(tranquil music)
- Welcome alumni, emeritus
and retired faculty and staff,
current students, faculty,
and community partners,
to our Friends of the 50th celebration.
My name is Kevin Eckert,
and I'm honored to serve
as chair of this amazing department,
and to share with you several
highlights of its evolution
over its first 50 years.
First, however, I wanna
invite the dean of the College
of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences,
Scott Casper, to welcome you.
Scott?
(audience applauds)
- Thanks Kevin.
On behalf of UMBC and the
College of Arts, Humanities,
and Social Sciences,
welcome or welcome back.
We are delighted that
you are here to celebrate
UMBC's 5th anniversary with us.
Depending on when you graduated from UMBC,
if you are one of our alumni,
the place may look different
from when you were here.
From new buildings to the
number of students on campus,
we have changed quite a bit.
We now have at UMBC
almost 14,000 students,
about 11,000 undergraduates,
almost 3,000 graduate students.
One of the things that has not changed
is our commitment to a
fantastic, innovative education
for our students.
In fact, just this week, the
university was named, again,
as one of the top five
innovative universities
in the United States by
US News and World Report,
as well as being, yay,
as well as being in the top 20 nationally
for undergraduate education.
Really remarkable for a university
that is only 50 years old
to achieve that kind of
national recognition.
And it's worth saying, it's
really important to say,
and I'm sure Kevin will
tell you more about this.
The UMBC Department of
Sociology, Anthropology,
and Health Administration and Policy,
and the doctoral program in gerontology
really exemplify those strengths of UMBC,
those hallmarks of UMBC.
Students in these programs
learn not only the theory
and the subject matter of their fields,
but also how to put that
learning into practice.
This is a a remarkably broad department.
As its brand-new name, the
Department of Sociology,
Anthropology, and Health
Administration and Policy suggests,
(audience applauds)
the faculty in this department
cover a wide range of topics,
but what's remarkable about the department
is how they find common ground
across these very different
disciplinary fields.
In the study of health
across the life course,
in the study of diversity
and gender and equity,
and also in the tools of
applied social science research.
There are things that
bridge and bring together
the worlds of policy research,
anthropology, and sociology.
And many of the students in this program,
including every student
in the HAP program,
Health Administration and Policy,
pursue internships.
Others pursue study abroad,
including through the International
Field Research program.
The department is also the home
to UMBC's Center for Aging Studies,
which for many years
has done remarkable work
funded by grants from the
National Institutes of Aging
and National Institutes of Health on aging
and now also issues of health
across the life course.
The gerontology doctoral
program is really,
I think one of the best examples
we have of the partnerships
between our university
and the University of Maryland Baltimore.
It's a joint doctoral
program, as many of you know,
between two universities.
It has been successful
for more than 15 years now
thanks to the dedication
of faculty members
at both institutions led by Leslie Morgan
and really created a program
that is quite unusual nationally.
There are only a handful of
doctoral programs nationally
in gerontology, and ours is one of them.
The faculty in this department are known
for both their innovative
teaching and exciting research.
Four of them are fellows of
the Gerontological Society
of America, which is the highest
recognition in that field.
Faculty members in this
department, I will also say,
have long been some of the
most exemplary citizens
of our entire university.
We have, at this
university, faculty members
who have led in the faculty
senate, who have led
in the college, who
have really participated
in the full life of this university.
So it's a department that is central
to our students' learning,
to our university's life,
and it is a delight to
celebrate the 50th anniversary
with the department of
Sociology, Anthropology,
and Health Administration and Policy
and the doctoral program in gerontology.
Try saying that quickly three times.
Welcome or welcome back to UMBC.
I hope you enjoy the
evening and the festivities
of this 50th anniversary
weekend, thank you.
(audience applauds)
(Kevin speaks off-mic)
- Thank you so much.
Since my time is brief this afternoon,
my comments will
highlight the development.
Wow, that sun is really strong.
We'll move like this.
Will highlight the development
of academic programs,
important affiliations,
and our impact on UMBC
and the community more broadly.
These accomplishments
are selective and provide
only a snapshot of our many achievements
and contributions during this period.
I also, as a caveat, want to
say that some of the dates
early on, I've been told,
may not be exactly correct,
and Bill and Fred can
correct that as we go along.
As a founding major at UMBC in 1966,
Sociology offered its first course,
and was among a small
group of majors offered
in the division of social sciences.
Three years later, in 1969,
the Department of Sociology was founded.
At the same time, the department
offered the first course
in Anthropology within
the Sociology major,
within the Sociology major.
In 1972, the department faculty
played an important role
in the founding of the graduate
program in Policy Sciences,
thereby establishing
the strong affiliation
with that program that
continues to the present.
1975 marks a banner
year for the department,
with the creation of the masters program
in Applied Sociology.
As a former director of the
program, Bill Rothstein,
will have some more to
say about that program
in his comments today.
Continuing with our history of
academic program development,
in 1978, the now Health
Administration and Policy program
was approved as a major
within the department.
At that time, the program
was called Health Science
and Policy.
Another development, especially
important to the management
of our federally funded
grants, was the establishment
of the Maryland Institute
for Policy Analysis
and Research in 1982.
Research conducted by department faculty
comprise a major segment of the
portion, or of the portfolio
of grants that Mike
Parr currently manages.
In 1987, rather than a track
within the Sociology major,
Anthropology was offered as a minor.
A year later, in 1988, the
department's name change
was expanded to the
Department of Sociology
and Anthropology, that was in 1988.
Well, the department's
programs continued to expand.
The faculty also continued
to play important roles
in the development of affiliated programs,
Thus, in 1998, the doctoral
program in Language,
Literacy, and Culture was
created with the involvement
of our faculty on committees,
mentoring students,
and teaching courses.
In 2000, Anthropology
became a freestanding major.
Also in 2000, Health Science and Policy
was renamed Health
Administration and Policy,
comprised of two tracks,
Health Administration
and Health Policy.
