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A Glimpse Into America's Emerging Trends

VOL. 12, NO. 2 SPRING 2001 S3. 50

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A GLIMPSE INTO AMERICA'S EMERGING TRENDS

Forecasting the future isn’t an easy or exacting science, but certain signs and statistical cues can help us predict where we’re headed as a nation, for better or for worse.

16 WORK

LIBERAL ARTS GRADUATES: FINDING THEIR PLACE IN THE NEW ECONOMY

by Patty Henetz

Traditional disciplines bridge the gap between “techies” and the rest of us.

20 SOCIETY

FOR POOR AS FOR RICH

by Carol Casey

24 RACE

BUILDING A DIVERSE SOCIETY

by Jeffrey Mi lent

Did the roaring economy of the 1990s drive the wheels off good citizenship?

Why diversity still matters in America, and what universities are doing to foster it.

28 ENVIRONMENT

GROWING PAINS

by Daniel Cusick

Open land for sale, but at what price? Rethinking the suburban ideal.

PARK

The University of Maryland Magazine

SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE

by Judith Bair

Bigger, better, faster, stronger. The world around us is changing in remarkable ways, but the human heart stays pretty much the same.

HISTORY WRIT IN WATER

Diary entries and photos by Christopher Shuman Introduction by Carol Casey

Collecting clues on global change from the ice of Antarctica, Maryland research scientist Christopher Shuman writes home from the South Pole.

DEPARTMENTS

2 FIRST WORD From the editor

3 PERSPECTIVE From the president

4 MAILBOX Your voice in print

6 NEW & OBSERVED Count these students in on math mentoring; follow the Salvage Squad as they rescue sodden books and manuscripts; experience the music that stirs students’ souls; follow three extraordinary women in their Ph.D. quest; and more.

42 EXPLORATIONS Cows, communi- ties more contented thanks to Gessow Rotorcraft Center research; when school is a prison; research chemist Frederick Khachik unlocks potential health bene- fits of carotenoids; and more.

46 PORTFOLIO Women of the world unite and the product is WOW; David C. Driskell recognized nationally for life- time commitment to arts; and more.

50 INBOUNDS Friedgen comes home; Debbie Yow wins sports-business recog- nition; scores on demand for Terps fans; and more.

54 ASPIRATIONS Philip Merrill funds University of Maryland excellence in journalism education with $10 million gift; distinguished journalists join faculty.

56 CLASSNOTES News from your classmates and more.

64 IMPRESSIONS The curtain is going up on the new Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland.

• visit us online at www.umd.edu/cpmag

COLLEGE PARK

FIRST-WORD

KVI ever let them say you can’t go back to college. I’ve been back more times than I probably KM deserve — as a graduate student, as a teacher and now as College Park magazine’s new editor— and each return deepens my appreciation for what universities do for people, both as individuals and as citizens of the larger world.

Four months ago I arrived at the University of Maryland lor the second time in my life, drawn by a belief that this university is at a unique time and place in history. As a public research institu- tion, Maryland is grasping for the highest echelon of American higher education. Its strength derives not only from its size, which is formidable, but also from its great diversity of programs, of people and of ideas. Few universities can claim what Maryland has, a Firm grounding in traditional and professional education paired with a thriving research community engaged in cutting-edge issues and problems. It was just such a program, the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, that brought me to Maryland two years ago for a week-long academic fellowship on suburban sprawl. I’m gratified to revisit the subject of my Knight fellowship in this issue of College Park,

whose organizing principle is America’s emerging trends.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fas- cinated by the depth and breadth of universities like Maryland and the culture of learning that infuses them. I've wandered many campuses just to feel the hum of intellectual activity in classroom buildings or to experience the focused solitude of students holed up library stacks. From what I can tell, Maryland hums and focuses with the best universities in the nation. I also look forward to the roar of Byrd Stadium next September as Maryland alum Ralph Friedgen makes his head-coaching debut on the gridiron, and to my first enchanted evening at the new Clarice Smith Center for the Perform- ing Arts at Maryland.

On my recent forays across campus, I’ve met deans, faculty members and students representing a broad cross section of colleges and departments. Each spoke with excitement about the university, about their work here and about the implications their research, teaching and learning have for the larger world. That kind of enthusiasm is contagious, and on busy days you can feel it buzzing along McKeldin Mall, in the paces of students walking between Tawes and Tydings and Symons halls, or in the conversation-filled food court of Stamp Student Union.

It’s my good fortune to be at the center of all this humming and buzzing, and as editor of College Park. I will work to keep you apprised of the latest teaching, research and educational endeavors happening at the University of Maryland. I'm also fortunate to follow a remarkably gifted editor, Judith Bair, who retired last December to pursue her twin passions of art and the outdoors. I trust Judith’s ideals will continue to shape the magazine, in part by the countless good examples she left behind. Good reading. — Daniel Cusick, Editor

PUBLISHER C. D. Mote, Jr.

President, University of Maryland

Brodie Remington Vice President, University Relations

Danita D. Nias '81

Executive Director, Maryland Alumni Association

EDITORIAL STAFF Daniel Cusick Editor

Dianne Burch University Editor

Carol Casey Tom Ventsias Writers

Judith Bair Patty Henetz Jeffrey Milem Jodi Pluznik

Cassandra Robinson Neil Tickner Lee Tune

Contributing Writers

Sabrina Martin '01 Kristyn Peck '02 Magazine Interns

DESIGN STAFF

John T. Consol i '86 Creative Director

Jennifer Paul '93 Art Director

Elise Moore 01 Robert Lewis '02 Magazine Interns

COLLEGE PARK ONLINE www.umd.edu/cpmag

E-MAIL

cpmag (Facemail, umd.edu

College Park magazine is published three times a year by the Division of University Relations for dues-paying members of the University of Maryland Alumni Associa- tion, donors, faculty and staff. Letters to the editor are welcomed. Send correspon- dence to Daniel Cusick, Editor, College Park. 2101 Turner Building, College Park, MD 20742-5411.

The University of Maryland, College Park, is an equal opportunity institution with respect to both education and employment. University policies, pro- grams and activities are in conformance with pertinent federal and state laws and regulations on non-discrimination regard- ing race, color, religion, age, national ori- gin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

2 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI

Dear Alumni and Friends:

PERSPECTIVE

Terrapin Pride Day ottered yet another chance to “tout the Terps” to legislators in Annapolis. It also gave our volunteers the chance to share news of a new economic impact study that shows that the universi- ty has a $1.8 billion impact on the state’s economy. That translates into a six-fold return for every $1 appropriated by the state. The stock market should look so good.

Indeed, it is a very good time to be at Maryland. Recently, I had the opportunity to inform the Maryland General Assembly of our outstanding progress. The flagship of the University System of Maryland has accelerated its pace and is on a steady course marked by greater achievements, greater demand by student applicants and greater expectations of itself. Clearly, Maryland is "on the move.”

The University of Maryland has gained national recognition as one of the fastest- rising comprehensive research institutions in the country, and we are moving quickly toward realizing the state’s mandate to be ranked among the finest public research universities in the nation. We are now competing effectively with our peers — universities like Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, UCLA and Berkeley— for the best faculty and the best students.

There have long been islands of aca- demic excellence at the university, but we can now claim to be moving to national distinction in our programs across the board, in core academic disciplines and in professional schools and colleges as well. As word of our excellence spreads, our successes are multiplying.

Witness the month of February. It may be the shortest month, but it offered a windfall for the university. Philip Merrill, publisher and owner of The Capital news- paper in Annapolis and Washingtonian magazine, made a $10 million gift to the College of Journalism. In recognition of the gift the school has been renamed the

Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

That same month marked the announce- ment that David Broder, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, columnist and author, will join journalism's faculty. Broder looks forward to making Mary- land a national center for study of issues he believes are of primary concern: how to rebuild the credibility of the press and our system of government. He will be joined by two-time Pulitzer Prize-win- ning journalist and alumnus Jon Franklin ’70, a pioneer in literary nonfiction writ- ing and an expert in science writing for lay audiences.

In our College of Computer, Mathe- matical and Physical Sciences, William Phillips — who won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work in atomic physics — will join our distinguished physics faculty. He will help us create a world-class research effort in atomic, molecular, and optical physics and expand the collaboration between the university and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Although he has been an adjunct professor at the university since 1993, Phillips is the first Nobel Laureate to be appointed to a full-faculty position in the history of the University of Maryland.

The University of Maryland is located in a rapidly developing research corridor that attracts and fuels a burgeoning infor- mation technology and biotechnology industry complex in the region. Just this past fall, after a nationwide competition, we received a $9-5 million grant from a $90 million National Science Foundation fund created to support the most advanced IT research in the country. That funding impacts research areas from engineering to computer science to the social sciences.

Equally essential in our quest to accel- erate our progress is the ability to enable talented students to share in the Maryland experience. New emphasis is being placed on need-based aid, and I have set a goal of

Hundreds of university students, faculty and staff turned out for Terrapin Pride Day in Annapolis on Feb. 21. The annual event is intended to drum up support for the university at the State House and to thank legislators for their support.

raising $25 million to help the university substantially close the $24 million annual gap between the need-based scholarship funding we produce and the funding level available at our peer institutions. Already, we have initiated the Baltimore Incentive Awards program, aimed first at nine Bal- timore City high schools, to help students who have persevered in spite of disadvan- tages find the guidance and financial sup- port necessary for them to enroll and suc- ceed at Maryland. The first group of students will arrive on campus this fall.

To those within driving distance of the university, I would be remiss if I didn’t encourage you to explore our world on Maryland Day, Saturday, April 28.

Among the 300 activities designed to showcase all we do for the community and region are performances by talented stu- dent and faculty in our new Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Bravo!

— C. D. Dan Mote, Jr. , President

PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 3

MAILBOX

GUESS THE YEAR? FALL 1975

The year of the monsoon was 1975. I think it was in Sep- tember. There was such a pro- longed downpour that the old Route 1 bridge near Town Hall Liquors flooded and the university canceled classes. I can remember walking from Easton dorm to the chemistry building, and by the time I arrived I was completely drenched. I had to pour the water out of my boots. It was amazing!

Nancy Shoemaker, ’79 Annapolis, Md.

In the Fall 2000 edition of College Park , the date is 1975 for the picture. That was the year after I graduated and was working hard in Richmond, Va. I know that we had flood- ing here in the city. We went down and watched the water slowly encroach city roads and businesses. The resulting flood directly resulted in the approval to build the city’s flood wall.

Frank Jacocks, ’74 Gum Spring, Va.

The year is 1975, although the answer was too easy to confirm with the caption provided. I remembered the storm well, as it was my first semester at Maryland. I was a commuter living close to campus, and I remember showing up for classes the worst day of the storm prepared for rain. Walk- ing between classes meant encountering sidewalks and steps that were converted to rivers and waterfalls. Even though I had a good raincoat and umbrella, I got soaked through and would be drip- ping water all during classes . . . I actually remember it was funny going between classes and laughing with everyone else getting all wet. Oh to be that young and carefree again. David Farrow. '80 Gaithersburg. Md.

I distinctly remember that the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Eloise happened on Thursday, Sept. 25, 1975. That was my first semester at Mary- land. My first Chemistry 103 quiz was scheduled at 8 a.m., and as I was commuting to school, I was dumbfounded

when I heard on the car radio that the university was closed. I had been studying so hard for that quiz that I remember actu- ally being angry that school was closed. Oh, what a freshman I was!

I then took my carpool to the Prince George’s County Red Cross chapter, just down the road in Hyattsville, where we vol- unteered to do disaster relief work . . . From that expe- rience, plus many other won- derful opportunities that the Red Cross offered to me, I am now an employee of the Amer- ican Red Cross at its national headquarters here in the D.C. area, where I am now Director of Disaster Education.

Rocky Lopes , B.A. '80 Silver Spring, Md.

I received my Ph.D. in early childhood education from the University of Maryland in the fall of 1974. How well 1 remember the nasty weather Hurricane Eloise brought to the area during Sept. 23 or around that time in 1975 when my husband and I came to College Park for a small reunion . . . We had a hard time trying to find a motel that was not already filled. As we found out, the farther south we traveled that week- end, the worse the traveling conditions became. A red rain poncho would certainly be a very appropriate gift to celebrate memories of that era. Ermaleen B. Etter, Ph.D., ’74 Leola, Pa.

The answer to your question about the flooding from Hur- ricane Eloise is 1975. I was a sophomore that year living in Frederick Hall on the South Hill, but had a special-cir- cumstances parking permit for my 1968 VW Squareback that “allowed" me to park on cam- pus . . . An upper classman in my dorm made a passing com- ment about how Paint Branch Creek flooded easily, and for some reason I decided it might be a good idea to move my car ... I do remember sloshing through a lot of deep puddles and mud.

Bill Robinson. ’78 Columbia. S.C.

Editor’s Note: Sixteen College Park readers, including Joan Englehart Rodriguez ’78 of Duluth, Ga. , remembered how Tropical Storm Eloise swamped the campus in September 1 975. Rodriguez’s name was drawn at random from a pool of all the cor- rect entries. She will receive her choice of a Maryland Alumni Association windbreaker or rain poncho.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY?

One picture is worth . . . All

our talk about diver- sity is cleanly undercut by the photo on page 52 {Fall College Park). Committee on Trustees — all men? Susan Leonardi Professor of English, ARHU

4 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

MANY THANKS!

We want to take this opportunity to thank the many alumni who contributed to their Senior Gift as members of the

The restoration of the Chapel chimes and clock face was graciously donated by the Class of 1992. The chimes, heard throughout campus every hour, add to the Maryland experience.

The Class of 1993 left its mark on campus at the corner of Metzerott and Adelphi Road.

This red brick structure serves as a welcome to all who visit the University of Maryland.

Class of ’92, ’93, ’95 and ’97. The four completed projects now grace our campus, their presence offering a memorable legacy to be enjoyed by students, faculty, staff

The contribution from the Class of 1995 makes quite an impression upon those enter- ing campus. This historic bronzed seal on the North Gate House reinforces the traditions of nearly 1 50 years of higher education in Maryland.

and visitors to the University of Maryland.

You can support your alma mater through a gift to the Maryland Fund. Contact our Maryland Fund office at 30 1.405. 4642 or visit our Web site at www.umd.edu/marylandfund for more information.

The Chapel's West Courtyard was restored by the Class of 1997. This peaceful setting is a reminder that there is more to the university experience than books alone.

UNIVERSITY OF

MARYLAND

NEW&DBSEHVED

One by One, America Counts

A young man stood on the beach throwing starfish into the sea. A woman came up to him and asked why he was wasting his time. After' all, there are miles of beach and thousands of starfish that had washed

ashore. What difference could he possibly make? As the young man reached down to pick up another starfish, he replied, “It makes a dif- ference ... to this one.”

This story reflects the mission of America Counts, a first-year program at the University of Maryland to help local elementary schools

Math skills are critical to developing young minds. The university's America Counts program fosters tutoring relationships between college students and fourth graders from Prince George's County.

improve young students’ math skills. Universi- ty students act as math mentors to fourth-grade students, tutoring the youngsters after school and working with them on special take-home projects.

“The university mentors are kind of like their big brother or big sister,” says Laurie Chvatal, an America Counts team leader and Maryland senior majoring in early childhood education. “I think that both the university stu- dents and the fourth-graders benefit from this.”

Created in 1997 under a Clinton administra- tion presidential directive to use federal resources to improve math education, America Counts took form at Maryland as a partnership between the university and Prince George's County public schools. It provides nearly 30 mentors for students at Mount Rainier and

Springhill Lake elementary schools. Like its sibling program, America Reads, now in its fourth year at the university, the America Counts pro- gram is federally funded and each mentor receives federal work-study aid.

Mentors meet with students after school three days a week to work through a variety of activities. The program begins with “DEAR Math" — which stands for “Drop Everything and Read.” The exercise encourages students to become famil- iar with the language of math, offer- ing a game-of-the-day, homework help and other projects designed to blend students’ artistic, scientific and physical talents with math skills.

Chvatal, who works with Mount Rainier Elementary School, says that many of her stu- dents don’t realize how much math is used in everyday life. To help demonstrate the impor- tance of math, the mentors devised a contest promising $20 to any student who could iden- tify a job that doesn’t require some math skills. So far, there have been no winners. "The stu- dents thought that it would be easy to get the money, but they are now finding out other- wise,” Chvatal says.

In addition to the college students going to elementary schools, the young students are invited to tour the university and see what col- lege life is all about — SM

READING COMES ALIVE

Place a book about reptiles before of a table of third- graders and a few may browse through its pages. But drop a lizard in the middle of the table and watch what happens. Questions start coming fast and furious.

Tapping into the innate curiosity of young children may be a key to helping older school children make the tran- sition from reading stories for fun to reading for comprehen- sion and knowledge, say a group of researchers at the University of Maryland.

John T. Guthrie, an educa- tional psychologist in the Col- lege of Education, and his team are joining forces with Frederick County Public Schools to test the long-term viability of an instructional approach that uses hands-on science to build interest in reading. The five-year,

$3-4 million project, funded by the National Science Foun- dation, will involve some 3,600 third-, fourth- and fifth- grade students in 16 schools across the district.

The study is prompted by growing national concern that too many students are defi- cient in comprehension skills. The National Assessment for Educational Progress reports that 40 percent of fourth- grade students score “below basic” on the national reading assessment.

“We know that reading comprehension is influenced by both cognitive and motiva- tional factors,” says Guthrie.

6 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T, CONSOLI

and i quote

“There are no answers if you think that your problems are too big or your contributions are too small to make a dif- ference.”

— Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, speaking at the University of Maryland on Feb. 6, 2001.

A former professional boxer, Carter was arrested in June 1 966 and charged with the murder of three people. An all-white jury sentenced Carter to three life sentences. But after serving 1 9 years in prison, Carter was freed by a federal district court in Newark, N.J., which held that lawyers had violated the Constitution while prosecuting the case.

"Students must possess both specific reading skills and strategies as well as confidence and the desire to read the new information.”

Guthrie’s approach, called “concept-oriented reading instruction," or CORI, seeks to improve student motivation by combining themed science les- sons with specific instruction in reading comprehension. He developed the method with the help of a small group of Prince George’s County teach- ers from 1993 to 1997.

So far, the approach seems to be working. Students tested after learning under the CORI program showed increased reading comprehension on tests, increased motivation to read, increased curiosity about all areas of science and increased knowledge of science concepts.

“By integrating science and reading, we introduced a pow- erful motivating force that pushed children to seek out answers to their own ques- tions," says Guthrie. — CR

E-MAIL, E-BUSINESS AND NOW ... E-DORM

Desktop videoconferencing, multimedia messaging, high- speed data connections, voice transmissions on the Internet and wireless roaming technol- ogy: These are not the compo- nents of a high-tech Internet company, but the latest gadg- ets available in a university residence hall.

The electronic dorm, or eDorm, is equipped by Avaya, formerly the Enterprise Net- works Group of Lucent Tech- nologies, for students in the Hinman Campus Entrepreneur- ship Opportunities program. The program, called Hinman CEOs for short, will be a test venue for Avaya, as some of the technologies the company has developed have yet to be used in the “real world."

“I think it's amazing. It’s something that I would never have the opportunity to use if I wasn't in the program,” says Masato Nakagawa, a junior finance major who is working

to create a startup company in the biotechnology field.

The Hinman CEOs program is a living-learning program for juniors and seniors who show interest and potential in entre- preneurial ventures. The pro- gram is sponsored by the Engi- neering Research Center of the A. James Clark School in Engi- neering and the Dingman Cen- ter for Entrepreneurship in the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

Organizers of the program say that Hinman CEOs pro- vides a team-based, technolo- gy-driven, incubator-like environment that fosters entrepreneurial skills that will prove beneficial to students entering technology fields.

At the eDorm ’s launch in November, students demon- strated the new high-tech gad- getry. In one basement room of Garrett Hall, four Hinman CEOs conducted a videocon- ference with a director of product management at CacheFlow Inc. in Silicon Val- ley, Calif., to discuss strategy for developing their own information technology start- up. In the next room, another

team videoconferenced in suits and ties with industry veterans at Accenture in Reston, Va.

