Sabbatical

The Maryland Institute's "Sabbatical Exhibition" features the work of five faculty members who have been on leave, and it looks as if they haven't wasted their time.Tom Baird's black-and-white photographs of slate quarries in Snowdonia, North Wales, are explorations -- of sometimes abstract patterns, of gradations and modulations of gray, of light and dark, of the geometric and the organic, of scale.A few, such as "Lords Quarry," have no horizon at all and are particularly effective because the sense of landscape is minimized, atmosphere is effectively shut out and the abstract qualities of the image come to the fore.

The Rev. James Ashton Devereux, a Jesuit priest who served as provincial of Maryland Province, died of Parkinson's disease Dec. 19 at Manresa Hall in Merion Station, Pa. He was 83. Born in Philadelphia, he was a 1945 graduate of St. Joseph's Preparatory School and entered the Society of Jesus the same year. Father Devereux earned his bachelor's degree in 1951 and master's in 1954, both from the old Woodstock College in Baltimore County. He also received a licentiate in sacred theology at St. Albert de Louvain in Belgium and had a doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

THE REV. Robert Herzog of Mount Airy is looking forward to his spring sabbatical as more than a vacation. To him, it is a chance to travel an "apostolic journey."After months of planning and researching every stop on the itinerary, Mr. Herzog departs April 11 on the first leg of his sabbatical.The rector at St. James Episcopal Church describes the 18-day journey that will include stops in Greece, Turkey and islands in the Aegean Sea as a "dream come true for me."He sees this opportunity to visit the places he studied in seminary in a context larger than a mere vacation.

I find it amazing Larry Gibson, a member of the University of Maryland School of Law faculty, would approve of a payment of $410,000, made in a nefarious ways. Mr. Gibson, as a lawyer, is an officer of the court. How can he support Karen Rothenburg's $350,000 sabbatical payment when she didn't submit a plan or present a summation of that sabbatical as required within 15 days of her return? Another $60,000 paid to her is suspect. In 2008 the law school paid out $22.8 million in bonuses and other stipends.

After presiding over steady enrollment increases, several building projects and a $40 million fund-raising drive, Western Maryland College's president is taking some time off.Robert H. Chambers, president since 1984, will begin a six-month sabbatical when the fall semester classes end Dec. 10.He said he plans to spend at least some of that time thinking about the college's future -- and that he has every intention of returning."

Year in and year out, the hardworking instructors at the Maryland Institute College of Art focus their energy on the students in their charge. But even these indefatigable mentors occasionally need time off to recharge their own creative batteries. A charmingly illustrated fable featuring an artist mouse and her mate; screens of muslin fabric ingeniously cut and crafted to resemble the labor-intensive arabesques and winding floral designs of Moorish decorative painting; photograms whose floral motifs suggest the crystalline structure of snowflakes - they're all on view in the Sabbatical Exhibition at MICA, which presents the works of eight faculty members who spent the 2006-2007 academic year on leave.

Every year several faculty members at the Maryland Institute, College of Art take a sabbatical, and when they come back, they show what they've done. This year's "Sabbatical Exhibition" in the Decker Gallery includes seven artists and neatly divides itself into three groups of two, plus one.James Hennessey and Mark Karnes are the traditional painters in the group, and when the painting's this good, there's no condescension intended in the word traditional.Of...

Note to readers: Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks comic strip, is taking a six-month sabbatical.

Concert RobinElla performs FYI Edward Gunts is on sabbatical. In his absence, the architecture col umn will not appear.

`Sabbatical Exhibition' Jack Wilgus, the longtime head of undergraduate photography programs at the Maryland Institute College of Art, took time off during the 2006-2007 academic year to focus on his own work. Judging from his hilarious pictures of giant picnic baskets and oversized ducks, on view at the school's faculty Sabbatical Exhibition, Wilgus had a ball. Other instructors represented in the show include Chezia Thompson Cager, Lois Hennessey, Margaret Morrison, Piper Shepard, Whitney Sherman, Laurie Snyder and Susan Waters-Eller.

