Langenberg

"I am here to incite a revolution," Donald N. Langenberg said last week in his inaugural address as chancellor of the University of Maryland. What he has in mind are sweeping changes to transform the state's vast university system. The alternative, he said, is for UM to become "a historical anachronism, a bastion of arrogant irrelevance."Dr. Langenberg's address amounted to a harsh condemnation of hidebound campus leaders who have thwarted past efforts to bring about much-needed reforms at UM. Failure to respond to "a swiftly evolving global society" has robbed the university of its role as "a vital engine of our society."

A coalition of Howard County officials representing public schools, business and government have scheduled a half-day symposium Thursday at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. The session is designed to brainstorm about new ways to encourage students to pursue studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. About 125 are expected to gather for the 8:30 a.m.-to-1:30 p.m., invitation-only conclave, which is Howard County's first Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics Business and Education Leadership Symposium.

It's "vision time" at the University of Maryland System. Last August, the board of regents asked Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg to devise a "vision" for the 130,000-student network that finds itself in the midst of profound changes. The chancellor unveiled the first part of his blueprint this week, a plan that deals frankly with the system's immediate problems but in only vague terms with the system's future direction."We confront many very difficult, perhaps intractable, problems," the chancellor told the regents.

THE TWO letters to The Sun that got Donald N. Langenberg in hot water with Maryland's governor and comptroller were three and five sentences long. Langenberg says it took him eight minutes to write the letters, both of which sharply criticized Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s state budget cuts that resulted in steep tuition increases in the University System of Maryland. And Langenberg's not sorry he did it, not by a long shot. Since Ehrlich publicly suggested that Langenberg be fired from his $110,000 nonteaching university job -- and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer (never a fan of Langenberg's when the latter was system chancellor)

It's been an uncomfortable rookie year for University of Maryland Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg. He took over the state's 11-campus university system last July just as the bubble burst on Maryland's economy. Then he rubbed the governor the wrong way. And finally, he touched off a round of academic paranoia at College Park.Yet through it all, Dr. Langenberg has remained unruffled. Adjusting to Maryland's politically charged higher education scene has not been easy for the 59-year-old physicist after his previous success in melding two urban campuses into the University of Illinois-Chicago.

DON LANGENBERG'S days as chancellor of the University System of Maryland appear numbered. He may keep his job a little longer after a board of regents meeting on Wednesday, but only with unprecedented arm-twisting and intervention by the governor. That sort of high-handed political interference could come at a steep price, and won't change the outcome: Mr. Langenberg's eventual departure as chancellor. The regents had unanimously agreed in August to ask Mr. Langenberg to set a June 2001 retirement date.

He took official control of the University of Maryland system with a pledge to incite a revolution, but Donald N. Langenberg said he plans to operate as chancellor with an agenda of "elegant simplicity."Langenberg's inauguration yesterday at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore drew about 2,000 state and national academic officials. They heard the new chancellor issue a call to UM's 11 campuses for sweeping changes to set new standards in higher education.The ceremony, a luncheon and a catered dinner at Langenberg's Baltimore County home cost $38,180 and was financed by private donations.

Donald N. Langenberg's future as chancellor of the University System of Maryland was not discussed at a breakfast meeting between the system's Board of Regents and Gov. Parris L. Glendening, according to several regents present at the closed-door session yesterday. "It was not on the agenda, so somebody had to bring it up, and no one did," regents Chairman Nathan A. Chapman said after the 90-minute meeting at the governor's mansion in Annapolis. The status of Langenberg, who has been chancellor of the 13-campus system for a decade, will be determined at a board meeting tomorrow at Frostburg State University.

ADELPHI - At one corner of Donald N. Langenberg's desk at University System of Maryland headquarters here is a folder labeled "Issues for Brit." So far, it isn't stuffed, but Langenberg says he'll add material before he leaves the chancellor's office April 30 and the chancellor's mansion in northwest Baltimore County not long thereafter. Retiring at 70, Langenberg hands the chancellorship and the house to William E. "Brit" Kirwan, 63, lured back to Maryland after a four-year term as president of Ohio State University.

