Towson University

Baltimore Teen dies of injuries suffered in fire A 16-year-old boy who suffered serious injuries when a fire tore through his Roland Park home early Thursday died yesterday morning. Matthew Young, a 10th- grader at the Park School in Brooklandville, died about 9:30 a.m. at Sinai Hospital with his family by his side, according to his family's pastor, the Rev. Thomas W. Blair. Matthew's 11-year-old sister, Abigail, a sixth-grader at the Calvert School in Baltimore, died of her injuries early Thursday.

MIGNON N. LIEBERMAN died of natural causes July 1, 2007 at her home in Phoenix, AZ. Born Mignon Newman in Baltimore, MD, she graduated from Western High School and, what is now known as, Towson University. While attending Towson University, she met her future husband, Sidney Lieberman D.D.S. They married in June of 1938. Together they opened Dr. Lieberman's dental practice on Eutaw Place, which subsequently moved to Park Heights Avenue. Before the birth of her two sons, she taught elementary school for Baltimore City School System.

... Maryland could use a lot more scientists and engineers, particularly those who have security clearances and graduate degrees. A Towson University analysis of the state's work force needs after the national military base realignment takes place in five years shows Maryland will have a shortage of residents to fill high-paying technical jobs. "The level of education has to go up to meet the needs," said Daraius Irani, director of applied economics at the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University.

HCC savors growing gains Launched in 1957 with a $10,000 grant from the county government, Harford Junior College - as it was known back then - opened its doors with 119 students and 16 staff members. The college offered night courses at $7 per credit hour in classrooms at Bel Air High School. "When I first started teaching, I had a classroom that I shared with the other part-time instructors," said Dorothy Dare, 84, an Aberdeen resident who taught math in the school's inaugural year. "The rooms were sparsely furnished with a teacher's desk, a chalkboard and desks for the students.

The problems of urban education are rooted in poverty and the racial divide. No big-city school system has solved them. The No Child Left Behind law won't solve them. The best that school systems can do is work around the edges to mitigate the consequences of this uniquely American reality. The Baltimore school board may have taken a step in that direction Monday night with its sweeping reorganization - which amounts to a significant, albeit limited, decentralization - but it will work only if all concerned act intelligently, cooperatively and diligently.

Avant-garde for all ages will be the watchword for the Theatre Project's 36th season. "It is a season that is very much intended to expose audiences to a wide variety of new work -- some highly accessible, such as Squonk Opera's Baltimore: The Opera; some far more cutting-edge, such as a largely nonverbal Bulgarian piece," said producing director Anne Cantler Fulwiler. Changes include more student matinees and restructured ticket pricing (general admission will go up $4, but student prices will be reduced $1)

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.

The University System of Maryland agreed yesterday to require its colleges to provide traditional benefits to long-term contractual lecturers, who occupy an expanding second tier of the state's teaching work force. The Sun reported in December that nearly 300 full-time instructors at five colleges were not eligible for retirement and other benefits. At Coppin State and Frostburg State universities, some lecturers who had been in their jobs for more than a decade weren't even getting health insurance.

Stacy Keibler was a full-time student at Towson University and a novice wrestling personality in 1999 when a reporter asked about her long-term goals. When a wide-eyed Keibler responded that she would like to act on a sitcom someday, it seemed like a case of dreamy blond ambition. But after six years in the wrestling ring and one ascendant season on ABC's Dancing With the Stars, the Rosedale native is realizing her dream. On TV Stacy Keibler appears on George Lopez at 8 tonight and on What About Brian at 10 p.m. Feb. 12; both on Channel 2 ONLINE --To see a photo gallery of actress Stacy Keibler, go to baltimoresun.

The former coach of basketball player Tamir Goodman, who last month orally committed to a full basketball scholarship to attend Towson University, said Goodman "has every intention" of signing with the Tigers, perhaps as early as today, if Towson officials have "worked out" a schedule that does not conflict with Goodman's observance of the Jewish Sabbath.Today is the first day of the one- week NCAA early signing period for basketball, baseball, softball, lacrosse and some other sports."I expect Tamir to sign.

SUNDAY R. KELLY: The controversial R&B crooner steps out of the limelight and into the spotlight at the Lyric Opera House, 140 W. Mount Royal Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Baltimore native Paula Campbell opens. Tickets are $75-$95. Go to ticketmaster.com. LUPE FIASCO: The coolest of the cool hip-hop artists to come up in recent years shows Towson University, 8000 York Road, how hip-hop saved his life. See the "superstar" at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20. Go to ticketmaster.com. PRO's POE: Pro Musica Rara, Baltimore's leading early music ensemble, is jumping into the bicentennial commemoration of Edgar Allan Poe with a program that features a reading of his story "The Cask of Amontillado," and such scary-sounding baroque works as Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Leclair's "The Tombstone" and Marais' "The Gall Bladder Operation."

