Writers Live, Learn Together

This fall, the Department of Resident Life inaugurates the Jimenez-Porter Writers' House to create a campus-wide literary center to study creative writing cross-culturally.

Open to undergraduates, the Writers' House is the newest of 10 "living-learning" programs at the University of Maryland. The unique residential life program--in which students with common academic and cultural interests live and learn together--began 10 years ago in hopes of attracting students desiring a more tightly knit college experience and to foster student-faculty relationships.

Students in the Jimenez-Porter program will hone their literary skills in English, Spanish and other languages through colloquia, journal writing and other outreach activities.

"Many writers [at the university] are not in the English major, so we need a way to pull together these students" from different backgrounds, says Writers' House coordinator Laura Lauth.

The 40 participants in the Jimenez-Porter community will collaborate in activities and share Dorchester Hall with the newly named Global Communities Living-Learning Program, which is being reorganized from the former International House.

The new living-learning programs are patterned after several other highly successful programs at the university. These include the 10-year-old College Park Scholars program, organized into 12 subdivisions focusing on subjects ranging from the life sciences to child advocacy to business and entrepreneurship.

The university's Honors Program, made up of about 100 high academic achievers, began as a living-learning experience with dedicated floors within dorms. It completed its transformation into a living-learning program with the establishment of the all-honors Anne Arundel residence hall, a place where students live closely with advisors and scholars-in-residence. Other honors students live and study together in Denton and Queen Anne's Halls.

Other programs include Gemstone, where teams of students design and complete research projects over four years; CIVICUS for those wanting their residence life to conform to ideals of "civil society"; and Hinman CEOs for students wanting to explore entrepreneurial ventures.

Dorchester Hall will soon become home to aspiring poets, novelists and essayists as the Jimenez-Porter Writers' House, the newest living-learning community at Maryland.

Two 20th century writers closely connected to the University of Maryland give the Writers' House its name. Juan Ramon Jimenez was a professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1956. Katherine Anne Porter is a preeminent American fiction writer who left her library and personal papers to the university; they are housed in Hornbake Library's Katherine Anne Porter Room.

The Writers' House is a joint initiative of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Department of English and the College of Arts and Humanities.

Living-learning programs strive to give students some of the feel of a small liberal arts college at a big university, says Pat Mielke, assistant vice president for student affairs. The students attend smaller "capstone courses," which attempt to bring together the unique qualities of a specialized program within the timeframe of a year or two.

Mielke says the living-learning communities also foster relationships "between students and faculty early in a student's career, [both] in and out of class." Within many of the living-learning programs, faculty members maintain offices in the residence halls.

Officials say students in living-learning programs comprise 46 percent of the university's resident hall population. These programs are mostly by invitation only, although some accept applications for admission.   --RC

Weekend Program Imparts Chinese Language, Culture to Kids

Each Sunday at 10 a.m., the University of Maryland's hub for language learning, Jimenez Hall, fills with children instead of college students.

The children are students at the College Park campus of the Hope Chinese School, an organization devoted to teaching Chinese language and culture. Kids from kindergarten through high school occupy classrooms on the first two floors, where on a recent visit preschoolers drew pictures from a poem about the seasons while a teacher next door asked her students questions about a story they were reading.

Chinese language and culture are the focus of the Chinese Hope School, founded at the University of Maryland in 1993.

Tai chi classes are held outside at the same time dance classes for parents are held in the lobby. Other parents pass the time in an auditorium, talking or browsing through Chinese-language newspapers and videotapes.

The school is a nonprofit organization staffed entirely by volunteers, many of whom are affiliated with the university. Most of the students are children of university alumni, students, faculty and staff. It's been that way from the beginning, says Janet He, who is both principal of the Hope school and a parent of one of its students.

The school began in June 1993, when a group Maryland graduate students wanted their children to be able to speak Chinese, but couldn't take the time they needed from their schedules to properly teach the highly complex language.

