The Revolutionary War is remembered as a fight won by Americans who had the nerve to ignore the edicts of King George III, dump British tea into the Boston Harbor, and go toe-to-toe with the world’s greatest military power. But it was larger than just the 13 colonies’ battle for independence. The war was also a full-throttle global conflict, as other European empires, namely France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic, assisted the American cause and challenged British dominance across North America, the Caribbean, and India.

In fact, it is very unlikely the Americans would’ve prevailed without their allies. The French and Spanish, in particular, forced England to divert military resources away from America to defend their empire. They provided foreign financing and credit as well, bankrolling much of the eight-year campaign.

In The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, University of Maryland historian Richard Bell, British-born coincidentally, reevaluates our understanding of the Revolution. Not just the global nature of the conflict, but that here at home it was, in fact, a civil war, with African-Americans and Native Americans fighting on both sides. It’s a must read for those who want to expand and deepen their understanding of American history.

A good place to start is the framing of the Revolution as America’s first civil war. Not just because the Founding Fathers were British citizens, but because most Americans weren’t on board initially.
There wasn’t the polling we do today, but the best estimates are 40 percent of white residents [in America] would’ve been considered patriots, maybe 40 percent neutral—think of them as today’s swing voters—and 20 percent strongly loyal to England.

And there was a great propaganda battle. Today’s conspiracy theories are not exactly a novel political tactic.
There’s a fierce battle waged by patriot writers and loyalist writers to win the hearts and minds of those who are neutral at the start. Writers like Paul Revere and Samuel Adams try to persuade them to adopt George Washington’s side and maybe even pick up arms. Patriots try to convince their fellow colonists that British East India Company tea has been packed down into chests by Chinese warehouse men with filthy feet. . . . [Meanwhile] loyalists are weaponizing their fellow colonists’ fear of foreigners by spreading ugly, untrue rumors that the arriving French Catholic soldiers have orders to persecute American Protestants, steal their lands for King Louis of France, and even ban the speaking of English in America.

Everything considered, Harry Washington might have the most compelling personal saga in the book.
What I like about the remarkable life of Harry Washington, who, at one time, was enslaved to George Washington, is that both have their own way of pursuing ideas of liberty. For George Washington, that means liberty from the control of the British government, and it has to do with land, trade, and political power. For Harry, it’s freedom from slavery, most immediately, and then all that comes after that in terms of seeking self-determination, civil rights, and political power. It’s a journey that takes him from revolutionary America to British Canada, and then to Sierra Leone in West Africa.

We’re also reminded the Revolutionary War, like nearly every war, was not good for the American or British economy.
The war was an economic disaster for almost everyone involved, on every side. The British economy was ruined by the suspension of trade with its biggest customers in America. The economies of the 13 rebel colonies completely collapsed when trade was cut off with their biggest trading partner, the British Empire, including Canada and the Caribbean. It’s calamitous. Shipping is halted, which creates huge shortages, price hikes, and hyperinflation. People lose their jobs. Companies go out of business.

On both sides of the Atlantic, that puts enormous pressure on politicians to end the war. In Britain, those economic concerns drive numerous peace petitions sent to Parliament and to the king by ordinary hard-up British people, who want this economic hardship over as quickly as possible.

What does Thomas Paine mean in 1776 when he declares Americans “have it in our power to begin the world over again?”
He’s encouraging readers to take the leap, to embrace the cause of independence, to fight this war and win it, because as humans we all have extraordinary amounts of political power and agency. When we work together, we can do great things. He’s also noting that for a group of rebel colonies to break away from an empire in the 18th century would be unprecedented and send a signal around the world that the king’s control over his colonies is neither permanent nor invincible. That such an example could reshape the modern world, and it has, right? There have been loads of revolutions in the wake of the American Revolution.

Generation Z, often referred to as Gen Z, is the demographic cohort following the Millennial generation, typically defined as individuals born between 1997 and 2012. As the first generation to grow up with the internet, social media, and advanced technology from an early age, Gen Z is distinct in its values, behaviors, and interactions with the world. This generation is poised to shape the future in profound ways, especially in terms of digital communication, social justice, and consumer trends.

 

To the 11 students in Goucher College associate professor Lana Oweidat’s Theories and Practices in Composing, Tutoring, and Teaching honors course, the opening lines of the essay on Gen Z—and the two pages that followed—were reasonably good. Asked to assess the essay, the students, all tutors-in-training for Goucher’s Writing Center, quickly noted some strengths: The essay presented facts and provided seemingly solid data to back up its assertions. But there were weaknesses, too. There was no thesis and the essay flowed poorly, for starters.

Worse, with a little digging, the students encountered a larger flaw: shoddy sourcing.

“It turns out there was a source, but it was not accurate,” says Oweidat, who is chair of the department of Professional and Creative Writing and director of Goucher’s Writing Center. Despite its problems, the essay earned Cs and Bs from the tutors-in-training. Not bad considering the writer was none other than ChatGPT, the popular generative artificial intelligence tool.

“I think [the students] were surprised that the essay was pretty good,” says Oweidat. “Even I was surprised at what it came up with in five or 10 seconds.”

The essay review was part of a November 2024 class that taught students about AI tools and talked through steps to take when tutors suspect a student has used AI in their work without disclosure. As peer tutors, “They should have that knowledge to be able to tell students what AI is capable of doing and also help students navigate the issue of using AI ethically,” says Oweidat.

Gaining such knowledge and skill is only part of the future tutors’ training, but it’s a vital one at a time when AI tools are easily accessible and poised to be woven into work and life in ways we can only imagine—and some we can’t.

Across the Baltimore region, educators are grappling with a future that is already here. Once a staple of science fiction, generative AI is now a real tool that needs to be understood, harnessed, and, yes, sometimes restricted or even banned.

The educators we spoke to were surprisingly sanguine about the possibilities of—even excited about what it could bring to the classroom—and generally favor a proactive approach that embraces AI. At the same time, they recognize that such tools come with risks and that the development of best practices remains a work in progress.

So what is Generative AI? It’s a transformative type of artificial intelligence capable of creating original content—from essays (everything from the History of Feminism to My Trip to the Grand Canyon) and computer code to modern art, classical music scores, podcasts, and more—and streamlining a variety of tasks. As generative AI tools continue to evolve and gain traction, educators are faced with the challenge of ensuring students have all the skills they will need in an AI enabled future, including how to use AI tools effectively, ethically, and responsibly without becoming overly reliant on them as a replacement for in-depth research, synthesizing information, and critical thinking.

While so-called “adaptive” artificial intelligence tools (those capable of learning and adapting to new information) have been used in education for years, generative AI tools are a more recent development—ChatGPT, for example, became widely available to the public in November 2022.

“Right now, we are still in a place where educators are learning about AI,” says Tara Nattrass, managing director of innovation strategy at ISTE+ASCD, a nonprofit that seeks to help educators in K-12 and higher education use technology to improve education. “They are thinking through opportunities and risks.”

In addition to beginning to develop AI usage guidelines and revisiting their honor codes, many schools are seeking to enhance their digital literacy efforts. Educators are also exploring the ways AI can help streamline their own work—by doing things like assisting with administrative tasks, creating lesson plans, crunching data, or even tailoring learning to a student’s specific needs, which can create a more equitable learning experience for all.

And herein lies the paradox of AI: It has the potential to be simultaneously one of the best and worst things to happen to modern education. It presents tantalizing opportunities to improve the academic experience, enhance efficiency, free up time for higher-order thinking, and open doors for the future success of students. But yes, it also can be a tool for sophisticated cheating and even unintentional misuse by users who don’t understand its limitations and risks.

“I FIND MYSELF USING CHATGPT EVERY DAY. IT’S EXTREMELY USEFUL IN SCHOOL.”

In Maryland schools, colleges, and universities, guidelines for the use of AI vary by district, institution, and even individual educator. Current practices can range from an outright ban on the use of generative AI by students, to allowing its use in specified ways, to a full-throated embrace of the technology. As Oweidat notes, not everyone is comfortable with incorporating AI into the classroom.

“People are still processing and trying to do what’s best for students, of course,” she says.  “But some faculty are still grappling with the complexity of this and they’re not there yet.”

Aware of this complexity, University of Maryland has been proactive. In November 2023, they assembled a President’s Commission on Artificial Intelligence to explore the use of AI at the university. And in April 2024, they officially launched the Artificial Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland, “focusing on responsible and ethical AI technology.”

Students, meanwhile, are making use of AI tools in and out of school. In a Spring 2024 University of Maryland campus-wide survey, 41 percent of students said they have used generative AI for academic purposes—and usage has almost certainly grown since the survey was conducted. The top three reported uses were for generating ideas, improving content, and summarizing concepts. Students across institutions say they also use AI to help with everything from organizing their work, to writing code, to getting a quick synopsis of a long technical paper. They may use it to get answers to questions they feel silly asking in class or to punch up a paragraph they’ve written but aren’t happy with.

For Towson University sophomore Krishan Patel, AI tools have recently become an invaluable resource. Although he’d used them since high school, “Honestly, before this semester started, I did not [expect to use] AI as often as I do now,” he says. “I find myself using ChatGPT every day. It’s extremely useful in school.”

For his algebra class, Patel found that having an AI tool solve math problems and show its work helped him practice solving similar problems on his own. For a speech class, Patel was able to use AI to brainstorm ideas. In both cases, his professors allowed and even encouraged such use.

And while Patel found his professors have been largely clear on allowable use—all addressed AI on their syllabus, with most prohibiting its use—students using AI for schoolwork can sometimes find themselves faced with tricky ethical questions. Like, is it cheating to ask AI for ideas for a paper you’ve been assigned? Or to summarize a reading for you? What about taking AI-generated editing suggestions that border on rewriting? The answer, for now at least, often is “it depends.”

At Goucher, the honor code prohibits the unauthorized use of generative AI to write papers and essays or to complete other assignments and directs students to ask their instructor and check course policies to determine if AI tools are allowed at any stage of their work. When instructors allow AI use, the rule of thumb is that anything taken from AI and incorporated into texts must be cited, says Oweidat.

Still, “there’s a lot of gray area,” admits Oweidat. “That’s why it’s very hard to come up with, ‘and this is how we do it.’ It’s complicated, and it’s an evolving issue.”

Even for areas that aren’t gray—having AI write large chunks of an essay without disclosure or permission, for example—potential solutions pose problems of their own.

“AI detectors are unreliable and the implicit bias within them will often flag work of multilingual learners and other students as being AI-generated even when it is not,” says Nattrass. “And we are now faced with this environment of distrust sometimes in our schools with teachers asking, was this generated by AI [or] was it not?”

And it’s not just educators who worry about the use and misuse of AI. Students also worry—that their peers will use AI to gain an unfair advantage or that their own use of AI will get them into trouble. In the UMD survey on AI use, a majority of student respondents said they were worried about how to use generative AI while maintaining the university’s code of academic conduct.

In addition to worries about cheating or unethical use, AI presents other challenges. As Oweidat’s students discovered, large language models like ChatGPT sometimes “hallucinate,” or create inaccurate content. That means their output must be verified by the user, says Soheil Feizi, a University of Maryland associate professor of computer science and founder and CEO of RELAI, which provides tools aimed at improving AI reliability.

“One of the main issues we see [is that] when people use AI models, they trust them. And that can obviously have significant consequences,” says Feizi, who is currently on leave from University of Maryland but plans to return to the classroom in the fall.

Educators who use AI in their work also need to be wary of the limitations of some AI tools, which might create content that perpetuates stereotypes or relies on misinformation or disinformation, says Nattrass.

The use of AI in education gives rise to other concerns too: about privacy, equity (not all students may have access to the technology), and the worry that an overreliance on AI will erode students’ skills in crucial areas.

“WE’RE ALSO GOING TO HAVE TO GET THEM READY FOR THEIR FUTURE AND THEIR FUTURE IS GOING TO INCLUDE AI…”

At McDonogh, a private college-preparatory school for students from pre-K through 12th grade in Owings Mills, embracing AI is a logical extension of a long-standing pedagogical approach that seeks to develop subject mastery in students while also fostering the skills to think deeply, explore a range of perspectives, and collaborate.

“There are certain things when you’re talking about a school that value the liberal arts and sciences that’s fundamental, that [students] are always going to have,” says McDonogh Associate Head of School Kate Mueller. “But we’re also going to have to get them ready for their future and their future is going to include AI—and a lot of different technologies for that matter.”