There are any number of good reasons why college students shouldn't spend much time watching screenings of pornographic movies on school property or reading racy sex columns in the school newspaper. But it's not the job of college administrators or state lawmakers to make those decisions for them. There may indeed be little journalistic value in "The Bed Post," a sex column that appeared in The Towerlight, Towson University's student newspaper. Aside from its questionable taste, it violated many of the standards student publications traditionally are supposed to teach aspiring young reporters and editors, such as the necessity of judging what is worthy of coverage as news and a willingness to stand behind the facts in a story.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and the Towson University fall film series marks the occasion with Jim Sheridan's "My Left Foot." It tells the tumultuous story of Irish author Christy Brown, who managed to write best-selling books despite cerebral palsy that left him with control only of his left foot (he used his little toe to type). Based on Brown's autobiography of the same name (he died in 1981), it's a robust, stirring, bracingly unsentimental account of a person overcoming disability.

Hancock wrong on Towson U. I take strong exception to a number of statements made by Jay Hancock in his recent column, "Tuition freeze leaves Md. students out in the cold" (Sept. 25). I question the statement that the freeze leads to "rationing Maryland education," but I will not comment on whether holding tuition levels is good or bad. Mr. Hancock seems to have made that decision. I will question his view of Towson University. To say that Towson and its sister schools "were supposed to educate the kids who didn't get into the University of Maryland, College Park" is ridiculous.

There are probably people who are very happy that Towson University looks harder to get into these days than nearby Goucher College, but I doubt they include the 6,928 applicants whom Towson rejected for its 2009 freshman class. Not long ago it was "Towson State" and letting in nearly three of every four applicants. Now it is attracting more kids from New York and New Jersey and admitting only 56 percent overall. This fall's admission rate for the private Goucher, which describes itself as "selective," was 72 percent.

The freshmen arrived in a flood, forcing the Johns Hopkins University to reopen a defunct residence hall, lease a nearby inn and create new sections of popular math and science courses. Those might sound like steps required in a robust economy, when a $54,500 annual price tag would be little impediment to students seeking a prestigious education. The twist is that all of it happened in the past three weeks. Conventional wisdom held that the deep recession might push students away from expensive private schools such as Hopkins to lower-priced alternatives.

Rowing Baltimore Crew wins World Championship At the World Masters Rowing Championships in Vienna, Austria, a Baltimore crew - Laurie Pipitone, Zibi Turtle, Sandi Burt and Beth Lawrence and coxswain Marion Penning - placed first in the Women's Masters B 4+ (sweep boats with four rowers and coxswain) on Friday. They went on to win the Masters C 4+ Saturday. Minor league baseball Johnson pitches Baysox to victory over Harrisburg Right-hander Steve Johnson (St. Paul's) pitched 6 2/3 strong innings to lead host Bowie Baysox to a 5-2 win over the Harrisburg Senators.

Greer Begbie is concerned primarily about one thing when shopping for her son's college textbooks: price. The southern New Jersey mother, whose son Chris is a junior finance major at Towson University, scours Web sites, including Half.com and Amazon.com, for the best deals. She almost always buys used books. She says new, full-price textbooks are too expensive. "It's a rip-off," Begbie said. "You can end up paying way too much." The cost of college textbooks has been an issue for years.

Following are first-hand accounts by people who attended Sen. Benjamin Cardin's town hall meeting on health care reform Monday night. Our protest was sincere My husband and I attended Senator Benjamin Cardin's townhall at Towson University Monday night. No one bused us there or gave us a sign to carry or a t-shirt to wear. We were very happy to see hundreds of other genuinely concerned citizens in attendance as well all of their own accord. Even though we had registered with the senator's office and were in line by 5:30 p.m., when the doors opened at 6, the line didn't move inside.

Drew Charles Pfarr, an outstanding Towson University lacrosse midfielder who went on to play the sport professionally, took his life July 24 in Belize. The Towson resident was 27. Mr. Pfarr was in Belize being treated for substance abuse at the time of his death, family members said. Mr. Pfarr was born in Lancaster, Pa., and raised in Severna Park. He was a 2000 graduate of St. Mary's High School in Annapolis, where he excelled as a lacrosse player. "Drew began playing lacrosse when he was 4," said his sister, Anastasia Khoo of Washington.