Student Iliya Zusin used mul- timedia messaging technology to strategize with his partner at Brown University about potential venture capital.

The eDorm currently hous- es about a quarter of the 87 Hinman CEOs, but all Hin- man students have access to the technologies, officials say.

The program plans to increase the number of eDorm resi- dents as the students move to new apartment-style buildings to be finished in January 2002.

The eDorm is the first ini- tiative completed under a memorandum of understanding between Avaya and the univer- sity. The agreement also calls for Avaya to equip the eDorm, collaborate with the university on the development and testing of new e-business applications and become an anchor tenant in the university’s proposed Tech- nology Park. — SM

Students in the Hinman CEOs program use teleconferencing and other advanced technologies in their eDorm, a living- learning community in Garrett Hall.

TOP PHOTO BY AYESHA AHMAD; BOTTOM PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 7

HEWMMD

PARTNERSHIPS AID MATH, MATERIALS RESEARCH

Already recognized as the state’s flagship university, the University of Maryland is now increasingly looked upon as a national leader in research and education issues. A case in point: Last fall, the university took a pivotal role in estab- lishing two major multistate research and education centers. The Materials Research Sci- ence and Engineering Center, or MRSEC, formed between the University of Maryland and Rutgers, the state univer- sity of New Jersey, was estab- lished with $10 million from the National Science Founda- tion. The NSF also awarded $9 million to Maryland's Col-

lege of Education to support a new Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning.

“These substantial federal research awards are impor- tant— the products developed from materials research will

directly impact our economy and everyday lives," says William Destler, vice presi- dent of research and dean of the Graduate School. "And, the mathematics center will prime the pipeline with doc- toral students who will lead

The university's scanning tunnel- ing microscope is used to analyze the topography and electronic structure of materials at the atom- ic scale. Such research is key to developing stronger, lighter and even "smarter" materials.

the research, curriculum development and teacher edu- cation programs of tomorrow."

The joint materials research center with Rutgers is a part- nering of Maryland's existing MRSEC with materials research efforts at Rutgers. Faculty at Maryland and Rut- gers are currently conducting basic materials research that has the potential to revolu- tionize electronics and many other application areas. "Researchers on our campus are exploring novel uses of thin film metal oxides, study- ing the dynamics of surfaces and developing novel tech- niques to probe extremely small structures,” says Ellen Williams, professor of physics at Maryland and director of the joint center. In addition to research, Williams says that MRSEC will also focus on

educational outreach and industrial collaborations.

The Mid-Atlantic Center for Mathematics Teaching and Learning is a cooperative ven- ture between Maryland, the University of Delaware and Penn State University, and

their school partners: Prince George’s County Public Schools, the Delaware Depart- ment of Education and Pitts- burgh Public Schools. Faculty at each university will work with their school partners to develop model education pro- grams for prospective teachers and professional development for practicing teachers. The project will offer full tuition and stipend support for 1 5 doctoral students at each of the universities, and provide them with access to the best faculty and facilities at the three institutions.

In Prince George’s County, the project will also work directly with the mathematics department chairpersons of the 26 middle schools and mathe- matics specialists in 10 elemen- tary schools. These leaders will receive the latest information on reforms in teaching practices and then serve as coaches and mentors for colleagues in their respective schools. "This grant recognizes the leadership role the College of Education takes in refining the knowledge and practice of mathematics educa-

tion,” says Dean Edna Mora Szymanski. “By collaborating with our partner universities and schools, we combine our strengths and resources to address head-on the issues fac- ing mathematics education today.” — TV

“The mathematics center will prime the pipeline with doctoral stu- dents who will lead the research, curriculum development and teacher education programs of tomorrow.” -William Destler

8 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI

IT'S A BIRD! IT'S A PLANE! IT'S THE SALVAGE SQUAD!

It was hot. It was humid.

They were standing in murky water in the dark, sifting through mud and debris to collect what they came for.

No, this wasn’t an excursion to the Okefenokee Swamp, it was a rescue mission at Horn- bake Library.

Possibly the biggest disas- ter in the history of Hornbake, two floods hit the building at the end of August, including an eight-inch water main break that spewed an estimat- ed 450,000 gallons of water into the basement and ground floor of the library.

Enter the Salvage Squad. While the name stirs thoughts of comic book superheros, these experts are ready at a moment’s notice to rescue and recover books, documents, archives and other library materials when disaster strikes. Led by Yvonne Carig- nan, head of the library’s preservation department, the Salvage Squad is a group of 1 5 volunteers from various departments of University Libraries. They are trained in how to handle damaged mate- rials and make themselves available, even in the mid- dle of the night, if their efforts are needed.

"Our goal is to elim- inate disaster or make it as infrequent as possi- ble,” Carignan says. After the Hornbake floods,

Carignan put a message out to university librarians to "never store library materi-

Economist Wins Royal Recognition

■01 uillermo Calvo, director of the Center for International Economics and a Distinguished University Professor at Maryland, was an eco- nomic "voice in the wilderness" in 1994 when he bucked conventional wisdom, predicting a monetary crisis in Mexico and a collapse of the peso.

At that time a senior analyst at the International Monetary Fund, Calvo was one of the first to recognize the full impact of a global economy on the world's money markets. Many econo- mists considered the prediction outlandish, but by the end of the year it all came true.

In part because of this work, Calvo received the prestigious King Juan Carlos Economics Prize last October. At formal ceremonies in Madrid, he received the award directly from the King of Spain.

Calvo's prominence and influence is about to get another boost with his appointment as the new chief economist of the Inter-American Development Bank — a post he will formally assume in June. Owned by its member nations, the bank loans $50 billion to Latin American countries to spur economic development. Calvo says he will work to extend NAFTA-like regional trade agreements throughout Latin America. "The bank wants to speak with a strong voice, and I won't be shy. You can bet on that," he says.

Although Calvo will be on leave next year, he intends to share his new experiences with his students when he returns: "I want them to benefit from this work — to get an inside look at real world economics." — NT

als on the floor,” where most of the damage occurred.

The squad uses different techniques to save materials, depending on the level of damage. The biggest problem with wet papers is mold. If the paper is too wet to be air dried

immediately, materials are frozen to prevent the mold until a plan is devised. In the case of the Hornbake floods, several boxes of books and newspapers that were stored on the ground floor, where an inch of water accumulated, were the most waterlogged. Archival materials shelved on a bottom shelf also were dam- aged. While nothing was damaged beyond lir, it took nearly library volunteers move and freeze 1 boxes of wet books and air dry 269 additional books and 27 boxes of archival materials.

Some recovery methods are

high-tech. Selected boxes cur- rently in freezers at South Campus Dining Hall will be sent to Texas to be vacuum freeze-dried, a method that incurs the least damage by turning frozen water directly into vapor without passing through the damaging liquid stage. Other methods are comparatively low tech. At McKeldin Library, several rooms were devoted to laying out papers and standing books upright in front of fans to air dry pages as quickly as possi- ble. This method is used for materials that have suffered only minor dampness around their edges.

Thankfully, the nearly 15- year-old Salvage Squad isn’t called on too often, with an estimated number of disasters at one every two years. — SM

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 9

TELLING WRITERS' TALES

The way Judith Paterson sees it, every person has a story to tell. About home, about fami- ly, about life’s rewards and tra- vails. Many of those story- tellers— both published and unpublished, famous and not- so-famous — hail from the Bal- timore-Washington region, a place as culturally diverse as any in North America.

Paterson, herself an acclaimed writer and Univer- sity of Maryland associate pro- fessor of journalism, is intro- ducing Marylanders to a number of these authors through “The Writer’s Tale,” a new television program airing weekly on UMTV.

The program spotlights the region’s wide array of writers, including those from the realms of fiction, non-fiction and poet- ry. Paterson says the show will explore the content of the writ- ers’ words, as well as the cre- ative processes they use to bring ideas to life on the page.

“I think people are extremely interested in writ- ing these days, particularly first- person narrative, which has just sort of burst onto the scene,” says Paterson. “I think

Associate journalism professor Judith Paterson, above, is the creator and host of "The Writer's Tale," a new program airing on UMTV. Recent guests include Bart Landry, top, a well-known Mary- land sociologist and author.

10 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

maryland live

Perhaps Mick ] agger and the fellas were on to something when they defiantly announced to the world that, “It’s Only Rock V Roll” ...

9.24.00 As 1 walked from the parking lot next to Reckord Armory toward the South Chapel Field last September, two distinct thoughts crossed my mind. The first was that it was an absolutely spectacular Indian Summer evening; warm with no humidity, and just a slight bite in the air letting you know that cooler weather was on its way. My second thought was much less meteorological: Why was it so damn quiet?

I had come to College Park on a Sunday night to check out the annual student Wel- come Back Concert. The event that I anticipat- ed, however, possibly could have had more political overtones than musical overtures. Just a week earlier — in response to the May 2000 Art Attack concert — the university had announced size and sound-level restrictions for all outdoor student-sponsored events. (Art Attack had drawn a record 20,000 people to McKeldin Mall, and it also drew the ire of area residents — university police responded to 50 to 60 complaints for rowdy behavior and the city council cited the university for excessive noise levels.)

That’s why I expected to feel at least some semblance of tension as I arrived — just some- thing to inform me that students weren’t going to let “the establishment” tell them how to run their shows; or that “concerned” local citi- zens weren't going to allow a mini-Woodstock in their community every six months.

I reached the edge of the lawn to discover a large crowd (estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 peo- ple) serenely sitting and milling around the concert stage. I had arrived between perform- ances and decided to take a quick walk around. The first thing I noticed was that the audience included more than just students. There were

quite a few families with all the trappings of a domestic outing in the park — bicycles, baby strollers, skateboards and picnic lunches dot- ted the landscape as nightfall descended.

My mind began to wander a bit, recalling my own idealistic days as an inspired youth ...In “my” generation, we would have been listening to Joe Cocker or the Doors . . . and there probably would have been the pungent odor of “funny cigarettes” wafting about ... Letting my thoughts drift further, I imagined even earlier generations of music lovers sitting under the clear Maryland sky, enjoying the sounds of The Four Seasons, or Fats Domino ... or Glen Miller’s Big Band ... or ... WHHHHRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ... I immediately was shaken out of my cerebral flashback by a single, sustained electric guitar note with loads of distortion and feedback emanating from the darkened sound stage. The stage lights flashed on bright, the crowd went into a long, instantaneous roar and the night exploded into frenzied action.

Eve 6, a Los Angeles-based trio and the fea- tured act, was now doing its thing, and doing it pretty darn loud. Guitarist Jon Siebels, wearing his Gibson Les Paul guitar slung low like a hip western gunslinger, began an extremely rapid and forceful up and down strumming motion that looked exactly like the old Vegematic slice-and-dice television com- mercials. I felt it my journalistic duty to try and discern just how loud the music was. I walked behind the crowd from one side of the stage to the other (loud). I walked up the hill toward Memorial Chapel (still loud). I walked back down the hill and stood directly behind the sound-mixing console set up about 50 yards away from the main stage (loudest). I decided to stop walking. Someone else could determine the infrasonic decay rate of the dif- fracted discrete noise ratios ... I just wanted to enjoy the show and have a good time. I glanced around and saw I wasn't alone.

Eve 6 was putting on a great performance.

VIDEO STILLS COURTESY OF UMTV

Eve 6 (left) played loud, but without inci- dent, at last fall's Welcome Back Concert.

The stage lights flashed on bright, the crowd went into a long, instan' taneous roar and the night exploded into frenzied action.

Lead vocalist Max Collins — tall, lanky and total- ly in control — was singing from the front of the stage with one foot propped up on a sound mon- itor. Drummer Tony Fagenson was especially powerful, with his amplified bass drum literally taking your breath away as it kicked out the steady rhythms of the fast paced songs.

Perhaps most intriguing was watching a middle-aged father standing directly behind the crowd that was dancing and swaying in front of the stage. He had his two young children — one in each arm — held aloft high so they could see all of the action.

I decided to act brave (okay, maybe I felt a little out of place, too) and waded my way through the crowd to an area very close to the stage, next to the infamous “mosh pit.” For the uninformed, this is where young people take turns lifting one another in the air and then “body surfing” toward the stage. Far from being crude and violent, what I saw seemed almost genteel. Students gingerly received each passing

body and deposited it with style and grace firmly on the ground. Everybody was having a great time. And although the music was loud (officials later said it was within the 65-deci- bel limit), the entire evening seemed to have very little rancor to it.

After 45 minutes of controlled chaos, Eve 6 left the stage and retreated to the two large tents behind the stage to wind down; the large crowd made quick exits to their cars or dorms; and 1 took one last look around and started back toward my car. I was surprised at how quickly the night had grown dead silent again.

I stopped for a moment, now completely alone, in the patio garden outside ol the Rossborough Inn. My mind began to wander again ... it was eerie . . . because the only sound I could hear was the melodic chirping of crickets on a warm fall evening ... or maybe, just maybe, it was the spirit of Buddy Holly, telling me that rock ’n’ roll was here to stay. — Torn Ventsias

that viewers and readers who might not have seen them- selves as writers before are now more interested. Every- body has a memoir. Everybody has a first-person story to tell.”

Some writers recently fea- tured on the program include Bart Landry, a Maryland soci- ologist whose book Black. Working Wives examines the foundation laid by black women for the modern two- income family, and Celia Mor- ris, whose memoir about Texas touches on themes of Southern values, womanhood and com- ing of age in the era of Civil Rights and women's rights.

Paterson’s own critically acclaimed memoir, Sweet Mys- tery: A Book of Remembering , was published in 1996 by Far- rar, Straus & Giroux and was recently released in paperback. Paterson teaches memoir and other narrative journalism techniques in her courses in the university’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Thomas Kunkel, dean of the college and chiel executive officer of UMTV, says “The Writer’s Tale” should give viewers “an intimate portrait of some of this area’s best writ- ers and their writing process.”

The broadcasts, filmed at the university’s Richard Eaton Broadcast Center, air Tuesdays at 8 p.m., and again on Wednesdays at 1 p.m., Thurs- days at 10:30 a.m. and Fridays at 3 p.m. UMTV, the Univer- sity of Maryland’s cable televi- sion station, is available on campus as well as in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. — DC

TOP PHOTO BY MARINA CHAVEZ. BOTTOM PHOTO BY TOM VENTSIAS

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 11

Math Ph.D.s to the Third Power

On a cold December morning, James A. Jackson looks for a seat in the University of Maryland’s Memorial Chapel in Cob lege Park. Pews are rapidly tilling — with spouses, parents,

friends and the extended families of stu- dents who are about to receive their degrees from the university’s College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

But Jackson has come to College Park on his day off to honor three students he’s never met — Tasha Inniss, Sherry Scott- Joseph and Kimberly Weems, the first African American women to receive doc- torates in mathematics irom the Universi- ty of Maryland.

“Three at once? I had to see it for myself,’’ Jackson says.

Maryland mathematics professor Duane Cooper believes that many of his department’s graduate students of color were drawn to Maryland because of the racial diversity of the faculty, the depart- ment’s strong support of minority stu- dents and its reputation for academic

excellence. Weems, Inniss and Scott- Joseph agree.

All three women also credit Raymond Johnson, former chair of the department and an African American, with helping them see their way toward doctorate degrees. “ Before I became a student at Maryland, I had met Dr. Johnson,” Inniss says. “I felt that since he was the chair and there were so many students of color purs- ing Ph.D.s, the department as a whole had to be supportive. I was right."

What the women found in the depart- ment became the foundation for their evolving friendship.

"I remember Tasha and Kim studying for a stat prelim together, then going to the gym together for a stress break,” Johnson says. "I remember seeing Kim and Sherry at nearby computers, showing each other — and me if I stopped by —

The University of Maryland's first African American Ph.D.s in math: From left, Tasha Inniss, Kim Weems and Sherry Scott-Joseph.

tricks and techniques.”

That closeness continues today as the three pursue careers in the D.C. area.

Inniss is Clare Booth Luce Professor of Mathematics at Trinity College in Wash- ington, where she says she’s working to “break down barriers and preconceived notions about math and who can do it.” The professorship also allows her to con- tinue research she began with her disserta- tion, developing statistical models that accurately estimate the takeoff and land- ing capacities of airports in varying weather conditions.

Weems works for the Department of Defense as an applied research mathe- matician. Her dissertation, on how distri- butional assumptions affect the accuracy of model parameters, is described in glowing terms by her advisor, associate professor Paul J. Smith. “She produced some ingenious mathematical results and an elegant description of her statistical model,” he says.

Scott-Joseph is a visiting professor at George Washington University. While her focus at Maryland was pure mathematics, she remains committed to finding real- world applications for her work. “I am interested in signals or data collected over time,” she says. “I’d like to bring that kind of practical work back into academia."

As the women proceed out the chapel door, James Jackson approaches each one to shake hands and pass along a business card from NASA Goddard Flight Center, where he is minority affairs director.

“Would you be willing to come out to NASA to speak?” he asks.

Yes, they nod.

Equipped with the credentials, and grateful for the support and mentoring that brought them to this momentous day, the women are ready to return the favor to others. — CC

12 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

[Mar ylano-

invest in your

future’

invest in

higher

Activism is an ever present part of the university. From protesting in Annapolis at the State House after Governor Agnew cut educational spending ...

campus

sight!

Physics Phenom. William Phillips, the 1997 Nobel Laureate in physics, will head a new world- class atomic, molecular and optical physics group at the University of Maryland. As a full-time faculty member in the College of Comput- er, Mathematical and Physical Sci- ences, Phillips will recruit scholars and spearhead research into fun- damental quantum properties, high-resolution spectroscopy, atomic clocks and quantum infor- mation systems. He won the Nobel Prize in 1997 for his work in laser cooling and the trapping of atoms.

Diversity Scorecard. Black Enter- prise magazine named the Univer- sity of Maryland the third best non- traditionally black public university in the nation for African American students in its most recent college rankings. The magazine ranked 482 schools in areas of social and edu- cational environments for African Americans, black undergraduate enrollment and other factors. Maryland ranked 33rd overall.

Weekend M.B.A. Officials call it a weekend M.B.A., but Maryland's new master's program for Wash- ington-area business professionals is hardly leisurely. The Smith School's new program fits its mas- ter's curriculum into weekend courses taught at Washington's Ronald Reagan Building. For more information, visit the school's Web site at www.rhsmith.umd.edu.

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 13

to rallying for change on cam- pus. In this particular year, sexual violence and drug testing were issues at heart.

TOP PHOTO BY CYNTHIA MITCHELL

1973

to expressing opinions about pres- idential politics, even while driving around town ...

1989

experience as what they do in the classroom and the labora- tory,” says Mote. He adds that Clement will bring an “unwa- vering commitment to ensur- ing that student life is an inte- gral part of their academic experience.”

Prior to becoming admis- sions director, Clement was director of orientation for six years and assistant director of the Hill Community at the university. She also served as interim chief of staff in the Office of the President from March to September 2000.

Clement is adjunct associ- ate professor in counseling and personnel services. She also serves as an advisor to the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.

She is a past winner of the Women’s Commission Woman of the Year Award and the Black Faculty and Staff Associ- ation’s Diversity Award. — DC

CLEMENT TAPPED TO HEAD STUDENT AFFAIRS

Linda M. Clement spent nearly two decades working to attract students to the University of Maryland. Now the former director of undergraduate admissions will assume respon- sibility for virtually every aspect of student life as the university’s newly appointed vice president for student affairs.

Clement, who also served as assistant vice president for academic affairs since 1995, replaces William L. "Bud" Thomas Jr., who retired Jan. 31. During Thomas’s 28-year tenure over the division, student programs and services expanded dramat- ically, reflecting Maryland’s emergence as one of the top 25 public universities in the

country.

"I am very excited about the opportunity to lead the division of Student Affairs in the crucial years ahead as Maryland establishes its posi- tion as one of the great univer- sities in America,” Clement said upon her appointment last December. She says she expects Stu- dent Affairs “to influ- ence the quality of the institution in substan- tial ways.”

