Terp Winter 2015

TERPED-OUT ROOM / 8 LIVING THE DREAM ACT / 22 LATE PROFESSOR, BONE INSPECTOR / 28

WINTER 2015 / Connecting the University of Maryland Community

What do these things have in common? t

find out on page 18

&

L ETT E R F ROM T H E PU BL I SH E R

WINTER 2015 / VOL. 12, NO. 2

PUBLISHER

Peter Weiler VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY RELATIONS A DV I S E R S

Brian Ullmann ’92 ASSISTANT VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS

Margaret Hall EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CREATIVE STRATEGIES M AG A Z I N E S TA F F

Lauren Brown UNIVERSIT Y EDITOR

John T. Consoli ’86 CREATIVE DIREC TOR

Joshua Harless ART DIREC TOR

Liam Farrell Kimberly Marselas ’00 Karen Shih ’09 WRITERS

Alex Stoller ’16 EDITORIAL INTERN

Megan Blair Kelsey Marotta ’14 Jeanette J. Nelson M.B.A. ’15 Beverly Yeager DESIGNERS

Gail Rupert M.L.S. ’10 PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT

Jagu Cornish PRODUC TION MANAGER

Submit and read letters to the editor online at terp.umd.edu.

EMAIL

terpfeedback@umd.edu

ONLINE VIDEO NEWS

terp.umd.edu

terpvision.umd.edu umdrightnow.umd.edu

FAC E B O O K .C O M /UnivofMaryland F L I C K R .C O M /photos/wwwumdedu T W I T T E R .C O M /UofMaryland V I M E O.C O M /umd YO U T U B E .C O M /UMD2101

The University of Maryland, College Park is an equal opportunity institution with respect to both education and employment.

University policies, programs and activities are in conformance with pertinent federal and state laws and regulations on nondiscrimination regarding race, color, religion, age, national origin, political affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

Terp won a

2015 Gold Award

for best magazine from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, District II.

As the publisher of Terp magazine, I enjoy the great privilege of bringing you some of the wonderful stories about the University of Maryland. Be sure to read the important feature on the challenges facing undocumented students attending UMD following the passage of the state’s Dream Act. There’s also a fascinating profile of Ellis Kerley, a forensic anthropologist and former professor who pioneered work in “CSI”-type investigations including the Challenger disaster, the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the hunt for Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele.

The renovation of our iconic Cole Field House is a project unlike any other in the country. Equal parts academic classroom, entrepreneurial incubator, research laboratory and athletic facility, the new Cole Field House will be an amazing centerpiece of our campus community. You can read more on pages 18–21.

You’ll find much more in this issue and online at terp.umd.edu, where we’ve added bonus content, including videos. I encourage you to check it out and share with your friends and colleagues.

As the vice president of university relations, it is my responsibility to advance the university through philanthropic support. On that front, 2014 was a rousing success. Not only did we raise a record amount of support, we were also able to break ground on important new academic facilities—made possible only through the generosity of our alumni. The Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center is under construction and upon its opening in 2016, will serve 10,000 students each day. The Brendan Iribe Center for Innovation and Computer Science will position UMD as a leader in virtual and augmented reality. A. James Clark Hall will house the country’s best bioengineering department and spark innovation across many disciplines on campus. And, of course, the Cole Field House project would not be possible without the generous support of alumnus and Under Armour CEO and founder Kevin Plank.

I share these projects with you to demonstrate the very real and important role alumni can have on the future of our university.

Whether it’s support for a new facility, donations to a student cause or funding for student scholarships, the collective power of 350,000 alums all over the world is having a dramatic impact on our university and the state of Maryland.

Go Terps!

Peter Weiler Vice President, University Relations

Departments IN BRIEF

2

ASK ANNE

4

CLASS ACT

5

CAMPUS LIFE

10

INNOVATION

14

FACULTY Q&A

17

PARTING SHOT

36

2 A. James Clark Hall

12 Speed Raiser

17 Bug Man on Campus

32 Features

22 LIVING THE DREAM ACT After years of hiding their identities, harrowing run-ins with the law and family heartbreak, undocumented immigrants embrace the opportunity for an affordable college education at Maryland. But once on campus, these students’ problems don’t vanish, either.

FULL BROADCAST A Pakistani journalist fighting to keep his radio station independent—and his employees safe—comes to Maryland for a year to expand his vision for delivering local news.

28 THE BONE WHISPERER A modest UMD professor was the father of forensic anthropology, providing answers and clarity amid some of the 20th century’s biggest news events.

18 DIAMONDS FROM COLE A reinvention of UMD’s field house will fuse academics, sports and research, all while preserving the building’s storied past.

IN BRIEF

A. James Clark ’ 50

Robert Fischell M.S. ’ 53

Bioengineering Building to Give Life to Innovation Biodegradable heart valves made from 3-D printers.

Surgical robots that can remove tough-to-reach brain tumors. Drug delivery systems that can prevent recurrence of malaria.

Research and innovations in these lifesaving areas, already under way in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, are expected to dramatically expand with the construction on campus of a building focused on the booming fields of bioengineering and biomedical device development.

“Engineers have the unique opportunity to innovate and design novel solutions and products that improve millions of lives—an opportunity that will be further realized with A. James Clark Hall,” says Darryll Pines, dean of the college and Nariman Farvardin Professor.

The $126 million building is made possible through gifts from two of Maryland’s most prominent benefactors. Engineer and construction executive A. James Clark ’50 has given $15 million; previous support includes a $15 million gift to the engineering school in 1994 that bears his name “Engineers have the unique opportunity to innovate and $30 million in 2003 for undergraduate scholand design novel solutions and products that improve arships. Clark Hall will be the 27th structure built

by Clark Construction on the UMD campus. million of lives—an opportunity that will be further He was unable to attend November’s groundrealized with A. James Clark Hall.” breaking ceremony, but his daughter, Courtney —Darryll Pines, Dean, A. James Clark School of Engineering Clark Pastrick, said this building is a “great leap forward” for his vision: “My father fervently believes that the future of modern medicine hinges on bioenThe university held a ceremonial groundbreaking in November gineering, and his generosity ensures that the Clark School will at the future site of A. James Clark Hall, next to the Jeong H. Kim have a magnificent point to incubate this research.”

Engineering Building. At 184,000 square feet, it will house labs, Bioengineering pioneer Robert E. Fischell M.S. ’53, honorary classrooms and meeting and maker spaces that will bring together Sc.D. ’95 has committed $6 million; his more than 200 medical students, faculty, medical practitioners, entrepreneurs and regulators patents include the first implantable insulin pump and the modto design and build the next generation of health-care technologies, ern heart stent. then get them into the marketplace.

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RENDERINGS COURTESY OF BALLINGER

A CAPITAL IDEA

SMITH SCHOOL OPENS FREE-ENTERPRISE CENTER THE ROBERT H. SMITH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS will

WORKSTATIONS

FLEX CLASSROOM

FLEX LAB

“We look forward to some great work in this department to make 100 million people better by what the engineers, students and faculty will do in this new building,” Fischell said at the ceremony.

Both the Fischell Department of Bioengineering and the Robert E. Fischell Institute for Biomedical Devices, launched in 2005 by a $31 million gift from Fischell and his three sons, will move into Clark Hall.

The building will unite the many disciplines on campus involved in human health innovation, including biology, information technology and electrical and mechanical engineering.

It is expected to boost the state’s economy through workforce training and biomedical startups, while making more room for the ballooning bioengineering program. Since its 2006 founding, the undergraduate program has grown to 414 students and is now UMD’s fastest-growing department.

The building, scheduled to open in 2017, will feature flexible classrooms and labs to spur an organic flow of ideas between disciplines.

Other features include optical and imaging labs focused on digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, 3-D printing, optics and bioinformatics.

“We needed to be able to provide a place for students to have great educational opportunities, great interaction capabilities with the Food and Drug Administration and with the University of Maryland School of Medicine,” says department chair William E. Bentley, “and this will be a huge outcome of this building.”–LB See more on Clark Hall and take a virtual tour at eng.umd.edu/clarkhall.

ILLUSTRATION BY JEANETTE J. NELSON

launch a new center focused on the study of free enterprise, following a $5 million gift from Philadelphia Flyers founder and Comcast-Spectacor CEO Ed Snider ’55.

The Charles Koch Foundation is donating another $1 million to help create the Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets.

“The Snider Center will not only study business as transactions among people within firms and markets, but also the history and philosophy of enterprise, markets and institutions,” says Smith School Dean Alexander Triantis.

Within several years of earning his accounting degree at UMD, Snider (below, right) co-founded the National Association of Record Merchandisers out of the trunk of a friend’s car. He later mortgaged his home to start the hockey team, whose success led to his now-international portfolio of concession, ticketing and other entertainment-related companies.

Snider says he never lost his connection to his alma mater, and now he envisions equipping Maryland students with the same skills, motivation and freedom that he had in his career.

“I just applied myself when opportunity knocked, and I innovated as I went along,” he says.

Koch and his brother, David, run the nation’s second-largest private company, Koch Industries, which specializes in energy, chemicals and manufacturing.

Rajshree Agarwal, the center’s new director and the Rudolph P. Lamone Chair and professor in entrepreneurship and strategy, says the gifts, the second-largest in the school’s history, are funding three professors, a managing director, two support staff members, and doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows across campus.

“I believe that truly successful businesses are moral enterprises, resulting from productivity, integrity and a sense of purpose,” she says. “The Snider Center will promote a multidisciplinary exploration of the institutions that affect human enterprise, thereby impacting the prosperity and well-being of individuals and societies.”

