Between the Columns: September 2014

in this issue BASELINE BUSYNESS PG. 2 / CAMPUS ADVOCATE PG. 3 / NEW HOTEL AND DEANS PG. 6 / ACCOLADES PG. 6 / SWEET CHEER PG. 7 / SUBVERSIVE ARTS PG. 8

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

MEET THE

Get to Know Maryland’s Big Ten Opponents PG. 4

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Busier Than Ever? Maybe Not

BY DAVID KOHN

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You probably think you’re working harder than ever. “Crazy busy” has become the standard response to the question, “How are you?”

Except there’s one problem: Americans’ leisure time is actually growing, not shrinking. That’s according to new research by John Robinson, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland Population Research Center. In a study released in June, he found that Americans have 30 to 40 hours of leisure time a week, up slightly from last year. Leisure time has increased over the past decade by about 5 percent, he says.

This may not sound right to you, but Robinson, 78, has some background on this: He’s been studying leisure since 1965.

Robinson says the increase is largely due to structural changes in American society, as well as a dip in the number of hours people work.

“The two main ways that people lose leisure time are marriage and kids,” he says. “Overall, Americans are getting married later, and they are having fewer kids.” As much as we love them, children and spouses tend to impose additional time responsibilities, which take away from one’s ability to pursue leisure activities.

So how does he explain the widespread belief that we are more strapped for time than ever before?

He points to the strain of Puritanism in American culture.

“It’s a badge of honor in our society to be busy,” he says. “We’re supposed to be busy.”

The ongoing study surveys 12,000 people every year, asking them a series of questions about how they spend their time. This kind of research goes on worldwide, and it turns out that America is neither the hardest-working country (Japan) nor the most relaxed (Holland).

Much of our leisure time is taken up with television, about 20 hours a week on average. However, the survey also found that people don’t enjoy watching it that much. People chose playing with kids and spending time with friends as their favorite leisure pursuits.

Illustration by Catherine Nichols; Catherine Carroll portrait by John T. Consoli

On Their Side Director works to improve campus environment for sexual assault victims

BY LIAM FARRELL

Until she started volunteering on the night shift for a battered women’s hotline in the early 1990s, Catherine Carroll was anticipating a career in environmental law.

“I couldn’t believe the things I would hear,” she says. “I was shocked.”

Those phone calls of terrifying abuse from partners and indifference from the criminal justice system led her to a more than 20-year legal career working for the victims of domestic and sexual violence.

Since March, Carroll has been the director of the new Office of Sexual Misconduct and Relationship Violence at Maryland, tasked with making sure it is in compliance with the federal Title IX antidiscrimination statute. Universities are facing sharp scrutiny in this area from the federal government, though UMD was not on its recent list of schools under investigation.

“The whole media attention is long, long overdue,” she says.

In her first few months on the job, Carroll has been focused on developing online training for students that connects sexual misconduct to underlying anger and power issues rather than to substance abuse. She is evaluating material for faculty and staff training as well to provide a “campus-wide, holistic approach” to prevention and intervention.

The criminal justice system has historically been problematic for victims, so Carroll is also working to make sure the same process that adjudicates cheating on a test isn’t used for sexual assault.

“My lens is really more about what we should be doing,” she says. “We’re able to promote better strategies and we can be creative, too.”

So far, Carroll is heartened by what she has seen at Maryland.

“Everyone here really does want to do the right thing,” she says. “People really want to get involved.”

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GET TO KNOW YOUR BIG TEN MASCOTS IT’S THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA FOR MARYLAND ATHLETICS, and Testudo will no longer try to outcheer the familiar Blue Devil or Cavalier. With Maryland’s move to the Big Ten, he—and the rest of us—should get familiar with a whole new slate of fellow mascots, nicknames and history. So while we won’t be bumping chests on the court or leading the football team onto the field, it’s best to know whom exactly we’re rooting against this fall. Here’s a guide to our new rivals.

MICHIGAN Theories abound for how the Wolverines got their long-held nickname, but an attempt in the 1920s to bring real-life versions into the football stadium was quickly abandoned. The school does have its well-known winged helmets and block M design.