A few years later, in 2001,
the interdisciplinary bicampus
UMB-UMBC doctoral program
in gerontology was created,
co-directed by one of our
full-time faculty members,
with offices located in our department,
and you will hear more about
that later in the program.
That same year, the departmental
Center for Aging Studies
was established.
To date, 20 separate NIH,
NIA grants have been awarded,
totaling nearly 21 million dollars.
These projects have provided
important financial support
for graduate students,
faculty scholarships,
and career development.
In 2003, the Policy
Sciences doctoral program
that we've been affiliated
with for so many years
became a Department of Public Policy.
Then, in 2004, department
faculty played a founding role
in the establishment
of the Erickson School
of Aging Studies, one of
the few professional schools
nationally, with a focus on
preparation of undergraduates
and graduate students for
careers in the management
of aging services.
Also in 2004, the department established
the post-baccalaureate
non-profit certificate
that expanded the mission of
the applied masters program.
2007 was a landmark year for
the health administration,
for Health Administration and Policy
with the addition of a
third track in public health
that dramatically expanded
the number of majors
in the program and made the
case for expanding the number
of program faculty to keep
pace with student demands.
Among our affiliated programs,
a recent major development
is the Department of Public Policy
became a School of Public Policy
within the College of Arts,
Humanities, and Social Science.
Thus, the first fifty years
have seen a remarkable evolution
of majors, programs,
affiliations, initiatives,
from faculty and staff in the department.
We can now officially call,
if you all want to repeat after me,
the Department of Sociology, Anthropology,
and Health Administration and Policy,
a department with 22 full-time teaching
and research faculty, 24 adjunct faculty,
some teaching in the
department for over 30 years.
Paul, where are you?
Paul, thank you very much.
592 majors and a 177 minors
across our three undergraduate programs.
41 students in the masters program.
Five wonderful, spectacular
administrative staff.
Please raise your hands.
(audience applauds)
Absolutely remarkable.
And over 3500 alumni, many
of who have donated time
and money to support our programs.
We thank you, thank you, thank you.
Our story has been written
through the hard work of faculty,
staff, students, and friends
who support our mission,
to provide undergraduates
a solid background
in our respective disciplines,
to develop new knowledge through
scholarship and research,
and to serve the university professions
and the broader community.
I wanna thank you all for
contributing to the writing
of our ongoign amazing story.
Thank you.
(audience applauds)
Now we're going to have
a real treat for you.
We have two of our emeritus
faculty here this evening
to speak for a bit
about their, about UMBC,
reflect on UMBC and their time here.
I'm pleased to introduce,
Bill, you're gonna go first.
Dr. Bill Rothstein, Professor Emeritus.
(audience applauds)
Bill joined, where you going?
(audience laughs)
Okay, don't go away, don't go away.
Bill Joined UMBC in 1966.
He literally opened the doors
or was here when UMBC opened the doors.
He retired in June 2013.
Bill, I believe you're gonna
comment on those early years
and development of the masters program
and the health and aging focus over time.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm Bill Rothstein obviously.
I was a professor of
Sociology and director
of the MA program in Applied Sociology.
I'm going to talk mostly about the Health
and Aging programs, and
Dr. Pinkus will be creative
and talk about other things.
(audience laughs)
When I took a position with
UMBC in its first year,
in 1966, I drove to Baltimore
in May to find housing.
I wanted to see the campus
and drove out Wilkins Avenue
past the cows and the dairy,
which made me think twice
about this so-called urban university.
I took a right turn and ended up
at Spring Grove State Mental Hospital,
(audience laughs)
which did not seem like a new university,
especially the bars on the windows.
I drove back to Wilkins
and took a left there.
I drove to the top of the
hill, got out of the car,
and looked down.
There were big piles of dirt everywhere.
Three unfinished buildings.
And no roads.
I couldn't believe that they
could open in a few months.
Would I have a job if they couldn't?
They did open on time,
but we were not ready.
I was the only faculty
member in the department,
and we had one course,
Introduction to Sociology.
(audience laughs)
I told the head of the social
science that I had never taken
or taught the course.
(audience laughs)
And he said, don't worry about it.
So we had one course
and one faculty member
who had never taken or taught the course.
The early years of the
department were spent deciding
what courses to teach and
hiring faculty to teach them.
We decided to have a
course on race relations
and hired Dr. Pinkus.
We decided to have a
course on something else
and hired that person.
There was no focus or
direction to the courses.
We just added them for no good reason.
(audience laughs)
The result that the faculty did not
have any shared interests
and this was a source
of dissatisfaction for some of them.
We established requirements for the major,
including required methods
and statistics courses,
but we had great
difficulty finding faculty
to teach statistics.
In the 1970s, we started
thinking about having a focus
in the department, because
the administration wanted
to add graduate programs.
Our idea was to develop a masters program,
but the Maryland Higher
Education Commission
wanted to avoid duplication
of academic programs,
and college park already had
a Sociology graduate program.
The other issue was finding students.
Social security was nearby,
and some of their employees
might want MA degrees.
So we called it an MA in Applied Sociology
to differentiate it from College Park
and focused on health and aging
to attract social security employees.
We submitted it to the Maryland
Higher Education Commission,
and the staff rejected it.
I phoned one of them, and I asked why.
He said it was the cost of the building.
I said we didn't ask for a building.
(audience laughs)
He said, "No, but you will later."
(audience laughs)
I convinced him to drop their objection
and we met with the commission.
The commission members
were very enthusiastic
about the health and aging focus,
which was quite new in higher education.
We never realized that
were were being innovative.
The MA program never attracted
workers from Social Security,
but it gradually attracted
many UMBC students
who were able to take
several graduate courses
in their senior year and count them
for both the BA and the MA degrees.
They spread the word to other students
in the Baltimore/Washington area.
At one time, we graduate
one students every year
than any other MA only
program in the country,
and the program was
featured in a publication
of the American Sociological Association.
We developed a four course certificate
in the non-profit sector.
It was innovative and successful
and could've been an important program
if we had the resources.
