Between the Columns :: April 2013

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

April 2013

UMD ExpErts OffEr HOME ADvicE | pg. 4

in this issue Peace Talks PG. 2 / DininG

OuT, savinG lives PG. 3 / seekinG Green

Thumbs PG. 5 / iPhOne Fixer PG. 6 / TeachinG

ecOnOmic POwer PG. 7 / canine cOPs PG. 8

Drizin photo by John T. Consoli

Create a tornado in a bottle / dig for fossils / Conquer the Climbing Wall / extinguish a live fire /

eat the fearless riCh tahitian vanilla iCe Cream / Pet a tarantula / toss a football With madieu

Williams ’03 / tour the human brain in 3-d / rePort today’s neWs on-Camera / Play CoW-Pie bingo /

survive a blast in the Wind tunnel / Kiss a Pig / taKe doWn big bird in Wii boWling

GETTING TICKETS

Twenty-two hundred

general admission tickets

to the Sadat Lecture have

been set aside for faculty

and staff. Tickets are

available at the Comcast

Center ticket office. There

is a limit of two tickets per

university ID card. One

person can present up to

three UMD ID cards at the

ticket office.

A “Peace” of their MindsPEacE chairs anticiPatE Dalai lama Visit The universiTy will welcome The Dalai lama To campus to deliver the 2013 Anwar Sadat Lecture for Peace on May 7. Part of the university’s Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development program, the lecture has attracted leaders including Kofi Annan, Nelson Mandela, Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright.

We asked the university’s three peace chairs, based in the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, how his message of peace influences their research on the challenges to improving the human condition:

his hOliness The 14Th Dalai lama

is universally recognized as an ardent advocate

not only of world peace, but also of harmony

among the religions, which he believes to be

a precondition of peace among the nations.

Intensely aware of the spiritual values com-

mon to all peoples, the Dalai Lama has always

emphasized that the world’s religions constitute

a universal heritage, and that our responsibility

is to accept each other through love, compassion

and forgiveness.

suheil bushruiKahlil Gibran Chair for Peace and Values

TO imPrOve The human cOnDiTiOn, we must think about peace in universal terms

because peoples around the world increasingly

see themselves as members of a single human

race. My research—which explores a worldview

approach that moves beyond nationalism,

cultural exclusion and the prevailing Western-

oriented model of peace education—finds

confirmation in the Dalai Lama’s call for

“a sense of universal responsibility” and in his dual

mission: embodying a unique spiritual tradition

while championing human rights worldwide.    hODa mahmOuDi Bahá’í Chair for World Peace

Three ThOuGhTs about the message and

role of His Holiness: First is his inspiring leader-

ship; breakthroughs in history are often due to

great leaders who transform perceptions through

courage and boldness. Second is the principle of

nonviolence, which is often underestimated as a

path to justice and peace. Third is the message of

compassion and its potential power. Compassion

is a good in itself, but in my research I have found

that it is also prudent.

shibley TelhamiAnwar Sadat Chair of Peace & Development

be fearless at maryland day

The 15th annual Maryland Day is coming April 27, and this year’s event is all about showcasing the fearless ideas of our students, staff and faculty. We came up with 15 ways to be fearless at this year’s open house:

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tasty idea saves livesBy ALANA CArCHeDi

A Philadelphia news director in 1991, Julie Drizin was volunteering in a buddy program at a local AIDS service organization. She witnessed the disease’s devastating effects as new friends died shortly after just their first meeting.

Drizin wanted to raise money for other HIV/AIDS victims, so she created Dining Out for Life. The event recruits local restaurants to donate a portion one night’s proceeds to a local AIDS service agency.

“We needed a way to raise money that didn’t require anything excessive from people—no walking, asking friends for money or buying tickets to an expensive gala,” says Drizin, who stepped down from her role in Dining Out for Life. She is director of the university’s Journalism Center on Children & Families. “We needed to let people do what people ordinarily do.”

Today, the fundraiser has spread to more than 3,000 restaurants around the country and brings in more than $3 million a year.

“I had no idea Dining Out for Life would become what it is today,” Drizin says. “What I did know was we had something good enough to share and if it worked in Philadelphia it could work all across the nation … and it does.”

