UMBC Welcome Week Sets Attendance Record

Tour of Arbutus and Catonsville among 85 events aimed at making incoming students welcome to campus.

UMBC Students Tour Arbutus, Catonsville

An hour-long bus tour during Welcoming Week shows incoming students what neighboring communities have to offer.

On Tuesday, two busloads of incoming University of Maryland, Baltimore County students were given a guided tour of Arbutus and Catonsville to orient them to their new surroundings and the amenities that are available. Students living on campus moved in over the weekend, and classes begin on Wednesday. The tours were led by Arbutus attorney Terry Nolan, past president of Arbutus Business and Professional Association (and a 1982 graduate of UMBC), and George Brookhart, past president of Greater Catonsville Chamber of Commerce. The hour-long tour followed the route of the UMBC shuttle bus, wending through Arbutus, Lansdowne, Paradise and Catonsville. Along the way Nolan and Brookhart identified points of interest—libraries, the post office, …

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New Bike Route Planned for Catonsville

Path developed with Catonsville Rails to Trails will enable cyclists to ride from Frederick Road to UMBC campus, MARC Halethorpe Station.

Baltimore County officials unveiled a plan to develop a spur of the Short Line Trail into a bicycle route that will allow riders to travel from Frederick Road to University of Maryland, Baltimore County. County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced a $100,000 design grant from the Maryland Bikeways Program, part of the Governor's Cycle Maryland Initiative, to develop the trail. The Short Line Trail is a path about two miles long that straddles the Beltway, the remaining trace of a railroad line that meandered through Catonsville and Paradise to the main line near Louden Park Cemetery, according to Catonsville Rails to Trails. As envisioned, the bicycle route would follow Mellor Avenue from Frederick Road, down Asylum through a tunnel beneath …

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UMBC Named 'Great College to Work For'

On the list for the third year, the university made the "Honor Roll" for ranking highly in seven of 12 categories in a survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

A just-released survey confirms what many of the 1,952 faculty and staff at University of Maryland, Baltimore County already know.  For the third year in a row, UMBC was named one of America's "Great Colleges to Work For" in an annual survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. UMBC made the survey's "Honor Roll" for ranking highly in seven of 12 areas surveyed by the publication. The survey results were released by the Chronicle on Aug. 6. "It shows that some of the things we're focusing on are working," said Valerie Thomas, UMBC's vice president for human resources. For this year's ranking, the Chronicle surveyed almost 47,000 faculty and staff at 294 colleges and universities, according to the paper. Questions in the survey …

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Roundabout 'Gateway' Planned for UMBC

Circle at end of UMBC Boulevard spur from I-195 may help avoid crashes at campus loop road.

A new roundabout planned at University of Maryland, Baltimore County is intended to improve the flow of traffic and pedestrians at the intersection of Hilltop Circle and UMBC Boulevard and serve as a landscaped gateway for the campus, according to officials. The $13.2 million project will address long-standing problems at an intersection that has become more dangerous at the growing campus since UMBC Boulevard was connected with I-195 leading to BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport more than two decades ago, according to Lynne Schaefer, the university's vice president for administration and finance. "We've been asking for funding from the state to do this since 2001," Schaefer said. About 20,000 vehicles a day visit the campus, thousands of which…

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Mari

7:31 pm on Monday, August 6, 2012

Matt, I would still like to see where the money is being spent. How many people have to pay taxes to get to $13.2 million? If it really costs this much, perhaps they shouldn't be doing it at all.   more ›

'DREAMERS' Kick Off Tuition Law Fight at UMBC

Supporters say law gives students who are illegal immigrants "a level playing field."

Karina is a "Dreamer." She says she's not the only one. The 22-year-old illegal immigrant and Montgomery College student spoke Wednesday at a news conference at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to kick off Educating Maryland Kids, an effort to pass the Maryland DREAM Act. "My mother has always told me that education is the path to my success and I very much believe that," said the woman who was only identified by her first name. Karina, who plans on graduating next year with dual associate degrees in general studies and mental health, called for support for a bill that would grant in-state tuition rates to students like herself who are in this country illegally or are considered undocumented immigrants. The law that would grant…

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