FALL 2013 / Connecting the University of Maryland Community
SHEPHERD IN THE SKY Researcher Develops Drone to Save Rhinos from Poachers, pg. 28
BOOMTOWN BUILDER 20 / 100 YEARS OF GREEK LIFE 18 / WNBA'S TOP DRAFT PICK? 10
LETTER FROM THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
Departments
FALL 2013 / VOL. 11, NO. 1 I REMEMBER BEING 5 YEARS OLD, standing on my P U B L I S H E D BY
Peter Weiler
VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY RELATIONS
first day of Head Start in Dayton, Ohio. My mom saw me tearing up and
A DV I S E R S
Ralph Amos
asked what was wrong. I said, “I think
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
they may not like me.”
Brian Ullmann ’92
ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS
I felt like I couldn’t fall down on
Margaret Hall
the job, even if that job was preschool.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CREATIVE STRATEGIES M AG A Z I N E S TA F F
Lauren Brown UNIVERSIT Y EDITOR
John T. Consoli ’86 CREATIVE DIREC TOR
Amy Shroads ART DIREC TOR
Monette A. Bailey ’89 Liam Farrell David Kohn Lee Tune Karen Shih ’09 Tom Ventsias WRITERS
Joshua Harless Jeanette J. Nelson Catherine Nichols ’99 Brian G. Payne
From that moment on, I wanted to get along and science. To be the best I could be in everything. Now that I’m here at Maryland overseeing alumni relations, I still have that same drive. I want this organization to be at the top of its game in how we serve you. I’ve had the good fortune to work at some terrific institutions, including UCLA, Ohio University and Ohio State. From my first day on Maryland’s
The University of Maryland, College Park is an equal opportunity institution with respect to both education and employment. University policies, programs and activities are in conformance with pertinent federal and state laws and regulations on non-discrimination regarding race, color, religion, age, national origin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
9
Tailgate Heavyweights Feed on Terp Devotion
My first 100 days will be dedicated to meeting sible. A modern and effective alumni association
Letters to the editor are welcomed. Send correspondence to Managing Editor, Terp magazine, 2101 Turner Building, College Park, MD 20742-1521. Or, send an email to terpfeedback@umd.edu.
UMD, City Open New Middle, High School
campus, I’ve been amazed by the energy of the uni-
Kelsey Marotta ’14
PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT
4
versity and the dedication of its 325,000+ alumni. and listening to as many alumni and friends as pos-
Gail Rupert M.L.S. ’10
IN BRIEF ASK ANNE CLASS ACT CAMPUS LIFE INNOVATION FACULTY Q&A CENTERPIECE GIVING INTERPRETATIONS
with people, to be cultured, to be excellent in math
DESIGNERS
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driveway waiting for the bus to take me to my very
must be based on feedback and input from our alumni. Our responsibility will be to develop and deliver programs, products, services and content that are relevant to today’s busy graduates. At the same time, I look forward to working with key leaders from the university and our volunteer leadership to craft this vision and strategy—all to ensure we don’t fall down on the job. Finally, I’d like to spend some of my first 100 days having fun and enjoying the experience of becoming a Terrapin! I look forward to meeting all of you soon, and I welcome your questions, comments and suggestions at alumni@umd.edu.
terpfeedback@umd.edu
ONLINE VIDEO NEWS
terp.umd.edu
terpvision.umd.edu
16 ”Frankenstein” Finds New Life in Digital Archive Go Terps!
umdrightnow.umd.edu
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FAC E B O O K .C O M /UnivofMaryland F L I C K R .C O M /photos/wwwumdedu T W I T T E R .C O M /UofMaryland V I M E O.C O M /umd YO U T U B E .C O M /UMD2101
COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY BRENT STIRTON/ REPORTAGE BY GETTY IMAGES
Ralph Amos Executive Director
Merrill College's Bethany Swain Captures Life in (Moving) Pictures
FROM TOP: JOHN T. CONSOLI (2); ILLUSTRATION BY JOSHUA HARLESS; JOHN T. CONSOLI
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Features
B OOMTOWN BUILDER
Eric Ditter, with a master’s in real estate development and a passion and past in the Midwest, sets out to tame the new Wild West of oil-rich Williston, N.D. By karen shih ’09
26 A MAN, A MOOC
AND METHYLATED NEUROTRANSMITTERS How do massive open online courses (MOOCs), the biggest trend in higher education, work? Do students really learn? Our writer plunges into a genomics course—with 30,000 classmates—to find out. By brian ullmann ’92
PHOTO BY PHOENIX DITTER; ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN G. PAYNE
28 COVER STORY:
A WINGED PROTECTOR As rhino poaching in southern Africa reaches epidemic levels, visiting scholar Tom Snitch is testing drones that can predict and identify threats to the animals. By david kohn
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IN BRIEF
UMD’S EXPANDED POLICE JURISDICTION
sense of safety and security,” says university Police Chief David Mitchell. A new agreement with the Prince George’s County Police Department has expanded the university’s enforcement jurisdiction into the Calvert Hills, Berwyn and Lakeland neighborhoods. This allows Maryland’s police to patrol with the same authority they have on campus in other student-heavy areas such as the View, Varsity and Enclave high-rises on Route 1. The new territory coincides with the addition of eight more police officers, bringing the total to 91. Police have access to approximately 650 cameras, most of which are monitored to detect crimes in progress and develop leads. About 20 more cameras will be available upon completion of the Physical Sciences Complex and Prince Frederick Hall and renovation of the Pocomoke Building. In addition to these campus cameras, 15 owned by the city of College Park are available for detecting and investigating crimes in the Old
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The shots fired by Dayvon Maurice Green in the early morning of Feb. 12 rang out far beyond his off-campus home in Adelphi. When Green, a troubled graduate student at Maryland, killed undergraduate Stephen Alex Rane and injured another student before taking his own life, he made an entire community feel vulnerable. UMD has seen little violent crime and declining burglaries and thefts in the past decade, and the surrounding area is also improving. But safety is a perpetual concern that spikes after high-profile tragedies and, with a campus just outside a major city, students and parents often question the university’s safety. This fall, the university is bolstering its crime-fighting ability by extending the Department of Public Safety’s reach further beyond its borders, hiring new officers and installing more cameras. New funding will boost campus mental health resources to help students before serious problems escalate. “We are trying to use an omnibus of strategies so that we can project a greater
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Staff members at the Security Operations Center at Maryland monitor cameras 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This fall, the PREVIOUS campus has added more cameras and NEW JURISDICTION JURISDICTION officers to protect the UMD community.
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Town section of the city. Other plans include cameras at five campus exits to monitor outgoing traffic and additional license-tag readers to enhance coverage of entry and exit points with multiple lanes. In student services, the Counseling Center and Mental Health Services are receiving $500,000 from PepsiCo over 10 years to add three more psychologists and one full- and one part-time psychiatrist. Dr. Sharon Kirkland-Gordon, director of the Counseling Center, says appointments
have been increasing by double-digit percentages each year. “We’re not unlike many universities across the country,” she says. “It’s easy to fall into a place where one can feel totally isolated and disconnected.” Officials will continue to encourage students to alert the police or administrators to a potentially serious problem rather than try to handle it on their own. The university is also spreading the word about the new policing and security measures through a new “Be Smart, Be Safe” campaign this fall.—LF
MAP BY JEANETTE J. NELSON; PHOTO BY ANTHONY RICHARDS
a former chair of the finance department and a cool, calm Canadian, is the new dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business. He assumed his new role Sept. 1 and looks to capitalize on technology, the local business community and alumni mentorship. The hockey fan’s strategy is to “skate with your head up” to make sure the school is always in the right place at the right time. Triantis joined the Smith faculty in 1996, has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Toronto and master’s and doctoral degrees from Stanford University. A former professor at the University of Wisconsin and MIT, Triantis has consulted for companies including DuPont, Marriott and Morgan Stanley.
FALL 2013 TERP 3
DOUBLE TROUBLE? $3.5M Grant Helps START Track Links Between Terrorists, Criminals and Nukes COULD INTERNATIONAL terrorist groups link up with major criminal organizations to bring nuclear or radiological weapons into the U.S.? If so, how would they do it? And how would the good guys stop them? University of Maryland researchers hope to answer these questions through grants totaling $3.5 million from the Department of Homeland Security’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. It’s an extension of ongoing work at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at Maryland, where researchers have analyzed the potential for terrorists’ collaboration with drug cartels and other major Latin American criminal groups. The conclusion: Terrorists and criminal groups are unlikely to cooperate on bringing nuclear weapons or “dirty bombs” into the U.S. now, but authorities should be vigilant. Researchers will next analyze potential links among terrorist groups in Europe and Africa, including al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is active in Mali and Algeria, while the criminal organizations include the Russian mafia and European motorcycle gangs. The project will look at how and why they might cooperate and likely routes that nuclear material could travel into the U.S. The grant will also cover other research at START, such as creating country-bycountry maps of nuclear and radiological sites, their security level and the groups potentially interested in stealing this material. “Our government has a lot of information,” says Gary Ackerman, START’s director of special projects, who will oversee the grant. “But this knowledge has gaps. We are trying to help the government understand the areas of greatest risk.”—DK
4 TERP FALL 2013
Seventh graders work in the team room at the new College Park Academy.
A Collaboration That Clicks UMD AND CITY LAUNCH NEW MIDDLE, HIGH SCHOOL In the classrooms of the College Park Academy, the dominant noise is the clickety-clack of fingers on keyboards. While one student learns music from instructors at the Juilliard School in New York, another studies Japanese with a teacher from San Francisco, and yet another explores how to become an entrepreneur through an interactive Web portal. The 300 sixth- and seventhgrade students at the new Prince George’s County public school, a partnership between the university and the city of College Park, are taking on a new “blended learning” curriculum that combines online materials with classroom teaching. “The students coming to College Park Academy are highly motivated and determined,” says Executive Director Marcy Cathey. “Our hope is to propel them to a level which will get them into the top colleges in the country.” Every student receives a laptop. Students take classes like language arts, math and science in traditional classrooms, led by a teacher who answers questions and leads mini-lessons as students work through units online. Students take electives, like health or foreign languages, in a large team room, where they use headsets to learn from accred-
ited teachers from all over the country. The school is part of university President Wallace Loh and the City of College Park’s push to revitalize the university district, giving faculty and staff incentives to live closer to their workplace and to help Prince George’s County. “This is an option that’s unique and innovative and high quality,” says College of Education Dean Donna Wiseman, who led the university’s efforts to open the school, the most advanced “bricks and clicks” middle school in Maryland. UMD students will intern at the academy and help plan activities for the after-school program, and researchers can test different teaching materials as well as discover how independently students can learn. The academy will add a class each year, eventually serving students from grades 6–12. Students potentially can earn up to 60 college credits, including 25 at Maryland. For now, the academy is housed in a former church school space in Hyattsville, just around the corner from campus, but negotiations have started for a space in College Park. “We want these kids to feel familiar with Maryland,” Wiseman says. “We really want to say to those kids, ‘This is your campus too.’”—KS
ILLUSTRATION BY MARGARET HALL; PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI
Q:
DID MARYLAND HAVE A FRESHMAN CAP TRADITION? WE’VE STARTED A WEBSITE CALLED “BEANIES OF THE BIG 10” AND WOULD LIKE TO INCLUDE SOME IMAGES AND INFORMATION FROM ONE OF OUR NEWEST BIG TEN PARTNERS, IF YOU DID.
— Tamar Chute M.L.S. ’98, university archivist, the Ohio State University
A: From 1912 to the late 1960s, except for a brief period after World War II, Maryland freshmen were required to wear beanies everywhere they went on campus. Colors, styles and names of the caps varied over the years, and we have a number of examples of them in the Archives.
ASK ANNE
Questions for Anne Turkos, the university archivist
VISIT “BEANIES OF THE BIG 10” AT LIBRARY.OSU.EDU/PROJECTS/BEANIES.
Q: IN THE 1960S A FLIER CALLED “THE 4-TS” WAS DELIVERED NOCTURNALLY SEVERAL TIMES PER SEMESTER TO THE FRONT STEPS OF DORMS AND GREEK HOUSES. IT FEATURED SALACIOUS STUDENT GOSSIP AND EDITORIALS “REPORTING” CONTROVERSIAL CAMPUS MATTERS OR CRITICIZING CERTAIN CLASSES AND THEIR PROFESSORS. HAS IT EVER BEEN REVEALED WHO PUBLISHED THESE MISSIVES?
— Barbara Hornbake Angier ’67
A: I have no idea what the T’s stand for, unfortunately, but we have 20 issues of this little publication, from its December 1956 debut through volume 17 no. 4, which probably appeared circa 1973. I have never seen official confirmation of who wrote the articles or published the newsletter. Perhaps Terp readers have some answers. If so, please email me at aturkos@umd.edu.
Q: I CAME ACROSS THIS BELT BUCKLE AT AN ANTIQUES SHOW AND WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ITS ORIGINS. I THINK IT MIGHT BE FROM A [MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE] CADET’S UNIFORM. WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT IT? — Jonathan Beasley ’82
A: I suspect that this is a piece of what we today would call “spirit wear.” While students who attended the university’s predecessor wore military uniforms, this belt buckle, manufactured by J.E. Caldwell & Co., a jeweler in Philadelphia, was from a later era, based on the dates on the buckle. It may have been sold in the bookstore between the 1920s and late 1940s.
