UMBC Power Outage in the News

During the power outage, UMBC students turned to games and conversation, the Baltimore Sun reported.

The Arbutus Patch also covered the power outage with the articles, “Transformer Explosion Knocks Out UMBC Power,” “UMBC Remains Closed After Transformer Explosion” and “Power Returning to UMBC.”

Donald Norris, Public Policy, on WBAL and in the Baltimore Sun

Baltimore’s mayoral election will be a referendum on current Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, argued UMBC public policy chair Donald F. Norris, in WBAL’s weekend coverage of the race. The list of candidates continues to grow—now including Otis Rolley III, Joseph T. “Jody” Landers and state Sen. Catherine E. Pugh—but Norris suggests it is Rawlings-Blake’s election to lose, given her political influence and campaign funding. “To the extent that there is an anti-Rawlings-Blake vote, it will be spread among the people running against her,” he argued in the Baltimore Sun, though he also noted, “Voters don’t start paying attention until really close to the election.”

Disappearance of Journalist Matthew VanDyke Receives Renewed Attention

Sharon VanDyke last heard her son Matthew’s voice on March 12, as the journalist set off for a day trip from Benghazi to Brega. Baltimore-born Matthew VanDyke ’02, political science, has now been missing in Libya for three months. Following a May 23 news conference held by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (MD-D), a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, VanDyke’s disappearance and efforts to secure his release are receiving renewed attention. An AP article on VanDyke was picked up by a range of media, from local TV stations WBAL and WBFF, to online news sites like the Huffington Post, to major newspapers around the country, including the Miami Herald, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post Intelligencer and Atlanta Journal Constitution. In the article, UMBC political science professor Thomas Schaller called VanDyke one of his smartest students, saying, “He has thirst for life and to do things that people told him he can’t do or shouldn’t do,” and, “I just know he’s going to come out on the other end with quite a yarn.”

Thomas F. Schaller, Political Science, in Baltimore Sun and Sabato’s Crystal Ball

As the 2012 election season approaches, analysts have begun examining campaign strategies and the strengths and weaknesses of prospective candidates. Political science professor Thomas F. Schaller’s latest Baltimore Sun column argues that a relatively weak GOP presidential field may be due to President Obama’s incumbency as well as an increased Republican Party focus on state-level congressional and gubernatorial races. “The smart play for ambitious and, especially, young Republican pols is to noisily flirt with the idea of running next year—but wait until the following cycle to actually do so,” argues Schaller. However, regardless of how Republicans fare in the 2012 presidential race, he suggests the campaign may still offer an opportunity for candidates to test out new ideas and messages related to health care, entitlement reform and the deficit. For a state-level analysis of the 2006, 2008 and 2010 elections and what they might say about 2012, see Schaller’s guest column on Sabato’s Crystal Ball. There he examines demography in relation to the political races in four key states: Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Informed by Hilltop Research, O’Malley Appoints MD Health Benefit Exchange Board

Governor Martin O’Malley announced appointees to a nine-member board that will oversee Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange, a website where state residents will be able to “compare rates, benefits and quality among health insurance plans to help them find one that best suits their needs.” O’Malley also signed executive orders to establish the Governor’s Office of Health Care Reform (OHCR), extend and expand the Health Care Reform Coordinating Council (HCRCC), and enhance the role of the Maryland Health Quality and Cost Council (HQCC) “to include a focus on health disparities and strategies for collecting and disseminating patient-centered outcomes.” The governor’s health care reform strategy is informed by research from The Hilltop Institute at UMBC. The Columbia Flier reports that, according to Hilltop, “implementing the federal Affordable Care Act will save Maryland an estimated $850 million and cut the number of Marylanders without health insurance in half by 2020.”

Zeynep Tufekci, Sociology, in The Atlantic

In “Oral Culture, Literate Culture, Twitter Culture,” Alexis Madrigal, senior editor of the Atlantic, summarizes and reflects on a compelling new essay about shifting modes of communication by UMBC’s Zeynep Tufekci, assistant professor of sociology. “Social media may be a throwback to the oral cultures that preceded the printing press and education-aided diffusion of literacy,” notes Madrigal. It is this concept that Tufekci explores through a deconstruction of recent critical comments about Twitter by the New York Times’ Bill Keller. “What we are seeing with social media is the public sphere, hitherto dominated by written culture, has been more opened up to oral psychodynamics,” argues Tufekci, “And this is particularly difficult to deal with for intellectuals who rely on their competence with, and dominance of, the written form as hallmark of their place in society.”

Tufekci also appeared on a Washington Post blog, commenting on Twitter protocol for well-known users, in the light of the Rep. Anthony Weiner tweeted photo story. She reminds readers that it’s important to remember the platform’s public nature and to apply the same logic to communicating on Twitter that you would to other public interactions. Also this week, the Al-Masry Al-Youm covered Tufekci’s participation in the event “Internet and Social Change: Social media and collective action under autocracies” at Cairo University. According to the news site, “She pointed out that isolation was key to autocratic rule in the Middle East,” but as media has moved from a “one-to-many action” to a “many-to-many” collaboration, safety for citizen journalists “lies in numbers and connectivity.”

UMBC Bookstore on Foreword Online

The UMBC Bookstore is featured on Foreword Online, a blog about innovative college stores. The article describes a recent contest on the bookstore’s Facebook page.

Ellen Handler Spitz, Visual Arts, in the New Republic

In her recent column for the New Repulbic entitled “Yellow Brick Philosophy,” Ellen Handler Spitz, Honors College professor of visual arts, revisits L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” the first in his series of Oz books. She addresses rumors that the series will be revisited by Hollywood:

It may be too much to hope that a new movie of Oz directed by Sam Raimi will try to convey any of this intellectual richness. Yet beyond spreading color, invention, and enchantment, L. Frank Baum’s masterpiece remains a literary work that inspires children to think; its well-worn printed pages and its quaint pictures open onto serious and expansive vistas of mental excursion.

Kimberly Moffitt, American Studies, and Shawn Bediako, Psychology, on “The Marc Steiner Show”

Assistant Professor of American Studies Kimberly Moffitt and Assistant Professor of Psychology Shawn Bediako appeared on “The Marc Steiner Show” May 24 to discuss the controversial study, “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women?” which was recently released and subsequently taken down from a blog of the popular journal Psychology Today. The study has been widely critiqued by the scientific community, as well as feminist and African American groups. It has also sparked strong responses across the Internet, from the Psychology Today website itself, Twitter and news blogs such as Salon.com. Moffitt and Bediako appeared on the show with comedienne, actress and author Marshelle, where they discussed perceptions of African American beauty in American society and the implications of this study for the body image of African American women.

Bill Thomas, Erickson School, on PWRN Radio

UMBC Erickson School professor and gerontologist Bill Thomas appeared May 24 on PWRN Radio in the segment, “Changing Aging and the Future of Boomer Elderhood.” Thomas is founder of the Eden Alternative and Green House Project, and author of the acclaimed “What Are Old People For? How Elders Will Save the World.” He will also speak at “TEDxSF Alive!” on Saturday, June 4, in San Francisco. Registration is open online.