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…
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…
Restrictions on chalking implemented to ‘beautify’ campus, UMD says
First published Jan. 23, 2024 in Stories Beneath the Shell. University of Maryland President Darryll Pines announced a new policy for chalking on Nov. 27. Overnight, students at the University of Maryland were prohibited from chalking in all but two places on campus: In front of the Adele H. Stamp Student Union and at Hornbake…
Blunt Rochester makes it official: She’s running for Senate
First published Wednesday, June 21, 2023 in the Washington Blade. Walking slowly through the dramatically lit aisles of Philadelphia’s Bright Hope Baptist Church her family is well acquainted with, soft, jazzy piano music playing in the background, Delaware’s lone U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester announced that she is running for Senate, hoping to take over…
UMD students, staff mark first anniversary of Ukraine invasion with vigil
First published Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023 in Stories Beneath the Shell. In the midst of happy students basking in the unusually warm February weather, dozens of Ukrainian students were rather more somber, standing around the McKeldin Mall sundial to mark the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Thursday. “It’s been a year of…
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…
Dedicated maintenance man provides welcoming presence for UMD community
First published Dec. 21, 2021 in Stories Beneath the Shell. Stanley Proctor is as close to a superhero as a maintenance guy can get. Timothy York, Proctor’s supervisor, said students and professors routinely request Proctor to fix whatever needs fixing. “Stanley’s work ethic is like not too many people. I can give him any task…
Delaware poised to become 17th state to ban LGBTQ panic defense
First published Friday, June 30, 2023 in the Washington Blade. It was an extraordinary week in the Delaware Senate, as a bill to ban the LGBTQ+ panic defense, in which a defendant claims they panicked and killed or injured a victim upon finding out the person was gay or transgender and receive a lesser sentence…
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…