➳ Questions may be sent to terpmag@umd.edu or @UMDarchives on Twitter. ONLINE
lib.umd.edu/univarchives
BLOG lib.umd.edu/blogs/univarch_exhibits FAC E B O O K
University of Maryland University Archives
PHOTO BY GAIL RUPERT
FALL 2013 TERP 5
CLASS ACT
SWALW Eric Swalwell sprawls out in front of the State House in May 2003 as “Bahama Bob” while fellow students hold signs protesting budget cuts to higher education.
ALUMNI PROFILE / ERIC SWALWELL ’03
As Good as Bold 10 YEARS AFTER GRADUATION, SWALWELL TAKES FLAIR FOR THE DRAMATIC TO CONGRESS As a member of the Student Government Association, Eric Swalwell ’03 was never one for handing out fliers on McKeldin Mall to get his message across. No, when then-Gov. Robert Ehrlich slashed the university system’s budget by $67 million, Swalwell and his friends declared it the “Death of Education” and organized a funeral procession from College Park to Annapolis. The motorcade was led by a hearse, and the students marched a wooden casket around the State House. And when the governor went on vacation while considering further higher-education cuts, Swalwell shaved his sideburns, donned a dark wig and Hawaiian shirt, and carried a beachy cocktail and megaphone to announce tuition hikes as “Bahama Bob.” 6 TERP FALL 2013
Swalwell never gave up his fondness for a grand gesture—he calls it “using demonstrable evidence”—in a career that has landed him in Congress as a first-term Democrat from California. “If you just stand and talk to people, they lose interest,” he says. “Well, you think, how do you make people care? You do something that’s going to grab them.” He came by his passion honestly. The son of a police officer and a secretary, he was on a full scholarship at Campbell University in North Carolina when he came to D.C. in the summer of 2001 to intern for his California congresswoman. Swalwell sublet a “dirt-cheap” room on Fraternity Row, loved Capitol Hill and the opportunities at Maryland, and transferred here. That meant giving up his free ride
at Campbell, so he waited tables at a Mexican restaurant and handed out towels at the Washington Sports Club to support himself. His first accomplishment in the SGA was to help start a state scholarship program to support children of 9/11 victims. Swalwell also worked with thenCollege Park City Councilman Eric Olson M.A. ’95 to create a student liaison position on the panel. They hoped to help heal relations between the city and university in the wake of the riots that followed the Terps winning the national championship in men’s basketball. “He combined really great people skills with a passion for getting things done in the best interest of the community,” says Olson, now a Prince George’s County councilman. “He made life better PHOTO BY BARBARA HADDOCK TAYLOR/THE BALTIMORE SUN
CLASS NOTES To submit notes, send an email to terpmag@umd.edu.
decided to take on 40-year congressman Pete Stark. The incumbent refused to debate Swalwell, who then staged a mock version: He hired an actor to play his opponent and respond to a moderator’s questions by reading Stark’s own words, verbatim, from previous interviews. Swalwell’s camp then posted the “event” on YouTube. Swalwell soundly won, and today is the fourth-youngest member of the House. In May, he argued If you just stand and talk against the Trans to people, they lose interest... portation Security Administration lifting you think, how do you make its ban on some weappeople care? You do something that’s ons on commercial going to grab them. —eric swalwell flights with his usual polish and style: He in College Park when he was here.” trotted out a series of nearly-identical Swalwell went on to earn a law degree pocketknives to demonstrate the difficulfrom the University of Maryland and ties that TSA officials would face in decidreturned to his native Alameda County, ing which could go on board. Calif., as a prosecutor. In his first trial, a It got attention from national media lowly case about a police chase, he threw including “NBC Nightly News,” heady stuff Velcro-covered ping-pong balls at a felt for a freshman, but he insists that he’s still board in the courtroom to show how the the starstruck student who wanted autoofficer’s arguments “stuck”—and how graphs from the same lawmakers who took the Velcro-less balls representing the gym towels from him 12 years ago. defendant’s didn’t. “Half of me still wants to take a picture He won election to the Dublin City of them,” Swalwell says, “and the other half Council in 2010, and two years later says, ‘Relax, you belong here.’”—LB
WELL
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Eric
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BOOKSHELF
GEORGE PELECANOS ’77 follows up his bestseller The Cut with another crime thriller featuring D.C. private investigator Spero Lucas, The Double. His job is to retrieve a valuable painting stolen from a beautiful woman, but she wants more from him.
JENNIFER THOMAS M.A. ’95, PH.D. ’98 co-wrote When Sorry
Isn’t Enough: Making Things Right With Those You Love with Gary Chapman to offer new ways to approach and mend fractured relationships.
In her debut novel, Incidental Daughter, longtime writing instructor VAL STASIK ’70 spins the tale of a successful book publisher who faces a past filled with abandonment as she’s investigated in the death of her ex-husband.
PHOTOS FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF ERIC SWALWELL; ANDREW MORRELL; COURTESY OF FRANCO SALADINO
’00s JUANITA CHASE ’06 and ROY CHESLEY II ’06 (STAGE NAME: JOSHUA LAMONT)
are actors in L.A. whose June 29 wedding at the Kay Theatre at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center was a three-act production called “Vaudeville Nights.” They worked with the Office of Sustainability on keeping things green, hired Shuttle-UM buses to transport guests and featured School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Director Leigh Smiley reading Shakespeare sonnets along with performances by doctoral student David Gregory, who opened the show, MAURICE CLEMONS ’04, SEAN MARKEY ’07, DIOR BROWN ’07 and WAYNE WATTS ’07. The four alums were in the wedding party, as were STEPHANIE JOHNSON ’04, INDIA MCCORMICK ’08 and ROBBIE MICHLEWICZ ’07. Realtor FRANCO SALADINO ’02, based in Rockville, Md., was featured on the HGTV series “House Hunters” on June 30. His clients were his sister and brotherin-law, BRIDGET (SALADINO) ’05 and KEVIN VORITSKUL ’00. Spoiler alert: They picked the Colonial with the faux-finish paint and a pool. Want to see more Class Notes? Visit W W W .T E R P. U M D . E D U / C L A S S N O T E S .
FALL 2013 TERP 7
ALUMNI PROFILE / ELAHE IZADI ’06
From Deadlines to Drop-Dead Funny By day, she reports on gun control, sexual assault in the military and skyrocketing student loans. By night, she jokes onstage about her ethnic ambiguity and the absurdities of online deals for laser eye surgery. Yet for Elahe Izadi ’06, being a congressional reporter for National Journal and a stand-up comic aren’t all that different.
There are things for which I am hesitant to use a Groupon— like laser eye surgery.
ALUMNI TRAVEL JULY 11–22, 2014
Tanzania Take a once-in-a-lifetime journey of incredible wildlife excursions and explorations of Ngorongoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge and the savannas of the Serengeti National Park.
For more about this and other trips, visit alumni.umd.edu/travel or contact Angela Dimopoulos ’07 at 301.405.7938/800.336.8627 or adimop@umd.edu.
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“I’m a storyteller, whether that’s reporting on what’s happening on the Hill or telling a joke that’s reflecting some aspect of life,” she says. She started on both paths at Maryland, choosing her journalism major “on a whim” and entering D.C. Improv’s competition to find the area’s funniest college student during her senior year. Izadi went on to work in local news for several years (which included long hours “sitting in a city council meeting at 12 a.m. with people arguing about a mailbox,” she says) before covering race and class in D.C. for WAMU 88.5. Her current job at National Journal gives her more flexibility, so she’s been performing at least once a week at open mic nights or showcases. “There’s a pretty great comedy scene in D.C.,” she says, but she’s also branched out nationally. She was invited to
PHOTOS FROM LEFT: SHUTTERSTOCK; JASON NOVAK/A STUDIO WITH A VIEW
perform at festivals in Boston and Austin earlier this year. Izadi focuses on observational humor, particularly what it’s like to be a young Iranian-American woman, working and dating in the city. She pulls from her childhood in predominantly white Frederick County, Md., where people often mistook her for a different ethnicity and she was once even called the wrong racial slur. The only thing off-limits? Politics, of course. But although she covers serious issues, “I try and inject humor and my voice into my writing whenever it’s appropriate,” she says. Neither field is easy to break into, so her advice for aspiring journalists and comedians? “Just go out and do it,” she says. “Be willing to work hard, and whatever you’re doing, even if it feels like small potatoes, don’t think you’re above it.”—KS
ant to know where Izadi’s performing next? W Visit elaheizadi.com and click “Comedy,” or follow her on Twitter @ElaheIzadi.
Tailgate Heavyweights TERP SUPERFANS and self-described semi-professional tailgaters (below, from left) Steve Wecker ’79, Kevin Jones ’03, Charlie Wecker, Nate Hynson ’02 and Rob Wecker have held their pre- and postgame parties at Maryland football games as far away as California and in the snow before basketball games. Their No. 1 rule— don’t run out of food or drinks—is no surprise, consid-
ering they operate the Iron Bridge Wine Co. in Columbia, Md. and Mutiny Pirate Bar and Island Grille in Glen Burnie, Md. So don’t be shy if you pass their setup in the Stadium Drive parking deck, where everything is black, red and emblazoned with Testudo and the food goes way beyond burgers and bags of chips. It’s all about having a good time—but in style.—LF
STUFFED TURTLE
GLASS= CLASS “You don’t drink it out of a plastic cup,” Steve says. “That’s sacrilege.”
FAN FARE
It’s not a college football game without a (well-fed) mascot, and this adds ambiance by playing and dancing along to the fight song.
Regular tailgate fare doesn’t cut it for these foodies, who once had a hot dog tailgate featuring bison sausage, alligator sausage and 37 toppings. Lobster corn dogs and seared foie gras were other pregame hits.
SUPER (OLD) BOWL The Old Bay potato chips inside come with a little retro flavor—the helmet design predates the Terps' recent shifts in uniforms.
PRIMO VINO This is personal for them. One selection, 3 Rags, is named in honor of Charlie and the samenamed dogs he had while growing up.
TERP GEAR, WITH LOVE
CRABBY ATTITUDE
Scarves are homemade symbols of Maryland pride, care of Kevin’s mother.
Nothing says Maryland like crabs, and these guys catch the seafood themselves. PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI
FALL 2013 TERP 9
CAMPUS LIFE
PLAY BY PLAY
Starting Shy, B-Ball Phenom Learns to Fly Alyssa Thomas, the potential top draft pick for the WNBA, wasn’t always the highscoring, team-leading force she is today. As a child, she approached the world with two arms tightly wrapped around her mom’s legs. “She was painfully shy,” says Tina Klotzbeecher-Thomas. “When I forced her to play on the basketball team in third grade, she threw a hissy fit, but we had to get her involved with other children.” More than a decade later, the 6-foot-2 senior forward is ready to lead the UMD women’s basketball team, finally healthy, back to the top. “She’s an amazingly strong, physical presence on the court,” says Coach Brenda Frese. “She’s established herself as our go-to player.” Thomas grew up in Harrisburg, Pa., with a “little hoop in the driveway” serving as a battleground for her and younger siblings Devin, now a sophomore on the Wake Forest basketball team, and Alexia. When recruiters came calling, she decided to stay close to home, making it easy for her parents, Tina and Bobby, to attend her games. Frese’s style fit Thomas’ aggressive play, but despite her talent, she initially struggled. “Coming in, I wasn’t able to shoot the ball that well, especially jump shots and free throws,” she says. “I didn’t know the game as well, or how defense was played.” But she got her game together and was named ACC Rookie of the Year. She only got better from there, earning back-to-back ACC Player of the Year and two-time AllAmerican honors. During her junior year,
she mentored younger players when injuries depleted the team roster. Despite the accolades and recognition, her parents keep her grounded. “The most important thing is that she’s getting her degree [in family science] and she’ll graduate in May,” Klotzbeecher-Thomas says. “Everything else is gravy.” Though Thomas doesn’t have much time for extra activities, she interned this summer at an evening camp in Prince George’s County to help keep kids out of trouble. Activities included laser tag, swimming and of course, basketball. Did they ask her for tips? “No,” she says, laughing. “They’re just trying to beat me.” Players across the country will have the same goal as Thomas approaches her final season and the WNBA draft in the spring. “She’s the most powerful player in the women’s game, and she’s got that mental toughness,” says analyst Debbie Antonelli, who covers professional and college women’s basketball for ESPN and CBS. “In the middle of the floor, she’s an incredible basketball player who’s very much like LeBron James— nobody wants to take a charge or stop her.” But for now, Thomas is focused on just one thing: “We’ve got to get that national championship,” she says.—KS
COME OUT AND SEE THOMAS AND THE REST OF THE WOMEN’S AND MEN’S BASKETBALL TEAMS OCT. 18 AT MARYLAND MADNESS. NO TICKETS ARE NECESSARY. VISIT UMTERPS.COM FOR MORE INFO.
In the middle of the floor, she’s an incredible basketball player who’s very much like LeBron James— nobody wants to take a charge or stop her.
