in this issue Peace Talks PG. 2 / Dining Out, Saving Lives PG. 3 / seeking green thumbs PG. 5 / iPhone Fixer PG. 6 / Teaching Economic Power PG. 7 / Canine Cops PG. 8
Between the Columns a newsletter for faculty & staff of the University of Maryland April 2013
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A “Peace” of their Minds PEace Chairs Anticipate Dalai Lama Visit
The university will welcome the Dalai Lama to campus to deliver the 2013 Anwar Sadat
Lecture for Peace on May 7. Part of the university’s Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development program, the lecture has attracted leaders including Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright. We asked the university’s three peace chairs, based in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, how his message of peace influences their research on the challenges to improving the human condition: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is universally recognized as an ardent advocate not only of world peace, but also of harmony among the religions, which he believes to be a precondition of peace among the nations. Intensely aware of the spiritual values common to all peoples, the Dalai Lama has always emphasized that the world’s religions constitute a universal heritage, and that our responsibility is to accept each other through love, compassion and forgiveness. Suheil Bushrui Kahlil Gibran Chair for Peace and Values To improve the human condition, we must think about peace in universal terms because peoples around the world increasingly see themselves as members of a single human race. My research—which explores a worldview approach that moves beyond nationalism, cultural exclusion and the prevailing Westernoriented model of peace education—finds confirmation in the Dalai Lama’s call for
Be Fearless
at Maryland Day
“a sense of universal responsibility” and in his dual mission: embodying a unique spiritual tradition while championing human rights worldwide. Hoda Mahmoudi Bahá’í Chair for World Peace Three thoughts about the message and role of His Holiness: First is his inspiring leadership; breakthroughs in history are often due to great leaders who transform perceptions through courage and boldness. Second is the principle of nonviolence, which is often underestimated as a path to justice and peace. Third is the message of compassion and its potential power. Compassion is a good in itself, but in my research I have found that it is also prudent. Shibley Telhami Anwar Sadat Chair of Peace & Development
GETTING TICKETS Twenty-two hundred general admission tickets to the Sadat Lecture have been set aside for faculty and staff. Tickets are available at the Comcast Center ticket office. There is a limit of two tickets per university ID card. One person can present up to three UMD ID cards at the ticket office.
The 15th annual Maryland Day is coming April 27, and this year’s event is all about showcasing the fearless ideas of our students, staff and faculty. We came up with 15 ways to be fearless at this year’s open house:
Create a tornado in a bottle / Dig for fossils / Conquer the Climbing Wall / Extinguish a live fire / Eat the Fearless Rich Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream / Pet a tarantula / Toss a football with Madieu Williams ’03 / Tour the human brain in 3-D / Report today’s news on-camera / Play cow-pie bingo / Survive a blast in the wind tunnel / Kiss a pig / Take down Big Bird in Wii bowling 2 btc april 2013
Drizin photo by John T. Consoli
Food & Friends, which serves people with lifechallenging illnesses, is the beneficiary of the D.C.-area Dining Out night on April 25. More than 100 locations will participate, including the Hyattsville Busboys & Poets location (pictured). For a list of restaurants, visit www.diningoutforlife. com/washingtondc/ restaurants.
Tasty Idea Saves Lives by Alana Carchedi
A Philadelphia news director in 1991, Julie Drizin was volunteering in a buddy program at a local AIDS service organization. She witnessed the disease’s devastating effects as new friends died shortly after just their first meeting. Drizin wanted to raise money for other HIV/AIDS victims, so she created Dining Out for Life. The event recruits local restaurants to donate a portion one night’s proceeds to a local AIDS service agency. “We needed a way to raise money that didn’t require anything excessive from people—no walking, asking friends for money or buying tickets to an expensive gala,” says Drizin, who stepped down from her role in Dining Out for Life. She is director of the university’s Journalism Center on Children & Families. “We needed to let people do what people ordinarily do.” Today, the fundraiser has spread to more than 3,000 restaurants around the country and brings in more than $3 million a year. “I had no idea Dining Out for Life would become what it is today,” Drizin says. “What I did know was we had something good enough to share and if it worked in Philadelphia it could work all across the nation … and it does.”