Q: WHO’S THE MOST FAMOUS GOLFER TO EVER PLAY ON THE MARYLAND COURSE? —Matthew Tau ’10 ASK ANNE

Questions for Anne Turkos, the university archivist

Questions may be sent to terpmag@umd.edu or @UMDarchives on Twitter.

ONLINE

lib.umd.edu/univarchives

BLOG umdarchives.wordpress.com

A: That would have to be Jack Nicklaus, who along with fellow golfers Lee Elder, Deane Beman and UMD team captain Rick Bendall competed in an exhibition on Oct. 16, 1971. Nicklaus had an unfortunate start to his day, as he swung so hard on his first shot that he split his pants below the zipper.

After a 20-minute break to find him some new trousers, he came back out and dominated, shooting a three-under-par score of 68.

The other players were famous in their own right: Elder became the first African American to compete in the Masters tournament in 1975, and Beman became the PGA Tour’s second commissioner.

FAC E B O O K University of Maryland University Archives

Q: I HEARD A MARYLAND STUDENT ONCE SWAM AROUND THE ISLAND OF MANHATTAN. IS THAT TRUE? —Sasika Subramaniam ’09

A: In 1984, senior Stacy Chanin swam three laps around the island in a record 33 hours and 33 minutes. She never left the water, despite strong currents, floating debris and cold temperatures. She ate banana and honey sandwiches, pasta, and granola bars, and drank hot chocolate and lots of water. Between laps, she treaded water as she waited for the tide to change. Her record time stood until August 2007.

WHAT CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT CALVERT HALL, WHICH JUST TURNED 100 YEARS OLD? —Angie Minor, Department of Resident Life

A: Calvert Hall, named for university’s founder, Charles Benedict Calvert, was the first dormitory constructed after the Great Fire of 1912, and was the first campus building dedicated solely to housing students. It cost $100,000 to build and was meant for 110 students

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(it houses about 130 today). On Aug. 2, 1914, The Washington Post wrote, “Upon the ashes of the old dormitory buildings of the Maryland Agricultural College at College Park, destroyed by fire last year, has arisen a new, modern structure, fireproof, and equipped with every

modern appliance known to the science of architecture and sanitation.” In summer 2014, the hall underwent a major renovation, with the townhouse-style apartments receiving new kitchen cabinets, flooring, countertops and stainless steel appliances.

SWIM PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WASHINGTON POST; OTHER PHOTOS COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES

CLASS ACT

ALUMNI PROFILE / WEENA CULLINS M. S. ’05

TALK (SHOW) THERAPY COUNSELOR GOES ON AIR TO HELP RADIO HOST

D.C. radio personality Pablo Sato wasn’t thrilled about going to counseling with his then-fiancée, but finding the right therapist helped him and his 270,000 listeners discover that even the best relationships require work.

“The preconceived notion is that people only go to counseling when you have ‘problems,’” says Sato. “What we are doing here by solving (our) problems onair takes a special type of person.”

For Sato and Jaymee, that special person was Weena Cullins M.S. ’05, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist. Her year’s worth of Thursday morning segments on WPGC 95.5 encouraged her host and callers to tackle divisive issues like household chores, bills, sex and social media use.

Cullins, a straight shooter with a sense of humor, wasn’t intimidated when she first stepped into the studio in early 2014.

“I was more concerned about representing therapists everywhere and making sure I could bring good clinical judgment and sound guidance to a show that crosses a lot of boundaries,” says Cullins, acknowledging the show’s sometimes-raunchy banter. “We therapists are learning to bring pieces of ourselves to sessions with clients. We laugh with each other. We cry with each other. We sharpen each other.”

Once on track to teach counseling skills to others, Cullins began her own therapy practice after realizing the influence she could have on couples. A large part of her couples-focused Upper Marlboro, Md., practice is devoted to premarital counseling. Her book about common and sometimes controversial therapy questions will be published in early 2015.

Cullins saw the radio stint as an opportunity to bust old stereotypes about therapy and stodgy therapists, especially the kind that linger in the minority population she most wants to reach. Selected in part because of her

appearance in a YouTube series on marriage in the black community, Cullins used wit and 10 years of professional observations to bond with listeners.

WPGC Program Director Steve Davis says listeners’ reactions to Cullins’ segments have been positive.

“It’s been very entertaining,” Davis says.

“It’s also done a lot to help our hosts seem real, to give depth to people you hear on the air.”

Calls from listeners often provide truly emotional moments. Recently, a woman revealed she had been keeping a diagnosis of bipolar disorder from her partner of four years.

“It highlights that people are encountering situations where they feel isolated,” Cullins said afterward. “People are scared that they’re going to be rejected… It’s not happening in a bubble. It’s happening to couples everywhere.”

Pablo and Jaymee wed in December; Cullins expected to reduce her counseling and radio sessions to once a month after they “jumped the broom.”–KM

ALUMNI BOOKSHELF

In Mapping the Cold War: Cartography and the Framing of America’s International Power, Timothy Barney M.A. ’07, Ph.D. ’11 shows the central place that maps held in articulating the ideological tensions and political visions of the world.

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

Unfold Your Mat, Unfold Yourself: Essays on Yoga’s Healing Truths and So Much More is a collection of essays by Anne (Modlin) Samit ’83, who discovered awakening and solace when she started exercising for the first time.

Former federal special agent Lucinda Delaney Schroder ’74 in Plunder of the Ancients recounts how she exposed the business of stealing and selling sacred American Indian artifacts, and the hurdles she faced in bringing the thieves and dealers to justice.

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ALUMNI PROFILE / TIM ’93, M. S. ’96 AND JULIE ’96 RIVENBARK

The Howard (County) Globetrotters TERP FAMILY GOES ON ROUND-THE-WORLD ADVENTURE

ly a ,o it n a t i s o P

THEY’VE SWUM WITH great white sharks, battled vertigo at the tallest building on Earth and trekked 83 miles to Everest Base Camp—and they’re only halfway done with their trip around the world.

“The cool Last summer, Tim ’93, M.S. ’96 and Julie ’96 Rivenbark sold their Glenelg, Md., house and water was very cars, called time-out on their careers as a sales director and physician’s assistant and prerefreshing, and every pared to homeschool their kids, Tyler, 11, and Kara, 10, minus the “home,” for a year. time another boat passed by, water splashed into our kayaks, “We love to travel and decided having experiences in life is more important soaking our pants and shirts. By the time than having physical possessions,” Julie says. our hour with the kayaks was over, Tyler and The former UMD track athletes and Ironman competitors centered their Kara were almost completely soaked. So why not take that swim (in their clothes) they so wanted to do. As Tyler trip around the October Everest hike. “It was more challenging than always says, YOLO!”—Julie we were expecting,” Tim says, but “we were really proud that the kids made it.”

Now, they’re in Southeast Asia and are heading to China and Taiwan in March, where Julie and Tyler can use the Mandarin they’ve been studying.

“Sometimes I just miss my coffeepot and sofa and TV,” Julie says. “But I don’t want to go back.”

Read some excerpts from the Rivenbarks’ blog here and follow their travels at earthtrekkers.com.–KS

MUMBAI, INDIA

“Crossing the street here is like playing Frogger.

You look for a semi opening in oncoming traffic, walk out onto the road, preferably as a group, as there is some safety in numbers, trying to at least slow down approaching traffic. Cars would either slow down or go around us, then we would continue on to the other side. Once we got used to it, it actually got to be fun, in some weird, twisted way.”—Julie

cappucino dusted with gold cappucino made with camel milk milkshake french fries

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ABU DHABI, UAE

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MEGAN BLAIR; PHOTOS COURTESY OF EARTHTREKKERS.COM

Altitude sickness at 18,000 feet: “I kept panting and couldn’t catch my breath when we stopped. Then, my whole body got really tingly, and I felt like I had to go down immediately. Dad called to Indra [the guide] to come over, and he picked me up and ran me down the mountain on his back. I started throwing up all over myself, but when we got back down to Gorak Shep, I was already feeling better.”—Tyler

CLASS NOTES Submit your class notes and read many more at terp.umd.edu.

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ON

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BEN SIMON ’14, who founded the Food Recovery Network while a UMD student, has been named to Forbes’ list of “30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs.”

CLAUDIO GONZALEZ ’98 in April completed the North Pole Marathon, running (and walking) on snow and ice amid air temperatures hovering around -30°F. The experienced runner avoided frostbite by stopping to warm up after every 2 miles and replacing his wet, frozen running clothes with his parka, snow pants and five-pound polar boots.

GOAL:

Ride an ostrich.

SUCCESS RATE:

3/4—Tim fell off.

SOUTH AFRICA "Tonight we ate at a hot pot restaurant in Yangon, Myanmar.

The waiter brought out a pot of broth that cooks on a burner right in the center of your table. Then we add meat and vegetables of our liking to the pot. After adding broccoli, spinach, carrots, cabbage, chicken, and pork to our pot we decided to go adventurous and also add fallopian tubes from a pig. Everyone tried it but Kara wasn't able to swallow hers.

They were pretty bland with really no taste or flavor, and they were chewy. "—Tim

ALUMNI Julie's mom Kathy flew out to join the family (and brought homemade chocolate chip cookies!).

T R AV E L

EURO SPREE AUG. 31–SEPT. 13 Explore the snow-capped Alps, medieval castles and ancient Roman ruins as well as the pageantry of London and glamour of Paris. You’ll capture the flavor of the cities and the beauty of the countryside, see the greatest monuments and discover the tiny corners of Europe.

For more about this and other trips, visit alumni.umd.edu/travel or contact Angela Dimopoulos ’07 at 301.405.7938 / 800.336.8627 or adimop@umd.edu.