In spring 2023, McDonogh 9th graders worked through a multi-session course with Inspirit AI, an online artificial intelligence education program developed and taught by Stanford and MIT alumni and graduate students. As 10th graders, the students are continuing their AI instruction this year. Programs like this and others seek to help students understand AI’s workings, potential uses and limitations, and ethical considerations.

Taking a proactive approach to technology use, allowing students to use AI in a structured environment, and talking through ethical decision-making creates an environment that should limit the potential negatives, says Aisha Bryant, McDonogh’s director of educational technology. As part of their AI education, students practice creating an AI prompt, evaluating the response, and considering the ethics of using the AI-created content before making a decision about how much or how little of the content to use.

“Sometimes students, with pressure or being up against a deadline, don’t make the right choices,” says Bryant. But exploration and discussion of ethical choices helps them develop as responsible users of technology.

“By the end, they’re not even thinking, ‘Okay, write my essay for me,’” she says. “AI just becomes more like an assistant, because we have shown them how many different ways they can use it and they truly understand how AI works.”

As exciting as the potential for AI is, Mueller points out it’s just one of many tools students may use, none of which replace human-centered learning. “We want good, well rounded citizens to graduate from McDonogh and to make sure they are building relationships and interacting with each other,” she says.

To that end, some educators are redesigning assignments to be more creative and open-ended and are leaning toward tasks like group projects, oral presentations, and interactive learning experiences. The bonus: It’s harder for students to outsource that kind of work to AI and such assignments help build the durable skills that will help them thrive in an AI-integrated future.

As they move toward that future, educators and institutions will need to take steps to ensure all students have equal access to AI tools, says University of Maryland’s Feizi.

“What worries me is that we will have some people that are quite good at using these AI tools—and even better, they can contribute to these tools—and they are the ones who will see the majority of the benefits and that will potentially increase the economic gap and other disparities.”

For Goucher’s Oweidat, the path forward holds more exercises like the essay evaluation her tutors-in-training tackled, plus continued exploration and discussion of AI with faculty and students.

“The more I use the tool,” says Oweidat, “the more I teach about it, learn about it, the more comfortable I become and the more excited I become about the possibilities, which are endless really.”

It’s a conundrum: Do you go to college to study what you love or land a career?

For many students and families planning for or applying to college, this question weighs heavily—especially with the existing economic uncertainty. But administrators from colleges in the Baltimore region say it’s not a matter of one versus another, and they’re finding ways to help future and existing students carve out paths to meaningful lives and careers.

“It’s absolutely a myth that students need to know their major when they apply,” says Katherine Cole, the vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). “Most majors don’t correlate directly with a career, and roughly 80 percent of undergrads nationwide end up changing their majors.”

To help students find the right fit, UMBC offers freshman seminars that integrate personality and strength tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Seminars also teach students about the multiple avenues they can take to arrive at the same career—a concept that Cole calls “parallel pathways.” This means, for example, that students interested in law school might take the traditional route by majoring in political science. Or they might enjoy analytical thinking and major in something like sociology, or plan to pursue environmental law and study marine biology or environmental science.

Towson University (TU) offers a similar two-credit Personal Life and Career Planning course, which teaches students about existing and emerging careers, while helping them dive deep into self-exploration to determine who they are as individuals. “We want students to major in something that matters to them personally, and we tell them their major doesn’t dictate their career,” says Lorie Logan-Bennett, the assistant vice president of career services at TU.

At the same time, TU urges students to take advantage of the university’s experiential learning opportunities that let them “build skills by doing real-world work, while deciding what they like or dislike in a career,” says Logan-Bennett. Opportunities range from for-credit, in-person internships off campus to remote projects known as “micro internships,” made possible by TU’s partnership with the Chicago-based company Parker Dewey.

“Micro internships are time-delineated projects that students can take on without quitting their part-time jobs or giving up other obligations,” Logan-Bennett explains. For instance, a company in California might hire a student to compile or analyze data in a spreadsheet or synthesize research for a report. Students work on projects for a designated period and gain experience they can then use to bolster their résumés.

At Johns Hopkins University (JHU), too, opportunities abound in experiential learning, with programs and resources guiding students through the arduous process of identifying and honing values, interests, and goals. In addition to having access to a robust career center, Hopkins Hire, students benefit from the school’s innovative Life Design Lab (LDL), which, “takes an iterative, problem-solving approach to life- and career-planning,” explains Matthew Golden, LDL’s executive director. “The process involves doing research and coming up with a hypothesis based on your interests, talking to people, getting experience in that area, and then doing it all over again, building on what you’ve learned about yourself and that particular kind of work.”

The key, Golden says, is for students to keep an open mind as they follow their curiosity and determine or refine what they want—a process he hopes will stay with them forever.

LDL works closely with Hopkins Hire, JHU’s career center, which launched the DEI Collective to boost internship access for students from underrepresented communities. “In the past, unpaid internships were more common, and this created a disparity gap,” given that some students needed to earn money from part-time jobs and couldn’t sacrifice a paycheck to work as an intern, explains the executive director of Hopkins Hire, Alia Poonawala. “But through the DEI Collective, we require companies to pay students a minimum of $15 an hour,” eliminating the need to forego meaningful work experience.

As application deadlines near, and students and families weigh college options in the Baltimore area, remember that support exists to help you figure out and fine-tune your education, career, and life plans. “The key is to spend your time in college taking advantage of those supports and experiential learning opportunities,” even if you have a concrete path, says Logan-Bennett at TU.

Don’t worry about the lack of a clear-cut career connection to your major, advises Cole of UMBC. The liberal arts get a bad reputation, but, “we hear from employers all the time, whether it’s NASA or the NSA, that the soft skills students gain from a liberal arts degree are exactly what they look for in employees,” she says. “Academics make the individual disciplines, but the reality is that real life—and real work—are interdisciplinary.” And the college major is just one small piece of a larger puzzle.

If you are looking for the perfect fit for your college experience, look no further than Baltimore’s annual guide of regional academic institutions. Here is a roundup of what’s happening on area campuses.

BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY
Bowie State University in Prince George’s County began with a mission to provide educational opportunities for Black citizens and, more than a century after opening, has consistently ranked among the best HBCUs in the country, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as specialty certificates and doctoral programs. It also has a solid reputation for being one of the best values around.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 5,381
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 18:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,753 in-state, $19,544 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 87 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Criminal Justice, Radio and Television Broadcasting Technology/Technician, Psychology, Biology, Computer/Information Technology, Child Development, Nursing, and Sociology

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 57 undergraduate, graduate, and certificate degrees. It’s been rated in the Top 50 Best HBCUs in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Schools in Maryland (Online School Center), and No. 7 Best Colleges in Maryland by Salary Score (GradReports).

In 2022, CSU received two large-scale federal education grants, including a $3.7-million Teacher Quality Partnership grant from the U.S. Department of Education to increase teacher diversity, while boosting student success in high-needs urban and rural schools across Maryland. CSU also recently created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September, with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,108 undergraduates, 240 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 0:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $6,904 in-state, $13,560 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 54 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

FROSTBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
For those who want to escape to the Appalachian Mountains while still benefitting from the low cost of in-state tuition, Frostburg State University in Western Maryland offers more than 100 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs, as well as miles of wilderness areas nearby to explore. On that note, its online M.S. in Recreation & Parks Management is ranked the No. 2 most affordable program in the U.S. by GetEducated.com.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,677
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 14:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $9,804 in-state, $24,684 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 86 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Economics, Nursing, Business Administration and Management

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college spanning 287 wooded acres in Towson, Goucher College takes pride in its close-knit community and leadership in global education. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the college offers more than 60 flexible programs around the world for students to develop international experience.

Goucher has continually ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s best and most innovative national liberal arts colleges. Goucher ranked in the top four percent of all public and private colleges nationwide for its impact on social mobility, according to Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce.

In the last few years, Goucher began exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, Middlebury College, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15-percent discount on tuition.

Also of note: Goucher’s unique First-Year Village, which opened between 2016 and 2018, offers a unique space for 450 first-year students to live, work, and socialize. It features a sound-proof study room and communal spaces for students to cook, learn, and interact on each floor.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100 undergraduate students, 900 graduate students
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,200
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 82 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One point of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100 percent of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

Last year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,331 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $59,128 for Peabody Institute, $60,480 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 10.9 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MARYLAND
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus strewn across 81 acres in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship, cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor, while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad, and the school currently ranks fourth in “Best Regional Universities in the North,” according to U.S. News & World Report.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,822 undergraduates, 1,460 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 84 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education

MARYLAND INSTITUTE COLLEGE OF ART (MICA)
Located in the heart of Baltimore, MICA is the oldest continuously degree-granting college of art and design in the nation. According to U.S. News & World Report, it ranks among one of the top schools for its fine arts, graphic design, painting, drawing, and sculpture programs. MICA also offers graduate-level degree programs including Master of Fine Art, Master of Business Administration Art, and Master of Professional Studies. According to its website, MICA offers, “education and experience that will prepare you to be a creative leader in the 21st century.”

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,500
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 8:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $51,870 undergraduate
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 90 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Graphic Design, Illustration, Multimedia, Painting, Sculpture, Fine Arts, and Photography

McDANIEL COLLEGE
Founded in 1867, McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. A recent addition to McDaniel’s curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security, along with the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

The school also recently launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. Equipped with adaptive workspaces and collaborative technology, the STEM Center hosts workshops focused on both the professional world and course-specific content, along with tutoring services and a study environment for students.

McDaniel earned a spot as the top-ranked Maryland institution on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Value Schools” list among regional universities in the North for academic quality and affordability. The college also ranked as one of the “Best Regional Universities in the North” in their “Best Colleges” rankings for 2022-2023.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,681 undergraduates, 1,208 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 87 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCUs, Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. Recently, Morgan launched the state’s first bachelor of science degree in cloud computing. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,034 undergraduates, 1,435 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 87 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

MOUNT SAINT MARY’S UNIVERSITY
Located in rural, mountainous Emmitsburg on a massive 1,500-acre campus, “The Mount” is America’s second-oldest Catholic university. It offers more than 80 undergraduate majors, minors, concentrations, and special programs grounded in a Catholic liberal arts tradition, and several bachelor’s/master’s combinations in partnership with other universities. It’s a degree that pays: The Mount ranks in the top 10 percent of colleges and universities nationwide in terms of the long-term earnings for a four-year college degree. As an extra bonus, the school offers a rich NCAA division I athletic program.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,570
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $44,330
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 82 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Social Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, Communication, Journalism, Education, Family and Consumer Sciences/Human Sciences, and Health Professions

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs ranging from undergraduate to doctoral degrees, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in art therapy program in the state.

The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 807 undergraduate students, 1,377 graduate and professional students
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $39,250
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 86.5 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

ST. MARY’S COLLEGE OF MARYLAND
A state institution founded in 1840, St. Mary’s College of Maryland was recently ranked among the best public liberal arts colleges by Money magazine. Located on 361 acres in rural Southern Maryland, it is also know for having one of the lowest student-to-faculty ratios in the U.S. While its waterfront campus in historic St. Mary’s has the feel of a private institution, it offers all the affordability, accessibility, and diversity of a public school.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,526
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $15,184 in-state, $31,260 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 77 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Social Sciences, Psychology, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Natural Resources and Conservation, English Language and Literature/Letters, Visual and Performing Arts, Computer and Information Sciences, History, Mathematics and Statistics, Foreign Languages, Literature, and Linguistics

SALISBURY UNIVERSITY
For those who want to be close to the ocean, Salisbury University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs at its campus in Salisbury, about a 40-minute drive from Ocean City. In 2020, Money magazine named it one of “America’s Best Colleges.” A public institution, Salisbury is a NCAA Division III Capital Athletic Conference school.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,695
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 14:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $10,396 in-state, $20,872 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 86 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Education, Communication, Journalism, Psychology, Public Administration and Social Service Professions, Health Professions, Parks, Recreation, Leisure, Fitness, and Kinesiology, Social Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences

STEVENSON UNIVERSITY
Stevenson University is a liberal arts school on a suburban campus in Baltimore County. It offers bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and preprofessional programs, as well as its Bachelor’s to Master’s option, which allows students to earn a bachelor’s and master’s degree in five years. The school is growing, having recently opened a 117-acre recreational and athletic hub on its Owings Mills campus.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,979
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $38,738
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 91 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Health Professions, Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Computer and Information Sciences, Education, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts, Homeland Security, Law Enforcement, Firefighting and Related Protective Services, Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies, and Legal Professions and Studies

