Having a 4-8 record did not prevent the Retrievers from packing the All-America East Conference teams once again. With a 3-2 conference record, finishing in second place, seven members of the team earned All-AEC selections.

With 16 goals and 19 assists senior Kyle Wimer led the Retrievers in points and extended his scoring streak to 31 straight games. Wimer moved into 15th place in UMBC history with 133 career points. He was one of just four unanimous selections for the All-AEC team.

Joining Wimer on the first team were three other seniors. Matt Latham earned his first first-team selection after being a second team pick the last two years. This year he led UMBC with 25 goals, 16 of which came in conference play. He has 86 career goals, and was second in the nation in shooting percentage, scoring 25 times in 47 shots (53.2%).

After struggling as a junior, Maxx Davis reinvented himself as a defensive midfielder and earned first team honors as a short stick midfielder. His 31 ground balls is second on the team but excelled on both sides of the ball with six goals and 7 assists. He scored three, including a game-winning overtime goal, against University of Vermont.

Matt Kresse has been an overshadowed defender for the majority of his career but has been one of the most consistent ones in the conference four four years. He has started 49 of 60 in his career and picked up 12 ground balls and caused six turnovers this year. Against University of Hartford he scored his first career goal off his first career shot.

On the second team was senior long-stick midfielder Mike Camardo, who was second in the nation with 2.91 per game. His totals of 47 ground balls and 35 caused turnovers both led the team. He also scored one goal and two assists as the defensive long-stick midfielders.

Midway through the season freshman Nick Doub was moved into the first midfield unit, replacing Bobby Stockton, who led the team with 12 goals after six games. His polished game and good passing ability kept him on the unit and he scored four goals and two assists as a freshman. Because of his efforts he was named to the AEC All-rookie team.

Finally, while on the field accomplishment are very impressive, Chris Jones earned his third straight selection to the AEC All-Academic team after maintaining a 3.45 GPA as an economics major. His four goals and one assist this year put him over the 50-point plateau for his career.

Emily Jackson
Staff Writer

Ever since Governor O’Malley implemented budget cuts, Maryland universities have had to scramble to make some adjustments in utilities, such as classes and awards. Aside from lessening faculty morale, UMBC has not suffered much impact, according to UMBC’s Vice President of Research, Dr. Geoffrey Summers.

The University receives most of its research funding from other sources besides the state. Last year UMBC received approximately 88.8 million in funding, 48.7 million of which was federal funding. 26.5 million, nearly half of the federal funding, comes from NASA. In fact, UMBC remains in the top three universities in the country that receives grants from NASA. The funds support UMBC’s Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center (GEST), Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), and Center for Space Science and Technology (CSST). These three centers together brought in more than $31,000,000 in 2009.

After NASA, the second largest sponsor alternates yearly between the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Other sponsors include the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Department of Defense, and the U.S. Department of Education.

The academic departments that currently receive the most research funding include Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, as well as Biological Sciences and Chemistry. Many other departments also receive substantial external funding.

This alternative funding was not left unscathed. Foundations have been funding less than previously due to the drop in the value of their assets and the resulting loss of income. Many corporations have been hit hard by the recession, affecting their ability to sponsor research. For example, these outside sources put funds toward sponsored activities such as the Hilltop Institute and the Shriver Center Choice program, “a community-based, family-centered case management approach to delinquency prevention and youth development.” The Shriver Center Choice program was dropped last year due to depleted funds caused by the nation-wide economic recession, which Summers believes had a more drastic effect on research funding. “[Although] UMBC received an approximated total of $15,000,000 from Maryland State agencies last year, it has seen a decline in funding from non-Federal sources such as foundations and corporations-many [of which] have seen their funding drastically cut this year,” Summers explains.

The Facilities and Administrative costs on these grants and contracts are used to help further support the research efforts on campus. Last year this amounted to approximately $13,000,000. Half of these funds go to the general fund and are used among other activities to help support the research infrastructure such as the Office of Contract and Grant Accounting and Office of Sponsored Programs. The other half of the indirect costs are called Designated Research Initiative Funds (DRIF). They are used to start up funds for new faculty, support the library, fund undergraduate research, and support departmental research, says Summers.

