Between the Columns: November 2014

in this issue NO MORE TYPICAL FAMILY PG. 2 / VETERANS MAKE WAVES PG. 3 / SEEING STARS PG. 6 / ACCOLADES PG. 6 / PRESERVING PRESERVATION PG. 7 / ART MEETS SCIENCE PG. 8

Between the Columns a newsletter for faculty & staff of the University of Maryland November 2014

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Typical American Family? There Isn't One

BY ALEX STOLLER ’16

Whether you lived through the 1960s or only watch TV Land reruns of the era, you know the typical American family back then was led by a father who worked outside of the home and a mother who didn’t.

In fact, 65 percent of families with children under age 14 had this arrangement. But a new analysis of census data by sociology Professor Philip Cohen found that a half-century later, only 22 percent had this structure.

In 2010, the biggest group—34 percent—comprised families with two working parents, and the rest were smaller minorities, like children living with grandparents, cohabitating parents or a single parent. In other words, families have become vastly more diverse—what he calls “a veritable peacock’s tail” of family arrangements.

Cohen, who has studied the American household for 20 years, attributes the disappearance of the “typical family” to market forces, higher education rates among women and

advances toward gender equality. In addition, social welfare reform supported unwed mothers and has allowed seniors on Social Security to live independently longer. Adult insecurities are also an influence.

“People would get married (in the past) even if they weren’t economically secure because they thought they would be, down the road,” he says. “People now postpone marriage because they don’t know what the future will hold.”

Because today’s different families have different childrearing challenges, he says, we can’t rely on policies and cultural standards that assume most children will be raised by married-couple families.

“It changes the culture when two people meeting each other for the first time can’t assume they have the same living arrangement, or teachers can’t assume that their children come from the same type of family,” he says.

FACULTY-STAFF CAMPAIGN “OPENS DOORS” Only a few weeks remain in the university’s annual Faculty-Staff Campaign to support your choice of charities across the state.

Make a gift by visiting facultystaff. umd.edu to contribute to your favorite cause—at the university or through the Maryland Charities Campaign. Or 2 btc NOVEMBER 2014

contact Eronn Strickland at eronn@ umd.edu for an “Open Doors of Opportunity” payroll deduction form.

All donors are entered into a raffle for two campus parking passes, and the two units with the highest percentage of employee participation will win pizza parties from Ledo Restaurant.

Can’t give now? Consider participating in the university’s second annual Scholarship Day, UMD’s biggest single day of giving, on Dec. 10. Your gifts will help students come to—and stay at—Maryland.

For more information, visit scholarshipday.umd.edu.

House Illustration by Megan Blair; Paddling program story photo by Huayra Gomez-Garcia, Disabled Sports USA

BOOKSHELF

The sensational case of a kidnapped child is a window into the racial dynamics of 19th-century New Orleans in The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era written by Michael A. Ross, associate professor of history.

UMD student veteran Da He teaches a disabled youth from HSC Pediatric Center how to kayak during Adaptive Adventure Day, which was held at the Eppley Recreation Center in September.

Paddling Program Makes Splash With Student Vets

BY LAUREN BROWN

During her six years in the Navy, Jovy Ann Batong ’17 spent her shore time outdoors with fellow service members: skydiving, rock-climbing and kayaking.

It was only weeks after enrolling at Maryland last spring that she discovered its new chapter of Team River Runner (TRR), a national nonprofit that organizes paddling and other whitewater boating trips and events for active-duty members of the military and veterans.

This fall, she’s part of its expansion, as the Maryland Adventure Program and Veteran Student Life have launched the Making Waves program for veterans. It includes an adventure-based orientation, family camping events and opportunities for student veterans to teach paddling to disabled youths.

“I love being outdoors, and I love teaching people,” says Batong, a bioengineering major who was honorably discharged from the Navy as a fire controlman first class. “The fact that you’re empowering people with disabilities—that, to me, is an added bonus.”

