Journalism dean search: Many breathe sigh of relief as insider is picked to be next dean
First published Friday, April 21, 2023 in Stories Beneath the Shell. Many Philip Merrill College of Journalism faculty and staff seemed to breathe a sigh of relief today as it became clear that Rafael Lorente will be the journalism school’s next dean, ending weeks of waiting and nail biting in the college. In an interview…
Journalism dean search: Associate dean says attracting more diverse students a top priority
Part of a Stories Beneath the Shell series covering the appointment to dean of the University of Maryland’s journalism school. First published Thursday, April 6, 2023 in Stories Beneath the Shell. He brought a cash-strapped University of Maryland journalism school badly-needed funding. He won the Scripps Howard Foundation’s grant for the college. He inspired the…
Journalism dean search: North Texas professor envisions gateway degree
Part of a Stories Beneath the Shell series covering the appointment to dean of the University of Maryland’s journalism school. First published Thursday, April 6, 2023 in Stories Beneath the Shell. A journalism professor who briefly blipped on the nation’s radar in 2015 after being stopped for walking while being Black, as she put it,…
Journalism dean search: Some raise concerns over candidate’s work for liberal think tank
Part of a Stories Beneath the Shell series covering the appointment to dean of the University of Maryland’s journalism school. First published Thursday, April 6, 2023 in Stories Beneath the Shell. One of the first things Sam Fulwood, who is a finalist to become dean of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, said at his…
Journalism dean search: Dean candidate brings experience in newsroom, but lots of controversial history
Part of a Stories Beneath the Shell series covering the appointment to dean of the University of Maryland’s journalism school. First published Saturday, March 25, 2023 in Stories Beneath the Shell. She’s doubled the number of reporters of color in her newsroom. She capitalized the “B” in Black before anyone else. She turned her newsroom…
UMD plans to include “X” as nonbinary gender mark option in IT system
First published Tuesday, May 10, 2022 in the Diamondback. One letter can make all the difference for nonbinary students. The University of Maryland has committed to implementing an “X” gender marker — indicating that a person is neither male nor female — by 2026 as part of a huge overhaul of its student information systems…
Clarice performances highlight the future of livestream shows
First published Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021 in Stories Beneath the Shell. When the University of Maryland shut down its campus on March 12, 2020, because of COVID-19, everything changed for opera professor Craig Kier. From one day to the next, he had to teach his students online. And have them perform online. Kier could teach…
Why agnostic and atheist Jews continue to identify as Jewish
First published Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021 in Mitzpeh. Russell Schwartz decided that God isn’t for him. “That’s never really interfered with my ability to identify as Jewish,” the senior computer science and mathematics major at this university said. He’s not the only one. One in five Jews don’t believe in God, according to the Pew…
UMD enters second phase of more than decade-long Campus Creek restoration
First published Wednesday, July 7, 2021 in the Diamondback. The Campus Creek at the University of Maryland, instead of providing a healthy ecosystem and serving as a home to aquatic animals, is home to water bottles and algae. Now, the university is fully restoring the creek, and experts said the restoration could again provide a…
