Faculty Senate

COLLEGE PARK -- University of Maryland System regents voted down yesterday a proposed policy to extend full spousal benefits to the domestic partners of professors and staff members, dodging a looming spat with leading state officials.Several prominent politicians and religious groups, including the Maryland Catholic Conference, had opposed the policy for the university system, which covers 11 campuses and 22,000 employees. A systemwide advisory panel set up by the regents had recommended the policy change in a 5-2 vote this spring.

Baylor coach Grant Teaff informed Independence Bowl officials yesterday that his team won't play in the Dec. 15 game. "The Independence Bowl required a commitment from us today," Teaff said. "A commitment would be impossible now because we are still vigorously pursing the host spot in the Cotton Bowl."For Baylor (6-3-1, 5-1-1 in the Southwest Conference) to get to the Cotton Bowl, the Bears must defeat No. 6 Texas at home Saturday and Texas A&M must do the same Dec. 1.Independence Bowl officials had said that if Baylor upsets Texas, they probably would not issue a bid to Baylor because they couldn't wait until Dec. 1 to find out the Bears' situation.

Hugh Davis Graham, a former University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Johns Hopkins University history professor who wrote on the civil rights movement, died Tuesday of complications of esophageal cancer at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 65 and lived in Columbia and North Baltimore until 1991. After teaching U.S. political history at Hopkins for four years, he began in 1971 a 20-year association with UMBC, where he taught and held academic posts. In 1991, the year he left Maryland, his book The Civil Rights Era was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in history.

A Naval Academy instructor who was removed from the classroom this week after writing a newspaper opinion piece describing a "culture of hypocrisy" at the school will be allowed to return to teaching, academy officials said.Academy superintendent Adm. Charles R. Larson reversed his postion yesterday and allowed James F. Barry, 51, to resume teaching leadership courses Monday.The admiral had removed Dr. Barry and given him 30 days to write a report recommending solutions to the problems he cited.

IF YOU HAVE always believed that 4-H programs are related only to livestock and simple youth skills, read on, you'll find there is much more.Since 1914, when the 4-H began in Maryland, more than 38,000 young people have participated not only in livestock, food, nutrition and citizenship programs but also have learned money management, business skills, computers and, now, a program to inspire today's youth to become tomorrow's scientists.That program, 4-H Adventures in Science, began in 1990 with a goal of promoting scientific literacy and inspiring young scientists to prepare for careers as engineers, doctors and other math and science professions.

Samuel L. Green, a retired Morgan State University art professor who was also a museum curator, died Feb. 1, apparently of a heart attack, at his Reservoir Hill home. He was 79. He was born in Waycross, Ga., and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from Howard University in Washington, where he designed robes for the school's choir and costumes for student theatrical productions. He was then named a Fulbright scholar and studied at the University of London's Courtauld Institute of Art. From 1953 to 1955 he was a curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

WASHINGTON -- Former American University President Richard Berendzen, who resigned last April after he was caught making obscene phone calls from his office, signed an agreement with the university last weekend to return to the campus in the spring of 1992 as a full-time professor in the physics department, university officials confirmed yesterday.The agreement follows weeks of protest and fury among students, faculty and administrators at the private university, aimed at a reported $1 million buyout package offered to Mr. Berendzen by the Board of Trustees.

Hampton Thompson "Red" Davey Jr., a history and social science professor at St. Mary's College of Maryland, died Tuesday of lung cancer at his home in California, Md. He was 61. Dr. Davey had been on a leave of absence for about a year because of illness. In the early 1990s, Dr. Davey, a popular professor with an encyclopedic memory, helped transform St. Mary's from a "party school" to a college known for its academics, said Marc Apter, spokesman for the college. "Red was critical during the college's rise from a regular college known for being scholarly and fun to one that was notably scholarly," said Jane Margaret O'Brien, president of St. Mary's since 1996.

Dr. John F. Richardson III, who taught at Morgan State University for more than 30 years and was chairman of the psychology department at his retirement in 1986. died Friday of heart failure at Johns Hopkins Hospital.Dr. Richardson, who was 74 and lived in Original Northwood, was described by family and friends as a "people person" who enjoyed interacting with his students.In his classes, he often demonstrated the power of hypnosis but always warned his students that it was a tool to be used only by experts.

Political scientist Alvin Thornton, then chairman of Morgan State University's now-defunct faculty senate, left Baltimore in disgust 15 years ago because of the way the school was being run.Now a professor at Howard University in Washington, he watched in pride as his daughter, Octavia, entered this fall as a freshman.All in all, with gleaming new laboratories, a stronger faculty and a student body that has grown rapidly while posting its highest board scores ever, Morgan State appears back on track to reclaim its position of prominence in the city's life.