Campuses

Plumes of billowing smoke above Johns Hopkins Hospital were visible for miles Wednesday as a ventilation unit caught fire above an 11-story campus building. The fire broke out at about 10:30 a.m. at 550 N. Broadway - an office building generally called Building 550 - and was contained in about an hour. No one was injured and the building's damage was limited to the roof area, said Chief Kevin Cartwright of the Baltimore City Fire Department. Fire Battalion Chief Ron Hudgins said a unit in the building's cooling tower atop the brick structure malfunctioned, sparking the one-alarm blaze.

Taking a cue from what they're learning in class, some Johns Hopkins public health students are spearheading a climate-conscious drive to get the university to divest itself of fossil fuel holdings. Just before taking off for the holiday break, leaders of the Refuel Our Future campaign delivered to JHU President Ronald J. Daniels' office a petition with more than 800 signatures on it calling on the university to rid its $2.7 billion endowment of fossil energy stocks in an effort to ease the predicted environmental and health impacts of climate change.

MedStar Health plans to build a $30 million medical plaza in Bel Air as it tries to capitalize on the area's growing population, company officials said Monday. The hospital operator also said it plans to expand the neonatal intensive care unit at its Franklin Square Hospital Center in eastern Baltimore County. The addition of the 100,000-square-foot medical plaza at Plum Tree Road and Route 924 in a growing commercial area of Bel Air in Harford County would offer patients a variety of medical services in one venue.

This month, 900 Strayer University students walked across the stage at 1st Mariner Arena during a regional commencement ceremony in which they were awarded bachelor's degrees from an institution whose Baltimore roots date to the late 19th century. Strayer's Business College began in Baltimore in 1892 as the brainchild of Seibert Irving Strayer, a Bucknell University graduate who was a writer and shorthand innovator. In 1902, he was joined by Thomas W. Donoho, a former manager of a typewriter company and a lawyer who later headed the Baltimore school.

Students drawn to Morgan State University's strong academics and historical legacy are finding that crime is becoming an increasing distraction, and are joining a state lawmaker and alumnus in calling for better security to protect the institution's reputation. The latest incident took place Friday. Baltimore police said a 20-year-old man who is not a student at Morgan shot a lineman on the university's football team as students wound down the last day of classes before fall-semester finals.

A Morgan State University football player was shot outside a dormitory shortly before 1 p.m. Friday, police said. A “person of interest,” who was not a Morgan student, was taken into custody, police said. Several people police described as witnesses were handcuffed and bags were placed over their hands to preserve possible gunshot residue, police said. The victim's injuries were not considered life-threatening, police said. Officers found a semi-automatic handgun nearby, said Baltimore Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.

Few would argue that the University of Maryland's decision earlier this week to join the Big Ten isn't about the money — $24 million a year in television revenue. But university officials are helping to sell the deal with what they argue is a significant academic benefit to joining the athletic conference. The 12 universities that make up the Big Ten Conference, plus the University of Chicago, constitute an academic consortium called the Committee on Institutional Collaboration.

The Social Security Administration is planning to build a "security barrier" at its Woodlawn headquarters that officials say is needed to protect employees and visitors. Though available details of its design are sparse - several elected officials said they had not yet been briefed on the plans - an agency spokesman acknowledged that millions of dollars have been budgeted for security upgrades at the agency's headquarters, including some form of barrier. "These upgrades, including a security barrier, are necessary for the safety of our employees, visitors to our buildings, and the security of our campus," spokesman Mark Hinkle said in an email.

This week, Baltimore County school officials started distributing hand-held metal detectors to school resource officers to help in the effort to keep weapons off campus. At the same time, Anne Arundel County made an app for students to submit tips about possible threats available on iTunes and Google Play. Parents who are worried about the rash of weapons incidents in area schools this year may be inclined to think Baltimore County is taking the more significant step, but research and recent experience suggest otherwise.

A Baltimore City Council committee on Thursday approved the sale of up to $35 million in bonds to help finance Under Armour's expansion of its Tide Point corporate headquarters. The Budget and Taxation Committee unanimously approved the sale of the bonds. The measure is to move to the full City Council on Monday. The council last month voted unanimously and without discussion to approve tax increment financing for the project. The deal allows the city to issue bonds to pay for infrastructure improvements on and around the waterfront campus.