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A Room to Cheer About A decade ago, Dennis Cyr drove the youngest of his five daughters to a last soccer game, and his wife asked what he’d do with his suddenly free weekends.

What he told her was: Get season tickets to Maryland football games. What Cyr didn’t say, or perhaps know then, was that he would also become a Terp superfan.

Cyr, who attended UMD in 1990–91 and owns a business called Grout Medic, has created a shrine to Maryland in his Beltsville, Md., den. A few highlights:

UMD’s #52 Pride jersey, worn during 2012 season and bought at auction.

4x6-foot flag that Cyr had custom-made to match Maryland athletics’ latest version.

He flies it on a 30-foot pole at his tailgates.

“Pride” hat worn once by football coaching staff and signed by Coach Randy Edsall—whose radio show Cyr attends every week.

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Game glove worn by former Terp Darrius Heyward-Bey. Daughters convince players to donate the gloves—“It doesn’t look good when a 45-year-old man asks.”

Game tickets stored in portion of his beer-glass collection. Current favorite: 2014 game against Penn State. “It was a glorious ride home.”

The tailgating family in the fall: Olivia, Savannah, Dennis, Kayla, wife Kathleen, Amanda and Erica, plus his dog, Mr. Ramsey.

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

ALUMNI PROFILE / PAMELA LONG ’65, M.A. ’69, PH.D.’79

A CAREER JUDGED AS “GENIUS” HISTORIAN WINS PRESTIGIOUS MACARTHUR FELLOWSHIP AS AN INDEPENDENT HISTORIAN who does a lot of work from home, Pamela Long ’65, M.A. ’69, Ph.D. ’79 has a general policy of not answering the phone so she can actually get some writing done.

So when the MacArthur Foundation got the answering machine when calling Long about winning one of its $625,000 “genius grants,” the message was about a letter she had written for another nominee so as not to tip anyone off.

“I was really shocked,” she says a few weeks later in her Washington, D.C., home. “Of course it was totally unexpected.”

Long, who specializes in the cultural impact of science and technology in the 16th century, took an unusual path to the award. She grew up on a dairy farm in Chestertown, Md., and went into social work after college before her love of history brought her back to academia. Although Long has plenty of higher education teaching on her resume, her career has largely been funded by grants and fellowships and she’s never had a tenure-track position.

It was initially deflating, but eventually she saw “huge advantages” in giving full focus to her research and being able to avoid the administrative responsibilities of institutional life.

“I applied for many jobs. Like many historians, I didn’t get one,” Long says. “I felt very discouraged until I started publishing my work.”

Her latest project focuses on a few decades in Rome during the 16th century, looking at the quotidian processes that resulted in projects like aqueducts, renovated roads and new palaces and churches. She is delving into contracts and discussions between the papacy and city government to get a window into how urban renewal functioned in a pre-professional society.

“I’m interested in the failures as well. Often the history of technology is written as if it’s one success after another,” Long says. “(My book) gives a very new view of how practitioners and learned people are interacting on the ground.”

Although the five-year MacArthur fellowship comes with no strings attached, Long has no visions of getting a yacht. She has little intention to stop pursuing the multiple book ideas already on her mind and is planning to use the funds to make her international research more frequent.

“I feel that I have a lot more flexibility than I had before,” she says. “I love what I’m doing. I’m obsessed with what I’m doing. So I think I’m going to keep doing it.”–LF

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

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CAMPUS LIFE

MASTERPIECE

“Good Kids,” Great Opportunity

BIG TEN PLAY ON SEXUAL ASSAULT PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON FEMALE PLAYWRIGHTS The notorious 2012 case of high school players in Steubenville, Ohio, raping a passed-out girl, then posting photos of the attack on Facebook has inspired a play commissioned by the new Big Ten Theatre Consortium, just as UMD and other campuses are grappling with the sensitive topic of sexual assault.

“Good Kids” by Naomi Iizuka will premiere Feb. 27 at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center as part of the consortium’s New Play Initiative, which seeks to empower female playwrights and give more substantive roles to female actors.

UMD OKS NEW SEXUAL MISCONDUCT POLICY

The university has revised its sexual misconduct policy and procedures to clarify definitions and add terms, including coercion, dating violence and stalking. It also sets clear standards for reporting sexual misconduct and handling confidentiality requests and investigation and hearing procedures.

The policy, based on guidelines issued by the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, also requires all students, faculty and staff to complete a training program on sexual misconduct prevention.

The work was led by the new Office of Sexual Misconduct and Title IX Compliance.

UMD in the fall also launched a public awareness campaign called “Rule of Thumb” to educate students on sexual assault, promote available resources and provide bystander intervention tips. For more information, visit www.umd.edu/Sexual_Misconduct.

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Maryland is one of seven Big Ten schools hosting performances and post-show, expert-led discussions during the 2014–15 season, while four others will host readings of it.

“The Big Ten Theatre Chairs should be applauded because we talk about gender inequity but they’re actually doing something about it,” says Iizuka, who teaches at the University of California, San Diego.

“I hope from this, there’s a greater degree of self-awareness about the unexamined assumptions about what women can write, what plays by women are about and what kind of roles women can play.”

“Good Kids” follows a group of Midwestern high school students as they experience situations similar to the Steubenville case and explores their reactions to the aftermath.

“We can read articles in the newspaper and online but to actually see something enacted on stage, live,

that’s a very immediate, visceral type of reaction for an audience to have,” Iizuka says. “That may crack open, with any luck, certain parts of the discussion that don’t normally see the light of day because people are uncomfortable talking about it.”

One new play will be commissioned each year for at least the next five years. The next one is “Baltimore”

by Kirsten Greenidge, which tackles racial issues on a college campus.

“There are a lot of dead white men who are published,” says Leigh Wilson Smiley, director of the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies.

“The majority of audiences and the majority of students who study acting or performance are women—at least two-thirds—but most roles are for men. There aren’t enough women’s voices.”–KS Visit theclarice.umd.edu for tickets.

Crowdfunding Program Takes Off PROJECTS GET LIFT THROUGH LAUNCH UMD The widow of a successful Terp is seeking to expand a scholarship for a computer science student like he was: “a bit eccentric, a good person who wants to make a difference in the world, a Renaissance man or woman.”

Through Feb. 16, Tamara Lyons is appealing to potential donors to support the Brian Lyons Scholarship at launch. umd.edu, a new crowdfunding initiative that’s taken off at UMD. Since its start in April 2014, Launch has raised a total of $195,518 for 22 projects. Its success lies in short-term requests for modest gifts that bring to life intriguing or ambitious projects.

Nearly 300 donors crushed the $8,000 goal for a new equipment van for the Mighty Sound of Maryland march-

Brian Lyons

ing band, raising more than $30,000.

Researchers installing “sentinel” beehives across Maryland to monitor the health of the state’s honey bee population netted

triple their $8,000 goal. With gifts of as little as $5, engineering alumni earned $6,000 to increase student teams’ funding in the Clark School’s Alumni Cup design competition.

Through Launch, Mrs. Lyons hopes to raise $17,000 before what would have been the 50th birthday of her husband, a 1987 grad and late CEO of a software company who died in a motorcycle crash.

That will raise the endowment to $50,000 and double the annual scholarship awarded to $2,500.

“I love using launch.umd.edu,” she says, “because it incorporates the latest in fundraising tools, which will benefit students whose computer science expertise will, in turn, shape the technology of tomorrow.”–LB

DISCOVER OTHER INSPIRING PROJECTS AT LAUNCH.UMD.EDU. VIEW THE BRIAN LYONS SCHOLARSHIP VIDEO USING THE LAYAR APP.

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A GREENER STATE

to work in and with the city to study the impact of industrial redevelopment, encourage citywide composting, improve bicycle and pedestrian transportation, and investigate the impact of climate change on the Frederick watershed, among other issues.

“All cities and jurisdictions have limited resources, so this infusion of student and faculty work helps to plug a lot of those holes and gives them tremendous resources, information and ideas to think about,” says PALS Director Uri Avin.

PALS will choose a new local government to work with each school year. It will also begin a multiyear partnership with the city of College Park this spring.

“Sustainability is one of the major challenges facing humanity these days,” says NCSG Director Gerrit Knaap. “It’s part of the University of Maryland’s mission and something every student should be exposed to.” –KS

PARTNERSHIP HELPS MARYLAND CITIES ADDRESS SUSTAINABILITY ALGAE BUILDUP in a popular city canal. A struggling

immigrant- and minority-owned business area. Fragile 18th-century architecture. At 270 years old, Frederick, Md., faces a variety of environmental, economic and social challenges, and a new campuswide partnership led by the university’s National Center for Smart Growth (NCSG) is helping the state’s second-largest city tackle them in a sustainable way.

“You want to leave this earth in a better place than you found it, and that’s part of what we should do as a city as well,” says Frederick Mayor Randy McClement. “Everyone’s enthusiastic about working with UMD. In the long run, this will help our staff on projects they’d like to get moving forward.”

The Partnership in Action Learning (PALS) program brings together professors and students to participate in 30 new or refocused classes throughout the school year.

Many are existing courses that have been redesigned to focus on Frederick, giving students opportunities

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; POSTERS COURTESY OF PALS

1) DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP AT LAYAR.COM/PRODUCTS/APP

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2) SCAN THIS PAGE

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PLAYBYPLAY

Speed Raiser

TRACK ATHLETE FUNNELS STARTUP’S PROCEEDS TO KENYAN VILLAGE KIKANAE PUNYUA’S FATHER wanted him to be a doctor, but that path to success would have taken too long for the middle-distance runner from Kenya.

Instead, Punyua ’15 declared himself an economics major, founded a socially minded business and began preparing his Maasai village for modern medicine.