Despite the economy’s harmful effects on UMBC’s research funding, Summers continues to hold high hopes for the future. “UMBC research funding from Federal sources continues to grow and has compensated for the loss of funding from other sources, so UMBC is expected to increase overall sponsored research funding again this year in spite of the economy,” he concludes.

The results of the Undergraduate Student Elections that ran from April 19 through the 21 are in. Yasmin Karimian and her running mate Richard Blissett were elected as President and Executive Vice President respectively by a 94.4% of the undergraduate vote, while 5.6% voted for write-ins. William Joyner was elected Vice President for Student Organizations with 56.8% of the votes. He had run against Emily Han. Kaylesh Ramu was elected Treasurer with 95.2% against 4.8% of the votes for write-ins.

Jessica Ji, Rosalyn Chirayath, Sekinah Hassan, Morgan Russo, and Tehmeena Hassan were elected to the Finance Board. Also, Chidiebele Agha, Vikram Bambawale, Sumit Bose, Dylan Cook, Alexander Gaines, Gift Jayakar, Toby Le, Damani Lewis, Matthew McNey, Jasmine Batchelor, and Benjamin Smith who were appointed to the Senate.

All four referendums were passed as well. Referendum A aimed to “make more students eligible to serve in SGA” was the most closely contested with 59.5% of the votes for it, and 40.5% of the votes against it. The other referendums B, C and D were the SGA Non-discrimination Clause, SGA Finance Board Authority to Participate in Amending Guiding Documents and Approving Appointments, and SGA Supreme Court Restructuring respectively all passed with over 75% of the undergraduate vote.

UMBC had 23.8% of the Undergraduates Vote in the Student Elections, totaling in 2,368 votes, the second largest vote total ever for a UMBC SGA election. This total is greater than both University of Maryland College Park that had 17.8% and Towson University that had 13.3% of their undergraduate vote according to their campus websites.

Kyle Wimer and Mike Camardo have been nominated for the America East Conference Men’s Lacrosse Player of the Year.

Wimer leads UMBC with 30 points off 12 goals and a team high 18 assists. He was a pre-season first team All-American by Inside Lacrosse and currently leads the nation with a 29 straight game scoring streak.

Camardo has had another outstanding season with 38 ground balls and 3.2 caused turnovers per game, which ranks second in the nation. Last season he was the AEC Championship Most Outstanding Player and a Second-Team All-AEC selection.

Men’s Ballot

On the women’s side of lacrosse, Erika Braerman and Kate Quick have been nominated for the Women’s Lacrosse Fan’s Choice Player of the Year award.

Braerman leads UMBC with 29 goals and 21 assists for 50 points. She is second in the AEC in points per game and third in assists. She currently ranks fifth all-time for most assists in a season.

Quick, the First-Team All-Conference goalie, leads the stingiest defense in the AEC, which ranks 14th in the nation with just an 8.79 goals-against average. So far this season she has recorded 106 saves, 34 ground balls, and 15 caused turnovers.

Women’s Ballot

Two year men’s lacrosse captain Bobby Atwell left the team last week for personal reasons according to UMBC athletic officials.

Atwell was a preseason third-team All-American despite missing all of the 2009 season with a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament, and said he felt 100 percent on the field in an interview with Alexander Pyles of examiner.com

Atwell played in the team’s first eight games, stayed home for the team’s trip to Binghamton, and officially left the team mid-week after that.

Coach Don Zimmerman declined to comment on Atwell’s decision to leave the team.

Derek Roper

Senior Staff Writer

I walked into The Retriever Weekly meeting the other day and apparently, Dark Horse Comics (of Hellboy fame) sent TRW three comics, an unbound graphic novel, and the first couple pages out of another series. To be honest, I’ve been kind of playing favorites lately, mostly with DC Comics (of Batman repute). They may not be comic blockbusters but these issues contain really good stories.

B.P.R.D., Issue #2

First, Hellboy’s agency, Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense, has received a limited series, King of Fear, running five issues, till May, and follows the working lives of six B.P.R.D. members. Issue 2, finds Liz Sherman as she returns to find the slaughter of the monks she stayed with years before to learn to better control her pyrokinesis.  Furthermore, she has come out of a coma after being possessed.

