Degree

Carl Stahlman is a member of Towson University's alumni association, has an $800 class ring, his name on a memorial brick at the school and fond memories of his parents attending his commencement in 1997. But there's one thing Carl Stahlman doesn't have: a degree. Stahlman has filed suit in Baltimore County Circuit Court seeking a court order that would require Towson University to give him the bachelor's degree in law enforcement that he says he earned when he finished his course work in May 1997.

Robert J. Harwood Jr., accused of killing a fellow Johns Hopkins University student in April, may have to spend the rest of his life in prison, but right now he's got a more academic concern -- he's upset that the university will not send him a diploma.The university recently informed Harwood, 22, that he is suspended from Hopkins -- and therefore will not receive a degree -- until the outcome of charges of first-degree murder in the killing of student Rex Chao, 19.According to police, Harwood fired two bullets from a .357-caliber Magnum into Chao outside the campus library April 10, as Chao's horrified girlfriend looked on. The two men had had a close friendship, but in the weeks before the shooting, Chao tried to cut off communication and complained to university officials that Harwood was obsessively calling him and sending electronic mail.

Students taking classes at Anne Arundel Community College soon will be able to finish their degrees at University of Maryland University College with a minimum of academic, bureaucratic or financial hassle.The two institutions announced a new partnership yesterday that will allow for the seamless transfer of credits from the community college to the university adult education center, which caters to part-time students.The partnership enhances the area's most extensive and well-developed bachelor's degree programs that can be completed without much time, travel or expense, UMUC President Ben Massey boasted at yesterday's announcement.

Leslie Bailey remembers having half-formed, "wouldn't-it-be-neat" thoughts about being a teacher when she was in college.As she worked her way up to a high-powered job in a Washington, D.C., television station, she couldn't shake those thoughts: When children came to the television station to look around, she would end up giving the tour.Seven weeks ago, she entered an intensive one-year master's degree program at Towson State University, joining a small but growing number of working people who are being lured into teaching careers by innovative degree programs.

In 1955, Shirley Smith's parents quashed her goal of becoming a teacher. Higher education, they told her, was a waste of her time and their money, the purview of men. Smith obeyed, but only temporarily. More than a half-century later, at age 72, she will receive her degree from Towson University this week after completing course work in women's studies - a field that didn't even exist when her parents discouraged her from pursuing college. A petite, energetic woman with a big laugh, she's not the oldest to receive a degree from the state's second-largest university; but with a lifetime of experience, three children and four grandchildren, she's not your typical collegian, either.

A Middle River man pleaded guilty Monday in the stabbing death of his girlfriend last year, Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott D. Shellenberger said. Sam Davis, 61, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court to first-degree murder in the death of Jacqueline Denise Paul. Prosecutors said Davis stabbed Paul, who was 35, in the chest last April as she lay in bed at the home they shared at 355 Grovethorn Road. Davis left the home and called others to say he had hurt Paul, prosecutors said.

An Anne Arundel County jury has convicted Marcus Aron Christian, 46, of second-degree murder in the stabbing death June 4 of Michael P. Conway, his one-time roommate in a Jessup trailer park. Christian, convicted Monday, is scheduled to be sentenced May 26. The maximum sentence is 30 years in prison. He had been charged with first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison. "This case is about a justified homicide," Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth W. Palan told jurors last week as she contended the slaying was not murder but was about a man protecting himself in his home.

If heavyweight Chazz Witherspoon beats up on James Daniels in their scheduled four-rounder tomorrow night, he can recommend a prescription for pain relief. Nicknamed "The Mensa with Muscle," the 6-foot-3, 200-pound Witherspoon expects to graduate with a degree in pharmaceutical marketing in May from St. Joseph's University, where he is on an academic scholarship. But first, the 23-year-old has elected to graduate into the professional boxing ranks. He will make his debut in a fight that takes place at the Washington Convention Center on the undercard of a main event between former World Boxing Organization 140-pound champion DeMarcus "Chop Chop" Corley and Darryll Tyson.

The Bowie State University student charged with fatally slashing her randomly assigned roommate in their shared suite last year was acquitted Thursday of every charge against her, as jurors apparently believed she was acting to protect herself in a sprawling melee. After about 21/2 hours of deliberation, jurors found Alexis Simpson, 20, not guilty of first-degree murder and a host of lesser charges in the September 2011 slaying of 18-year-old Dominique Frazier. They rejected even the idea that Simpson acted in a grossly negligent way in the death.

Tomasz Macura swears he is not a genius. That may be true. But he is about to graduate from college at age 16 and is about to study at one of Great Britain's most prestigious universities. "I think education is the most important asset," Tomasz said. "Wealth and power come out of education." Through prodigious talent and hard work, Tomasz will graduate this summer from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a bachelor of science degree in mathematics - with honors. Then, he will attend the University of Cambridge.