Beehives, BeTTer green roofs and a lab to help students build plug-in and electric vehicles were some of the 15 projects recently given given a total of $225,000 by the University Sustainability Council. Proposals were submitted through the students’ Sustainability Fund. For a full list, visit www.sustainabilityfund.umd.edu.

Between the Columns is published twice per semester by University Marketing and Communications. Story ideas are welcome and should be sent to Monette Bailey, managing editor, at [email protected] or by calling 301.405.4629.The mailing list is generated through University Human Resources. Any changes to names and addresses should be made through ares.umd.edu.

64proposed water bottle filling stations

64Proposed water bottle filling

stations

Food & Friends, which serves people with life-challenging illnesses, is the beneficiary of the D.C.-area Dining Out night on April 25. More than 100 locations will participate, including the Hyattsville Busboys & Poets location (pictured). For a list of restaurants, visit www.diningoutforlife.com/washingtondc/restaurants.

50inefficent

refrigerators proposed to be

replaced through green swaps

14Proposed beehives on dining hall roofs

aT marylanD, our researchers help solve problems on national and international scales, in fields like health care, technology and defense. But they’re also a great resource on everyday household concerns. We scoured the campus for just the right faculty to address a few of them:

how do i know my refrigerator is at the right temperature to keep food safe?

Adjust the temperature until it is 40 degrees Farenheit or a little below. Then sniff your milk. if it keeps for over a week, your refrig-erator is probably cold enough. if food freezes, containers may be too close together, prevent-ing cold air from circulating properly. Get rid of leftovers you’ll never eat, and use up or toss the quarter-inch of mayo left in three jars before touching the

temperature dial.

Janie Dubois, research associate

and laboratory manager, Joint

Institute for Food Safety and Applied

Nutrition

how should i rec ycle my personal electronics?

if at all possible, reuse before recycling. in the case of comput-ers and laptops, everyone likes the new, shiny stuff, but think about upgrading your software and adding more memory. My reuse favorite is donating: to area high schools’ computer clubs, theater companies for props, and charities, but check them out first.if you’re going to recycle, the ePA has a great site to help you find a place to do so: www.epa.gov/

epawaste/conserve/materials/

ecycling/donate.htm.

Bryan Quinn, director of techni-

cal operations, electrical and

computer engineering

when using so much social media, how can i keep personal information secure?

The most important thing is to know your audience. Take Facebook for example. We accumulate many “friends,” but if they don’t appear in our News Feed, we may forget they’re there. Learn how the various privacy settings work on each site you use. Also, there are certain pieces of information you should never share online: where you were born and your full birth date. researchers recently showed that your Social Security number can be predicted with that information.

Jessica Vitak, assistant professor,

new communication technologies

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ExpErts tAcklE your

Cut paper art by Catherine Nichols

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Hi, Hoe!Arboretum Looking for Volunteers

You already go the extra mile to keep your office or building tidy. How about pitching in to spruce up the campus grounds, too?

Facilities Management and the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture are recruiting vol-unteers to plant trees, pull weeds or prune bushes as part of the university arboretum’s Adopt a Garden program. In addition, vol-unteers can lead tours of various gardens. The arboretum provides plants and tools. At least 10,000 volunteer hours were logged between June 2011 and 2012.

No green thumb? Volunteers can also help by boosting the arboretum’s social media presence, whether creating a Twitter account, maintaining its Facebook page or organizing its Flickr account.

To get involved, send an email to [email protected].

what vegetables can i plant in my garden now?

you can plant carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, potatoes, radishes and Swiss chard. if a hard freeze is predicted, protect them with a bed sheet, cardboard boxes or paper grocery bags. you can also use a float-ing row cover, which is a polyester material similar to interfacing used in sewing. Don’t plant basil, tomatoes, eggplant and peppers until there is no danger of frost. For more options, see the plant-ing calendar at extension.umd.

edu/hgic.

Jon Traunfeld, director, Home and

Garden Information Center, University

of Maryland Extension

how do i get rid of stink bugs at home?

Stink bugs do not breed to attack you, your children or your pets. They simply seek shelter in structures like homes to avoid winter’s ravages. exclude them by caulking around windows and doors and placing window-grade screening over vents in the attic. Vacuum those that enter and dispose of the bag when it’s full. Don’t flush them down the toilet. it wastes water. We do not recom-mend spraying insecticides in living spaces within your home to kill stink bugs.