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—tv analyst debbie antonelli 10 TERP FALL 2013
PHOTOS FROM LEFT: GREG FIUME, COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, CAMERON WHITMAN
MASTERPIECE
Civil Liberties RADIO ACTIVE
Campus Radio Celebrates Seven Decades at Maryland FROM RECORDING rare promotional spots by John Lennon during
the Beatles’ first trip to the United States to broadcasting from a renovated shower stall, Maryland’s campus radio has been through it all. The 70 years of student-run WMUC 88.1 and previous incarnations make rich fodder for a new exhibit at the Hornbake Library, with photos of deejays and shows through the decades, fliers, scripts, including one from a radio program in 1935, and recordings. The newbie station survived a few false starts, including the interruption of World War II and the loss of its original call letters. WMUC started in 1948—only to be forced off the air three days later because of bad transmission quality. Throughout its history, campus radio has had highs, like interviews with Frankie Valli and the Clash, and setting the world record for collegiate disc jockeying by staying on air for 101 hours in 1975, and its lows, like waiting more than five years for the Federal Communications Commission to grant an FM license.—KS
Check out more at www.lib.umd.edu/wmuc
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT: BROADCASTERS AT THE OLD LINE NETWORK IN 1944; “AFFIRMATIVE RAPPIN’” RADIO SHOW IN 2013; MICROPHONE WITH ORIGINAL CALL LETTERS; AND THE BEATLES’ PRESS CONFERENCE AT THE WASHINGTON COLISEUM IN 1964.
CLARICE SMITH CENTER EXPLORES THEMES OF FREEDOM IN NATIONAL CIVIL WAR PROJECT
THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY of the Civil War isn’t being commemorated only on battlefields and in classrooms. At Maryland, it’s taking the stage. The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at Maryland is partnering with CenterStage in Baltimore on the National Civil War Project, a multicity, multiyear collaboration between four universities and five performing arts organizations to create original works and arts-integrated academic programs. Noted choreographer Liz Lerman ’70 (above) came up with the idea for the project, saying, “Every anniversary is an opportunity to reflect. Our Civil War was 150 years ago: What does it still mean? What is the aftermath? Where is the damage? How is it absorbed? Who does the absorbing? These questions are too big for the arts alone, or for academia alone; my interest is in collaborations that will allow new understandings.” At Maryland, the project kicked off last month with “Civil War to Civil Rights: The Well-Being of a Nation,” a symposium with the School of Public Policy and the School of Public Health that honored the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Clarice Smith Center will also host public lectures, community programs, academic roundtables and discussions. The project will culminate in May 2015 with the world premiere of “At War With Ourselves,” a piece by Kronos Quartet that will also feature composer Terence Blanchard, a 500-voice choir and Nikky Finney, recipient of the 2011 National Book Award for poetry.—LB
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INNOVATION
Comet of the Century or Celestial Flop? ASTRONOMERS TRACK APPROACHING ISON a sun grazer comet so far in advance with modern telescopes,” says astronomy Professor Jessica Sunshine. She has been studying ISON using NASA’s space probe Deep Impact. That spacecraft, which spent the past eight years observing comets, was developed by a group of astronomers led by Maryland’s Michael A’Hearn. Earlier this year, A’Hearn oversaw a project to examine ISON using the Hubble Space Telescope. Other Maryland scientists have done work using NASA’s Spitzer telescope and various satellite telescopes. ISON was discovered in September 2012 by two Russian astronomers and named after the group where they worked, the International Scientific Optical Network. Made of ice, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and bits of rock, the comet is about 4 miles across and will
eventually have a tail 56,000 miles long. ISON will come within 800,000 miles of the Sun and poses no danger to Earth, but starting on Thanksgiving and lasting perhaps through January, it will appear in its skies. Some researchers have predicted that it will be the brightest comet since Hale-Bopp in 1996. A’Hearn is not convinced. “My view is that ISON will not be the comet of the century,” he says. “I think it will be bright. But the brightness of comets is notoriously unpredictable. I would bet a beer on this question, but I would not bet a bottle of scotch.” For Sunshine, the uncertainty is one of the best things about studying comets. “We just don’t know very much about them,” she says. “We’re astronomers, but we’re human too. We want to see a big boomer comet too.”—DK
SAT U R N
It could be the Comet of the Century, streaking across the sky for weeks and visible to the naked eye even in daylight. Or it could be an overhyped dud. For more than a year, Maryland scientists have been observing the comet known as ISON as it approaches the Sun, in hopes of gleaning new insights into what comets are made of, where they come from and how they die. Team members say ISON is unique because it is the only known comet to combine these three characteristics: It has never before entered our solar system; it was discovered early enough to be studied throughout its evolution; and it will pass unusually close to the Sun, enduring extreme heat. As a “sun grazer,” it will disintegrate or at least lose a good deal of its mass. “We’ve never had the ability to study
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JON FROEHLICH (RIGHT), SHOWN WITH DOCTORAL STUDENT KOTARO HARA, DEVELOPS INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY THAT CAN IMPROVE PUBLIC ACCESSIBILITY.
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EYES ON THE COMET 1
DEC. 28, 2011: First image at a distance of 800 million miles between the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn.
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JAN. 17-18, 2013: Deep Impact finds ISON's tail is already 40,000 miles long.
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APRIL 10, 2013: Hubble's first look shows ISON's coma is bigger than Australia.
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SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2013: NASA launches a balloon carrying a telescope to study ISON. During its one-day flight, the balloon will float to 23 miles above the earth's surface.
PHOTOS PHOTOS FROM BY LEFT: JOHN JOHN T. CONSOLI T. CONSOLI; / PHOTO MAC NELSON CREDITS
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OCT. 1, 2013: NASA’s Mars team turns its cameras on ISON.
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NOV. 27, 2013: ISON will make its closest approach to Earth. Once it moves closer to the Sun, it will either evaporate, break into smaller chunks or survive. If it survives, it could emerge so brightly that it’s visible during the day. Remember— never look directly at the Sun: It can harm your eyes.
DAMAGED SIDEWALKS. Overgrown vegetation. Poorly placed newspaper boxes or utility poles. While these are little more than inconveniences to most pedestrians, they often represent insurmountable barriers to the 16 million Americans needing assistance from a wheelchair, walker or cane. Jon Froehlich and David Jacobs, researchers in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, have a solution: a new interface that lets people identify and digitally “tag” urban pedestrian obstacles using images gathered from Google Street View. Still in the prototype stage, the technology lets people see exactly what their planned route looks like before they set out, enabling them to find an alternate route or cancel their trip, says Froehlich. Originally funded by a $100,000 startup grant from Google, the Maryland project has received an additional $1.2 million from the National Science Foundation, expanding the scope of the research to include new technology for the visually impaired.—TV
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The Superheroes of STEM RESEARCHERS ENCOURAGE MIDDLE SCHOOLERS TO SOAR WITH SECRET “SCI-DENTITIES” Take a seat, Avengers and X-Men. With alter egos like Graviton and Firegirl, a group of D.C. middle schoolers is on its way to save the world—not as superheroes, but as scientists, engineers and mathematicians. College of Information Studies researchers led by June Ahn and Mega Subramaniam (below, right) are working with school librarians to encourage innercity students to create superhero identities,
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write science fiction-inspired stories, and make videos and graphic novels, all incorporating real science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Sci-Dentity project seeks to learn factors that can help youth meld scientific ideas into their own evolving identities as students and individuals. During the past decade, the percentage of African-Americans earning STEM degrees has fallen, even as STEM jobs have become the largest area of U.S. job growth. Scientists, educators and students cite reasons such as stereotypes, selfdoubt, perceptions that STEM is too hard, a lack of role models and mentors and discouraging academic environments. “Our goal is to explore ways to work with kids who wouldn’t necessarily identify with science or technology, engineering and math and figure out ways to help them engage with those ideas and find relevance in them,” says Ahn. The Sci-Dentity team gives the students a secure and supportive physical space (the library) and a virtual one (a private online social network created just for them) within which they share, remix and comment on each other’s work to build community and their own “Sci-Dentities.” Too often, says team member and StuartHobson Middle School librarian Anne Ledford, middle school students stop reading and lose a lot of their interest in science. “It’s a problem that has plagued education for generations,” she says.
Some of the two dozen participating students are showing signs of growth halfway through the three-year project. Ahn recalls talking to them about Tony Stark (aka Iron Man), an engineer who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “One student said, ‘What’s MIT?’” Ahn says. “We actually had to have a conversation about MIT and college and what it means to go to college and major in engineering.” What followed surprised Ahn: One seemingly disengaged student focused much of his superhero’s story not on his powers or fight against evil, but on the college he attended. “The biggest lesson we’ve learned from that project,” says Ahn, “is how new media can open up opportunities for students to express their ideas and identify with scientific concepts, while not being constrained by traditional literacies such as reading and writing levels.”—LT
ILLUSTRATIONS COURTESY OF COLLEGE OF INFORMATION STUDIES
NewsDesk
University of Maryland faculty are the source news media turn to for expertise.
“I don’t think you can bring in this many people from these predominantly Democratic areas and Democratic states without it eventually changing your politics.” –JAMES GIMPEL,
public policy, on Texas’s dramatic shift in demographics, on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” June 30.
Muscle over Memory Loss STUDY FINDS EXERCISE STRENGTHENS BRAIN’S EFFICIENCY FOR YEARS scientists have known that exercise can protect the brain from the risk of memory loss. Now, a new study in the School of Public Health suggests why: Exercise significantly improves the brain’s efficiency for people with memory problems or at increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In a paper published in the August issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, J. Carson Smith (above), an assistant professor of kinesiology, compared two groups of people between the ages of 60 and 88. Half had no memory problems, and the other half had a condition known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI), meaning they had some
memory problems, but not enough to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Both groups went through a 12-week exercise program, primarily walking on a treadmill, half an hour for four days a week. Previous research by Smith and others has found that such exercise routines can help stop or slow memory problems in people with MCI. This study went a step further, looking at how that happens. Researchers asked subjects to identify famous people from the 1930s and ’40s, such as Frank Sinatra and Dwight Eisenhower, testing their ability to recall deeply ingrained memories. During these recall tests, subjects were given functional MRIs, which can detect the parts of the
PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY MAROTTA
brain that are activated from moment to moment. After the 12 weeks, both groups were able to ID the famous names, and both groups reduced their brain exertion for the task. This is the first time that researchers have established that exercise can improve brain efficiency in people with memory problems. Helping the brain work less may be crucial for those with memory problems, Smith says: “As people begin to develop Alzheimer’s, they have to over-activate their brain. They recruit other brain regions to compensate for the loss.” It appears that by allowing the brain to save energy, exercise improves the chances of keeping problems at bay for longer.—DK
“If anybody is going to have the money to engage in evaluation of digital information, it’s the NSA, for heaven’s sake.” –LUCY DALGLISH, dean, journalism, on the National Security Agency’s claim that it doesn’t have the technology to search its employees’ emails, in propublica.org, July 23.
“It's a somewhat controversial view, but we think Voyager 1 has finally left the solar system, and is truly beginning its travels through the Milky Way.” –MARC SWISDAK, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, on new research contradicting NASA's belief that the 36-year-old spacecraft is still under the Sun's influence, UPI.com, Aug. 16. HEAR MORE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND EXPERTS IN THE MEDIA AT TWITTER.COM/UMDNEWS.
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“Frankenstein” Discovers New Life in Digital Archive IT WAS A STORY conceived in one of the most primal ways possible, inspired amidst rainy nights, vivid dreams and shared ghost stories. By this fall, technology will allow people around the world to see how Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” grew from a teenager’s vision on the shores of Lake Geneva to a centerpiece of 19th-century British literature. The Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) is a partner with the Bodleian Library at Oxford, England, and the New York Public Library in creating the digital Shelley-Godwin Archive, which has received a $300,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. When completed, it will have images of major works and correspondence from Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and other writers in their circle. Documents encompassing “Frankenstein” will be available in time for Halloween. With a longstanding debate surrounding how much of the story was written by Mary or husband Percy, students and scholars will be able to see original notebook pages in her handwriting and revisions he made. “This allows people to understand the life of a literary work,” says Neil Fraistat, an English professor, director of MITH and Shelley scholar leading the project at Maryland. Broader goals are to get students involved in curating online material by looking for transcription mistakes, encoding source material online and getting a critical appreciation for the documents. Then, people around the world can view original manuscripts and transcriptions side-by-side while annotating and sharing their own findings. “This is ultimately about the public and making them part of the humanities,” Fraistat says. “It allows us not just to project out what we do but to bring the public in to what we do.” Perhaps the inspiration for the next great monster tale won’t come sitting around a campfire but in front of a computer screen.—LF
See the archive at shelleygodwinarchive.org.
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ILLUSTRATION BY JOSHUA HARLESS; TEXT COURTESY OF SHELLEY-GODWIN ARCHIVE; PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI
FACULTY Q & A
Shooting Star Bethany Swain has spent a decade shooting, editing, writing and producing stories for CNN’s Washington bureau—a career that far eclipses her 5-foot-2-inch frame. A lecturer at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, Swain in 2010 became the first woman to win Video Photographer of the Year in the White House News Photographers Association “Eyes of History” Competition, and she won 14 more awards from the organization this year. Q: WHEN YOU APPROACH A STORY, HOW
Q: DID YOUR 2010 AWARD HAVE EXTRA
DO YOU STAY IN THE BACKGROUND?
MEANING AS THE FIRST WOMAN TO WIN IT?
This is one aspect where my size helps. It’s a little easier for me to blend in then the typical people in my department. When I left CNN, I was one of 100 domestic photojournalists, and I was one of five women—it’s usually big guys who are doing it. It’s also trying to find that balance between getting close so you can get those great detail shots, but letting people who are there understand, “I am here to document, just ignore me.”