Our faculty teaching
the non-profit courses
were all professionals in the field,
and I really think they
got an excellent education
on how to work in and run
a non-profit organization.
I really regret we never built
that into a degree program.
Many of our graduate students
have written impressive research papers
on current issues in health and aging.
And several of them have been published
in scholarly journals.
Our graduates have taken positions
in many public non-profit
and private organizations,
some have been promoted
to high level administrative positions.
In the 1970s also, UMBC
administration decided
to create a program to prepare students
for non-clinical careers
in the health industry.
It was put in our department because
of the medical Sociology
courses already being taught
by our faculty.
We had not anticipated this
benefit of our MA program.
The person hired to start it
was a professional health
administrator, not an academic,
and that the focus of the program.
The new major, now called
Health Administration and Policy
began in September 1978.
Several tracks, including public health
and health services administration.
Courses have been taught
by adjunct faculty
or health professionals
with important positions
in the field.
The program has become extremely popular,
requires an internship
and students have been
at the Center for Medicare
and Medicaid Services,
the state health department,
state Department of Aging,
the health departments in
Howard County and Baltimore,
and Johns Hopkins Medical
School, among others.
Their jobs after graduation include,
Blue Cross, Blue Shield, the
Federal Government Center
for Disease Control, MedStar,
and private businesses
such as Lockheed Martin.
You can see this has
been a very successful academic program.
The health and aging focus
was strengthened again
in the late 1990s when a group of faculty
with research interests in aging at UMBC
and the University Maryland Baltimore
developed a joint
gerontology doctoral program.
The department had discussed
extending the MA program
to include PhD program, but
decided it was not feasible,
so this was a welcome addition.
The gerontology program
was interdisciplinary,
and involved faculty and
courses from both campuses.
The faculty focus at UMBC has
always been among sociologists
and anthropologists, while at
UMB, most schools participate,
but especially epidemiology.
The program administered
its first students in 2001
and is now celebrating
15 years with 35 alumni
and counting, who work
in academe, government,
and both for-profit and
non-profit organizations.
The hiring of Professor Rubinstein
led to the establishment
of the Center on Aging Study,
which employs some
gerontology PhD students.
Its current research is on long-term care,
including projects on adult
services, urban experiences
of Type II Diabetes
patients, and optimal care
of people with dementia.
More than 20 multi-year studies totaling
more than 20 million dollars in funding
have been conducted since 1997.
We deeply regret that
Dr. Rubinstein is ill
and cannot be here.
All of us wish him a speedy recovery.
These programs demonstrate
the department focus
on two of the most
important public issues,
health and aging.
I was interviewed several
years ago by a graduate student
who was doing research
on the UMBC social sciences departments
to assist the faculty member
who writing a history of UMBC,
which I believe may have been completed.
The student told me that
he thought our department
was the most impressive
social science department
because of the programs I just described.
These programs have a
coherence and direction
that he did not find in
the other departments,
departments, of course,
much broader than the fields
of health and aging.
It has always emphasized
the needs of undergraduates
by providing courses and faculty members
in the major areas of
Sociology and Anthropology.
From the beginning of the department,
we recruited faculty members
with diverse interests
and many, including myself,
have had one foot in Sociology
or Anthropology, and one
foot in another discipline.
I've always believed that
this provides students
with a broader perspective
than faculty members
who focus on narrow areas of
Sociology or Anthropology.
I now give you another
retired faculty member
from the early years of the
campus, Professor Fred Pinkus.
The two of us cheated
by meeting in advance
and dividing up topics to discuss.
(audience laughs)
(audience applauds)
I took clearly focused topics
that are easy to summarize,
I do not regret it.
(audience laughs)
(audience applauds)
- Thank you, Bill.
Interestingly enough, I came in 1968,
when I was just around my 28th birthday.
I was hired as an
instructor at $9500 a year,
which was considered not too bad then.
And I was finishing up my dissertation.
Interesting enough, when I
came two years after Bill,
as I was driving up, I
couldn't quite remember
what exit from the Beltway to take,
and so I knew it was Catonsville,
and I exited Catonsville,
and kind of went in and stopped
at the first gas station,
and said, "Could you
tell me where UMBC is?"
And the guy said, "What?"
(audience laughs)
I said, "UMBC, University of
Maryland Baltimore County."
He said, "I don't know.
(audience laughs)
"I've lived here all my life,
and I don't know where it is."
And so I drove down to
the next gas station,
who fortunately pointed
me in the right direction.
As Bill was saying, when I
came, there were three of us.
There was him, myself, and James Conrad,
who was an anthropologist.
The division head, Dave
Lewis, was also a sociologist
who taught a couple of courses,
and then we had an adjunct
that came the same time as me,
Alan Coors, who taught
one class a semester
for about 40 years.
Until he stopped.
Pretty amazing.
One of the fascinating things
About coming here when I did,
is we had no department traditions
except for what each of us brought
from our graduate school experience.
So we could kind of decide
how we wanted to run things.
And we established a
kind of democratic ethos
where we had to do things consensually.
Of course, there were only three of us.
And the coordinator who was
the, we didn't have chairs then,
we had coordinators who didn't
have control over the budget,
but the coordinator had one
vote just like the rest of us.
And we really kept that
tradition and, of course,
when we departmentalized, the
chair had a bit more power,
but I like to think that that
democratic nature of things
really prevailed for
most of my time at UMBC.
We were also pluralistic in terms of,
approaches to Sociology,
methodology, and so forth.
And I think that has also continued.
The democratic ethos that I
mentioned did have some blips,
and I remember once in the 1980s,
the then chair, who shall remain nameless,
decided on his own to not renew
the contract of an adjunct
who taught the Sociology of Women course,
'cause he didn't think it was important,
and a couple of us challenged him.
We had some very acrimonious meetings,
but he had to back down,
and so we saved this
woman's job for a semester,
when he did more according to procedure.
This, the 1960s and early 70s of course
was a time of great political turmoil,
both on and off campus.