Mike Raupp, professor, entomology

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iBroke It? He Fixes It sEnior turns iPhonE rEPairs into ProfitablE businEss

By KAreN SHiH

harrison Baum ’13 is on his way to paying for his senior year of college—and maybe more—all thanks to your clumsy hands.

“it seemed like everyone i saw on campus had a cracked [iPhone] screen,” says the economics major. “i always loved to take things apart and put them back together, so i started fixing them for friends.”

Whether you’ve broken your screen, spilled your drink on it or even dropped it in a toilet, he’s the man who can fix your phone—faster and cheaper than the Apple store or other repair services, he says.

Baum started out fiddling with his PlayStation Portable in 10th grade, moved on to Xbox 360 consoles, then began tinkering inside iPhones. The self-taught repairman says they’re easier to take apart than iPods, which he no longer fixes (too easy to break), and have a better profit margin. He’s gotten requests to do Android smartphones, but so far, demand just isn’t high enough.

Baum estimates that he’ll make $60,000 in sales this year. He’s been training some friends to help keep up with demand, which has soared since he was featured in The Diamondback and on FOX 5 News in February.

For those looking to trade in their phones, Baum also buys and refurbishes older models and sells them overseas. His most popular destinations are russia and China, though he’s shipped to nearly every continent. it’s more profitable but less popular than his on-campus repairs.

At this point, he’s fixed more than 1,000 devices, and he’s considering staying around after gradua-tion to do it full-time for a while.

“i want to find a way to bring this to other universities,” he says.

neeD your iphone fixeD? Cracked screens are almost always repairable, but fluid can cause permanent damage, Baum says. To learn more, visit www.oncampusrepairs.com.

In Globetrotting: African

American Athletes and Cold

War Politics, kinesiology Assistant

Professor Damion Thomas surveys

how athletes increasingly resisted

being used in State Department

propaganda and began to use sports

to challenge oppression.

Dora Hanninen, associate professor

of music theory, provides a compre-

hensive presentation of music analysis

in A Theory of Music Analysis: On

Segmentation and Association

Organization.

The American Red Cross from

Clara Barton to the New Deal, by

Marian Moser Jones, assistant pro-

fessor of family science, recounts how

the Red Cross navigated race relations

amid disasters, sometimes acting pro-

gressively and other times reinforcing

the racial dynamics of the day.

Kelly Terrill, coordinator for events

and external relations for the College

of Computer, Mathematical, and

Natural Sciences, writes about his

eclectic Baltimore neighborhood in

Reservoir Hill.

BOOKSHELF

Photos by John T. Consoli

The President’s Commission on Women’s

Issues awarded its 2013 Outstanding

Woman awards recently, and also

celebrated its 40th anniversary. This year’s

winners: Outstanding Woman of the Year:

KerryAnn O’Meara, associate professor,

College of Education; Outstanding Woman

of Color: Ruth Zambrana, professor,

Department of Women’s Studies;

Outstanding Exempt Staff: Erin McClure,

coordinator, Department of Family

Science; Outstanding Nonexempt Staff:

Linette Berry, administrative assistant II,

Department of Mathematics; Outstanding

Graduate Student: Beth Douthirt Cohen,

faculty research assistant, College of Arts

and Humanities.

Larry Davis, computer science

professor, has been elected a fellow of

the Association for Computing Machinery

for contributions to image processing and

computer vision.

Howard Milchberg, electrical

engineering professor, was named a 2012

fellow of the Optical Society of America.

Tony Busalacchi, director of the Earth

System Science Interdisciplinary System,

has been named chair-elect of the

American Association for the Advancement

of Science section on atmospheric and

hydrospheric science.

School of Public Health Dean Jane Clark

will receive an honorary doctorate from

the College of Brockport (SUNY), where

she will give the commencement address

this spring.

Professor Matthew Bell in the School of

Architecture, Planning and Preservation

has been named to the American Institute

of Architects College of Fellows.

Gloria Aparicio Blackwell is one of 52

leaders statewide elected to participate

in the eight-month Leadership Maryland

program. Managers from the public and

private sectors gather to learn about the

critical issues, challenges and opportunities

facing the state, and how to tackle them.

accolades

Dollars and senseAlumna Launches Course on Women’s FinancesBy KiMBerLy MArSeLAS

A new course inspired by a female-alumna-turned-financial executive aims to help women consider new professional possibilities while improving their personal finance skills.