They formed a teaching cooperative and quickly attracted other interested parents. Soon they needed increased faculty to handle a phenomenal rise in demand.

Since its beginnings at College Park, the Hope School has mushroomed into a large regional program for Chinese language and culture, with campuses in Rockville; Gettysburg, Pa., and Fairfax and Herndon, Va. The school currently enrolls 1,800 students, with 100 to 150 attending classes in College Park.

The Hope Chinese School is not affiliated with the university, but it recieves critical support from the administration, says He. Much of that support comes in the form of donated building space for classes. At the same time, the school seeks to give back to the university community by offering free classes for faculty and students. He adds that the school is open to anyone who wants to learn Chinese.

In addition, the Hope school acts as kind of a community center for parents whose native language is Chinese but whose children are growing up in a largely English-speaking society. It's a place where they can come and speak Chinese freely or check out some of the Chinese-language books or videos available for borrowing.

The point of the school isn't just to teach Chinese, says Siwen Wang, a member of the board of directors for the school and a former research associate in the university's physics department. Rather, the school is an experiment in giving kids a foundation to learn more about themselves later.   --MB

Smithsonian Undersecretary Takes Reins as Research Vice President

A longtime academic administrator and undersecretary for science at the Smithsonian Institution has taken over as vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Maryland.

J. Dennis O'Connor, 60, assumed the post in June after six years at the Smithsonian, where as undersecretary he oversaw museum and research initiatives, including work at the National Museum of Natural History, the National Zoo, the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.

O'Connor replaces interim vice president and graduate school dean Chuan Sheng Liu, who will return to his former position as director of the university's Institute for Global Chinese Affairs. Upon announcing the appointment last spring, President C.D. Mote Jr. noted O'Connor's "extraordinary experience in higher education, particularly in distinguished research institutions, and his knowledge of federal science enterprises [that] support perfectly the university's strategic plans for developing its research enterprise."

Before joining the Smithsonian, O'Connor was chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh and a vice chancellor and provost at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He holds a doctorate in biology from Northwestern and began his teaching career at the University of California, Los Angeles. At Maryland, O'Connor inherits a $300 million research budget, much of it sponsored research for the federal government. "One of the great things about Maryland is that it has significant research activity across the board in all disciplines," he says. "The University of Maryland is poised to markedly enhance its reputation as one of the great research universities in the nation."   --DC

UM Students Help Schoolchildren Cross Digital Divide

The University of Maryland's Educational Talent Search Program is using computer hardware and a soft touch to help some 240 middle school students from Prince George's County cross the digital divide.

Under a program called ProjectLINKS, students from three schools received new personal computers for their homes and access to an online tutoring program that features a real person--a University of Maryland student--on the other end of a Web connection.

The specially designed program helps strengthen academic skills and computer competency. It includes computer-based tutorials, skill enrichment projects, an e-mail listserv and online chat rooms for direct interaction with university tutors.

"Human interaction really sets this program apart from others," says Shirley Morman, principal investigator for ProjectLINKS and director of Educational Talent Search. "The students and mentors form a personal connection as they work on skills directly tied to the students' actual schoolwork."

Student mentors provide four half-hour online tutoring and homework assistance sessions each week. Many of the mentors are former Talent Search participants who have benefited from the program's ongoing efforts to help low-income students improve their potential for academic success in college.

Teachers and administrators from the county schools have been integrally involved in the project's development since planning started in October 2000. "This is an excellent project to counsel and support deserving students to help make sure they are adequately prepared both academically and technologically to pursue their dreams of a college education," says Prince George's County Schools Superintendent Iris T. Metts.

Morman notes that the online approach developed from a need to expand the reach of a university-based weekend program run by Talent Search. That program, called Saturday Scholars, brought students to Maryland for academic enrichment activities in computer-equipped classrooms, but it was limited to participants who could physically come to the campus.   --CR

Kirwan Returns to Lead University System

William E. "Brit" Kirwan, who served as president of the University of Maryland from 1989 to 1998 and most recently was president of Ohio State University, assumed his new role as chancellor of the University System of Maryland effective Aug. 1.

