Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID MAGAZINE Baltimore, MD Fall 2010 Permit #6776 UMBC MAGAZINE University of Maryland, Baltimore County 1000 Hilltop Circle Baltimore, MD 21250 Come back to campus for Retriever Fever! • 5K Dawg Chase: Challenge yourself • A Taste of UMBC: Prep your palates Take in a soccer game or art event. Relax with a fun run around the UMBC and get ready to enjoy foods from at the picnic or find your school spirit campus. around the world as we celebrate the at the bonfire. We’ve got something for university’s diversity. • UMBC Community Picnic Lunch: everyone at this celebration of all things Enjoy a delicious barbecue lunch with • Alumni Chapter Events: Join CYA for UMBC. For a complete schedule and friends. karaoke night, and CBLA for a RATT ticket information, visit www.umbc.edu/ Reunion! Plus, check the schedule for homecoming. • An Arts & Humanities Afternoon: gatherings of Meyerhoff, athletic and Should judges decide such social issues as Join us for readings by UMBC faculty • Alumni of the Year Awards Ceremony: Asian alumni groups. and alumni. Join us as we celebrate our distinguished abortion and gay marriage? Leading legal alumni! • The 70s, A Look Back: Join us to reminisce about the good old days! theorist Robin West ’76 argues no. • Men’s Soccer Game vs. Boston University: Root the Retrievers on to victory against conference rival Boston University. Tapping Into The Wire | We’re (Still) #1 | Discovering Chemistry Success Chad is a championship coach. Chad is an alumnus. Chad supports the UMBC Annual Fund. “I have every reason to give. I had some great professors, and my experience Spend a semester inside UMBC’s pioneering Chemistry Discovery Center and you’ll find as an athlete was very positive. My athletes deserve my support, my program that its successes are rooted in teamwork – and two hours a week without Twitter deserves my support, and the university deserves my support. I don’t know and Twinkies. Plus: A look at how Philip Rous, dean of the College of Natural and what my life would be like without UMBC.” Mathematical Sciences, is extending the active — Chad Cradock ’97, psychology learning concept to other departments. Head coach, UMBC Swimming & Diving Team, winner of seven 14 By Ann Griswold consecutive America East titles and nine conference championships www.umbc.edu/giving www.umbc.edu/magazine CONTENTS Are rulings by judges the best way to settle hot-button departments issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion? No, argues Robin L. West ’76, philosophy, a law professor To You 2 at Georgetown University Law Center. From You 3 By Richard Byrne ’86 Up on the Roof 4 22 Campus Treasure 5 Courting Controversy The News 6 At Play 8 American Studies professor Kimberly Moffitt felt like a stranger when she moved Discovery 10 to Baltimore. But her research on attitudes to the How To 36 gritty HBO crime drama brought the city closer to home. Plus: Case files on Class Notes 38 three UMBC alumni who appeared in The Wire. Then & Now 47 28 By Richard Byrne ’86 Over Coffee 48 Tapping into The Wire Did you know the Velvet Underground played at UMBC in 1969? We look at that memorable concert and a recent campus performance by dynamic hip-hop artist Wale. By John Strausbaugh ’74 and Stefanie Mavronis ’12 on the cover 47 Courting Controversy illustration by Chris Buzelli. Then & Now Visit UMBC Magazine online at www.umbc.edu/magazine for plenty of web extras! Thoughts, complaints, suggestions about UMBC Magazine? Get in touch at [email protected]. UMBC MAGAZINE | FALL 2010 2 TO YOU How did you get through UMBC? Many UMBC alumni do it the hard way. Working day jobs o u r s t a f f (or the night shift) as they earn their degrees. They didn’t just thirst for knowledge; they broke a sweat to make sure that Editor they got it. Richard Byrne ’86 Count two alumnae featured in this issue – Robin West Associate Editor ’76, philosophy and Tootsie Duvall ’75, theatre – among Jenny O’Grady that group. West is a professor at Georgetown University Law Design Director Center and one of the nation’s most prolific and provocative legal theorists. And Duvall’s Jim Lord ’99 acting career has spanned four decades and includes network sitcoms and the HBO series, . Designers The Wire Michelle Jordan ’93 Both women worked their way through school, and reminisced about it in interviews Erin Ouslander ’03 with UMBC Magazine. Melissa Van der Kaay “I worked through UMBC as a waitress,” West recalls. “You could still do that back UMBC News Staff then, and come out of it with virtually no debt.” Chelsea Haddaway Duvall also worked her way through school. She recalls that UMBC theatre professor B. Rose Huber Bill Brown