A:
A:
It was exciting to be the first from my company, it was exciting to be a girl from Vermont honored in that way, but definitely the pinnacle was, “Wow, no woman had ever done this before.” Not long ago, the job title was “cameraman.” That was just how much the expectation was that it was going to be almost entirely men. Q: WITH VIDEO AVAILABLE NOW ON ALMOST EVERY CELL PHONE, HOW DOES THAT CHANGE YOUR JOB?
What I hope happens is that people will stop to appreciate even more when it is done really well. I hope it raises the bar for everybody. It’s one thing if it is video of my dog, but someone else’s dog? It has to be a little better if I’m going to watch it. A:
Q: HOW DOES FILM TELL A STORY DIFFERENTLY THAN STILL PHOTOGRAPHY?
Being able to capture not just the sights but sounds. In sounds, there are so much more than just words, whether it is the sizzling of putting something in a frying pan or the sound of a golf ball being hit. Being able to add those elements in can really help transport your audience. A:
Q: WHAT ADVICE DO YOU GIVE TO STUDENTS?
What I encourage is to be a jack of all trades and a master of at least one. Being able to have that balance—you can throw me into anything, but I also have something where I can really shine—that’s what I encourage them to do. A:
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CENTERPIECE
IN 2012–13, FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES TOTALED
3,952
MEMBERS IN 29 FRATERNITIES AND 23 SORORITIES EARNED A HIGHER AVERAGE GPA THAN THE REST OF CAMPUS FOR THE
16TH STRAIGHT YEAR RAISED
$442,259.67 FOR NONPROFITS AND CHARITIES COMPLETED
27,398 HOURS
OF COMMUNITY SERVICE
TOP ROW, FROM LEFT / Greek Week Mattress Race,
1977 / Greek Week Tug-of-War, 1970 / Spring Block Show, 2012 / Phi Sigma Kappa House Party, 1930
SOURCE
Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life
BOTTOM ROW, FROM LEFT / Football on Fraternity
Row, 1969 / Homecoming Game, 1981 / Sigma Phi Epsilon Party, 1950 / Homecoming, 1998
100 YEARS OF GREEK LIFE DID YOU HAVE A SWELL, FAR-OUT, RIGHTEOUS OR FLY TIME AT MARYLAND? You can probably thank the Greek system— whether or not you were ever in a fraternity or sorority. Since the founding of UMD’s first fraternity, Gamma Pi, on Sept. 18, 1913, Greeks have shaped nearly every facet of the campus, at times thoroughly dominating student government, intramural sports and the social calendar. They were the forces behind Homecoming parades, talent and step shows, dance marathons, even the introduction of the Testudo mascot at football games. These students were—and still are—leaders, organizers and doers—and as alums, they stand among the university’s most fervent supporters. Terp salutes them with a look back at a century of milestones, traditions and the values of brother- and sisterhood.
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SCRAPBOOK PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF JOE CROSCOULI/ETA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OF PHI SIGMA KAPPA; 1970 TERRAPIN; PHOTO BY PARIS ROSSITER/HADDOX ROSSITER PRODUCTIONS; 1930 REVEILLE; 1999 TERRAPIN; COURTESY OF ANTHONY PHOTOSWOODY; BY JOHN1982 T. CONSOLI TERRAPIN; / PHOTO 1970 TERRAPIN. CREDITS
MY LIFE AS A GREEK
Find much more, including Greek alums’ stories from every decade since the 1930s and a photo slideshow , at umd.edu/greek_life.
I came here in Fall 1945, barely 17 years old, a naïve kid who had gone to high school down the street in Hyattsville. It was the first year that the GIs were coming here on the GI bill. They came back and revived the fraternity. There were just seven members my freshman year, and our pledge class had 25 students. I never lived on campus—I was a daydodger, like most students—so I spent a lot of time at the Sigma Chi house. Because of the veterans, it was quite a cross-section in terms of age of individuals. This was, for me, a big bonus, because of the maturity that they brought. It helped in the growing-up process for many of us. WALDO BURNSIDE ’49, SIGMA CHI
These years were when we as an ethnic group got engaged. There were a lot of things that went on culturally. It was quite a growing-up phase. We had some challenges at Maryland. We spent so much of our lives being the first. The brothers helped start our own escort program to walk women home—it gave you an opportunity to meet a lot of the girls. Did a lot of things change? Yes, they certainly did. We just had that brotherhood with a kind of “go get it” attitude. RAY C. JENKINS ’77, IOTA PHI THETA
MORE HOOPLA AT HOMECOMING Maryland blows out its Homecoming lineup of fun with all-new evening events on Friday, Oct. 25: carnival-style games, a beer garden, inflatable rides, live music, a step show, a Greek hospitality tent, a pep rally and fireworks. ✹ Then come back Saturday, Oct. 26 for a huge tailgate sponsored by the Maryland Alumni Association, music and more family fun—and the showdown against Clemson. ✹ Bring the family, get the old gang together and enjoy the weekend or all week at Maryland. ✹ For a full schedule of events, visit homecoming.umd.edu.
My grandmother on my mom’s side (Janice Riggs Keys ’58), my mom (Susan Keys Romans ’86) and her sister (Anne Keys Biebel ’88) were all KDs. When I was going through the sorority house as a high school senior, I saw the composite of my grandmother going up to the study room. I just stopped and said, That’s Nannie! A majority of my family has lived in that house. Now I’m moving into the penthouse where my mom lived. When I took the leap of faith and trusted my mom and aunt and grandmother and actually joined KD, it was everything I expected and more. It was the greatest decision that I could have made. HOLLACE “HOLLY” ROMANS ’15, KAPPA DELTA
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BUILDER D E V E L O P E R A L U M N U S TA K E S H I S C H A N C E S I N O I L - R I C H N O R T H D A K O TA BY KAREN SHIH ’09
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PHOTO BY ROGER RIVELAND; ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN G. PAYNE
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WILLISTON, N.D., IS A TOWN BOTH LOST AND FOUND.
Decades after its heyday, the drive-in movie theater is still popular. The vertical sign on Main Street—PENNEYS—for J.C. Penney, the lone department store, predates World War II. Newer chains like Olive Garden and Target are two hours away. On the surface, Williston could be any number of places that postindustrial America left behind in Texas, Ohio or Indiana. For years, it’s been a 12,500-person town with wide skies and broad fields but no future. Yet what used to be a 10-minute drive across town takes much longer as 18-wheelers creak through the twolane streets. A three-bedroom apartment once worth $500 a month now goes for $3,500. A school district that closed an elementary school during lean times has reopened it—and soon, those kids will play in a new $70 million recreation center. Williston’s bust is going boom, thanks to the latest appearance of oil. The advent of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” which uses water and chemicals to extract oil from stone, has brought workers pouring in by the thousands from all across the country and done what Mayor Ward Koeser couldn’t in two decades in office: grow the town. “We’d take two steps forward and two steps back,” he says. “We’re a nice, friendly town, a great place to live, but not a great place to make a living.” One of the latter-day pioneers is Eric Ditter, who earned a master’s in real estate development in 2010. But unlike the other newcomers, he sees his fortune above ground—in giving the new workers a long-term place to live.
THE LIFELINE
Under the yellowed grain fields of Williston lies the largest source of oil in the continental United States. Five years ago, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the Bakken Formation, which stretches through parts of North Dakota and Montana and into
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Canada, held up to 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Earlier this year, the estimate ballooned to 7.4 billion barrels. “One of the benefits for us of the timing of this oil play was that so many other places were slow,” says Tom Rolfstad, Williston’s executive director of economic development. “Slow” was an understatement. The revelations came amid the biggest recession in the U.S. since the Great Depression. Williston became a lifeline for men who had seen blue-collar jobs eaten up by automation and overseas factories. Oil companies like Halliburton, Continental Resources, Hess and Whiting Petroleum offered six-figure jobs requiring no college degree and little experience. In just a few years, the city tripled in physical size and doubled in population, to 25,000. And that number doesn’t
include the temporary workers on the outskirts of town—up to 30,000, according to the North Dakota Chamber of Commerce. “They’ve come so fast you just can’t respond,” Koeser says. “We’ve certainly tried to accommodate them, but housing is the first big issue.” These workers are often housed in “man camps”: military-style, rectangular, virtually windowless gray boxes surrounded by barbed-wire fencing where men—only men—share a room, toilet and sink. Others sleep in campers or even trucks insulated with hay. (They gathered for years in the Walmart parking lot, until they were finally booted.) They come through, days or weeks at a time, working perhaps the best-paid job they’ve ever had, alone and thousands of miles from home, unable to stay longer because of a shortage of stable, affordable housing.
PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI
From left: Eric Ditter; an oil rig in Williston, N.D., one of nearly 200 active drilling rigs in the state. The number has quadrupled since 2009.
“HE’S WILLING TO TAKE RISKS. HE’S JUMPING INTO SOMETHING... WHERE IT’S ALL BEING DONE FOR THE FIRST TIME.” —EARL ARMIGER, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPMENT PROFESSOR, ORCHARD DEVELOPMENT PRESIDENT
“It’s a career job to come out here and work,” Rolfstad says. “Going forward, we’re going to have to see families move in here.”
THE ENTREPRENEUR
Ditter saw an opportunity, and a solution: Build these men a community to call home. “I’ve always been a startup guy,” he says. “Fifteen ideas come up a day. I’m driven not to be an employee.” Growing up in West Chester, Pa., he started a landscaping business when he was just 10 years old. His father helped him collect and fix people’s old mowers, and by the time he was in high school, he was servicing up to 100 lawns. It helped pay for his education at Virginia Tech; he kept the business going by hiring two local kids to run it while he was away.
PHOTO BY LINDSEY GIRA/FLICKR
After he got his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2000, he took a job at General Electric. At the same time, he moved in with a college buddy, Brad McHugh, and joined him in buying and fixing up properties in Annapolis, Md. “I knew that anyone who had money had real estate as a foundation,” Ditter says. He did well for several years, at the height of the market in the early to mid-2000s. But soaring prices made him nervous, so he looked to graduate school to learn more about real estate and expand beyond flipping houses. He chose Maryland, which had just started its master’s program in real estate development in the School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. “I love the program for its entrepreneurial mindset,” he says. Many of his professors were out in the field, including Earl Armiger, president of Orchard Development and a key player in the development of Columbia, Md., in the 1970s. He became a mentor to Ditter. Armiger put him in touch with trusted accountants and lawyers and walked him through the steps of forming a company with McHugh, White Dog Development Group. “Eric has the characteristics that are absolutely essential for an entrepreneur and a developer,” Armiger says. “He’s willing to take risks. He’s jumping into something he’s never done before, in a community where nobody’s done what he’s done, where it’s all being done for the first time.”
Dakota, and the family trekked out there each year, acclimating him to the culture. “They’re sincere, hardworking people. I was raised with that Midwest mantra,” he says. “They’ll give the shirt off their back.” But at the same time, “the locals don’t always trust development because they’ve seen these booms come and go,” he says. “It’s all about what you do with that trust and the relationship. We always respect them and the help we’ve been given.” The oil’s always been there—it’s just been a question of the technology available to detect and extract it. The first mini-boom came in the 1950s. The second arrived in the late 1970s, when the international oil crisis limited the supply and drove up prices. After prices stabilized in 1981, Williston’s influx of workers moved on. Its population, which had grown by more than 5,000, dropped back to 12,000, and many businesses went bankrupt. Local officials are betting that this time will be different. With projections saying this boom could last anywhere from 15 to 100 years, they’re investing in infrastructure, greatly expanding the water treatment plant and building a $150 million airport. Ditter and McHugh arrived in 2011, before many of these investments had been made. Main Street, like much of the city, still needed revitalization, so that’s where they bought a building for their home base. It’s where McHugh, with his construction background, lives and works while renovating the property. (It's also where the pair could potentially earn some oil royalties, as companies are starting to install lateral wells under CYCLES OF BOOM AND BUST their property and throughout the city.) Ditter has roots in the open plains of the Soon they purchased another 50 acres, Dakotas. His parents grew up in South with rights to 100 more, just south of the
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city along the main highway, Route 85. Armiger had his doubts. “Where there’s a boom, there’s bound to be a bust, and I wouldn’t want to be stuck with properties when the bust occurs,” he says. But Armiger faced his own challenges, developing a robust community out of farmland in Howard County, Md., and Ditter wanted his own. “This is the gold rush of our time,” Ditter says.
water. So Ditter and McHugh sought to extend water lines from a local reservoir. Theirs became the first subdivision in the county to get public water. With the basics in place, White Dog Group decided to get a jump on construction and work through the long winters of North Dakota, where temperatures can plummet to 40 below zero and usually limit construction season to May through October. “It was brutal,” McHugh says. “Once
you get to about 10 degrees, you’re stopped. The equipment doesn’t run, and you can’t use your fingers without gloves.” The extra effort paid off. White Dog Group sold its first unit this summer. True to form, Ditter used the July celebration event, complete with a cookout and helicopter rides, to gauge interest in his next big idea: installing a helicopter service in his development to give companies a faster way to transport critical parts to their drill sites.