The goal, says Amanda Even, assistant director of the Maryland Adventure Program, is to create a welcoming environment for veterans as they transition into the UMD community while giving them a new sense of purpose and opportunities to serve. An estimated 1,000 student-veterans are at Maryland.

She and Brian Bertges, Veteran Student Life coordinator, formed the TRR chapter with its paddling practice sessions, kayak football games and paddling trips for veterans. The pair won a $15,000 grant from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to create the Making Waves program.

It features nonveteran students as volunteer trip leaders and volunteers, which Bertges says is important in bringing together the two groups that might not understand each other. An Army veteran himself, he’s also excited to offer veterans a chance to bond and reflect.

“After being part of a tight-knit unit in the military, then ripping them from that fabric to go to college, veterans can lose their sense of identity,” he says. “They can rediscover it through service, adventure and exercise—it’s a trifecta.”

The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Dinner with Keats, Wordsworth, and Lamb uses a single night's gathering of famous artists as a springboard for English Professor Stanley Plumly to consider their lives and impact.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Others Message consistency is key to strengthening the University of Maryland brand, so the Office of Marketing and Communications has developed a website bringing together everything that staff and faculty need to know about visual identity, Web guidelines, multimedia and more. Can you guess which of the following is an incorrect use of the UMD logo? Visit brand.umd.edu to learn more.

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TERP TERP

Ever wonder what it takes to become a full-fledged member of the Maryland community? It’s time to roll the dice and take a trip from novice to True Terp. Cut out a game piece (attach a binder clip to the bottom to stand it up) and fold and tape the die from below to get started. Each task will take you one step closer to having black, gold, red and white run through your veins, but watch out for pitfalls. Good luck!

HELP SOME LOST VISITORS;

move ahead three spaces

LEAVE A NOTE IN THE BOOKS NEAR THE

Labyrinth

CATCH THE HEADLINER AT

Art Attack (WITHOUT EARPLUGS)

AVOID THE

Point of Failure

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ORDER THE

Terrapin specialty AT THE BAGEL PLACE

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5

3 1 4 6

WINDED FROM THE STAMP HILL; move

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A T S

T R

TRY EVERY ICE CREAM FLAVOR AT

the Dairy

Illustration by Catherine Nichols

STUCK AT ROUTE 1 AND PAINT BRANCH;

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CON G A TE RATS! Y RP. C OU A FRIEN EL R DS A EBRATE E NOW T R.J WITH . BEN TLEY ’S

MEET THE ANIMALS AT THE

Campus Farm

WATCH THE

Mighty Sound of Maryland REHEARSE ON THE CHAPEL FIELDS

WISH ANSWERED

BY TESTUDO;

Selfie WITH KERMIT AND JIM HENSON

move ahead three spaces

turtle collection OF SEE THE

ANNE TURKOS, UNIVERSITY ARCHIVIST

PARKING TICKET;

go back three spaces

DANGLE YOUR FEET IN THE

ODK fountain

SUNBURN AT MARYLAND DAY;

lose one turn

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ACCOLADES The American Geophysical Union honored Professor Zhanqing Li, who works in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science and the Earth System Sciences Interdisciplinary Center, with the 2013 Yoram Kaufman Award for his accomplishments in researching aerosols in the atmosphere.

50 Years of Stars at UMD Observatory

BY LIAM FARRELL

For the past 50 years, one place at Maryland has made it possible for the campus community to look at the final frontier.

The UMD Observatory, located off Metzerott Road in College Park, was dedicated in November 1964, and a celebration at 8 p.m. Nov. 20 will feature a presentation on its history by John Trasco, former associate director of astronomy.

Completed two years after the astronomy program was established, the observatory, with four permanent telescopes using lenses ranging from 7 to 20 inches, has attracted a total of 50,000 stargazers to its open houses. Programs are also held for new telescope owners and beginners who want to search for objects in the sky.