Liz Sherman has always been a major player in Hellboy and it’s nice to see her spotlighted. She is very worn down and declines help offered by her comrades, Abe Sapien (an amphibious man) and Andrew Devon (a paranormal scholar). Liz and Abe have great banter between them and it’s funny to see Liz hell-bent on doing what she wants with Abe acting like her fishy-Jiminy-Cricket.  This feels like the precipice of Liz’s growth, spiritually. After all, she has mastered her powers and needs to feed her soul—what her encounter (at the end of the issue) with the mysterious Memnan Saa, means is unclear.

Plus, B.P.R.D. member, Dr. Kate Corrigan, gets reunited with an (un-human) old friend.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Willow

Keeping in the theme of the paranormal spin-offs, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Willow Rosenberg, gets a one-shot that occurs before the events of Buffy Season 8 (the continuation of the television series, in comic format).

Having never really followed the Buffy series, it appears that Willow is a goddess and has to go on a spiritual journey that starts at a train station, reminiscent of a certain wizard school, complete with owls and all.

She has to run the gamut of spiritual obstacles while scenes of her with her girlfriend, Tara, are inserted into the story. It should also be mentioned that there aren’t a lot of LGBT super heroes around and it seems Willow is a great character to fill one of those voids. At times, she seems doubtful, but she takes charge and lets her deceivers know that she doesn’t work for them, they work for her.

The art is by Karl Moline and (if you can get past going from TV to 2D images) isn’t a bad break from the television series. Willow looks exactly like Alyson Hannigan. But glancing back at the cover, by Jo Chen, I think a continuation of a TV series needs Chen’s realistic touch.

Mass Effect: Redemption, Issue #1

The third comic is part of the Mass Effect: Redemption mini-series. Written by Mac Walters, one of the head writers of the game, it spotlights the character Liara, who investigates the disappearance of the character Commander Shepard.

This is what a mystery comic should be, and while it would be nice to have previous knowledge of the game, it is not necessary. The plot can be a stand alone and anyone that loves a good mystery and is a fan of space operas will like this story.

The art is by Omar Fancia who reminds me of DC Comics’ Nicola Scott; he is able to draw the characters’ expression really well and doesn’t over exaggerate anatomy. It’s refreshing that more artists are actually learning how to draw females without creating floatation devices on their chests.

However, I do have a quibble with the end of the story. There is a part where Liara meets someone with useless information, the Illusive Man – really, the Illusive Man? It comes off as comical, rather than serious. While this may seem small, the names of characters shouldn’t always be right on the nose; for Omega’s sake, leave the reader with something to think about.

3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man

Leaving the arena of the tie-ins, the graphic novel, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man by Matt Kindt is a true work of art.

I have an affinity for one-man stories. Kindt almost meets all the needs of an epic story that is bigger than its subject. The story follows the life of Craig Pressgang, who has a tumor on his pituitary gland and cannot stop growing. This is classic science-fiction at its best. Kitsch stylizes the elements of WWII to provide a great backdrop to the mania that the main character creates.

Kindt has a knack for great storytelling; he goes through the lives of three women in Craig’s life (mother, wife, and daughter). Brilliantly done because, like any big event in the 40s, it focuses on the event and not the actual subject, Craig is more a force. After reading the comic with articles inserted in between flashbacks, the tragedy that is the giant man, catches up to you, even before the end. But like any train wreck, you can’t look away.

The graphic novel also is symbolic of the celebrities like Houdini and Billie Holiday, who were supposedly spies. His fame grants him recognition by the government who want to use him as support for the war.

His long extremities and bodily functions hinder the giant man, who is so out of place in society, he doesn’t know what’s real and what’s not. His wife thinks she is in love with him but really uses him as a cash cow and doesn’t realize the error she has made not thinking about the long-term consequences of high-profile marriage.

The ending was very strange, his daughter, ends the story by searching for him. He is the world’s largest man but it takes her days to find him. She tracks him through eyewitness accounts and pictures, much like Big Foot. Events that happened earlier in the story should have lead to the ending, not dropped it out in left field.

Troublemaker, Chapter One

Janet Evanovich (author of the Stephanie Plum series), has ventured into comics and is bringing all her witty humor and trouble with her.