“LIKE WORKING I N T H E DA R K AG E S “
Thanks to the first Homestead Act of 1862, ambitious settlers could drive a wagon out to the frontier of North Dakota and grab up to 160 acres for free by simply living on and working the land. Staking a claim is a little more complicated now. Ditter, for example, wanted to work within the rules but Williston and its surrounding counties hadn’t written them yet. They lacked the infrastructure and resources to harness the frenzy of the boom. McKenzie County, where White Dog Group’s land is located, had created a planning department only months after Ditter and McHugh settled in. The first building permit requirements weren’t established until July 2012. “It was definitely a challenge, with everyone trying to field calls and figure how to deal with development and steer people in the right direction,” says Planning Director Walter Hadley. Ditter shared his plans for a mixeduse development called Elk Ridge with his local township and the county before he started construction in late 2012, hoping the zoning would be drawn to fit White Dog’s needs. Building a development from scratch, miles from any water or electrical lines, wasn’t easy. “It’s like working in the Dark Ages,” McHugh says. “You have to reinvent the wheel to even get started.” McKenzie County residents primarily get their water from wells, but that wasn’t going to work for Elk Ridge, which would require a much larger volume of
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PHOTO BY CAMILLE CURRY
FA M I LY A N D F U T U R E
Ditter hopes to complete Elk Ridge by 2015. The first units will include office, warehouse and residential space under one roof, and the rest of the community will have three- and four-bedroom houses and duplexes, and maybe even its own brew pub—a modern-day watering hole. In the future, he’d like to build somewhere much warmer—maybe a tropical island. In the meantime, he’s still wooing buyers and financing Elk Ridge, as he’s
had to put more work and cash than he’d planned into its first phase. Construction loans can be difficult to come by, though White Dog Group has investors from all over the country. Despite the challenges, Ditter remains committed to reuniting these men with their families so they can enjoy the same support and comfort he’s received by keeping his family close. He’s always looked to his father for guidance, he brought his sister into the company to consult, and
he retains his base in Annapolis so he can be with his wife, Phoenix, and their two young children, Oscar and Evie. He’s proud to use his skills in planning and design to bring in businesses and people and establish an entire community where there was once only stagnation. “I have this vision of one day flying my own kids out there and looking down on what I built,” he says. “I want to show them quality and success. It’s about the long term.” TERP canada Williston MT
nd MN SD
From top: Williston, N.D., located an hour from the Canadian border; a “man camp” just south of Ditter's development in McKenzie County. Man camps are temporary housing for oil workers that have popped up throughout the area. They range from militarystyle, nearly windowless gray boxes to trailers.
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Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are perhaps the hottest topic in higher education, presenting challenges and opportunities for universities worldwide. How can an institution harness the reach and accessibility of the Internet while maintaining the academic standards of a traditional collegiate environment? Could MOOCs someday replace a bricks-and-mortar-based education? And do students really learn online? Terp magazine set out to answer these questions by sending a brave writer headlong into a MOOC taught at Maryland, “Genes and the Human Condition.” This is his account. PIECE OF CAKE. That was my initial assessment of the assignment. Take a six-week online course and write about the experience. Okay, so perhaps my journalism degree from two decades ago wasn’t the best foundation for a genetics class, but as someone who was adopted, I've always been fascinated by the questions of nature vs. nurture. I approached the course with all the enthusiasm of a newly admitted freshman. Then, one day I noticed an unopened email in my inbox. The subject line: Week 3 Lectures and Midterm Exam. Wait—what? Week 3? MIDTERM? Somehow, tied up with a full-time job, family obligations and admittedly lengthy games of “Halo 4,” I had missed the first three weeks of class. The midterm, the email notified me, was scheduled for the very next day. As dread washed
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over me, I came to the first real truth of online education: No matter how old you are or where you are in your career, the debilitating anxiety over a looming exam never goes away. The final good luck message from the professors—“Don’t let your cortisol levels get too high over this midterm!”—offered no comfort. I had no idea what cortisol was. Time to cram. One of the benefits of online coursework is that a student can learn at a personalized pace. For “Genes and the Human Condition,” a class adapted from a longer Honors-level course, each week consisted of six video lectures and six corresponding quizzes. The videos are around eight minutes each, the quizzes just five questions. I later learned from the professors that many students completed the assignments mere minutes after they were posted online on Sundays at midnight. Nerds. My strategy was a bit different. I was 18 lectures and 18 quizzes behind. So I buckled down, intending to Netflix my way through them. Three lectures in, I realized my mistake. Though the lectures were bite-sized, this wasn’t
BY BRIAN ULLMANN '92 ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY MAROTTA '14
“Mad Men.” Gorging on detailed bioinformatics was not like watching Don Draper work his creative magic. Especially in the comfort of my own home, with my Xbox winking at me. Methylated neurotransmitters. Epigenetics. DNA transcribers. Nucleotide sequences. Two hours in and I was drafting an email to my editor explaining how my grandfather had taken ill (sorry, Pop Pop) and I wouldn’t be able to turn in my story. I pressed on. After the first week’s lectures on the biology underpinning genomics, the second week’s topics lightened up. The Human Genome Project. Mutations and evolution. The language gene. Heck, there was even a close-up photo of a cat penis. Week 3 was subtitled “My Genes Made Me Do it.” The role of genes in disease. Heritability of IQ. How love (and orgasms) can impair judgment (duh). Scientists have even found evidence that a person’s political opinions are rooted in his or her genes. Despite my binge studying, I was still eight days past the due date for the exam. Fortunately, the only penalty was a 10 percent reduction in my final grade. Because part of my magazine assignment was to assess learning, I decided to take the midterm without referring to my notes, and managed to get 30 out of 32 questions correct. Even with the penalty, I earned a solid B. Feeling pretty good about myself, I took a breather. It wasn’t until I received another email, “Week 6 Now Available!” that I started to play catch-up again. The dread returned. My anxiety had nothing to do with the professors themselves. Raymond St. Leger and Tammatha O’Brien were engaging and energetic presenters. His British accent and her infectious enthusiasm for nucleotides and diploids made for entertaining viewing. They later told me that they had to consciously restrain themselves from wandering off set. Lecturing to a small camera lens was quite different than to a 400-person lecture hall. St. Leger’s Week 4 lectures, subtitled “My Genes Didn’t Make Me Do It,” centered on the role of our environment. Week 5 brought an “Introduction to Genetic Engineering.” (Finally,
some instructions on how to genetically create my own monster!) The future of genetics dominated the final week. Transgenic research. Human growth hormone. Genetically engineered food. The compelling topics screamed out for debate. Coursera, the firm UMD works with to deliver MOOCs, offers online discussion boards (moderated, in this case, by the professors’ graduate assistant), but I was never able to get engaged in a meaningful discussion. Perhaps it was because I’m a product of my own classroom-based learning experience. Or perhaps it was because I was trying to engage in debates on topics that most students had put behind them weeks earlier. Even at 43, being called “sluggard” online would sting. After the final lecture and the final exam—again, I scored a 30 out of 32—I wanted to learn about the experience from the professors’ viewpoint. According to St. Leger and O’Brien, nearly 30,000 students enrolled in the free course, with over half actively participating by watching videos and taking quizzes. Nearly 4,000 people took the final exam and earned a handsome Statement of Accomplishment. Not bad for a noncredit course. The professors signed on to do it again this semester after refreshing the syllabus; the science of genetics progresses so quickly that some of the material from just months earlier is already out of date. As for me, I think the course did deliver quality learning to more students than the professors could otherwise teach in an entire career. I learned a lot, though I’m still not sure what the cat penis was all about. Maybe I’ll take the class again. Right after I complete another mission of “Halo 4.” TERP See the latest options for MOOCs at Maryland at coursera.org/umd.
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PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; PHOTO CREDITS
[ A WINGED PROTECTOR ] Researcher Develops Drone to Save Rhinos from Poachers BY DAVID KOHN IT WILL HAPPEN AROUND A THOUSAND TIMES THIS YEAR: A gang of poachers somewhere in southern Africa will stalk a rhinoceros, shoot it, and then brutally hack off its horn, leaving the hulking animal to die. ¶ Often, these groups are professionals, armed with AK-47s, silencers and night vision goggles. International crime syndicates ship the horn to Vietnam or China, where it is ground into powder that many people mistakenly believe can cure cancer, impotence and hangovers. At around $1,400 an ounce, this powder is more expensive than gold. ¶ In the past five years, rhino poaching has exploded in sprawling parks and reserves, which are understaffed, underfunded and overwhelmed. ¶ Tom Snitch thinks he has a solution. An expert in geospatial imaging, he is trying to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones, to predict and track the movement of rhinos and poachers, giving park rangers a crucial advantage. ¶ A distinguished visiting scholar at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, he has been working for more than two years to bring his Terrapin 1 drone to fruition. ¶ He tested it earlier this year at a game sanctuary in South Africa, and now is looking for funds to get a full-time drone for the park. ¶ “You have to be able to get the rangers into position to protect the rhinos,” Snitch says. “The only way to work that is through technology.”
PHOTOSCOURTESY PHOTO BY JOHN T.OF CONSOLI; TOM SNITCH PHOTO CREDITS
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A SPIKE IN DEMAND
About 85 percent of the world’s 24,000 rhinos live in South Africa. According to the South African government, 668 were killed there last year, up from 13 in 2007. Kirsty Brebner, who oversees rhino protection for the Endangered Wildlife Trust, a South African conservation group, says between 800 and 900 will die this year. (Getting comprehensive numbers for other African countries is difficult, because many parks and governments don’t keep a careful count.) She calls the rate of killing “absolutely unprecedented.” There are two species in Africa: white rhinos, which have two horns, and black rhinos, which have one. About 19,000 of the former survive, and 5,000 of the latter—down from a total of 100,000 a century ago. Although neither species is in immediate danger of extinction, experts say poaching could sharply reduce their population. The horns have no medicinal value; they consist largely of keratin, the same material as human fingernails. But in Vietnam and China, the growing middle class has been gripped by a kind of mania for rhino horn, driving demand and prices higher and higher. Lured by the prospect of enormous profits—a single horn can be worth several hundred thousand dollars—poachers have become increasingly aggressive and sophisticated. They hire ex-paramilitary soldiers and use high-powered weapons and helicopters. Sometimes they recruit corrupt veterinarians to tranquilize the animals beforehand, reducing noise during the kill. Craig Sholley, an official at the THE FALCON UAV weighs 12 pounds, has a 12-foot wingspan and can stay airborne for 90 minutes.
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African Wildlife Foundation, says parks and reserves lack the rangers, vehicles and equipment to stop poachers: “We haven’t been able to keep up.”
A KINSHIP WITH A CONTINENT
A burly, gregarious man with a drooping mustache and salt-and-pepper hair, Snitch, 58, fell for Africa a decade ago, when he and his wife starting coming for annual trips. They mostly hike and photograph animals, including rhinos, water buffalo and elephants. He especially loves the savannahs and steppes of southern Africa. Though not religious in the traditional sense, he feels spiritual about the terrain and its creatures. “The horizon is 25 miles away, in all directions. You get this amazing feeling of what the planet must have been like 100,000 years ago,” he says. “You can go to a watering hole, and you are part of a different world. It makes you feel small, but in a good way. I’d hate for these animals to be gone.” After years of hearing about the explosion in rhino killings from his ranger and warden friends, he decided to do something. His background is not that of a typical conservationist. He has a master’s in Japanese and a doctorate in international economics, and he did postdoc work in nuclear physics and reactor design at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge national laboratories. In the 1980s he worked for the Reagan administration as an arms negotiator and learned the value of satellite monitoring—both the Soviets and Americans relied on images from space to check on each other.
He then became a consultant on defense issues, working in several Asian countries—he is fluent in Japanese and Chinese, knows some Thai and speaks passable Swahili. Over the past year, he has been helping a U.S. engineering company coordinate with Japanese officials to clean up Fukushima, the nuclear plant decimated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. As he sees it, all of his jobs have one thing in common: “I solve problems. I fix things. I’m basically a mechanic.”
FROM IRAQ TO SOUTH AFRICA
A decade ago, Snitch met then-university president Dan Mote, who encouraged him to get involved with the university. In 2006, Snitch joined the board of visitors of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, and began working on projects there. Three years ago, he linked up with Maryland computer science Professor V.S. Subrahmanian, who was working on computer models to predict clandestine human behavior, such as where insurgents will put roadside bombs in Afghanistan or hide weapons caches in Baghdad. They talked about how this approach could also be adapted to protect rhinos. “Human behavior has patterns,” Snitch says. “Animal behavior has patterns. You just need the right data.” But unraveling how poachers and rhinos move was only part of their idea. They wanted to use prediction models to run drones that would send real-time video of rhinos to rangers patrolling on the ground. When poachers threatened, the rangers would know right away. This strategy has a significant advantage over the current one, which relies on ground-based patrols. In large parks, and even in small ones, there’s no way for rangers to keep track of so many rhinos. The software and the drones wouldn’t solve this problem, but—in theory at least—they would allow officials to see much more. Subrahmanian says the key is distilling a limited number of variables into an algorithm that narrows down when
PHOTOS FROM LEFT: FRANK POPE/ SAVE THE ELEPHANTS; JOHN T. CONSOLI
HUMAN BEHAVIOR HAS PATTERNS. ANIMAL BEHAVIOR HAS PATTERNS. YOU JUST NEED THE RIGHT DATA. —TOM SNITCH, DISTINGUISHED VISITING SCHOLAR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED COMPUTER STUDIES
PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; PHOTO CREDITS
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IN DEMAND, UNDER ATTACK Thousands of years ago, rhinos lived throughout Africa, Asia and even Europe. Today, though, the animals exist only in southern Africa, India and Java and Sumatra. As many as 850,000 rhinos roamed the planet a century ago, but today there are only about 29,000 in the wild, mostly in South Africa. Poaching has decimated their numbers in the past decade, with 668 animals killed in South Africa alone.
