terrapinsanity.com

One piece of legislation currently under consideration in Annapolis would tear yet another hole into Maryland’s tattered Public Information Act by adding another exemption (meaning, another way the state would not have to respond to requests by its people who seek access to documents owned in their name.) The bill would exempt university researchers from having to share their scholarly materials and raw data.

You know. Like scholars who believe in intellectual objectivity and scientific reproducibility do.

The Sun describes the proponents’ spin about why this limitation on distribution of information is needed, at least in their minds. Largely it has to do with public reaction to tremendously controversial academics in other states, where campuses gave a platform for distribution of notions that many others thought were as unsupportable as they were well-sought by extreme advocacy groups. People wanted to examine how those views came to be and test the strength of those conclusions, the advocacy groups didn’t want to have to ‘splain themselves, and hence the controversy over information access erupted.

Maryland’s extreme edge – we suspect the bill sponsor would wear that as a badge of honor – wants to erect defenses so our campuses can similarly serve as platform for advocacy positions that, by law, cannot be tested by other scholars.

Unfortunately, University of Maryland VP for Research, Patrick O’Shea, testified on behalf of our campus in support of this return to the dark ages. Quoting O’Shea from the Sun, “It would allow us to compete and win the trust of cutting-edge staff,” he said. You know. The kind of staff who want to speak controversial things to the public without danger of having to show their work.

The ultimate newspeak is again from the bill’s sponsor:

Rosenberg said that by passing his bill, the legislature could set Maryland apart from such states. “It would send very strong signals that Maryland is a place where we value scientific research and academic inquiry,” he said.

Indeed. We value academic inquiry so much that we want to pass a law to stop people from being able to inquire.

“[C]oach Randy Edsall took the first steps toward putting last season in the past with yesterday’s unveiling of the Terrapins football team’s 24-man recruiting class.”

Splendid! When do the chemistry, psychology, economics, art history, zoology, journalism and one hundred other department chairmen roll out word of their recruiting picks?

Oh wait. Nobody makes recruiting resources available to those stakeholders. And for that matter, no prospective chemists, psychologists, … have yet heard whether they are even accepted for fall 2012, unless of course they play football.

How about it, Randy? What majors are your hand-picked 24 recruits? Do you even know?

The Fall 2012 entering class of athletes at College Park is described in the Sun as having done okay for football, in spite of the team’s 2-10 recent season.

Bully for football.

Unfortunately, scholars interested in having a UM option have yet to be notified of any admission decision – at least from College Park. The good ones have long since heard from competitors. Wonder how well we’ll do keeping the smart kids in this state after having given name-brand schools a month or more head start?

After weeks of stonewalling access to the press and privately testing the waters (like this was hard to do, given the flood), President Loh has finally come out on the question of the wisdom of building a new mansion (for the president) on campus – err, sorry, make that “event center” (not to be confused with the dozen or so places we already hold events on campus.)

Yes, now that it is clear how this news created a “crisis” we learn today that all along he thought this was a crisis.

Spin control being what it is, we learn things which could have easily been shared weeks ago – about how he insisted on there being a financial “firewall” between his role and the operation. They sure seem intent on dragging this story through yet more news cycles (this after Brody Remington spammed campus again about this last week.) Most viewers will conclude the simplest explanation is probably the right one: these officials are behaving exactly like nervous people who know where the rest of the warts live and are frantically patching up the paper trail.

We also learn how the president only learns important details (like the price) from reading about the project in the student newspaper. Hello … is this really the image you want to project? We’re so on top of details that we knew this would be a crisis (even though we wouldn’t tell anyone that in public until it was clear which way public opinion would swing) and recognize fundraising as a top priority, yet we don’t know basics affecting the campus for which we’re responsible? This is going to come back and bite hard.

Today’s Gazette reports that USM made social security and credit card numbers for 8,000 prospective students openly available on the internet over a three year period, as exposed in a legislative audit.

(Entertainingly, administrators’ internal view seems to evidence more concern that this conclusion was exposed in Annapolis than for the data exposure on the internet.)

What a great way to make prospective students feel welcome here!

Prospective students are often caught short by UM’s “priority consideration” deadline for application to this campus. November 1 comes awfully early, in fact seems to be the earliest of the “early decision” dates we can find.

Of course, this is not an “early decision” deadline. The fine print says: “Students should apply by this date for best consideration, for merit-based scholarships and invitations to special programs.” There is an extra comma in that sentence. You can apply later – people do and in fact gain admissions right up to nearly the first day of class. But if you want scholarships or programs, November 1 is it.

So what’s been going on in the last twelve weeks since the deadline? Admissibility decisions were made before Thanksgiving. Vetting for Honors program (and similar) opportunities commenced and concluded before Christmas. That’s the obvious activity, but doesn’t explain why we are still a week or two away away from any general decisions being released. Why does a process which started before Thanksgiving take until after Groundhog Day to become public? What else is going on?

While eager but otherwise ordinary applicants watched the clock, applicants from China were notified of offers in early December. By MOU, these students in specific STEM paths (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) have priority and get notice months before Maryland residents.

Through early January, athletes who are to be recruited for the various (remaining) programs here get their offer packages.

Only after China and the athletics program have cherry-picked their applicants from the pool does the Admissions and Honors program know how many slots are available for them to make offers.

When UM says November 1 is the deadline for best consideration, it means for these special programs – not Maryland residents who thought their bright kids might have priority at the flagship campus. Those of the latter group who applied last October will learn the outcome of their application in a couple weeks.

As previously blogged, UM’s blanket endorsement of the Purple Line puts our name on all the consequences of its implementation, good and bad. You can now see the map and specific properties to be taken by the construction. We’re about at the point when we can put specific names to properties affected by this “good neighbor”, the campus.

USM doesn’t seem to do anything involving athletics that doesn’t also involve controversy these days, and so it is that the Comcast Center’s basketball court will be named for long-time coach Gary Williams.

Why pick Williams, so recently departed that he is still on the payroll, when they could finally have given Lefty Driesell his due? Or honored the role of scholarship among athletes by naming it for basketball star Rhodes scholar Tom McMillen? Cash. At least, that’s what the rumor which was persistent enough for it to be reported in the Sun article. Though officials publicly deny it, the report was that the naming would be tied with a big donation. The surprise would be if it was not tied with cash, and with their budget in the dumpers, fans should be demanding to know why officials missed an opportunity to milk some donor. Still, there are plenty of piece of Comcast left to carve out for naming opportunities so long as they find people with more dollars than sense. Len Bias Mezzanine, anyone?

The article’s take-away point to UM faculty and staff is: even after retirement Gary is paid more by campus than anyone currently involved in scholarship and content delivery on our campus.

To quote some students living on north campus: “Who was the genius that decided the Duke game had to be on first day of classes?”

Indeed! But as we pointed out to them, College Park is not a campus with an athletics problem. It is an industrial sports operation with a campus problem.

Everything in Maryland will soon get more expensive once Governor O’Malley gets his way in the recently-proposed budget just submitted to the General Assembly. For those keeping score, that includes tuition. Campus tuition would go up three percent under his proposal.