Between the Columns is published twice per semester by University Marketing and Communications. Story ideas are welcome and should be sent to Monette Bailey, managing editor, at btwthecolumns@umd.edu or by calling 301.405.4629.The mailing list is generated through University Human Resources. Any changes to names and addresses should be made through ares.umd.edu.
Beehives, better green roofs and a lab to help students build plug-in and electric vehicles were some of the 15 projects recently given given a total of $225,000 by the University Sustainability Council. Proposals were submitted through the students’ Sustainability Fund. For a full list, visit www.sustainabilityfund.umd.edu.
64 Proposed water bottle filling stations
50 inefficent refrigerators proposed to be replaced through green swaps
14
Proposed beehives on dining hall roofs
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Experts Tackle your
At Maryland , our researchers help solve problems on national and international scales, in fields like health care, technology and defense. But they’re also a great resource on everyday household concerns. We scoured the campus for just the right faculty to address a few of them:
How do I know my refrigerator is at the right temperature to keep food safe? Adjust the temperature until it is 40 degrees Farenheit or a little below. Then sniff your milk. If it keeps for over a week, your refrigerator is probably cold enough. If food freezes, containers may be too close together, preventing cold air from circulating properly. Get rid of leftovers you’ll never eat, and use up or toss the quarter-inch of mayo left in three jars before touching the temperature dial. Janie Dubois, research associate and laboratory manager, Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition
How should I recycle my personal electronics? If at all possible, reuse before recycling. In the case of computers and laptops, everyone likes the new, shiny stuff, but think about upgrading your software and adding more memory. My reuse favorite is donating: to area high schools’ computer clubs, theater companies for props, and charities, but check them out first. If you’re going to recycle, the EPA has a great site to help you find a place to do so: www.epa.gov/ epawaste/conserve/materials/ ecycling/donate.htm. Bryan Quinn, director of technical operations, electrical and computer engineering
When using so much social media, how can I keep personal information secure? The most important thing is to know your audience. Take Facebook for example. We accumulate many “friends,” but if they don’t appear in our News Feed, we may forget they’re there. Learn how the various privacy settings work on each site you use. Also, there are certain pieces of information you should never share online: where you were born and your full birth date. Researchers recently showed that your Social Security number can be predicted with that information. Jessica Vitak, assistant professor, new communication technologies
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Cut paper art by Catherine Nichols
What vegetables can I plant in my garden now? You can plant carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, radishes and Swiss chard. If a hard freeze is predicted, protect them with a bed sheet, cardboard boxes or paper grocery bags. You can also use a floating row cover, which is a polyester material similar to interfacing used in sewing. Don’t plant basil, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers until there is no danger of frost. For more options, see the planting calendar at extension.umd. edu/hgic.
How do I get rid of stink bugs at home? Stink bugs do not breed to attack you, your children or your pets. They simply seek shelter in structures like homes to avoid winter’s ravages. Exclude them by caulking around windows and doors and placing window-grade screening over vents in the attic. Vacuum those that enter and dispose of the bag when it’s full. Don’t flush them down the toilet. It wastes water. We do not recommend spraying insecticides in living spaces within your home to kill stink bugs. Mike Raupp, professor, entomology
Jon Traunfeld, director, Home and Garden Information Center, University of Maryland Extension
Hi, Hoe! Arboretum Looking for Volunteers You already go the extra mile to keep your office or building tidy. How about pitching in to spruce up the campus grounds, too? Facilities Management and the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture are recruiting volunteers to plant trees, pull weeds or prune bushes as part of the university arboretum’s Adopt a Garden program. In addition, volunteers can lead tours of various gardens. The arboretum provides plants and tools. At least 10,000 volunteer hours were logged between June 2011 and 2012. No green thumb? Volunteers can also help by boosting the arboretum’s social media presence, whether creating a Twitter account, maintaining its Facebook page or organizing its Flickr account. To get involved, send an email to arboretum@fm.umd.edu.
