May 2005

Kudos

Lisa Bernstein, director of UMUC’s Effective Writing Center—along with lead advisor Mary Alice Moore and advisor Suzanne Hill—published a short article about their Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association Conference presentation in Vol. 11, No. 2, of the MAWCA online journal, The Dangling Modifier .

Mary Chalmers, who teaches history for UMUC, accepted the position of president of the American Association for History and Computing for 2005–2006. Chalmers and other UMUC faculty members are active participants in the association, its conferences, and its efforts to enhance history teaching and research through technology.

Four administrators in UMUC’s Graduate School— Jim Chen, program director for information technology, Don Goff, executive director of the security studies laboratory, Mary Hoferek, program director for computer system management, and Hasan Sayani, program director for the Master of Software Engineering program—presented at the SecureIT 2005 Conference April 19–22, 2005, in San Diego, California, in a session entitled, “Enhancing Information Assurance Education with Remote Access Laboratories.”

Many members of the UMUC Alpha Epsilon Chi chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society, were especially visible at the April 2, 2005, Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting, held at the Catholic University of America. Cindy Colbert presented her original research, entitled “Go to Gettysburg,” and fellow Alpha Epsilon Chi chapter members Chris Ubik, Megan Preisinger, and John Tabori served as panel moderators. Chapter president Forrest Flanders joined Wendy Shapiro and Joy Medley in attending. UMUC history faculty were in strong support, with professors Tracy Nichols Busch, Brian Crim, Jeff Charlston, Paul Heinemann, Patrick McGinty, Linda Ruggles, and Bud Burkhard serving as panel commentators and paper judges.

Martin Gordon, who teaches history for UMUC, was the keynote speaker at the joint meeting of the Society for Military History and the Council on America’s Military Past May 4–8, 2005, in San Diego, California. Gordon’s presentation was entitled, “The Marines Have Landed and San Diego is Well in Hand: Local Politics and Marine Corps Base Development.” Diane Gordon, who also teaches history, chaired a research presentation panel during the meeting.

Benjamin “Terry” Williams recently made two three-hour workshop presentations at conferences staged by IT Management IQ (a division of world conference leader IQPC) in Miami, Florida. He will make a third presentation in June 2005 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, entitled, “Using Balanced Scorecards to Improve IT Metrics Programs,” at the 2005 Canadian IT Financial Management Week Conference. In December 2004, Williams also presented, “Getting Started with ITSM in Your Program Management Office” at the IT Program Management Office Best Practices Conference, and in March 2005, he presented “Using Balanced Scorecards to Improve IT Metrics Programs,” at the IT Financial Management Week Conference.

Psyche Williams-Forson, who teaches history for UMUC, was awarded a Ford Foundation diversity postdoctoral fellowship for 2005–2006 following a highly competitive selection process. Williams-Forson will work out of the Smithsonian Institution for one year while researching her next book, focusing on the economic imperatives of women of color.