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 110 undergraduate majors, 47 master’s degrees, six doctoral programs, and 36 graduate certificates. The university continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-square-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet. Towson also opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs and student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students and the wider community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 18,730 undergraduates, 3,187 graduates
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $10,818 in-state, $26,820 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF BALTIMORE
The University of Baltimore is situated in Mount Vernon, a Baltimore neighborhood rich in art, architecture, and history. UB has gained a solid reputation for its law and business programs, but it offers a wide spectrum of undergraduate and graduate degrees and doctoral programs, with an intense focus on connecting students to community and jobs, ensuring a sustainable career path post-graduation.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,605 undergraduate
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 11:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $9,506 in-state, $22,956 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 89 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Forensic Science and Technology, Animation/ Video Graphics/Special Effects, Healthcare Management, Criminal Science, Digital Communication and Multimedia/Media, Psychology, Political Science and Government, Human Services, Information Science

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
The University of Maryland, Baltimore is the state’s only public law, health, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 90 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally-ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing more than 1,000 people in nearly three dozen life science companies, university-based startups, and bioscience industry leaders like BD, Illumina, Catalent, and Pharmaron. With more than 250,000 square feet of lab and office space, the BioPark has been named an Outstanding University Research Park of the Year by the Association for University Research Parks. It’s located in the heart of the university’s medical campus.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,931
ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a student population of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow, with NASA announcing a major award of $72 million over three years, from 2021 to 2024, for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support more than 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 10,625 undergraduate students, 3,366 graduate students
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $12,606 in-state, $28,370 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 69 percent POPULAR
AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, EASTERN SHORE
The University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), the State’s Historically Black 1890 Land Grant Institution, is a teaching, research, and doctoral institution that nurtures and launches leaders in a student-centered environment. Located on over 1,000 acres in Princess Anne, UMES was ranked among one of the top HBCU’s by U.S. News & World Report in 2020. It is home to many unique programs and partnerships in health sciences, agricultural and environmental sciences, and renewable energy research and implementation, including a novel, three-year accelerated Pharmacy program and the UMES Coastal Ecology Teaching and Research Center, which plays a significant role in the diversification of the workforce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,812
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $8,724 in-state, $16,467 out-of-state
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Aviation Science, Agriculture, Environmental Science, Applied Design, Kinesiology, Education

WASHINGTON COLLEGE
Founded in 1782, Washington College became the first college chartered after the American Revolution. This small, liberal arts school is based on a bucolic campus in Chestertown and offers more than 50 academic programs, small class settings, and a rich study abroad program. Recent news on campus includes the receipt of a gift of over $2 million to endow merit-based scholarships.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,026
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $50,842
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 70 percent
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Business, Management, Marketing, Psychology, Physical Sciences, English Language and Literature/Letters, Liberal Arts and Sciences, Visual and Performing Arts, Communication, Journalism, and Computer and Information Sciences

Cited tuition costs may exclude room and board, books, and other fees.

he phrase “the new normal” has been thrown around since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and as America struggles to define—and design—what that is exactly, colleges are paving the way for what it might look like.

After the chaos and uncertainty of 2020, colleges and universities throughout the Baltimore region began to find their groove as they moved into the 2021-2022 school year. Coronavirus safety committees had been erected, new mandates put in place, safety protocols implemented—everything from vaccine requirements to temperature checks to quarantine procedures and wastewater testing that can pinpoint a COVID infection before anyone is symptomatic.

By some counts, colleges may very well be the safest places to live and work.

“Just following simple rules of wearing face masks and social distancing, using wastewater management and testing when we need to, we have, in many ways, been able to return to normal life,” says Goucher College President Kent Devereaux. “Full athletics, student clubs, dining in the dining hall, use of the library—everything that you’d normally have, we’ve been able to return to.”

Despite the challenges and anxieties faced by students, staff, and faculty alike, some unexpected silver linings have emerged.

“It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

The widespread adoption of technology across college campuses has proven to provide more flexibility, efficiency, and innovation—and even accessibility, in some cases. Counseling sessions, for example, began to be conducted remotely during the pandemic and many students found that they preferred it to in-person sessions. Students who cannot, for whatever reason, make it to an in-person class can now study from anywhere.

Challenging times, combined with advances in technology and the general acceptance of it, have also brought more cooperation and collaboration among schools. It’s becoming more common, for example, for schools that offer complementary programs to partner with one another to offer students an educational pathway to continue studies in their chosen areas. That may mean a discounted tuition rate, a transfer of class credits, or an internship through a partner school.

Maybe most importantly though, schools, at their best, foster an environment where students are supported, expand who they are, and connect with like-minded people. At a time when gathering together is not always safe, being in a community has become even more precious, and students have found new ways to connect.

OCA Mocha, a coffeehouse in Arbutus founded by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) students, is one example of how effective a gathering place can be at a time when people are craving human connection. What started as a class assignment—to design a community center of some sort—has become a gathering place not just for UMBC students and alumni, but the Arbutus community at large.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories from people who are extremely grateful to have this space,” says Michael Berardi, UMBC class of 2019 and co-founder and general manager of OCA Mocha, which stands for Opportunities for Community Alliances. The coffee shop includes a stage, a community room, and an art gallery, employs UMBC students and alumni, and provides internship opportunities for current UMBC students.

“We have local groups and organizations that meet regularly in our community space and are grateful to not have to meet in someone’s living room or church basement,” says Berardi. “We see a lot of connections being made. It’s just incredible to watch how it’s grown into the vision that we, as a group of students, had.”

We checked in with colleges and universities throughout the region to find out what’s new and what campus life and classes look like, two years into the pandemic.

COPPIN STATE UNIVERSITY
A historically Black institution founded in 1900, Coppin State University is situated in the heart of Baltimore City in the Mondawmin neighborhood. Part of the University System of Maryland in Baltimore, the school offers 32 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees, along with nine certificate programs and one doctorate degree. It’s been rated No. 4 Best HBCU in the Nation (College Consensus), the Top 5 Best Value Online Program (Online School Center), and No. 17 Best Value in the Nation (College Consensus).

In the summer of 2021, CSU announced its Student Debt Relief Initiative, which clears roughly $1 million in student balances and provided a $1,200 credit to every student enrolled in the fall 2021 semester. CSU also created the Freddie Gray Student Success Scholarship, which is available to graduates of Carver Vocational-Technical High School, where Gray was a student.

Coppin also takes esports (competitive video gaming) seriously. In the fall of 2021, Coppin became the first HBCU to open a building on campus exclusively devoted to esports. The Premier Esports Lab opened in September with a guest appearance from Grammy-nominated artist Cordae.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,383 undergraduates, 341 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $6,809 in-state, $13,334 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 40%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Business, Biology, Education, and Criminal Justice, Rehabilitation Counseling

DICKINSON COLLEGE
Founded in 1783, Dickinson College is a liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with a suburban campus that spans 144 acres. The school offers 41 undergraduate degrees within 17 fields of study.

It’s been rated as one of the best schools in the country for its sustainability efforts, which include an 80-acre, USDA-certified organic farm. Princeton Review rated it No. 2 in the Top 50 Green Colleges, and it was rated No. 2 in Overall Top Performers among baccalaureate institutions in the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s “Sustainable Campus Index” in 2019 and 2020.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,345
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $58,708
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 52%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: International Business, Economics, Political Science & Government, International Relations & National Security, General Psychology

GETTYSBURG COLLEGE
Gettysburg College, a private, liberal arts school, sits on 225 acres adjacent to the historical Gettysburg Battlefield in Pennsylvania. Many of the buildings on campus are historically significant, so it’s no wonder that it draws students interested in studying history.

The school offers 65 academic programs, more than 120 campus clubs and organizations, and 800 events on campus each year, plus more than 100 study-abroad opportunities open to students.

Its Majestic Theater serves as a venue for the greater Gettysburg community, hosting national acts as well as performances by the school’s Sunderman Conservatory of Music students.

It’s ranked No. 12 for “students who study the most” by the Princeton Review, which also ranked Gettysburg College’s dining hall No. 9 in the country for best campus food.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 2,600
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 10:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $59,960
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 56%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Political Science, Economics, Health Sciences, Organization and Management Studies, History, Psychology

GOUCHER COLLEGE
A private, liberal arts college in Towson, Goucher College prides itself on its close-knit community.

Goucher was extremely proactive when it came to COVID-19 precautions, being the first in the state to implement wastewater testing, which is able to isolate COVID infections by dorm.

Also of note: The college recently opened two new residence halls as part of the school’s First-Year Village. One hundred percent of Goucher students study abroad, and the school is committed to sustainability.

Most recently, Goucher has begun exciting partnerships with other schools, such as Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, and more to come, to provide a pathway for students to continue their education beyond Goucher. For instance, their 4+1 MBA Program allows students to earn an advanced business degree through Loyola via a “Fast Track” admission process, and at a 15% discount on tuition.

SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,100
STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 9:1
ANNUAL TUITION: $48,000
ACCEPTANCE RATE: 79%
POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Psychology, International Relations, Economics, Political Science, Business Administration

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Johns Hopkins University (JHU) offers nine academic divisions and hundreds of courses of study, with campuses spread throughout Baltimore, including the Peabody Institute, a music and dance conservatory in Mount Vernon. Its main Homewood campus is located on North Charles Street.

The prestigious, world-renowned university has a strong reputation for its public health and medical studies and has been compared to Ivy League schools.

One of its points of pride is its financial aid program, which covers 100% of calculated need for every admitted student, without loans. This means JHU works with families to calculate what they can afford to contribute toward the total cost of attendance—including meals, books, travel, and other expenses—and JHU covers the rest with grants that don’t need to be repaid.

This school year, JHU added two new minors: Latin American Studies and Writing Seminars.

It also announced new efforts this year to move toward a broader, more flexible undergraduate educational experience that will include a required first-year seminar and the streamlining of major requirements to allow for greater intellectual exploration.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,333 undergraduates, 22,559 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 6:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $56,313 for Peabody Institute, $58,720 for the School of Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 9%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer Science, Molecular and Cellular Biology, Neuroscience, Economics, Public Health Studies, International Studies

LOYOLA UNIVERSITY
This private, Jesuit institution offers undergraduate and graduate programs on a beautiful urban campus in northern Baltimore City. Education at Loyola is based in the Jesuit tradition of scholarship cura personalis, or care for the whole person. Loyola is known for its academic rigor while helping students lead purposeful lives. Seventy percent of students study abroad. It currently ranks fourth in best universities in the North region according to U.S. News & World Report.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 3,787 undergraduates, 1,353 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 12:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $53,430
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 80%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business, Management, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Psychology, English Language and Literature, Engineering and Education.

McDANIEL COLLEGE
McDaniel College sits in a bucolic setting near Westminster in Carroll County. The private, four-year liberal arts college offers more than 70 undergraduate programs of study and more than 20 graduate programs. McDaniel’s most recent addition to its curriculum is a National Security Fellows Program that provides students with knowledge, skills, and experience in national security as well as the ability to specialize in an area of interest, such as interstate conflict, intrastate political violence, cybersecurity, ethics, and human rights.

Also new this year, McDaniel appointed an inaugural associate provost for equity and belonging who provides vision and leadership to the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and works in collaboration with the provost to co-lead the college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion administrative committee, and guides the Bias Education Response Support Team.

The school also launched a new STEM Center to serve as a physical hub to support students studying the sciences. It hosts workshops and other events while also supplying online and hybrid support.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 1,757 undergraduates, 1,324 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 13:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $46,336
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Kinesiology, Business Administration, Psychology, Biology, Political Science, International Studies

MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
The largest of Maryland’s HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), Morgan is a public institution founded in 1867. It is situated in northeast Baltimore. As a Carnegie-classified high research (R2) institution, Morgan provides instruction to a multiethnic, multiracial, multinational student body and offers more than 140 academic programs at undergraduate and graduate levels. As Maryland’s Preeminent Public Urban Research University, Morgan fulfills its mission to address the needs and challenges of the modern urban environment through intense community level study and pioneering solutions.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 6,270 undergraduates, 1,364 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 15:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $8,008 for in-state and $18,480 for out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 73%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Civil Engineering, Communications Engineering, Business Administration and Management, Social Work, Biology/Biological Sciences, Architecture, Finance, Psychology, Sociology

NOTRE DAME OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY
A private, Catholic liberal arts university in northern Baltimore, Notre Dame of Maryland University offers programs from undergraduate through PhD, as well as Maryland’s only women’s college. It recently launched the first master’s of art degree in Art Therapy program in the state.
The beautiful, wooded campus is just steps from the bustling downtown Baltimore culture. With values rooted in Catholicism, the school focuses on service to others and social responsibility.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 783
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 7:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $39,675
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 88%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Nursing, Education, Biology, Art Therapy, Pharmacy

TOWSON UNIVERSITY
One of the largest public universities in the state, Towson University offers more than 60 undergraduate majors and continues to draw students from other states, though it remains part of the University System of Maryland.

