Earlier this month, UMBC officially launched a new icon and homepage as the culmination of a two-year, community-driven brand message and logo development process—the first University-wide branding initiative in UMBC history.

“Our community has been looking for new tools to share with others what the UMBC experience is all about. This work focused on developing those tools,” says Lisa Akchin, UMBC’s associate vice president for engagement.

Introducing this new brand is a powerful video with a message that will already be familiar to many in Retriever Nation.

This launch comes at an important moment for the University, following UMBC’s 50th anniversary, the start of the $150 million Campaign for UMBC, and UMBC’s historic 16-over-1 NCAA appearance in 2018. The project team set out to capture the essence of what makes UMBC such a distinctive community, and to share that vision with the world.

Putting it all together

UMBC’s Office of Institutional Advancement led the brand development project, in close collaboration with marketing and communications colleagues across the University, and with essential input from faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Jim Lord ’99, director of creative services and adjunct professor of visual arts, designed the striking new UMBC icon.

“As an alumnus of UMBC and Director of Creative Services, I was excited to work on the new logo. The project took a long time, but along the way, I was able to take direct feedback from so many of my colleagues across campus,” says Lord. “The logo that was ultimately selected received a positive response in the online surveys and it has been great to see the mark make its way onto campus and be used in the marketing materials.”

UMBC’s new icon is the most visible element of the branding project, but beneath it is a strong foundation of core ideas and values that define the University. The icon is also part of a larger fresh visual identity for UMBC, including UMBC logos, colors, letterhead, and guidance for sharing the UMBC experience through photography and video.

UMBC’s Creative Services team was tasked with bringing these ideas to life and the campus itself has gone through a springtime transformation. Windows are emblazoned with black and gold banners, a larger-than-life silo banner welcomes visitors to campus, and new pavement decals remind Retrievers that they’re part of a community with each passing step.

Laura Schraven, associate director for Campus Life marketing and communications, led UMBC’s student-focused design center, commonvision, to create supplemental materials highlighting UMBC’s new visual identity.

“It’s exciting to see people embracing the brand and wanting to use the logo, imagery and messaging in their materials. It is also a unique opportunity for our staff and student staff to become brand ambassadors,” says Schraven. “They are not just adding a logo to a brochure, they’re making sure that the brand is being reflected accurately and justly,” she explains. “This role gives another layer of investment in the brand from our students.”

Plus, she notes, “we are all definitely excited about the expanded color palette.”

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The new UMBC homepage was designed to quickly give a clear, powerful sense of all the University offers, and how students can claim their futures at UMBC. The site’s main audience is prospective undergraduate and graduate students and their families—people who are just starting to learn more about the University. At the same time, improved homepage navigation will help all site visitors—including current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and University partners—to find what they are looking for.

The site will continue to grow over time, featuring content that meets the needs of visitors.

Community impact

Feedback from the UMBC community has been integral to every stage of the branding process. The project team asked UMBC students, faculty, staff, and alumni to share their opinions through surveys and group discussions. These were used to craft the new designs that could effectively express UMBC’s culture and identity.

“As an alumnus and staff member, I have the privilege of watching UMBC constantly evolve as an institution,” says Bobby Lubaszewski ‘10, marketing coordinator, Division of Professional Studies. “The new brand is the perfect example of that evolution, taking our existing, well-established logo and identity and taking it one step further.”

To further introduce the brand and logo to the UMBC community, an on-campus branch launch event was held on April 11. Students were invited to stop by Main Street and grab new graphic stickers, pose for a selfie, enjoy snacks, and pick up a coupon for new logo merchandise in the Campus Bookstore.

UMBC faculty and staff also had a chance to watch the new video and share their thoughts about what being part of UMBC means to them during the Presidential Faculty and Staff Awards ceremony, which took place on brand launch day.