HABITAT Grasslands, savannahs, shrub lands and tropical forests SIZE 4–10 feet long, 6 feet tall WEIGHT 1,500–6,000 pounds. Despite their size, rhinos can run up to 30 mph. HABITS Sleeping, resting in the shade or wallowing in bodies of water. They tend to eat and drink at night. HORNS Can reach a length of four feet. Some sanctuaries have tried removing rhinos’ horns to dissuade poachers. This procedure does not hurt the rhino, which can survive without the horn. However, the horn is so valuable that poachers often kill the “hornless” rhinos for the leftover stump. ODD FACTS A group of rhinos is called a “crash.” They have three toes, and although they are called pachyderms, are more closely related to horses than elephants. Sources: World Wildlife Foundation, Save the Rhino, Savingrhinos.org, International Union for Conservation of Nature
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A GROUP OF four Park vehicles, as seen at night by the drone’s infrared camera. The white dot to the right of the vehicles is a ranger. The image was taken during a test. A vehicle's heat “signature” depends on whether the engine is running. For example, if a car sits all night in the cold, it would probably not have a signature by dawn.
and where the drones should look: past rhino locations, as well as specs on the weather, terrain and season. “We want to plan a flight path for the drone so that the number of unprotected animals is as small as possible,” he says.
FINDING THE PERFECT VEHICLE
As he worked with Subrahmanian, Snitch hunted for the right drone. He spent months learning about the hundreds on the market. Conservationists and game parks don’t generally have large budgets, so the vehicle would have to be relatively inexpensive. The harsh, dusty climate of southern Africa wears down machines; spare parts are hard to get, and repair people are often far away, so the drone would also need to be sturdy and easy to fix. Eventually, he came across a model that fit his specifications: the Falcon, made by a small company in Colorado. He convinced company owner Chris Miser to lend him several machines for testing. The Falcon weighs 12 pounds, has a 12-foot wingspan, can stay airborne for 90 minutes, and typically hovers 200 to 300 meters above the ground. Compared with the Reaper, a 7,000-pound vehicle used by the U.S. military, it’s a toy. But the Falcon costs $21,000, camera included, far less than the Reaper’s $17 million price tag. Snitch sends the vehicle airborne by attaching one end of a bungee cord to a tree and the other end to the fuselage, then slingshotting the machine aloft. Snitch contacted parks, reserves and
environmental groups to gauge interest in his idea. He found none. Most parks are on government land, and Snitch says officials were wary of having a “foreign” drone— even a small, cheap one—flying over their territory. In addition, he says, many officials were suspicious of technology in general. Finally, with the help of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, he convinced a private sanctuary, Olifants Nature Reserve, to allow him to test the drone. Home to rhinos, elephants, water buffalo and giraffe, Olifants is mostly open savannah. It has more rangers than most parks in Africa and covers a relatively small area—about 38 square miles. It hasn’t lost any rhinos this year, but even so, officials there worry about poachers: It abuts 7,500-square-mile Kruger National Park, where hundreds of rhinos have been poached annually.
SEARCHING FOR RHINOS
In June, Snitch flew to Africa with two drones and three questions: Would Terrapin 1 work in the dusty conditions of the African bush? Could its infrared camera see animals and people at night? And could the software predict where the rhinos would be? In the months before the tests, officials sent Snitch data about rhino movement, poaching attacks and weather; once there, he talked more with the rangers, who knew the park and its animals, and added new details to the software. He sometimes had to translate their perspective before putting it into the computer model: “You’d ask,
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SHUTTERSTOCK; VIDEO STILL COURTESY OF FALCON UAV
‘Where was this last incident?’ and they’d say, ‘It was a half day from the big rock.’ So you’d have to figure out which rock it was, and which direction they’d mean.” Then came the field tests: 11 flights, including five at night. On the first night test, the drone found rhinos. “We see the rhinos going toward the fence, and then we see a car on the other side of the fence. It stops, and some guys get out,” Snitch recalls. The group didn’t pursue the rhinos, but the incident illustrated the system’s potential. Terrapin 1 wasn’t perfect: Miser says the vehicle had trouble detecting animals hidden by brush and trees. And Brebner of the Endangered Wildlife Trust notes that even if they do work, drones won’t shut down poaching on their own. They won’t eliminate the shortage of rangers and equipment, endemic corruption and rising demand for horn—all key drivers of the epidemic. “I think they will be useful,” she says. “But I’m afraid there is no cure-all. This is just a tool.” Other groups are also experimenting with drones. In December, the World Wildlife Fund received a $5 million grant from Google to pursue a range of anti-poaching technologies, including drones. In June, the group tested a drone in Nepal, which is home to endangered rhinos, tigers and elephants. Earlier this year, Kruger Park tested a small drone made by a South African company. Park spokesman Isaac Phaala says the drone had some of the same difficulties as the Falcon, such as tracking animals and humans in areas with trees and bush. Despite the glitches, Snitch thinks the technology will only get better. Eventually, he says, multiple drones could be used to create an “aerial curtain,” providing surveillance over thousands of square miles of territory and protecting not only rhinos, but also elephants and other endangered animals. He has been talking to a range of conservation groups and foundations about using drones elsewhere, and is trying to secure funds for a full-time drone for Olifants. “You get a few smart people who are enthusiastic,” he says, “and you’d be amazed at what you can do.” TERP
MATCHING SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
ONE SCHOLARSHIP CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE.
Every year, University of Maryland students face $80 million in unmet financial need. As part of our commitment to access and affordability for students in need, we have created the TerpStart Matching Scholarship Program. TerpStart doubles the awards granted from new, need-based endowed scholarships forever, magnifying their impact exponentially. This matching program opens the doors to learning outside the classroom, conducting world-changing research and participating in Maryland’s outstanding arts and athletics programs. It fuels students’ passion, boldness, curiosity and inspiration.
It’s a Team Effort YOU
· commit to helping Maryland students in need.
· choose to support students from a
particular college, school, major or department; specific county or high school; or any combination of these.
· fund a new endowment of at least
$30,000, payable over five years. Income produced by the endowment will be awarded in annual scholarships.
THE STUDENT
· demonstrates financial need. · maintains satisfactory progress toward a degree.
· graduates with less debt. THE UNIVERSITY
· matches the spendable income
generated each year by the endowment, doubling the scholarship’s impact in perpetuity.
· selects an eligible student(s) to receive the award.
Partner with the university before June 30, 2015 to create and name a TerpStart Matching Scholarship. For more information or to make a gift, contact Heidi Onkst, senior director for university development for strategic initiatives, at 301.405.4643 or honkst@umd.edu.
ANOTHER FEARLESS IDEA AT WORK
GIVING
We could always rely on him. The scholarship was a way to remember him.
”
”
—michael antonov ’01
Scholarship Honors Software Developer Killed in Accident
Labor Papers’ Movement THE AFL-CIO HAS DONATED its
historical archive to the University Libraries and is funding a new position there to curate the collection. Highlights include the charter and a 1889 banner of the AFL; images of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. addressing the 1961 AFL-CIO convention; and cartoons commissioned by the union in the 1950s. Materials will help researchers better understand not only the American labor movement, but also pivotal social movements in this country, including those to gain rights for women, children and minorities. Valued at $25 million, the collection establishes UMD as a top archival repository for labor history in North America.—LB
Andrew Reisse ’01 (above) was a successful and well-known developer of gaming software. He was also a quiet, intensely private person who loved climbing, hiking and taking photos of nature. On May 30, he was walking in Los Angeles, where he lived, when he was struck and killed by a driver fleeing from police. To honor his memory, his employer and his parents have pledged to fund a $100,000 scholarship for other promising undergraduates majoring in computer science. “We were almost like a family. We worked together for more than a decade,” says Michael Antonov ’01. “We could always rely on him. The scholarship was a way to remember him.” Reisse, who was 33, grew up in Yorktown, Va., the son of two Terps: Robert ’70 and Dana ’73. At Maryland in 1999, Reisse, Antonov and another friend, Brendan Iribe, started a company called Scaleform, which provides software for video games. Antonov recalled that unlike most developers, Reisse could write code for almost any platform or gaming system. In 2011, they sold Scaleform to the software company Autodesk for $36 million. Soon after, the trio moved to California and helped launch Oculus VR, which is developing lower-cost virtual reality goggles. The product has been eagerly awaited by many gaming aficionados, and hundreds have ordered the product even before it appears on the market. After Reisse’s death, Oculus announced it would partially fund the scholarship, to be awarded to a student who exhibits talent and interest in computer science, as well as creativity and a love of nature. The first recipient was announced in August: Zachary Siegel, a double major in computer science and physics, as well as an avid hiker and mountain climber. “(Reisse) was unique,” says Antonov. “He could be very quiet. But when you got to know him, he had a lot of opinions. He was a very smart guy.”—DK
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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE REISSE FAMILY; CARTOON COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES
Human Problems, Humanities Solutions NEW FUND BOOSTS INNOVATION IN THE HUMANITIES IF YOU DON’T THINK the liberal arts involve hands-on work in the real world, think again. A new fund in the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) is encouraging innovative classes that will tackle problems like poverty, racism and gender equality. A $150,000 gift from NFL Players Association President Domonique Foxworth ’04 and wife Ashley (Manning) ’06, provides seed money for faculty to plan the courses in which students design community outreach programs. The Foxworth Creative Enterprise Initiative will complement existing efforts to apply arts and humanities skills—reading, writing, critical thinking and communication along with deep knowledge of culture, language and history—to real challenges. Among them are projects helping recent immigrants find their voice through poetry or using ancient Greek literature about war to help veterans discuss and make sense of their experience. A committee is reviewing ideas for courses; three will be introduced in Spring 2014.
“The root of many social problems is faulty thinking. The arts and humanities teach you to think both critically and empathetically,” says Michelle Rowley, associate professor of women’s studies and the project’s point person. As an American studies major, Domonique took a social activism course that stimulated his interest in nonprofit work. After a stellar career on the Terps football team, he played cornerback for the Broncos, Falcons and Ravens, and retired with an injury in 2011. This fall he’s attending Harvard Business School. Ashley, an English major who later graduated from Harvard Law School, also values a grassroots approach. Their initiative stemmed from conversations the couple had with ARHU Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill on how to nurture students to be more civically engaged citizens. “We hope that students are going to be interested in helping others long after they leave school,” says Ashley.—MAB
GIFT TURNS KIPPSTERS INTO TERPS A $250,000 gift from a Maryland alumnus is funding full scholarships for low-income students who graduated from Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) charter schools in Maryland and D.C. The university’s Incentive Awards Program, which provides financial and academic resources and a supportive community for up to 17 alumni of public schools in Baltimore and Prince George’s County, welcomed three KIPPsters this fall, with more anticipated in coming years. “Children trapped in broken and underperforming inner-city schools is the civil rights issue of our day,” says donor Charles Daggs, a Wells Fargo executive who serves on the board of directors for KIPP Bay Area Schools. “We are simply providing the funding needed to bring a college education within their reach.”—LB
PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY MAROTTA
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CLASS NOTES
Parade magazine listed STEPHANIE ANN ZANER ’13 as one of the nation’s top college commencement speakers. Readers of the magazine, distributed in more than 640 newspapers, voted for the best college and high school graduation addresses from videos posted online.
run ball from Orioles batter Chris Davis on June 16. “I was standing out on Eutaw Street, hoping he would hit one far out there, but I was running for it immediately,” Kopp told Baltimore Sports Report. “I turned back around and looked in my glove to make sure I actually had it.” After the game, Kopp met Davis in order to hand him the ball himself. STEPHANIE DIPIETRO
Miss Maryland CHRISTINA DENNY ’12
placed among the top 10 finalists in the Miss America competition in September. She is a teacher in Olney at Echelon Academy, a school for children with learning disabilities, and hopes to study speech pathology in graduate school. ALEX KOPP ’12 caught
the 100 career hometh
PH.D. ’10, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, received a J. William Fulbright Award for the Spring 2014 semester. The award will allow DiPietro to conduct research complementing her work on the longterm adaptation of Bosnian refugees in St. Louis at the University of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Make Note Tell the Terp family about your new job, wedding, baby or other milestone or adventure by sending a class note (and photo!) to terpmag@umd.edu.
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BETTINA M. STOPFORD M.B.A. ’09 has been appointed vice president of strategic capture and business development at Conceras, which plans and implements complex systems and networks for national security programs. She previously served as vice president and line manager of the Intelligence Training and Services Division of SAIC. She is also the deputy commander for the NJ1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team and a volunteer incident coordinator for the Fairfax County Medical Reserve Corps. JESSICA SAUER ’08
and ADAM CALVERT ’04 were married on Aug. 25 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Baltimore. She is a special-education teacher at Public School 811 in the Bronx. She received a master’s in urban education from Mercy College. He is an associate in the Manhattan office of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, a Philadelphia law firm. He received a law degree from Fordham.