There was a lot of student
radicals on campus,
a lot of student protests
about the Vietnam War,
about racial inequality,
about student power
and students having the right to select
who their teachers were and so forth.
It's also interesting to
note that, at that time,
there were very few
black students on campus,
probably about 5% or so,
I don't remember exactly.
- [Audience Member] 2%
- I'm sorry.
- - [Audience Member] It was 2%.
2%.
- 2%.
Okay, not surprised.
(audience laughs)
And one of the reasons was,
there was no public bus
that came to campus.
The bus stopped about a mile away,
and that was a source of concern for,
not just the students but
a lot of other people.
The faculty was young,
liberal, and mainstream.
We were all kind of upwardly mobile,
most of us, this was our first
jobs out of graduate school.
So, when I came in 68, I
found that there was no ROTC
on campus.
The faculty had voted not to have it.
People that wanted ROTC had to go
to Johns Hopkins University
and participate there.
I mean, they were students
here, but they took ROTC there.
There was also radical
faculty activism on campus.
There was a national
organization that most people
have never heard of called
the New University Conference,
which was the adult version
of the Students for Democratic Society.
And it was really a lot of young faculty
and graduate students that participated.
We had a chapter here.
At its height, there were
about a thousand members
around the country.
But NUC was very active
in a lot of things here.
And I was very involved in that.
And there were a lot of conflicts
between the liberal and radical faculty,
something probably doesn't happen today,
but it was a big deal then.
I remember, for example,
in around 1970 or 71,
teaching an interdisciplinary
course on poverty
with me, a liberal
historian, Eileen Austin,
and a conservative economist, Ed Dickey,
who I think went from here
to teach at in the Defense
Department somewhere.
And the economist anD I used to
sort of gang up on the liberal.
(audience laughs)
Not proud of that, but
that's what happened.
(audience laughs)
The first graduation was in 1970, in May.
And it was a big deal.
But the context was also interesting,
because the graduation
happened a few weeks
after the killings at Kent State
and Jackson State Universities.
The students were up in arms,
talking about striking
and suspending final exams
and so forth.
And the faculty was told
that if you don't show up
to your classes, you're gonna get fired.
So one day, I went to my class.
I had actually told students
that I have to teach,
but if you don't come, I can't teach,
so I did give a little hint.
But anyhow, there was an empty classroom,
and I sat there filling my
contractual obligations,
reading the Insurgent Sociologist,
which was the main radical
sociology journal at the time.
And the Vice-chancellor came
in to make sure I was there,
and he yelled at me, and
he said, "You did this!
"You caused the students not to come."
And I just shrugged, and I said,
"You just can't control
these students these days."
And he left in a huff.
But the graduation was
very meaningful to me,
because I had students in
my classes that were there.
I sort of helped build
the university, and,
but I did not want to wear a cap and gown.
That was much too bourgeois
for me at the time.
(audience laughs)
But I did wear a suit and tie,
which I didn't wear very often.
And I was in the audience.
And of course, I was standing next
to some of the radical
students, who were my friends,
and they were distributing a publication
called The Red Brick.
This was very controversial
cause it was a radical
publication that was funded
by the student government.
People were throwing bricks
through windows of banks
and stuff like that, so
you get the symbolism.
And, we happened to be
standing, it was in the quad,
right in front of where the
faculty procession went.
And, I saw the faces of the faculty,
they looked at the students and grimaced.
They looked at The Red Brick and grimaced.
And then they looked at me,
and the grimace turned to snarls.
And I remember standing there thinking,
oh my goodness, I would've
been better off staying home.
Will I ever get tenure?
(audience laughs)
In either my second or third year here,
I can't quite remember,
Bill insisted that I become
the coordinator of Sociology.
Again, coordinator was the
paper pusher administrator
at the time.
So I said, okay, and found
that I was just inundated
with stuff, with committee
meetings, other kind of meetings
and memos and pieces of paper.
This was pre-email, so if you can imagine
getting all those emails in paper form,
in those intercampus envelopes,
it was quite something.
Also, I just was trying to
keep my head above water.
I complained to one of
the other coordinators
in social science, and he smiled and said,
"It's good, it keeps you out of trouble."
(audience laughs)
That was his comment.
And I recall one meeting in particular.
We had a social science division meeting,
and the discussion turned to where the,
how to control the radical students.
And people were talking about what to do.
And I felt, talk about role conflict,
I felt very uncomfortable,
and then finally I stood up,
and I said, "Listen, you're
talking about my friends
"and comrades out there.
"I can't agree to maintain the
confidence of this meeting,
"so I'm just gonna leave, an
you can continue talking."
Again, people were less
than happy with me.
I did come up for tenure in 1973.
I had all of two publications.
One, a co-authored book chapter
with my dissertation advisor,
and the second and upcoming
article in none other than
the Insurgent Sociologist.
This, today, would be described
as thin to say the least.
However, at the time,
a few of us were able
to get by partly on
that and committee work.
Cause we really spent a lot of
time building the curriculum
and so forth.
And I fortunately had the
support of my colleagues
in the discipline,
so I did get tenured, but
I did not get promoted.
So I was a tenured assistant professor,
which lasted for another 20
years, but that's another story.
(audience laughs)
One of the things, by the
way, is that Vice-chancellor
who yelled at me, he
and the Chancellor left
just before my tenure year,
and the new people came
in, didn't really know me,
and we hadn't had the animosity,
so I was very fortunate.
So I look back over those
years with a lot of fondness
because there was a feeling
among the faculty that
we were really together
building this institution.
Even when you disagreed with somebody,
we still were kind of on the same team.
The faculty senate actually made decisions
that meant something much
more option than subsequently.
I do remember so, I guess in looking back,
kind of absurdities.
We had these vicious debates
in the faculty senate
about whether to cap
enrollment at 15,000 or 25,000.
And I guess we're now at 14,000,
so that, we misread, social
scientists are not good
at projecting sometimes.