The core ideas behind this project resonated with Morgan Thomas ‘13, general counsel. During the PFASA event, she shared, “When you’re at UMBC, you can explore at every angle” and always find new opportunities “because this is a rich campus full of culture and full of wonderful people where you can learn something new.”

Karl Steiner, vice president of research, agrees, saying, “The themes, including ‘Explore every Angle’ and ‘Extend Beyond’ highlight and value the experiences and ideas of our faculty, students, and staff to pursue new knowledge and thrive to make a positive and lasting impact on our global society through education, research and service.”

“I am excited about how UMBC’s updated brand captures the continuing growth of our institution,” he shares, “as we enter into our second half-century as a campus.”

Banner image: Laptop stickers celebrate launch of new UMBC brand. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

At midnight on Thursday, February 28, UMBC Giving Day will officially begin, kicking off the university’s second annual 24-hour marathon of giving. The goal: for as many UMBC alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and students as possible to make a gift, supporting UMBC students and projects. UMBC is relying on Retriever Nation to make the 1,000 donor goal a reality.

“Last year was our very first 24-hour giving day—Black and Gold Rush—and it was simply amazing,” says Joanne Meredith, director of annual giving. “The entire UMBC community came together to support scholarships, athletics, campus life, academics… They gave to what mattered most to them.”

Making an impact

For Giving Day 2019, UMBC will shine a spotlight on eighteen funds as key areas for support. The Stay Black and Gold Fund, for example, directly supports students who are facing financial hardship as they seek to finish their degrees. The Retriever Essentials fund supports work to tackle food insecurity in the UMBC community. Donors can also give to other UMBC funds that they choose, beyond the eighteen featured.

“This is a special time for UMBC,” said UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “We want you to give to whatever it is that you want to give to—whether it’s academics or athletics, scholarships or Student Affairs.”

President Hrabowski will once again be taking over UMBC’s Twitter account in the midst of the excitement on UMBC Giving Day 2019.

Joining the festivities

In the spirit of the #blackandgoldrush Giving Day theme, all Retrievers are encouraged to wear black and gold on Thursday, February 28. To help support the cause, the UMBC Bookstore is offering 50 percent off all clearance merchandise from February 25 through March 1.

Join in the festivities on Thursday, February 28 by dropping by Giving Day headquarters at Main Street in the Commons, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. There will be games, live performances, prizes, snacks, and more.

The celebration will also be online, where ambassadors are competing to see who can raise the most donors and visibility for Giving Day. Since January, Retrievers have been signing up to serve as social media ambassadors and helping to boost awareness about Giving Day throughout Retriever Nation. On Giving Day, ambassadors will be able to track their progress on a leaderboard, to see who helped generate the most clicks and donations for their UMBC causes. The top individual, department, and student ambassadors will all receive special prizes.

“This is such caring community, full of energy and UMBC pride,” says Greg Simmons, M.P.P. ’04, public policy, and vice president of institutional advancement. “To be successful, Giving Day is definitely an all-hands-on deck effort. We are excited to see how support from UMBC alumni, students, parents, faculty, and staff on Giving Day can extend the reach and impact of the work we do together.”

Wherever you are on Thursday, February 28, you can follow all of the Giving Day 2019 festivities on UMBC’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat (@UMBCLife), and post your own thoughts on why supporting UMBC students is so important using #UMBC and #blackandgoldrush.

Featured Image: Thank-you notes from Giving Day 2018. All photos by Marlaynd Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Lynne Schaefer and Jack Suess are known across UMBC for their essential roles in shaping and sustaining the university’s strong and steady growth over the years. As UMBC’s vice president for finance and administration (Schaefer) and vice president of information technology/CIO (Suess), they have worked on major projects, from creating UMBC’s data warehouse to developing shared service centers to overseeing campus sustainability and information security initiatives. They also have deep personal ties to UMBC—Schaefer as a UMBC parent and Suess as an alumnus (’81, mathematics, M.S. ’94, information systems).