Julie McCarthy M.A. ’13 married Christopher Brown on June 8 at Quonquont Farm in Whately, Mass. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Maryland. NATALIE T.J. TINDALL PH.D. ’07 has been
granted tenure and promoted to the rank of associate professor at Georgia State University. Also, this summer her co-edited research volume, Coming Out of the Closet: Exploring LGBT Issues in Strategic Communication With Theory and Research, was published by Peter Lang. VERONICA DIANE WEBBER ’06 and Richard Geoffrey Smith are engaged to
marry on March 14. The bride-to-be graduated from Luther Seminary in 2011 and is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Lutherville, Md. JASON BELL ’08, financial adviser for Northwestern Mutual in Maryland, was recently named a Rising Star by the Living Classrooms Foundation and the Baltimore Business Journal. This award honors up-and-coming young professionals in philanthropy.
MARCUS V.M. DE PAULA ’08, M.B.A. ’13
and Tess Phipps Segal were married June 22 at Oxon Hill Manor in Fort Washington, Md. He owns Washington Creative Consultants, an event production company. RAY GAMACHE PH.D. ’08, assistant professor
of journalism in the Mass Communication Department at King’s College, has published the book Gareth Jones: Eyewitness to the Holodomor. The book provides insight
Denny photo by modelingmentor.com
company’s Electronic Systems and Aeronautics business areas.
on Jones as one of the first journalists to reveal the horror of the Holodomor, the Soviet government-induced famine in the early 1930s, which killed millions of Ukrainians. SAMANTHA JACOBS ’07 and Andrew
Benbasset Miller were married May 4 in Old Westbury, N.Y. She is a dietitian in Pleasantville, N.Y., and advises companies on improving nutrition in their cafeterias. She is also a clinical dietitian at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. She received a master’s in clinical nutrition from New York University. ORLANDO CARVALHO M.B.A. ’06, a 33-year employee of Lockheed Martin, has been promoted to executive vice president of the Aeronautics business area. Since joining Aeronautics in 2011, Carvalho has been responsible for the F-35 Lightning II program, and before that, he led Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors and held a series of increasingly responsible positions in the
QASIM HUSSAIN SHAH ’06 married
Karen Redman Aug. 25 at the chapel at La Fontaine Bleu, in Lanham, Md. He works in the finance audit department of Capital One in McLean, Va., where he audits the system of how clients’ businesses carry out internal controls.
manager in the Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting Systems Division at Northrop Grumman’s Baltimore campus. Ramirez is a founding member and has held various leadership positions within the Northrop Grumman One Adelante Hispanic employee resource group. She is on the board of U.S. Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education and previously served as president, vice president and secretary of the Baltimore chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.
diversity and multicultural affairs at McDaniel College. She most recently served as an associate dean at Claremont McKenna College in California, and she is working on a doctorate in higher education from Claremont Graduate University.
college’s department of journalism. KATHRYN ESPINOZA ’99, a staff engineer
at McKim & Creed Inc., has received her professional engineer license from the North Carolina Board of Examiners for engineers and surveyors.
MATTHEW C. SHEEHAN ’02, M.B.A. ’08
has been named director of the Innovation News Center for the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. He also holds a faculty appointment as a lecturer in the
Project CD, which she hopes to release in November 2014.
Professional D.C.-area singer DEBORAH STERNBERG ’95 successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to fund a professional recording of all-new classical music written for a soprano. She raised $8,521 for the The Avian
TODD MAYNARD COHEN ’99 and Rabbi Baht Yameem Weiss were married June 23 at the Hotel Monaco in Washington, D.C. He is the environmental health and safety compliance officer at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney, Md. He received both a master’s degree in
PETER GRAJZL PH.D. ’05 has been promoted
JUNIUS GONZALES M.B.A. ’05, provost of the University of Texas at El Paso, has been named to the national advisory council for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. His term begins Dec. 1 and runs through 2017. Gonzales graduated from Brown University and earned his M.D. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania. ANA LUISA RAMIREZ ’05 has been named
Woman of the Year by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation. She is a systems engineering
to associate professor with tenure at Washington and Lee University. He joined the economics faculty in 2009 and he received a B.A. in economics from the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
ADAM OSTROW ’04
married Kendall Aliment Sept. 1 at the Suncadia Resort in Cle Elum, Wash. He is the chief strategy officer at Mashable.com, a news website based in New York. JENNIFER JIMENEZ MARANA M.ED. ’03 has been named director of
Ostrow photo by Alyssa Arminio; Cohen photo by Carmen Wang
Lemonade: Inspired by Actual Events, a memoir by Bernard L. Dillard ’04, was awarded first place in the Autobiography/Memoir category in the 2013 Global eBook Award Competition. He is an assistant professor of math at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. In 2012, he co-authored the textbook Elementary Statistics (3rd edition), which is used on college campuses nationwide. Currently, he is finishing Moneymatics, a textbook focusing on financial literacy.
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health services administration and a master’s degree in health information technology from George Washington University.
MATTHEW MOURY M.B.A. ’94, M.S. ’97
is the new deputy assistant secretary for Safety, Security, and Quality Programs within the Office of Environmental Management, which encompasses the most comprehensive nuclear cleanup program in the world. Moury has more than 30 years of experience in the nuclear field.
the governmental, scientific, commercial and cultural forces that united—sometimes unintentionally—to make exercise an allAmerican habit. She is an independent scholar who has taught writing and American studies at George Washington University. PAUL PAYETTE ’91 has been named executive vice president of business development for hospitality technology company Uniguest. He came to the Nashvillebased company from R66T Digital Media/ OnSite Concierge in Nevada. He is a veteran of the Air Force and studied at Harvard Business School. SANDRA SHEETS ’83
STEVE KOPPI M.A. ’92
has been appointed executive director of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Career Development Center. He last served as director of the career development center at Mount Holyoke College. SHELLY MCKENZIE ’91, in her new book
Getting Physical: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America, chronicles
has been selected by Super Lawyers as a 2013 “Florida Super Lawyer,” a distinction conferred on only five percent of Florida attorneys. She works in the Lakeland office of GrayRobinson, P.A., specializing in estate planning and probate. She earned her law degree with highest honors from George Washington University in 1987. Marketing coach CARMA SPENCE M.A. ’93 has written 57 Secrets for Branding Yourself Online, part of the 57 Secrets series launched by its publisher. Two dollars from every purchase at
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LAURA CAYOUETTE ’87 has a new book,
Amazon or BarnesandNoble.com by Dec. 31 can go to the Unstoppable Foundation by registering at Carma Spence.com/57secrets. Unstoppable will support education, nutrition and health care work in Kenya, where she was raised.
Know Small Parts: An Actor’s Guide to Turning Minutes into Moments and Moments into a Career, which features a foreword by Richard Dreyfuss. She was most recently seen in the Woody Harrelson summer movie “Now You See Me” as well as in “Django Unchained,” where she played the sister of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. The book is available on Amazon.com.
JOHN GOODMAN ’86
has been hired as the CEO of young women’s retailer Wet Seal. Most recently, he was chief apparel and home officer of Sears Holdings, overseeing both the Sears and Kmart brands.
DAVID BARRINGER ’80 has been named
chief executive officer for the National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He has more than 25 years of management experience, most recently serving as executive director of the COPD Foundation, a $10 million national nonprofit agency that assists people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
University of Oklahoma (OU) Director of Athletics JOE CASTIGLIONE ’79 received the 2013 John L. Toner Award from the National Football Foundation to an athletic director who has demonstrated superior administrative abilities and shown outstanding dedication to college athletics, particularly college football. Since he joined the Sooners in 1998, they have won seven national championships and more than 60 conference titles while annually guiding nearly 600 studentathletes to off-field success. His Division I program is self-
sustaining, annually contributing more than an $8 million surplus to OU’s academic budget. MICHELLE JOHNSON ’79, an associate
professor at Boston University has been named 2013 Educator of the Year by the National Association of Black Journalists. Prior to joining the BU faculty in 2009, Johnson was technology manager at Emerson College’s School of Communication. She earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University. She previously was editor of the NABJ Journal, is a member of the Boston Association of Black Journalists, and was a founding national board member of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association and a co-founder of its New England chapter. LUIS A. LUNA ’78
has been named chief executive officer of Lower Shore Enterprises (LSE), which provides employment opportunities to workers with disabilities. For the past six months, Luna served as director of operations at LSE, and before that, as an assistant administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He has a law degree from Georgetown University.
RICK COLLIN ’77
recently joined Odney, a public relations firm in Bismarck, N.D., as director of the strategic engagement team. He has more than 30 years of experience in news reporting, public relations, media relations and communications. He most recently was the communications and outreach director for the State Historical Society of North Dakota Foundation. He also teaches American history and political science at the University of Mary in Bismarck. Collin earned a master of science degree in space studies from the University of North Dakota.
KEVIN MAXWELL ’77, PH.D. ’02 is the new chief executive officer of the Prince George’s County Public Schools, following seven years as superintendent of the school system in neighboring Anne Arundel County. With 123,000 students, Prince George’s is the state’s second-largest school district. He is a product of its schools and spent 22 years as a teacher and administrator there.
KEVIN SHEA ’76 has been appointed administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service after serving as acting administrator since June 2012. He has spent more than 20 years at the agency. He earned a law degree, summa cum laude, from the University of Baltimore.
TERRENCE SCHOFIELD ’82 and Christine Chum-
bler exchanged wedding vows June 29 at their home on the banks of the Little Applegate River in Jacksonville, Ore. He is affiliated with Resilient Systems. In Less Than a Minute to Go: The Secret to World-class Performance in Sport, Business and Everyday Life, BILL THIERFELDER ’82 reveals the secrets
to becoming a worldclass performer, making peak performance a common occurrence and playing with
passion. A former AllAmerican track star at Maryland, he is a licensed psychologist, president of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., and the father of 10 children. The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) inducted MEL WAGNER ’82 into its Hall of Fame. He is employed part-time by TRIAM LLC in Sterling, Va., and was honored for his leadership role in the Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (CJMTK) for geo-processing and visualization in the Department of Defense. Wagner’s career spanned 37 years as a government employee with NGA, and an additional 10 years supporting the CJMTK program as a contractor for NGA. Baltimore City Circuit JUDGE W. MICHEL PIERSON ’70 has been named administrative judge for the Eighth Judicial Circuit (Baltimore), effective Dec. 1. Pierson was appointed to the Circuit Court for Baltimore in 2004, and has been judgein-charge of the civil docket since 2009, and a judge in the court’s Business and Technology Program since 2008. He earned his J.D. with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law and is an adjunct faculty member there.
Passings Amy Friedheim M.A. ’89, a specialist in international tax, finance and transfer pricing, died July 22 in a San Francisco hospice after a three-year battle with cancer. She was 53. Born in Seattle, she later moved to Reston, VA., graduated from Herndon High School, then University of Southern California and served in the Peace Corps in Lesotho. She earned a master’s in economics from Maryland, specializing in international trade and finance and public choice. Friedheim held managerial, investigational and analytic positions in several government agencies, including the Government Accountability Office, the Senate Finance Committee and the Department of the Treasury, where she was with the Competent Authority when she died. She also worked at private companies such as Intel and GE Capital. An inveterate traveler, she also loved soccer, skiing, scuba diving and kayaking, as well as music, books and public radio. Survivors include her mother, Robin Friedheim of Carlsbad, Calif., and a sister. Bruce Rawlings ’81 died Aug. 23 at Med Star Montgomery Hospital. He was 54. Born in Olney, Md., Rawlings graduated from Gaithersburg High School and worked for a Maryland C.P.A. firm until 1987. He then moved to New Hampshire, where he became corporate controller and an information technology specialist. Rawlings was an avid sports enthusiast and a New Hampshire Class A racquetball champion. He is survived by his parents, J. Daniel and Sally B. Rawlings, of Laytonsville, Md. He also leaves behind his former wife, Dyann Hall Rawlings, and four brothers, Kevin, Brian, Dana and Dale Rawlings.