Karen H. Rothenberg, former dean of the University of Maryland School of Law, was the administrator who received $410,000 in what a state legislative audit called "questionable compensation payments," according to university payroll records. The routine audit of the University of Maryland, Baltimore says that in fiscal 2007, a high-ranking administrator received four payments totaling $350,000 for sabbatical time that was apparently never taken. The payments, approved by UMB President David Ramsay, came on top of a $360,000 salary.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore made $410,000 in "questionable compensation payments" to a senior employee between 2007 and 2009, according to a state audit released Thursday. The payments, made in addition to the employee's salary, were not disclosed in budget reports to the General Assembly. The university also failed to submit the employee's contract for approval by the attorney general's office or for review by the Board of Regents, the audit charges. During fiscal 2007, the employee received four payments totaling $350,000 for sabbatical time that was never taken.

`Sabbatical Exhibition' Jack Wilgus, the longtime head of undergraduate photography programs at the Maryland Institute College of Art, took time off during the 2006-2007 academic year to focus on his own work. Judging from his hilarious pictures of giant picnic baskets and oversized ducks, on view at the school's faculty Sabbatical Exhibition, Wilgus had a ball. Other instructors represented in the show include Chezia Thompson Cager, Lois Hennessey, Margaret Morrison, Piper Shepard, Whitney Sherman, Laurie Snyder and Susan Waters-Eller.

Year in and year out, the hardworking instructors at the Maryland Institute College of Art focus their energy on the students in their charge. But even these indefatigable mentors occasionally need time off to recharge their own creative batteries. A charmingly illustrated fable featuring an artist mouse and her mate; screens of muslin fabric ingeniously cut and crafted to resemble the labor-intensive arabesques and winding floral designs of Moorish decorative painting; photograms whose floral motifs suggest the crystalline structure of snowflakes - they're all on view in the Sabbatical Exhibition at MICA, which presents the works of eight faculty members who spent the 2006-2007 academic year on leave.

THE COMPOSER / / Jonathan Leshnoff's music has been performed throughout the country by a wide variety of ensembles. The 33-year-old New Jersey native, who studied composition at the Peabody Institute, is an associate professor at Towson University. He lives in Northwest Baltimore with his wife and two children. IN HIS WORDS / / The commission for the piece originated with the Handel Choir of Baltimore. And then the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra came in. They're the major commissioners, and they will collaborate on the premiere performance.

Concert RobinElla performs FYI Edward Gunts is on sabbatical. In his absence, the architecture col umn will not appear.

I find it amazing Larry Gibson, a member of the University of Maryland School of Law faculty, would approve of a payment of $410,000, made in a nefarious ways. Mr. Gibson, as a lawyer, is an officer of the court. How can he support Karen Rothenburg's $350,000 sabbatical payment when she didn't submit a plan or present a summation of that sabbatical as required within 15 days of her return? Another $60,000 paid to her is suspect. In 2008 the law school paid out $22.8 million in bonuses and other stipends.

Robert H. Chambers, who has been president of Western Maryland College since 1984, has decided not to return to that job at the end of his sabbatical in June, the school announced yesterday. "My presidency at Western Maryland College was the best and most important period of my life," said Chambers in a statement released by the college. He could not be reached for comment. "I am proud of where the college is today," the statement read. "You can't point to a part of Western Maryland that isn't stronger."

Note to readers: Aaron McGruder, creator of The Boondocks comic strip, is taking a six-month sabbatical.

If you want to tune in to a liberal Democratic college professor, 1090 AM might not be the most obvious spot on the dial. Yet there was Tom Schaller on Fridays, mixing it up with WBAL's conservative listeners and hosts Chip Franklin and Ron Smith. It was fun while it lasted. Now the UMBC political scientist is gone, for reasons that are about as clear as radio reception in the Harbor Tunnel. Schaller says he was fired. WBAL says he's just on leave while he finishes a book and is coming back.