During one acrimonious
debate about something,
the opposing side invoked
Robert's Rules of Order
to kind of stop our discussion,
and one of my NUC colleagues
popped up and said,
"I move to get rid of
Robert's Rules of Order."
(audience laughs)
We lost that one.
Then, there was a time that students were,
came to a senate meeting,
and they were unhappy
with what's going on, and
the faculty were bombarded
with marshmallows.
And the following day, each faculty member
had a marshmallow neatly
balanced on their doorknob.
And finally, I remember
a discussion that I had
with some faculty members
before we had African-American
Studies on campus.
Again, in the 1970, 71,
really a lot of people felt
that there was nothing called
African-American Studies.
But we were talking, and I
guess I said something like,
I think all students
should read Malcolm X,
the Autobiography of Malcolm
X, which had come out recently.
And a conservative physicist
looked at me and said,
"Are you saying that students
should read Malcolm X
"rather than Shakespeare."
And I looked at him, and I said, "Yes!"
(audience laughs)
And he was so upset that
he just got up and left.
Now of course, what I should have said is,
that they should read both,
which is what I say now.
So, again I have very fond feelings,
and that's how UMBC began.
(audience applauds)
Thank you, Fred.
Thank you, Bill.
It really is wonderful to
have our past put in context,
for us to see, we've evolved,
but it's really important
to know what it was like
in the 60s and 70s.
Two things I wanna pick up on.
One thing of Bill's
and one thing of yours.
The whole theme related to
the democratic involvement
of the faculty has continued.
What you started continues today.
We have a constitution,
and really, it's a (speaks
off-mic)of the faculty
in terms of what we do as a department.
The second theme is
Bill's theme, and that is,
what you, the focus, the
first ideas you started
in health and aging certainly
continued to flourish
over the course of the past 50 years.
So what you started 50
years ago, 45 years ago,
go on today.
And we thank you for your contributions.
It's fantastic you're here and can be here
to share this with us this evening.
Thank you so much.
With that, I'd like segue to
the next part of our program.
And I'm gonna hand the mic
over to John Schumacher,
who is a professor in our department
and co-director of the doctoral
program in gerontology.
- Thanks Kevin, thanks.
- [Kevin] Let me grab something here.
- Thanks everyone, welcome.
It's great to see a huge crowd here.
I hope you're having a
chance to talk to each other,
eat, drink, be merry.
This part of the program we
are recognizing Leslie Morgan.
I'm the current, one month old co-director
of the 15 year old doctoral
gerontology program.
And Leslie was my predecessor.
So what we wanna do is
spend a little bit of time
recognizing her
contributions to that program
and its growth.
So again, the gerontology
program is 15 years old,
so that means UMBC, it emerged
from UMBC when UMBC was 35.
And Leslie has been with the
department and the program
since 1976, I believe.
- [Leslie] 79.
- 79, 79, so she's been part
of the gerontology program
for 12 years,
and with that, we want
to a little bit of a,
kind of life course perspective,
kind of looking back
(audience laughs)
on the history.
And I'll start the life course history
with it that Leslie started her work
with the gerontology program in 2003.
She was an interim director.
And to show you some of the collegiality,
she was stepping in for Kevin Eckert
who was the first director,
and he had a well-deserved sabbatical,
so Leslie collegially stepped up
and was the director of this program
that was two years old.
So again imagine a life
course, a two year old
going around.
Leslie is jumping into
that and saying okay,
I need to set some limits
to this two year old.
We need to talk about boundaries.
(audience laughs)
So she performed that role for a year.
Two years later, she came
back when the program
was four years and became
the second director
of the program.
So again, Leslie, during
the preschool years,
began with this four year
old doctoral program,
and has been with that
program all the way until now,
when it is 15 years old, a
precocious teenager, you may say.
(audience laughs)
And I wanna invite
Kevin Eckert to come up,
the first director of
the gerontology program,
to give this a little bit more history
of what that was like,
what was the development
of the gerontology program,
and then I'll invite some people up
to say some words about
Leslie's role in this
over the past 12 years, so Kevin.
- Thank you, John.
Well, of course it's really an honor
to say a few words about
Leslie, my friend and colleague
for thirty years.
I came here in January 1987,
and Leslie was among
the first people I met.
And, in meeting Leslie, I had my doubts
whether I'd made the right decision
in coming to UMBC.
But once I met Leslie, I was convinced
I had made the correct decision.
And I say that because,
no sooner did I get here
than Leslie and I began
to talk about research.
I had an R01 grant that
I brought here with me,
and Leslie, we began
talking about research,
and I got very excited.
So Leslie and I, at that time,
30 years ago, 31 years ago,
began our collaboration.
In research, in publishing
together, in mentoring students
in policy sciences at the time
who were interested in health and aging.
We didn't have the doctoral program,
so we were mentoring
students in public policy
and policy sciences, that
was its name at the time,
who were interested in health and aging.
And Stephanie was here,
one of our students,
and is Donna Cox here?
Donna, I saw her name on, but,
but so the students
initially who were interested
in health and aging were really
in the public policy
program, policy sciences.
As those years progressed,
we continued to work
on our research, and we also
worked with our friends at UMB.
And in that process of
research, working together,
there was this natural
synergy, and we began
to brainstorm about the creation
of a new interdisciplinary
doctoral program
focusing on aging.
When Scott Bass, who
was the former director
of the doctoral program in
gerontology at UMass Boston
joined UMBC as Dean of
the Graduate School,
and a member of our department,
the effort to create doctoral
program really accelerated.
We all were very excited.
As you might now, Leslie was instrumental
in the development of
the doctoral program,
along with Scott Bass and me at UMBC
and Jay Magaziner.
Where's Jay?
Jay?
He was here.
Along with Jay Magaziner
and Joanne Baughman at UMB.
This was an especially exciting time
for Jay, Leslie, and me, as we
crafted the interdisciplinary
and multi-campus program,
embracing the expertise
across the two campuses.
