-art facilities for instruction, research, and student life over a 20-year period from 2000 to 2020.

We have taken those investments in our physical campus and grown in all the ways that a public research university must grow to survive and thrive.

In 1976, we had less than $1 million in research and development expenditures. When UMBC reached its 25th anniversary in 1991, we had reached $6.8 million. Today, we have reached over $80 million. UMBC now ranks #151 in federal research and development expenditures – out of more than 3,000 four-year colleges or universities. And we have 25 major research centers on our campus to propel our efforts.

We have developed strengths in key research areas that are well-aligned with state and national priorities: environment, health, national security, education, and public policy. We are particularly strong in translational and applied research areas, ensuring that our work has direct impact on scientific and engineering fields, on our students, and on the many communities that we touch.

We also have a strong national reputation for integrating undergraduates in mentored research. And our most successful research efforts are frequently interdisciplinary and based on successful collaborations across the campus, with other academic institutions, and with external partners. These partnerships – including those with federal agencies and major corporations – have deepened and matured over the decades.

We have also found the resources to grow. This year, we have our largest budget ever, $440 million – a net increase of $10 million over last year. Of that $440 million, almost $250 million comes from the State of Maryland or tuition and fees.

We’re also developing the resources that will help us grow into our future. In the early 1990s, UMBC’s endowment stood at $1 million. Today, it has grown to more than $77 million – with almost $14 million raised this past year.

The results of all this growth are clear – not only in the impact our research has on our communities and our nation, but in the lives of our alumni and the contributions they make to our society.

We now have more than 70,000 alumni who are working in Maryland and beyond as artists, social workers, policy analysts, doctors, dentists, healthcare workers, teachers, lawyers, engineers, and computer scientists. We have educated more than one-quarter of the information technology graduates in Maryland. We have 2,000 alumni working for the Navy and another 1,000 at NSA. We have just launched the first Naval ROTC program in Maryland, with special support from Senator Mikulski. Our alumni have a strong impact.

We are sending our students to the most prestigious graduate and professional programs in the country and our doctoral graduates hold faculty positions at research and comprehensive universities across the nation. Our alumni also lead institutions such as the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Clemson University.

Looking to the Future: Imagine What’s Next

This anniversary has coincided with intensive processes of strategic planning and self-assessment via our pursuit of Middle States Accreditation. This confluence of events has given us a chance to reflect on our growth and plot out a course to reach our aspirations for the future as a campus. We are not yet done. Success is never final. However good you are, you can always improve. We are now building on the foundation laid by our founding generation.

As we move forward as a university, we must ask ourselves:
What are our challenges? What are our goals? How can we address the great issues of our day?

We have shown a willingness as a campus to be honest with ourselves. For example, we know we must continue our work to develop a more diverse faculty and staff – particularly African Americans, Hispanics, and women – in selected areas.

Despite our growth, accolades, and achievements, we face other important challenges as a campus. We grapple with adequate funding per student given the higher costs associated with fields in the sciences and engineering that many of our students major in. We have had uneven progress across all disciplines in improving teaching and learning – a key component of our ongoing effort to improve student success. And another problem of our growing stature is reflected in other universities’ attempts to recruit away our excellent faculty.

We also have important strategic questions related to our goals: supporting students, expanding research and creative achievements, enriching the life of our campus, and extending our engagement with our surrounding communities.

How far can we extend the university’s enrollment – and with what resources? How can we better ensure degree completion? How can we extend the benefits of the practices pioneered in our scholars programs to all students? How can we deepen our innovation in teaching and learning, as we improve advising and mentoring, and more fully capitalize on student analytics and assessment? How do we better invest in faculty and staff as they pursue multidisciplinary research, scholarship, and creative activity?

We also must ask how our campus will grow in the future. Can we imagine a mixed use development on campus, with residential, commercial, entertainment, and other amenities? How can we develop closer connections with Catonsville and Arbutus and create a college town atmosphere? What opportunities are presented by potential development of the neighboring Spring Grove campus?

We must also examine our larger role in the region, state, and nation. How can we strengthen our position as an anchor institution for the region, building relationships from Baltimore to Washington? How do we advance our role and reputation as a vital stakeholder in Maryland’s innovation economy?

How can we continue to build our partnerships with other research universities within the system and beyond?

As we look ahead, we are inspired in two essential ways.

First, we seek to expand our work as a national model for others on approaches to helping students succeed, in not just a few disciplines but across the board, and to do so in ways that will impact the real world. We will continue to innovate in the classroom and on campus generally. We are providing academic initiatives, student affiliation opportunities, transfer student support, assistance for near-completers, and opportunities for real-world connections.

Second, using our research capacity we will intensify our efforts to tackle critical challenges faced by society and all of humanity in general. UMBC researchers have undertaken important work on AIDS, anti-cancer strategies, refinement of the aquaculture industry, environmental research, cybersecurity, climate change, the digital humanities, imaging and digital arts, and public policy.

America still faces major social challenges from economic inequality and the issues that divide us – race, ethnicity, religion, and sexuality – to criminal justice reform and heath disparities. Following the tragic death of Freddie Gray last year, we looked in the mirror to assess what we as a campus could do to reach out to Baltimore City. We have now created more than 140 programs, initiatives, partnerships, and organizations in which our students, faculty, and staff connect to the city and its residents. We
celebrate this energy and are working to support and expand it.

Across the university—across all of our colleges—we seek to educate our students and advance research in areas that meet national and global needs.

We continue to build an entrepreneurial climate for economic development. We continue to work with children and find ways to close the achievement gap among students of different racial and ethnic groups.

Conclusion

UMBC has been a 50-year experiment in higher education here in Catonsville. We have become an inclusive, selective, highly residential research university. We are forward-looking and responsive. We have a strong focus on inclusive excellence – teaching students how to live and work with people different from themselves.

We believe in high expectations and a passion for learning. We are seeking ways to advance knowledge and educate our students to make a difference in our society and our world. And, most of all, we still believe in hard work.

I continue to quote Aristotle: “Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intentions, sincere effort, and intelligent execution. It represents the wisest choice of many alternatives—choice not chance, determines your destiny.”

It takes grit to achieve greatness!

Excerpts From a Letter

by Robin Mayne ’69
To UMBC Freshman Class of 2016

Back in 1966, the campus was a pretty wild and woolly place. On the first day of classes in September, new students were greeted with acres of pasture for parking, much of it muddy, and miles of wooden walkways. Workers rushed to put the finishing touches on the new campus, even as the students were rushing to avoid them on the way to class. The aura of excitement was palpable.

Birthed during the turbulent era of the 1960s, UMBC struggled, as many schools did, to redefine what education really meant. At its core was engagement, both of students and faculty, in studies, in creativity, in community, in political action, and in social awareness and responsibility.

In the fifty years since those beginnings, these commitments have not diminished, but only expanded and intensified. Like many of you, I came to UMBC with only the goal of a degree. But along the way, I developed new skills in critical thinking, and analytical problem solving, within the context of a liberal arts education. I have become a lifelong learner, and use those skills daily to meet the challenges our complex and shifting world.

In looking back over the years, UMBC has gloriously fulfilled its promise of becoming a world-class university. Its esteemed leaders have created a place where students from all backgrounds can come together and find inspiration and vision to craft their own educational experience. And so today I want to remind that you are joining this institution’s firmly established traditions of academic excellence, exceptional creativity, social commitment, community involvement, diversity, and inspiration. Be good stewards of those traditions, and of this campus, your home. They are in your hands to protect and cultivate. Embrace your time here, stay passionate, and I am confident you will discover your own unique path into an ever-brightening future.