University

On any warm spring evening, the parking lots at Towson High are full. Volvo station wagons. Troopers. Towncars. Beamers. Jags.Kids from ages 5 to 15 run the fields; carrying long sticks, wearing baggy pants, droopy jerseys and oversized shoulder pads. Parents line the practice field. Dads are dressed in business suits or at least a white shirt and tie, while a lot of moms are clad in short suits.On the field are several players whose first name is Brandon, Tyler, or Tucker or last name is Webster, Thomas, Dressel, Morrill or Radebaugh.

The Johns Hopkins University has hired the state's former economic development chief, Aris Melissaratos, to oversee the university's flagging commercialization efforts and to recruit major corporate tenants into its budding research parks, officials said yesterday. Melissaratos, a popular secretary of the Department of Business and Economic Development under Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., will start tomorrow in the new position: special adviser to the president for enterprise development.

A DECADE ago, a colleague excitedly approached me about a job opening at an important journalism organization that, finally, he said, wanted to seriously consider an African-American for the post of director.Neither I nor any other nonwhite was interviewed or even contacted for that position. A few years later, the job opened up again; my friend called again, but this time with a little less enthusiasm in his voice.He said I ought to apply for the post because, "We should at least force them to consider us."

Hoping to ease a growing teacher shortage and improve teacher education, three Baltimore-area universities have joined forces to train 1,400 new teachers by 2004 for the area's toughest classrooms.With a five-year, $12.6 million grant, the Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Morgan State University will be hiring more faculty, purchasing equipment and providing mentors for the students who teach. The federal grant is from the U.S. Department of Education.

NEW YORK -- As the season for college commencements winds down, it's a good time to look at the practice of conferring honorary degrees.Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, says honorary degrees "are used to reward donors who have given money. Sometimes they are used to draw celebrities to make the graduation special."He also notes the use of honorary degrees as the "last lesson a college can teach, by showing examples of people who most represent the values the institution stands for."

Peter Baida's short fictional work, "A Nurse's Story," was rejected by 22 editors before being printed by the Gettysburg Review in fall 1998. Months later, it won first prize in the 1999 O. Henry Awards.The Baltimore native had endured lifelong hemophilia and cancer 25 years ago, but was too ill to attend the awards ceremony Oct. 21.His wife of 22 years, Diane Cole, a fellow writer and Baltimorean, delivered a wry acceptance speech he had written.Mr. Baida, 49, died Friday at New York-Cornell Hospital in New York, of liver failure after complications from surgery.

As Towson University heads to the General Assembly to request money to expand Minnegan Stadium, angry community residents are asking state lawmakers and the Board of Regents once again to deny funding for the college's plans to build a $28 million regional sports complex.Noting that community concerns about congestion and noise have not been addressed, Rodgers Forge residents sent a letter to Board Chairman Nathan A. Chapman Jr. and Chancellor Donald P. Langenberg of the University System of Maryland, urging them to stop expansion efforts.

ONE CAN only admire the instincts that drove Mrs. Kenneth Starr to fly to the defense of a husband whose approval ratings rival those of Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr.It's more than some of the wives of Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Barr have done. But to have chosen to stand by her man in a prattling, not to say feline, interview with the Ladies' Home Journal shows poor judgment.Mrs. Starr pointedly tells the Journal that unlike Hillary Clinton, she has had the same hairdo for 20 years and that she'd "rather not be married" to a cheating spouse.

Hoping to ease a growing teacher shortage and improve teacher education, three Baltimore-area universities have joined forces to train 1,400 new teachers by 2004 for the area's toughest classrooms.With a five-year, $12.6 million grant, the Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Morgan State University will be hiring more faculty, purchasing equipment and providing mentors for the students who teach. The federal grant is from the U.S. Department of Education.

The price tag for the new arena and sports complex proposed for the University of Maryland, College Park is likely to be greater than the $80.8 million the college wants to pay and could hit $90 million, according to the Maryland Stadium Authority.The university has contracted with the stadium authority, builder of the twin-stadium Camden Yards complex and other projects, to oversee the development. The proposed 17,000-seat building would replace 43-year-old Cole Field House, home court for the Terrapins.

The student editor of Towson University's independent newspaper The Towerlight has stepped down after a standoff with President Robert L. Caret over the publication of an explicit sex column. Editor Carrie Wood, a junior from Reisterstown, resigned Friday after exchanging e-mails with Caret over a column called "The Bed Post." The newspaper's editors have since discontinued the column because it was published under a pseudonym and the author wished to remain anonymous. But they have said they might continue to publish it online.