Now, TRW has only received the first chapter out of the Troublemaker graphic novel and from the bat, the story builds up, even though nothing happens. Text boxes in front of a peaceful town provide a great contrast for the speaker, Alex Barnaby who says she has hid her best friends freight truck and her “friend Rosa [has] removed the dead body that was in the eighteen-wheeler’s storage compartment.”

The story seems to start with everyday humor that works itself to a frenzied climax, much like Evanovich’s other books.

The art is by Joelle Jones (Madam Xanadu) and is crisp and clear but a little zany like Evanovich’s stories.

Seems like a wild ride and it’s great that she has joined other novelists, like Jodi Picoult and Brad Meltzer, in the comics realm.

The sampler Dark Horse provides shows that they are producing good stuff and these stories are highly recommended for those venturing out of the Marvel and DC proper.

By Ingrid Garcia

Staff Writer

On Thursday night, April 8^th, Bartleby and SEB cosponsored a ‘Rap Battle’ in the Commons Sports Zone. Three empty mikes held the stage for about twenty minutes as one of the Commons staff members announced that only one person had signed up to compete.

The winner would get two free WALE tickets. People waited patiently until another person signed up and the ‘rap’ battle finally began, at almost 8:25pm.

Sophomore Chris Coleman, and graduate student O’Smith grabbed the mikes and began to spit lines. Each contestant was granted one minute to freestyle to three different beats, each more creative than the next.

Best crowd pleasing lines: Coleman: “I’ve got more lines than Chinese got rice.” O’Smith: “steady like a boat.”

O’Smith won the WALE tickets. The low turnout came to a surprise since it had been advertised that the winner would receive TWO free tickets to the long-sold out WALE show.  Enough people roaming the UMBC campus brag about their rapping skills, some even freestyle around the dormitories, so where were all the rappers on Thursday night?

Maybe next year there will be a larger turnout and make the performance more entertaining, but in the meantime, maybe just come up with a couple of lines or so, and start practicing. You never know when the next ‘battle’ will be.

Chris Cook
Staff Writer

Smithsonian Institution Secretary G. Wayne Clough and House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer have been chosen as this year’s Commencement speakers. Clough will speak on May 21 at the graduate ceremony, and Hoyer will speak three days later to the undergraduates.
Clough left his position at the Georgia Institute of Technology as President in July 2008 to serve as the Smithsonian’s secretary. He is the only graduate of Georgia Tech to go on to become the school’s president. He’s also occupied a number of different positions, including professor, dean, and provost at different universities throughout his career. “We look forward to continuing to develop UMBC’s relationship with Dr. Clough and the Smithsonian,” commented associate vice president Lisa Akchin.

Hoyer has represented Maryland’s 5th Congressional District for 30 years. He is also recognized for being the highest ranking member of Congress from Maryland in history.

Typically, commencement speakers receive honorary degrees from UMBC, which is the case for Clough. Hoyer, however, will speak but not receive a degree, because university policy discourages awarding honorary degrees to sitting elected officials.

The Provost’s Office receives recommendations from the campus community each year in order to create a pool of possible honorary degree recipients. President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Elliot Hirshman then review the candidates based on the opportunity to create partnerships for the university, achievement, commitment to values important to UMBC, and others. Finally, the selected candidates are reviewed and approved by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents.

Longar Longar defeated Duany Duany in the opening round game to advance to the first round of the “What’s the best name in sports” bracket. The deadline to vote for round one will be Monday, April 5 at 12:00 p.m.

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The ProveIt! Selection Committee has chosen the competition’s 6 finalists….now it’s your chance to choose the winner! Visit www.umbc.edu/proveit to get more information on each of the 6 proposals, then log into blackboard to vote for the idea that you think deserves $35,000. The proposals selected to be finalists this year are:
-Outdoor Basketball Court
-Community Garden
-Revamping Fine Arts 306
-Outdoor Fitness Center
-Biodiesel Production Facility
-Undergraduate Research Experience

Voting will take place from April 1-10 on Blackboard, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony in the UC Plaza at 12 p.m. on April 12.

Feel free to contact Jennifer Kent, ProveIt! Co-Chair, at jkent1@umbc.edu with any questions.