“When I was growing up, I saw so many challenges and I wanted to do something, but I had no means,” says Punyua, one of 10 children in his family who shared a mud hut in the largely rural Narok District, about two hours west of Nairobi.

During high school, Punyua was chosen as one of 20 Kenyans to participate in an exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. After a year in Howard County, Md., he was hooked on America—despite an initial dislike for pizza and some adjustment to a much less communal culture.

Punyua, known as “Kika,” hadn’t run in Kenya but found sports a good way to make friends here. His first competitive season earned the attention of college recruiters, including Maryland track Coach Andrew Valmon.

An anonymous donor paved the way for Punyua to complete his senior year at Glenelg Day School, where he captured the 2010 state title in the 3,200-meter event.

It was at Glenelg that Punyua first envisioned the Osiligi Clinic, a facility that will start providing maternity care and health education to people in his village later this year. Though he raised about $5,000 for the venture through a high school project, the building and a

PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

sustainable funding plan have come to life since Punyua entered Maryland.

Nearly $20,000 in private donations helped complete construction of the clinic, and Punyua is now securing furnishings and medical equipment. He and his family are also working with the Kenyan government to secure staff that can provide pre-natal and delivery services, as well as educate and partner with the local midwives.

Punyua also wants women in his tribe to have opportunities beyond motherhood, so last year, he launched Rafiki Beads and Trips, which sells handmade beaded wares like bracelets and dog collars and promotes “voluntourism.” As the business grows, he plans to split proceeds between the female Maasai crafters and the clinic. Initially, about six employees were paid by the piece; he hoped to offer work to as many as 30 women during the 2014 holiday rush.

“My goal was to empower women,” says Punyua. “Now they have a skill that provides an income.”

Punyua is juggling it all—even shipping out products to online customers—while completing his degree and pursuing full-time corporate work.

He’ll also be back on the track this spring, competing in distance events. Choosing to stay at Maryland after the elimination of cross-country made Punyua a leader on the smaller, younger track team, Valmon says. The coach calls him a great example of what scholar athletes can do if they have a vision and support.

“If he’s started something, you know he’s going to finish it,” says Valmon. “He’s the kind of kid you want on your team.”–KM

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INNOVATION

Research Plants “Sesame’s” Seeds of Programming A School of Public Health researcher’s latest studies of “Sesame Street” extend beyond how the Indian version of the TV show teaches ABCs and 123s.

Dina Borzekowski helped create Raya the Now Dina Borzekowski is considering Muppet to promote positive hygiene in how to talk to preschoolers about more India, Bangladesh and Nigeria—places complex social topics: child labor, sexual where “Sesame Street” reaches over 40 exploitation and violence against women. million children.

She has received almost $1 million from the Children’s Investment Fund She encourages children Foundation (CIFF), a United Kingdomto wash their hands with soap before meals and based nonprofit, to lead three studies after using the toilet. on the impact of “Galli Galli Sim Sim,” the Hindu name of the program, and to inform its content.

“It’s an opportunity to reach kids with important messages, and the delivery is through an entertaining program that they’re watching anyway,” says Borzekowski (bottom, right). “The idea of protecting them and making them stronger individuals and citizens—there’s no reason not to do that.”

India’s challenges are well documented: nearly 5 million children under age 14 in the workforce rather than in schools; 400,000 children and women sold into sexual slavery; 42 percent of girls sexually abused before age 19.

If cultural norms in the country are going to change, says Borzekowski, they have to change fundamentally, when citizens are children just developing their beliefs.

Associate Professor Donna Howard, an expert on childhood risk and resilience who will help oversee the five-year evaluation, says the key is to do so in an age-appropriate way.

“We’re looking at how to empower families to protect the well-being of their children through a developmentally appropriate lens,” she says. “We’re Raya wears sandals to going to talk about traffic safety (such the latrine to remind children to do the same. as wearing a helmet), inappropriate

Borzekowski helps build case that Philip Morris’ “Don’t Be a Maybe. Be Marlboro” global campaign is aimed at teens. Read more at terp.umd.edu.

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PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

touching, dealing with strangers and the value of education, particularly for girls.”

As a co-sponsor of coming TV seasons of “Galli Galli Sim Sim,” CIFF is investing $12 million into new episodes.

One of Borzekowski’s studies will evaluate the effect of children’s different levels of exposure to the show over four years, while another will ask children, parents, health professionals and teachers about their perceptions of the program.

The third study will examine whether its content affects school readiness, health and hygiene, and child protection issues.

Borzekowski, who studied under Gerald Lesser, a founder of “Sesame Street,” has worked on many international versions of the program. She’s been instrumental in developing and evaluating several new Muppets, including Kami (below), an HIV-positive orphan who helps children in sub-Saharan African learn about the virus and grief. Last year, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she helped create Raya, a preschooler Muppet who highlights the importance of using latrines, washing hands and treating dirty water collected from ponds or wells. Raya has been introduced to “Sesame” shows in Bangladesh, Nigeria and India.

“If you raise enough awareness that you need a latrine, then children and adults will advocate for one,” Borzekowski says.–LB

CHEEP AND EASY

APP HELPS AMATEUR BIRDERS IDENTIFY LIKE THE EXPERTS

FOR THE CURIOUS HIKER and birdbath watcher who spot an unusual feathered friend and want to know more about it, the slogan is true: There’s an app for that.

Birdsnap is the latest species identification app from UMD computer science Professor David Jacobs, who along with researchers at Columbia University developed the earlier Leafsnap (also in partnership with colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History) and Dogsnap apps.

“We’ve learned how difficult it is, even for people with training, to do species identification,” Jacobs says. “We’re so used to search engines, and this is a search engine model.”

Birdsnap, which has been downloaded 25,000 times and is available at birdsnap.com, builds on the work that Jacobs has done in the field of identifying human faces. With lots of examples, technology can essentially learn the geometric

standards of a species and narrow down choices for a user.

“We can train an automatic system to extract a representation of what a beak looks like,” Jacobs says.

When a user uploads a photo of a bird, the database searches through 500 of the most common North American species and makes suggestions based on its appearance and the likelihood of seeing it in a particular area. Links are also available for bird sounds. Jacobs says this is all helpful for novices who may have difficulty with the more standard field guides.

At this point, creating each of the identification apps necessitates rebuilding the wheel each time. Jacobs eventually wants to create a single tool that can use more universal techniques and shift between identifying things like shells, insects and weeds.

“There’s a tremendous desire by biologists for these types of tools,” he says.–LF

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NEWSDESK

“If the podcast does not provide a solution, they’d look for it another way — expressing, say, an overly bigoted opinion or a very clear-cut decision.”

ARIE KRUGLANSKI, PSYCHOLOGY, ON HOW PEOPLE WITH THE “NEED FOR CLOSURE” CHARACTERISTIC MIGHT RESPOND TO THE PODCAST “SERIAL” ENDING AMBIGUOUSLY, IN NEW YORK MAGAZINE, DEC. 5.

Study: Working Moms’ Balancing Act a Global One “Democrats let the Republicans frame the story. Look at the falling oil prices and unemployment numbers, look at the stock market—you didn't hear any of that.”

STELLA ROUSE, GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS, ON LOW TURNOUT AMONG LATINO VOTERS, ON NBCNEWS.COM, NOV. 5.

“What we have is not discrimination but elite schools being limited in the number of outstanding students they can admit.

There are no golden tickets.”

JULIE J. PARK, EDUCATION, ON A LAWSUIT ACCUSING HARVARD UNIVERSITY’S ADMISSIONS POLICY OF DISCRIMINATING AGAINST ASIAN AMERICANS, IN THE WASHINGTON POST, JAN. 4.

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After rushing from the office, then picking up kids from day care, dropping them off at soccer practice, cooking dinner and answering emails, a working mother would be excused for eye-rolling at a magazine cover or TV show asking: Is it possible for her to “have it all”?

It turns out, though, that American women may actually be closer to attaining the elusive balance of work and family life than some foreign counterparts, according to new research from UMD psychology Professor Karen O’Brien.

O’Brien teamed up with colleagues around the world to study how employed mothers in the United States, Israel and South Korea cope with work-family management and its relationship with depression. More than 700 women ages 24 to 56 were surveyed across the three countries, which vary greatly in terms of cultural makeup, gender roles and power distribution.

The research found no group of women was immune to the combined stress of work and family obligations— “Every woman in the study was struggling,” O’Brien says—but South Korea

outpaced the other countries with the most depression and least support from spouses and employers. American and Israeli women had a higher rate of feeling enriched by their work and were less depressed. The study also found that the amount of spousal support played the biggest role in reducing distress.

O’Brien says this shows the difficulty in negotiating a rapidly modernizing society that has more traditional values.

For example, women in South Korea are generally obligated to care for their in-laws and often take the blame if a child does poorly in school.

“Korean women live in a more patriarchal society,” she says. “There are added demands that create more feelings of being overwhelmed.”

O’Brien’s next step is to create a universal measure of what constitutes being a good mother across cultures and determine if that can predict whether women opt out of careers.

“Perceptions of ‘good mothering’ will play a role in women’s career decisions and vocational aspirations,” she says. –LF

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY MAROTTA

FACULTY Q & A / MICHAEL RAUPP

BUG MAN ON CAMPUS Entomologist Michael Raupp has fed Jay Leno a cicada. He’s consulted the TV series “Bones” on bugs found on cadavers in the Washington, D.C., area. He’s practically a regular on NPR and WTOP. Known as “The Bug Guy,” the longtime Maryland professor shares his enthusiasm and expertise not just on TV and radio, but through his 2010 children’s book “26 Things That Bug Me” and on his blog, “Bug of the Week,” now marking its 10th anniversary.

