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August 29, 2008 4:23 PM |
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Greening Terp Home Games McCain's VP Pick: UM Experts: Journalism Students Cover the Political Conventions UM Excels in U.S. News's 'Programs to Look For' |
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Highlighted News Items, August 29
Student Finds Calling in Learning Foreign Languages
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Maryland Moments, November, 2002
University Initiatives
(Significant Events, Awards, New Programs, Milestones)
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan attracted world attention with his appearance at the annual Anwar Sadat Peace Lecture held at Cole Field House before 9,500. In a diplomatic conincidence, Annan received the fax from Iraq saying it would allow the admittance of weapons inspectors while the secretary-general was on stage.
University President C.D. Mote Jr. will serve as a member of Prince George's County executive-elect Jack Johnson's transition team along with Howard University President Patrick Swygert.
Susan Schwab, dean of the School of Public Affairs, is one of six people named to Governor-elect Robert Ehlich's executive council that will lead his transition team.
U.S. Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) offered a sweeping set of plans to revamp the education system in the United States at the Stamp Student Union. The North Carolina Democrat proposed giving qualified students a free first year of tuition at a public college, abolishing "early decision" admissions programs, and restructuring the federal student-loan program.
Moises Kaufman brought his play, The Laramie Project, to campus in November as part of the campus's First Book program. During his visit, Kaufman focused on the craft of theater production, lectured at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and participated in workshops with students.
The University of Maryland joined the ranks of a small but growing number of institutions moving to formalize academic programs in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. Maryland launched an undergraduate certificate program in LGBT Studies that requires 21 credits and is the equivalent of a minor that will be noted on a student's transcript. The interdisciplinary program links about 20 existing courses and encourages the development of others that critically examine the lives, experiences, identities and representations of lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender individuals.
The American Journalism Review, published by the Merrill School of Journalism, celebrated a quarter-century of existence. Thomas Kunkel, dean of the Merrill School, Rem Rieder, editor of AJR, and a large cast of characters connected to the College of Journalism contributed to a lively, colorful history published by the magazine itself.
Spencer Benson, assistant professor in the department of cell biology and molecular genetics, was honored by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in their U.S. Professors of the Year competition. Each of the 50 states had a single professor honored, and Benson is the choice for outstanding teacher in Maryland.
Former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania joined the Maryland faculty. He previously chaired the organization, "America's Promise," whose founding chairman is Secretary of State Colin Powell, and he helped start the Peace Corps. Wofford will be professor of practice and will serve as part of the university's Democracy Collaborative.
Science & Technology
Maryland researchers are designing what will become the world's largest online collection of children's books. The November launch was of a prototype of the International Children's Digital Library included 200 books selected and digitized by The Library of Congress, and selected by international librarians as well as new material from publishers and authors. The books in the Web site debut represented 27 cultures. The number of books will rise to 10,000 and represent 100 cultures.
Research that reveals that the defensive moves by the praying mantis to avoid a bat are much like a jet plane pilot dodging trouble in war propels David Yager, associate professor of psychology and neuroscientist, to a feature article in National Geographic. "When Yager first documented the praying mantis's moves, fighter pilots called to confirm that they defended themselves in the same way."
A research facility to detect the material that is considered to make up 90 percent of the galaxy will be established later this year, 700 meters underground in a tunnel in South Korea's Gangwon province. It will be the second research site for dark matter research supported by the country's Ministry of Science and Technology. The team comprises five Korean universities and six overseas universities and institutes, including the University of Maryland's department of physics.
The IBM Endowment for Business in Government issud a report authored by the National Defense University and the Smith School of Business. "Government agencies should encourage their employees to use personal digital assistants and other wireless devices as part of a long-term plan to incorporate more wireless applications into their e-government initiatives."
Society & Culture
Special education professors Steven Graham and Karen Harris published research results in the Journal of Educational Psychology that suggest the three-decade de-emphasis on formal spelling and handwriting in the classroom is counter-productive--"at least for the worst spellers and writers in their classes." In addition to the two College of Education faculty members, recent doctoral graduate Barbara Chorzempa was a contributing researcher.
Roland Rust's Driving Customer Equity: How Customer Lifetime Value is Reshaping Corporate Strategy wins the American Marketing Association's Berry Book Prize for best marketing book in 2002. Rust is chair of the department of marketing at the Smith School of Business.
In the journal Nature, John List, professor of agricultural and resource economics, took on the conventional economic wisdom underlying the competitive market theory. He did it with a controlled study on the sale of baseball cards. "Conventional economic theory does a fair job of predicting prices in simple buying and selling transactions. But it fails to account for the influence of traders' experience on a market's efficiency at redistributing goods." (List is a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors as senior economist, environmental and resource economics.)
Connie Morella, Montgomery County representative to Congress for the past 16 years,is donating her Congressional papers to the University of Maryland. Morella's distinghished and unique political career centered around service to her community; she was a consistent Republican winner in an overwhelmingly Democratic region.
Black political experts and activists met in Washington to review the November election. Ronald Walters, professor of government and politics and director of the campus African American Leadership Institute, was among a select group of panelists asked to dissect the results.
Three members of the department of economics�professors Williams Evans and Robert Schwab and Fellow Sean Corcoran�release research on what career fields women pick, from limited choices in 1964 to an era of many more options in1992. They specifically point to what happened to women and the teaching profession. Decades ago, one in five of the top 10 women graduating from high school went into teaching. No more. The top choice of women ten years ago was "manager."
The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is participating in the Performing Arts Research Coalition funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The aim is to help performing arts organizations across the country significantly improve their management capacity and responsiveness to their communities, and to strengthen local and national advocacy efforts on behalf of American arts and culture.
Nearly half of federal employees are eligible to retire within five years, but young people aren't considering government careers. U.S. Comptroller General David Walker and employees from four federal agencies engaged in dialogue with students at the university to kick off the government's "Call to Serve" campaign.
More Maryland Moments in November
Dennis Cardoza, Class of �82, is the new U.S. Congressman from California's 18th House District. He defeated his former boss, the scandal-plagued Gary Condit, in a March primary and the three term member of the California House defeated Republican state Sen. Dick Monteith on Nov. 6.
C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Class of �67, is the new U.S. Congressman from Baltimore County, where he previously served as county executive. He defeated legislative veteran Helen Delich Bentley.
Gordon England (Class of �61, electrical engineering, was nominated by President Bush to be Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. He is presently Secretary of the Navy.
Alumnus and actor Michael Ealy makes the list of the 50 sexiest men alive in People magazine. His role in the hit move Barbershop allowed for his inclusion on the list which was headed by actor Ben Affleck.
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