MERRILL PETERSON, 88 Scholar of 19th-century America Merrill Peterson, a University of Virginia professor whose writings on Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and other figures made him a renowned historian of 19th-century America, died Tuesday at a retirement home in Charlottesville, Va. He had pneumonia. Dr. Peterson was teaching at Brandeis University when he wrote his first book, "The Jefferson Image in the American Mind" (1960), which explored the relatively new field of intellectual history by focusing less on Jefferson's life than on the wide-ranging influence of his ideas.

A brightly banded chameleon, a strongman tattooed in academic symbols and a guy with the gears of his mind exposed all took their places above midtown Wednesday when the University of Baltimore unveiled a series of banners depicting the connection between institution and city. The illustrations are musings on UB's campus slogan, "Knowledge That Works." Officials also hope the 50 banners will be a flamboyant manifestation of the university's overall quest to be more recognized. "The whole idea when I came here was to begin defining our borders," said UB President Robert L. Bogomolny.

Today, Loyola College in Maryland celebrates a milestone. Today, we become Loyola University Maryland. Since announcing our plans to make this change, I've often been asked why we are doing so. After all, Loyola College in Maryland has an illustrious 157-year history, an established reputation in the Baltimore community and beyond, and an alumni network with few rivals. But we needed - and need - to do more, to say more, about the institution we've become and what we expect to achieve in the years ahead.

Johns Hopkins medical professor Lloyd Minor will become the university's new provost, or chief academic officer, Hopkins announced Friday. Minor, 52, has been a Hopkins professor since 1993 and has led the medical school's head and neck (otolaryngology) department for six years. In announcing the appointment to the university's No. 2 post, Hopkins President Ronald Daniels lauded Minor's commitment to scholarship and his skills as a consensus builder. "His passion is surpassed only by his ability to build consensus and implement ambitious, strategic priorities that are characterized by an uncompromising commitment to academic excellence," Daniels said in a statement.

A former employee of the University of Maryland University College improperly used a corporate credit card to purchase $8,800 in electronic equipment and had it shipped to her home, according to a state legislative audit released last week. The audit says that in August and September 2005, the employee used the card to buy laptops, music players, cameras and other items. Upon discovering those transactions, auditors found four other purchases worth $2,800 that could not be accounted for on campus.

The pleas for more financial aid have come pouring in to College Park and to other campuses, public and private. There's the family whose college savings have been "depleted because we used them to pay bills during unemployment" and another whose income dropped by $50,000 in December. Suddenly, they can't live up to their obligations to pay the college tuition. Even as the need for aid has grown, the University of Maryland, College Park has less money to give because of a $1 million drop in the amount of income generated from one of its endowments.

As Ronald J. Daniels becomes the 14th president of the Johns Hopkins University today, he's expected to eat lunch with students in a dining hall and take a campus tour. That's about the most fun he'll be allowed. "There's actual work happening," a Hopkins spokesman said. No wonder: Daniels is walking into a financial storm. University revenues over the next two fiscal years will be $100 million below projections, the endowment has lost 20 percent of its value and layoffs are expected. The crunch might make it more difficult for Daniels, known for his aggressive, energetic style, to quickly implement an agenda of his own. Hiring professors will be hard to do. And with philanthropy declining with the economy, raising money for new buildings or renovations will be a challenge.

Barnes & Noble College Booksellers Superstore will open in The Fitzgerald at UB Midtown apartment tower under construction near the University of Baltimore, university officials said yesterday. The 20,000-square-foot store, slated to open in fall 2010, will include a Starbucks-branded cafe and sections for University of Baltimore textbook sales. It will be similar to a Barnes & Noble in Charles Village near the Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University. The lead developer, the Bozzuto Group, started building the 275-unit market-rate apartment project in October on a university-owned site at West Mount Royal Avenue and Oliver Street and plans to complete the residential portion by spring 2011.

Rodgers Forge residents and Towson University administrators said yesterday that they have reached a tentative compromise on the location of a new $45 million athletic arena on the campus and expect to sign an agreement today. Representatives of the community and college had been at odds over the original site, which was within a few hundred yards of several backyards. Neighbors had pushed to have the proposed 5,000-seat arena built on the other side of Unitas Stadium, but university officials insisted that the facility had to be next to the current athletic center, which is to become practice courts and classrooms.