Then & Now, #6: Fifty Years to the Day

by David Hoffman and Craig Berger

Fifty years ago today (also a Monday), UMBC opened its doors. At the first Commencement in 1970, graduating senior Diane Juknelis described that moment this way:

"On September 19, 1966, while work continued on partially completed structures on a large tract of land between the communities of CatonsviIle and Arbutus, people and events began their work on an identity for UMBC. A named, but as yet faceless institution of higher learning waited motionlessly for the element of humanity that would shape its inner structure and give it a true direction and scope."

The element of humanity. The first of us.

The first photo below was taken on a stairwell in what was then called the Academic Building, on that very first day; the second, fifty years later (in what is now called the Biological Sciences Building). The difference in the views out that window tells a small part of a great story still being written.