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iBroke It? He Fixes It Senior Turns iphone repairs Into Profitable Business By Karen Shih
Harrison Baum ’13 is on his way to paying for his senior year of college—and maybe more—all thanks to your clumsy hands. “It seemed like everyone I saw on campus had a cracked [iPhone] screen,” says the economics major. “I always loved to take things apart and put them back together, so I started fixing them for friends.” Whether you’ve broken your screen, spilled your drink on it or even dropped it in a toilet, he’s the man who can fix your phone—faster and cheaper than the Apple store or other repair services, he says. Baum started out fiddling with his PlayStation Portable in 10th grade, moved on to Xbox 360 consoles, then began tinkering inside iPhones. The self-taught repairman says they’re easier to take apart than iPods, which he no longer fixes (too easy to break), and have a better profit margin. He’s gotten requests to do Android smartphones, but so far, demand just isn’t high enough.
Baum estimates that he’ll make $60,000 in sales this year. He’s been training some friends to help keep up with demand, which has soared since he was featured in The Diamondback and on FOX 5 News in February. For those looking to trade in their phones, Baum also buys and refurbishes older models and sells them overseas. His most popular destinations are Russia and China, though he’s shipped to nearly every continent. It’s more profitable but less popular than his on-campus repairs. At this point, he’s fixed more than 1,000 devices, and he’s considering staying around after graduation to do it full-time for a while. “I want to find a way to bring this to other universities,” he says. Need your iPhone fixed? Cracked screens are almost always repairable, but fluid can cause permanent damage, Baum says. To learn more, visit www.oncampusrepairs.com.
BOOKSHELF
In Globetrotting: African
Dora Hanninen, associate professor
The American Red Cross from
American Athletes and Cold
of music theory, provides a comprehensive presentation of music analysis in A Theory of Music Analysis: On
Clara Barton to the New Deal, by
War Politics, kinesiology Assistant
Professor Damion Thomas surveys how athletes increasingly resisted being used in State Department propaganda and began to use sports to challenge oppression. 6 btc april 2013
Segmentation and Association Organization.
Marian Moser Jones, assistant pro-
fessor of family science, recounts how the Red Cross navigated race relations amid disasters, sometimes acting progressively and other times reinforcing the racial dynamics of the day.
Kelly Terrill, coordinator for events and external relations for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, writes about his eclectic Baltimore neighborhood in Reservoir Hill.
Photos by John T. Consoli
accolades The President’s Commission on Women’s Issues awarded its 2013 Outstanding Woman awards recently, and also celebrated its 40th anniversary. This year’s winners: Outstanding Woman of the Year: KerryAnn O’Meara, associate professor, College of Education; Outstanding Woman of Color: Ruth Zambrana, professor, Department of Women’s Studies; Outstanding Exempt Staff: Erin McClure, coordinator, Department of Family Science; Outstanding Nonexempt Staff: Linette Berry, administrative assistant II, Department of Mathematics; Outstanding Graduate Student: Beth Douthirt Cohen, faculty research assistant, College of Arts and Humanities. Larry Davis, computer science professor, has been elected a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery for contributions to image processing and computer vision. Howard Milchberg, electrical engineering professor, was named a 2012 fellow of the Optical Society of America. Tony Busalacchi, director of the Earth System Science Interdisciplinary System, has been named chair-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science section on atmospheric and hydrospheric science. School of Public Health Dean Jane Clark will receive an honorary doctorate from the College of Brockport (SUNY), where she will give the commencement address this spring. Professor Matthew Bell in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation has been named to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. Gloria Aparicio Blackwell is one of 52 leaders statewide elected to participate in the eight-month Leadership Maryland program. Managers from the public and private sectors gather to learn about the critical issues, challenges and opportunities facing the state, and how to tackle them.
Ellen Koplow (left), general counsel and executive vice president at TD Ameritrade, talks with guest lecturer Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Seung-Kyung Kim, chair of women’s studies, talks with class participants.