Now he tells Terp about how he’s created a buzz about his work.–AS WHY BUGS?

Why not? They’re fascinating.

They frighten people. They entertain people. When people find out I’m an entomologist, the next thing that happens is the iPhone comes out and there’s a picture of the bug on the side of their wall. I think people are just curious about bugs, and certainly bugs are everywhere. We share 80 percent of our genes with insects.

They’re kind of a part of us.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST BECOME FASCINATED WITH THEM?

One of my fondest memories was my mother telling me to go outside and play. That was the best advice I ever got. It put me in touch with the natural world. My real interest in bugs was when I began my study in medical entomology [at Rutgers University], and that’s when I switched from being pre-vet to an entomology major.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE INSECT?

The bug that’s brought me the most fame is the cicada. This is an animal that lives underground for 17 years sucking on the roots of plants. How dismal is that? And in the 17th year, it gets up and out, and joins a big boy band up in the treetops. It sings its heart out, tries to woo the babes—up there, a brilliant short life in the sunshine and then it’s back underground for 17 years. That’s a fascinating life cycle.

HOW DO YOU TRY TO ALLAY FEARS ABOUT BUGS?

“Bug of the Week” (bugoftheweek.com) is largely helping demystify bugs. The game plan is the first bug I bump into, I simply photograph it, videotape it, write a little story about how it lives its puny little life. There’s a little kernel of science in every story.

WHAT DOES YOUR FAMILY THINK OF YOUR LINE OF WORK?

When I told my father I was doing this instead of going to med school, he said, “You’ve gotta be kidding!” My kids think their father is pretty wacky and goofy. They’ve accepted it. They grew up with wolf spiders on the counters, mason bees in the carport, and cicadas in the refrigerator. And when I’m on the tube, I always give my family and friends a wink. I’m living the dream.

FIELD HOUSE’S REINVENTION TO FUSE ACADEMICS, SPORTS, RESEARCH

It has hosted Elvis Presley, President Kennedy, a groundbreaking ping-pong match and basketball games that made history.

The $155 million project, approved by the state But the William P. Cole Jr. Student Activities Building, better known as Cole Field House, doesn’t house just Maryland’s memories. Today, the building holds the university’s ambitions.

This spring, the university will begin designing a reimagined and reinvigorated Cole, one that will be a hub for innovation and a national model for integrating athletics, academics and research.

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Board of Regents in December, will preserve the building’s façade on Campus Drive and honor its legacy, while creating the Terrapin Performance Center, featuring a full-size indoor football field and new training facilities; a new venue for the Academy for Innovation and Entrepreneurship; and the new Center for Sports Medicine, Health, and Human Performance.

“The new Cole Field House is not just an important project for Maryland athletics, it is a signature project

for our entire institution,” s Wallace D. Loh. Students from across ca opportunities to take new c boldest ideas and create ne major reason that Under Ar Kevin Plank ’96 helped laun million gift.

“This project brings tog passions, Maryland athletic

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; PHOTO CREDITS

“BY FOSTERING A GENERATION OF ENTREPRENEURIALMINDED YOUNG ADULTS, WE ARE PREPARING OUR STUDENTS NOT JUST FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS, BUT FOR MANY YEARS TO COME.” — KEVIN PLANK ’96

says university President

ampus will have courses, explore their ew companies at Cole—a rmour founder and CEO nch the project with a $25

gether two of my favorite cs and entrepreneurship,”

he says. “The lessons I learned on the football field in College Park continue to fuel my entrepreneurial spirit and shape my professional approach. By fostering a generation of entrepreneurial-minded young adults, we are preparing our students not just

As Cole looks toward its future, here’s a look back at its past.

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI;PHOTO PHOTOBYCREDITS JOHN T. CONSOLI

1955 Cole Field House is built, named for 1910 alumnus William P. Cole Jr., chairman of the Board of Regents from 1944–56.

for the next four years, but for many years to come.”

Construction is scheduled to start in December, meaning it won’t be long before new names will be added to the legacy left by Elvis, Lefty and Gary.

1959

John F. Kennedy, then a senator from Massachusetts, speaks at convocation.

1966

An all-white No. 1 Kentucky team is beaten by Texas Western, the first squad to have an all-black starting five in the NCAA title game.

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The Academy at Cole Field House hopes to spur more student-fueled successes like these—all of which came to life through campus programs: STARTUP SHELL Want to print a custom party favor? Replace a broken shower hook? The sleek and inexpensive three-dimensional printer from M3D, founded by Michael Armani ’05, Ph.D. ’10 and David Jones ’06, can pump out countless creations. It raised $3.4 million from a Kickstarter campaign last spring. The first printers are scheduled for delivery early this year.

HINMAN CEOs Javazen co-founders Aaron Wallach ’14, Eric Golman ’15 and Ryan Schueler ’14 created a “superbrew” that combines organic, free-trade coffee, tea and chocolate to fuel a drinker’s day. The product is available online and in D.C.-area organic markets.

DO GOOD CHALLENGE It took Brooks Gabel 19 years before he was able to say out loud, “I am gay.” That’s why the 2014 graduate and Do Good Challenge winner created justlikeyou.org, a social networking site for people going through the comingout process, to help connect others with the same questions and uncertainty.

DINGMAN CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP For someone having a heart attack, two graduate engineering students’ new Sono-Assist Monitor could be a lifesaver. Shawn Greenspan ’14 and Stephanie Cohen ’14 won the Pitch Dingman competition in the fall with their monitor that allows medical providers to determine a patient’s pulse even with decreased blood flow.

1972 Dubbed “ping-pong diplomacy,” the match between the Chinese professional team and the American team helps spur decades of academic, research and economic partnerships.

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ACADEMICS The next Kevin Planks won’t have to Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the start their new technology, social endeavor or business University of Maryland, Baltimore’s School of Medicine in their grandma’s basement, like he did. The Academy to push the boundaries of human physiology. for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which will be in Does an ROTC student have a running gait that the new Edward St. John Teaching and Learning Center makes him susceptible to injury? How can a robotic as well as at Cole, is focused on nurturing that creativity glove improve hand rehabilitation for stroke victims? among the 37,000-strong student body.

How do changes in nutrition affect a “weekend The Academy at Cole Field House will expand warrior’s” performance? the more than 100 innovation and entrepreneurship These are the sorts of questions the center will courses already offered each year at UMD. It will explore, says Bradley Hatfield, the UMD chair of also serve as a clearinghouse for experiential learning opportunities, such as internships and competitions, “THIS WILL BE LIKE A LABORATORY FOR and it will house the Innovation Shell, A LOT OF STUDENTS. ATHLETICS HAS a hybrid incubator-classroom space GIVEN IT THE SPARK. IT’S TAKING THAT (with a rapid prototyping lab) where students can bring their ventures to life. AND ALSO EXPANDING INTO BROADER The academy will draw expertise PUBLIC HEALTH.” – BRADLEY HATFIELD from across campus, including UMD’s 12 schools and colleges as well as the Maryland Technology Enterprise kinesiology spearheading the project.

Institute, the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship, “This will be like a laboratory for a lot the Center for Social Value Creation, the Center for of students,” Hatfield says. “Athletics has given it the Philanthropy and Nonprofit Leadership and the Office spark. It’s taking that and also expanding into broader of Technology Commercialization. public health.”

Dean Chang, associate vice president for innovation The center will feature 23,000 square feet of clinical and entrepreneurship, says budding UMD inventors will space to treat an estimated 60,000 people a year in the be able to “graduate” into Cole with an area where they D.C. region. An additional 16,000 square feet will be can build prototypes and even start selling products. dedicated to studying areas such as concussion and “At some point, your garage is no longer adequate,” traumatic brain injury, muscle-brain physiology and he says. “Cole has a unique opportunity to be this nextbiochemistry, and exoskeleton-robotic treatments. step place.”

The center will bridge the gap between Baltimore’s The potential for programming directed at studentmedical resources and UMD’s engineering resources, athletes is a special area of interest for Plank, who says Andrew Pollak, professor of orthopaedics and head founded Under Armour while on the Terps football of the Division of Orthopaedic Traumatology at the team and later launched the now-international Cupid’s University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Cup Business Competition at the Dingman Center.

“Any young athlete with hustle, a big idea or the will to do something special will want to be at Maryland and will make their home at Cole Field House,” Plank says.

RESEARCH The new Cole Field House also has the potential to redefine how we move. The creation of the Center for Sports Medicine, Health, and Human Performance will bring together experts from UMD’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, School of Public Health, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources,

1973

The official start of men’s basketball season grows from a one-mile midnight run into the intrasquad scrimmage and season kickoff tradition known as Midnight Madness.

1974 Elvis performs back-to-back sold-out “Chaos in College Park” concerts.

1975 In the first nationally televised

1984 Basketball star Len Bias outscores

women’s basketball game, the Terps crush defending national champion Immaculata, 80–48.

Michael Jordan 24–21, but the University of North Carolina overwhelms Maryland, 74–62.

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

“This is a huge, huge tool,” Pollak says. “We are taking a world-class clinical program and linking it to a worldclass technical program.”

ATHLETICS The third component of the new Cole

will be the Terrapin Performance Center, tailored to be the premier athletic training facility in Division I sports.

It will include an indoor, all-season, regulation-size practice field under Cole’s iconic domed roof, an adjacent strength and conditioning facility, two outdoor practice fields, a team meeting room, coaches’ offices, a team locker room and a tunnel that leads to the stadium on game days. The fields will also be made available for intramural sports.

"By providing them with a world-class practice, training and strength and conditioning facility, as well as expansive meeting space, our student-athletes will boast a competitive advantage as new members of the Big Ten Conference,” says Kevin Anderson, director of athletics.