But the impact that they have had over decades of combined service has reached far beyond the university. Both Schaefer and Suess are currently leading the boards of directors of national higher education organizations, bringing what Suess calls “UMBC’s collaborative style” along with them.

Schaefer has served on the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ (NACUBO) Board of Directors for five years and became its chair on August 1, 2018. Looking for a way to share her extensive financial management and administrative experience beyond UMBC, Schaefer initially joined the Eastern Association of College and University Business Officers (EACUBO) in 2008. She served in a series of leadership positions culminating with a term as chair of the board of directors, 2016 – 2017, before moving on to her new position as chair of that group’s national partner organization, NACUBO.

In addition to her desire to give back to her field through national-level service, Schaefer also sees her leadership of NACUBO as an opportunity to learn from colleagues at other universities. In this way, she’s discovered “unique, innovative practices that can help UMBC solve problems and move us forward,” in areas such as multi-year financial forecasting.

Suess has been a member of EDUCAUSE’s Board of Directors since 2014, and will complete his current term as its chair in November 2018. He got involved in EDUCAUSE’s predecessor organizations, CAUSE and Educom, more than two decades ago, when a UMBC colleague suggested he present at a conference; those groups merged to form EDUCAUSE in 1998.

Suess sees his tenure as EDUCAUSE chair as “a culmination of a long history within the higher education IT community” and a way to “help others who have helped me.” He also enjoys and values learning from colleagues in the national higher education community, saying “it’s about being exposed to a richer set of ideas, thinking, and practices.”

Schaefer and Suess are taking their collaborative spirit on the road at EACUBO’s annual meeting, taking place in Buffalo, NY, October 21 – 24, 2018. EACUBO and EDUCAUSE collaborated to organize a half-day program called “Technology Transforming Higher Education,” during which Suess will participate in a panel discussion on data privacy. Elsewhere during the meeting, Schaefer will participate in panel discussions about advocating for the value of higher education and about developing and supporting women leaders.

Because of their positive experiences with national organizations, both administrators encourage their teams and their colleagues university-wide to take advantage of leadership, educational, and networking opportunities.

“Lynne and Jack are innovative leaders who have achieved breakthroughs at UMBC that are models for the national higher education community,” says UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “Through their collaborative efforts, they are advancing UMBC’s reputation as a national leader – both academically and administratively.”

Featured image: Lynne Schaefer and Jack Suess. All photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

This story was written by Mary Ann Richmond ’93, history.

Last Sunday’s Boston Globe greeted readers with a front-page story about lessons to be learned from a top research university, but it wasn’t about local powerhouses Harvard or MIT. It was a profile of UMBC.

The bold headline read, “In Maryland, lessons for UMass Boston: Thriving UMBC has support of students, faculty, and, most importantly, the state.” Above that headline, just under the masthead for the Sunday Globe, was a quote from President Freeman Hrabowski. It gave a snapshot of UMBC, noting, “Nothing is more important here than brainpower and grit.”

In Maryland, there are lessons to be had for UMass Boston. https://t.co/1hmUR5qQKj pic.twitter.com/YZnHnKXeIW

— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) July 22, 2018

The article starts in a math refresher course, where students are hard at work during the summer to prepare for the semester ahead. Even in the academic off-season, the campus is buzzing with activity, reporter Laura Krantz found. “At UMBC, black and yellow flags flutter above the central sidewalk and even in the summer,” she wrote, “the campus is alive with summer camps, graduate students doing research, and the Meyerhoff students, who are still in calculus class.”

Krantz spent hours meeting with students, faculty, staff, and alumni, and shadowing President Hrabowski, to learn what makes UMBC tick. “It’s never about the one person” at UMBC, President Hrabowski explained. “It has to be a tone that when the person comes in it’s not us versus them, but how do we work together.”

