Play the Board Game That Turns

You Into a True Terp | PG.4

TERPTERPTERPTERPTERP

in this issue NO MORE TYPICAL FAMILY PG. 2 /

VETERANS MAKE WAVES PG. 3 / SEEING STARS PG. 6 /

ACCOLADES PG. 6 / PRESERVING PRESERVATION PG. 7 /

ART MEETS SCIENCE PG. 8

Between the Columns a newsletter for faculty & staff of the University of Maryland

November 2014

2 btc NOVEMBER 2014

Typical American Family? There Isn't One BY ALEX STOLLER ’16

Whether you lived through the 1960s or only watch TV Land reruns of the era, you know the typical American family back then was led by a father who worked outside of the home and a mother who didn’t.

In fact, 65 percent of families with children under age 14 had this arrangement. But a new analysis of census data by sociology Professor Philip Cohen found that a half-century later, only 22 percent had this structure.

In 2010, the biggest group—34 percent—comprised families with two working parents, and the rest were smaller minorities, like children living with grandparents, cohabi-tating parents or a single parent. In other words, families have become vastly more diverse—what he calls “a veritable peacock’s tail” of family arrangements.

Cohen, who has studied the American household for 20 years, attributes the disappearance of the “typical family” to market forces, higher education rates among women and

advances toward gender equality. In addition, social welfare reform supported unwed mothers and has allowed seniors on Social Security to live independently longer. Adult inse-curities are also an influence.

“People would get married (in the past) even if they weren’t economically secure because they thought they would be, down the road,” he says. “People now postpone marriage because they don’t know what the future will hold.”

Because today’s different families have different child-rearing challenges, he says, we can’t rely on policies and cultural standards that assume most children will be raised by married-couple families.

“It changes the culture when two people meeting each other for the first time can’t assume they have the same living arrangement, or teachers can’t assume that their chil-dren come from the same type of family,” he says.

FACULTY-STAFF CAMPAIGN “OPENS DOORS”Only a few weeks remain in the university’s annual Faculty-Staff Campaign to support your choice of charities across the state.

Make a gift by visiting facultystaff.

umd.edu to contribute to your favorite cause—at the university or through the Maryland Charities Campaign. Or

contact Eronn Strickland at eronn@umd.edu for an “Open Doors of Opportunity” payroll deduction form.

All donors are entered into a raffle for two campus parking passes, and the two units with the highest percentage of employee participation will win pizza parties from Ledo Restaurant.

Can’t give now? Consider par-ticipating in the university’s second annual Scholarship Day, UMD’s biggest single day of giving, on Dec. 10. Your gifts will help students come to—and stay at—Maryland.

For more information, visit scholarshipday.umd.edu.

House Illustration by Megan Blair; Paddling program story photo by Huayra Gomez-Garcia, Disabled Sports USA

NOVEMBER 2014 btc 3

Paddling Program Makes Splash With Student VetsBY LAUREN BROWN

During her six years in the Navy, Jovy Ann Batong ’17 spent her shore time outdoors with fellow service members: skydiving, rock-climbing and kayaking.

It was only weeks after enrolling at Maryland last spring that she discovered its new chapter of Team River Runner (TRR), a national nonprofit that organizes paddling and other whitewater boating trips and events for active-duty members of the military and veterans.

This fall, she’s part of its expansion, as the Maryland Adventure Program and Veteran Student Life have launched the Making Waves program for veterans. It includes an adventure-based orientation, family camping events and opportunities for student veterans to teach paddling to disabled youths.

“I love being outdoors, and I love teaching people,” says Batong, a bioengineering major who was honorably discharged from the Navy as a fire controlman first class. “The fact that you’re empowering people with disabilities—that, to me, is an added bonus.”

The goal, says Amanda Even, assistant director of the Maryland Adventure Program, is to create a welcoming environment for veterans as they transition into the UMD community while giving them a new sense of purpose and opportunities to serve. An estimated 1,000 student-veterans are at Maryland.

She and Brian Bertges, Veteran Student Life coordinator, formed the TRR chapter with its paddling practice sessions, kayak football games and paddling trips for veterans. The pair won a $15,000 grant from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to create the Making Waves program.

It features nonveteran students as volunteer trip leaders and volunteers, which Bertges says is important in bringing together the two groups that might not understand each other. An Army veteran himself, he’s also excited to offer veterans a chance to bond and reflect.

“After being part of a tight-knit unit in the military, then ripping them from that fabric to go to college, veterans can lose their sense of identity,” he says. “They can rediscover it through service, adventure and exercise—it’s a trifecta.”

The Immortal Evening: A Legendary Dinner with Keats, Wordsworth, and Lamb

uses a single night's gathering of famous artists as a

springboard for English Professor Stanley Plumly to consider their lives and impact.