President C. D. Mote, Jr. says Clement will take a major role in the university’s efforts to help students to become not just well-educated, but well- rounded. "Today, what stu- dents encounter in their resi- dences, dining halls, intramural fields and social and recreational activities is as much a part of the university

Linda Clement

14 COI.ttGH PARK. SPRING 2001

NN LIFE IN THE 21st CENTURY? WHAT HO WILL WE WORK FOR, AND WHAT AMERICA'S EMERGING...

- *

If the 20th century offered a victory for American-style democracy on a global scale — earned through two world wars in Europe and a protracted Cold War against the Soviet Union — the 21st century promises to challenge American peace and prosperity in entirely new ways.

With most of our overseas threats diminished, Americans are being asked to turn their attention to the elusive promise of democracy at home. The challenges are more complex than ever, and they will require much more than a well-trained army to overcome. Unless, of course, that army is one of edu- cated workers and engaged citizens.

In this century, America’s biggest tests will come not from outsiders, but from Americans themselves, as 300 mil- lion people seek to find common ground in a time of rapid demographic, economic and environmental change. Little of what defined American life in 1950 will look or feel the same in 2050. Our jobs will be different, our neighborhoods will adopt new faces, our social fabric will take on new wrinkles and suffer new tears.

In the following pages, we have attempted to explore a few of the emerging trends and challenges of the 21st cen- tury. More specifically, we have pointed to some areas where the University of Maryland is stepping forward to identify and react to the changes that lie ahead — in the workplace, at home and in our communities.

v>:

:OliEGE PARK SPRING 20ul IS

BY PATTY HENETZ

WITH HIS ASSOCIATE’S degree in architec- ture in hand, Kevin Ngugi came to the University of Maryland expecting to major in computer sciences. It made sense to develop his nascent technical skills, as architecture has become increasingly dependent on computer applications. He had been drawn to computers since he was a child. But before long, Ngugi realized he was no mathematician and had little inter- est in computer coding. He looked in his heart and decided to change his major to art studio. “It was the best thing I could have done,” he says now.

As an art studio major, Ngugi could focus on what he loved: drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture and design. But his real breakthrough came when he took a graduate-level course in digital narration. In that one class, his two favorite worlds — art and com- puters— melded. He now has a new career focus, one that will allow him to apply his artistic eye to technology.

16 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

LEFT PHOTO BY SCOTT SUCHMAN

“I was always an artist,” says Ngugi, who works in the university’s Office of Internet Communications, designing and imple- menting Web sites for the university.

"But I did have a thing for computers. It’s funny how things integrate. Computer scientists might not be great graphic designers, and artists might not be good at ‘ones' and ‘zeroes.’ But one needs the other. You definitely need to find that middle ground.”

The middle ground is a good place to be these days, a kind of demilitarized zone in the age-old battle between the values of lib- eral education and the practical world of work, education for its own sake versus careerism, generalists versus specialists.

And thanks to advances in computer sci- ences that make it possible to employ the technology without needing to understand binary code, the question of which is better, breadth or depth, seems beside the point.

For liberal arts students, computers have become as commonplace as calcula- tors and IBM Selectrics were for their par- ents and grandparents. The difference, of course, is the massive amount of special- ized knowledge available to computer users. College freshmen think nothing of downloading articles on what’s ailing them from Lancet and JAMA before visit- ing the student health center. Anyone can type a few words into a search engine and retrieve data that not long ago would have required a degree in library science even to know where to look.

Which isn't to say computers have made specialization obsolete. Rather, they are tools — “user-friendly interfaces,” in techno- speak— that make it possible for generalists to obtain and adapt specialized information. Occupying the middle ground has made it possible to become a new type of generalist, one who takes specialized knowledge and applies it creatively.

That’s good news for liberal arts gradu- ates, says Nancy O’Neill. As program director for Maryland’s Career Center, O'Neill often sees liberal arts students on the cusp of graduation who fret about their futures because they haven’t special- ized narrowly or don’t have business degrees. She tells them not to worry. Gen- eralists, she says, have eminently transfer- able skills.

“It can sound like a cliche, but it’s true,” she says. “What comes out of liber- al arts is the ability to communicate well, analyze multiple perspectives, make good decisions with complex information, employ critical thinking and know when to ask questions.”

PROMISING DOB MARKET

It seems the marketplace agrees. The Michigan State University-based Colle- giate Employment Research Institute's annual survey shows that while there con- tinues to be an insatiable appetite for tech- nical graduates, the 2001 job market could be the best in years for liberal arts grads.

Employers are looking especially for graduates who have experience with Web- based technology. Technical savvy is important, but it’s not necessary to be hard-core coders. Rather, students as a matter of course are learning what they need: fundamental skills in word process- ing, e-mail, spreadsheets, presentation and database management, ease with Web

PHOTOS BY JOHN T CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 17

browsers and search engines and knowl- edge of how to evaluate information for accuracy. For Web design, it’s necessary to know basic to intermediate HTML coding and graphics programs.

Potomac Knowledge Way, a nonprofit consortium of business and educational leaders in the Washington metro area, in a study of the region’s private-sector growth, has found that the information and communications industry — a.k.a. "Infocomm” — has grown 295 percent since 1968, and is now the region’s princi- pal nonfederal core industry. The direct and indirect job growth supported by the Infocomm industry accounted for almost 38 percent of all new private sector jobs created from 1992 to 1998. The report projects an increase of nearly 92,000 Info- comm jobs by 2010.

The ideal candidates for these jobs are individuals with excellent communication and interpersonal skills who can learn quickly, solve problems and use common sense — in short, liberal arts grads.

Frank Andrews, vice president and general manager of Jack Morton World- wide’s Washington, D.C., office, says his firm regularly looks to Maryland liberal arts graduates, for easy-to-understand rea- sons. The firm pioneered its trademarked Experiential Communications by employ- ing what Andrews calls “broad-minded creative souls.” The company creates events and programs using live presenta- tion, interactive and digital media, envi- ronmental design, film and video and live entertainment and training. Jack Morton employs some 1,200 people in 30 offices around the world; Andrews says he sus- pects about 70 percent of the employees have generalist backgrounds.

“A lot of our stuff is propeller-head by nature, but ultimately everything has cul- tural grounding,” he says. They look for young generalists and, through hard work and training, add “a ton of value" to their skills. “When you come in, you’ve still got some learning to do,” Andrews

explains. "Digital media people don’t nec- essarily know how to make a film. Account management folks come out ol M.B.A. programs. A person trained and experienced in one discipline needs to make the shift to another."

LEARNING TO THINK CRITICALLY

Liberal arts graduates have that kind of flexibility built into their learning and working styles, says Meghan Duffy. She earned her bachelor’s in English from the university in 1999, with special emphasis in women's studies. That kind of college experience usually leads to careers in acad- eme, or at least grad school. Not so for Duffy.

“Coming out of college, I knew I was looking for nonprofit work," she says. The study of literature honed her personal ide- ology, which in turn helps her frame her work life. A generalist to the core, Duffy has translated her love of literature to the world of politics. She’s an events manager for the Washington, D.C. -based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, where she helps raise money for gay and lesbian political candidates across the nation.

The frenetic world of political action committees would seem a long way from the contemplative life of literature stud- ies. But that’s not the case, says Duffy. Literature, she says, helps her think criti- cally. Storytelling is not confined to texts. In a way, her understanding of story- telling has helped her become a kind of intercultural translator. “It’s an error to think that won’t help you in your work,” she says. "It's more about desire and inter- est and you as a person, what you can do.

“As a meeting facilitator, you hear what people are saying and integrate it into the conversation,” she says. “I see a lot of liberal arts people go into consult- ing to serve as mediators. Even if that's not your formal role, you end up serving as a facilitator or impromptu editor. That happens to almost every English major I

know. They end up being editors for their organizations.”

Duffy says she went to college during what she calls the “computer gap.” She and her peers grew up with the technolo- gy but had little or no formal training, and instead taught themselves. For gener- alists, she says, that's fine. “Most people I know use computers for e-mail and docu- ment management,” she says. “There are technology needs. You need elementary database skills, word -processing skills and Web-editing skills.” But she doubts any further technology training would help her much; nor does she see much value in early tech training in college, because the technology melts into obsolescence so quickly. “It’s almost absurd,” she says, “to tell 18-year-olds to take computer courses for jobs they will have at 23 or 24.”

Such rapid change contributes to what widely published sociologist and author Todd Gitlin calls “info glut.” A staunch defender of the liberal arts tradition, Gitlin has railed against technological trendiness. Students, he says, need to be “chaff detectors,” to anchor their lives with a liberal education to counteract the vertigo of shifting identities and careers.

FINDING A BALANCE

But face it: The notion — no, the reality — that college degrees fatten paychecks is here to stay. Another fundamental truth is that specialization improves productivity. Neo-Luddites may rail, but computers are here to stay, or at least until the next bet- ter thing comes along. And most college grads need some kind of specialized train- ing to advance their careers. Or, in some cases, to make them better generalists.

Take Brian Darmody, whose career has a kind of hourglass shape. The 1977 Maryland government and politics gradu- ate spent a few years working in politics and policy on the state and federal levels before deciding to funnel his energies into a specialty. He earned his law degree from

18 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

the University of Baltimore and returned to the University of Maryland in 1981. He now serves as assistant vice president for research and economic devel- opment, a position that places him at the intersection of public policy and the private sector.

Specifically and recently, he was instrumental in convincing a major photonics firm of the state of Maryland's emerging impor- tance in the field.

Nothing in his educational background prepared him to work in photonics, which is the science and technology of the controlled flow of light particles for applications in data storage and transmission, optical com- and

puters and optical switches and light modulators. But when Bookham Technology, a British fiber optics company, started looking at Mary- land, Darmody went to work. The Uni- versity of Maryland doesn’t have a pho- tonics center as such, though it does have a number of experts in the field on the faculty. It fell to Darmody to bring the experts and entrepreneurs together.

“I didn’t need to know much about photonics,” Darmody says. "I needed to be able to talk to the technologists to find out who are the people who are working in this area so they could meet with the company’s chief technical officer." In short, he needed to be the translator. Or, as he puts it, the marriage broker.

“The first thing I tell people is I'm not a technology person,” says Darmody. “But quite often I’m dealing with corporate relocation people who don’t understand the technology, either. My job is to get the relationship going." In an interview with The 'Washington Post, Bookham executive Andy Quinn noted he spent a lot of time at the University of Maryland and was impressed with the caliber of graduates and the willingness of faculty there to col-

continuously, solve problems and use common sense.

laborate with Bookham. The firm has decided to locate its North American headquarters in Columbia, Md., where it will employ as many as 1,000 workers.

Darmody says he learned his mediation skills from the public policy part of his career. As a lawyer, he became conversant with state ethics law and wrote legislation to encourage university-industry coopera- tion. As a well-trained generalist, he translated public policy to show how state law could permit faculty-owned compa- nies to participate in the university’s Technology Advancement Program.

"It was impressed on us in the govern- ment and politics program that we would probably be generalists,” Darmody says. “The issue for the university is, we have all these strengths, we are a huge, com- plex research organization. Trying to fig- ure out who is doing what is daunting to outsiders. It’s not always obvious. You have to have people to translate.” E29H

Patty Henetz is a freelance journalist and graduate student in creative writing at the U niversity of Maryland.

LEFT PHOTO BY SCOTT SUCHMAN. RIGHT PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 19

The booming economy has benefited all, right? A group of University of Maryland researchers wants to test that hypothesis.

Eric Uslaner is onto a trend and he wishes he weren’t.

“Trust — that is, faith in people you don’t know — has fallen dra- matically over the past 40 years, and our society is becoming more balkanized and polarized,” he says.

Uslaner’s observations are reiterated by conservatives as well as by liberals. Charles Murray, a fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, wrote last year in The Wall Street Journal , “The U.S. is culturally compartmentalizing itself. Name just about any aspect of American life, and a case can be made that the country is going in different directions simultaneously.”

Uslaner, professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, has a suspicion of what's to blame — growing economic inequality in the United States. His assertion is one of many to be evaluated under a new research consortium in the university's Col- lege of Behavioral and Social Sciences. The research effort, called the Demography of Inequality Initiative, will examine a range of issues that deal with the broader theme of social and economic imbalance.

“The rise in income and wage inequality over the past 30 years has been one of the more interesting trends in the U.S. econo- my,” says economics professor William Evans, who is a key member ol the initia- tive. “As the wages of highly educated workers have advanced, the incomes of less well-educated workers have fallen fur- ther and further behind."

For example, according to the Wash- ington, D.C. -based Institute for Policy Studies, while corporate profits rose 1 18 percent during the last two decades and pay to corporate CEOs increased 535 per- cent, middle- and lower-income workers took it on the chin. Adjusting for infla- tion, minimum wage fell 15 percent between 1980 and 1997, while the aver-

age hourly wage declined by 3 percent, according to the institute's findings.

Those findings may come as little sur- prise to the millions of Americans who were left out of the economic boom cycle of the last decade, most of whom had lit- tle or no money in the stock market. Despite the laudatory tone in much of the press during the 1990s about the econo- my, stories have continued to appear about overcrowded homeless shelters, families working two and three jobs just to keep ahead, millions living without health insurance.

But the existence of economic hardship has not translated into political action. Uslaner’s hypothesis of civic disengage- ment may help explain it. “When eco- nomic inequality increases, the bonds of unity in a society are strained. This makes it difficult for society to reach collective decisions,” Uslaner says.

In the past, middle- and upper-class Americans were forced to acknowledge the problems brought about by poverty because they found themselves face to face with them. Now, however, it’s easier for more affluent Americans to isolate them- selves from society’s poor and struggling. Busing, which put middle-class children into classrooms next to poor children, has been abandoned as a solution to education- al inequities. The homeless have been ban- ished from the streets by vagrancy laws and remain out of sight in shelters. And the criminals are safely locked up in over-

RIGHT PHOTO 8YJOHN. T. CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 21

"As the gaps between rich and poor increase, people at the bottom have less reason to be optimistic about the future, and thus they become less trusting of others," says Uslaner.

crowded jails — out of sight, out of mind.

Americans, Murray suggests, ignore the problem of inequality at their peril. The veneer of economic stability that came to characterize the 1990s actually obscures a more complex story that “begs to be disen- tangled,” he says.

Uslaner, Evans and other faculty at the University of Maryland are doing just that.

“As the gaps between rich and poor increase, people at the bottom have less reason to be optimistic about the future, and thus they become less trusting of oth- ers,” says Uslaner. “Participation in civic life is a sign of people’s commitment to their society. The decline in participation in both political and social life bodes ill for civil society.”

DISENGAGEMENT FOSTERS APATHY, PESSIMISM

Uslaner’s hypothesis is bolstered by his pre- liminary findings that those U.S. states with the largest increase in income inequal- ity between 1970 and 1990 also saw the largest drop in voting over the same period, a trend that continued with the 2000 presi- dential election. Last November, 50.7 per- cent of eligible voters cast ballots. While that number was slightly higher than in 1996, when a record-low 48.8 percent of voters turned, it was still below the 55-per- cent turnout of 1992 and well below the I960 voter turnout record of 62.8 percent in the Kennedy-Nixon election.

Uslaner says it’s little coincidence that

voters turned out in higher numbers in I960 than ever before. “This was a time in America of the greatest levels of optimism in Ameri- can history. We had a booming economy, low inflation and unemployment, a general sense of pur- pose and a can-do attitude,” he says.

Troubling though these statistics are, Uslaner finds others more disturbing. Vol- unteering and charitable giving have fall- en sharply since the 1960s. “People become pessimistic as the gap between the rich and the poor gets larger. When inequality is rising, people at the bottom see those at the top as privileged and pow- erful. Pessimists distrust others and opt out of participation in civic life, especially those activities that reflect a deeper com- mitment to one’s community such as giv- ing to charity or volunteering time.”

This overall loss of civic engagement may have repercussions in education as well. Evans, along with Robert Schwab, prolessor of economics at Maryland, and Sheila Murray of the RAND Corporation, has examined how the distribution of spending on K-12 education has changed over the past 30 years. “We’ve seen a rapid rise in spending inequality during the 1980s and early 1990s,” says Evans. “The bulk of evidence suggests that population heterogeneity along any dimension — age, race, education or income — reduces sup- port for local public programs.”

Evans, Schwab and Murray will track data on school district financing over the past 20 years to see whether support for schools changed as income inequality within districts increased. “We’re asking, if one becomes less attached to the local school and funding goes down, does the quality of public schools decline?”

22 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

LEFT AND RIGHT PHOTOS BY JOHN T CONSOLI

HEALTHCARE SUFFERS FROM ECONOMIC IMBALANCE

For millions of Americans too poor to buy health insurance, the effects ol income inequity can be a matter of life and death.

| Sociology professor Leonard Pearlin points out that discrepancies between the rich

1 and poor in terms ol public health and life expectancy have been recognized for many decades. And while “statistics show that Americans are living longer and healthier lives, disparities still exist — the poor and people of color still are not up to the level of the more affluent,” Pearlin says.

Data from the National Center for Health Statistics support Pearlin's obser- vation. In its report on the relationship between socioeconomic status and adult health, NCHS states, "Persons of lower socioeconomic status experience higher death rates and lower life expectancy. Fur- thermore, there is evidence that socioeco- nomic disparities in death rates have widened since I960.”

Pearlin believes that health disparities are exacerbated by the stress of living in poverty. "When people face involuntary unemployment or underemployment, live in unsafe neighborhoods and lack access to ordinary health service and facilities, their health is likely to be worse,” he says.

Other research shows that those kinds of stresses could lead to unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, excessive drinking and illegal drug use. His research is based on data from Medicare beneficiaries in Wash- ington, D.C., and Maryland's Mont- gomery and Prince George's counties.

Evans is interested in the pathways that lead to higher mortality rates in the poor. His upcoming research stems from his extensive work on tobacco regulation. “When looking at smoking rates over time, one sees two different patterns for highly and less-educated adults,” he says. “Among those with a college degree, smoking rates have fallen considerably since 1975. In contrast, among those with only a high school degree, there have been

only modest drops in smoking. I want to know why.”

Evans will investigate the hypothesis that health-compromising behaviors are correlated with widening income dispari- ties. "The single most important health habit is smoking,” he says. The American Heart Association claims that cigarette smoking alone accounts for nearly 20 per- cent of all deaths in the United States. Evans will examine whether greater income inequality and relative depriva- tion leads to poorer health habits such as alcohol abuse, overeating and cigarette smoking.

FAMILIES BEAR THE BRUNT

The rise in income disparity among fami- lies with children is also well document- ed, yet no complete picture has emerged about how the income gap affects chil- dren. Sociology professor Suzanne Bianchi wants to find out whether income disparities affect the ways parents in different economic classes are involved in their children's lives.

This question arose from her research on maternal employment and its effects on how much time parents spent with their children. Bianchi found that, on average, parents’ time with children had changed less than she expected, even as more women have entered the workplace. But those results made her wonder: "Is there more and more time and money for children at the high end [of the economic scale] counterbalancing less and less at the low end?”

Maryland assistant professor of sociol- ogy Steve Martin focuses on families, par- ticularly how they are adapting to chang- ing social patterns, such as mothers spending more time away from home to work.

“I specifically want to study changing outcomes for children as well as the life successes, goals and values of the par- ents,” Martin says. He notes that as

income inequality has increased, young adults seem increasingly diverse in how they manage, or even omit, major life transitions such as careers, education, marriage and childbearing.

“I’m trying to find out two things,” Martin says, “First, do the well-off have increasing flexibility to choose the opti- mal order of their life events while the less-well-off have less flexibility? And, if that is the case, I want to discover whether such flexibility has tangible ben- efits for adults and children.”

For some of the researchers, the work on income disparity represents more than just academic inquiry.

“I am interested in the issue ol inequality first as a moral issue — it is important that we do as much as we can to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor. Second, but not unre- lated, are the consequences of inequality to individuals and to the country,” Uslan- er says.

Bianchi also sees her work in terms of social justice. “It seems particularly important to assess whether economic trends in the country — that is, growing income inequality — might be working at cross-purposes to the goal of greater equality of opportunity, a goal that has characterized the rhetoric in the U.S. since the Civil Rights movement," she says.

“Society is paying for economic inequality — in prisons, in the high cost of health care, in crime and violence,” Pearlin says. "To better distribute the economic rewards takes a society willing to commit to giving a little now to reap long-term benefits.”