Patricia M. (Clements) Graham M.A ’73, a former high school English teacher who spent most of her career at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville, died Aug. 1 at her home in Medford, Ore., according to The Washington Post. She was 79 and had congestive heart failure. She graduated from Eastern High School in 1950 and from the University of Hawaii in 1969. She received a master’s degree in special studies from George Washington University in 1979. At Northwestern High, Graham helped develop an Advanced Placement English program, coordinated an interdisciplinary program for talented and gifted students and helped sponsor a National Honor Society chapter. In 1980, she received one of 15 Outstanding Educator awards from the Prince George’s school system. She received grants and fellowships for professional study at the University of Maryland, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. She retired in 1999 after 30 years in the Prince George’s public school system and moved to Oregon in 2005. Her marriage to retired Air Force Maj. John S. Graham ended in divorce. Survivors include two daughters, Jill L. Graham of Ashland, Ore., and Robyn L. Graham of Rockville, and four grandchildren. John Allen Hawkins D.M.A. ’80 died May 9 following a two-month bout with pancreatic cancer. He was 61. Hawkins earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from West Virginia University. He moved to Keyser, W.Va., in 1979 to work at Potomac State College, where he taught music appreciation, music theory, great composers and jazz history for 34 years. A piano player, he organized and performed with the Potomac State Jazz Singers as well as with the Potomac State College Community Band and as a solo pianist and as part of a trio or quartet at FALL 2013 TERP 39
functions around the area. Over the years, he produced and musically directed numerous productions for Potomac State College Community Theater, and he penned the original score for “McNeill’s Rangers,” which was originally performed by the Apple Alley Players, of which John was a member. Hawkins was also a longtime member of St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Westernport, Md. Surviving are his wife of nearly 37 years, Mary Theresa (Lockard) Hawkins; four children, Matthew Hawkins of Charlotte, N.C., Mary Kathryn Hawkins of Baltimore, Samuel Hawkins of Morgantown, W.Va., and Anthony Hawkins of Keyser; a grandson, Braedan Hawkins; and a half-sister, Dawn Williams of Baltimore. Thomas C. Allder ’64, a circulation manager for The Washington Post for 30 years, died of respiratory failure and a stroke July 15 at Anne Arundel Medical Center, according to The Post. He was 72. Allder graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and attended the University of Maryland law school in Baltimore. After retiring from The Post in 2001, Allder enjoyed playing golf at the Potomac Ridge Golf Course in Waldorf. His marriage to Sally Jane Wolford ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife of 27 years, Myrna Robey Allder of Annapolis; three children from his first marriage, Thomas C. Allder Jr. and Matthew V. Allder, both of Little Compton, R.I., and Elizabeth J. Allder-Wordell of Portsmouth, R.I.; a stepdaughter, Charlene Robey of Annapolis; and six grandchildren. William Graham Carpenter M.S. ’56, Ph.D. ’60, a retired chemical researcher and inventor, died Aug. 26, 2013. He was 82. A native of Buckhannon, W.Va., Graham graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College (WVWC) and Maryland, earning a doctor of organic chemistry degree. Graham was a concertmaster for the orchestra and band at WVWC, playing saxophone and clarinet. Graham’s career included industrial chemical research with organic 40 TERP FALL 2013
chemistry, polymers and corrosion engineering. He was granted 24 patents and worked for American Cyanamid, NL Industries, Pennwalt and Ashland Chemical. Graham was an active member of St. Francis by the Sea Catholic Church and member of the Knights of Columbus. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Mary Jane Carpenter; two sons, Daniel and Michael, both of Westerville, Ohio; his granddaughter, Stella Carpenter; and his brother, Paul, of Elkins. He was preceded in death by his sister, Thelma Meadows of Woodbridge, Va; his daughter, Julia A. Carpenter; and his granddaughter, Ellen K. Carpenter. Frank Weedon ’54, an administrator in North Carolina State athletics for five decades, died Sept. 2 at his Raleigh home. He was 82. After earning his journalism degree, Weedon spent two years as information director at Lehig University and three years as a European counterintelligence officer in the army. He arrived at N.C. State in 1960 and rose from sports information director, putting together the first Wolfpack Radio Network, to associate director of athletics, where he helped organize the first national telecast of an ACC regular-season basketball game (against the Terps in College Park on Super Bowl Sunday 1973), which helped land the ACC its first TV contract for men’s basketball. Weedon retired in 1996, but he showed up regularly for the next 15 years as a senior associate athletics director emeritus. He was the unofficial athletics department historian. Weedon was preceded in death by his wife, Janice, in 2008. He is survived by several nieces and nephews. Marshall E. Baker M.A. ’53, an Air Force colonel who served at the U.S. Embassy in Paris in the 1950s and participated in planning efforts of the F-111 fighter bomber, died July 31 at his home in Alexandria, according to The Washington Post. He was 93. Baker joined the Army Air Forces just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and served in a bomber unit in England during World War II. He later served
with postwar occupation forces in Germany and held staff positions at air bases in the United States. In the early 1950s, Baker oversaw administration and finance for a military advisory group at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. He later served as research director at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, where he participated in Cold War policy analysis and the development of the F-111 Aardvark fighter-bomber. He later served in Japan, where he helped develop operational war plans. He was deployed to Korea after North Korean forces captured the USS Pueblo, a Navy research ship, in 1968. Baker was an adviser to Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird at the Pentagon before his retirement in 1973. He also received a master’s degree in public administration from Harvard University in 1961. Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Muriel Jokisch Baker of Alexandria; three children, David Baker of Greenfield, Mass., Michele Bennett of Troutville, Va., and Mark Baker of Manassas, Va.; six grandsons; and a great-granddaughter. James H. Collins Jr. ’53, a retired senior executive with AT&T’s finance division, died Aug. 17 of a heart attack and congestive heart failure at a hospital in Southern Pines, N.C., according to The Washington Post. He was 90. After Navy service in the South Pacific during World War II, he attended Maryland on the GI Bill. Collins then began a 40-year career as a certified public accountant with Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co., an AT&T subsidiary. He was posted in Tehran by AT&T in the late 1970s and retired in 1982. His wife, Gertrude Hamill, whom he married in 1949, died in 2004. Survivors include four children, James V. Collins of Omaha, Neb., Richard J. Collins of Belle Mead, N.J., George E. Collins of Prague and Key West, Fla., and Jean C. Guilbert of Atlanta; and six grandchildren. Hugh D. Sisler ’49, M.S. ’51, Ph.D. ’53, a retired professor emeritus of botany at Maryland, died Aug. 3 at Vantage House in Columbia, Md. He was 90.
The third of 13 children, Sisler grew up on a 20-acre farm in Friendsville, Md. During WWII he joined the Navy and posted to Attu in the Aleutian Islands for 18 months, then transferred to Okinawa until the end of the war. He enrolled at Maryland on the GI Bill and studied plant pathology and plant physiology. In 1966, he was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the Organisch Chemisch Institute in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Later, Sisler was appointed botany department chairman and retired in 1989 after more than 40 years of service to the university. He authored numerous publications on metabolic inhibitions and co-edited the book Plant Virology. He served as visiting lecturer to the Greek Atomic Energy Commission, the School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and the Environmental Protection Agency; chairman and vice chairman of the Cordon Research conferences; as associated editor of Phytopathology, and as a member of the Chemical Control Committee. He was preceded in death by his wife of 62 years, Patricia H. Sisler, and is survived by their children, Barbara Sisler Shuster, Roger Delane Sisler and Nancy Sisler Bowers; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. Victor “Vic” Turyn ’49, a retired Federal Bureau of Investigation official who had been an outstanding quarterback at Maryland in the 1940s, died Aug. 11 of heart failure at his Ellicott City home, according to The Baltimore Sun. He was 91. Turyn was raised in Holden, W.Va., where his father worked as a coal miner and his mother ran a boardinghouse for miners. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the Navy and served 19 months in the South Pacific during World War II. Recruited to play for the Navy football team despite no background in the sport, he was asked at the first practice by the coach, the legendary Paul William “Bear” Bryant, what position he played and he answered, “Quarterback.” After the war, he followed Bryant to his head coaching job at Maryland. “We
VIC TURYN '49, SHOWN RUNNING FOR 15 YARDS AGAINST MIAMI IN A 1948 GAME, WENT ON TO PLAY IN THAT YEAR'S GATOR BOWL AGAINST GEORGIA, WHICH ENDED IN A 20-20 TIE.
were discharged in Norfolk, Va., enrolled at Maryland the next day, and six days after that, opened the season with a 60-6 victory over Guilford College,” Turyn told The Evening Sun in a 1971 interview. He later played under Maryland coaches Clark Shaughnessy and Jim Tatum. After graduating from College Park, he began a 23-year career with the FBI. He spoke Russian and was an expert in espionage, working on such high-visibility cases as the $1.4 million Brinks robbery in Boston and the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg spy case. After leaving the FBI, he was assistant to the president of the S.L. Hammerman Organization, and then worked as head of security and vice president of operations for the Baltimore branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, from which he retired in the 1980s. He is survived by his wife, the former Eileen Dorothy Simpson, whom he met at Maryland and married in 1946, as well as three daughters, Kathleen Stempkovski of Elkridge, Laureen Peck of Randallstown and Noreen Turyn of Lynchburg, Va.; a son, Thomas Turyn of Ormond-by-the-Sea, Fla.; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
on the mats that Neil made a name for himself. From 1939–41, McNeil was undefeated in 41 matches and he won the light-heavyweight title (175 pounds) at the 1941 Southern Conference championships. McNeil was welcomed into the Maryland Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. After graduating from Maryland, he entered the Army and later joined the Marines, where he was an officer for 27 years, until his retirement in 1969. His obituary in the Greensboro News & Record reports McNeil was the first American serviceman to set foot in Yokohama Harbor at the end of World War II, taking surrender papers to Japanese officials there. McNeil also served in the Korean War and Vietnam War, earning numerous citations. He is survived by two sons and a granddaughter; he was preceded in death by his wife, Virginia, and a middle son. PAUL MCNEIL '41 WAS INDUCTED INTO THE MARYLAND SPORTS HALL OF FAME IN 2005. IN 41 WRESTLING MATCHES AS A TERP, HE WENT UNDEFEATED.
Paul McNeil ’42, a former Terp football player and wrestler who never lost a match while at Maryland, died at Hospice of the Piedmont in High Point, N.C., on July 4. He was 93. McNeil attended the University of Maryland on a football scholarship, but it was
Photos from top: courtesy of 1949 Terrapin; courtesy of 1940 Terrapin
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INTERPRETATIONS
UMD’s 2020 Vision The year is 2020. Our scientists are in hot pursuit of quantum computing and new drugs to cure disease. Our scholars have teamed up with a landmark Washington museum, boosting our impact in the arts. In College Park, an enhanced university town takes shape along Route 1, with safer, more vibrant neighborhoods… UMD is working hard to make this vision a reality by 2020. We are a great public research university. Our vision is to be a great research and innovation university, globally networked. Innovation springs from our land-grant tradition of putting knowledge into practice. C O M M E N T: president@umd.edu We generate and apply fearless ideas to improve the human condition, promote ecoT W I T T E R : @presidentloh nomic vitality and solve great challenges—like feeding, healing, housing, and transporting people sustainably. We innovate by forging strategic partnerships with top universities here and abroad, companies, government agencies and nonprofits. In an era when public universities must get leaner and smarter, we go further with others than we can alone. We aim for a 4.0 in the four A’s: academics, athletics, the arts and our surroundings’ ambience. Our strategy is to partner on bold initiatives in these areas. In academics, we collaborate with the University of Maryland, Baltimore through the MPowering the State initiative. Our expertise in engineering, public health and the physical, biological and computational sciences, combined with Baltimore’s in the health sciences, can produce commercially promising therapeutic advances. This year, we will take a leadership role in Maryland’s burgeoning biotechnology industry. MPower will partner with the National Institute We aim for a 4.0 in the of Standards and Technology and drug companies near I-270 to develop four A’s: academics, next-generation therapeutics. athletics, the arts In the arts, we are discussing a partnership with the Corcoran Gallery and our surroundings’ and College of Art + Design, a block from the White House. Combining UMD’s comprehensive, academic resources with the Corcoran’s renowned ambience. $2 billion American and contemporary art collection, promises incalculable benefits for all, elevating UMD as a leader in arts and culture. The Corcoran will be our intellectual “front porch” in Washington, hosting public programs. In athletics, we prepare for a new era in the Big Ten. This partnership ensures Maryland athletics’ long-term financial stability and better student-athlete support. Already, we are working to develop an indoor practice facility, and students, faculty and staff are participating in shared academic activities through the Big Ten’s Committee on Institutional Cooperation. The ambience of neighborhoods surrounding campus—their vitality, traffic, schools and safety— affects our ability to recruit top talent. In partnership with local officials, we are pursuing a 2020 vision of College Park as a top-tier university town. Our increased UMD police force just began joint efforts with county officers to maximize off-campus safety. With the city, UMD helped establish an innovative public charter school. We are partnering with developers to revitalize Route 1 with an upscale hotelconference center, housing and retail, and improved traffic. Our vision and strategic partnerships in all these areas add up to a “quadruple-A” advantage keeping UMD on its upward trajectory.
”
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—Wallace D. Loh, President
42 TERP FALL 2013
PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI
I’m using lasers and computer software to test how the speed, size and spray pattern of sprinklers battle blazes under different conditions. How to design a smarter sprinkler—that’s the burning question. ANDRE W. MARSHALL PH.D. ’96 ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR / FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING
FROM RESEARCH TO DEVELOPMENT TO LAUNCH, UMD IS DEDICATED TO THE POWER OF FEARLESS IDEAS.
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HOMECOMING WEEKEND / OCT. 26–27, 2013 SUPERSIZED LINEUP OF ACTIVITIES!
FRIDAY NIGHT PRE-PARTY (NEW!) MCKELDIN MALL
INFLATABLE RIDES / GAMES OF CHANCE BEER GARDEN / MUSIC / STEP SHOW GREEK HOSPITALITY TENT PEP RALLY / FIREWORKS
SATURDAY GAMEDAY
SAMUEL RIGGS IV ALUMNI CENTER REMEMBER THE RED PARTY indoor BBQ, beer and wine, live music / TERP TOWN featuring
inflatables, face painting, music, autograph session / THE MIGHTY SOUND OF MARYLAND marching band / CHEERLEADERS / FOOD
Roar!
AS THE TERPS TAME THE CLEMSON TIGERS
NO MATTER WHERE LIFE TAKES YOU, YOU’RE
Wear your red. Prepare to laugh, cheer, reminisce and make new Terp memories. See HOMECOMING.UMD.EDU for a full schedule of activities and to purchase tickets.