The sensational case of a kidnapped child is a

window into the racial dynamics of 19th-century

New Orleans in The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case: Race, Law, and Justice in the Reconstruction Era written by Michael A. Ross, associate professor of history.

B O O K S H E L F

One of These Things Is Not Like the OthersMessage consistency is key to strengthening the University of Maryland brand, so the Office of Marketing and Communications has developed a website bringing together everything that staff and faculty need to know about visual identity, Web guidelines, multimedia and more. Can you guess which of the following is an incorrect use of the UMD logo? Visit brand.umd.edu to learn more.

UMD student veteran Da He teaches a disabled youth from HSC Pediatric Center how to kayak during Adaptive Adventure Day, which was held at the Eppley Recreation Center in September.

4 btc SEPTEMBER 2014

Ever wonder what it takes to become a full-fledged member of the Maryland community? It’s time to roll the dice and take a trip from novice to True Terp. Cut out a game piece (attach a binder clip to the bottom to stand it up) and fold and tape the die from below to get started. Each task will take you one step closer to having black, gold, red and white run through your veins, but watch out for pitfalls. Good luck!

TRY EVERY ICE CREAM FLAVOR AT

the Dairy

PARKING TICKET; go back three�paces

Selfie WITH KERMIT AND JIM HENSON

WISH ANSWERED BY TESTUDO; move ahead three�paces

ORDER THE Terrapin�pecialty AT THE BAGEL PLACE

AVOID THE Point of Failure

HELP SOME LOST VISITORS; move ahead three�paces

WATCH THE

Mighty Sound of Maryland REHEARSE ON THE CHAPEL FIELDS

MEET THE ANIMALS AT THE

Campus FarmCATCH THE HEADLINER AT Art Attack (WITHOUT EARPLUGS)

SEE THE turtle collection OF ANNE TURKOS, UNIVERSITY ARCHIVIST

SUNBURN AT MARYLAND DAY;

lose one turn

LEAVE A NOTE IN THE BOOKS NEAR THE

Labyrinth

WINDED FROM THE STAMP HILL; move back three�paces

51

3

4 2

6

STUCK AT ROUTE 1 AND PAINT BRANCH; move back three�paces CONGRATS! YOU ARE NOW

A TERP. CELEBRATE WITH

FRIENDS AT R.J. BENTLEY’S

TERPTERPTERPTERPTERP

DANGLE YOUR FEET IN THE ODK fountainSTART

STARTSTARTSTART

Illustration by Catherine Nichols

4 btc

SEPTEMBER 2014 btc 5

Ever wonder what it takes to become a full-fledged member of the Maryland community? It’s time to roll the dice and take a trip from novice to True Terp. Cut out a game piece (attach a binder clip to the bottom to stand it up) and fold and tape the die from below to get started. Each task will take you one step closer to having black, gold, red and white run through your veins, but watch out for pitfalls. Good luck!

TRY EVERY ICE CREAM FLAVOR AT

the Dairy

PARKING TICKET; go back three�paces

Selfie WITH KERMIT AND JIM HENSON

WISH ANSWERED BY TESTUDO; move ahead three�paces

ORDER THE Terrapin�pecialty AT THE BAGEL PLACE

AVOID THE Point of Failure

HELP SOME LOST VISITORS; move ahead three�paces

WATCH THE

Mighty Sound of Maryland REHEARSE ON THE CHAPEL FIELDS

MEET THE ANIMALS AT THE

Campus FarmCATCH THE HEADLINER AT Art Attack (WITHOUT EARPLUGS)

SEE THE turtle collection OF ANNE TURKOS, UNIVERSITY ARCHIVIST

SUNBURN AT MARYLAND DAY;

lose one turn

LEAVE A NOTE IN THE BOOKS NEAR THE

Labyrinth

WINDED FROM THE STAMP HILL; move back three�paces

5

1

3

4 2

6

STUCK AT ROUTE 1 AND PAINT BRANCH; move back three�paces CONGRATS! YOU ARE NOW

A TERP. CELEBRATE WITH

FRIENDS AT R.J. BENTLEY’S

TERPTERPTERPTERPTERP

DANGLE YOUR FEET IN THE ODK fountainSTART

STARTSTARTSTART

Illustration by Catherine Nichols

btc 5

ACCOLADESThe American Geophysical Union

honored Professor Zhanqing Li, who works in the

Department of Atmospheric

and Oceanic Science and

the Earth System Sciences

Interdisciplinary Center, with the

2013 Yoram Kaufman Award for his

accomplishments in researching

aerosols in the atmosphere.