OHIO STATE Like Indiana, the Buckeyes moniker is derived from a nickname for Ohio residents, but this school has an anthropomorphic version. Brutus the Buckeye is one of the country’s most wellknown mascots.

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MICHIGAN STATE A newspaper editor took it upon himself 78 years ago to call this school the Spartans when he disliked the other entries in a contest. Since then, the armored, puffed-up mascot named Sparty flexes his teams on.

PENN STATE The Nittany Lions nickname was born on a baseball trip when a student wanted to one-up the Princeton Tigers. The mountain lion, which once made a home in Pennsylvania, is the costumed symbol for the school.

ILLINOIS Known as the home of the Fighting Illini, the school retired its mascot, Chief Illiniwek, several years ago and is known mostly by its striking orange “I” on a blue background.

MINNESOTA The Golden Gophers’ name combines the state’s official animal and the color of a championship team’s football jerseys. They are represented by smiling, bucktoothed Goldy.

PURDUE Purdue Pete, complete with spike hammer, is the human representative of the Boilermakers, but the school’s official mascot is actually a replica train honoring its engineering and farming heritage.

INDIANA This school doesn’t have an official mascot besides its team name, “Hoosiers.” Don’t know what that is? Us either.

The term refers to a nickname of uncertain origin for the state’s residents.

NEBRASKA

IOWA The Hawkeyes nickname is traced back to “The Last of the Mohicans,” and the school’s athletic events are roamed by mascot Herky the Hawk.

The black and gold bird was hatched in the 1940s by a journalism instructor.

NORTHWESTERN

The Cornhuskers also earned their name from a newspaper writer, once he decided Bugeaters had run its course at the turn of the century. Herbie the Husker has been an official symbol of the school since the 1970s.

This school has gone from the Purple and the Fighting Methodists to the Wildcats, cribbing the name from an article that described the spirit of the football team in the 1920s. Willie the Wildcat was originally a much less huggable bear cub.

RUTGERS

WISCONSIN

Teams at Rutgers, the other new kid on the Big Ten block, were once symbolized by a fighting rooster called the Chanticleer, but became the Scarlet Knights in the 1950s.

Located in the Badger state, the school adopted the animal mascot even though the name was meant to describe how miners lived in the winter. The original live badger, which occasionally needed to be tackled as well, was replaced long ago

by Bucky Badger.

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ACCOLADES Nathaniel Tablante, a veterinarian and extension poultry specialist, was a congressional fellow for U.S. Rep. Sanford D. Bishop Jr., (D-Ga.) advising him on agricultural issues.

Hotel to Make Home Across From Campus In a few years, visiting fans, families, scholars and other university guests will be able to stay in the most convenient and luxurious accommodations ever at Maryland.

The state Board of Public Works in July approved the sale of a threeacre site on Route 1, across from the Mitchell fields, to developer David Hillman, CEO and founder of Southern Management Corp. and funder of the university’s Hillman Entrepreneurs Program. He plans to build a four-star hotel with 276 guest rooms; 23,500 square feet of ballroom, conference and meeting space; retail; and a café, restaurant and bar.

The $115 million project will be the first major step in the redevelopment of the downtown College Park business district, with the goal of making the city a top 20 college town.

Groundbreaking is expected to take place next spring, with the opening anticipated by Fall 2017.

Siba Samal, chair of the VirginiaMaryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

A professor in atmospheric and oceanic science, Sumant Nigam was appointed chair of the American Meteorological Society’s Committee on Climate Variability and Change.

Jandelyn Plane won Women in Technology’s 2014 Social Impact IT Leadership Award for her work as associate director of the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students program and as an advocate for underrepresented groups in the field.

The American Physical Society honored four professors for their achievements in research, education and public service: Luz Martinez-Miranda, materials science and engineering; Elaine S. Oran, aerospace engineering; Edward Ott, physics and electrical and computer engineering; and Phillip A. Sprangle, electrical and computer engineering.

Professor Mikhail Anisimov was elected to a fellowship in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

UMD President Wallace Loh and men's basketball Coach Mark Turgeon celebrate the university's official entrance into the Big Ten Conference at the July 1 THINK B1G party at Mitchell Field.

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Public Policy Professor Thomas Hilde (right), and Lecturer Miguel González Marcos (left) each received the Edmond J. Safra Network Fellowship from Harvard University to study tax havens and organized environmental crimes.

