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I entered college as a freshman in fall 1984.  My declared major was Political Science; my orientation was careerist; my worldview embarrassingly narrow.  Over the years my horizons broadened.  I...

Full Title: Massachusetts Senate Outcome Driven Partly by Youth Non-Voters As you've undoubtedly heard, Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley, by winning 51.9% of the vote to...

I remember how it felt to be a college student in the mid-1980s, when the memory of the Civil Rights Movement was more immediate and fresh in the minds of my elders.  Students like me who hoped to...

I spent five days (and four nights) last week at STRiVE 2010, UMBC’s student leadership retreat in the mountains outside of Frederick.  I’m still feeling the effects of nonstop activity and too...

It's thrilling to participate in the explosion of online social media. Now protesters in Iran can tweet their way past government censors, politicians can connect their supporters, and everyone...

There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical about college rankings of any kind (except when they put UMBC at the top of the list, of course). Rankings are only as good as the factors that...

I admit it: I was the last person I know to get a cell phone (with the possible exception of my parents), and I've sent and received a total of maybe 30 text messages ever. But my habits as a...

If you had asked me ten years ago tonight where I would be living and what I would be doing at the dawn of 2010, my guesses would not have been close to the mark.There has been some continuity...

Ten years ago, on December 31, 1999, I was spending a quiet evening with my future wife at her apartment.At one point, stretching out on the carpeted floor, I started writing on the lined pages of...

When I was growing up, snow was a destination, not a weather event. Once or twice each winter my family would drive an hour or two into the mountains around Los Angeles. We called it "going to...