Jim Hanson, a professor in the

Department of Agricultural and

Resource Economics, was part

of a team that won a 2014 USDA

Secretary’s Honor Award for efforts

to increase global food security.

Stephen B. Thomas, a professor

in the Department of Health

Services Administration and

director of the Maryland

Center for Health Equity,

was appointed to the

Maryland Health Care

Commission.

Associate Professor Lori Simon-Rusinowitz, who teaches in the

Department of Health Services

Administration, is a 2014-15 Health

and Aging Policy Fellow, studying

how to expand community options

for Maryland’s low-income elderly.

Sun Magazine named Research

Professor Pamela Clark,

director of the Tobacco

Center of Regulatory

Science, one of 50

women to watch.

Herman Daly, a professor emeritus

in the School of Public Policy, won

the 2014 Blue Planet Prize from the

Asahi Glass Foundation, honoring

work such as combining the

environment, local communities and

quality of life into economic theory.

UMD President Wallace Loh is joined by, from left, Northrop Grumman President and CEO Wes Bush, University System Chancellor Brit Kirwan and Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean for Undergraduate Studies Donna Hamilton at the dedication of the new cybersecurity lab in Prince Frederick Hall last month.

6 btc NOVEMBER 2014

50 Years of Stars at UMD ObservatoryBY LIAM FARRELL

For the past 50 years, one place at Maryland has made it possible for the campus community to look at the final frontier.

The UMD Observatory, located off Metzerott Road in College Park, was dedicated in November 1964, and a celebration at 8 p.m. Nov. 20 will feature a presentation on its history by John Trasco, former associate director of astronomy.

Completed two years after the astronomy program was established, the observatory, with four permanent telescopes using lenses ranging from 7 to 20 inches, has attracted a total of 50,000 stargazers to its open houses. Programs are also held for new telescope owners and beginners who want to search for objects in the sky.

Although Trasco says the climate and light level in College Park don’t lend themselves to significant astronomical discoveries, he can recall several memorable occasions at the observatory. In 2003, nearly 1,000 people waited in a 90-minute line to catch the closest view of Mars in 2,000 years. In 1986, the chance to see Halley’s Comet drew several hundred people, despite a fuzzy 4 a.m. appearance in winter.

“It’s a measure of how much interest there is in astronomical events,” Trasco says.For more information, visit astro.umd.edu/openhouse.

ACCOLADES

NOVEMBER 2014 btc 7

An Archivist’s GiftSeven-Figure Donation Follows 30 Years of Dedication to UMD History

BY KAREN SHIH ’09

University Archivist Anne Turkos is the definitive source for UMD history, whether you’re look-ing for the original Testudo, trying to verify whether Jack Nicklaus ever played on campus (he did!) or following up on that decades-old rumor you heard as a student.

But she doesn’t do it alone. She has a small staff that until two years ago included a graduate assistant, before the University Libraries had to cut funding.

“We felt that loss pretty keenly,” she says. “My stu-dents are like my children, in some ways.”

Now, Turkos has made a seven-figure gift to endow a graduate assistantship in the Archives—the first such donation on campus—ensuring support for a new generation of students.

“I’ve been giving to the university for a long time,” she says, to athletics, arts, campus clubs and more. When Turkos was revising her estate plans a year ago, she knew she wanted to make a long-term difference in a place that’s become her second home.

Turkos has significantly expanded the scope of the Archives since she arrived nearly 30 years ago. Among her proudest moments are helping to create the

Mighty Sound of Maryland’s centennial history book; organizing the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1957 Queen's Game and the return of players from that football team who hadn’t reunited in decades; and collaborating on a UMD history class that was taught for the first time in the spring. Besides all this, she's fielded thousands of questions from alumni and others interested in UMD history.

Finding out she isn’t an alumna (she holds degrees from Dickinson and Case Western) is shocking to many, given her vocal support for all things Terp, espe-cially women’s basketball.

“I drank the Terp-ade,” says Turkos. “From the beginning, I knew this wasn’t just a job.”

She’s gearing up for the Archives’ next big project, digitizing the Diamondback’s photo collection. With more funding, Turkos hopes to do the same for old copies of the newspaper, as well as footage from the men’s basketball and football teams.

“We’ve worked hard to make Maryland’s history accessible,” she says. “It means a great deal to me to know that my work to build the University Archives program will be remembered long after I am gone.”

Between the ColumnsUniversity Marketing and Communications2101 Turner Hall, College Park, MD 20742

P 301.405.4615 · F 301.314.9344

Between the Columns is published twice per semester by University Marketing and Communications. Story ideas are welcome and should be sent to Liam Farrell, managing editor, at lfarrel1@umd.edu or by calling 301.405.4629. The mailing list is generated through University Human Resources. Any changes to names and addresses should be made through ares.umd.edu.