University of Maryland Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg is preparing sweeping changes for the 11-campus system, changes that include economic and academic reforms as well as establishment of family ties between the often competing universities.Langenberg is to unveil the plan at his June 26 inauguration at the Lyric Theater in Baltimore. But, during an interview last week in his office in Adelphi in Prince George's County, the chancellor outlined his vision for the 3-year-old system.At the center of the plan is a desire to form a strong common, cooperative bond among the diverse UM institutions scattered throughout the state.

Redesign work to cut turnover among nurses Calvin M. Pierson, president of the Maryland Hospital Association, makes an important point on the need for concerted efforts to build the education pipeline in nursing ("Hospital staffing crisis needs attention now," Opinion Commentary, Sept. 15). However, increasing the number of nursing graduates is only one aspect of the problem of the inadequate supply of nurses. Equal attention must be given by health care institutions to developing different strategies to retain nurses and other health care workers.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. strongly suggested yesterday that the University System of Maryland should oust former Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg because of letters the educator wrote criticizing the administration's higher-education spending cuts. The governor, joined by Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, made the unusual threats to a university official's job at yesterday's meeting of the Board of Public Works. Adding to the pressure, the two officials instructed Budget Secretary James C. "Chip" DiPaula Jr. to deliver the message to Chancellor William E. "Brit" Kirwan.

ADELPHI - At one corner of Donald N. Langenberg's desk at University System of Maryland headquarters here is a folder labeled "Issues for Brit." So far, it isn't stuffed, but Langenberg says he'll add material before he leaves the chancellor's office April 30 and the chancellor's mansion in northwest Baltimore County not long thereafter. Retiring at 70, Langenberg hands the chancellorship and the house to William E. "Brit" Kirwan, 63, lured back to Maryland after a four-year term as president of Ohio State University.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening makes his not-so-secret candidacy for chancellor of the University System of Maryland a little less secret this week with comments appearing today in a national higher-education newspaper. Saying that his experiences have made him "fanatically committed to higher education," Glendening told The Chronicle of Higher Education that he would be qualified to oversee the 13-campus system and "honored" to be considered for the $345,000-a-year post. "My whole life has been higher education," Glendening said in an article in this week's issue of the weekly newspaper that covers colleges and universities.

It's not exactly a welcome mat they are putting out for Mark L. Perkins at Towson University. Instead, the man who will become the school's president next month is the subject of e-mail, anonymous letters and rumors that question his management skills and taste in real estate. "I think there may be two or three folks who potentially want to put me in a nonpositive faction," said Perkins, who is chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay until July 1, when he will take over at Towson.

As Hoke L. Smith approaches the end of his presidency of Towson University, he is being feted in a style befitting a man who led the school for more than two decades. His departure is the theme of the annual alumni weekend that starts Friday. A $150-a-plate farewell gala is planned Saturday night, and a dance recital will be held in his honor Sunday afternoon. But there is a bittersweet quality to the praise because, even at 70 years old, Smith is not ready for retirement - he wanted to stay on as president for a few more years.

WANTED: High-caliber academic leader to run 13-campus public institution with 112,000 students, beginning May, 2003. Must be willing to play second-fiddle to campus presidents, keep regents fully informed and put up with meddling governor. That's the kind of help-wanted ad the University System of Maryland could be taking out in education journals as it starts its search for a successor to Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg, whose tenure will end in 18 months. The regents gave Mr. Langenberg a polite but firm push toward the door last Friday, despite efforts by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to delay that departure.

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents secretly decided to oust longtime Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg, but the move was put on hold after Gov. Parris N. Glendening interceded on his behalf, according to sources close to the board. The regents' decision, which came during a closed-door meeting in late August, was precipitated by their unhappiness after Langenberg quietly arranged a high-paying system job for a regent who is a close friend of the governor, sources said. At that meeting, the board instructed its chairman, Nathan A. Chapman Jr., to discuss a departure date with Langenberg, the sources said.

WANTED: High-caliber academic leader to run 13-campus public institution with 112,000 students, beginning May, 2003. Must be willing to play second-fiddle to campus presidents, keep regents fully informed and put up with meddling governor. That's the kind of help-wanted ad the University System of Maryland could be taking out in education journals as it starts its search for a successor to Chancellor Donald N. Langenberg, whose tenure will end in 18 months. The regents gave Mr. Langenberg a polite but firm push toward the door last Friday, despite efforts by Gov. Parris N. Glendening to delay that departure.