Gary Williams ’68, who built his storied 22-year career as men’s basketball coach at Cole Field House, is now fundraising chief in athletics. As much as he treasures his memories there, he says, “The time is right to revitalize Cole Field House.”

“My view is this,” Williams says. “If you want excellence, you have to surround yourself with excellence. If you want to be the best, you need the tools to be the best.” TERP

Watch a feature on the Cole project at terpvision.umd.edu.

1995

The Terps earn their 400th home victory, taking down American 104–79.

2002 UMD defeats the University of Virginia Cavaliers in the men’s basketball team’s final game at Cole. It was a fitting bookend: The team beat the Cavs in its first game there in 1955.

ROBOTIC GLOVE RENDERING COURTESY OF CORNELIA FERMÜLLER

The Center for Sports Medicine, Health, and Human Performance will expand opportunities for academics and research. Examples of what we could or will see include:

UMD’s Jaydev Desai, professor of mechanical engineering, and Cornelia Fermüller, associate research scientist in the Institute for Advanced Computer Science, have joined forces with Kelly Westlake, a University of Maryland, Baltimore assistant professor of rehabilitation science, to develop a portable robotic glove to improve hand function in stroke patients. Graduate students at both institutions are part of the research team for “ViGrasp.”

More than 1.6 million Americans— including 300,000 athletes—suffer from concussions every year, and a team of students in the Honors College’s Gemstone program is researching how to offer them relief.

The undergraduates are examining how concussions change how glucose gets to the brain and whether antioxidants such as Vitamin E can counteract its effects.

The Dietetics Program hopes to offer sports nutritionrelated services at Cole for athletes and all other students as well as coaches and community members. “Apart from educating student to prepare the right meals and make the right nutrition choices, this will be a venue to train students in research and consulting in sports nutrition,” says program Director Margaret Udahogora.

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By Karen Shih ’09 // Photos by John T. Consoli ’86

New Relief, Persistent Anxiety for Undocumented Students at UMD Locked in a cell at an Eastern Shore detention center, Jorge Steven Acuña faced a bleak future, one in which he was more likely to be conscripted into the Colombian army than create chemical reactions at the University of Maryland.

He and his parents, political activists in Colombia, had fled their native country when he was 8, seeking asylum after receiving death threats. But 11 years later, it looked like they would be sent back: Immigration officials in March 2012 arrested the family of undocumented immigrants at their Germantown home.

Steven silently said goodbye to his plans of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. He knew his Spanish wasn’t strong enough to get him through even an introductory biology class. His injured knee couldn’t withstand the country’s two years of required military training.

“I imagined myself…in the middle of some tropical area, knowing about the drugs and the corruption there,” he says. “I saw myself dying.”

But he was lucky: After his friends whipped up a media frenzy and won the support of high-profile lawmakers, the Acuñas were released and granted a reprieve on their deportation orders.

Steven, spurred to action by his close call, spent the rest of the year campaigning on behalf of the Maryland Dream Act, legislation that would give undocumented students a chance to pay in-state public college tuition.

“To be a better person I need a better education,” he says. “We all have the dream to do better than our parents. If you’ve been in my situation, feeling so pressured and hopeless, you want to give back, especially to those who want to go to school.”

The bill passed by voter referendum, and today, he is one of nearly 100 UMD students paying the reduced tuition through either the Dream Act or President Barack Obama’s 2012 executive order deferring deportation for certain children brought into the country illegally.

With no federal DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act on the books, the 17 states that give undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition are on their own. As the students struggle with deportation fears, financial obstacles and endless red tape, the university faces its own challenges in meeting their needs.

“I think we need to be doing more,” says Associate Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Kumea Shorter-Gooden. “We need to more holistically address the needs and challenges of our undocumented students.” // Laws and Orders //

The absence of national policies has left state and local governments to grapple with the on-the-ground consequences of an estimated 11.4 million undocumented immigrants. Children are often at the center of that debate.

The federal DREAM Act, proposed in 2001, would have provided a path for children brought to the country illegally to eventually qualify for permanent residency.

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Though it passed with bipartisan support in the House, opponents argued that the newcomers would take jobs from citizens and strain the nation’s schools and health-care system, and the bill died in the Senate. No votes have been held since 2010.

Obama salvaged parts of that legislation two years later for his “Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) executive order. It states that immigrants who were under age 31 on June 15, 2012, had come to the United States before age 16, had continuously resided in the U.S. for five years, and were currently in school, graduated high school or served in the U.S. military, among other criteria, could be pro-

1 in 8 Asian immigrants is

undocumented (about 1.3 million total), according to AAPI Data at University of California, Riverside.

tected from deportation and receive a work permit. Obama’s November 2014 executive order extended DACA renewal from every two years to every three years and broadened the number of youth who could qualify. The $465 renewal cost, however, is prohibitive to many immigrants, and citizenship is still off the table.

In Maryland, the General Assembly proposed and passed its own Dream Act in 2011, focused on higher education only. But opponents—including Democrats, as the issue didn’t split along party lines—collected more than 60,000 signatures, enough to turn it into a referendum before voters in the next election.

“Many of our state’s colleges and universities are filled to capacity with students, as enrollment has spiked during our country’s economic struggles,” wrote Democratic Baltimore County Del. Joseph Minnick in the Dundalk Patch in 2012.

“Working adults are flocking back to the classroom to boost their resumes while they’re unemployed or underemployed.

Lecture hall seats should be available to them—legal residents—rather than undocumented men and women.” (Today, Minnick no longer objects to in-state tuition for undocumented students.)

UMD President Wallace Loh, a Chinese-Peruvian immigrant himself, was a vocal supporter of the Maryland Dream Act. “We know that education is the great equalizer in our democracy. It is the passport to social and economic mobility,” he wrote in The Washington Post before the vote. After educating K–12 students, “it is a waste of investment and talent to then slam the door on those with the ability and motivation—but limited money—to go to college.” // Living in the Shadows //

For some undocumented students, education is more than an equalizer. Amid constant fear of deportation—when, where, how?—it can be a lifeline, something they can control.

“Just imagine, you’re going to school, and at home, your parents might get deported,” says Steven, a chemical engineer-

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ing major. “They might call you up in the middle of an exam and say, ‘That’s it, we’ve made it as far as we can. It’s up to you now.’ It’s a scary thought.”

Since 2000, the Department of Homeland Security has removed more than 4.1 million individuals who were in the country illegally—including the parents of December biochemistry graduate James D’Souza*.

He was just a year old when they brought him to the U.S. to escape violent religious clashes in India. For their first 12 years in Maryland, he says, “we lived what people refer to as the American dream.”

As asylum seekers, they got Social Security numbers and work permits, so James’ father waited tables at highend restaurants in Washington, D.C., and his mother taught computer science at a community college. His younger brother was born an American citizen, and eventually, they bought a house.

But their case was ultimately denied in 2006, after several appeals. Three years later, a broken taillight alerted authorities and brought immigration officials to their home. They arrested James’ father, then sent him from detention center to detention center for months before deporting him. His mother was given a year’s reprieve to sell their house and find a place for her children to live. She was tracked with an ankle bracelet and required to regularly report to the immigration center in Baltimore, before she, too, was deported.

(Had they managed to stay another five years, they would have qualified under Obama’s new executive order that gives parents with American-citizen children three-year reprieves.)

“It was the toughest time of my life,” James says, “to see my mom have to go through what she did. She was treated like an animal.”

He told no one, concerned that his friends and teachers would judge or reject him. Instead, he focused his energy on the nine Advanced Placement classes he took his junior and senior years. It wasn’t until his own deportation loomed that he started to share his story.

Elsa Garcia* ’16, whose family also fled Colombia to escape political instability, kept quiet too, choosing to throw herself into activities like class council and the school paper. It finally hit her during senior year that her lack of official immigration papers made her different.

“I was kind of in denial,” she says. “When I heard my friends say they were applying to college here and there, it made me play along. I never doubted I would continue my education, but at some point it did become really real that going to a four-year institution was not going to happen.” // No FAFSA, No Future //

The key reason students like Elsa couldn’t imagine going to UMD before the Maryland Dream Act is this: The average cost of four years’ tuition ranges from $35,000 at in-state public institutions to more than $120,000 at private institutions, according to the College Board.

Nationally, most college students—about two-thirds— qualify for some sort of financial aid, including grants, loans or work-study. * NAME CHANGED TO PROTECT STUDENT’S IDENTITY

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an estimated 50 to 60 DACA students, says Assistant Registrar Michelle Tan. The former are officially tracked, while the latter are not, based on state policy.

Those with DACA status face an easier process qualifying for in-state tuition, because they have to fulfill only the regular residency requirements and add their deferred action document—though applying and proving their status to the federal government has its own risks and challenges. Students seeking in-state tuition through the Dream Act must supply qualifying documents directly to the university’s residency classification office. But they don’t always know where to find the forms, how to fill them all out or where exactly to drop them off. (“There was paperwork for days,” Steven recalls.)

Janelle Wong, director of the Asian American Studies Program, along with Program Coordinator Grace Lee has helped many undocumented students navigate the system.

She says they “aren’t certain what they can reveal in particular offices,” which keeps them from accessing resources like the Keep Me Maryland emergency financial aid fund and counseling services.

Two grassroots initiatives sprang up in Fall 2014 to support undocumented students. James co-founded the student group Legitimizing and Uniting a Network of Undocumented Americans (LUNUA) to create a pipeline from high school through community college to UMD. Yvette Lerma, coordinator for Latino student involvement and advocacy at the Office of Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy, created the UndocuTerp Collective to connect youth had received and educate faculty and staff from all areas of campus, DACA status as of July 2014, out of the including admissions, the health center and resident life.

