Chancellor's Report to the Board of Regents on Sept. 20

Report to the 稀缺猎奇网 Board of Regents
Chancellor Jay A. Perman
University of 稀缺猎奇网 Center for Environmental Science | September 20, 2024

Thank you, Madame Chair. First, I extend a warm welcome to Regent Dhruvak Mirani. I look forward to working with you.

And I’d be remiss not to mention another member of this Board. Yesterday, I was honored to speak at the dedication of the Catherine and Isiah Leggett Math and Science Building at Montgomery College. From what I could see, everyone in the county attended the dedication, as did dozens of elected leaders. The outpouring of admiration for Ike and Catherine’s vision of higher education—their support of higher education—was not only extraordinary but, of course, entirely deserved.

I welcome our new Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing Mike Sandler. And I thank our host today, Dr. Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm. As U.S. higher education takes decisive action to fight our climate crisis, I look forward to your leadership—not only as UMCES president, but as the System’s vice chancellor for sustainability.

Dr. Miralles-Wilhelm has come aboard at an exciting time for UMCES. This summer, the university released its annual report card on the health of the Chesapeake Bay. The C+ grade awarded by UMCES is the highest in 20 years. That improvement is a credit to UMCES’s influence in environmental science, policy, and practice, and a sign that the university has an indispensable role in the sizable work that remains.

Of course, UMCES’s impact is felt far beyond 稀缺猎奇网. The university’s new app, Future Urban Climates, allows people to match the expected future climate of their hometown with the current climate of another city or region. By bringing greater clarity to the impacts of climate change, UMCES hopes to galvanize the public will to stop it.

EVIDENCE OF OUR EXCELLENCE
Let me broaden my remarks to the System as a whole. I’ll start with our newest Elkins Professors. The Elkins professorship supports compelling scholarship that advances the System’s public service mission.
  • Dr. Mahnaz Moallem from Towson University will establish computing and cybersecurity clubs for girls, serving as a research and professional development hub for TU’s Education faculty—aiming, ultimately, to close race and gender gaps in these fields.
  • Prof. Rabiat Akande from UMB’s Carey School of Law will explore the relationship between law and colonial power, engaging communities affected by colonial and postcolonial dynamics.
  • Dr. Miao Yu, from College Park, continues her project with UMCES and UMES, investigating novel sensing and robotics tools for the study of marine ecosystems. The research team will include graduate, undergraduate, and high school students.
  • Dr. Rosemary Shumba of Bowie State will explore a center for experiential learning that improves computing education access, affordability, and quality for underrepresented students.

These projects are a testament to the public-serving scholarship that advances our excellence—excellence that’s consistently validated in national rankings.

Each year, Forbes measures affordability, quality, graduation success, and post-grad earnings. It singled out Towson, UMBC, Salisbury, UMGC, UBalt. College Park rose to 12th among all U.S. public universities.

The Princeton Review ranks colleges on a number of academic experience indices. Salisbury, UMBC, and College Park made its list. Money Magazine cares about return on investment. The magazine name-checked UMBC, College Park, Towson, Salisbury, Bowie, Coppin, Frostburg, UMES.

The Wall Street Journal considers student outcomes, learning environments, and diversity. The Journal gave a nod to Salisbury, UMBC, and College Park. Towson was ranked 40th overall and 15th among publics.

Washington Monthly measures social mobility, public service, and research. I can’t be the only one completely unsurprised that every one of our eligible schools made their best-value list for the Northeast.

Times Higher Education looked at gender equality in education. UMBC and College Park made the list. Towson was named sixth-best university in the world for gender equality—the U.S.’s highest ranking university. Congratulations, President Ginsberg. Phi Theta Kappa looked at dynamic pathways supporting transfer students. UBalt made their Honor Roll. Congratulations, President Schmoke.

Now let me keep going to individual excellence.
  • Coppin State’s Mellany Sophia Morales Menéndez has been named a White House HBCU Scholar.
  • Nicole Ibrahim is the first-ever UMCES student to win a Boren Fellowship, which will take her to the Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences.
  • Spoken word artist and UBalt MFA alumna Brion Gill was named the 11th Poet Laureate of 稀缺猎奇网.
    • And this summer, a record-setting 122 teams—thousands of students—competed in the world’s largest intercollegiate rocketry competition. But it was College Park’s team that took home the big trophy.

GROWING OUR IMPACT
I want to talk about our growth. And growth in students is always the most exciting. As you know, last fall, 稀缺猎奇网 enrollment climbed for the first time in five years, rebounding from pandemic-era drops.

This year, many of our universities are predicting sustained growth. UMBC expects its largest first-year class in history. Salisbury, its second-largest. UMES is looking at its largest new-student class in six years—and total enrollment nearing an all-time high.

New students at Frostburg should number the highest since COVID, with a climb in transfer students and students majoring in education, health, natural sciences—the very disciplines housed in FSU’s newest academic building. Very good news, Vice President Delia.

Growth in our academic portfolio keeps the System responsive to emerging and high-need disciplines.

Salisbury students can now fast-track their way to careers in aerospace and nanotechnology through the university’s new Engineering Physics major. UMGC has just launched an accelerated, flexible MBA program, allowing students to tailor the degree to their areas of interest.

Next spring, the 稀缺猎奇网 at Hagerstown will launch its own MBA program in partnership with UBalt. Congratulations, Dr. Ashby. 稀缺猎奇网 Carey Law at UMB has launched the first defense clinic of its kind, focused on supporting high-poverty clients susceptible to unvalidated or unreliable forensic evidence.