Uslaner agrees, “The only way to make progress against the increasing disparities between the rich and the poor is a real attempt by the political system to reduce economic inequality and social tensions."

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 23

t’s quite possible that you missed one of the

MOST IMPORTANT NEWS STORIES TO EMERGE LAST

1 FALL. Airing on evening television news broadcasts and buried in most of the major newspapers across the country were stories saying that California had become what reporters described as a “minority-majority” state.

At first glance, the term seems self-contradictory. By definition, one might question how a “minority” can also be a “majority.” In fact, what the reporters were trying to tell us is that people of color — those who have tradition- ally been described as “minorities” in our society — now make up a larger portion of the population of the state of California than white people, who have traditionally been described as the “majority.” Sometime around the middle of this century, demographers tell us that the same shift will occur for the population of the United States, and we will become a “minority-majority” nation.

BY JEFFREY MILEM

i

The implications of this shift will be quite powerful. No other country in the world is, or ever has been, as racially and ethnically diverse as the United States. This rising diversity presents our democ- racy with great challenges and tremen- dous opportunities, and the rest of the world will be watching us closely to see how we respond.

DIVERSITY AND EDUCATION

Over the past few decades, university leaders have increasingly recognized the opportunities and challenges that come with our society’s growing diversity, and they have sought to transform the educa- tional missions of their institutions to respond to these trends. More and more, educators are embracing diversity on their campuses because they realize that it pro- vides prospects for teaching and learning that homogeneous campuses do not.

Each year, more college and university mission statements are rewritten to affirm the important role that diversity has in enhancing teaching and learning. Many in the higher education community argue that we have a unique responsibility to develop in students the knowledge, skills and com- petencies that they need to be active mem- bers of a society that is becoming increas- ingly diverse and that is inextricably

connected to a larger "global" community.

But while college campuses are embracing the ideals of a more diverse society, high schools across the country are moving in the opposite direction, and racial segregation is actually increasing in many school districts. Hence, college may be the only opportunity that most stu- dents have to be exposed to people from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds. These opportunities are important because they break an insidious cycle that perpet- uates racial segregation in our society.

A growing body of research shows that students who are exposed to diverse per- spectives and who develop diverse friends in college are much more likely to work in diverse job settings and to live in diverse communities after they graduate. These findings are based on data gathered from schools across the country, including the University of Maryland, where the benefits of diversity can be illustrated quite powerfully.

It’s only been in the past few years that we have begun to document those bene- fits. Much of the evidence compiled to date has been marshaled to respond to constraints placed on our ability to ensure that racial and ethnic diversity exists at our colleges and universities. These con- straints come in the form of court chal-

lenges to the use of race as a factor in col- lege admissions, employment and finan- cial aid decisions, as well as in the approval of ballot initiatives in California and Washington that prohibit affirmative action in higher education.

A number of schools have been sued over their policies regarding diversity in college admissions, including the Univer- sity of Texas, the University of Washing- ton, the University of Georgia and the University of Michigan.

Last December, a U.S. District Court judge upheld the University of Michigan’s assertion that diversity is essential to its educational mission after that school was sued on grounds that its admissions poli- cies for minorities were unconstitutional. In a written opinion, Judge Patrick Dug- gan held “that a racially and ethnically diverse student body produces significant educational benefits such that diversity, in the context of higher education, consti- tutes a compelling governmental interest under strict scrutiny.”

DIVERSITY'S BROAD BENEFITS

My own recent review of scholarship from a variety of fields indicates that given the right conditions, diversity in higher edu- cation yields at least four broad categories of benefits. These include (1) individual

benefits, (2) institutional benefits, (3) eco- nomic and private sector benefits and (4) societal benefits.

Before describing the ways in which racial and ethnic diversity benefits indi- vidual students, it is important to explain what I mean by the term “diversity.”

I argue that there are three types of diversity that influence student knowledge and attitudes. The first, “structural diver- sity,” refers simply to the number and pro- portion of students from different racial or ethnic groups at a college or university.

The second involves “diversity-related ini- tiatives," or efforts that universities con- sciously undertake to expose students to diverse people and perspectives. Examples of these include racial and cultural aware- ness workshops, ethnic studies courses and diversity core-curriculum requirements. The final type of diversity, called “diverse interactions,” is characterized by the exchanges students have with people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds as well as their interactions with diverse ideas, information and experiences.

These three types of diversity are not discrete. In fact, the benefits of diversity are greatest when they are inextricably woven together. Students are most fre- quently exposed to diverse information and ideas through the interactions they have with diverse people. Furthermore, while diversity-related initiatives benefit students who are exposed to them — even on campuses that are almost exclusively white — the educational impact of these initiatives is much more powerful on cam- puses that have greater structural diversi- ty. In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

IMPROVING LEARNING & TEACHING

Individual students benefit greatly from diversity on college campuses, and often in measurable ways. Studies have found that those who interact with diverse peers or who have greater exposure to diverse perspectives in classes tend to be

better critical thinkers. They also show greater social and interpersonal develop- ment than students with less exposure to diversity. Increasingly, such broad-base experience is helping students as they leave college and enter the workforce. More and more business leaders are call- ing for higher education leaders to use the racial and ethnic diversity on their campuses to help students develop cross- cultural competencies that are among the most sought after skills in a complex global economy.

A recent Gallup survey given to 1,800 law students at the University of Michigan and Harvard University sup- ports these findings. In the poll, the law students said that their interactions with diverse people and ideas enhanced their learning and thinking in key ways. Ninety percent indicated that the expo- sure to racial and ethnic diversity enhanced their experience in law school, while nearly two-thirds indicated that diversity improved the quality of their in-class discussions. More than 60 per- cent indicated that diversity improved their ability to work and to get along with others, and 80 percent reported that discussions with students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds signifi- cantly affected their views of the U.S. criminal justice system.

A recent study that I did on behalf of the American Council on Education illustrates the ways in which diversity benefits colleges and universities as insti- tutions. This study looked at how diverse faculty members — in this case women and faculty of color— influenced the three primary missions of the university: teaching, research and service. The find- ings indicate that women and people of color in faculty positions enrich the edu- cational environment significantly. They are more likely to use active teaching methods in their classes — methods that allow students to interact with peers from different backgrounds through class

discussions, collaborative learning meth- ods and group projects. Research has shown that these activities contribute to a campus climate that is more supportive of diversity, which, in turn, leads to posi- tive outcomes for students. These faculty members are also more likely than others to be involved in community and volun- teer-service activities.

Women faculty and faculty of color are also more likely to incorporate read- ings into their courses that reflect the experiences of women and people of color in society. The significance of including such perspectives cannot be understated, as was noted by historian and ethnic studies scholar Ronald Takaki in the preface to his book, A Different Mirror. Takaki explains why he chose this title for his history of the United States by paraphrasing the poet Adrienne Rich: “What happens, to borrow the words of Adrienne Rich, 'when someone with the authority of a teacher’ describes our soci- ety, and 'you are not in it?’ Such an expe- rience can be disorienting — ‘a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.’”

Diversity can also influence lives, policies and issues beyond the walls of the university, most notably by helping young people to function effectively as citizens in an increasingly diverse democracy. Students who embrace diver- sity in college show an enhanced ability to understand issues from different points of view. These students exhibit greater awareness and understanding of people from different backgrounds and cultures, they are more likely to be engaged with social and political issues and they show greater commitment to working to improve racial dynamics in our society. They are also less likely to engage in racial stereotyping or to show high levels of ethnocentrism.

26 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

DIVERSITY AT MARYLAND

Moreover, greater engagement with diver- sity while in college leads to growth in civic responsibility. This is evident in higher levels of involvement in communi- ty and volunteer service and in higher lev- els of involvement in community action programs shown by students who were more engaged with diversity while they were in college.

Over the past two decades, the Univer- sity of Maryland has been quite successful in diversifying its undergraduate student body and is now one of the most struc- turally diverse public research universities in the United States.

But while structural diversity provides opportunities for students to interact with people and ideas that are not available on more homogeneous campuses, it does not ensure that students will have these expe- riences. Institutions must carefully assess the ways in which their students engage in diversity and the impact that this engagement has on their overall educa- tional experience.

As part of its broader diversity efforts, the University of Maryland recently agreed to be one of 10 public institutions from across the country to participate in a study on how well students are being pre- pared to manage conflict and negotiate social differences in an increasingly diverse democracy.

The study, funded by the U.S. Depart- ment of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, will explore how colleges help students build bridges across different social divisions, how they teach students to interact with members of diverse communities and how institu- tions stimulate growth in students' cogni- tive and social skills.

Some of the more interesting findings from the preliminary data are:

• While seven of 10 African American freshmen at Maryland indicate that it is likely they will join a student organiza- tion that promotes cultural diversity in

college, more than seven in 10 white students report that it is unlikely they will do so.

• More than 60 percent of white students report that it is unlikely that they will enroll in a class during their first year that is devoted to diversity issues, while nearly 70 percent of African American students report they are likely to enroll in such a course.

• Eighty percent of white students report that they grew up in all or mostly white neighborhoods, while 75 percent of African American, 49 percent of Asian American and 46 percent of Latino stu- dents report that they grew up in neigh- borhoods that were mixed race or con- tained predominantly people of color.

• Sixty-five percent of white students report that they attended predominantly or exclusively white high schools. More- over, 80 percent of white students report that their closest friends in high school were predominantly or exclusively white.

These data provide us with a few brief snapshots into the experiences with diver- sity that Maryland freshmen have prior to entering college. They are important in that they provide us with valuable insights regarding the challenges and opportunities that diversity provides us as educators. Next year, we will survey these students again to gather additional information about how their engagement with diverse ideas and diverse people at Maryland has prepared them to live as citizens in an increasingly diverse democracy.

Over the past two decades, the University of Maryland has been quite successful in diversifying its undergraduate student body and is now one of the most structurally diverse public research uni- versities in the United States.

Jeffrey Milem is associate professor at of educa- tion at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on racial dynamics in higher education.

LEFT PHOTO BY MIKE MORGAN, RIGHT PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

27

MARYLAND 'SMART GROWTH'

IDEAS HOLD PROMISE FOR

COMING POPULATION CRUNCH

A Postcard from Maryland:

Dear Folks: Greetings from the Free State. Lots of water here , and sailboats up and down the Chesapeake , just like the tour books say. Maryland has gobs of cars , too, and big congested highways. Enjoying the cities. Baltimore has its rough spots, and Washington, D.C., is way expensive. Seems like a whole new city popped up in between, but it doesn't have a downtown. Lots of people work in the cities, but say they wouldn't live in them. Gotta run. Supposed to meet a friend at the movies. Takes an hour to get there.

So this is Maryland, circa 2001. Or more precisely, the part of Maryland known to the U.S. Census Bureau as part of the "Washington-Baltimore, DC-MD- VA-WV Consolidated Metropolitan Sta- tistical Area.” That's right. According to demographers, the region once thought of as two big cities with a lot of rural space in between now comprises 33 municipali- ties stretching across three states and the District of Columbia, including some of the fastest-growing counties in the eastern United States.

By 2010, demographers estimate that the Washington-Baltimore metro area will grow to nearly 8.4 million people, a stag- gering 20 percent increase trom 2000. More than half of all Maryland residents — 2.8 million — will live and work in the region, most of them in the suburbs between Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis. Given that phenomenal growth, and the flush economy ot the last decade that spurred it, some predict that the region will join Atlanta, Los Angeles and Phoenix as a poster child for Ameri- can-style urban sprawl. In fact, the Sierra

Club in 1998 listed Washington as the third most sprawl-threatened city in the United States, behind Atlanta and St. Louis. Baltimore ranked number 12.

"I moved here in ’67 from Boston, and I've been able to see pretty directly the effects of this growth,” says University of Maryland architecture professor Roger K. Lewis, who also writes columns about planning and urban issues for The Wash- ington Post. "It’s the usual suspects — traffic congestion, development spreading ever further into the landscape, worsening air and water pollution.”

But where other states have been slow to counter the negative effects of sprawl — most notably the loss of rural land and the decline of central cities — Maryland has established itself as a national leader for examining the issue and posing innovative solutions. Gov. Parris Glendening has labeled the effort “Smart Growth," and he has engaged planners, local government officials, economists, developers and most recently University of Maryland faculty to tackle problems related to sprawl.

The university’s new National Center

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 29

for Smart Growth Research and Education will support scholars from across the uni- versity working on research about trans- portation, housing, urban affairs, farm economics, natural resources, government policy and other topics related to land- use. The center will also provide a course of study for policy makers and others to share ideas about development and pose new solutions to growth problems that are straining regions and states across the nation. Tom Downs, the center’s executive director, says the center will keep Mary- land “at the cutting edge of innovation in Smart Growth.”

RETHINKING SUBURBIA

The Smart Growth center comes three years after the Maryland General Assem- bly launched an ambitious package of new laws and programs to address urban sprawl. In simplest terms, the state has sought to direct development to areas that are best suited for growth and to discour- age it in areas considered environmentally or historically important. Officials have done this mainly through financial incen- tives, providing tax money for transporta- tion, utilities and other public services in districts known as “priority funding areas,” and withholding money from proj- ects that he outside those areas.

"The whole theory here is that where the government spends its money makes a difference,” says John Frece, the governor’s special assistant for Smart Growth. “The state cannot afford either financially, envi-

ronmentally or socially to support development any- where and every- where, and not pay attention to its effects.”

Take traffic congestion, a favorite topic for Smart Growth advocates because nearly everyone has experienced it. Much more than an incon- venience, traffic is now considered a major environmental, social and economic prob- lem. Drivers spew millions of tons of tailpipe pollutants into the air every year, contributing to the build up of ground- level ozone in the atmosphere. Ozone, in turn, is a leading cause of asthma and other respiratory problems in children and adults. Recent studies also show that long commutes are putting major strains on home life and family budgets. In some parts of the country, families are spending more on gasoline and car maintenance than they do on home mortgages. Com- muting parents also aren’t spending as much time with their children or engag- ing in leisure activities to help ease the stress of work.

The effects of sprawl also aren’t con- tained only to areas experiencing rapid growth. Car exhuast emitted from vehi- cles in Montgomery County frequently travels on wind currents to neighboring Anne Arundel and Prince George’s coun- ties, which in turn give up their pollu- tants to other neighbors. Trash and oil- laden stormwater running off streets and parking lots in College Park travels near- ly a straight shot to the Potomac and the larger Chesapeake Bay. Traffic congestion often spills across municipal boundaries as well, requiring more and more cooper- ation between city and county govern- ments to effectively manage their road networks.

“It's like a spider web,” Lewis, the

30 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTOS BY JOHN T CONSOLI

architecture professor, says. “You pluck it over here, and the whole thing vibrates."

For many Americans, those vibra- tions are becoming more and more dis- cordant, and new ideas are beginning to shape the public's consciousness about what constitutes a good life. The Ameri- can suburban ideal, which holds that spreading out is the best way to develop, is being questioned as it never has before. Millions are discovering that life isn’t all that much better in the country- side, and that crime, overcrowding and high taxes tend to follow them wherever they go. Americans also are waking up to the reality that much of what they once thought of as the forests and fields between cities are filling in with high- ways, houses and other developments. Idyllic farm landscapes are giving way to new monotonous ones that rarely extend beyond the shopping center parking lot. Downs says what Americans are feeling is nothing less than a “loss of certainty in the American Dream.”

"People who thought they were gain- ing something by getting away from the cities are finding that new growth is taking them in there as well, so they I can't really escape anything,” he says.

SAVING RURAL LAND

When Lori Lynch came to Maryland five years ago as assistant professor of agricultural resource economics, she took an interest in farmland preserva- tion and began collecting data on farms that had joined preservation programs even while nearby agricul- tural land succumbed to development. “We’ve lost about half our farmland in the last 50 years,” she says. "The losses I are most dramatic on the western shore [of the Chesapeake Bay], but there have been losses everywhere. For example, even Worcester County has lost farms with the growth of Ocean City,” the state’s popular beach resort.

Lynch examined a complex set of fac- tors weighing into farmers’ decisions about whether to stay in agriculture, join agricultural preservation programs or con- vert their land for other uses. Of prime importance are the region’s skyrocketing property values, combined with continued sagging prices for crops and livestock. Many landowners say they have little choice but to sell to developers rather than continue to suffer financial losses from farming. And when good farmland goes on the market these days, Lynch says it’s beyond the financial reach of most people in farming. "If you buy land to farm it, it’s nearly impossible to make enough money to pay the mortgage on it," she says. Moreover, Lynch says few farms can sup- port more than one household anymore unless farm owners rent additional acreage. Thus, farm sons and daughters often leave for jobs in the cities and sub- urbs, and they may choose not to return.

Alarmed by the rapid loss of rural land, state and local officials as far back as 1978 began establishing preservation pro-

Sprawl's Red Tide

John Frece, the governor's special assistant for Smart Growth, calls this series of maps "Red Tide," referring to the successive waves of development that have consumed open land in Maryland since the 1940s.

The red pattern shows the "growth footprint" of the Washington-Baltimore region at three periods in history. That footprint includes roads, houses, shopping centers, industrial sites and other built environments.

The large red area in the upper right- center of each panel represents Baltimore and its suburbs. The red near the bottom- center of the panels illustrates growth in the Maryland suburbs of Washington.

grams to combat the decline in farms and rural land. A number of counties launched local initiatives to purchase or transfer development rights, and in doing so saved thousands of acres that could have been converted for suburban development.

Since 1998, the state of Maryland has dedicated about $100 million to land preservation through its Rural Legacy ini- tiative, a program to help local govern- ments and land trusts buy conservation easements on property with high ecologi- cal or historical value. In some areas, counties have teamed up to preserve large tracts. Montgomery, Frederick and Wash- ington counties, for example, are working together to preserve nearly 100,000 acres of rural land along the Potomac River. Without special protection, that land

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 31

Smart Growth advocates have an answer to the dilemma

over housing demand. They're called cities. In Baltimore alone, more than 12,000 vacant homes sit hollow and dete- riorating, robbing neighborhoods of vitality and driving down property values. Smart Growth principles hold that such areas should be rehabbed or razed, making way for housing that is attractive and convenient to retail centers, government offices and plenty of high-paying jobs.

would almost certainly be subject to the housing demands of sprawling Washington.

"As long as population and incomes in the area continue to grow, there’s going to be pressure for more housing,” says Nancy Bockstael, a professor of agricultural resource economics who, like Lynch, has done extensive research on land-use change in Maryland. “So where are you going to put it? The real problem is more people and more families.”

REVITALIZING CITIES

Smart Growth advocates have an answer to the dilemma over housing demand. They’re called cities. In Baltimore alone, more than 12,000 vacant homes sit hol- low and deteriorating, robbing neighbor- hoods of vitality and driving down prop- erty values. An additional 20,000 housing units are livable but unoccupied, accord- ing to recent studies. Smart Growth prin- ciples hold that such areas should be rehabbed or razed, making way for hous- ing that is attractive and convenient to retail centers, government offices and plenty of high-paying jobs. But that idea is a hard sell to America’s middle class, many of whom grew up in the suburbs and are reluctant to live in cities with rep- utations for crime, drugs, poor schools and substandard services.

"One of the big questions we have to deal with is, "How do you revitalize older suburbs and inner cities to make them vibrant places again?’,” says Jim Cohen, director of graduate studies in the univer-

sity’s Urban Studies and Planning Depart- ment. "It s becoming easier to get people to vote for bond issues to buy up develop- ment rights and preserve rural areas. It’s much harder to build the right program to encourage investment and to get people moving into urban centers and older sub- urban areas.”

Large-scale urban redevelopment is also hampered by concerns about the dis- placement of existing residents and busi- nesses and the condemnation ol older buildings, some of which have historic or architectural value. Such conflicts have played out most recently in Baltimore, where officials have faced obstacles in a huge public-private redevelopment effort near the University of Maryland, Balti- more. That project calls for a complete makeover of 18 city blocks, including the construction or renovation of nearly 400 apartments, a retail complex covering six blocks, new and refurbished office build- ings and a 600- to 900-space parking garage. It is Baltimore’s biggest urban revitalization project since the Inner Har- bor was built in the 1970s and ’80s.