In November, Wong and Lerma initiated a meeting approximately 2 million eligible, according with the coordinator of the University of California, to the Migration Policy Institute.

Los Angeles (UCLA) Undocumented Student Program.

Formally established about a decade after California’s in-state tuition law was passed in 2001, the program offers everything from textbook lending to nutrition sessions to reports the Pew Hispanic Center. campus ally training. Wong hopes Maryland can emulate schools That’s why Steven stepped up when the Maryland Dream like UCLA and those in Texas and Arizona that have websites and Act was on the ballot. He and James, then Montgomery College full-time staff members dedicated to helping these students, who students, led the local student movement. They criss-crossed she describes as “living in the shadows.” the county, the state and even the country, working with CASA “I would love to have someone to talk to,” says Elsa, who’s de Maryland, which spearheaded the state campaign, and studying government and politics and journalism. She’s hesinational organizations like United We Dream to advocate for tant to reveal her status because “I don’t know what the person various states’ Dream Acts. Steven spent weeknights and weeknext to me is going to think. I don’t know what their ideology is. ends speaking at churches and rallies to mobilize voters. James, I don’t know what kind of reaction they’re going to have to me.” who had started a student club for undocumented students and She’s hopeful that the new steps will help undocumented allies, testified in front of the Maryland General Assembly.

Maryland students. In the meantime, she, Steven and James “It was heartbreaking to see it go to referendum, but we are looking ahead to their own futures, which are temporarily were able to get it through,” says James. “The people of Marysecure with DACA status, but liable to change after a new presiland had our back.” dent is elected in 2016. Steven still intends to go to medical school, Elsa wants to earn a master’s degree in international // Someone to Talk To // affairs and work as a diplomat, and James plans to attend After the frenzied campaigning for the Maryland Dream pharmacy school in the fall.

Act, its passage seemed like the final step. But as one of the “People think we’re just here, running aimlessly, like we pioneers in enacting this kind of legislation, the university is have no dreams,” Steven says. “I’ve fought so hard to get to this still learning how to identify prospective students and support school, and I really cherish this opportunity. Being at a univerthem once they’re on campus. sity while you’re undocumented, it really humbles you.” TERP In Fall 2014, there were 34 UMD Dream Act students and

Undocumented students don’t have that option. Federal financial aid, which requires students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), is off-limits to them. Since states and private foundations frequently award scholarships based on the FAFSA, they also miss out on many other funding opportunities.

And unsurprisingly, families of undocumented students often lack financial resources. Steven’s parents were an accountant and a nurse, respectively, in Colombia, but they couldn’t afford the continued schooling or certifications needed to continue in their professions in the U.S., so they instead had to settle for jobs as a handyman and a nanny. To pay for school, Steven tends bar 30 hours a week. He saves on housing costs by commuting from his parents’ Germantown home, but this reduces the time he can devote to his engineering courses by another 10 hours per week.

“You’re always fighting for your money,” says Steven, who became an expert at arguing fees with telephone and power companies and banks to help his Spanish-speaking parents.

“You know any money you save them could be your food, or your shirt.”

The implications of these financial burdens are stark: An estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school each year, but just 5 to 10 percent attend college,

600,000

WINTER 2015 TERP 27

The Bone

whisperer Late Professor Was Pioneering Forensic Anthropologist

by KAREN SHIH ’09 It was a Friday night when the police showed up at the Kerley house, carrying a cadaver.

Ellis Kerley, the man they were looking for, wasn’t home. Instead, they found his wife, Mary, and young daughter, Amy. “Mom said, ‘No, no, no, we’re not taking the remains here,’” recalls Amy Kerley Moorhouse ’88.

But there was nowhere else to put them. Her father’s lab at the University of Maryland was closed for the weekend, and the body had been shipped all the way from Chicago. The only option left: Store it in the basement until he got home.

This situation would be unusual for anyone but Kerley, a trailblazing forensic anthropologist whose expertise in identifying bodies—sometimes from just a sliver of bone—made him a trusted authority internationally and gave him a role in some of the most important events of the 20th century.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KELSEY MAROTTA; MATERIAL COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES

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His work took him from Japan to Brazil, where he famously identified the remains of Nazi fugitive Josef Mengele. From the Korean to the Vietnam wars, from the Iran hostage crisis to the Challenger space shuttle explosion, he provided clarity and closure to the survivors of those who died in violent or mysterious circumstances.

“He had such impressive knowledge,” says Douglas Ubelaker, a former Kerley student and curator at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Anthropology.

Despite the media frenzy that followed many events, “he didn’t run out to the television cameras. He kept his focus on the science.”

Kerley’s high-profile cases earned legitimacy for a fledgling field that he organized nationally. At Maryland, where he spent nearly two decades, he created and led the Department of Anthropology, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.

Now, an anonymous donor has established the Dr. Ellis R. Kerley Chair in Anthropology, spurring a new look at this remarkable man’s life.

BEFORE “BONES”

Kerley was born in Covington, Ky., in 1924, the only child of two journalists. At 17, he enlisted and served as an Army rifleman in Europe during World War II. He enrolled at the University of Kentucky (UK) upon his return, intending to follow in his parents’ footsteps. But after taking just one anthropology class, he was hooked. He graduated in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in physical anthropology (as forensic anthropology was then known).

At that time, the field was new. The FBI had started turning to anthropologists at the National Museum of Natural His-

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tory in the 1940s for help investigating skeletons. Students like Kerley, who started their studies shortly thereafter, had to look for specific classes at universities across the country and reach out to potential mentors at the Smithsonian.

Half a century later, shows like “Bones” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” have popularized the sleuthing done by forensic anthropologists. They analyze skeletal or badly decomposed human remains, determining the age, sex, ancestry and more, says Dana Austin ’86, president of the American Board of Forensic Anthropology (ABFA). They work with law enforcement and medical examiners to locate and recover bodies, determine how long a person has been dead and assess bone trauma to determine if any crime has been committed.

Despite what the surplus of TV procedurals suggest, the ABFA lists only around 70 board-certified forensic anthropologists.

Local jurisdictions rarely have the budget for one on staff, so many work at universities and consult.

Nearly all in the field have a connection to Kerley, whose precise method of determining skeletal age is still used today.

A FORENSIC SHERLOCK HOLMES

A fracture in the hip bone. A gap in the front teeth. Kerley and a team of scientists identified Mengele through those details, along with the technique for determining the age of skeletons he developed for his dissertation at the University of Michigan.

Bones store calcium until the body needs it. Once the bone matrix that stores calcium is absorbed, it leaves a small channel that is filled back in. As

people age, there are more partially filled channels. Kerley found that by taking a cross-section of a long bone from the arm or leg and putting it under a microscope, he could count the number of partially and fully filled channels to determine the age of a person within two or three years. Previous techniques gave only a 10- to 15-year range.

Kerley, a meticulous researcher, used his method throughout decades of identifying the war dead and consulting for local law enforcement, as well as when the U.S. government called him for high-profile cases.

In 1976, he was part of a House investigation into President John F. Kennedy’s assassination; in 1978, he worked to identify the repatriated remains of the Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide victims; and in 1986, NASA called him in to examine remains of the astronauts in the Challenger space shuttle explosion.

“My dad felt the pressure,” says Moorhouse. “He didn’t like politics, he didn’t play games. That’s why he liked science so much, because science is the truth.”

He was called to Brazil in 1985 to ID the remains of the infamous doctor Mengele, who experimented on thousands at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Mengele had fled to South America after World War II, evading capture through fake names and frequent moves until his death by drowning in 1979.

Many worldwide still believed the Nazi was alive—and his victims demanded justice. To provide absolute proof of his death, the scientists painstakingly reconstructed his skull and analyzed every bone, finding a hip fracture that matched his motorcycle injury at Auschwitz and a front tooth gap that matched a 1938 mili-

“we

didn’t realize

that not everyone’s father talked about bones and fingernails and time of death at

the dinner table.”

Amy Kerley Moorhouse ´88 Ellis Kerley and his wife, Mary, in their home in Rockville, Md., around 1960.

tary photograph. Kerley also determined that he had died in his late 60s, fitting local descriptions of the fugitive.

“I feel quite confident this is indeed Mengele,” Kerley said in The New York Times, which dubbed him a “forensic Sherlock Holmes.”

“THE MOST POPULAR ANTHROPOLOGY INSTRUCTOR”

He tackled all his biggest cases while at UMD—but few outside the department knew about his extracurricular activities.

“It’s rare to find someone like Ellis Kerley who knew so much but was so softspoken about it,” says Ubelaker.

Kerley came to Maryland in 1971 after brief stints at UK and University of Kansas, where he taught Ubelaker. When he arrived, anthropology was still a subset of the sociology department. By 1974, he’d successfully established the new anthropology department, which he chaired for the next four years.

Though Kerley was an effective administrator, his first love was teaching.

“He was arguably the most popular anthropology instructor we ever had,” says Professor Bill Stuart. Kerley’s classes filled Skinner Hall’s auditorium, then one of the university’s biggest classrooms.

An amateur photographer, Kerley created all his own slides and illustrated his lectures with thousands of examples of skeletons he’d examined.

Austin says those slides were “one of the best things about his classes.” Another was his sense of humor. “He appeared to be very serious, but then he would just come out with these really funny jokes, though they were very dry.”

Stuart remembers him as a great punster who created a sense of community for the small department, inviting everyone to his home nearby for holiday parties and more.

That proximity meant Kerley could easily take work back and forth, creating an unusual environment where his wife and three daughters learned plenty about his work too.