Working together to constantly improve is one of the secrets behind UMBC’s success, the article suggests. “We’re not perfect,” said Dean Bill LaCourse of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences. “But when we look in the mirror we don’t…blame the students, we don’t blame external aspects, we look at ourselves first and see what can we change.”

The supportive community that this kind of growth-oriented collaboration creates is meaningful for faculty, staff, and students alike. “It’s a very safe environment to try new things, to innovate, so that’s huge,” said Katharine Cole, vice provost and dean of undergraduate academic affairs.

State investment in education is another key to the university’s growth and its ability to serve as an economic engine for the region, the article also emphasizes. “The state feels that it is important to support higher education,” said Delegate Adrienne Jones ’76, psychology, Maryland House Speaker Pro Tem. “We see that as a link to the economy of the state and a well-educated workforce.”

Thanks to everyone who makes UMBC such a special community. “It’s one of those places where everyone always seems to be upbeat, even when it’s raining out and you’re dodging raindrops,” said @DelegateAJones.https://t.co/ebR7k5xyFf

— UMBC (@UMBC) July 24, 2018

Ultimately, said President Hrabowski, “We want working- and middle-class people to believe that they have opportunities to go to first-rate institutions that they can afford.”

The Globe reports that data show UMBC is achieving its goal of providing a first-rate education to students of all backgrounds. The paper notes that the university’s graduation rate is strong across all racial and ethnic groups, and that 2018 alumni have gone on to promising careers and graduate programs at Columbia, Cornell, Duke, MIT, Harvard, and Yale.

UMBC is a place, the Globe notes, that has skyrocketed to “students’ first choice,” and continues to focus on growth.

Featured image: Orientation Peer Advisors at UMBC. All photos by Marlayna Demond.

The new UMBC Events Center will shine this week as the Retrievers host America East playoff games in both men’s and women’s basketball.

In women’s basketball, UMBC will host UMass Lowell in a first-round game on Wednesday, February 28, 6 p.m., airing on ESPN3. The winner will advance to the America East quarterfinal in Portland, Maine on Saturday, March 3.

The team defeated UMass Lowell in their regular season finale, 61-39. Tyler Moore ‘20, psychology, helped the Retrievers come out of the gate strong with back-to-back triples and Lakiah Sims ‘18, sociology, led the team with 10 rebounds. Laura Castaldo ‘18, health administration and policy, and Brittani Burgess ‘18, media and communication studies, earned 13 and 12 points each, respectively. Just a few days earlier, the team honored seniors Castaldo; Burgess; Sims; Chukwuma Chiamaka ‘18, environmental science; and Carly Harris ‘18, computer science, prior to a game against Hartford.

Ryan Odom’s men’s program will host their first home playoff game in a decade on Saturday, March 3, as one of the top four seeds in the tournament. Tip-off will be at 1 p.m., against a team to be announced soon, also airing on ESPN3.

This year marks the first time in three decades of NCAA Division I play that UMBC has posted 20-win seasons back-to-back. Most recently, the team surged past UMass Lowell for an 82-75 victory on Senior Day, February 24. Forward Joe Sherburne ‘19, financial economics, led the way to that victory with his first double-double of the season, with 21 points and 10 rebounds. After UMass Lowell took the lead in the second half, guard Jairus Lyles, M.A. ‘18, education, put the Retrievers ahead for good, with Nolan Gerrity ‘19, management of aging studies, and guard Jourdan Grant ‘18, media and communication studies, cementing the victory. Seniors Lyles, Grant, and K.J. Maura ‘18, sociology, all played major roles in the Retriever victory, with Lyles scoring 16 points, Grant scoring 9 points (in his 123rd career game, a school record), and Maura scoring 11 points.

Tickets for UMBC’s America East playoff games are available via www.umbcretrievers.com or at the UMBC Event Center box office, with special discounted ticket prices for UMBC students, faculty, and staff.

UMBC’s first-ever Black and Gold Rush Giving Day is setting out to have a major impact, raising funds to support UMBC students today and building community connections for the future.