While not always easy politically,

Smart Growth advocates say urban revital- ization is the only way to make room for the region's growing population without carving ever deeper into the state’s remaining green space. “It’s not just about where growth can't go,” Downs says. "It’s about retooling the places where growth can go.” The notion of recycling older urban space, including abandoned indus- trial sites that have been placed off limits

because of pollution concerns, is picking up momentum across the country. Yet there remain numerous legal, regulatory and perception hurdles that hamstring such projects, something that the univer- sity’s Smart Growth center is addressing by a six-month course of study through the university’s School of Public Affairs.

The Smart Growth Leadership Devel- opment Program is designed to engage elected and public officials, developers, regulators and other land-use experts in an intensive curriculum on Smart Growth principles, as well as provide them with the tools they need to convert sustainable development ideas into practical, on-the- ground solutions. The program’s first class — made up mostly of government agency employees, policymakers and one developer — will complete its coursework this spring.

I definitely think there’s some light bulbs turning on,” says Tom Kennedy, director of the Executive Programs office in the School of Public Affairs, which runs the program. "The people in our classes are very cognizant of the issues. A lot of folks are coming with a broad understand- ing of what Smart Growth is, but they haven’t tried to put it all together in a cohesive way.”

Whether Smart Growth will success- fully revitalize cities and slow the loss of rural land remains a big question for scholars, especially since laws like Mary- land’s are only beginning to take hold. Much of the work at the Center for Smart Growth Research and Education will put Smart Growth ideas to the test, including those from other states where planning programs have had varying degrees of success.

“These programs make a lot of good sense, but doing some really serious evalu- ation of them to help the state to see how they’re working, and il they need to be improved, that’s what we aim to do,” Cohen says.

32 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

ALL PHOTOS (EXCEPT TOP LEFT PHOTO) BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

hat changes and trends boggle your mind? What shakes your belief that life as we know it

will prevail? And what, on the other hand, keeps you grounded, productive, hopeful in the face of forces, facts and foreign ideas that

bombard and rip apart your status quo? 1 have a growing suspicion that the answers to both sides of the question are the same.

Change, after all, is the inevitable result of activity, whether it’s the action of electrons on the surface of a molecule, a trip to the music store for the latest Afro-beat CD or the blast off of a shuttle to the new international space station. Activity is a constant, whether we’re at rest or running a marathon. From the little engines that keep humans breathing, pumping blood to brain cells, thinking, dreaming, learning, to the vast forces of wind and weather, things are working, in patterns some of us see more clearly than others. Learning to recognize these patterns is one of the activities that distinguishes us humans (we assume) from the rest of living things.

Being what we are, once the patterns of natural phenomena have been parsed, we tend to want to manipulate them. Taking those patterns and making a thing that has not existed before, whether it be

a painting, a subdivision or the Hubble telescope, is one of the factors that acceler- ate change.

The variety of human invention is truly mind-boggling, and it does not exclude the ridiculous, the dark and the dangerous. We have an uncanny talent for turning our worst fears into products that will make them tangible. Energy crisis? Design an SUV that gets eight miles to the gallon. Privacy threats? Invent an Internet that makes more information more easily available than ever thought possible. Strategic defense? Make bombs so powerful they will eliminate everyone’s need — or ability — to worry.

Fortunately we spend some of our time and energy on the invention of practical things — like a hand-held computer that can check your stock value while you loll across the desert on a robot camel, wrapped in microfibers, with the sounds of the Lawrence of Arabia soundtrack in your Walkman. Yes, and plastic parts for deteriorating human bodies and drugs that cure diseases we didn’t know we had 25 years ago. Amazing things like nonfat fat. Shocking things like sheep that moo.

The warp speed we have achieved in inventing the new can leave us dizzy with disbelief. The computers that ere-

From the little engines that keep humans breathing, pumping blood to brain cells, thinking, dreaming, learning, to the vast forces of wind and weather, things are working, in patterns some of us see more clearly than others.

34 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

LEFT PHOTO BY TIM MAUGEL; RIGHT PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

ated this magazine 18 months ago are now obsolete, worthless, remaindered like so many paperback novels on the 99-cent shelf. The mysteries we are unraveling in the human genome have created a playing field so large, so potent, we are breathless. And the discovery of universes by the mil- lions out there beyond our own expanding universe indeed strains our credulity — and stretches our imaginations.

Sometimes it seems as though change has taken us by the nape and is shaking us loose from everything familiar, everything controllable, everything we once believed to be true. Trends, whether fashionable and short-lived, or slowly accumulating weights that surprise us with their power, are the steamrollers of change that clear a path from what we act on now to what we will act on in the future.

Nevertheless, we do wake up every morning in our skin, knowing who we are, ready to work through a day’s series of challenges and gifts until we get to night, to sleep again. Part of a pattern we hardly perceive. A pattern driven and shaped by certain human essentials that, to my mind, are both unchangeable and the very essence of change.

THE CURIOSITY FACTOR

The need to know far exceeds the human instinct for survival. We are way past the food/shelter/safety baseline. We have developed the notion of progress to help us explain our compulsion to learn, to examine, to discover, to test, to experi- ment. We invented universities as the perfect environment in which manifest our curiosity. We learn early to ask: Who, what, when, where, why, how?

Exercising our curiosity over the last 40,000 years or so has achieved under- standing that can embrace the solar sys- tem, has honed focus as sharp as the microscopic needle that can pierce a single atom, painted mid-range views of social

forces and singled out the traits of indi- vidual personality. Each of us accumulates knowledge and understanding in the unique framework of our individuality, yet the body of knowledge is infinitely larger than the sum of our numbers.

There are now vast quantities of infor- mation— recorded knowledge — available for human consumption, able to lead off into new paths of discovery. In theory, much of it is available to us at the click of a mouse. In practice, we are faced with limitations of time, interest, brain power. When we get overwhelmed we retreat, refocus and digest what we deem is possi- ble; so we specialize. It is from this process that we develop a point of view.

At the University of Maryland, there are thousands of research projects under way at any given moment. This quite aside from the hundreds of courses in dozens of subjects being pursued by more than 32,000 students. While one student is reading 100 pages tonight on the power of images to convey both information and emotion, another is solving an equation that proves that gases at a certain temper- ature will flow at a predictable rate in a controlled environment. The first may use his new information to explore the edges of abstraction and reality, and in some future moment build a company on the premise that certain images can motivate productivity — an innovation in the world of work. The second may discover that by changing a single factor in her equation, she can create or conserve friction that will answer a pressing energy need. Mul- tiply this potential by the 90 million higher education students in the world, and it is obvious that change is an inevitable product of curiosity.

American universities collected more than $641 million from royalties on their inventions in the 1999 fiscal year, accord- ing to a survey by the Association of Uni- versity Technology Managers. The univer- sities also filed for more than 7,500 U.S. patents, nearly 17 percent more than in

1998. More than ever, higher education is focusing on research that translates into economic benefit for the country. And yet, it would be hubris to believe that think- ing, discovery and knowing happen only within ivy-covered walls.

THE CREATIVITY FACTOR

Curiosity is not passive, and knowledge gained is not static. They fuel the mind and fire the imagination. Irrepressibly, thoughts form, ideas rise, and just as strong as the need to absorb is the need to express. So we create, invent, inno- vate, challenge the prevailing wisdom. From the general store of existing knowledge we take what we want or need, filter it through our point of view, and send out something new. An agent of change.

The great thing about the creative process is that it grows from our inner lives — the embroilment of experience and personality, genes and information that defines the individual. It encom- passes problem-solving, artistic expres- sion, invention. We may be using differ- ent knowledge, working within different parameters, but the ignition, recognition and satisfaction in the doing are the same. Some say the spark that illumi- nates a new idea or generates a symphony is divine, and many have put (very cre- ative) faces on that divinity. That it is a mystery is sufficient — and, I think, nec- essary.

What are the activities that qualify as creative? Though it is safe to say that all activity leads to change, there must be a defining characteristic of creativity. Is folding the laundry or examining a patient creative? If there is a distinction between task and invention, how is it defined? “I have an idea. Let’s eat at Charlie’s,” is an expressed thought, formed from knowledge gained about Charlie’s. It will effect change, since

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 35

One of the greatest potentials for good and evil in our contemporary world is genetic engineering. There is a certain confidence among scientists that genetic engineering will take care of world food supplies, eliminate many diseases, even create new sources of energy to combat diminishing resources in the decades to come. Will it also change human nature?

energy will be expended by the going, eat- ing, being served, digest- ing and clean- ing up.

Resources will change hands, adding value here and sub- tracting it there. There will be an eco- nomic chain reaction as money spent on the meal filters through employees and suppliers, and as it is not available for paying the phone bill or buying a CD. But in creativity, we see a kind of trans- formation that resides in the new. An added value, a new shoot on the branch of the tree of knowledge.

1 have in front of me a photograph, of two hands holding a young plant with a wedge of earth around its roots. It embodies promise, significance, even before the caption explains. This is a plant that absorbs contaminants from the soil — nickel, lead and mercury — through its roots. This plant can be burned, and from its ashes those minerals can be mined and recycled. The man who had the “aha” experience that led to this dis- covery is Scott Angle, director of the university’s Center for Transgenic Research. What is thrilling is that the photograph of the idea is as creative as

the idea itself.

There are creative forms so powerful that they alter the way we see, think, act, know, understand. Artist Bill Viola cre- ates videos, using a relatively new but pedestrian technology to express visual ideas that could not be communicated quite so well in any other medium. At the American Century show at the Whit- ney last spring, he had installed a video screen on which was projected the seedling of a tree. As the viewer walked down a passage toward the screen, the tree grew, blossomed, fruited out into apples, and as the viewer got even closer, dropped its fruit, withered and died. This elegant interactive embodiment of the Tree of Knowledge metaphor was a mas- ter blend of creativity and technology.

I have seen gallery installations using light in neon tubes to create depths and patterns of staggering beauty. I was recently introduced to the concept of nanotechnology — an idea that has been germinating in the minds of certain sci- entists for 50 years. Only with the incre- mental development of better tools and processes are we now beginning to specu- late on the possibilities of miniaturizing machines to the scale of molecules. Machines capable of being implanted, for instance, in a human cell, perhaps to combat disease. Machines a fraction of the width of a human hair that contain supercomputers. Machines that will cer-

36 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

LEFT PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI; RIGHT PHOTO BY TIM MAUGEL

tainly outperform mere humans at many physical and mental tasks.

Creativity can’t be stopped, or paced, or even steered very well, sometimes. It will always take us by surprise, and it will shake the status quo. Along with curiosi- ty, it is an inherent quality of human exis- tence and the flaming torch that lights the fuel for the engine of change.

THE FAMILY FACTOR

1 recently heard an astonishing fact. In a DNA study of European men published in the Journal of Science, it was found that 95 percent of them could be linked through their Y chromosomes to just 10 ancestors who lived — in Europe —

20,000 to 40,000 years ago. Even though we know intellectually that the thread of human life is a continuum, this factoid brings into immediate, sharp focus the meaning of “family of man. ’’ Rather compelling confirmation of another human imperative that persists in the face of change: the need for con- nection. Family. Validation. Belonging.

Human beings often are more adap- tive to the forms these needs take than their social policies reflect. In my life- time the definitions of family, of rela- tionships, of community have changed in fascinating ways, but always at the core is the need for nurture and identity. Our inventiveness on behalf of this hunger has led us to test-tube children, same sex-unions, surrogate moms, communal living, singles bars, the five-minute date.

Yes, the five-minute date. I heard about it on NPR. People, all ages, pay a small fee to meet in a public place and, under the direction of their host, play a version of musical tables. In five minutes they have an opportunity to converse one-on-one with a complete stranger and make a decision about whether they see potential for further communication — perhaps a relationship. The buzzer

sounds, they are on to the next table.

Five minutes with someone they might not look at ever under other circum- stances. Are they deliberately rude, off- putting? Or do they listen for a reso- nance, since it’s only five minutes? After the hour-long event, those who make a mutual connection get further contact information and are on their own.

What a challenge! And yet, in an era where time and safety and opportunity and attitude often frustrate friendly, hon- est exchange, here’s a chance to cut to the chase with no jeopardy. Unlike an agonizing blind date, this encounter will last only as long as a TV commercial break. Unlike the Internet fad of chat rooms, it is the antithesis of inventing a persona someone might respond to. It’s looking closely for the real person across from you. What a concept.

This is definitely a new social norm, reflective of the fast-paced, anonymous life styles that have grown up around career-driven young adults and lonely divorcees. We still believe that marriage and family are sacred. The imperative to meet the right partner and form a union is as strong as ever. The desire for off- spring, heritage, a link to the future as well as the past has caused us to find new ways to bring children into our lives. Science and society have responded with sperm banks, petri dishes, implanted eggs, interracial and international adop- tion. Whether it is social necessity or nature that is pressing us to expand our definitions of family, the reality is that we find creative ways to fill the need for connection even as we trap ourselves in ever-more isolating social patterns.

THE HUMAN CONDITION

Some things indeed never change. For all of the knowledge, creativity and love loose in the world, we can’t ignore the equal weight of pain, want and hate. The

primal energy expended in keeping our universe moving is arbitrary, if not neu- tral, in its consideration of humans— unless we take an active role in funneling some of it for our own benefit. It is strange that we can break genetic codes but not the cycle of poverty. It is uncan- ny that we can kill each other with deliberation in the face of our tremen- dous need for connection. It is frighten- ing that we are as creative on the side of evil as on the side of good.

One of the greatest potentials for good and evil in our contemporary world is genetic engineering. There is a certain confidence among scientists that genetic engineering will take care of world food supplies, eliminate many diseases, even create new sources of energy to combat diminishing resources in the decades to come. Will it also change human nature? Are we going to be seeking smarter, handsomer, kinder partners and children through genetic manipulation? I read just recently the thoughts of Stephen Barr, a physicist at the Bartol Research Institute, University of Delaware. He acknowledges that it’s “the mental remaking of man that provokes the great- est worry.’’ But, he says that while genes may control certain inclinations, they don’t necessarily control our behavior. Will these changes affect our curiosity, our creativity, our need for connection?

“Genetics will not answer philosophi- cal questions, nor will genetic engineer- ing make us better philosophers,” Barr notes. "There is no wisdom gene."

I wonder. K3^H

Judith Bair, former editor of College Park magazine and director of U niversity Publica- tions, retired in December 2000. She is a Baltimore-based writer and artist who savors spending as much time as possible at a family farm in West Virginia.

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 37

CHRISTOPHER A. Shuman, assistant research scientist with the Earth Systems Science Interdisciplinary Center, or ESSIC, at the University of Maryland, spent a month last fall gathering data about global change from the snows of Antarctica. A glaciologist, Shuman found there’s no place like the Southern Polar Desert for snow.

That’s because the Antarctic’s snow is no ordinary white stuff. First of all, most of it never melts. With snow accumulations of up to almost three miles, or 156,000 feet, it holds in its icy layers clues to the Earth’s environment going back per- haps 500,000 years. To scientists studying the atmospheric history of the earth, that’s very alluring.

On this National Science Foundation-sponsored expedition led by Paul Mayewski of the University of Maine, Shuman went searching for truth. In doing so, he also discovered beauty. Through the following diary entries, Shuman conveys some of the hardships the Antarctic presents to the experimenting scientist. At the same time, he reveals why he loves Antarctica — for its magical symmetry of snow, sky, clouds and light.

Ross Island, Antarctica Monday, Nov. 6, 2000

Well, it has been a wild week since I left College Park! After traveling for much ol last week, I found mysell 18 hours ahead ol all of you. So leaving a beautiful fall, I found myself in Christchurch, New Zealand, enjoying a flower-filled spring. And Antarctica is pretty clearly win- ter, so I've almost conjugated the seasons in a week!

On Friday morning, we boarded an Air Force C- 1 4 1 Starlifter with 60 passengers, 10 crew and five pallets of cargo for a 5.5-hour flight to McMurdo. The trip ended up taking more than nine hours as we “boomeranged" back to Christchurch due to bad weather. I have to tell you, it was pretty tiring sitting in canvas sling seats in this cargo plane for that long. No talking or getting up to go to the bathroom because the plane is too noisy and the aisles are full of everyone’s legs because you all sit perpendicular to the side of the plane in four interlocking rows of people. Oh, yeah, no windows either. Only a brown bag lunch, and you have to wear your extreme cold weather gear in case you crash. Absolutely normal and expected events by the way, but it sure makes airline coach class look good.

At any rate, we did it again on Saturday. We made it this time onto the sea ice runway adjacent to Ross Island in West Antarctica by about 8 p.m. The seawater can freeze

thickly enough here to safely support the landing of even the largest cargo planes in the Air Force. The sun doesn't set at this time of the year, but it does get low in the "evening” sky, so we were treated to beautiful lighting con- ditions as the sun sparkled off all the glaciers on and between the mountain peaks around us as we headed in towards McMurdo Station; yet another spectacular sight in the land of ice.

After reaching McMurdo Station, we were welcomed at the National Science Foundation chalet, the cerebral cor- tex of Antarctica. McMurdo is the largest science facility in Antarctica and is the headquarters for air operations to and from South Pole Station as well as other international science facilities, like Russia’s Vostok Station in East Antarctica.

It is now nearly midnight on Monday and processing cargo today was hampered by strong winds and blowing snow. All vehicles in town were stopped for safety and the sea ice runway was immobilized; no one could leave their buildings there. Despite this, we all made progress on food supplies, radios, batteries, sleeping kits, tents, fuel supplies and other essential items. Tomorrow will see meetings at 7:30 a.m., 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

In between, I need to find a dozen sturdy shovels, as our science may depend on something as simple as that.

38 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

pjISTORY

T X T ±± ^

Water

BEAUTIFUL DEEP FREEZE YIELDS CLUES TO EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE

Diary Entries by Christopher Shuman Introduction by Carol Casey

McMurdo Station, Antarctica Monday, Nov. 13, 2000

McMurdo got some 20 inches of snow, making it the heaviest snowfall recorded since the fall of 1971. In any event, when the members of the U.S. International Trans-Antarctic Scientific Expedition team weren't in meetings or training, we were col- lecting, sorting and repackaging our cargo. There is nothing worse than feeling you must have a $20 widget to continue your work and that it will take a $50,000 flight to bring it to you! There is also no such thing as takeout food; it is all "bring-in food,” and you better have more than enough! Seriously, the mili- tary flight and ground crews from the 109th Air National Guard of Scotia, N.Y., spectacularly manage to get us what we need in the face of adversity. This same group will also handle our air drops of fuel drums along the traverse route.

By Thursday we were ready to have our equipment loaded on pallets and flown into Byrd Station. Despite beautiful flying weather, a solar flare caused the ionosphere to become opaque to the high-frequency radio communications that are needed to communicate between all the sites in Antarctica. This burst of radiation was the fourth-largest “polar cap absorption event” since the early 1970s, and it meant that field camps couldn't report the weather observations necessary to allow flight plan- ning. In consequence, flights to many destinations were canceled. That, combined with the snow and wind early in the week, means that we are now going to be delayed by several days.

As a positive consequence of our unexpected free time, we were approved by the field safety training staff (the ones who will launch a search-and-rescue mission if you don't come back as planned) to conduct a "shakedown” journey by snowmobile around part of Ross Island. On Saturday morning, we set out on four snowmobiles and three sleds for the 20-mile journey to Cape Royds. The weather was bright, clear and fairly warm (upper 20s Fahrenheit). As we departed from town, we got several excel- lent views of McMurdo Station, Observation Hill and the Hut

Point Peninsula. This is where [Robert Falcon] Scott built his first camp for Antarctic exploration in 1901—04. Although much has changed since the beginning of the last century, Scott would still recog- nize the mission of the U.S. Antarctic program.

Around Tent and Razorback islands, we could see the several- thousand-foot-high eruption column over the volcano Mt. Erebus with great clarity. Ash and gas could be seen drifting from the plume as the winds swept the column away from the summit. At 12,000-plus feet, Mt. Erebus is frequently sheathed in clouds, so this was a special scene. A bit farther along, we passed the Erebus Glacier Ice Tongue where glacial ice, formed from snow, noses out into the sea ice and exposes numerous crevasses along its margins. In 1996, I climbed inside these snow-covered crevasses for some “ice caving,” but we didn’t have time this day.