UMBC was responsible for
developing the social, cultural,
behavioral, and policy
elements of the curriculum,
while UMB handled, as Bill mentioned,
the epidemiology and
population health elements.
As a formerly trained
sociologist, social gerontologist,
from University of Southern California's
renowned Ethel Percy Andrus School,
Leslie, perhaps more than any of us,
provided the valuable
guidance for the unique
and very special program we see today.
I think it's fair to say that you, Leslie,
in the topics covered in
the socio-cultural elements
of the program, have been
significantly influenced by you
and your superb textbook, Aging
Society in the Life Course,
co-authored with Suzanne Kunkel.
And it's now in its 5th edition.
That gives you an idea,
the caliber of the faculty
we've had in this program
with Leslie's leadership
in the socio-cultural.
She writes the textbooks,
and we've had her
guiding this program and
teaching our students
over the life of this program.
Her skillful teaching of
core courses in the program,
supporting and mentoring students.
I've been on many committee with Leslie.
I know what a spectacular mentor she is.
You do a spectacular job, and
we all learn from what you do.
And her strong advocacy for
gerontology on this campus,
at UMB, and nationally.
Leslie is a leader nationally
in the development of gerontology.
She's a fellow of the
Association for Gerontology
in Higher Education, among other things,
and a leader in that national association.
I could say so, so much more about Leslie
over the past 30 years of our
friendship and collaborations
on program development,
mentoring, conducting research,
publishing, and coping
with life's vicissitudes.
(audience laughs)
Which we've done through time.
We've often, go in each
others' office, close the door,
and let our hair down
and talk about, you know,
the curveballs that life throws you.
But I'm gonna save more
of those comments, Leslie,
for your retirement
(speak softly off-mic).
(audience laughs)
So watch out, okay.
So watch out, more to come.
So I would like to hand
this back to you, John,
and to anyone else.
- Sure, so I just wanna go back to story
when Leslie began the program.
Remember this four year old preschooler?
The program in 2005 when Leslie started
had zero graduates.
It started in 2001.
It current has 35 graduates.
So big hand for the gero program.
So good, under Leslie's
leadership, zero to 35.
Also would like to point
out that the graduation rate
for our doctoral students is above 72%,
compared to 55% nationally,
another big hand for the program.
(audience applauds)
This has been done with
zero faculty lines,
another big hand, oh wait, no.
(audience applauds)
And I say that, because
that's a testament to Leslie
and her leadership and our collaboration.
She's been able to make his
program work on a shoestring.
She's been able to get faculty to teach,
to recruit students, and
it's really a testament here.
We would like to thank Dean Casper,
who just this year has
authorized a half-time line
for the sociology and
gerontology programs.
So we will be getting some relief,
so we thank Dean Casper for that.
Let's applaud that.
(audience applauds)
I will throw in, if we project that out,
in 120 years, we'll
have 4 faculty members.
(audience laughs)
But we'll try accelerate that growth.
120, the lifespan, anyway.
But again, Leslie's
enjoying all this focus,
'cause you all know that she likes
to be the center of attention.
(audience laughs)
And that does point to her graciousness,
so it's something I've recognized in her
is graciousness, that's a characteristic.
Being a team player,
being willing to step up
and do what needs to be done.
So, I thank her for that
on behalf of the program
and the faculty.
So at this point, there's
a number of people
who wanna say some words,
again recognize Leslie's contribution.
So I wanna ask the dean
of our graduate school,
Janet Rutledge, to come up
and, she'd like to speak,
to listen.
- Well first of all, I wanna say thank you
for letting me be part of your program.
It's been quite educational
to hear the history
of the department and reflecting on that,
thinking about how closely
it mirrors the story of UMBC.
And it's really the story of
a group of dedicated people
committed to building something great.
And I think that if you
look over the years,
and look at the people in this room,
you see some people who are
wonderful university citizens.
And I can't think of anybody
besides Leslie Morgan
who is an example of that.
I came to UMBC in 2001,
and, when Leslie told me
that she was stepping down
as the GPD of gerontology, I said, oh,
you've bee GPD since the start.
And she said, no I haven't.
And we went back and looked at everything,
and I realized that
Leslie had been in and out
and in and out so many times and,
between gerontology and
sociology, that is seemed
like she was always a
part of the leadership
of graduate education at UMBC.
And there's a lot of people
that know her better,
but one of the things that I wanna share,
so people who've heard
Freeman Hrabowski speak,
one of the things that he likes to say
is that his mother always,
maybe it was his friend,
who always wanted to know,
did you ask a good question today?
And one of the things
that has been a hallmark
of my relationship with Leslie
is she asks really good questions.
And a lot of the times,
I didn't have an answer.
And it took a lot to figure
out how to answer the question,
but in every single case, it was something
that made graduate education better,
because it was a question
needed to be asked,
and it was a question that
needed to be answered.
So for that, Leslie, we thank you,
from all of graduate education at UMBC.
Can I, and?
(audience applauds)
And I was reflecting on
what a small group of people
have done, and what a
wonderful legacy you have left,
I couldn't help but notice
how appropriate it was
to be standing next to this quote,
Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world.
And that's what you have
done in this department.
And that's what you have
done, Leslie Morgan.
And I'm proud to have worked with you.
(audience applauds)
- Thanks Janet.
So next we have Justine Golden,
who has also been with
the program all 15 years.
So we thank you for your service.
- Thank you.
- We also send greetings from
our co-director, Denise Orwig,
who was not able to be here
because she's with her sibling,
her twin brother celebrating
her 50th birthday.
So we'll forever know how old Denise is
because we know how old UMBC is.
(audience laughs)
But she does send her greetings, also.
And then Justine will read
some greetings from Denise
and some, we invited some people to send
in some messages about Leslie,
and here's Justine.
- Yes, I will start with
Denise Orwig's statement.
Denise is still co-director
at the UMB side.
She has worked with Leslie for many years
and is now will be working with John.
So Denise says, "I'm sorry
that I cannot be there
"to celebrate the program's
15th and UMBC's 50th,
"and Leslie's Morgan's leadership.