Beginning at midnight on Wednesday, February 28, 2018, UMBC will embark on a marathon day of giving. A first for the UMBC campus, the goal of Giving Day is to secure as many donors as possible in a 24-hour period. With an ambitious goal of 350 donors, UMBC is relying on the entirety of Retriever Nation to make it a reality.

“Giving Day is an embodiment of what we’re capable of,” says UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “UMBC is over 70,000 alumni strong, with thousands of faculty, staff, family members, and friends who are such an important part of our story. We’re calling on this entire Retriever family to join us in celebration on Giving Day, and to show what we can achieve together in support of our students.” President Hrabowski will take over UMBC’s Twitter account in the midst of the excitement on February 28.

“Black and Gold Rush will be a special day for our close-knit community,” says Joanne Meredith, director of annual giving. “Every gift makes a difference. Deciding how to show our support—whether it’s a gift to athletics, student organizations, or academics—is a wonderful chance to reflect on and share what at UMBC has most impacted our lives.”

Thirteen causes have been identified as areas of support for the inaugural Giving Day. Donors are encouraged to choose one or more of these causes to contribute to during the day. One option, the Stay Black and Gold Student Emergency Fund, directly supports students who find themselves in moments of financial stress, who just need a little extra support to complete their degree. This fund embodies the sense of community generosity behind the entire Black and Gold Rush project.

“Giving Day represents a wonderful opportunity for the entire UMBC community to show its Black and Gold Pride. By making a gift, thanking someone for their generosity, or sharing stories about the impact that giving has had, everyone can be a part of this exciting event,” says Greg Simmons ’04, vice president of institutional advancement.

In honor of Black and Gold Rush, all Retrievers are invited to wear black and gold on February 28. To help support the cause, the UMBC Bookstore will offer 30% off UMBC logo merchandise the day before, on February 27.

Join in the celebration of UMBC spirit on February 28 by stopping by Lower Flat Tuesdays, which will serve as Giving Day headquarters. There, UMBC groups Mama’s Boys, The Stilettos, and Major Definition will perform and WMBC will host a live online broadcast, with plenty of giveaways.

Adding some extra energy to the festivities will be a competitive Giving Day ambassador challenge. Over the past several weeks, community members have been signing up to serve as social media ambassadors, boosting awareness about Giving Day across Retriever Nation. During Giving Day itself, participants will be able to watch their progress on a leaderboard to see which ambassadors have helped generate the most clicks and donations for their UMBC causes. Prizes will be awarded to the top three finishers.

Whether in class or at the office, walking around Hilltop Circle or studying abroad, all members of Retriever Nation can follow Giving Day live on February 28 on UMBC’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (@UMBClife), and Snapchat (@UMBClife), and post their own thoughts on why supporting students is such a core UMBC value using #UMBC and #blackandgoldrush.

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

UMBC has again been named a Best Value College for 2017 by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, appearing on both the Best Value Public University list and “top 300” national Best Value University list.

Kiplinger has honored UMBC as a Best Value College for eight consecutive years. This ranking recognizes four-year schools with the essential combination of outstanding academics and affordability. It is based on a range of factors, including admission rates, student-faculty ratio, four-year graduation rates, and financial aid.

UMBC was also named as one of the nation’s top colleges “for students seeking a superb education with great career preparation and at an affordable price,” notes an announcement by The Princeton Review. The 2018 edition of Colleges That Pay You Back: The 200 Schools That Give You the Best Bang for Your Tuition Buck highlights universities across the United States that Princeton Review believes do a particularly good job of balancing excellent academics, affordability, and career services.

“For many years, UMBC has consistently provided our firm with hundreds of exceptionally talented students that we have hired across all areas of our business.  UMBC students are well rounded and diverse in their experiences and skills which make them strong assets to our firm year over year,” said Mindy Silverman, manager of talent acquisition at T. Rowe Price.