We continued on to Cape Royds where [Ernest] Shackelton built his camp in 1907—09- Shackelton’s men took advantage of a nearby rookery of Adelie penguins, and a box of frozen penguin eggs now lies inside the still-furnished hut. The Adelies are curi- ous creatures, and when they stop squawking at each other or moving pebbles back and forth, they will frequently come within a few feet of you if you sit still and low. They slide on their bel- lies and paddle with their feet and wings and can go quite rapid- ly across snow or ice. The rookery encompasses about two acres of land, and the penguins clump together across this rocky area of guano-stained snow.

We returned to McMurdo by early evening tired but thrilled. It is always beneficial for me to “adapt” to the cold, so spending a whole day outside before going in the deep field is quite helpful.

Sunday is an official day off in McMurdo for most people.

Even so, three flights delivered approximately 17,000 pounds of package mail for research and support personnel of the United States Antarctic Program. These reminders of the outside world are truly treasured. Despite some variable weather, it was also a great day for a hike up towards Mt. Erebus to the top of an old

volcanic knob cone called Cas- tle Rock. The views across McMurdo Sound and up across the Ross Ice Shelf made all the wind (30-knot gusts) and blowing snow worthwhile.

Far left: Shuman samples near- surface snow. Sunlight from a companion snow pit illuminates layers that Shuman reads like tree rings.

Left: The team explores Ross Island.

40 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

McMurdo Station, Antarctica Saturday, Nov. 25, 2000

We finally made it into Byrd Surface Camp last week. Our cargo line was buried over the top (10-plus feet), and the caches of luel drums (not raised on pallets) were well below the current surface. Several days and many people were required to dig and haul out all the critical cargo and to build a new cargo line.

At the same time, we were assembling the cargo from this year’s and last year’s material; the cooking sled, science sled, stor- age sled, freezer sled, and drilling sleds were receiving final mod- ifications from the science support camp staff with help from us. This included installation of solar panels, a wind generator, com- munications equipment, propane tanks, fuel lines and electrical connections.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the first 24 hours of the tra- verse saw the Tucker and Challenger sled trains cover 55 kilome- ters. Then late on Thursday, the Tucker’s engine blew. Another smaller polar cap absorption event has knocked communications out again so information flow and coherent response is difficult. We are relying on about four hours of satellite linkage and are hoping the radio comes back on.

Inland Site, Antarctica Monday, Dec. 4, 2000

Hello from 79 degrees 23 minutes S, 1 1 1 degrees 1 4 minutes W, otherwise known as the "Inland” ice core site. This is where we are drilling a 200-meter ice core that may go back in time 1,000 years or more. As the snow doesn’t melt here, drilling or digging downward takes you backwards in time.

Our weather has been favorable since we arrived here with tem- peratures ranging from -28 degrees to -8 degrees Celsius. Until early this morning, we even had sunny and mostly clear skies, which promoted ice fogs. These can drift across your path and leave an icy residue on every surface as it passes (including your gog- gles!). The fogs are caused by the sun warming the snow enough to cause water vapor to reach the snow/air interface. Until today, winds were also light so there has been little chance of serious frostbite on exposed noses. Hard to believe at these temperatures!

I have completed almost all my science activities at this site, but we will still be here for several more days to finish the drilling and other related science projects. After that, we will move further east and begin again. It is hard to believe I’ve been on the move for more than 30 days.

Left: The U.S. ITASE ice core team enjoys temperatures in the upper 20s°F. Center: Intact after 90 years, supplies remain untouched in Robert Falcon Scott's hut.

Right: Researchers track emperor penguins and observe them from above and below the sea ice.

College Park, Md.

Wednesday, Jan. io, 2001

Greetings from the warm and safe confines of College Park. It is truly great to be home. I departed the field team on Dec. 13, 2000, at Site D (78 degrees 26 minutes S and 1 1 5 degrees 55 minutes W). The sea ice runway closed and all flights were diverted to Williams Field on the Ross Ice Shelf a few kilometers away. There are some advantages to having buildings on sleds when the sea ice starts to melt! We ended up spending the night at Siple Dome Camp and then returned to McMurdo on Dec. 14. Boy, did that first shower feel good!

Once back at McMurdo, I spent several days cleaning and sorting my gear, and then processing snow samples. Despite the novelty of Christmas in Antarctica, including hand-painted deco- rations on the power poles in McMurdo, it was time to go. I caught an LC-130 Hercules transport for Christchurch on Dec.

18 and left New Zealand the next day for the United States on a long, long flight. A little late, I still got to spend Christmas with my daughters, Nicole and Michelle, and celebrated Nicole’s ninth birthday, too.

The rest of the U.S. ITASE team has now wrapped up field operations for this season and is heading home. Despite significant challenges, we traversed most of the 1,200-kilometer route suc- cessfully, sampled numerous cores and snow pits, and collected a great deal of data. All the members of the team made the trip safe- ly. Take a look at the Web site www.secretsoftheice.org for more information on the whole team. Lots to do before next season!

Until next time,

Christopher A. Shuman

Christopher A. Shuman is assistant research scientist with the Earth Systems Science Interdisciplinary Center ; ESSIC, at the University of Maryland. Photographs courtesy of Christopher Shuman. K3^H

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 41

... so you’re not out there scaring a farmer's cows every time you fly over or land at the base."

With the advent of more powerful computers and computational fluid dynamics methods, researchers can now assess in much greater detail the aerody- namic and acoustic relationships of the BVI process. Baeder and his colleagues have already come up with ideas for possi- ble solutions. One concept involves devel- oping innovative rotor blade designs with serrated and scalloped leading edges; another suggests a tailored blade sweep to redirect the vortex; still other research will look at metal density or inserting acoustic cavities within the rotor blade to lessen the sound of the vortex striking each blade.

Other faculty in the rotorcraft center, led by Roberto Celi, associate professor of aerospace engineering, will examine the effects of maneuvering flight on reducing current levels of BVI noise.

In conducting experiments on acoustic effects with different blade configurations, Fred Schmitz, who holds the prestigious Minta Martin Professorship in aerospace engineering, says, "One reason that so many of our research topics were funded is our state-of-the-art testing facilities. Another is that we are looking at the basic physics behind these questions — you want to make the problem as simple as possible to understand the physics involved."

In one project, Schmitz will test a single rotating rotor blade, balanced with a coun- terweight, which is then hit by a gust dis- turbance to simulate the vortex. Schmitz and his team can then measure the vortex effects on the blade in isolation. “You don't need to replicate the full rotor system, with all of its complexities, to study the BVI phenomenon,” he says. — TV

Research at the University of Maryland looks for answers to a phenomenon known as blade- vortex interaction, one of the primary sources of vibration and noise in rotorcraft.

A Big Boost for Quiet Research

New ideas and technologies developed for the military often find their way into private industry as well. For example, facuh ty in the university’s Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center received

$4.6 million last September as part of a five-year federal research grant to study a wide range of military-oriented topics.

Yet, these same areas of rotorcraft research — which include noise and vibra- tion reduction, miniaturization, improved power transmission, smart structures, flight controls and air-traffic manage- ment— will also help to produce more efficient, reliable and cost-effective com- mercial rotorcraft.

This latest grant to the Gessow Rotor- craft Center is the fourth renewal of fund- ing from the National Rotorcraft Technol- ogy Center, a joint effort between the Army Research Office and NASA that combines government, industry and aca- demic resources in an innovative research partnership.

The grant was awarded after six

months of intensive preparation by Mary- land researchers, who had to compete with 20 other universities seeking NRTC support.

Part of the NRTC-funded research at Maryland looks for answers to a phenome- non known as blade-vortex interaction, or BVI, which occurs when each rotor blade passes through the vortex, or wake, of the previous blade. BVI is one of the prime sources of vibration and noise in rotor- craft, particularly during descending flight.

“The military wants to decrease rotor- craft noise for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is stealth for combat situa- tions,” says James Baeder, associate profes- sor of aerospace engineering. "But in peacetime, a quieter military rotorcraft also makes for better community relations

42 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

tools off the trade.

The new Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland is a catalyst for the development of new works in the performing arts. The artistic vision presented to audiences owes much to the technological innovation behind the scenes, such as state-of-the-art computer- aided design systems. In the Department of Theatre, the creation of sets and cos- tumes takes shape on the computer before being transformed to the stage.

RIGHTS AND WRONGS FOR EDUCATING TROUBLED YOUTHS

Adolescents who are confined to juvenile correctional facili- ties are entitled by federal and state law to receive a certain level of educational services.

But according to researchers in the university’s College of Edu- cation, many of these marginal- ized youths are basically short- changed.

Peter Leone, professor of special education and director of the National Center on Edu- cation, Disability and Juvenile Justice, has closely examined this issue. “There is a consider- able amount of research on the prevention of adolescent delin- quency and violence,” he says, “but very little [research] on why public and private institu- tions fail to provide the proper educational support once these kids are incarcerated.”

Of the almost 100,000 youths currently in juvenile detention facilities, statistics show that anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of them have signif-

research briefings

Maintaining a Connection.

Researchers at the University of Maryland recently received $4 million from the U.S. Depart- ment of Defense in an effort to help lessen the threat of physi- cal or electronic "cyber" attacks on critical information infra- structures. Led by John Baras, who holds the Lockheed Martin Chair in Systems Engineering, faculty in the Clark School of

icant learning or behavioral problems. Many of these youths, Leone says, are legally entitled to special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Passed by Congress in 1975, the legislation says that states receiving federal money for spe- cial education programs must provide appropriate services to

Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research will investigate distributed immune systems for wireless networks.

Stressful Signs of Aging.

Leonard Pearlin, graduate pro- fessor of sociology and director of the university's stress and health program, is leading research into the health effects of stress on older adults. The

all eligible students, even if they are locked up. In many states, these basic special-educa- tion services are not provided to incarcerated youths unless court ordered, and even then, the services provided are often inadequate and lack profession- al standards or accountability.

Research grants from the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education

project recently received $2.5 million in renewed funding from the National Institute on Aging. Pearlin and eight col- leagues in the Department of Sociology have collected data from adults age 65 and older in hopes of observing how changes in certain social stres- sors are associated with changes in indicators of health and well-being.

allow Leone to examine educa- tional practices in correctional settings, identify empirically based positive practices and offer technical assistance to educational administrators responsible for providing serv- ices.

Many of those who are in juvenile detention facilities may not even belong there, Leone says. Research shows that in 1999, approximately two-thirds of the adolescents incarcerated were charged with nonviolent offenses. According to Leone, some of these youths are confined because local schools and communities do not have special education and other programs available for learning and behavioral prob- lems. “Locking them up because programs don’t exist increases the likelihood that many of these youngsters will graduate from juvenile to adult corrections,” he says. — TV

PHOTO BY JOHN T CONSOLI

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 43

EXPLORATIONS

The Carotene Gold Mine

Ii you take a multivitamin regularly, you may have noticed within the last year or so that a lit- tle tag has been added to many manufacturers’ labels proclaiming, "Now with lutein!”

Far from a new miracle supplement, lutein is one of 25 common dietary carotenoids found in human tissues, serum and milk that a Universi- ty of Maryland scientist helped bring to the marketplace through a process that extracts and purifies lutein from marigold flowers.

Frederick Khachik, a research scientist in the Department of Chemistry, latched onto the idea of lutein as a dietary supplement while doing research on broader questions about carotenoids and their metabolites being used as cancer-fighting agents.

Scientists have long known that carotenoids — the yellow, orange and green pigments found in fruits and vegetables — are an important source of vitamins for humans. Carrots, spinach, corn, squash and pumpkin are just a few of the foods rich in beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A.

But Khachik believes the focus on vitamin A active beta-carotene has drawn attention away

Beta-carotene is just one nugget in the rich vein of carotenoids being explored for their antioxidant and anti- cancer potential.

Frederick Khachik, a research scientist in the univer- sity's Department of Chemistry, holds Chinese wolf- berries, which could aid in the prevention of eye dis- ease. Ground wolfberries shown on opposite page.

from other lesser-known carotenoids that may possess equally important biological properties. "Anything yellow, orange or deep red might be a natural source of carotenoids” that could enhance human health, he says, including fish and bird membranes, egg yolks, flowers and berries.

An important driver of carotenoid research, Khachik says, is that beta-carotene has been commercially available for several decades and is in high demand as a nutritional supplement. Other carotenoids, however, have not been as readily available, even for research purposes. That’s because extracting carotenoids has often required highly toxic chemicals and reagents that may not be suitable for human use. As a result, carotenoid supplies have been heavily restricted.

In the early 1990s, Khachik took an interest in lutein as a strong antioxidant, and especially in its potential for chemoprevention of lung cancer. Marigold flowers contain 1 to 2 percent carotenoids. But of that small amount, 95 per- cent is lutein. The remaining 5 percent is another structurally similar carotenoid, zeaxan- thin. Khachik developed a process for extract- ing and purifying lutein from marigolds to make it available as a nutritional supplement. The process was patented in 1995.

At the same time, Khachik and his collabo- rators began a series of human supplementation studies to investigate how non-vitamin A-active carotenoids such as lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene (the red pigment in tomatoes) are absorbed and metabolized in the body. They found that in contrast to vitamin A-active carotenoids (alpha- and beta-carotene), lutein, zeaxanthin and lycopene metabolize differently and their transformations involve a series of oxi- dation-reduction reactions.

Khachik’s curiosity was piqued again after he read a 1 986 study by two researchers at the International University of Florida who showed that the yellow macular pigment in the human

44 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

eye consists mainly ol lutein and zeaxanthin.

In mid-1990s, Khachik and colleagues undertook a study that not only confirmed the accumulation of lutein and zeaxanthin in the human retina, but also revealed the presence of the oxidative metabolites of these carotenoids throughout the eye. More recently, they identi- fied lycopene as one of the major carotenoids in the human retinal pigment epithelium.

What is remarkable about the distribution ol lutein and its structurally similar form, zeax- anthin, is that both carotenoids accumulate in almost equal amounts in the retina, with an even greater concentration of zeaxanthin in the macula. In the peripheral retina, the distribu- tion is reversed and there is a higher concentra- tion of lutein relative to zeaxanthin.

At present, there is no explanation for this interesting pattern of distribution, and Khachik’s team wanted to investigate the selec- tive uptake and metabolic transformation of these carotenoids. The problem was that zeax- anthin was not readily available. Its rarity in vegetables made extraction impractical, and the trace amounts of zeaxanthin in marigolds was inefficient for study.

In the wonderful way of science, however, Khachik remembered a conference in 1984 where a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine had displayed a bag of unusual raisin-like berries. They were edible, they were orange-red, and the doctor said that they were “good for the eye.”

What Khachik discovered was that these Chinese wolfberries, lycium barbarumil , were indeed a source of zeaxanthin, and they were available “by the ton” from Chinese food mar- kets in major U.S. cities. The concentration of zeaxanthin in the berries is only about 1 .2 grams per kilo, but Khachik was able to modify his earlier lutein extraction process for isolation and purification of zeaxanthin, and lie amended his patent in 1997.

Khachik is currently focused on the role lutein and zeaxanthin play in the prevention of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD. Age-related macular degeneration is a retinal disorder that begins with the gradual deteriora- tion of the light-sensing cells in the macula,

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

perhaps due to overexposure to sunlight. It is the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 6 0 in the United States.

In collaborative research with opthamologist Emily Chew at the National Eye Institute, Khachik is trying to demonstrate how lutein containing 5 percent zeaxanthin can be absorbed into blood at varying doses and corre- late these data to the retinal pigment density of the study participants.

The study involves 45 patients over the age of 60 with or without earlier signs of AMD.

The study participants will be given varying doses of lutein containing approximately 5 per- cent zeaxanthin over a period of six months. Khachik will perform the blood analysis to determine how these carotenoids are absorbed and metabolized, and which dose may provide the best potential for prevention and treatment of AMD. The total density of lutein and zeaxan- thin in the retinas of the study participants will also be measured by the Eye Institute investiga- tors and then will be correlated with the blood concentrations of these carotenoids.

Meanwhile, Khachik’s modified extraction technology has been licensed by H. Reisman Corp., a bulk nutritional supplier and sub- sidiary of Pharmachem., and he continues to work on development of commercially viable processes for production of the other dietary carotenoids absorbed by humans. "I continue to believe that some day carotenoids will prove to be among the most effective group of cancer chemopreventive agents found in edible plants,” he says. — JB

Title: Senior Research Scientist

Education: Received M.Sc. (1975), Ph.D. (1978) in organic chemistry from the University of Manchester Institute of Sci- ence and Technology, Manches- ter, England. Conducted post- doctoral research in the area of photochemistry at the Depart- ment of Chemistry and Bio- chemistry, University of Mary- land, Sept. 1979-Feb. 1982.

Philosophy: I believe in disci- pline and a systematic approach to solving problems.

The book I'm reading now:

The Pharmacology of Chinese Herbs by Kee Chang Huang

Greatest satisfaction: When I feel that my work has made a difference and helped others with their challenges.

Favorite scientist in your field: Professor Emeritus Con- rad Hans Eugster (retired). Department of Chemistry, Uni- versity of Zurich, Switzerland

If I weren't an immunologist,

I'd be: A molecular biologist

“Anything yellow, orange or deep red might be a natural source of carotenoids” that could enhance human health,

Khachik says, including fish and bird i^embranes, egg yolks, flowers and berries.

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 45

PORTFOLIO

Ol3EJ

It’s a WOW Show

When artist Claudia DeMonte first envisioned this project — “Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art” — she had little idea of how long it would take or how much it would alter

her life. In her travels to more than 75 countries, she has often done collaborative projects with local artists. Because her own art deals with — often humorously — the roles of women in contemporary society, it piqued her interest in exploring how women view themselves in other cultures.

DeMonte says the idea for the project was born while she was traveling with her husband, the sculptor Ed McGowin, to the remote Himalayan regions of Bhutan and Tibet. They were conducting research for the artist Nell Sonnemann who was writing a book on contemporary applique. DeMonte writes in the exhibition catalog of seeing the landscape “dotted with elab- orately appliqued tents, always a blue design on white and often incorporating other colors in giant emblematic designs.” The couple’s search for the source of such inspiration led them to a tent factory in Lhassa where, in medieval conditions, women were creating design masterpieces from formless cloth. She realized that it was an art form indigenous to that specif- ic culture.

\J

'•Cf

DeMonte seized upon the idea of requesting a work of art by a woman artist from every country in the world — each piece representing the artist’s notion of “woman” as she understands it in the con- text of her specific culture. She asked that the piece be created expressly for the exhi- bition and adhere to a specific size, eight inches square. However, similarity ends there. The works vary greatly in terms of style, materials and technique, and many are particular to the artists’ native coun- tries. Traditional techniques, such as embroidery and applique are present, as wrell as new digital technologies.

Her intent in imposing the size restric- tion was that the similar size would offer power to the exhibition. Furthermore, it would be easily manageable to submit, an important factor to consider when requesting works of art from artists in developing nations. Certain themes appear frequently: crossing geographic boundaries, motherhood, work and labor, the experiences of gender bias and politi- cal oppression. This unprecedented exhi-

Left to right: Waiting, Thuraya Al-Baqsami, Kuwait; Untitled, Jun-Ann Lam, Malaysia; Untitled, Anna Bella Geiger, Brazil.

bition is the result of more than two years of research by DeMonte, the exhibition’s curator and Distinguished Scholar/Teacher in the Department of Art.

Each of the women artists from 178 countries around the globe has a story to tell, but some are particularly poignant, says DeMonte. The artist from Iraq, for example, has since been killed, a victim of political upheaval.

In the introduction to the 192-page, full-color exhibition catalog produced by Pomegranate Press, DeMonte concludes by saying: “This project is neither a geog- raphy lesson nor a demonstration of my ability to make connections. It is an expression of the human spirit at the beginning of the twenty-first century, from people whose voices have rarely been heard. Now they finally get to write their own lyrics.”