Although Trasco says the climate and light level in College Park don’t lend themselves to significant astronomical discoveries, he can recall several memorable occasions at the observatory. In 2003, nearly 1,000 people waited in a 90-minute line to catch the closest view of Mars in 2,000 years. In 1986, the chance to see Halley’s Comet drew several hundred people, despite a fuzzy 4 a.m. appearance in winter.

“It’s a measure of how much interest there is in astronomical events,” Trasco says.

For more information, visit astro.umd.edu/openhouse.

UMD President Wallace Loh is joined by, from left, Northrop Grumman President and CEO Wes Bush, University System Chancellor Brit Kirwan and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean for Undergraduate Studies Donna Hamilton at the dedication of the new cybersecurity lab in Prince Frederick Hall last month.

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Jim Hanson, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, was part of a team that won a 2014 USDA Secretary’s Honor Award for efforts to increase global food security.

Stephen B. Thomas, a professor in the Department of Health Services Administration and director of the Maryland Center for Health Equity, was appointed to the Maryland Health Care Commission.

Associate Professor Lori SimonRusinowitz, who teaches in the Department of Health Services Administration, is a 2014-15 Health and Aging Policy Fellow, studying how to expand community options for Maryland’s low-income elderly.

Sun Magazine named Research Professor Pamela Clark, director of the Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science, one of 50 women to watch.

Herman Daly, a professor emeritus in the School of Public Policy, won the 2014 Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi Glass Foundation, honoring work such as combining the environment, local communities and quality of life into economic theory.

An Archivist’s Gift Seven-Figure Donation Follows 30 Years of Dedication to UMD History

BY KAREN SHIH ’09

University Archivist Anne Turkos is the definitive source for UMD history, whether you’re looking for the original Testudo, trying to verify whether Jack Nicklaus ever played on campus (he did!) or following up on that decades-old rumor you heard as a student.

But she doesn’t do it alone. She has a small staff that until two years ago included a graduate assistant, before the University Libraries had to cut funding.

“We felt that loss pretty keenly,” she says. “My students are like my children, in some ways.”

Now, Turkos has made a seven-figure gift to endow a graduate assistantship in the Archives—the first such donation on campus—ensuring support for a new generation of students.

“I’ve been giving to the university for a long time,” she says, to athletics, arts, campus clubs and more.

When Turkos was revising her estate plans a year ago, she knew she wanted to make a long-term difference in a place that’s become her second home.

Turkos has significantly expanded the scope of the Archives since she arrived nearly 30 years ago. Among her proudest moments are helping to create the

Mighty Sound of Maryland’s centennial history book; organizing the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Queen's Game and the return of players from that football team who hadn’t reunited in decades; and collaborating on a UMD history class that was taught for the first time in the spring. Besides all this, she's fielded thousands of questions from alumni and others interested in UMD history.

Finding out she isn’t an alumna (she holds degrees from Dickinson and Case Western) is shocking to many, given her vocal support for all things Terp, especially women’s basketball.

“I drank the Terp-ade,” says Turkos. “From the beginning, I knew this wasn’t just a job.”

She’s gearing up for the Archives’ next big project, digitizing the Diamondback’s photo collection. With more funding, Turkos hopes to do the same for old copies of the newspaper, as well as footage from the men’s basketball and football teams.

“We’ve worked hard to make Maryland’s history accessible,” she says. “It means a great deal to me to know that my work to build the University Archives program will be remembered long after I am gone.”

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An Art and a Science We Are the World

Professor Turns Data into Design with Museum Exhibit

BY LIAM FARRELL 14

a UMD computer science professor and pioneer of alization was inspired by Piet Ben Shneiderman, tracks were ‘scrobbled’ or played, and the number n’s compositions with red, yellow, andvisualization, of unique listeners for eachaartists.

Weof also data has made career finding the beauty in numbers. To rs. The left one is titled “Composition C identified broad genres of the artists based on aretags. not separate pursuits—it’s possible to put them with Red, Yellow and Blue.” him, art and their science most popular both in a single picture frame.

set contains artist data from Last.fm.