In addition to these university honors, U.S. News and World Report has just specifically recognized UMBC’s online master’s degree in information systems as one of the top 25 in such programs the nation. The degree program, through UMBC’s department of information systems, appears on the publication’s 2018 Best Online Information Technology Programs list, released January 9, 2018.

“UMBC’s online master’s offers a convenient way to learn from exceptional faculty working in the bold and innovative context that is UMBC. Our programs and faculty are consistently successful in delivering an education to our students that enable them to be just as successful in jobs with major companies and government, as with startup companies and non-profits,” said Keith Bowman, dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology.

The online master’s program is designed for students who are advancing their education while balancing commitments to careers, family, and military service. Students and faculty in this field often complete research in areas such as health information technology, human-centered computing, data mining, artificial intelligence, and software engineering.

Learn more about applying to UMBC at the undergraduate and graduate admissions websites.

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Note- this story was updated on 1/23/18 to include The Princeton Review rankings.

UMBC launched a new $150 million campaign on June 9, on the heels of a joyful 50th anniversary year, by coming together in harmony, quite literally. With individually toned bells in hand and the UMBC Symphony Orchestra playing along on stage, visiting maestro Boris Brott led community members in a rousing impromptu performance of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.”

“You’ve gotten the hang of it quickly,” Brott told the crowd. “Must be all that grit and determination that UMBC is so famous for.”

The moment capped an evening celebrating how the UMBC community works together to achieve great things. The Grit & Greatness Campaign—which focuses on ways of making big breakthroughs, forging true partnerships, and transforming lives—will raise funds to support everything from endowed professorships and teaching assistantships, to merit and need-based scholarships, to maker spaces and other innovative learning opportunities for students.

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See more images from the event here.

While a major focus of the campaign will be encouraging support from the entire community, guests enjoyed a video tribute to leadership donors whose contributions over time have created some of UMBC’s most unique learning models, including the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, the Linehan Artist Scholars Program, and the Sherman STEM Teacher Scholars Program.

“They saw—before most others—what was possible at a place like UMBC,” said Simon Stacey, interim vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, of the featured donors. “I think you’ll agree that these individuals embody UMBC’s character and show us what we all stand to gain by investing in our future.”

President Freeman Hrabowski called UMBC “a 50-year-long American experiment”—one that tested the idea that people from all backgrounds deserve an education. Today, he said, UMBC stands as a leader in inclusive excellence.

Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar alumna Alicia Wilson ’04, political science, shared an example of this through her own story of how a visit to UMBC unlocked a future she didn’t realize was possible while growing up in East Baltimore.

College “was not a given,” said Wilson, who was only able to take the SATs because a donor paid her test fee. When she visited UMBC—and met Hrabowski—she knew where she needed to be. After earning her UMBC degree, she completed law school and joined Gordon Feinblatt’s labor and employment practice. Today, she serves as vice president of Sagamore Development, where she gives back to the community through the Lakeland STEAM Center project, a UMBC partnership.

“There’s no better investment than education. You’re guaranteed magnitudes of return,” she said. “No other investment yields returns so quickly for our economy.”

To date, UMBC has raised $92 million towards its campaign goals. UMBC’s most recent campaign—Exceptional by Example, which ran from 2002 to 2011—exceeded its goal of $100 million by $15 million, and included more than 22,000 donors.

Hrabowski appealed to the crowd of supporters with a call to help UMBC continue to grow as an essential education, research, and community-serving powerhouse at an important moment in our nation’s history.

“America needs its universities now more than ever. We live in a time of huge challenges and breathtaking discoveries. We live in a nation that is divided. We live in a time when too many young people are shut out of life-changing opportunities,” he said. “The UMBC community does not shy away from hard work. We show up. We show our grit. I’ve never been more excited about this University and what we can do.”

Learn more about Grit & Greatness: The Campaign for UMBC.