Its campus continues to expand, with a huge new dining hall, a 23,000-foot recreation and fitness facility with an indoor swimming pool, and its 5,200-seat arena for sporting events and concerts. In 2021, it opened its new Science Complex, the largest academic building on campus at 320,000 square feet.

In September, Towson opened its StarTUp at the Armory, a space for startups and new businesses to engage with the broader community and larger businesses. It serves as a home to Towson’s entrepreneurship programs, as well as student competitions and events.

While Towson remains the largest supplier of medical professionals and educators in the state, the university has also built a strong reputation for its College of Fine Arts and Communication, as well as its Asian Arts & Culture Center, both of which bring students into the wider community and the Baltimore community to Towson for enriching performing arts, music, and visual art programs.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 17,907 undergraduates, 2,949 graduates
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 16:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $7,100 in-state, $22,152 out-of-state
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Business Administration, Education, Nursing, Exercise Science, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Biology, Computer Science, Information Technology

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE
University of Maryland, Baltimore is Maryland’s only public health, law, and human services university. Located in downtown Baltimore, it offers 86 degree and certificate programs through its six nationally ranked professional schools—dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work—and an interdisciplinary graduate school.

The school’s 14-acre BioPark is Baltimore’s biggest biotechnology cluster, employing 1,000 people, and remains on the cutting edge of new drugs, treatments, and medical devices.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 7,244
• ANNUAL TUITION: Varies by school
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing, Social Work

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, BALTIMORE COUNTY
University of Maryland, Baltimore County educates a campus of more than 10,000 students in programs spanning the arts, engineering, information technology, humanities, sciences, preprofessional studies, and social sciences. Located on the edge of Baltimore County, it allows easy access into the city and all the conveniences of suburban life and housing. It also offers plenty of opportunities for study abroad.

In the fall of 2021, UMBC opened the Center for Well-Being, a new two-story complex that houses Retriever Integrated Health, Student Conduct and Community Standards, and i3b’s Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. UMBC’s already significant NASA partnerships have continued to grow. In October, NASA announced a major award of $72 million over three years for the new Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research II center. UMBC is leading the national consortium and will receive over $38 million. The GESTAR II consortium will support over 120 researchers, creating extensive opportunities for breakthroughs in Earth and atmospheric science research, and providing major opportunities for students to conduct research and be mentored by NASA scientists and engineers.

• SIZE OF STUDENT BODY: 13,638
• STUDENT TO FACULTY RATIO: 17:1
• ANNUAL TUITION: $12,280 in-state, $28,470 out-of-state
• ACCEPTANCE RATE: 81%
• POPULAR AREAS OF STUDY: Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services, Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Social Sciences, Psychology, Visual and Performing Arts

Cited tuition costs exclude room and board and books.

In November 2021, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) community and guests gathered for the inauguration of Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, as the seventh president of UMB. Dr. Jarrell stepped into this role in 2020 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, guiding critical efforts to address this global health crisis with world-changing vaccine research, treatments, community service and outreach, and leadership across the state and beyond.

Under Jarrell’s leadership, UMB remains one of Baltimore’s most powerful anchor institutions and continues to effect real and lasting change by improving health, creating wealth, and advancing social justice in the city, the state, and around the world. This is particularly true in today’s COVID-19 climate.

Central to President Jarrell’s vision is that UMB expand on its success by motivating students, faculty, and staff to embrace the university’s core values, which are rooted in service, a commitment to Maryland, and ultimately improving the world. UMB inspires passionate people to apply solutions to the pressing problems facing humankind, and its health care, human services, and law professionals create innovative solutions where others see only problems.

“When I look at UMB, I see an environment that encourages innovation and creativity,” Jarrell says. “I’m surrounded by students and employees who are committed to improving the health and well-being of the people in our community and around the state. That is the magic of UMB, and it’s the secret to our great success.”

To maintain UMB’s standing as Maryland’s premier human services institution, these are President Jarrell’s priorities:

• Commitment to excellence in education. UMB works to attract, retain, and educate the best and brightest scholars, staff, and faculty through efforts such as the President’s Initiative on Education, scholarship programs that create opportunities for more students, and by remaining an employer of choice.

• Commitment to working for equity and justice. UMB accepts the responsibility to help improve the health and well-being of underserved populations in Maryland by expanding access in areas of need across the state, supporting our Community Engagement Center, and fostering educational programs to support opportunity and advancement for disadvantaged communities.

• Commitment to statewide collaborations. UMB is maintaining and growing its strong partnership with the University of Maryland Medical System, sustaining and propelling innovation through its collaboration with the University of Maryland, College Park under the MPowering the State initiative, and expanding relationships with other key institutions across Maryland.

• Commitment to innovation and discovery. UMB is preparing for the future with a strong focus on innovation and discovery. The university is expanding its $682 million research enterprise, strengthening its community-based research activities, and developing more interdisciplinary research programs and projects.

Through these efforts, UMB achieves its mission to improve the human condition and serve the public good of Maryland and society at large through education, research, clinical care, and service. Amidst unprecedented challenges in today’s world, UMB is evolving and developing critical innovations toward changing the future today.

UMB is Maryland’s public health, law, and human services university, a leading U.S. institution for graduate and professional education, and a prominent academic health center that combines cutting-edge biomedical research and exceptional clinical care.

The university enrolls more than 7,200 students in six nationally ranked professional schools and its interdisciplinary Graduate School, conferring most of the professional practice doctoral degrees awarded in Maryland each year. Serving as a powerhouse economic engine for Maryland, UMB delivers care and services that spur growth, and, in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and affiliated physician practices, the university stimulates nearly $8 billion in economic activity each year, generating 17,000 jobs and yielding $13 in economic activity for each $1 of state general fund appropriation.

UMB provides direct health, employment, legal, educational, and social services to underserved communities and impacts the future by addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations and fostering the next generation of leaders in innovation, discovery, outreach, and economic impact.

To learn more about UMB, visit www.umaryland.edu.

Header image: Through the eyes of a patient with blurred vision

For those who’ve suffered a concussion or other traumatic brain injury (TBI), there’s a high chance that blurred or double vision, difficulty with eye movement, focus, or tracking occurred. But will your eyesight ever return to 20/20 after such an accident? To find out, we talked with board-certified Neuro-Ophthalmologist, Eric Singman, MD, PhD, from the University of Maryland.

Tell us about your background, and the types of patients seen in your practice.

I have concentrated my practice on patients with vision problems after trauma for most of my career. My PhD studied optic nerve injury and recovery, and my fellowship in neuro-ophthalmology was at a hospital specializing in patients with birth-related and traumatic injuries. I care for patients of any age, and many have underlying conditions that may make them more susceptible to damage after head trauma, such as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.

What causes vision problems after head trauma?

At least 40 percent of the brain is somehow involved in vision, including vision clarity, peripheral vision, color vision, visual memories, and control of eye movements. Since head trauma can cause brain injury, it makes sense that vision might be of concern.

How can this affect daily activities?

As the brain controls everything, the occurrence of widespread problems pertaining to many bodily systems after brain injury is expected. Patients often have trouble sleeping, complain of headaches, fatigue, glare sensitivity, slowed thinking, dizziness, balance problems, pains in key areas such as the neck and back, and difficulty with visual tasks that were once simple, such as driving, reading, or using the computer.

When should a patient be evaluated by a neuro-ophthalmologist?

When patients have visual problems, particularly ones that seem not to be addressed with standard ophthalmic therapy such as glasses, eye drops, etc., it may be time to see a neuro-ophthalmologist and explore the role of the brain in vision.

What is the long-term outlook for patients with TBI and affected vision?

Many patients do very well and recover completely. Unfortunately, we see problems from even so-called “mild TBI” linger for months or even years. Every patient is different and every patient deserves to be heard.

What sorts of treatments are proving effective?

I’ve had success with using glasses dedicated to a particular task, incorporating glare reduction strategies, and offering orthoptic exercises to address the muscular and sensory aspects of vision. Botox© injections can offer an immediate improvement for patients with double vision.

How can athletes protect themselves from eye injury and concussion?

Ocular protection with shields, either for the eyes or entire face, as well as head and neck protection are critical in many sports. Certain athletes, like soccer players, should build neck strength to have proper control of the head. Appropriate tackling techniques in football, wearing a helmet while riding a bike, and padding hard surfaces where kids can fall are also imperative for head injury prevention.

What research is currently being done related to TBI and vision?

There is work exploring how to detect the subtle damage that TBI might cause, but is not always seen on standard imaging techniques. In addition, there is research being done to improve detection of TBI, and ways to mitigate the damage that was done. New prevention techniques, advances in treatment, and rehabilitation strategies, are also being explored.

Anything else you think people should know?

Prevention of head injury is obviously best. But when that doesn’t happen, it is valuable for patients, their loved ones, and health care providers to educate themselves on what might be seen after TBI. Finally, patients would do well to identify caregivers who would advocate for them and guide them, because it really takes a village of providers to completely support the recovery of a TBI patient.

Eric Singman, MD, PhD

Former Maryland men’s basketball star guard Anthony Cowan Jr.—a 22-year-old who made a Mr. Big Shot reputation while entertaining thousands in loud, pre-socially-distant arenas—has spent the last two months like mostly everyone else: holed up and largely alone in the same off-campus College Park apartment he lived in before life turned upside down in mid-March.

And the report of the scene from his window is a familiar story, “There’s nobody here,” he told us by phone recently.

The usual college-town buzz left two months ago when coronavirus hit the U.S. in full force, closing campuses and upending normalcy in life as millions of Americans knew it. Forget watching or playing basketball, or working out in front of NBA scouts in the way Cowan always imagined, we’re not even getting together in small groups or seeing extended family in person anymore.

In literally every other year since what’s now known as March Madness began 80 years ago, Cowan—a savvy, super competitive, and clutch 6-foot, 180-pound guard who led the Big Ten regular season champion Terps in points and assists as a senior captain—might be a national celebrity. Who knows, maybe he would even be a national champion and state hero by now. (Much like the lovable underdog UMBC group did a few years ago.)

But when on the same day in March the Big Ten cancelled its postseason tournaments and the NCAA called off its annual nationally-televised rite of spring, the 68-team men’s basketball tournament, a lot of things changed. Opportunities were dashed, and signals were sent to the country about a new reality.

“It just didn’t seem real,” Cowan said about hearing from Maryland coach Mark Turgeon that the season was just…ending, right there in the Terps’ locker room instead of on a glossy basketball court somewhere. The news broke just before the team was scheduled to travel to Indianapolis for the conference tournament. It was one day after NBA player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus, leading the pro basketball league to become the first in the American pro ranks to cancel its season.

“You would have never expected it,” Cowan says. But with time to reflect and a grounded perspective, he looks back on his last season, in which the Terps went 24-7, were in line for a high NCAA tournament seed, and certainly got our attention: “I honestly feel like I went out on top, like I was supposed to. I’m at peace with a lot of stuff. This is a huge part of a lot of people’s lives. There’s so much other stuff going on in the world. It’s just so crazy now.”

Indeed, we’re all enduring pandemic life in some way. The death toll from the contagious COVID-19 continues to climb. Social distancing is part of our shared vocabulary now. Most businesses are still closed. And most people who still have jobs are working at home. At the same time, scientists, policymakers, and politicians continue to debate the best courses of action for saving lives and keeping the nation’s economy afloat.

Sports, often a distraction from our daily struggles, are now part of the mainstream narrative that involves fans, players, coaches, and team staff alike. (See the all-virtual NFL Draft a few weeks ago and the ongoing talks about when baseball or football seasons might start, and the qualifier of whether they will begin with or without a crowd.)

“It’s a weird time,” Cowan says. “I keep telling my friends, it’s like a movie. You see people with the masks on at the stores, and you see all the food gone.”

Cowan, a Prince George’s County native with a communications degree in hand, is one of two Terps who may be picked in the next NBA Draft. When it will happen, we still don’t know. (It’s normally in June, but might be pushed to August given the circumstances.) Forward Jalen Smith, a Mount St. Joseph’s alum, is a possible first-round selection. Both are experiencing a sudden early end to their college careers, followed by an abnormally uncertain and delayed beginning to a pro journey.