“We didn’t realize that not everyone’s father talked about bones and fingernails and time of death at the dinner table,” says Moorhouse.

At the same time, their house was more alive than most. Kerley and his wife took in many strays, from the usual cats and dogs to horses and ducks—even monkeys, which he studied as part of his research on aging. Suzy, a chimpanzee, ate at the dinner table and walked around the yard hand-in-hand with Kerley.

His popularity with students, it seemed, extended to primates. “She liked my dad more than anyone else,” says Moorhouse.

A L A ST I N G I M PAC T

Kerley’s national recognition elevated the field. To secure the future for new genera-

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE KERLEY FAMILY; SLIDES COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES

tions of forensic anthropologists, he knew organization and education were crucial.

“The men who started this field really had a huge responsibility in setting the tone,” says anthropology lecturer Marilyn London. “Even if we pick up a single bone, we talk about it like an individual. We say, ‘This woman, this child.’”

Kerley helped establish the Physical Anthropology section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 1972 and became the first forensic anthropologist to serve as the academy’s president.

Determined to build and maintain the credibility of the science in the legal community, in 1977–78, he helped form the ABFA, which certifies forensic anthropologists across the country.

At Maryland, the department Kerley created has blossomed. Since he retired from UMD in 1987, it has added graduate programs and its faculty has grown to about 40, including affiliate professors.

Now the department has its first endowed professorship. Kerley, who died in 1998, left a deep impact on the donor, says department Chair Paul Shackel.

Though the recognition isn’t something the ever-modest Kerley would have asked for, he would have been happy to see his legacy live on, say his daughters.

“He wanted to grow the science of forensic anthropology,” says Laurelann Bundens. “It solves a lot of the mysteries that people want to have solved.” TERP

WINTER 2015 TERP 31

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ILLUSTRATION BY JEANETTE J. NELSON AND MEGAN BLAIR; PHOTO COURTESY OF SAID NAZIR AFRIDI

FULL BROADCAST At UMD, Pakistani Journalist Works to Expand Vision of Local News—and Survive Doing It BY LIAM FARRELL

REPORTING THE LOCAL NEWS IN AMERICA is rarely steeped in mortal danger. Politicians may obfuscate, police departments may withhold information and crime-ridden neighborhoods may be intimidating, but these are roadblocks of a subtler nature.

Not so in Pakistan, where journalist Said Nazir Afridi runs a radio news service in unstable tribal areas. In a country roiled by conflicts between the Taliban, military leaders and dozens of traditional tribes, reporting any kind of news can be dangerous.

When he mentioned that the militant group running a local cricket tournament had used American funds for the event, Afridi was promptly accused of being a CIA agent. “It means …” he says, running his hand across his throat.

When Afridi reported that a local doctor had been arrested, he dared to write that government security forces, not unidentified armed men, seized him. (It turned out that the doctor, Shakeel Afridi, had helped the CIA run a fake vaccination program aiming to collect DNA samples from people in the suspected Abbottabad compound of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.) If he hadn’t identified Shakeel’s captors, Afridi says, the doctor “would have been missing or killed.”

For the moment, Afridi, whose journalist cousin was killed by a car bomb in 2011, is far from the tensions of his home country. He is takAfridi interviews a local tribesman about development plans in the Frontier Region Peshawar section of FATA. Amid the region’s low literacy rates and few media outlets, his work produces some of the only local news.

ing part in the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, an international exchange project at Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Afridi’s journalistic challenge, however, is more than an academic one. His mission is to make sure his independent media service, and its employees, can survive.

“TOUGH PEOPLE” Afridi’s father, a local tribal leader who mediated disputes, marked the birth of his infant son in January 1982 by buying an assault rifle to protect his family.

"We’re tough people,” he says. With a smile, he adds, “But I didn’t like guns. I believed in the power of the pen.”

The country of Pakistan is less than 70 years old, but its people have centuries of powerful religious, ethnic and tribal ties, and Afridi grew up in a place known for resistance to outsiders.

His hometown of Bara, southwest of Peshawar and about 20 miles from the legendary Khyber Pass, has seen armies from Alexander the Great’s forces to American troops invading Afghanistan.

That region is part of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). Never fully governed by either British or Pakistani authorities, FATA still operates under draconian, 113-year-old Frontier Crimes Regulations that allow an entire tribe to be punished for an offense committed by a single member.

Afridi’s father put him in a madrassa, a traditional Islamic school—telling him that people educated in secular institutions “are dirty”—but he wanted to learn about more than religion. If he had stayed, Afridi says, he likely would have ended up in the Taliban—like many childhood friends and some distant relatives.

“My father is still angry with me for not following his order because he wanted me to become a cleric in order to go to heaven,” he says.

With the support of an elder brother, he left for secular schooling and indulged his love of cricket. Afridi enrolled in the University of Peshawar wanting to help the people of his region, and an interest in politics eventually turned to journalism.

After working at a local news agency, Afridi helped establish FATA’s Khyber Radio in 2006.

The government backed the radio station to counter militant influence among a radicalized population with low literacy rates.

COVERING A COMMUNITY But within two years, Afridi says, it was clear the station needed to adjust its mix of programming, as hardline militants were constantly threatening staff for broadcasting music.

In 2008, Internews, a nonprofit American organization dedicated to empowering local media, trained Afridi and his co-workers, including four female reporters, to give regular news bulletins. The station then began regularly reporting on education, health care and everyday concerns of the people in FATA, not just violence.

Aurangzaib Khan, a freelancer journalist for Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, helped train Afridi and says his efforts were “hugely significant” in providing an alternative to international sources, which don’t cover FATA substantively.

“For the local people, the radio stations were the only local sources of information,” he says.

But power is complicated in FATA, with no constitution or guaranteed rights. Pakistan ranks 158th out of 180 countries on Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index, and the Committee to Protect Journalists says 32 journalists have been murdered there since 1992.

“The challenges that we feel like we face (in the U.S.) are so trite to the life-and-death challenges Said faces in an area of Pakistan known to be lawless,” says Dana Priest, the Merrill College’s John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Public Affairs Journalism.

Ultimately, Afridi did run afoul of the government, which suspended him in 2010 after he reported on protests criticizing the army for an airstrike that killed civilians. That’s when he decided to start his own radio operation.

THERE’S A GOOD SIDE OF LIFE, “AND WE MISS IT,” HE SAYS. “WE SHOULD COVER IT.” A NEW PATH Afridi is co-founder and news director of the Tribal News Network, which produces twicedaily news bulletins, sends them to six radio stations and reaches about 7 million people.

TNN has more than 35 reporters, including five women.

The operation is remarkable partially because of the unremarkable nature of its stories. It thrives on the type of daily reportage the West takes for granted: stories on employment policies, social service programs, infrastructure repairs and sports.

“There’s a good side of life, and we miss it,” he says. “We should cover it.”

Afridi, who has also written for The News International and The Express Tribune,

attributes the survival of the operation to its willingness to cover all sides of an issue.

“If you want to get the confidence of the local people, you should be impartial,” he says.

“I like independence.”

At Maryland, he is undertaking a 10-month, non-degree program of coursework, field trips and networking to develop his skills. Courses range from journalism to public policy and health, and fellows also do six-week, professional internships. Afridi spent part of each week in the fall at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., studying its fundraising and partnerships and watching the coordination and editing between employees.

Afridi also came to the U.S. in 2012 as part of a program organized by the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank. He has been struck by how traditional American journalism is being displaced by citizen reporting, as well as the numerous avenues of support—from academia to private foundations—that help investigative work.

“U.S. journalists enjoy maximum freedom, but at the same time they show a great deal of responsibility,” he says.

Priest says Afridi has a methodical and patient approach that will serve him well as he seeks to build an audience and make sure TNN remains a viable business.

“He struck me as very wise about how he’s going to do it,” she says.

Afridi envisions a bright future. He is brainstorming ideas like a mobile phone agreement allowing listeners to access news bulletins by calling a number and paying a few rupees.

(He hopes to eventually expand to 40 million listeners.) And though FATA has little electricity, let alone widespread smartphones or Internet access, Afridi is exploring online resources to serve the future’s more connected community.

“It’s coming,” he says. TERP

Afridi hosts a show on religious harmony at a radio station in FATA, a portion of Pakistan that has been rocked by violence and clashes between the Taliban and government forces.

For another look at Afridi's efforts, head to terp.umd.edu for a 2006 video about Khyber Radio.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF SAID NAZIR AFRIDI

We’re up before dawn training to become the Air Force’s future leaders, even as we balance all the demands of college life. We’re on a mission to develop technical and professional skills, travel the world and protect our country. We’re not there yet, but we’re aiming high.

UMD CADETS / AIR FORCE ROTC

DANIEL FRISELLA ’16 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI; PHOTO CREDITS

YVETTE MANN ’16 BIOENGINEERING

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SIERRA JAN ’17 CHINESE

FROM RESEARCH TO DEVELOPMENT TO LAUNCH, UMD IS DEDICATED TO THE POWER OF FEARLESS IDEAS.

WINTER 2015 TERP 35

PARTING SHOT

Knox Down

Knox Road just got a lot quieter. ¶ All but seven of the 29 original Knox Boxes—the grubby three-story apartment houses that attracted upperclassmen on a budget (as well as a few tiny critters)—are gone. ¶ Toll Brothers Apartment Living in November demolished most of the original homes just off campus to make way for 1,493 beds in traditional double, suite-style and townhouse layouts, along with retail stores and restaurants. ¶ Project Manager Dustin Kinney says the development is a big step in transforming College Park into a top 10 college town. Terrapin Row is scheduled to open in summer 2016.–AS

Watch aerial footage of the Knox Boxes demolition at terp.umd.edu.

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PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI

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