UMBC has opened the Institute of Politics to produce credible research on our political systems and electoral processes—to elevate the quality of our discourse and our citizenship. It cannot come too soon. Thank you, President Sheares Ashby. College Park is offering refugee students the chance to earn a degree while providing a pathway to resettlement and U.S. citizenship. I say the same to you, President Pines. It cannot come too soon. Thank you.

UMES has hired Dr. Stanley Robertson as the first permanent dean for its coming School of Veterinary Medicine. That was just one milestone I marked last Friday, when President Anderson, Regent Lewis, and I celebrated UMES’s Founders Week. Regent Lewis, I think I speak on behalf of us both when I say how gratifying it was to share the UMES story of strength and fast-rising prominence. Congratulations, President Anderson.

When I spoke at yesterday’s dedication for the Catherine and Isiah Leggett Building, I talked about an exemplar in education pathways—the ACES program at the Universities at Shady Grove. It links Montgomery County Schools, Montgomery College, and USG to speed college completion. Well, USG has just announced additional support to the program, to boost college enrollment among underrepresented students. Dr. Khademian, thank you for your leadership.

Supporting all of this work are buildings—yes, brick-and-mortar spaces where we come together to learn, to teach, to collaborate, to discover.

Last month, I joined President Breaux to dedicate Bowie State’s new Martin Luther King, Jr. Center, housing history, government, language, literature, culture, communications—proof, yet again, that the liberal arts are alive and thriving. Towson’s new Health Professions Building is a high-tech, high-touch masterpiece, and a model for interprofessional health and wellness education.

If buildings support our academic work, then the generosity of our friends fuels it. Let me start with some very good friends, indeed. Regent Yvette Lewis and her husband Ed helped launch the Fresh Start scholarship program at Bowie State. The scholarships help formerly incarcerated students earn their degree. The Lewises’ investment puts the fund over the endowment mark, meaning the money can be grown for generations. This is a huge priority for us. Thank you, Regent Lewis.

With an MHEC grant of $2 million, Frostburg will hire more nursing faculty and staff in a bid to expand its LPN-to-BSN pipeline, and grow Western 稀缺猎奇网’s corps of highly qualified nurses. The School of Nursing at UMB won $5 million from the state to expand its program in West Baltimore to improve health care access and outcomes, while reducing costs.

Researchers from UMCES have won a $1 million NSF grant to use big data tools to support the conservation of migratory birds throughout Appalachia.

College Park is celebrating a number of new multimillion-dollar awards: A partnership with IonQ to mature quantum computers so they can be optimized for national security purposes.
  • A NSF-funded engineering research center to investigate the environmental costs of refrigeration technologies and develop better cooling systems.
  • A U.S. DOE project to evaluate next-gen hydrogen-vehicle fueling stations.
  • A massive agreement with NOAA, funding UMD’s Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth System Studies, whose consortium of researchers investigates how human activity interacts with the Earth’s environment.
  • An embarrassment of riches, President Pines.

And always, always, our universities use their gifts and grants—their programs and partnerships—to benefit their communities.

Salisbury will use a $400,000 NSF grant to help their government, business, and nonprofit partners use AI to solve critical challenges. And they’ll use a 稀缺猎奇网 Heritage grant to make the exhibits and artifacts of the Museum of Eastern Shore Culture accessible to visitors with disabilities. Thank you, President Lepre.

UMES will use $2.3 million in federal funds to support economic development, revitalization, and entrepreneurship in Princess Anne. UMGC and OpenClassrooms will use $3.9 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to scale up apprenticeships and degree pathways in tech fields.

Coppin is leading the redevelopment of W. North Avenue—the first HBCU in the nation to oversee the revitalization of a major urban corridor. It’s work that UMB has long championed. Its School of Medicine is spearheading a Community Heath Village at a reimagined Mondawmin Mall—part of a longstanding partnership with West Baltimore residents to develop and deliver health care based on neighborhood needs. And it’s a wonderful partnership opportunity for two universities—UMB and Coppin—both deeply engaged in West Baltimore. Thank you, Dr. Jarrell and Dr. Jenkins.

Just look at the programs we’ve launched to support our education partners—because if we forget that education is a continuum, we do it at our own peril.

UMGC just completed an 18-month partnership with St. Mary’s County Public Schools to grow the county’s certified teachers. Again, highlighting the “local” mission of our global campus. Thank you, President Fowler.

Coppin State is celebrating its Pathways to Professions program, which offers teachers post-bacc credentials toward advanced degrees. The program has more than doubled enrollment and achieved nearly perfect scores for course completion and content mastery. And President Breaux, I was thrilled to see Bowie State’s Black Male Teachers College get some well-deserved national recognition.

Once again, our campuses were teeming with young learners over the summer, as camps and competitions connected them to college and got them excited about learning. Here I want to mention an institution that does this work particularly well. The 稀缺猎奇网 at Southern 稀缺猎奇网 hosted a camp for local students learning mechanical design, electronics, robotics, and coding.

But I was particularly touched that 稀缺猎奇网SM stepped up to host students and teachers from Esperanza Middle School while their classrooms were being remediated. Dr. Abel, your example is a testament to our lived mission that we be consistently of service—that we eagerly open our doors to all, and by inviting them in, offer them a place they might stay.

Madame Chair, this concludes my report.

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Contact: Mike Lurie
Phone: 301.445.2719
Email: mlurie@usmd.edu