Dollars and Sense Alumna Launches Course on Women’s Finances By Kimberly Marselas
A new course inspired by a female-alumna-turned-financial executive aims to help women consider new professional possibilities while improving their personal finance skills. Supported by a $50,000 grant from TD Ameritrade, “Gender and Financial Well-Being” grew out of a 2012 lecture series on gender, finance and power. The talks featured visiting scholars and finance executives from around the country who wanted to open students’ eyes to opportunities in male-dominated industries. “If we could educate more on personal finance, investments and the importance of economic stability as a platform from which a person can achieve whatever goals they choose, then the gender equity disparity might begin to narrow,” says Ellen L.S. Koplow ’80, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. Koplow is co-teaching the class alongside Seung-Kyung Kim, associate professor and chair of the Department of Women’s Studies. After being named a distinguished alumna in 2011, Koplow wanted to work with the university on gender-equity issues. She helped form a women’s initiative at TD Ameritrade and brought some of that program’s principles to Kim. The course launched in January with 31 students. It’s examining how cultural and legislative changes might narrow power differentials between men and women, how the current U.S. economy effects women at work, and the role of female entrepreneurs. Kim says the class “fits with the mission of women’s studies in striving for social justice and gender equality.” But it also has a practical side because it provides insight into careers in finance, including a recruitment event highlighting women’s roles at TD Ameritrade. Students also receive financial basics from Alexa Von Tobel, founder of LearnVest, a program that teaches budgeting, long-term planning and portfolio building. “Many students will graduate with considerable student loan debt and face a very tough job market, so it is important for them to learn the crucial skills required to manage one’s own finances,” says Kim.
President Wallace Loh joined UMD students and hundreds of people from around the state on Feb. 28 to lobby in Annapolis against proposed cuts to education spending.
University Public Safety officers and their new partners (from left): Mike Balagtas with Chief, Evan McCann with Bracken, Matt Suthard with Jimbo and John Fitzgerald with Pink
Newest Staff Hired for Their Noses By Monette Austin Bailey
Jimbo is all business , visually scanning the area and giving the air quick sniffs. Each passerby catches his attention. He’s not behaving oddly; he’s doing his job. Jimbo is one of four Labrador retrievers in the campus Department of Public Safety’s the new special operations canine unit. He, Chief, Pink and Bracken reported for duty this semester to help officers detect explosive devices. The Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology division, in conjunction with Johns Hopkins University, provided the dogs as part of a pilot program to test the most effective methods for using dogs as part of a security strategy. “Traditionally, bomb-sniffing dogs are
object-driven or they focus on people,” says Sgt. Richard Mugerwa. “Our dogs are working to do both.” Unlike regular patrol dogs, these four work only major campus events, such as all basketball and football games, and the Dalai Lama visit. They wear uniforms— harnesses emblazoned with “DO NOT PET” and police badges—as they sweep through stands and around buildings and check crowds. “We chose this breed because people are more inclined to let a lab come up to them than [the more traditionally used] German shepherd,” says Mugerwa. Approximately 30 officers applied to be assigned a four-legged partner, taking physical and written tests as part of the process. The 2- and 3-year-old dogs,
two females (Pink and Bracken) and two males (Jimbo and Chief ), spent six weeks with trainers in North Carolina, then eight more weeks around campus. They also regularly train at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport. Since the dogs go home with their partners, officers were also given a thorough briefing about life with a working dog. For Officer Matt Suthard, Jimbo’s partner, it was even more of an adjustment to factor into his daily routine the walking, feeding and sometimes overnight care of his furry colleague. “It’s the first dog I’ve ever had, though I’ve always liked dogs,” he says. “It’s a lot more responsibility waiting for you at home.”
Members of the Police Allstars and the College Park Community Center teams gather after a game. UMD Sgt. August Kenner, standing sixth from left, and the county Cpl. Jaron Black, kneeling on the right, serve as the community point persons from each unit.
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