and other UMBC faculty “taught me how to live. Because I was pretty much Anthony Lane on my own by the time I was 18. They really took me under their wing.” Brown even Contributing Writers helped Duvall secure a scholarship that allowed her to finish her degree. David Driver West and Duvall also agree about the quality of their UMBC education. “I still have Ann Griswold very strong and positive memories of educational experiences at UMBC that were Blair Grubb ’76 tremendously important to me,” West says. “I felt very nurtured at UMBC intellectually.” Stefanie Mavronis ’12 Under the tutelage of Brown and other professors, Duvall obtained the skills and the Meredith Purvis Jeff Seidel ’85 visibility to leap from UMBC to the ABC sitcom Angie. “Brown started the summer Joel Shurkin theatre program,” she recalls. “That’s where I originally got seen and where I could meet John Strausbaugh ’74 [All in the Family star] Jean Stapleton, who was my mentor as a comedy and character Mark Trainer actress.” Contributing Illustrators/ This is why assisting students with the costs of attending UMBC is a top priority in Photographers the university’s philanthropic efforts. Helping students who are willing to work hard Chris Buzelli and stretch themselves financially to get their degrees is an investment that pays off. The Chris Hartlove successes of West and Duvall are cases in point. Howard Korn Jim Lord ’99 Erin Ouslander ’03 UMBC Magazine at UMBC Homecoming! This year’s UMBC Homecoming Melissa Van der Kaay (October 13-16) promises to be the best ever! (Check our calendar at www.umbc.edu/ homecoming.) Administration Greg Simmons ’04, M.P.P. UMBC Magazine is sponsoring an “Arts and Humanities Afternoon” on Saturday, Vice President, Institutional Advancement October 16. Hear bestselling faculty author Christopher Corbett (featured in the Summer 2010 issue) spin yarns of the Wild West at 2 p.m. And playwriting’s the thing Miriam Tillman at 3 p.m., with staged readings of works by UMBC alumnae Kara Corthron ’99 and Assistant Vice President, Marketing & Kathleen Warnock ’80, followed by a discussion with the playwrights – and a preview Creative Services of future UMBC Theatre productions. We hope to see you there! Sandra Dzija – Richard Byrne ‘86 Director, Strategic Initiatives For information on the Alumni Association, please visit http://retrievernet.umbc.edu or call 410-455-ALUM. For information on giving to UMBC, please contact the Annual Fund at 410-455-2210 or visit www.umbc.edu/exceptional. www.umbc.edu/magazine FROM YOU 3 UMBC Magazine welcomes your letters RAVE REVIEWS FROM to the editor on any issue related to the BEYOND THE LOOP content of the magazine. Readers can e-mail comments to [email protected]. Faxed I just received some printing samples comments are accepted at 410-455-1889. from The Watkins Printing Company in Readers can also send letters to “Letters to today’s mail and the UMBC Summer 2010 magazine was among the samples. Just the Editor,” UMBC Magazine, 1000 Hilltop wanted to say congratulations on a great Circle, Administration Building, Baltimore, job. I love the grenade/mouse image on the MD 21250. cover, the clean design, and the balance of the historical and the contemporary design. PHILANTHROPIC And, of course, the article about Jim Lord’s THOUGHTS new dawg design. Great stuff. You should be proud. One thing that strikes me about the online version of UMBC Magazine is that there Brenda Foster isn’t an obvious way to make an alumni Partner, GCF, Baltimore donation. Driving people to the site with GREAT IDEAS your e-mail is a great idea (and, in my case, it I get dozens of alumni magazines from What a great magazine! I really enjoyed it. worked!) – but once they get there it might other universities forwarded to my office Who could resist all that tempting food – be nice to have a direct path to turning that every month. I’m sure you probably do too. and the nostalgic late-night photo of the into a donation. I’d think a big DONATE The vast majority of them go straight into Double T. (UMBC Magazine, Winter 2010) NOW button in the sidebar would be fine. the recycle bin. But UMBC Magazine is As a writer, I love telling the stories of our Just a thought... one of the few that I actually look forward ancestors. I believe that everyone has a Brian Cuthie ’84, computer science to sitting down and reading over a lunch fascinating, unique life story to tell. Our and M.S. ’94, computer science break – or even taking home. (And I have history shapes who we are. I would enjoy Member, UMBC Alumni Board of Directors absolutely no connection to your school!) reading in-depth profiles of current and I just want to compliment you and your past faculty and students.