For Cowan, normal today means—like most everyone else—keeping his distance, going to the store only when he needs to, and, to stay in shape, running and lifting weights by himself, perhaps boxing, too. But unlike most people, he’s also shooting baskets at a private gym run by a former pro, Joel Barker, in Gaithersburg. He often goes alone, but sometimes takes his younger sister, Alex, who plays guard on the Wagner University women’s team in New York.

And, unlike his Maryland classmates or us mere physical mortals who have been logging into Zoom for class or meetings with co-workers, Cowan is now represented by an agency, New York-based Hazan Sports Management. He’s doing video interviews with pro scouts who want to get to know the versatile guard that they watch on tape as well as they can. Cowan says he’s had at least half a dozen of these mini job interviews, which typically last 30 minutes, and that he’s received positive feedback.

“You can tell they expect you to be kind of nervous, but it’s down my alley to be able to talk about myself and basketball,” says Cowan, who has also recently started a podcast in which he plans to interview current and former college athletes about their lives on and off the court.

As for an analysis of his own game? “I can score, but I can also really distribute,” he says. “I do what the coach needs me to do, whatever the team needs me to do. That’s something I can bring to an organization from day one.”

Hopefully, for so many reasons, we’re closer to that day than we were yesterday.

University of Maryland sophomore Jalen Smith, the 19-year-old former Mount St. Joseph’s star, typed out a message yesterday in an attempt to process the shocking news he’d just learned.

March Madness, the whole thing, cancelled.

It is, and the feeling applies to a lot of us at this point.

As novel coronavirus fears and prevention measures sweep the country, the NCAA—the national governing body of college athletics—made the unprecedented move on Thursday to cancel the 68-team men’s basketball tournament as part of a decision to end competitions in all spring sports.

It’s the first time in the 80-year history of the bracket-busting tournament that it won’t be played—and the news came quick. On Wednesday, it was announced March Madness games would be played without fans, which was weird enough to think about.

A day later, hundreds of thousands of college kids like Smith were digesting a sudden end to their seasons, and their entire playing careers, in some cases, like Terps senior captain Anthony Cowan, Jr. And Smith, too. He might test the NBA waters and enter the draft.

Business as usual in the U.S. is suspended for the time being. Many government officials have taken measures to limit public gatherings in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19—for which there’s no vaccine and specifically impacts those over the age of 60 and those with underlying medical conditions.

That goes for events like weddings, court trials, conferences, and schools. After the Big Ten conference cancelled the rest of its spring seasons earlier on Thursday, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon released a statement saying that “the health and safety of our student athletes and entire program is paramount. This is an unprecedented situation that is much bigger than basketball.”

It sure is. In the local sports world alone, Orioles opening day, as directed by Major League Baseball, has been pushed back for at least two weeks. Spring training games in Florida have been cancelled, though the team will still practice and continue precautions they began last week.

And the postseason hopes of teams from colleges like Maryland, Loyola, Johns Hopkins, Towson and many others are now over before players even took the field. Same goes in the ranks of public schools throughout the state, which will be closed for at least the next two weeks.

Mancini has tumor removed; Awaits test results

Meanwhile, all the coronavirus news has overshadowed another big piece of news with the Orioles this week.

Trey Mancini, the team’s most established figure and a fan-favorite, had surgery yesterday to remove a malignant tumor from his colon. He expects lab results back next week, and there’s no timetable for a recovery yet. He left the team last week after a colonoscopy revealed the tumor.

Mancini, 27, shared his thanks with everyone who sent messages and notes of encouragement. “The outpouring of love and support I have received has made an extremely tough week so much better,” he said. “I have the best family, friends, fans, and teammates imaginable.”

Yanda retires from the Ravens

Finally, longtime Ravens offensive lineman and potential future Hall-of-Famer Marshal Yanda formally announced his retirement—and look, his buddy Joe Flacco returned to Owings Mills for the press conference at the Ravens practice facility…

The Ravens have already announced that Yanda will be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at M&T Bank Stadium. Until then, we’ll remember the scene of the grizzled, sweaty, and frustrated 13-year-pro in the Ravens’ locker room after their shocking early playoff exit against the Tennessee Titans in January. That showed the type of person he is.

Yanda was adamant at calling out Titans rookie defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons for allegedly spitting in Yanda’s face during the game. “I just want to put him on notice in the media,” Yanda said. “I’ve never done this in my career, but I just wanted to let you know there’s a right way and a wrong way to play football, and that guy did not do it the right way today.”

Turns out the notice was a parting gift.

As of March 9, the University of Maryland will officially terminate the weekly print edition of its independent, student-run newspaper, The Diamondback. Named after the school’s mascot, a diamond-backed terrapin named Testudo, the paper announced in September that it would go entirely digital after 110 years of publishing a print component.

The fate of the publication’s print issue was decided in a board meeting back in May with Maryland Media, the independent company that owns The Diamondback, in addition to two other publications on campus. Maryland Media’s primary purpose is to ensure funding for the newspaper so that it can continue to exist for future generations of students, and according to Tom Madigan, president of the company’s board of directors, making the decision to cease print production was part of carrying out that mission.

“We publish 20,000 print copies per month,” Madigan says. “Meanwhile, we reached more than 140,000 unique visitors online in February.”

The Diamondback had been gradually scaling back its print issues for a few years prior to officially migrating online this month. In 2013, the newspaper transitioned to printing four times per week, and then in 2015, it was printed weekly.

Leah Brennan, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief, says this shift did not come as a surprise. “This decision made the most sense so we can finish the print edition while it’s still not putting us in the red,” Brennan says. Though all Diamondback coverage is now published exclusively online, the newspaper will continue to print its yearly senior edition, orientation guide, and college survival guide.

The Diamondback is not the only college newspaper whose print issues have perished. Student newspapers from colleges across the country, including Syracuse University and Purdue University, have been forced to curtail their print operations for financial reasons. As the internet continues to hold the public’s attention, advertising reps struggle with sales.

Print is still how Madigan chooses to consume the news, but he recognizes that the journalism industry is trending away from the medium. For him, this transition is helping to prepare his students to enter the journalistic roles they aspire to take on post-graduation. “Dropping the weekly print edition is helping to throw them into a digital world,” Madigan says.

Fortunately, even with the loss of its print paper, The Diamondback does not intend to make any cuts to its 20-plus newsroom or lose any of its more than 90 contributing writers.

Now that the staff won’t have to spend their Sundays fleshing out the print issue from noon to 10 p.m., their time can be devoted to emerging projects. The Diamondback rolled out a podcast named “Offbeat” in the beginning of the school year, and the team is currently working on an app for Apple and Android products, as well as DBK TV, to help increase accessibility and promote its content.

“I think that everybody loves working here and cares a lot about what they do,” Brennan says. “Their drive and enthusiasm is part of what fuels this paper, and I don’t think any of that will fade away.”

In the wake of the news of Kobe Bryant’s tragic death in a helicopter crash that also took the life of his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, as well as seven other passengers Sunday, shock and sadness have reverberated throughout the sports world and beyond. As the nation grieves the legendary Los Angeles Laker and his aspiring WNBA star daughter, “GiGi,” people are undoubtedly hugging their loved ones a bit tighter, and reexamining what it means to truly live life to the fullest.

Many have taken to social media to mourn the devastating loss, including several athletes, celebrities, and community leaders from Maryland. Here are some of their reactions:

I idolize Kobe. I always looked up to him. He was the reason I was a Lakers fan. And just knowing that we lost that type of legend and that type of leadership in this community, in this world, it hurts a lot.” —University of Maryland Terrapins forward Jalen Smith to 247 Sports.

David Mackall’s mother stood over her son’s open casket last Saturday morning, sobbing inconsolably, her back turned to a standing-room-only crowd gathered at Wylie Funeral Home on Liberty Road. She was mourning her child, the former University of Maryland football player gone way too soon at the age of 28, leaving two young children of his own behind.

Heartbreaking might be the only way to describe it. Indeed, as Ava Mackall cried over her son, a singer a few feet away, as if on cue, bellowed as part of his song, “Why . . . why so much pain?” The rest of the family, his father and cousins, sisters and nieces eventually got up from their seats to offer support and grieve themselves. “There’s so many wonderful things I could say about him,” his niece, Shawnaya Cawthorn, said. “I called him about anything. I don’t know who I’m going to call anymore.”

The headline that brought us to his funeral has since filtered out of most minds, as they often do: Former Maryland football player David Mackall Jr. identified as victim of fatal shooting in West Baltimore. But, like the others who were compelled to come Saturday (and the parking lot was full; some people parked their cars on the adjacent grass), we knew there was more to the story, one that you know the man wanted to be told.

I actually had a chance to meet Mackall last year. It wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things, a chance encounter as random as your location, but I’d sat in the backseat of his car one Saturday afternoon in January, as he drove me home from the Baltimore Museum of Industry in his Uber-commissioned black sedan. Unprovoked, he quickly started talking about how proud he was of his son playing sports, the things he was teaching him, the joy it gave him. And with a part-time sportswriter as the one-man audience, we went on to talk for the entirety of the ride.

He spoke, with a humble sincerity and endearing upbeat attitude, about how he got here. How a former four-star football recruit from Edmondson-Westside High—who played before thousands of paying fans as a linebacker and defensive end at Maryland and later at the University of Delaware; who once tried out for the Baltimore Ravens—was now making ends meet by driving strangers around the city. It wasn’t what he wanted to be doing, of course, but it was what he needed to do to support his growing family, his longtime girlfriend, Jarenae, and his young son, Jacoby, now 6. Their second, Dylan, was soon to come. Mackall had plans for the future, he said, to apply for a college program, maybe in IT.

It turns out he was often proactive. “I recruited a lot of players, but he’s the only young man who recruited me,” former Edmondson football coach Dante Jones said, remembers when years ago Mackall, in 10th grade but already “looking like a grown man,” approached him in line at a local Sam’s Club and told him he wanted to play football for him. He would grow to be 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds. “He was special.”

That was the start of Mackall’s journey from the city to College Park, which included a year at Fork Union Military Academy to boost his grades, and eventually a full scholarship to play for the Terps under former football coach Ralph Friedgen. Mackall played one season for Maryland, one of only five true freshman to see playing time that year, before Friedgen was fired and Randy Edsall was hired, which resulted in 13 players bolting from the program and Mackall suspended for the final four games of his sophomore season amid a clash with the new coach. (In the car that day, Mackall told me that, in order to speak with Edsall, he needed to make an appointment with his secretary.)

Mackall was granted his release, chose to stay close to home, and transferred to Delaware. After sitting out the 2012 season with an injury, he played all 12 games for the Blue Hens at outside linebacker, and started at middle linebacker his senior season, leading the team with 84 tackles in 2014. In the summer, he worked at popular Newark restaurant Klondike Kate’s, and Mackall graduated in May 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in criminal justice. Then he started working as a truck driver for Coastal Sunbelt Produce.

We do not yet know the exact circumstances of his death, but two weeks ago, on May 29, Mackall was shot and killed in broad daylight, gunshot wounds to the head and torso, in Walbrook, a neighborhood in West Baltimore where he grew up. He passed away at a local hospital. Police haven’t named a suspect or anyone arrested in his death, an all-too-familiar refrain attached to many of the 300-plus homicides in each of the last four years in the city. “Baltimore people, God’s people, wake up. Get your community back,” Cynthia Bruce, a representative from Mothers of Murdered Sons and Daughters, said at Mackall’s funeral on Saturday. Her son, Marcus Downer, 23, was shot 19 times and killed in the city in July 2015.

I thought about the injustices—of a city where gun-related murders are as common as a football game, of a college athletics and university system that makes so much money from its players and too often doesn’t really care what happens afterward—when I first met Mackall, and I think about it now. He’d “made it,” but not far enough. That much we know from his death.

“He was a wonderful man. He touched a lot of us,” pastor Steven Hinnant, Mackall’s cousin and a teacher at Edmondson-Westside, said Saturday. “The thing that really struck my heart was that he was an overcomer. I saw him face things in life. Sports is wonderful because it’s a microcosm of life. He had some challenges, because of the system, before he could go to the University of Maryland. He tackled his grades, and accepted that scholarship. Some other challenges came. He had to tackle that situation and moved on to the University of Delaware. I’d never been so proud that he persevered through those situations.”

