‘Our campus is on the move’

New plans, initiatives announced during spring campus update

With the spring semester classes a week away from starting, University of Maryland Eastern Shore President Heidi M. Anderson updated staff and faculty on the latest successes and achievements from the first half of the school year as well as upcoming events and initiatives.

The presentation, which took place at the Student Services Center Theater on Jan. 23, lauded UMES’s notable accomplishments since classes began in late August, including recent accolades received by members of the campus community, new partnerships, ongoing capital improvements, and more.

Anderson also shared with the audience recent additions to the Hawk Family including in the academic, administrative, and athletic departments among the recent happenings.

“Part of what I wanted you to do today was to hear some of the new initiatives and some of the directions we’re exploring,” she said. “All of this means more opportunities for our campus to function interdisciplinary across the schools.”

Proceeding Anderson were the deans of the university’s five schools who provided information on new academic programs that are in development including bachelor’s programs in art therapy, music production, and online child development; master’s programs for mechatronics engineering, art therapy, fine arts, and several human ecology concentrations; and a doctorate program in engineering.

“As we move forward, all of our majors, whether they are in my school or any of the other schools, will have an em- phasis on being interdisciplinary,” said Dr. Marshall Stevenson Jr., the dean of the School of Education, Social Sciences and the Arts.

In addition to that, plans were announced for initiatives such as a new holistic pathway to law school, a strategic plan to become classified as an R1 research institution, and the establishment of a school of veterinary medicine with a timetable for the start of August 2025.

Also announced during the event was recent funding of programs such as UMES STEM STARS through a $2.5 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Initiative that will help create a program geared at emphasizing scientific discovery and innovations in biology and chemistry curriculums; $2.8 million in start-up funds for the aviation maintenance technician program to be housed at the Salisbury-Ocean City-Wicomico Regional Airport; and $1.5 million in Senate appropriations for the UMES Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation to help expand its resources to help faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the community get their business plans off the ground.

Anderson closed the information session by emphasizing UMES’s positive trajectory.

“I hope you recognize … our campus is on the move,” she said. “We have this new tagline ‘we soar above and beyond,’ and we really are soaring above and we’re trying to get beyond.”

“And it can’t happen without all the help of you here today, whether you are faculty or staff, student or graduate student. It takes all of us to make this work.”

School of Education, Social Sciences, and the Arts unveils new programs

The School of Education, Social Sciences, and the Arts will soon introduce two new interdisciplinary academic programs that will both be firsts in the University System of Maryland poised to become a springboard for future programs.

During the spring campus update held prior to the start of the semester, Dr. Marshall F. Stevenson, the dean of the School of Education, Social Sciences, and the Arts, announced the creation of an art therapy program and a music production program. The programs are expected to be launched in the fall of 2024.

“The impetus for these new programs comes out of our HBCU settlement funding initiative,” Stevenson said. “We have created some new majors and programs in this school and other schools across the University in order to use the first several years of those dollars, but beyond that, we’re looking at additional programs that will benefit the university, particularly in the School of Education, Social Sciences and the Arts.”

Stevenson said the art therapy program, which will be offered as a bachelor’s with an eye towards a future master’s program, the major will consist of a majority of art courses as well as psychology and counseling courses, all of which are offered at the university. “There’s a lot of interdisciplinary collaboration within this degree,” he added. “It’s not offered in any other USM institution, and aligns with the health focus the university is taking with a greater emphasis on mental health services, especially on the Eastern Shore.”

The music production degree aligns closely with the Digital Media Studies (DMST) program and would be a new curriculum that combines music, business, and digital production while allowing prospective students to learn the technical aspects of music creation. The curriculum will incorporate much of the technology already used in the DMST program, a program that has also taken off in its own right.

“We see this as a vital part of 21st-century curriculum in terms of what students have the opportunity for relative to jobs in the marketplace,” Stevenson said. “It will make students marketable once coming out of undergraduate seeking that degree and acquiring that degree because along the way they’ll have internships with many big corporations like Sony, some film companies, and other music areas where they’ll be able to develop seamlessly right into employment.”

In addition to the two new programs, there is potential for the creation of a Master’s of Fine Arts program as well according to Stevenson.

“A lot of teachers have asked for this, but it’s also a way to pipeline our undergrad students to go above and beyond and acquire the master’s degree.

Stevenson said the arrival of these and other programs is the start of a “very exciting time” on campus.

“We really have an opportunity to make our mark nationally and across the globe with the kinds of things we’re doing,” he said. “I think these two programs will highlight just the kind of quality education and career opportunities the university has to offer anyone who matriculates to UMES.”

The new School of Education, Social Sciences, and the Arts programs are just a few of the many new offerings provided by the university.

Other programs include several new courses recently approved by the Maryland Higher Education Commission such as fashion merchandising, aviation technology, and various graduate degree programs as well as a number of new online courses in a number of disciplines including child development, construction management, and hospitality and tourism management.