The boxes represent individual artists where the Thedisplay dataset was Now through April 15, his artistic and scientific work is on at collected the from the World Bank’s 10 year anniversary, Last.fm published size of the box is the number of times their website. In this strip tree map, the box sizes National Academy of Sciences in anrepresents exhibition AlgoRiThm op 100 artists based on their popularity tracks were played while the color the called “Everyrepresent population densities of people per r data. From that list, we have taken square kilometer of land area. The colors genre ofTreemap the artist – rock isProject. white, alternative is EVERY Has ART in It: Art ” 0 artists, the total number of times their blue, pop is yellow and hip-hop is red. represent annual urban population growth ALGORITHM ARTpercentages.

IN IT Treemapping, a widely used technique invented byHAS Shneiderman, uses values are colored in Negative lighter brown. Positive a collage of different sized and colored rectangles to visualizeyellowish datasets.

For values are colored from brown (0%) to dark brown (6.25%).

The data is filtered to show countries population densities of 100 or more p square kilometer of land area (91 reco

The Big Urbans

example, one of his 12 exhibit pieces displays Einformation on grants for VERY 9 ALGORITHM clean energy projects among different Maryland By adding HAS ARTjurisdictions.

IN IT some artistic flair, the information is conveyed through an image calling to mind the state flag.

“My agenda has been to get people to understand the enormous payoff of looking at data in instructive visual ways,” he says. “Part of the engagement thatBank’s the data have some substantive meaning.”

The dataset was collected from theis World website. The size of the boxes represent the Shneiderman, whose influences include artists such as Piet Mondrian urban population counts of countries. They are and Mark Rothko, is to some extent inheriting the family business. His colored according to the urban population uncle David Seymour, the famed photographer and co-founder of growth percentage - negative valueswas are colored magenta. Positive values start at light purple for This visualization shows statistics about certain Magnum Photos. lower values and then gradually shift to dark TED talks. The dataset was compiled by “Art values. begets treemaps, treemaps beget art,” he says. “I was always purple and then to yellow for higher Sebastian Wernicke for his TED talk, “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.” Each of the boxes immersed in that world of visual art and design.” represents the engagement score for a certain The exhibit, located at the Keck Center in Washington, D.C., viewable TEDis talk.

The colors depend on the total number of del.icio.us by appointment. Visits can be arranged by emailing aquinn@nas.edu.

For bookmarks for that TED talk. The coloring was done in 8 equally dense more information, visit cpnas.org or treemapart.wordpress.com. bins with pink being highest and red being EVERY ALGORITHM HAS ART IN IT

lowest. The colors here try to capture the variety and charismatic excellence of the TED talks.

was collected from the World Bank’s The wide horizontal layout and vertical stripes the Columns isare published twice perDavis’s semester University Marketing and Communications. Story ideas are welcome and should be sent to Liam Farrell, s contains theBetween urban population inspired by Gene style.byCountries editor, at lfarrel1@umd.edu or bypopulation calling 301.405.4629. annual urban managing population growth with negative urban growth are The mailing list is generated through University Human Resources. Any changes to names and for all countries for the year 2010.

This urban population dataset for the year 2010 addresses should be made through ares.umd.edu. colored in pink – here we find only Ukraine The coloring was done in 4 equally dense bins the data to include countries with was collected from the World Bank’s website. under this criteria. Other countries are colored and using linear scale. The color palette was ations of 20 million or more. This The visualization shows countries with urban in a black to blue scale where black represents inspired by Josef Albers’ works while the 6 records. The box sizes represent populations of 23.3 million or more. The box zero urban population growth and blue composition and arrangement was inspired by ation count for an individual sizes are urban population counts. The colors represents the highest among these countries Gene Davis’ works. The diversity of city life is represent population density (people per square (6.25%). conveyed by the lively colors.

EVERY kilometer of land area) with the highest being ALGORITHM HAS ART IN IT (Bangladesh: 1159) and the greenish yellow lowest being purple (Canada: 4).

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