That’s a story worth telling, which is what we’d discussed near the end of our delightful conversation in his car. We exchanged contact information, and I sincerely wanted to speak with him again. “I’d really like that,” he said. He said he’d thought about speaking at city schools, to inspire other kids to try to get to college, to make something of themselves. He even said he’d written out some of his story, hoping to one day share it.

With one emphatic and timely two-handed dunk, Mount Saint Joseph’s alum and Maryland freshman forward Jalen Smith officially let us know Thursday that March Madness is here for the next few weeks.

Breathe it in:

The Terps advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament’s round of 32 with a dramatic 79-77 win over Belmont University, the second-highest scoring team in the country, and the victory was punctuated by Smith’s slam that gave Maryland a three-point lead with just under two minutes left, in a critical and Baltimore-flavored sequence.

Smith’s former Mount St. Joe teammate, sophomore Darryl Morsell, fed Smith the ball on the play and, about 30 seconds earlier, Morsell, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound guard, delivered another key moment with a driving layup in which he drew a foul and drained the ensuing free throw to put the Terps’ up 74-71.

As a two-time state player of the year nicknamed “Stix” for his stringy frame, Smith had his “best game in a long time,” with 19 points and 12 rebounds, Maryland coach Mark Turgeon said. And with Morsell scoring a college career-high 18 points, it was if the MIAA or Baltimore Catholic League tournaments were playing out on the NCAA branded floor in Jacksonville, Florida, albeit in front of a much larger nationally televised audience.

“Our Bmore guys stepped up today,” Turgeon said during the team’s post-game press conference, with Morsell sitting beside him along with teammates Bruno Fernando (14 points, 13 rebounds) and Eric Ayala (12 points). “They were terrific.”

Smith and Morsell, a duo that played for three years together at Mount St. Joe and enjoyed much success at the high school level, powered the Terps’ to their first postseason win in three years, and helped make Turgeon’s hot seat a little cooler by holding off a projected Cinderella in Belmont to set up a game on Saturday against LSU. The game will air at 12:10 p.m. on CBS. (And, speaking of the TV broadcast, you can also catch Baltimore’s Evan Washburn working the sideline during other games throughout the tournament.)

There are more Bmore guys, too. Another Mount St. Joe alum, Phil Booth, who has program bragging rights after winning the NCAA championship last year with Villanova, scored 20 points on Thursday in Nova’s round of 64 win over Saint Mary’s. Booth has scored 122 career points in the NCAA tournament, most of anyone who’s playing in it right now.

After the win, he fielded questions from reporters like the seasoned tournament veteran he is.

“There’s a lot of distractions that come in the NCAA tournament,” Booth said, “so the best thing you can do is focus on your opponent, take care of your body, and focus in on what you have to do as a team.”

The defending champs play Purdue on Saturday night on TNT. (Catch your Law & Order reruns some other time.)

Elsewhere, if you’re looking for a local team to act as this year’s U Might Be Cinderella because, sadly, the UMBC Retrievers did not make the Big Dance this time, your best chances are to watch the 15th-ranked Towson women’s team play perennial power and second-seeded UConn at 7 p.m. Friday.

And if you want to see games in person, the shortest drive is to the Xfinity Center, where the Maryland women, seeded third, are hosting 14th-seeded Radford at 11 a.m. Saturday. Then Tennessee and UCLA play there immediately following in a first-round doubleheader, as the Madness continues and we watch transfixed.

They haven’t lost since before Christmas.
A few weeks might not seem like a long time in the grand scheme of things, but consider that the University of Maryland men’s basketball team has played and won six games since December 22, when they last lost, by four points to Seton Hall. Coach Mark Turgeon’s bunch has won 15 games this season and lost just three, beaten four projected NCAA tournament teams this month, and could jump into second place in the Big Ten conference standings this weekend.

“This team is doing amazing things,” Turgeon said after the latest win, a 74-70 thriller over Wisconsin on Monday night. And that was a few hours after the Terps entered the latest Associated Press national Top 25 poll, with a ranking of No. 19, their highest of the season.

So, in short, it’s time to start paying attention to the basketball happening in College Park. Their next game is at 6:30 tonight at Ohio State, available to watch on Fox Sports 1, followed by a bigger one Monday night at No. 6 Michigan State.

There’s the Big Three.
One goes by Bruno, and the others are freshman forward and Mount Saint Joseph’s alum Jalen Smith, and junior guard Anthony Cowan, Jr., from Bowie. In basketball, it often beneficial to have a Big Three, to make it that much harder for opponents to defend you, and Maryland has a talented trio.

Angola native and 6-foot-10, 240-pound sophomore Bruno Fernando is the reigning national player of the week and is averaging 14.6 points and 9.9 rebounds. He also seems to have a good head on his big shoulders for a college kid, tweeting things about integrity, being blessed, and great team wins.

Meanwhile, the 6-foot-10, 215-pound Smith, the two-time Maryland Gatorade Player of the Year as a junior and senior at Mt. St. Joe, has made an instant impact in his first year, averaging 12 points and seven rebounds.

And the guy with the hottest hand of late is Cowan, the Terps’ leading scorer with almost 18 points per game. He’s got Gary Williams’ seal of approval. Cowan has scored at least 20 in the last three games, and isn’t afraid of taking the big shot. His winner on Monday night was Melo Trimble 2.0. We could watch this four-second clip from 105.7 The Fan’s Joe Schiller all day long:

Free tickets for government employees was a great call.
The Maryland athletic department recently offered free tickets to federal government employees affected by the current government shutdown, and 747 people took them up on the deal by attending either the Terps’ women’s game last Saturday or the men’s game Monday. “This was a great chance to have a family outing, relieve some stress, and watch a great basketball game,” Therman Hawkins Jr., who attended Monday with his wife and 14-year-old son, told Maryland’s athletics website.

The way negotiations in D.C. are going (in the last two days Baltimore native Nancy Pelosi called for the postponement of the State of the Union address; the president, in turn, cancelled her trip to the Middle East to visit U.S. troops), Maryland might need to re-up the ticket offer for their next home game in eight days.

Bracket projections have UMD in the NCAA tournament.
When it comes time to fill out an office bracket for March Madness, oftentimes you’ll do just as well by picking teams whose uniforms you like rather than doing any serious research. In any case, it’s usually easier, and more fun, to pick a school that you’ve at least heard of. Need say we say more than UMBC, 2018?

Current bracket projections (yes, there are already these things) have the Terps as high as a No. 4 seed, meaning prognosticators think they’re one of the top 16 teams in the nation. Keep this up and Maryland alums will have a reason to call out sick to work in a few months to watch the Terps’ first-round tournament game.

To paraphrase Will Ferrell’s zany character in Zoolander (Are we dating ourselves? No one on the current team has probably ever seen the movie), the Terps are so hot right now. Jump on the bandwagon before it’s too late, and it looks like you’re simply a fair-weather fan in March.

I didn’t want to write again about Jordan McNair’s death and the University of Maryland’s responsibility in it, and mishandling of it. We’ve done that twice already (here and here), but acknowledging what happened this week in College Park is sort of unavoidable.

“Losing a child,” my neighbor said, speaking from experience, “it’s a horrible thing, and they’re disgracing him.” We crossed paths as he listened on his phone to heated sports talk radio discussion about the University System of Maryland’s board of Regents decision Tuesday to reinstate then-Maryland head football coach D.J. Durkin.

Meanwhile, university president Wallace Loh said he would “retire” this summer, in an obvious sign of disagreement with the board’s apparently premediated move to keep their $2.5 million per year football coach, in the third year of his five-year contract, even after an internal investigation stated, “the Maryland football team did not have a ‘toxic culture,’ but it did have a culture where problems festered because too many players feared speaking out.”

A day later—only after Martin McNair, Jordan’s father, said “I feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach and somebody spit in my face,” only after his mother said, “I miss my son every day, and today, it just didn’t help,” only after some players walked out of a team meeting and boycotted practice, and only after The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins wrote a scathing column headlined “Don’t let your sons play for DJ Durkin”—did the course change.

After the widespread outrage—which any human with common sense could see coming—Loh announced Wednesday night that Durkin was fired, and yesterday board of regents chair James Brady said that he was resigning, both decisions made, they said, to move the university forward from the furor amid the sorry state of affairs.

The reality of the consequences of a tragic loss of life finally reached the tone-deaf 17-member board, which Brady admitted had dissenting opinions about bringing Durkin back. “I understand that reasonable people could come to other conclusions,” he wrote. “And even among our board, some did.”

Even if Durkin still had support of some players—some have said as much—was he just supposed to return to the sideline on Saturday against Michigan State, the Terps would win and become bowl eligible and everybody would celebrate it afterward? No. That would be uncomfortable at best and incomplete at a minimum.

I searched this morning to see if Durkin made any public comment about McNair’s death immediately after it happened in June, and was reminded that he did as part of a 13-minute press conference, a day after the previously healthy 19-year-old former McDonogh lineman died after a liver transplant failed to save him from the damage that had been done during an organized conditioning workout two weeks earlier on campus.

“My heart is broken,” Durkin said, “for the reason that we’re all even sitting here, having this press conference . . . It’s not reasonable that a 19-year-old should pass away.” Still, he took no responsibility for what happened and, in fact, the tone of practice resumed in August as if nothing had changed, a few players told ESPN in a national news-making report, which started to reveal details of the circumstances of McNair’s death.

It’s hard to imagine the university handling the situation any worse. Even the most ardent alumni have turned sour, and Durkin is still owed $5.1 million, according to the buyout terms of his contract. Here’s a good timeline of the events.

Signs of a “maybe people will forget about this” approach manifested in July, when the school released a brief statement to the media describing the circumstances of McNair’s death at a team workout, but did not disclose the cause of death, citing privacy concerns. Four days later, McNair’s family did it for them, saying their son died of heatstroke.

It took two months for the school to release results of a first external investigation (paid for by them of course) to say that the athletic training staff had failed to properly diagnose McNair’s condition. After details of what happened and the alleged culture of the football program emerged in the media, Loh finally said in August that the school accepted “moral and legal responsibility” for McNair’s death, but everything the administration had done before and after has suggested otherwise.

If McNair’s family didn’t have a powerful law firm working for them that pressured the university at every important stop along the way, it would have been status quo. If players didn’t anonymously talk to the media (the only power they have in the big-money NCAA college football world), strength and conditioning coach Rick Court—Durkin’s right-hand man who reportedly said, “Drag his ass across the field!” the day McNair was ultimately ambulanced to the hospital—wouldn’t have been fired on August 14.

So, only now, 142 days after Jordan McNair died and after a public outcry—students rallied for him on campus as late as Thursday night—can healing now begin. Only now can players walk around campus without wondering if the people in charge when their teammate died will be coming back, though athletic director Damon Evans is still on the payroll.

It will take years for the school to recover, but that’s nothing compared to the lifetime for McNair’s family and friends.

Jordan Martin McNair was my son. He was flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone. He was good. I don’t say this just because I am Jordan’s father; I say this because it took an entire village to raise the son I, and his mother Tonya, had the privilege of raising. Our plans did not include his death. Our plans included something more. Our plans included him.
—Martin McNair, July 15, 2018, “Jordan’s Journey: A Letter From a Father.”

As heartbreaking as the death of University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair was and continues to be—with last weekend his former teammates threatening to boycott their game against Michigan—it’s somehow even more startling when you consider the circumstances are part of a larger, fatal trend.

Martin McNair and Tonya Wilson, the grieving parents of the 19-year-old former McDonogh standout lineman who died June 13 from complications of heatstroke suffered during an offseason conditioning session at Maryland, recently sat down for an interview with HBO’s Real Sports for a segment in which the newsmagazine show noted that McNair’s death was the 30th of its kind since the year 2000.

That’s right, 30 college football players have died in the last 18 years as a result of workout sessions, deaths that are entirely avoidable, according to medical experts, McNair’s case included.

“He went from a healthy kid Tuesday morning to you’re talking about a liver transplant Wednesday afternoon,” Martin McNair said. “We’re still trying to grapple with, ‘What happened?’”

By now you probably know: McNair began to struggle after an organized series of 110-yard outdoor sprints, and amid a mismanaged diagnosis and treatment of heatstroke, he had a seizure. By the time team personnel called 911 an hour and seven minutes after McNair showed his first symptoms of being ill, he arrived at the university’s shock trauma center with a body temperature of 106 degrees.

Two weeks later, his organs failing, McNair died after doctors took him off the machines that were keeping him alive. “There was nothing else we could do,” Tonya Wilson said.

