President’s Letter
Category: President's Page
Dear UB Alumni and Friends:
Thank you for the warm welcome and generous support you have offered me during my first year at the University of Baltimore. I deeply appreciate the more than 1,000 people, including many UB alumni, who attended the April Investiture. It certainly is good to be home.
There have been many highlights for me during these past 11 months. Before I officially took office, I met more than 100 alumni at our annual UB Night at Camden Yards, a great event at the best ballpark in the country. Since that time, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting individually with more than 50 graduates who are major donors throughout Maryland and across the country in places like New York, Arizona and California. I’ve heard their unique UB stories and learned of the successes they have had as a result of their time here.
This spring, our story has been impacted by the unrest in our city, as we continue to be the University of Baltimore and the University for Baltimore. The issues we are dealing with today are deep seated and long lasting; many of the difficulties I faced as mayor more than two decades ago remain with us in 2015. But I am hopeful that progress can and will be made, especially when I see how the UB campus responded this spring—with generosity of spirit and with commitment to positive change.
There are countless stories to share that exemplify this. Students, faculty and staff came together for a Moment of Unity on Gordon Plaza two days after the worst of the turmoil. UB faculty experts in law, history, business and the arts have been quoted locally and nationally to lend perspective to issues that are national in scope.
As often happens, this kind of outreach brings people together in unexpected ways. While undergraduate English student Guy Valerie Bosworth was coordinating cleanup efforts throughout Baltimore, Jim Emge, B.S. ’92, a district manager for Home Depot, saw her in her UB gear. The two began to chat, and Jim asked Guy what she needed. Soon, she had two truckloads of brooms, shovels, trash bags, trash cans, gloves and water that she was able to distribute to several locations throughout the city. Their story helps define who we are.
I want to be able to share the greater UB story—the one made up of the many individual stories of our community members—and I would like your help. That’s why we have created #thisiswhoweareub—a campaign to tell the University’s story by highlighting the projects, accomplishments and personal narratives that define us. Tell us your UB story by using the hashtag on social media.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kurt L. Schmoke
President, University of Baltimore