When she first set out to deal with the logistics, DeMonte figured that her best avenue would be through the embassies to the United Nations. Of the 180 letters sent out initially, not a single response came back. It was then that she realized that no one path could pull off a project of this scope. In the end, the women whose work is included in this unprecedented

46 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

exhibition came from many sources, and include conventional channels — muse- ums, the United Nations, UNESCO, the U.S. Navy, the Peace Corps, cultural cen- ters and universities — as well as uncon- ventional word-of-mouth contact and through the artists themselves. Her intent was never to showcase only artists of renown. In fact, quite a few of the works would be considered crafts, as women in i many countries, such as those in the for- mer Soviet Union, are unable to support themselves as artists.

Indeed, as DeMonte points out, she herself is a“working artist” and not neces- sarily a famous one. “I’m not Louise Nevelson,” she quips, referring to the artist regarded as the leading modernist sculptor. However, since the exhibition began touring, DeMonte now finds herself being asked to lecture regularly. Ironically, Eve Ensler, creator of the long-standing, one-woman hit show in New York, “The Vagina Chronicles,” heard about DeMonte while visiting Croatia. Now the two are negotiating to collaborate on a project.

DeMonte credits her upbringing in Queens, N.Y., for enabling her to seek diversity in art. “Queens is the most eth-

Left to right: Untitled, Helen Graham, Scotland; Untitled, Karlisma, El Salvador; and Untitled, Momoe Malietoa Von Reiche, Samoa.

nically diverse community in the country and its library system is the most used in the world,” she says.

DeMonte still makes her home in New York City (commuting to the University of Maryland regularly) so it is not surpris- ing that White Columns, an alternative art space in New York City’s Greenwich Village, was the site for the show’s open- ing. DeMonte is especially gratified that artists from 29 countries were in atten- dance. It has since garnered national and international attention, from The New York Times and American Artist to the Paris Review and Kuwaiti Times.

The exhibition is sponsored by Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, the Anchorage Foundation of Texas, the General Research Board of the University of Mary- land and an anonymous foundation. “Women of the World” runs at the Art Gallery through April 21, and will tour an additional eight venues in the next three years, including stops in Sweden and Iceland. After the tour closes in 2003, the works will be auctioned and the pro- ceeds will benefit the New York Women Foundation, a cross-cultural alliance which assists low-income women in achieving economic stability. — DB

Opened Book

■MH companion show, Opened Book: Women's Sto- ES9 ries by Washington Area Artists, curated by art history and archaeology graduate student Kristen Hile- man, examines work by 16 Washington area women artists who deal with books, text, words, language and narrative in their art. The individual artists appropriate both the physical shapes and conceptual structures of stories, and taken together, the works relate an inti- mate journey through the various stages and experi- ence of women's lives. The artists live in the region but have ties to places as diverse as Australia, El Salvador, Greece, Iran, Italy and many regions within the United States. — DB

Breakfast, lunch & dinner,

2000 by Brece Honeycut Charcoal, graphite, watercolor, pencil, tea, earth

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 47

PORTFOLIO

Distinguished Artist Honored

David C. Driskell's (far left) nationally acclaimed collection of African American art includes Jacob Lawrence's Carpenter (upper left), Keith Morrison's Night of Food (lower left) and a five-string fretless banjo (bottom of page).

mation of one s own partici- pation in his or her own cul- ture,” says Driskell. “We bought what we could afford, and in some cases we exchanged works with other artists.”

His collection comprises a nationally mounted exhibi- tion, “Narratives of African American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collec- tion.” The show launched at the University of Maryland before Driskell’s retirement and included stops in Atlanta, San Francisco and Cincinnati.

Driskell’s broad taste in art has led him to also collect African, European, Japanese and European American works. Art professor Stephanie Pogue says, "Driskell is appropriately referred to as a 20th-century Renaissance man.”

Driskell retired from active teaching at Maryland in 1998, but is anything but retiring. In addition to his lectures at museums throughout the country, he curates the extensive art collection of Bill and Camille Cosby and serves on the boards of the Ameri- can Federation of Arts and the Cosby Foundation Scholarship Advisory Com- mittee. He is a member and former chair of the Smithsonian Institutions’ Com- mission of the National Museum of African Art.

He has been instrumental in creating the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the African Diaspora at the university. — CC

In 22 years at the University of Maryland, Professor Emeritus David C. Driskell shared a wealth of knowledge, talent and inspiration to his students as a scholar of African American art.

He both worked and lived as an African American artist, continually impressing upon his students the signifi- cance of the black experience in American life and culture.

In recognition of those contributions, President Clinton last December awarded Driskell a National Humanities Medal for work that “deepened the nation’s under- standing of the humanities” and “helped preserve and expand Americans’ access to important resources in the humanities.”

Driskell shares the honor with other well-known artists, including novelists Toni Morrison, Barbara Kingsolver and Ernest Gaines, musician and composer Quincy Jones, and historian Edmund S. Morgan.

"Professor Driskell’s life is itself a work of art, one that is richly deserving of the

honor bestowed by President Clinton," says James F. Harris, dean of the College of Arts and Humanities.

Driskell, a Georgia native, began his teaching career in 1955 at Talladega Col- lege in Alabama. He went on to teach at Fisk University in Nashville, Howard University and the University of Michi- gan before joining the University of Maryland in 1977.

He chaired Maryland's Department of Art from 1978 to 1983 and was named Distinguished University Pro- fessor of Art in 1995.

Spurred by his own men- tors, Driskell has amassed an exhaustive collection of African American art. “My teachers impressed upon me that collecting art was an affir-

48 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

creative & performing arts calendar

The Sensual Sounds of Argentina

H9 o most Americans, the music of Argentina is closely U linked with the country's most famous dance, the tango.

Originated and popularized in the nightclubs of Buenos Aires, the tango has ignited the passions of many a dancer and listener. This spring, the tango and other Argentine musical styles will fill the halls of the Clarice Smith Perform- ing Arts Center as part of a program to give Latin American compositions their rightful place among classical and con- temporary works.

The program culminates with an April 20 concert in the Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Recital Hall featuring Argenti- na's best-known composers and musi- cians, including Alberto Ginestera, Dancers learn the

Marta Lambertini and Astor Piazzolla. Argentine tango at

While tango isn't on the concert's a February music

play list, attendants can expect to hear and dancing class the rhythms of the famous music at the University of

embedded in the works. — DC Maryland.

Through Saturday, April 21

The Art Gallery presents “Women of the World: A Global Collection of Art.” University of Maryland art pro- fessor Claudia DeMonte assembled this exhibition of 180 works, each by a female artist from a different country in the world. Art-Sociology Building. Free. For more information call 301.405.2763.

The Art Gallery presents "Opened Book: Women’s Stories by Wash- ington Area Artists" in conjunction with “Women of the World.” Exhibit includes works by 1 5 Washington artists who deal with books, texts, words, language and narrative in their art. Art-Sociology Building. Free. For more information call 301.405.2763.

Wednesday, April 4-Thursday, April 5

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and the Dance Department present Mark Haim performing The Goldberg Variations, solo interpreta- tions of Bach's Aria with Thirty Variations, as part of the dance series. At 8 p.m., Dance Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Admission charged. For more infor- mation call 301.405.7847.

Friday, April 6

The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center presents the Muir String Quartet as part of the chamber and early music series. At 8 p.m., the Inn & Conference Center. Admission charged. Free pre-concert discussion an hour and a half before the show. For more information call 301.405.7847.

Thursday, April 19-Saturday, April 21

The Department of Dance presents the Maryland Dance Ensemble. The event will include three performances featuring student choreography and performances by guest artists. At 8 p.m., Dance Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Admission charged. For more information call

301.405.7847.

Thursday, April 19 — Sunday, April 22

The Department of Theatre presents The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, performed by the Nation-

al Players. At 8 p.m. Thursday, Fri- day and Saturday. Matinee perform- ance at 2 p.m. Sunday. Tawes The- atre. Admission charged. For more information call 301.405.7847.

Friday, April 20

The School of Music presents Argentine Art Music, a showcase of important Argentine composers of the 20th century. Concert is part of the Artist Scholarship Benefit Series. At 8 p.m., Gildenhorn Recital Hall, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Cen- ter. Admission charged. For more information call 301.405.7847.

Wednesday, April 25-Sunday, April 29 and Tuesday, May 1- Friday, May 4

The School of Music presents Theodora, oratorio as part of the Maryland Handel Festival. Perfor- mance by the Maryland Chorus and the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra. At 7:30 p.m., Clarice Smith Perform- ing Arts Center Concert Hall. Admission charged. For more infor- mation call 301.405.7847.

Thursday, May 3-Saturday, May 26

The Art Gallery presents works by the Department of Art's 2001 Master of Fine Arts candidates. Art-Socioogy Building. Free. For more information call 301.405.2763.

Friday, May 4-Saturday, May 5

The Department of Dance presents the Maryland Dance Ensemble Showcase. The performance will fea- ture a selection of past, present and new works by faculty and guest artists. At 8 p.m., Ina and Jack Kay Theatre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Admission charged. For more information call 301.405.7847.

Sunday, May 6

The Department of Theatre pres- ents The Glass Menagerie by Ten- nessee Williams as part of the Uni- versity Theatre season. At 2 p.m. Sundays and 8 p.m. all other days. Studio Theatre, Clarice Smith Per- forming Arts Center. Admission charged. For more information call

301.405.7847.

The School of Music presents the University of Maryland Bands Annual “Pops" Concert Perfor- mance by the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. At 2 p.m.. Colony Ballroom, Adele H. Stamp Student Union. Admission charged. For more information call

301.405.7847.

The School of Music presents Jeph- tha, oratorio as part of the Maryland Handel Festival. Performance by the Maryland Chorus and the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra. At 3 p.m.,

Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Concert Hall. Admission charged. For more information call 30 1.405. 7847.

Friday, May 1 1

The Department of Dance presents New Dances, an informal program of new works by the Student Dance Association. At 5 p.m.. Dance The- atre, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Free. For more information call 301.405.7847.

The School of Music presents the Guarneri String Quartet. Concert is part of the Artist Scholarship Benefit Series. World-renowned quartet will perform works by Beethoven and Schubert with guest cellist Peter Wiley. At 8 p.m., Clarice Smith Per- forming Arts Center Concert Hall. Admission charged. For more infor- mation call 301.405.7847.

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 49

INBOUNDS

A Sweet Homecoming for Friedgen

Alumnus has win ning ways , even before the start of his first season as head football coach .

There’s a new “big man on campus,” and his name is Ralph Friedgen ’69- He has already worn several hats at Maryland in the past, but none Fits him more comfortably than that of head coach.

In fact, he calls this his dream job.

n 1968, Friedgen the stu- dent was an ACC All-Acade- mic selection for the Terps. Now, he returns with 32 years’ coaching experi- ence, including nine seasons at Georgia Tech, where he master-minded the Yellow Jack- ets high-pow- ered offense, and five years as offensive coordi- nator for the NFL's San Diego Chargers. In those two positions, he earned the rare distinc- tion of coordinating the offense for both a national collegiate champion and a Super Bowl team.

At times, Friedgen wondered if he’d ever get the chance to be Mary- land’s head coach. "I tried to get the job twice and couldn’t even get an inter- view,” he says. Timing is everything, he believes. And this time, Friedgen was in the right place at the right time. After Coach Ron Vanderhnden was sacked following four losing seasons, Friedgen got a call from Athletic Director Debbie Yow to tell him how interested

Maryland was in him.

Friedgen didn’t miss a step. He took the job

50 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

almost right away.

Friedgen says he particularly admires Presi- dent C. D. Mote’s vision for Maryland. "For too long, people have been concerned that athletics haven't been a part of academics and they should be. We can be good in both; we don’t have to sacrifice anything. Michigan does it, UCLA does it and Stanford does it. We can have both. He [Mote] wants that. That’s what excit- ed me."

In announcing his six-year contract in late November, Yow said of the choice, “Coach Friedgen is an experienced and consistently suc- cessful football coach who also has a passion for Maryland. He understands the ACC, embraces Maryland's philosophy of the student-athlete and has a clear and compelling vision for returning Maryland to national prominence.”

When Bobby Ross was Maryland’s head football coach, Friedgen was his offensive coor- dinator for five years in the mid '80s — a time when the Terps earned three consecutive ACC titles. Friedgen developed future pro quarter- backs Boomer Esiason, Frank Reich and Stan Gelbaugh, all of whom spent at least 10 seasons in the NFL. As Ross’ coaching career took him to the Citadel, Georgia Tech and the San Diego Chargers, so did Friedgen find a fit for 20 years. Returning to collegiate football and Georgia Tech in 1997, Friedgen directed an offense that averaged 36.7 points and 444 yards of total offense per game. In 1999, his efforts earned him the Frank Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant coach.

The 53-year-old Friedgen came by his coach- ing instincts naturally. His father was a leg- endary high school football coach at Harrison High School in Westchester County, N.Y. Friedgen considers his dad — known as “Big Ralph” — to be the greatest influence on his life.

However, the family football legacy ends with Friedgen, whose own family includes his wife, Gloria, and three daughters: Kelley, 23, Kristina, 14, and Katherine, 1 2. The oldest attends Emory University where she is pursuing a law degree coupled with a master's in public health, with the goal of becoming a bioethics lawyer. His wife is a biology teacher. “They don’t talk football, they talk biology,” jokes Friedgen.

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

Ralph Friedgen, No. 61, was a starting offensive line- man for the Terps in the late '60s, lettering in 1968 and earning all-ACC academic honors the same year.

kids and they develop a bond with you as you help them through those times.” It was a trait that Friedgen saw in his own father — a charis- matic coach and counselor to his athletes.

When he returned to Georgia Tech, Friedgen was struck by the number of players who came to his office to tell him how pleased they were about his hiring. He has found a similar

“The thing that I never really appreciated until I came back to college coaching from the pros is the impact you have on kids’ lives. I never knew that I enjoyed dealing with the kids’ social, emotional, academic problems.”

With the hiring of Friedgen, Maryland now joins West Virginia University as the only Divi- sion I school to have coaches in football, men's basketball and women's basketball running pro- grams at their alma mater. In fact, men’s bas- ketball coach Gary Williams ’67 and Friedgen were friends while students at Maryland.

"The thing that I never really appreciated until I came back to college coaching from the pros is the impact you have on kids’ lives. I never knew that I enjoyed dealing with kids’ social, emotional, academic problems,” says Friedgen. “That’s where you get attached to

Fan Fare!

■■M aryland Day, L4I April 28, offers Terp football fans a chance to see the coaching staff and team in action at the Spring Game, a scrimmage ses- sion at 4 p.m., pre- ceded by an autograph session at 3 p.m.

response at Maryland. Holding up a thick sheaf of papers, Friedgen says: “These are my phone messages since I got here and many are from former players saying how happy they are that I’m back at Maryland.”

Once on board, Friedgen wasted no time lin- ing up his coaching staff, which includes two seasoned coaches: Gary Blackney, head coach at Bowling Green and former defensive coordina- tor at Ohio State, and Charles Taaffe, head coach of the Canadian Football League’s Mon- treal Alouettes who spent 1 3 years at the Citadel where he amassed the school’s best ever win-loss record. Friedgen regards hiring Taaffe as offensive coordinator to be a real coup.

"I knew when I took this job that I wanted to hire coaches that had been head coaches because, even though I’m old at 53, this is my first time being a head coach, and I don’t want to make first-year head coaches’ mistakes. ... On the other hand, I’ve planned for this all my life so I feel very comfortable in this role.”

In addition to his primary job of putting a high-quality program on the field, Friedgen intends to strengthen ties with alumni. "I want alumni to buy season tickets, I want them to be in the stands. We are going to have seven home games in each of the next two seasons so we need to make this a home-field advantage. ” — DB

World's Best Lacrosse. Fourteen current or former Maryland women lacrosse players will travel to Eng- land this summer to play in the 2001 World Cup tournament just outside London. Ten Terps will play for the U.S. team in the July 7-14 event. Four players earned spots on the Australian team.

Academic High Bar. Five Terrapin gymnasts scored perfect 4.0 aver- ages in their classes for the Fall 2000 term, upholding the team's reputation for athletic and academic excellence. The women's team also won the President's Cup for the past two years for having the highest combined grade-point average of any Terps athletic team.

School After Sports. Two Mary- land student-athletes — football's Brian Kopka and soccer's Christian Lewis — received 2001 Weaver- James-Corrigan Postgraduate Scholarships to continue their stud- ies in graduate school. The competi- tive $5,000 awards are given annual- ly to outstanding seniors in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

ILLUSTRATION BY JENNIFER PAUL

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 51

DIGITAL TERPS

INBOUNDS

Debbie Yow’s Big Year

Debbie Yow is on a seven-year winning streak. Since joining the Uni- versity of Maryland as director of athletics in 1994, the former basketball coach and North Carolina native has become one of the NCAA’s most

active and respected athletic administrators.

Among other things, she is credited with reversing $49 million in athletic department debt at Maryland, while at the same time launching ambitious development projects,

Maryland Director of Athletics Debbie Yow is rising in the world of women's sports, as evidenced by her Sports Businesswoman of the Year Award in 2000.

including the financing and construction of the new $ 1 10 million Comcast Center arena.

In recognition of her achievements, the industry magazine Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal last year named Yow its top female sports executive of the year. As the award's third recipient, Yow joins WNBA president Val Ack- erman and Marla Messing, president and chief

52 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

operating officer of the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup Organizing Committee, as one of the nation's preeminent female sports leaders.

Jennifer Lee, the SportsBusiness Journal reporter who headed the search committee for the 2000 award, said Yow had emerged as a strong candidate in 1999, and her stature grew along- side the Maryland athletic depart- ment’s.

"Obviously, she has a lot of influ- ence within her respective industry, and she's done a lot for that indus- try,” Lee says. "She manages a ton of money and a ton of people."

Yow, who came to Maryland from the athletic director’s job at Saint Louis University, credits those “tons of people" for any success she’s had heading up Terrapin athletics.

"I guess you could say it’s a team victory of sorts,” Yow says. “I’ve been in the business 26 years, and I know there wasn't anything I 've achieved in that time that didn't come because of the people around me.” Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal credits Yow with improving both "the academic and athletic stature of the program,” citing Maryland’s 92.5- percent athlete graduation rate for all students who complete their eligibility at Maryland and a more than $16 million increase in athletics fundraising since 1995—96.

Besides heading Maryland athletics, Yow also has served on numerous Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA committees, including the NCAA Management Council and the NCAA Budget Committee. She is the president of the National Association of Collegiate Direc- tors of Athletics for 2000—01. — DC

PHOTOS

So your beloved Terps are going toe-to-toe with Vir- ginia or Duke at the Cole Field House, but you’re required to be at your boss’s annual birthday party. What to do?

Get beeped. Now fans can get the latest news and scores from Maryland athletics events through the FANSonly Network, a comprehensive college sports electronic infor- mation service. The free news service, powered by the wire- less delivery firm Air2Web, works with a variety of hand- held communications devices, including most cellular phones, personal digital assis- tants and other gadgets that receive text messaging.

FANSonly also maintains an extensive Web site with news, scores, standings and stats on most NCAA Division

UMBC, 1 p.m

concessions area and press box. An architect's "The new complex will rendering of

help us stay competitive in the Terrapins

both the conference and the new softball nation," says head coach Gina stadium shows LaMandre. “It is an exciting the ballpark's time to be a part ol the Mary- proposed exte- land softball program.” rior fapade and

Since the softball pro- landscaping,

gram’s inception in 1995,

LaMandre has guided the Terps to a 180-153-1 record and a share of the ACC tour- nament championship in 1997. Two years later, the team climbed to a No. 1 2 national ranking with a 51-23 record and a trip to the NCAA regional finals.

With seven of nine return- ing starters, LaMandre

expects the 2001 team to make a strong showing in the ACC. Conference play begins April 15 with a double-head- er at Georgia Tech.

Softball is one of 1 2 women's Division I sports at

The Terrapins softball team will play in a new 1,200-seat, lighted softball stadium beginning in 2002, adding yet another jewel to the uni- versity’s greatly improved athletics facilities.

The $3 million softball complex, which Director of Athletics Debbie Yow says “will be one of the finest in the country,” will feature sta- dium seating, underground dugouts with restrooms, two bullpen areas and four batting cages.