In August, university president Wallace Loh said the school accepted “legal and moral responsibility” for McNair’s death and athletic director Damon Evans said that training staff didn’t follow standard heatstroke treatment best practices, which include cold-water immersion upon a player showing signs of symptoms.

Dr. Douglas Casa, CEO of UConn’s Korey Stringer Institute, dedicated to preventing heat and sudden death in sports in the name of the former NFL lineman who died from heatstroke in 2001, told HBO that McNair’s death was avoidable. Putting a player in a cold-water tub would save lives 100 percent of the time by dropping body temperature rapidly, Casa said. The problem is, for McNair and at least a dozen others in college football in the last two decades, this didn’t happen.

Reports of the incident didn’t go public until an ESPN report more than two months after it, which led to the negotiated dismissal of head athletic trainer Rick Court, the suspension of head coach D.J. Durkin and members of the training staff, and a pair of investigations. One was into the circumstance of the death itself, which found staff failed to quickly diagnose and treat McNair’s heatstroke, and another, still ongoing, is focused on the reported “toxic culture” of the football program under Durkin, who remains on administrative leave as the team continues to play.

But, last weekend, they almost didn’t.

Ahead of their game last Saturday at Michigan, a 42-21 loss, some members of the team found out that a booster who’d made comments to the Maryland student newspaper that essentially blamed McNair for his own death—“As much as we hate to say this Jordan didn’t do what Jordan was supposed to do,” Rick Jaklitsch, a lawyer and former president of the Terrapin Club, said—was scheduled to fly on their charter. Players threatened to boycott the game unless Jaklitsch was booted from the flight. He ultimately was, but the confrontation was telling.

In a statement Monday, Martin McNair called Jaklitsch’s remarks “outrageous and despicable,” and asked the university’s board of regents “to show our deceased son and our family some decency and respect by asking your surrogates to discontinue blaming Jordan for his own death.”

“It has been over 100 days since Jordan died, and President Wallace Loh accepted moral and legal responsibility for the death of our son. Our nightmare continues,” McNair said. “Words can’t describe the added anguish and new hardship we now are experiencing as we listen to and watch the University of Maryland and surrogates of the university continue to blame our son for his own death during a football practice conducted by adult coaches who should have known better.”

The McNair family has already started a foundation designed to educate athletes and parents about the symptoms of heatstroke, while an institution—using other powerless players just like McNair to generate revenue, exposure, and tuition—pays them only lip service.

Two months after Maryland football player Jordan McNair died and only a few days after more details emerged about the circumstances, University of Maryland president Wallace Loh took to a podium in College Park on Tuesday and said the school accepted “legal and moral responsibility” for McNair’s death.

The 19-year-old redshirt freshman from Randallstown, who also played at McDonogh, passed away June 13 at the university’s shock trauma center in Baltimore, two weeks after suffering heatstroke during a football team workout, according to his family.

Questions have swirled since—mainly how and why?

And an ESPN report Friday, citing former staffers and current and former players, pointed to a “toxic culture” at Maryland under third-year coach D.J. Durkin—and particularly mental and physical abuse by strength and conditioning coach Rick Court. Court resigned on Monday.

Meanwhile, Durkin has been put on leave along with members of the Terps’ training staff pending the results of an external investigation due to be completed by mid-September.

The full picture of what exactly happened during and after the May 29 workout is now only known to those who were there on the partly cloudy 80-degree late afternoon. But Loh was confident enough to share straightforwardly on Tuesday that trainers “basically misdiagnosed the situation,” in which the 6-foot-4, 325-pound McNair became exhausted during a series of 110-yard conditioning sprints.

No vital signs were taken, nor was McNair treated with cold water immersion, a standard best practice in heat illness treatment, Maryland athletic director Damon Evans said during his remarks following Loh’s.

After the outdoor workout, McNair had been first transported to the team’s practice facility. An hour later, after 911 was called, he was then airlifted to Maryland Shock Trauma, where the lawyers representing the family say he was admitted with a 106-degree fever. McNair later received a liver transplant in an effort to save his life.

He is survived by his parents, Marty McNair and Tonya Wilson, who last month launched a foundation in their son’s name, aimed at educating the athletic community about heat-related illness.

“Our plans did not include his death. Our plans included something more. Our plans included him,” Marty McNair wrote in a letter posted on the foundation’s website, which describes Jordan, who also played basketball as a kid, as “a quiet spirit, whose size never went unnoticed in any room, but whose spirit took up the entire room.”

Loh and Evans traveled to Baltimore on Tuesday to share culpability in his death.

“The university owes you an apology,” Loh said, and he told the media Tuesday, “The university accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that our training staff made on that fateful workout day.”

As for the circumstances, anyone who’s played in or watched an organized football practice knows grueling workouts and stern coaches can be a regular occurrence. The ESPN report, however, described a culture of excess intimidation where belittling and embarrassment has been common, including one player having had a meal slapped out of his hands and demeaning verbal abuse, for instance.

One unnamed current player said after the team opened preseason training camp on August 3, the attitude of the coaching staff in practice had returned as if “nothing’s really changed” after McNair’s death. “Have these guys learned their lesson?”

“You can motivate people, push them to the limit, without engaging in bullying behavior,” Loh said.

Asked how much responsibility falls on Durkin, who had described Court as “his most important hire” upon taking over the Maryland program in 2016, Evans said, “We have to take a look at that.” And he cited the external review being done by Rod Walters, a university-hired, longtime athletic trainer.

Let’s not forget this is a state public university, one which joined the Big Ten conference in 2014 in an effort to boost its revenue and profile, with football as the central vehicle.

Durkin is a disciple of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh (Ravens coach John’s brother). He was a splashy hire, made following the departure of Randy Edsall, who former players have similarly criticized for leading a poor culture.

Edsall was the coach who offered McNair a scholarship out of McDonogh, and athletic trainer Wes Robinson and director of athletic training Steve Nordwall, reportedly the trainers placed on leave, worked under Edsall during his tenure in College Park. Court arrived with Durkin.

Court reportedly will receive $315,000 as part of his dismissal, and a large settlement figures to be headed to the McNair family, whose lawyers had previously planned to pursue either a state or federal lawsuit.

“You entrusted Jordan to our care and he is never returning home again,” Loh said he told McNair’s parents. “I’m committed to doing the right thing, but nothing that we do can bring closure to their enormous loss.”

“While Marty and Tonya will never get another day with Jordan,” said Hassan Murphy, a managing partner at the law firm of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, which represented the family of Freddie Gray after his death in police custody. “Dr. Loh’s words were meaningful to them and give them some comfort that he will put the university on the path to change the culture of the program so that no Terrapin family will have to endure the heartache and grief that they feel.”

Juan Dixon’s title nowadays is Coppin State head men’s basketball coach, but he will forever be known as “former Maryland star,” too. And there was the hero of the Terps’ 2002 national championship team on late Monday night, sitting in sweats on a wooden bench in the visiting locker room at Morgan State’s Hill Field House, munching on a Subway sandwich and chips, voice a little hoarse from a cold. “I’m not feeling too well,” he said, and no doubt the final score from the game that just transpired—Morgan 69, Coppin 56—didn’t help the mood either.

But the 39-year-old Dixon, who is in his first season leading the Coppin program, perked up when asked about the atmosphere Monday. More than 4,000 fans in Morgan’s gym, many waving inflatable thunder sticks. The band rocked. Students danced in the crowd during every timeout of the 89th match-up between the schools.

“It was a great atmosphere,” Dixon told Baltimore. “I loved it. I enjoyed every second of it. I wish our guys would embrace it a little bit more and have fun with it. But it happens. We’re a young team. We’re getting better. This is mostly everyone’s first time experiencing this.”

This was a city rivalry game, played about a 20-minute drive away from home (and where Dixon was born and raised)—in front of a crowd, and against a team, that didn’t forget what happened last time around on Coppin’s West Baltimore campus: an overtime win for Dixon’s crew, one of their only five victories this year.

It wasn’t as close this time. Morgan senior guard Tiwian Kendley scored 27 points Monday, including 20 in the first half as the Bears (11-17, 7-8 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) built a comfortable lead that grew to 63-39 midway through the second half. Senior forward Phillip Carr added 12 points and 14 rebounds. Junior forward Cedric Council led Coppin (5-25, 5-10 MEAC) with 12 points.

“It was a great team win, a great win for the crowd,” Kendley said.

And much needed. Two days earlier, Morgan coach Todd Bozeman pulled his team from the floor in a game at Hampton University after the coach and forward David Syfax were ejected after multiple technical fouls, and the Bears forfeited. This was Morgan’s first win in two weeks and—heading into its final game of the regular season Thursday at Delaware State and MEAC tournament play, which begins Monday—showed promise for a team that was the conference’s preseason favorite.

Coppin will be in Norfolk, Virginia, for the postseason, too, for a last hurrah in a laying-the-groundwork year under its new coach. The Eagles are expected to return four of their top five scorers, including Baltimore CC transfer forward Chad Andrews-Fulton, and lose only three players from this year’s roster.

“It’s been an up and down season,” said Dixon, who played seven years in the NBA. “But I’m excited about the direction we’re going. Our guys showed that they got better as the year progressed. We’re going to add some pieces next year, bring some guys back, and we look forward to having a much, much better season next year. But we’re still focused on this season. We have one more game against Howard [on Thursday] and we’re confident going into the tournament.”

The Baltimore Ravens drafted Torrey Smith out of the University of Maryland in the second round in 2011, winning a Super Bowl title in 2012 with the help of eight touchdowns from the standout receiver during the regular season.

Smith added two more touchdowns in the thrilling overtime playoff win over the Denver Broncos that year, but the moment the city embraced Smith came earlier in his second year in Baltimore.

In the early morning hours before a Week 3, Sunday night match-up at M&T Bank Stadium with the New England Patriots, Smith learned his younger brother had died in a motorcycle accident. Obviously distraught, Smith visited with his family in Virginia and then decided to return to Baltimore and play to honor of his brother, catching two touchdowns in a game-winning effort and receiving the game ball for his performance. 

“They [my family] didn’t know I was going to play until the last minute. I texted my Mom when I got to the stadium,” an emotional Smith said afterward during the post-game press conference. “She was excited about it. She said, ‘Of course he would want you to play.’ He admired me so much, which is what makes it so tough.”

Smith, of course, left the Ravens after the 2014 season, but never forgot the city where he got his professional start—even after winning a second Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles this season. In 2016, he was named a nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award for his work centered in Baltimore while playing for the San Francisco Giants.

For the seventh straight year, Smith announced last wee that he will be hosting the Torrey Smith Family Fund Charity Basketball Game in Baltimore this offseason. The event, which will include current and former Ravens, is scheduled for March 17 at the Royal Farms Arena. 

The Torrey Smith Family Fund supports local after-school and teen mentoring programs as well as the Tevin Jones $5,000 college scholarship named after his younger brother. By the way, for some fun, check Smith’s Twitter feed. His 3-year-old son T.J.’s recent interview on the NFL Network is the best post-game Super Bowl interview to date.

(One more thing, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that Smith and his wife Chanel Williams got married in Baltimore, making the cover of our sister pub, Baltimore Bride.)

Juan Dixon had seen enough. It was early November, four days before his undersized Coppin State University men’s basketball team was to begin its season with what was essentially a lambs-to-the-slaughter game at the University of Oregon. Five minutes before practice was supposed to end, Coppin’s first-year coach was so over his players’ whining and complaining that, with a curt shriek of his whistle followed by a few choice words, he kicked them off the court.

Like teenagers (which some of them are) being dismissed from the dinner table for bad behavior, they lowered their heads and quietly shuffled into the locker room. The scene was reminiscent of a tactic another local coach employed more than once, only back then, there was a lot more sweat on the court.

“Juan was a great practice player,” says former University of Maryland coach and prolific perspirer Gary Williams, whose bond with Dixon helped both reach legendary heights in college basketball. “Some guys try to take it easy in practice. Even if it was a two-on-two drill, if [we were] scrimmaging, you better not make calls that hurt his team, because he would get very upset. He knew only one way to play.”

Dixon’s goal is to infuse the grittiness and determination he used to propel himself from a challenging childhood in West Baltimore to the NCAA championship at Maryland into the young, raw Coppin program. It’s a risky marriage for both. Dixon has only one season of head coaching experience, a 3-25 campaign last year with the University of the District of Columbia’s women’s team. Coppin is coming off an 8-24 season and has a roster that includes just two seniors.  
“Right now, I’ve got to be patient and know that things are going to get turned around because of the culture that we’re building,” Dixon says. “All I want from our guys is to give constant effort no matter what the scoreboard says.”