Higher education leaders from across the country are grappling with urgent issues facing today’s universities, including diversity and inclusion on campus, how STEM and humanities disciplines are valued, and funding for higher ed. To address some of these challenges, The New York Times hosted a Higher Ed Leaders Forum this week in New York City, bringing together the nation’s most influential leaders in higher education.

President Freeman Hrabowski represented UMBC at the event and participated in a conversation on “The Emotional Challenges of Leadership Today.” He joined Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and Adam Bryant, deputy science editor and Corner Office columnist for The New York Times, to discuss how complex social change is creating new demands for education leaders and the emotional challenges that presidents, provosts, and chancellors are confronted with in today’s education environment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olw6EhmvZv0

Dr. Hrabowski emphasized the importance of helping students meet high expectations through building community and creating a culture of support on today’s college campuses.

“What we’ve worked to do at UMBC, and we are still working on it, is to look in the mirror,” he explained. “We have a theory of change that we’ve been working on now for almost 20 years that focuses on how you create communities of empowerment for students…but also how we rethink the teaching and learning process.”

He added that it takes the full university community to reach goals focusing on success.

“As we’ve been redesigning courses and as faculty have been talking about what it takes to help students succeed, it’s not a matter of one group. It’s a matter of all of us—presidents, faculty, and staff—doing much more than we’ve been doing to give support not only to students, but also to each other.”

In a separate essay published in The New York Times, Pres. Hrabowski wrote about the value of caring communities where people view success as a collective responsibility.

Ensuring that more students succeed will require a host of strategies, from better understanding our students’ strengths and challenges to supporting teacher and faculty development. Any solution must start with this mind-set — we must agree that it is not acceptable for such a large number of students to work hard to earn a college education, often going into debt, not to succeed. As a society, we must be willing to look in the mirror, and we need to listen to students and their families as we craft strategies.

Read the full essay “Student Success is a Community Responsibility” in The New York Times and watch a video of Pres. Hrabowski’s panel at the Higher Ed Leaders Forum. For a recap of the full event, see “Educators Discuss the Future of Higher Education”

Image: Pres. Hrabowski speaks with students in the UMBC Commons during visit with leaders from Simmons College. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski celebrated UMBC’s upcoming 50th anniversary and reflected on current major issues in higher education during an interview with Jeff Salkin on MPT’s “Direct Connection,” on February 1.

The conversation touched on topics from helping students afford college, to supporting communities in Baltimore that are struggling economically, to advising youth who may not yet be ready for college but are still seeking career opportunities that will enable them to be financially secure.

We need to give students opportunities and options. As a research university president I wanted to be on the record as saying I care about my students, who are high achievers, who come in to do the great things, going for PhDs and MD/PhDs, but I should also be concerned about young people who may not be as advantaged as the students we are getting at UMBC.

After a caller asked about hope for Baltimore communities facing economic disinvestment and limited opportunities, Hrabowski discussed the impact of university collaborations. He detailed a new $1.6 million UMBC partnership with Northrop Grumman and Baltimore City Public Schools that expands on UMBC’s long-term commitments “to build the skills of children…Pre-K on up, and to work with their families and give them support in many ways.”

This public-private partnership work also has tremendous benefits for UMBC, Hrabowski shared:

What we do at UMBC is to prepare leaders through a liberal arts education, which will allow them to work with young people and to start programs to help more families and children to succeed.

Ultimately, Hrabowski said, universities, K-12 schools, and other partners must work together to send a message to students of all ages that they have high expectations for them, confidence in their potential, and will provide them with the tools they need to succeed.

We have to understand the importance of high expectations for all of our students and giving them the support to do well, whether it is in learning mathematics, or learning a language, or becoming the best artist possible.

“Our students…are amazingly hungry for the knowledge” and they know that “nothing takes the place of hard work,” said Hrabowski. He signed off, “Grit and greatness…at UMBC. We are the House of Grit. Hard work makes the difference.”

Image: UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.