"I cannot think of a better representation
"of the successful culmination of each,
"than to feature the
accomplishments of three
"of our esteemed alumni.
"As a young researcher
starting my own career,"
That'd be Denise's.
"I was very fortunate to have
access to iconic role models
"for interdisciplinary
gerontology research,
"like Jay Magaziner,
Kevin Eckert, and Leslie.
"It was exciting to be
involved in the development
"of the doctoral program
with these great researchers
"and watch it grow under the leadership,
"first Jay and Kevin,
and then Jay and Leslie.
"I was so nervous when
I agree to take over
"as co-director.
"I remember saying to Leslie at the time
"that I did not think I knew anything
"about directing a doctoral
program, and she laughed
"and said, No one does.
(audience laughs)
"It has been a true honor
co-directing the program
"with Leslie over the past several years.
"The program, students, and
faculty, have benefitted
"from Leslie's leadership.
"She has a way of instilling
confidence in others,
"inspiring you to be your best,
"and always seeing the possibilities.
"There is not enough time to
list all that I have learned
"from working with Leslie,
but suffice it to say
"that I am a far better
leader, gerontologist,
"mentor, and collaborator because of it."
So that's Denise.
(audience applauds)
I just have a few, but
I am going to continue.
Lynn Bischer has said, she's wrote it in,
"Thank you, Leslie, for
all the wisdom you imparted
"in our Theories and Methods
professor in gerontology.
"and for setting such a
strong example professionally
"to those of us who have
the pleasure of working
"with you in the Center for Aging Studies.
"I still refer to the criteria we used
"to critique research in Gero 750 and 751.
"From you I learned to think and write
"with greater precision,
and to evaluate critically
"every research report
and journal article I see.
"Your unflappable manner
and dedication to excellence
"have inspired me and countless
students and researchers."
Next is from Israel Cross.
He says, "Good afternoon
from the Great Plains
"on the Winnebago Reservation in Nebraska.
(audience laughs)
"I regret that I am
unable to attend today,
"but I wish you all the
best in your transition.
"I'll never forget Lives
in Time and Place."
Good, that makes sense to you.
"By Setterstein, and your infamous markups
"on our research proposal
asking why, why, but why?
(audience laughs)
"You've played a critical role
in developing my abilities
"to analyze and think critically.
"For this, I will
forever be in your debt."
Second to last.
Jamila Torraine said, "Dr.
Morgan is definitely someone
"I look up to both
academically and personally.
"She is so passionate about the field.
"Her excitement inspires
students and motivates us
"to work hard.
"Dr. Morgan always goes above
and beyond for her students.
"When I was taking Gero
751, she broke her nose
"while walking her dog.
"She did it the day of
individual presentations,
"but she was still
determined to give feedback.
"So she called in and
listened to the students
"give their presentations, she took notes
"and still gave them feedback."
During the development of their proposals,
she met with Jamila in
person, and she allowed her
to call, Jamila could call
your house to ask for feedback.
And she just says that your
dedication impresses her,
and it's professors like
you that keep her motivated.
"Thanks Dr. Morgan, we will miss you."
And sorry she couldn't be here.
So that's what was sent in.
My own words, 'cause I
have worked with you,
really for 15 years, very directly for 12,
that I'm very lucky to have had you as one
of my wonderful co-directors,
but it has been 12 years for us.
You were and are a pleasure to work with.
You're always willing to pitch in.
You've opened your home many times.
You've played games.
You've cooked food,
and of course, your
leadership has been amazing.
And you're always at ease.
You've always been able to
be the calming influence.
And my favorite part,
Leslie has a quick response.
She gets back to you.
The great behavior to
have, I appreciate it.
(audience laughs)
So with that, I will miss you,
but I do look forward to
working with you, John.
So, do you want to continue?
- Thanks.
(audience applauds)
So at this time, we wanna
give a couple people,
if you'd like to say any words to Leslie,
on her transition,
from the gero program, I'll open that up
for a moment or two.
Go ahead.
(woman speaking off-mic)
- So, Leslie and I
started working together
before the gero program,
We were on the collaborative
studies of long term care.
Whew, we got to go to North Carolina
and all kinds of other places like that.
I think that I think I was
even still a research associate
at the time, and I was the
big, geeky data analyst,
and we had a lot of great discussions
about qualitative and
quantative, theory, the methods,
within the context of assisted living.
And again, Leslie is always
a very, very theory-rich,
but very practical person
when you talk to her.
I just sort of can see
the, thing about it,
is this realistic kind of
thing coming out of my mind
when I think of Leslie.
And certainly, as we transitioned
into the gerontology doctoral program,
I served for many years with
her on the comps committee,
which is lots of fun,
and again, the idea of
critiquing and trying to really
develop questions that are
appropriate for students
and really, again, being reasonable,
but being, having good, high quality.
And so that good balance.
And again, Leslie works
very well with students.
And again, the first doctoral
dissertation I was on
was one that you led.
It was Elles Bietta's.
And so, again, seeing her
leadership and her way
that she mentored people, and
I will always remember that,
and we will miss that.
So the steady hand, the
reasonable approach.
But the thing that I will
miss most about Leslie
is the games.
So as part of our
gerontology doctoral program,
we have a game night, and
Leslie always brings in,
what was it, Apples to Apples, and some
of the Pictionary games.
And I can just see here
enjoying it, laughing,
and being above, having a
real personal relationship
with all of us.
And the picnics.
And she does a mean hula.
And that, someone could
listen to a real good model
of successful aging.
And I will miss our life
span versus life course
and all sort of other fun discussions,
and we'll see you around,
and we'll spend, we'll
talk about Ohio, too, so.
(audience laughs)
- My name is Rosalyn Chester,
and on behalf on many students that have
come under the tutelage
and love Dr. Leslie Morgan,
I just wanna say, from the class of 84,
we love you, and,
wherever they all are,
in their old age.