In an ironic twist, Dixon has become a father figure to 13 young men at the same time he’s relearning how to be a son. United with his biological father—whom he didn’t know existed—just 18 months ago, the 39-year-old Dixon is beginning the second act of his life at a time when many men his age are settling into the routine of theirs. Dealing with that avalanche of change won’t be easy, but nothing ever has been for Juan Dixon.

Basketball fans of a certain age have heard the story many times. During Maryland’s Final Four runs in 2001 and 2002, the media eagerly recounted how the Terrapins’ undersized star, Juan Dixon, grew up near Liberty Heights Avenue and Garrison Boulevard as the son of drug-addicted parents who passed away from AIDS when he was a teenager. As far as Dixon knew, it was true.

Phil and Juanita Dixon began dating at a young age, and their relationship was fraught with breakups and makeups. Both were heroin users, and during Juan and his two brothers’ formative years he relied on a network of aunts (including former Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon), uncles, cousins, and friends for support while his parents battled—and ultimately succumbed to—their addictions.

“It was unfortunate circumstances,” Dixon says. “Parents not always being around because of their lifestyle. At times it was rough, but at the same time, I had a loving supportive family of extended relatives who really stepped up when it came to helping us develop as boys into men.”

Coaches played an outsized role in Dixon’s youth, particularly Mark Amatucci at Calvert Hall College High School. There Dixon forged the hard-nosed playing style that ultimately caught the attention of Maryland’s Williams, who fell in love with the wiry guard when he saw him dive for a ball with his team down by 20 points. “That’s when I made up my mind that we wanted him to play for Maryland,” Williams says. “The gym wasn’t air-conditioned, they probably weren’t going to win, and Juan still went after the ball. That convinced me that he was going to outwork some people.”

In College Park, Dixon’s production, if not his six-foot-three-inch stature, grew every year.

“There was never a doubt in his mind as to what he could accomplish,” says his ex-wife Robyn, whom he met in high school. “I always believed in him. But there would be times when I would be like, ‘Okay, do you know you’re 145 pounds?’” He was a beefy 164 when he led Maryland to its first and only men’s basketball national title in 2002. Months later, the Washington Wizards chose him in the first round of the NBA draft, and he had a solid, if not spectacular, career in the league and overseas. In 2010, it was announced that Dixon tested positive for the steroid nandrolone while playing for a Spanish team, and the International Basketball Federation suspended him for a year. He then signed with Banvit in Turkey, where he only played for one season before suffering a knee injury.

“I’ve been through the storm and I’m still trekking through the storm today,” Dixon told University of Maryland’s Capital News Service in 2012. “But I’m working hard every day.”

Dixon took that work ethic and turned his attention to coaching, serving as a special assistant on Mark Turgeon’s staff at Maryland before, according to the university, he and the school mutually parted ways after the 2016 season.
 
“I learned a lot from Coach Turgeon and his staff,” he says. “Recruiting, how to run a program. I appreciate everything he has done for me. But leaving Maryland was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Make that the second best.   
 
On September 1, 2016, two strangers walked into the Bass Pro Shops at Arundel Mills. The moment they laid eyes on one another, they knew it was true. The night before, Dixon had called Bruce Flanigan for the first time. Through a number of only-in-Baltimore coincidences, Dixon had heard that Flanigan believed he was Juan’s father.

“I said, ‘Juan, I don’t know where to begin,’” Flanigan recalls. “Then I told him the whole story.”

In the 1970s, Flanigan dated Dixon’s mother, Juanita, who became pregnant. The two broke up before she had the baby, which she told Flanigan wasn’t his. “I went on with my life,” says Flanigan, now 61. “I got married and raised my family. She went on and did what she had to do. Years went by. Then I started hearing about this guy at Maryland, Juan Dixon, and they kept talking about his mom, Juanita.”

When Flanigan first watched the young Terp play on television, he was struck by the physical resemblance. Although he immediately believed he was Dixon’s father, he held back, paralyzed by guilt at not being there for his son. Plus, he didn’t want the budding superstar to believe he was moving in to take advantage of his fame and impending fortune. But over the ensuing years, rumors began to circulate through the tight-knit West Baltimore community and eventually, the two got in touch.

When they met the day after the phone call, the connection was immediate. “His mannerisms, the way he spoke—I sounded like him,” Dixon says. “I could just tell by being around him, his energy, that he was my dad. It was like 38 years didn’t mean anything.”

They did a DNA test and, within two weeks, it confirmed what they already knew. “When we first connected visually, it was like we had been in each other’s lives from day one—from the time he was born,” Flanigan says. “We didn’t miss a beat. It was like gravity had pulled us together.”

Improbably, the men have forged a rich relationship that’s both father-son and best friend. They text or talk nearly every day, and Flanigan, who lives in Pennsylvania, drives down often to visit his newfound family. Dixon lives with Robyn and their sons Corey, 9, and Carter, 8, in Howard County. As is depicted on the reality show The Real Housewives of Potomac, on which Robyn costars and Juan has occasionally appeared, their relationship is, shall we say, complicated. Married for seven years, they divorced in 2012, but still live together with their kids.

“We truly are a family, no matter what our romantic status is,” Robyn says. “It’s great when you can have a relationship with someone and you want the best for them and you understand that supporting them and being there with them doesn’t just help him, it helps me, it helps my kids, because we’re family.”

Wearing black Nikes, gray sweatpants, and a black-and-yellow long-sleeve Coppin T-shirt, Dixon now actually is sweating as he lingers near the three-point line, taking part in a drill with his team. He’s still lean and fast, and sports the same goatee and short-cropped haircut he wore during his playing days.
Dixon has incredibly big shoes to fill. Ronald “Fang” Mitchell, who left in 2014 after coaching for nearly 30 years at Coppin, brought the team to four NCAA tournaments and won 10 conference titles.

But Coppin athletic director Derek Carter, who hired Dixon in April, says he was captivated by the former guard’s “passion and tenacity.” Being tenacious has always defined Dixon, and he wants it to epitomize his team as well. To him, it means playing suffocating defense and unleashing unwavering effort for all 40 minutes.

Before he prematurely ended that practice in November (“Tell Juan now he knows why I did it to his team,” Williams says), he was relentlessly energetic, clapping his hands emphatically when he felt his players’ focus was waning, pausing drills to point out both positive plays and mistakes, and urging his guys to communicate with and support one another.

“Coach is trying to change the culture,” says senior Tre’ Thomas. “He’s trying to teach us a different kind of basketball.”

On a plane that can’t be measured by wins and losses (Coppin, predictably, dropped its first eight games, all on the road against upper-tier competition), Dixon believes his message is getting through. He was even pleased with his team’s defensive effort in the 16-point loss to Oregon.

Dixon’s life has always centered around defying expectations, giving a team, a player, or a father a second chance.

“I was born and raised five minutes from Coppin, so for me to get this opportunity—we will take advantage of it,” he says. “To be able to drive down Gwynns Falls and pull up to work, it’s a dream come true.”

When the PressBox editorial department met to determine its Sportsperson of the Year, it didn’t take long to reach a conclusion. The Maryland men’s lacrosse team had endured a 42-year title drought and nine championship game defeats before head coach John Tillman guided the Terps back to the top, capturing the national title with a 9-6 victory against Ohio State May 29.

PressBox publisher Stan “The Fan” Charles sat down with Tillman to talk about the drought, what the title meant to the lacrosse community, the top-notch talent that surrounds him at Maryland, and more. 

To find out the other winners—including best high school dynasty, unsung hero, social media moment, and Cinderella story—visit PressBoxOnline.com/BestOf.

There are certain playoff moments that will live on forever: A hobbled Kirk Gibson hitting a pinch hit home run to win the 1988 World Series, Michael Jordan’s buzzer beater in game one of the 1997 NBA finals, the Blue Jay’s Joe Carter’s walk-off homer in the 1993 World Series. You can now add Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs’ improbable, amazing, mind-blowing touchdown catch against the Saints with 10 seconds on the clock to that list.

Of course, Terps fans, who were lucky enough to watch Diggs for three seasons at College Park, already knew how great he was. There was a sense that, as long as Diggs was on your side, you were never completely out of the game. Last night, he proved that. 

The game, in total, was bananas. The Vikings were up 17-0 at halftime and looked poised to go on to a comfortable win. Then, Drew Brees and the Saints came storming back. With 25 seconds on the clock, the Saints’ Will Lutz nailed a 43 yard field goal and the Saints went up 24-23. The Vikings had just one time out remaining. Game over, right?

Not so fast. 

With ten seconds—ten!—left in the game, Vikings QB Case Keenum (yes, I just had to look up the spelling of his name), hurled a corner route pass to Diggs. The idea was that if Diggs caught the ball, he’d run out of bounds, thus stopping the clock, and the Vikings would get their own chance for a game winning field goal. Except that’s not how it went down. Diggs leapt high in the air, caught the ball over a Saints defender, somehow managed to regain his balance, and found himself with a clear path to the end zone. Touchdown. Game (really) over now.

Here’s the catch, made all the more dramatic with the Titanic theme song:

And here’s Diggs’ perfect celebration (not counting the lame-o ref who threw a flag after Diggs excitedly tossed his helmet).

It’s always tough when the Ravens miss the playoffs, especially in the very bad, horrible, no good way with which they were ousted, but it’s nice to know that we can happily root for Diggs and the Vikings. Or, maybe you want to root for former Raven and Terp Torrey Smith, who’s still alive for the Philadelphia Eagles. For what it’s worth, Smith seemed as excited about Diggs’ catch as we were:

No matter what happens, Diggs has already cemented his status as a legend.

Mayor Catherine Pugh announced last week that the City of Baltimore would increase its support to provide legal representation to immigrants facing deportation. This effort is just one part of the Safe City Baltimore Fund launched in April with Open Society Institute (OSI) Baltimore to protect the city as a whole. 

“Providing legal representation to those facing deportation maintains trust in law enforcement and our local institutions and keeps us all safe,” Mayor Pugh said in a statement. “If our residents don’t feel safe, all of us are at more risk.”

Baltimore is now one of 11 locations around the country that are a part of the SAFE (Safety and Fairness for Everyone) Cities Network, a group that is funded by the Vera Institute of Justice and devoted to protecting immigrants. Prince George’s County was the only other Maryland jurisdiction chosen for the initiative.

Under the program, the city is required to invest public dollars that are then matched by the SAFE Cities Network to provide legal counsel to detained Baltimore City residents facing deportation. Catalina Rodriguez-Lima, director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs (MIMA), said the city plans to invest $100,000 that will be supplemented by the catalyst fund from the Vera Institute, which combined will be enough to help 40 residents attain legal assistance.

“The great thing about partnering with Vera is that they will be providing technical assistance to our offices,” Rodriguez-Lima said. “Also, as part of the project, they’ll be collecting data on the cases—everything from the impact on the families to the impact of the city’s economy.”

The catalyst fund from the Vera Institute will be dedicated solely to residents who have been detained. But now, under the Safe City Baltimore initiative with OSI, there is additional funding to help those individuals seeking an attorney who have not yet been arrested. Tracy Brown of OSI Baltimore said that more than $500,000 was raised to address the growing need for training and coordination of pro bono attorneys, as well as education on basic rights.

“The risks of deportation are so huge,” Brown said. “When you think about how difficult it is for an immigrant to assert legal rights in that kind of high stakes position without an attorney, it’s really an insurmountable burden.”

On Wednesday, Rodriguez-Lima announced that four nonprofit organizations in Maryland would receive funding from the combined fund: the Catholic Charities Esperanza Center, the Pro Bono Resource Center of Maryland, the University of Maryland Carey School of Law, and the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition, which will handle the defense for detained residents facing deportation.

“They all have a separate service that we believe combined can really have an impact in the City of Baltimore,” Rodriguez-Lima said. “So having the multi-prong approach, that can target populations at various levels in the immigration process, we can help approximately 900 people.” 

All services will be free to Baltimore City residents who meet the income requirements. Rodriguez-Lima says the typical deportation defense is challenging and requires a lot of money and effort to yield positive results. She believes that MIMA’s partnership with OSI Baltimore and the Vera Institute is a step in the right direction. 

“It’s really about basic fairness—it’s a due process issue,” she said. “I think as a city, that’s the minimum we can do. By doing that, we can protect children and keep families together.”