terrapinsanity.com

A well-deserved honor to Freeman Hrabowski, the talented and charismatic president of UMBC, as Time names him one of the ten best college presidents.

And at the same time, this is more evidence that College Park’s younger sibling is fast on its way to eclipsing the older land grant institution. Too many in leadership believe this campus is too important to become involved in local matters. We pay next to no attention to state politics, instead remaining fixed on the stars, or China or lots of other places far, far away from taxpayers who pick up the tab, and their children who fill our seats. Hrabowsk’s head is in the game, and he is getting good market share.

Math professor Peter Wolfe wrote in the latest Faculty Voice (well … the issue you could have read if the College Park quarterly had bothered to update its web link from the May issue there now … did we mention paying attention to quality?) about leadership here being too corporate. Yeah, we gotta pay bills. We’ve also got to have heart. Right now, corporate decisions on this campus are sucking the heart out of good people who believe in the flagship but who aren’t allowed to win. What a difference a short drive on I95 can make in the working environment!