Supported by a $50,000 grant from TD Ameritrade, “Gender and Financial Well-Being” grew out of a 2012 lecture series on gender, finance and power. The talks featured visiting scholars and finance executives from around the country who wanted to open students’ eyes to opportunities in male-dominated industries.

“If we could educate more on personal finance, investments and the importance of economic stability as a platform from which a person can achieve whatever goals they choose, then the gender equity disparity might begin to narrow,” says Ellen L.S. Koplow ’80, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.

Koplow is co-teaching the class alongside Seung-Kyung Kim, associate professor and chair of the Department of Women’s Studies. After being named a distinguished alumna in 2011, Koplow wanted to work with the university on gender-equity issues. She helped form a women’s initiative at TD Ameritrade and brought some of that program’s principles to Kim.

The course launched in January with 31 students. It’s examining how cultural and legislative changes might narrow power differentials between men and women, how the current U.S. economy effects women at work, and the role of female entrepreneurs.

Kim says the class “fits with the mission of women’s studies in striving for social justice and gender equality.” But it also has a practical side because it provides insight into careers in finance, including a recruitment event highlighting women’s roles at TD Ameritrade. Students also receive financial basics from Alexa Von Tobel, founder of LearnVest, a program that teaches budgeting, long-term planning and portfolio building.

“Many students will graduate with considerable student loan debt and face a very tough job market, so it is important for them to learn the crucial skills required to manage one’s own finances,” says Kim.

President Wallace Loh joined UMD students and hundreds of people from around the state on Feb. 28 to lobby in Annapolis against proposed cuts to education spending.

Ellen Koplow (left), general counsel and executive vice president at TD Ameritrade, talks with guest lecturer Heidi Hartmann, president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research

Seung-Kyung Kim, chair of women’s studies, talks with class participants.

between the columnsUniversity Marketing and Communications2101 Turner Hall, College Park, MD 20742

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Members of the Police Allstars and the College Park Community Center teams gather after a game. UMD Sgt. August Kenner, standing sixth from left, and the county Cpl. Jaron Black, kneeling on the right, serve as the community point persons from each unit.

Newest Staff Hired for Their NosesBy MONeTTe AUSTiN BAiLey

JimBo is all Business, visually scan-ning the area and giving the air quick sniffs. each passerby catches his atten-tion. He’s not behaving oddly; he’s doing his job.

Jimbo is one of four Labrador retriev-ers in the campus Department of Public Safety’s the new special operations canine unit. He, Chief, Pink and Bracken reported for duty this semester to help officers detect explosive devices. The Department of Homeland Security’s science and technology division, in con-junction with Johns Hopkins University, provided the dogs as part of a pilot program to test the most effective methods for using dogs as part of a security strategy.

“Traditionally, bomb-sniffing dogs are

object-driven or they focus on people,” says Sgt. richard Mugerwa. “Our dogs are working to do both.”

Unlike regular patrol dogs, these four work only major campus events, such as all basketball and football games, and the Dalai Lama visit. They wear uniforms—harnesses emblazoned with “DO NOT PeT” and police badges—as they sweep through stands and around buildings and check crowds.

“We chose this breed because people are more inclined to let a lab come up to them than [the more traditionally used] German shepherd,” says Mugerwa.

Approximately 30 officers applied to be assigned a four-legged partner, tak-ing physical and written tests as part of the process. The 2- and 3-year-old dogs,

two females (Pink and Bracken) and two males (Jimbo and Chief ), spent six weeks with trainers in North Carolina, then eight more weeks around campus. They also regularly train at BWi Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Since the dogs go home with their partners, officers were also given a thor-ough briefing about life with a working dog. For Officer Matt Suthard, Jimbo’s partner, it was even more of an adjust-ment to factor into his daily routine the walking, feeding and sometimes over-night care of his furry colleague.

“it’s the first dog i’ve ever had, though i’ve always liked dogs,” he says. “it’s a lot more responsibility waiting for you at home.”

University Public Safety officers and their new partners (from left): Mike Balagtas with Chief, Evan McCann with Bracken, Matt Suthard with Jimbo and John Fitzgerald with Pink