�is visualization was inspired by Piet Mondrian’s compositions with red, yellow, and blue colors. �e left one is titled “Composition C (no.III), with Red, Yellow and Blue.”

�is data set contains artist data from Last.fm. On their 10 year anniversary, Last.fm published a list of top 100 artists based on their popularity as per user data. From that list, we have taken the top 20 artists, the total number of times their

tracks were ‘scrobbled’ or played, and the number of unique listeners for each artists. We also identi�ed broad genres of the artists based on their most popular tags.

�e boxes represent individual artists where the size of the box is the number of times their tracks were played while the color represents the genre of the artist – rock is white, alternative is blue, pop is yellow and hip-hop is red.

The

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E V E R YALGORITHM

HAS ART IN IT

7

�e dataset was collected from the World Bank’s website. �e size of the boxes represent the urban population counts of countries. �ey are colored according to the urban population growth percentage - negative values are colored magenta. Positive values start at light purple for lower values and then gradually shift to dark purple and then to yellow for higher values.

We

Are

the

Wor

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E V E R YALGORITHM

HAS ART IN IT

8

�e dataset was collected from the World Bank’s website. �is contains the urban population counts and annual urban population growth percentages for all countries for the year 2010. We �ltered the data to include countries with urban populations of 20 million or more. �is resulted in 36 records. �e box sizes represent urban population count for an individual country.

�e wide horizontal layout and vertical stripes are inspired by Gene Davis’s style. Countries with negative urban population growth are colored in pink – here we �nd only Ukraine under this criteria. Other countries are colored in a black to blue scale where black represents zero urban population growth and blue represents the highest among these countries (6.25%).

Urb

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E V E R YALGORITHM

HAS ART IN IT

9

�e data is �ltered to show countries with population densities of 100 or more people per square kilometer of land area (91 records).

�e dataset was collected from the World Bank’s website. In this strip tree map, the box sizes represent population densities of people per square kilometer of land area. �e colors represent annual urban population growth percentages. Negative values are colored in lighter brown. Positive values are colored from yellowish brown (0%) to dark brown (6.25%).

The

New

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ld

E V E R YALGORITHM

HAS ART IN IT

10

�is visualization shows statistics about certain TED talks. �e dataset was compiled by Sebastian Wernicke for his TED talk, “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics.” Each of the boxes represents the engagement score for a certain TED talk. �e colors depend on the total number of del.icio.us bookmarks for that TED talk. �e coloring was done in 8 equally dense bins with pink being highest and red being lowest. �e colors here try to capture the variety and charismatic excellence of the TED talks.

Dazz

ling

Talk

s

E V E R YALGORITHM

HAS ART IN IT

14

�is urban population dataset for the year 2010 was collected from the World Bank’s website. �e visualization shows countries with urban populations of 23.3 million or more. �e box sizes are urban population counts. �e colors represent population density (people per square kilometer of land area) with the highest being greenish yellow (Bangladesh: 1159) and the lowest being purple (Canada: 4).

�e coloring was done in 4 equally dense bins and using linear scale. �e color palette was inspired by Josef Albers’ works while the composition and arrangement was inspired by Gene Davis’ works. �e diversity of city life is conveyed by the lively colors.

The

Big

Urb

ans

E V E R YALGORITHM

HAS ART IN IT

11

An Art and a ScienceProfessor Turns Data into Design with Museum Exhibit BY LIAM FARRELL

Ben Shneiderman, a UMD computer science professor and pioneer of data visualization, has made a career of finding the beauty in numbers. To him, art and science are not separate pursuits—it’s possible to put them both in a single picture frame.

Now through April 15, his artistic and scientific work is on display at the National Academy of Sciences in an exhibition called “Every AlgoRiThm Has ART in It: Treemap Art Project.”

Treemapping, a widely used technique invented by Shneiderman, uses a collage of different sized and colored rectangles to visualize datasets. For example, one of his 12 exhibit pieces displays information on grants for clean energy projects among different Maryland jurisdictions. By adding some artistic flair, the information is conveyed through an image calling to mind the state flag.

“My agenda has been to get people to understand the enormous payoff of looking at data in instructive visual ways,” he says. “Part of the engage-ment is that the data have some substantive meaning.”

Shneiderman, whose influences include artists such as Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko, is to some extent inheriting the family business. His uncle was David Seymour, the famed photographer and co-founder of Magnum Photos.

“Art begets treemaps, treemaps beget art,” he says. “I was always immersed in that world of visual art and design.”

The exhibit, located at the Keck Center in Washington, D.C., is viewable by appointment. Visits can be arranged by emailing aquinn@nas.edu. For more information, visit cpnas.org or treemapart.wordpress.com.