The University System of Maryland--with the University of Maryland, College Park, as its flagship institution--was created in 1988 and is currently the nation's 12th largest university system. As chancellor, Kirwan will oversee the system's 13 member institutions that together enroll more than 120,000 students, employ almost 10,000 faculty members and have an operating budget of $2.5 billion.

William E. "Brit" Kirwan returns to the state where he began his teaching career in 1965. Kirwan became chancellor of the University System of Maryland in August.

Commenting at a news conference last spring about his return to Maryland after four years at Ohio State, Kirwan said: "I firmly believe that one can go home again. In some ways, [my wife] Patty and I have never left Maryland, since our children and grandchildren and so many lifelong friends live here ... I look forward to working with the presidents and the regents as together we build the nation's finest university system, one that is responsive to the needs of the state and meets the highest expectations for its performance."

During Kirwan's tenure as president of the University of Maryland, the number of freshmen with SAT scores of 1400 and above increased from 49 to 342; the average SAT scores of all freshmen increased from 1057 to 1199; the number of National Academy of Sciences members among the faculty grew from 1 to 17; sponsored research nearly doubled from $82 million to $155 million; annual private funds raised went from $14 million to more than $65 million; and the university's endowment reached $158 million from $36 million in 1988. Kirwan first came to the university in 1965, where he would serve as a mathematics professor, department head and provost.

At both the University of Maryland and at Ohio State, Kirwan had a strong interest and commitment to improving opportunities in higher education for women and people of color. At Maryland, the percentage of African American students grew from 9.1 percent of undergraduates to 14.5 percent during the time Kirwan was president. At Ohio State, in recognition for his visionary leadership, the Ohio State University Board of Trustees recently named the university's Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in the Americas in Kirwan's honor. A native of Kentucky, Kirwan holds a Ph.D. and a master's degree from Rutgers University; he has a bachelor's degree from the University of Kentucky. He is a member of several honorary and professional societies including Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America.

Kirwan is the University System of Maryland's third chancellor, succeeding Donald Langenberg, who retired in April after serving for 12 years, and John Toll, a former University of Maryland physicist who is currently the president of Washington College in Chestertown, Md.   --TV

Set in Stone

For the graduating seniors of 2002, the past academic year was defined by unspeakable sorrow as well as incredible highs.

"We welcomed Nelson Mandela to campus, cheered on winning football and basketball teams, and stood together strongly after the tragedies of September 11th and the tornado that came through our campus," Adam Wexler told the audience at the spring commencement ceremony. "Undoubtedly, each of us will look back on our final year at the University of Maryland as uniquely memorable."

The graduating seniors of the Class of 2002 in the Landscape Architecture Program developed this design concept in association with representatives of the Senior Council.

To help preserve those memories, an area near the Memorial Chapel has been set aside for the construction of Terrapin Gardens. Seniors in the Landscape Architecture Program developed the plans for the garden in conjunction with the Senior Council, which is responsible for selecting the senior gift. The plans feature a 100-foot cut stone promenade, placed adjacent to an existing pathway, that will highlight the parallel nature of world, national and University of Maryland events, enhanced by verse and symbolic imagery.

Planners believe that the pathway will engage emotionally and physically those who walk along it. For alumni returning to campus and visitors alike, the widened promenade, shaded by trees selected for their long life, graceful form and seasonal beauty, will offer a way to reflect upon those events.

The walkway will include stones engraved with quotes from three seniors that offer comfort and compassion, such as this from Candice Cooper: "Tears of sadness for the tragedies we suffered this year were followed by tears of joy as this university and this country embraced national solidarity, achieving victory over adversity."

The Class of 2002 has given or pledged more than $15,000 for the project. The class gift is a tradition dating back 92 years. The first senior gift, the iron gate entrance at the Rossborough Inn, was given by the Class of 1910.   --DB