Construction is set to begin this summer at a site near the university’s new Comcast Center arena on the north side of the campus. Student-athletes will have access to locker room and weight-training facili- ties, an indoor practice gymnasium and the aca- demic support and career development unit. The stadium will also feature an electronic scoreboard, a

ARCHITECTURAL RENDERING BY ELLERBE BECKET

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 53

I athletics programs. Included on the Web site is an impres- sive library of archived games for audio and video down- loading to personal comput- ers.

To learn more about the FANSonly Network and the real-time sports information service for wireless users, visit the company online at www.fansonly.com. — DC

MARYLAND SOFTBALLERS GETTING FIELD OF DREAMS

the university, establishing Maryland as one of the top 10 institutions in the country for female athletes, according to Sports Illustrated for Women magazine. — DC

2001 Lacrosse Schedule

Men’s

APRIL

7 at Navy, 12 p.m.

14 Johns Hopkins, 8 p.m.

20 ACC Semifinals, Orlando, Fla., 6 p.m.

22 ACC Championship, Orlando, Fla., 2:30 p.m. ® Mount St. Mary's, 4 p.m. at Yale, 1 p.m.

MAY

5

12 13

19

20 26 28

imgaa hirst Houno at Army, iz p.m.

NCAA First Round at UMBC, 12 p.m.

NCAA Quarterfinals at Hofstra, 12 p.m.

NCAA Quarterfinals, 12 p.m.

NCAA Semifinals, Piscataway, N.J., 12 p.m.

NCAA Championship, Piscataway, N.J., 10:55 a.m.

Home games in bold

Women’s ' : .A

APRIL

1 vs. Ohio State, at Penn State, TBA 8 James Madison, 2 p.m.

10 William and Mary, 4 p.m.

12 at Georgetown, 4 p.m.

14 Johns Hopkins, 5 p.m.

20 ACC Tournament, Orlando, Fla., TBA 22 ACC Tournament, Orlando, Fla., TBA 25 Princeton, 7 p.m.

28 Loyola, 1 p.m.

MAY

4 at Dartmouth, 7 p.m.

6 at Harvard, 1 p.m.

10 NCAA First Round, TBA

13 NCAA Second Round, TBA

18 NCAA Semifinals, at Baltimore, TBA 20 NCAA Finals, at Baltimore, TBA

Setting Course for Excellence

College of Journalism gets benefactor in publisher of Annapolis Capital and Washing- ton i an magazine.

Beyond his reputation as a successful business- man, Philip Merrill has two consuming pas- sions: the Chesapeake Bay and higher educa- tion. Chances are good that when he’s not in his office in Annapolis or Washington, D.C., you can envision him somewhere out on the bay.

That’s the relaxed side of the entrepreneur and investor who has combined publishing with public service throughout his career. As publisher and owner of Capital-Gazette Com- munications Inc., he has built The Capital daily newspaper in Annapolis to a circulation of 48,000 on weekdays and more than 50,000 on Sundays. His Washingtonian is one of the top-

Eleanor and Philip Merrill celebrate the announcement of their $10 million gift to the University's College of Journalism.

rated city magazines in the country, and has won the prestigious National Magazine Award five times.

Just as Merrill, who was born in Baltimore, reveres the water, he cherishes history and understands his role in it, often describing his Annapolis-based publishing company as “America's oldest,” dating back to its 1727 start as the weekly Maryland Gazette. One of the Gazettes apprentice printers was famed edi- tor and press freedom advocate John Peter Zenger.

So it doesn't seem unlikely that a man who is passionate about posterity and his profession would choose to make a little history of his own by ensuring that the next generation of Mary- land journalists are simply the best. And now in early 2001, the year sticklers believe to be the true start to the third millennium, Phil Merrill has charted a noble course for the Uni- versity of Maryland by making a $10 million gift to the College of Journalism. In recogni- tion of his generosity, the school has been renamed the Philip Merrill College of Journal- ism.

"Phil Merrill has a passion for excellent higher education and for the University of Maryland. He is truly excited about assisting our College of Journalism to achieve the high- est national distinction among university jour- nalism programs,” says President C. D. Mote,

Jr-

Merrill's pragmatic nature dictates that his funding have an immediate impact so that results are realized in a few years, not a few decades. Unlike most gifts of a similar magni- tude, Merrill’s contribution will not be endowed; instead, the money will be spent over the next 15 to 18 years.

What will $10 million do? Dean Thomas Kunkel points out that given the college’s rela- tively small size — 512 undergraduates, 65 mas- ter’s and Ph.D. candidates and 22 full-time fac- ulty— the scope of Merrill’s gift is stunning.

54 COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

“Merrill’s funding will help us attain a level of excellence unsurpassed in the world," says Kunkel. “The Merrill College of Journalism will be an engine for the news industry and a model for journalism education worldwide. '

Merrill's gift will support three new chairs in journalism, adding to the college’s Knight Chair in Journalism and the Richard Eaton Chair in Broadcast Journalism. The holder of the first Philip Merrill Chair in Journalism will be two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and journal- ism alumnus Jon Franklin 70, who joins Mary- land from the Raleigh (N.C.) News & Observer. The gift will support students by creating graduate-level fellowships, assistantships and scholarships, and undergraduate scholarships, all to be named for Eleanor Merrill, Phil’s wife. The Merrill funding will also be earmarked for faculty enhancement, general student recruit- ment, upgrading the college’s equipment and technology resources, and general marketing and outreach programs at the college. The gift’s impact will be sweeping and deep.

Philip and Eleanor Merrill are deeply con- nected to the University of Maryland. Eleanor Merrill, vice president of Capital-Gazette Com- munications, was named to the College of Jour- nalism’s Board of Visitors when it was created by former dean Reese Cleghorn in 1983- She has chaired the board since 1995. During the

19 years of Cleghorn’s leadership, the college made many hard decisions — instituting a stricter admissions policy; reducing major sequences of study from seven to four; moving to an all-journalism program in print, broad- cast and online — and earned a national reputa- tion for outstanding graduates.

“In a world that’s dominated in large meas- ure by the communications revolution, sound journalistic values and capabilities are more important than ever,” says Philip Merrill. "I have every confidence that the College of Jour- nalism will achieve its goal of being the very best in the nation."

Merrill’s commitment kicks off a three-year effort by the college to raise $30 million in cap- ital funds. A primary aim of the effort is to spur construction of a new, state-of-the-art journal- ism building, one spacious enough to house all of the Merrill College’s print, broadcast, online and professional development operations under one roof. The college’s current home, built in 1957, is not capable of meeting the demands of 21st century journalism education, officials say.

“I’m an entrepreneur,” Merrill told students gathered on the steps of the Journalism Build- ing for the February announcement of his gift. “And I’m making an entrepreneurial invest- ment in you.” — JP

David Broder

Two Pulitzer Winners Join Faculty

aryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism needs a trophy case for its growing "trophy" faculty. The latest additions are David Broder, Pulitzer-winning political reporter and syndicated columnist with The Washington Post, and Jon Franklin 70, a two-time Pulitzer winner for feature writing and explanatory journalism. They will join Haynes John- son, former Pulitzer-winning Washington Post political reporter; Gene

Roberts, former managing editor of The New York Times; and Lee Thornton, former CBS White House correspondent and CNN producer.

The Merrill College publishes the national monthly magazine American Journalism Review, with Dean Thomas Kunkel as its president. It operates several professional outreach programs, including the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism, the Casey Journalism Center for Children and Fami- lies, the Journalism Fellowships in Child and Family Policy Program and the Hubert H. Humphrey Journalism Fellows Program. The Merrill College is also home to the National Association of Black Journalists and the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. It boasts the Capital News Service, a daily news wire and broadcast operation staffed by students at bureaus in Annapolis and Washington, D.C., and runs UMTV, the university's cable TV station. — JP

BOLD

VISION

BRIGHT

FUTURE

THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE

UNIVERSITY OF

MARYLAND

Maryland's Year 2000 ended with a big bang — $26 million in new gifts and pledges for the month of December, bringing the annual fundraising total to $43.3 million and catapult- ing the Bold Vision • Bright Future campaign well above its $350 million goal. The university will continue to raise funds in support of many of its strongest priorities, includ- ing scholarships and fel- lowships, faculty profes- sorship and chairs, programs and special proj- ects, until the campaign's formal end on June 30, 2002. Thank you to each and every one of you for contributing to Maryland's bold and bright future.

▲ As of Dec. 31, 2000, $367.3 million has been raised, surpassing the Bold Vision • Bright Future campaign goal.

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 55

PHOTO COURTESY Of AMERICAN JOURNALISM REVIEW

CLASS-NOTES

KEY

A&S = AGRI = ARCH = ARHU =

BMGT =

BSOS =

CLIS =

CMPS =

EDUC = ENGR = GRAD = HUEC = JOUR = LFSC = PERH =

PUAF = UGS =

Arts & Sciences College of Agriculture School of Architecture College of Arts & Humanities College of Business & Management College of Behavioral ik Social Sciences College of Library & Information Services College of Computer, Mathematical, & Physical Sciences

College of Education College of Engineering Graduate School College o! Human Ecology College of Journalism College of Life Sciences College of Physical Education, Recreation,

& Health

School of Public Affairs Undergraduate Studies

Before polar fleece, outdoors enthusiasts adhered to a dress code of sporty elegance: the Trail Club, 1942

'43

Charles L. Hudson. EDUC, 60 M.Ed., was honored by District Heights, Md., with a park and play- ground next to the District Heights Municipal Center dedicated in his name. Hudson was mayor of District Heights from 1988 to 1991 and commissioner for eight years prior. During this time, he raised $48,000 to develop the ground into a recre- ational area with an amphitheater, swings, seesaws and other play- ground equipment. Previous to Hudson's positions in public office, he worked in the Prince George’s Public Schools for 38 years as an educator, coach, athletic director, vice principal and principal.

'60

Seth Bonder. ENGR, has been elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Bonder is chairman, chief executive officer and founder of Vector Research Inc., of Ann Arbor, Mich. The company develops information systems and decision models for government agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Department of the Treasury. Bonder was elected for his technical and organizational leadership in military and civilian operations research.

'61

Joe Adams JOUR, was appointed to the President’s Advisory Committee by Presi- dent Clinton. The committee serves as a national forum to provide support to the arts through the performance and educa- tional programs of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Adams is also director of Amer- ica Oh, Yes! arc galleries in Hilton Head Island, N.C., and Washington, D.C., which exhibit American folk art.

'65

Kinsey Bass Green. HUEC, M S., ’69 EDUC, Ph.D., will be retiring from Oregon State University as dean of the College of Home Economics and Education. Green is currently serving as president of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences for 2000—01.

and was promoted to senior vice president and chief financial officer in 1996. He became executive vice president in 1999 and president of the company last May. Wraase is also chair and chief executive officer of Pepco Holdings, Inc., a subsidiary involved in telecommunications and energy products and services.

'67

James R. Wilkens Jr., A&S, was appointed chair of the board of trustees at Shenandoah University in Winchester, Va.

'69

Robert A. Pattishall ENGR, is

the recipient of the 2000 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro- nautics von Braun Award for Excel- lence in Space Program Manage- ment. Pattishall received the award for revolutionizing the National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) Advanced Technology Enterprise, expanding collaboration, enhancing customer focus and demonstrating new capabilities to exploit intelli- gence collection from space. Pat- tishall was the director of the advances systems and technology and directorate of the NRO until his retirement from the CIA and NRO in February 2000.

Arnold Rheingold, LFSC, Ph D., was honored by the American Chemical Society in Washington, D.C., for his contributions to the field of crystallography. The sympo- sium featured 19 papers presented by scientists highlighting the con- tributions made to their programs through collaboration with Rhein- gold’s research laboratory. Rheingold is currently a profes- sor at the University of Delaware.

'70

Nancy A. Morgan, PERH, M.A.,

is president of the 40,000-member Florida section of the United States Tennis Association. Her term runs until October 2002.

'66

Dennis R. Wraase. BMGT, was

elected chief operating officer of Potomac Electric Power Co., where he also serves as president. Wraase, who holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Maryland, joined PEPCO in 1974. He was named vice president and comptroller in 1985,

Barry Ira Graubard, A&S, ’91 CMPS, Ph.D., was named a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA). He is currently a senior

OBITUARIES

'34

E. Robert Kent, ENGR, died of a stroke on December 30, 2000, in Annapolis. He was 87.

Kent, an engineer and avid yachtsman who co-founded Poole & Kent Co. in 1947, received numer- ous honors from the University of Maryland, including a Distin- guished Alumni Award in 1984, a Distinguished Centennial Medal in 1994 and the Ralph J. Tyser Medal- lion Award for outstanding service in 1996.

His contributions to the univer- sity include the establishment of the E. Robert Kent Scholarship Fund for engineering students, the E. Robert Kent Junior Faculty Teach- ing Award Fund and gifts of research materials to the Clark School of Engineering's library. He was a lifetime member of the Alum- ni Association and a member of the Terrapin and President’s clubs.

Before founding Poole & Kent, a mechanical contracting firm, Kent served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was a member of the Annapolis Yacht Club, the Fleet Reserve of Annapolis, the Navy League and the Scottish Rite of Free Masonry.

Kent also was active in the national contracting industry, and he served as president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of American in 1972. He received that organiza- tion’s Distinguished Service Award in 1977 and its Lifetime Achieve- ment Award in 1998. He was hon- orary past president of the Great Britain Heating and Ventilating Contracting Assocation, and remained involved in the Engineer- ing Society of Baltimore for 60 years.

Kent is survived by a son, E. Robert Kent Jr., of Baltimore; a daughter, Susan Kent DiLonardo of Towson; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. His wife, Marian Mueller Kent, died in 1978.

'39

Lloyd H.R. "Mac" McGill,

ENGR, died of complications relat- ed to asbestosis on July 26, 2000, in Seminole, Fla. He was 82.

McGill was one of only 17 civil engineering majors to graduate in the Class of 1939- He paid for col- lege by working as a dishwasher, as a university police officer, and by performing live country music on his own radio show that aired on the

college station. Following gradua- tion, McGill worked for the Rust Engineering Co. in their chimney division, where he is best recognized for his breakthrough design of a chimney that would not collapse during an earthquake. McGill was acknowledged for this feat by Who’s Who in American Civil Engineering. Perhaps his most intriguing assign- ment was mining ore in 1944 in the Andes Mountains of Peru. McGill later found out that the ore being mined by the Rust Engineering Co. was later used in the first atomic bombs as part of the Manhattan Project.

McGill worked in a variety of engineering positions during the next three decades, including senior engineer and management positions with the Rust Engineering Co., the St. Regis Paper Co. and as general manager for 13 years of a paper bag manufacturing plant in Puerto Rico. In 1983, McGill semi-retired to Florida, where he continued to work as a private consultant and he and his wife, Frances, regularly enter- tained senior citizens in retirement homes in the Seminole area. Lloyd would sing and play guitar while Frances accompanied him on the washtub bass fiddle.

McGill is survived by his wife of 60 years, Frances; four daughters, Mary Karouz, Peggy Troufield, Pam McGill and Molly McGill; two sons, John and James; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

'41

Ralph Wylie Frey, BMGT, died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a neuro- logical ailment, on October 19, 2000, in Adelphi, Md. He was 80. Frey retired in 1983 after 42 years with the Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. He was vice presi- dent and director since 1963.

Frey was greatly involved with the university. He was a regent and a past president of the Alumni Association and the Terrapin Club. He also received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the College of Business and Management in 1981.

Frey is a past president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade, the Maryland-D.C. Utilities Associ- ation, past executive board member of the Boy Scouts of America and chair of the United Negro College Fund's corporations committee. In addition, Frey was a member of the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Silver Spring, Md., Beta Alpha Psi financial honor fraternity and Beta

Gamma Sigma business and man- agement academic honor society.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Bettie Rhoda Boyce Frey, of Silver Spring, Md.; a daughter,

Karen DeCoste, of Arnold, Md.; two sons, Ralph Frey III, of Kennesaw, Ga. and Ford Frey of Palm Harbor, Fla.; two granddaughters; and three great-grandchildren.

'50

Stanford W. Berman, ENGR, died of lymphoma on October 25, 2000, at his home in Bethesda, Md. He was 72. Berman was a distin- guished patent attorney who spe- cialized in patent, copyright and trademark law. He began his law career in 1953 and retired in 1996 as a senior partner with Jacobson, Price, Homan & Stern.

Berman has a broad record of service to the university. He pro- posed the establishment of the Engi- neering Innovation Hall of Fame more than a decade ago, funded an endowment to support ongoing exhi- bition expenses and chaired the selec- tion committee for the award since its inception. The Hall of Fame, located in Glenn L. Martin Hall, serves as an inspiration to current Clark School engineering students on a daily basis. Berman also created and taught the “Patent Law for Engi- neers” course at Maryland and is a past president of the Alumni Associ- ation International and the Engineer- ing Alumni Chapter. He also served for a number of years as chair of the Board of Visitors of the School of Music and was an ardent supporter of the performing arts at Maryland.

Last year, Berman was chosen to receive the Ralph J. Tyser Medal- lion, which is presented annually to a graduate who has provided unique and significant service to the univer- sity. In his letter nominating Berman for the award, William Destler, vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School, said, “Stan’s loyalty to engineering has been exemplary, but what sets him apart from other nominees is his record of service to other parts of the university. One example of this is the fact that he has served for a number of years as chair of the Board of Visitors of the School of Music and he has made many con- tributions to the performing arts at Maryland as well.”

Survivors include his wife of 44 years, Marilyn Berman of Bethesda, Md., 74 EDUC, 78 Ed.D., former associate dean of the Clark School of

Engineering; three children, Scott Berman of Chappaqua, N.Y., Marcy Schaaf of Mill Valley, Calif, and Brian Berman of Bethesda, Md.; his mother, Ida J. Berman of Washing- ton, D.C.; a brother, Conrad Berman of Rockville, Md.; and five grandchildren.

'63

David Ellis Lee Sr., ENGR, died November 8, 2000, at a hospital in Belhaven, N.C., of a heart attack.

He was 61. He had recently semi- retired as President of the Washing- ton, D.C. Metro division of Manhat- tan Construction Co.

Lee, of Edgewater, Md., suffered a heart attack while on his boat. Leeway III , docked at a Belhaven marina. He and his wife, Marlene, had begun a sailing journey on October 29, 2000, along the East Coast to the Bahamas.

Lee began his construction career with the General Services Administration and then joined the Centex Corp. where he worked from 1965 to 1990. Lee ended his career with Centex as president and chief executive officer of Eugene Simpson & Brother Inc., a general contract- ing subsidiary. He was a consultant and then manager with A.I.G. Fis- chbach Corp. from 1990 to 1991 and senior vice president with Blount Inc. before joining the Man- hattan Construction Co. in 1993.

Lee was a member and commit- tee chairman of the Washington Building Congress and also active in the Associated Builders and Con- tractors and the Associated General Contractors of America. He was also a member and past president of the Loch Haven Civic Association and the Central Elementary Parent- Teacher Association.

His hobby was sailing, both rac- ing and cruising. Lee had raced on the Chesapeake Bay for 25 years and competed in the Governor's Cup race since 1984, claiming three vic- tories. He was a founding member and past commodore of the South River Sailing Association, and a member of the Annapolis Yacht Club and the Chesapeake Morgan Association.

Survivors include his wife of 40 years, the former Marlene Ann Robertson of Edgewater, Md.; a son, David E. Lee Jr. of Boston; a daugh- ter, Denise E. Lee of Edgewater,

Md.; a brother, Norman W. Lee Jr. of Edgewater, Md.; and two sisters, Martha L. Collison of Mayo, Md. and Olga (Evy) Lee of Bowie, Md.

COLLEGE PARK SPRING 2001 57

CLASS-NOTES

From Press Room to Pulpit

he University of Maryland has graduated its share of pioneering spirits, among them artists, entertainers, business leaders and public officials. But when Vashti McKenzie, class of '78, reached the pinnacle of her career last July, she shattered one of the thickest glass ceilings ever placed: that of the high clergy.

McKenzie, 53, is the firs