Loh photo by Greg Fiume; Anna Yang portrait by John T. Consoli

Spreading Sweet Cheer Sophomore’s Baking Business Finds Success On and Off Campus

BY KAREN SHIH ’09

Anna Yang ’17 used to be obsessed with marshmallows. She’d eat them by the bag, at times refusing to take a bite of a meal until her parents let her finish her pillowy treats. Only in high school, when her mom challenged Yang to do something creative with yet another bag of marshmallows, did she discover a new hobby, and possibly a career.

She used them to create fondant (a decorative cake icing), and four years later, she’s got a thriving business called the Baking Spoon.

“It’s scary in the beginning to bake from scratch,” says Yang, who’s learned from online tutorials, cookbook recipes and a ton of trial and error. “Trust me, I’ve seen my sad share of overbaked, flat, too-dense and overinflated cookies and cakes.”

Her creations include a Disney “Frozen”-themed cake, a sandcastle cake and intricate butterfly cupcakes, as well as several UMD ones, like a Big Ten cake for the football team and a graduation cake featuring a fist-pumping Testudo.

The business major tried out some viral marketing right before finals in May, dropping off “Funfetti Cookie Dough Brownie Bombs” in front of random dorm rooms and asking the lucky recipients to give her a shout-out on social media.

“It was probably the best decision I ever made for The Baking Spoon,” says Yang, who gained more than a hundred new followers, bringing her to more than 700 on Instagram.

She lives at home in Howard County, keeping her in business during the school year. She’s limited to just one cake a week by her mom, though: “She gets mad when I bake because I make a big mess in the kitchen.”

Yang’s cakes range from $100 to $250, depending on size, and she also makes other baked goods.

To order, get recipes or see more of her creations, visit thebakingspoon.com.

NEW DEANS FOR PUBLIC POLICY, BSOS TWO SCHOOLS will welcome new deans next month, with Robert Orr (at right, top) assuming the post at the School of Public Policy and Gregory F. Ball (bottom) leading the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

Orr has been the assistant secretary-general for strategic planning at the United Nations since 2004, running the Secretary-General’s Policy Committee and acting as a principal policy adviser in areas such as climate change, global health and counterterrorism.

He earned a B.A. from UCLA and an M.P.A. and Ph.D. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Ball is the former vice dean for science and research infrastructure at Johns Hopkins University’s Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

His accomplishments there included guiding the construction of the 70,000-square-foot Undergraduate Teaching Laboratory building and creating an undergraduate neuroscience major.

Ball earned a B.A. from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from Rutgers University.

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Arts Festival Dares Students to Question the Status Quo

BY KAREN SHIH ’09

A yearlong slate of unconventional and bold arts programs starting this month aims to have students and other participants leap out of their comfort zones.

“People ask me, ‘What does subversive mean?’” says Adriane Fang, director of the Festival of Subversive Artists and Minds and assistant professor in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies (TDPS). “It’s a constantly shifting landscape. There are boundaries for me that someone else who has a lower threshold might cross and I’d be offended.”

Throughout the year, artists from across the country will come to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center to perform and work with TPDS students, inspiring them to write plays, create costumes, film short videos and more.

These will include Marc Bamuthi Joseph, award-winning poet, playwright, dancer, performer, and social activist who is creating a “Hip-H'opera” about the MOVE Organization, the Philadelphiabased black liberation group; Tia Nina, a local feminist punk rock dance band; and Taylor Mac, a drag queen cabaret performer. In the spring, students can take a class from four artists who will explore issues like censorship in the Middle East and hate crimes against the LGBT community in the United States.

“I hope students will find out what holds them back and question those limitations,” Fang says. “It’s about taking a look at a dominant culture and seeing what your relationship is to it, and then empowering yourself to make a change.”

Campus community members are invited to all events: Opening “non-ceremony” Sept. 16, 7 p.m., Cafritz Theater, The Clarice Mini film festival: “Trash Dance,” “Let It Burn” and TBD Sept. 17–19, 7-11 p.m., Leah Smith Hall, The Clarice For more information, contact Fang at afang1@umd. edu or visit tdps.umd.edu.

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