A few minutes ago, when I passed by,
I held up to Leslie something,
and she read it very quickly,
and said, "Oh, that's nice."
I don't think she realizes
that what I showed her
was my thesis.
- [Leslie] Oh, well done.
(audience laughs)
- And I remember the days of
coming to her office shaking,
what I had to do now.
But I will never forget you,
and I'm glad I had this
opportunity today, thanks.
(audience applauds)
- Hi, my names is Michael Strow.
I'm a graduate of 1985.
Dr. Morgan was my advisor when I was here,
and I just happened to walk in the door,
and just a little of everything
that was being stated.
But as an African-American
coming here in 1980,
Dr. Morgan really took time with me.
I'm originally from the Eastern
shore, Crystal High School.
But she took time with me and advised me,
and it's something that I'll never forget.
If it wasn't for her,
especially in my last two years
here at UMBC, I would
never have gotten out.
So I just wanted to say
thank you very much,
and I'm glad I came in just at the time
to have an opportunity to say something.
(audience laughs)
- [Leslie] It's good to see you.
(audience applauds)
- So I didn't have the honor of working
with you in the gerontology program,
but you did get my
interest in aging studies,
and you said, you are getting you PhD.
So you're the reason I got my PhD
down on College Park.
And part of the reason
that I came back to UMBC,
because you made it a
very welcoming place.
So I've worked at UMBC for 18 years,
and started in the
Institutional Research Office,
and now I'm Associate Vice-Provost
of Institutional Research, and I,
a lot of what I learned and a
lot of what I still utilize,
I attribute it to you, so thank you.
(audience applauds)
- So we'll have one last comment now.
- Thanks John.
I'm Jay Magaziner, and I met Leslie
long before the gerontology
doctoral program began,
and I remember, one of
the, we used to talk about,
and there were very few
of us doing work in aging.
I guess I didn't realize that
there was an aging and health intiative
even before, in the 70s.
I don't know if that
continued, but I came into it
when I joined the University
of Maryland in Baltimore,
and I sought out people who
were doing work in aging,
and I remember coming first to Leslie.
Kevin wasn't here yet.
Bob Rubinstein wasn't here yet.
And Leslie and I used to talk,
'cause we had some very common interests.
Sociology and life
course issues and aging.
And I remember going to dinner with you
with Ethel Shanus, do you remember that?
Well, way back, and we
had a, I think you had,
did you work with her?
- [Leslie] Not really, no.
- Not really, but you--
- [Leslie] In the 70s.
- Well, we had a nice dinner together,
(audience laughs)
and I remember that, I
remember many discussions,
and Leslie and Kevin and I, working with,
I guess it was Scott Bass
and a couple of others
at the Baltimore campus
and maybe one or two here.
We, really, we worked for three years.
I don't know if we mentioned that, Kevin.
We worked for--
- For three years, it was three years.
- We worked for three years
to develop the curriculum
and navigate the inter-campus dynamics
of putting on a program.
Unfortunately, I'm sorry
to say those same dynamics
still exist.
Not among us by any means, but
in putting programs together
that cross campuses, we still
haven't broken out of that,
and I think that's unfortunate.
But we broke out of it because we were all
very committed to it,
and Leslie was always at the table.
She always had some value
to add to the discussion,
bringing a real sociological
perspective to that.
Kevin brought Anthropology,
I brought epidemiology
and some other social science,
and it as really quite
a genuine relationship
we developed throughout all that.
And I also had the pleasure of
leading the program with you,
after Kevin decided he was
going to do something else,
and it's been just a wonderful
time working with you,
and I don't think the
program would be anything
like it is today and as successful
without the stability and the drive
that you've brought to it
with the background.
You've always coached in the background,
but you've kept it moving.
Thank you, Leslie.
Alright.
(audience applauds)
- So, in recognition of Leslie's 12 years,
we were thinking about, what
would be a fitting memento?
Should we get her a paperweight?
And we said, well look, this is a person
who successfully ages, this is a person
that has an active lifestyle.
So we also know that, I actually live
in the same town as Leslie,
and we live a couple miles apart,
but in the mornings,
at 6:30 in the morning,
on a number of occasions,
I'll see Leslie miles
from her home, walking her dog.
So she will be walking
at 6:30 in the morning,
bright, cheerful, and,
the memento we put together.
(audience laughs)
Come on up, Leslie.
So we have a limited edition fleece,
embroidered with the gerontology program,
doctoral program in gerontology,
- [Justine] Nice.
- For you to wear on your dogwalking.
(audience laughs)
- Thank you, thank you.
- And.
- Very nice.
- [Audience Member] Beautiful.
- A limited edition visor
(audience applauds)
also embroidered with the
doctoral program in gerontology.
- I must be getting fitted out.
- Your outfit, so enjoy your dogwalking.
- [Justine] And its bright.
So it's good.
- It's good.
- Bright and warm, so, again,
thank you very much, Leslie.
- Thank you.
(audience applauds)
- Leslie.
- Ah.
(speaking off-mic)
- Well.
This concludes our program.
I especially wanna thank,
I wanna thank everyone
for being here, for
everyone who's attending,
took the time to attend.
I wanna thank this wonderful
tribute you gave to Leslie.
I wanna thank our faculty
who were able to be here,
who were at the beginning,
this department and UMBC,
and were able to share their perspective.
I also want to make sure that we
acknowledge the staff who
really put this together,
and Faith,
let's see, who all's here?
Is Trina here?
Trina Torkelson.
Cathy McDonald, I think she had to leave.
Julie Rosenthal, is Julie here?
- [Julie] I'm here.
- Julie, Faith, or, um,
Julie, Yoon Lee, is Yoon Lee here?
- [Audience Member] Yoon Lee has left.
- So, some have left, but you guys
have done a spectacular job.
Thank you for making this a great success.
So please, continue to talk--
(audience applauds)
There's still some food.
If you haven't signed up,
please make sure you sign up,
so we know you attended this evening.
And please enjoy the rest of the evening,
thank you.
(audience chats)
