March at Hopkins

March at Hopkins was full of greetings and farewells; at the end of March, the Admissions staff sent letters of congratulations to the class of 2012 which President Bill Brody announced that he will be retiring from his long run as President of the University. Between these hello's and goodbye's, there were short plays, the announcement of the new Young Trustee, art exhibits at Peabody, and networking opportunities for Engineers. Take a look at this past March at Hopkins!

FAREWELL, PRESIDENT BRODY

After 12 years as President of Johns Hopkins, Bill Brody announced his eminent retirement on March 10. Brody, 64, will have led the university for the fifth-longest tenure among Johns Hopkins' 13 presidents. His retirement will coincide with the conclusion of the $3.2 billion Johns Hopkins: Knowledge for the World campaign. In a press release last month, Brody told students and faculty that although he has loved his job, leaving is "inevitable" and sometimes "constructive", and that he believes he has reached that point.

During his Presidency, Brody:

• Established the Carey Business School, the School of Education and numerous interdisciplinary centers such as the Institute for NanoBioTechnology, the Center for Africana Studies, the Center for Global Health, the Office of Critical Event Preparedness and Response, the Information Security Institute, the Institute for Cell Engineering and the Malaria Research Institute.
• Focused attention on the undergraduate experience both in and outside the classroom, by building new residential, art and recreational facilities; enhancing programs aimed at building a sense of campus community; inaugurating popular academic programs such as museum studies, theater, and entrepreneurship and management; strengthening security measures on campus and in adjacent neighborhoods; and creating new opportunities for undergraduates to take part in original research.
• Created and largely built out a master plan for its Homewood campus in northern Baltimore that emphasized a serene outdoor environment; modern, interdisciplinary research facilities; and a welcoming new entrance and visitor center.
• Expanded and modernized the research and education facilities of the health professions schools on the East Baltimore campus as part of a master plan that also has led to the construction, now under way, of two new clinical towers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
• Revitalized the aging Mount Vernon campus of the Peabody Institute, creating one of the finest music conservatory facilities in the world.
• Expanded Hopkins presence in locations from Rockville, Md., to Washington, D.C., to Nanjing, China.
• Celebrated Nobel Prizes to two full-time faculty members and three graduates; also celebrated NCAA Division I men's lacrosse championships in 2005 and 2007.
• Made significant progress in the diversification of its student body, faculty and administration; committed to aggressive continued improvement in the recruitment of women and underrepresented minorities.

Brody will step down from the position December 31, and until then, the University is on the lookout for the next President. For more information, check out this news release and this web site created in honor of President Brody.

NEW YOUNG TRUSTEE

On March 10, the Board of Trustees voted a new member into their ranks: Michelle Brown, a member of the Student Admissions Advisory Board and Hopkins Interactive! Each year, one Young Trustee position opens up, and the Board of Trustees elects one graduating senior from the Homewood campus to serve a four-year term as a Young Trustee. Starting next year, Brown will be one of four Young Trustees on the Board and will serve for the next four years. During her time at Hopkins, Brown has been quite busy: she is a neuroscience major with minors in music and theater arts, she has been involved with Wind Ensemble, Barnstormers, Johns Hopkins University Theatre, and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Brown says that she's looking forward to her responsibilities as Young Trustee. To read more about it, click here .

ART EXHIBIT AT THE PEABODY LIBRARY

To celebrate the [would-be] 500th birthday of famous architect Andrea Palladio, the Peabody Library featured a special exhibit. Part of the Baltimore Festival of Maps, this exhibit traced Palladio's lasting legacy in building design down through the centuries. On display were first editions of rare architectural treatises, hand-colored maps, and original prints from the 15th through the 19th centuries. According to co-curator Judith Proffitt, program coordinator at the University's Homewood Museum, Palladio's European designs were the inspiration for many Baltimore buildings. The exhibit will run through June 17 and is free and open to the public. The works on display have been collected from all around Baltimore, including many of the University's various libraries. Get further details by clicking here.

PLAYS FOR AN AUDIENCE WITH A SHORT ATTENTION SPAN

The weekend of March 7, Johns Hopkins University Theater presented a series of seven short (but sweet) plays in the Merrick Barn. The new play festival was experimental and abstract, but managed to keep the audience entertained and engaged. Among the playwrights were students Sal Gentile, Jackie Jennings, Liz Eldridge, and Joseph Micali. The short plays were varied, featuring topics from alcoholism to Boltzmann brains to life under a volcano. The closing play happened to be the winner of the American College Theatre Festival Region II 10-Minute Play contest: "Without Parachutes", written and directed by sophomore Eric Levitz. In this play, plane crash victims escape the terror of their imminent deaths by they recreating their first date, but their flashback is constantly interrupted by the realities their present situation. One can't argue with the American College Theater Festival: This play was a winner. By the end of the weekend, the playwrights were proud, and the audiences impressed - a success overall. To read the News-Letter's review, click here .

QUICK! IT'S FASTPITCH SOFTBALL

For students that appreciate a little adrenaline to keep them going throughout the week, the University introduced a fun, no-stress Fastpitch Softball Club. Anyone is encouraged to join, from serious ball players with athletic experience to students who barely know what a softball looks like. The new club is in the process of scheduling scrimmages with other teams in the area, and its member will soon be decked out in brand-new uniforms. The softball club is promised to be an exciting new addition for Hopkins athletics, which is rapidly expanding each year. They may not be the nationally acclaimed Lacrosse team, but they're going to be sure to have fun!

MINING THE "AFRO-AMERICAN" ARCHIVES

The Center for African Studies and the Sheridan Libraries'  Center for Educational Resources have embarked on the Diaspora Pathways Archival Access Project, a student internship program funded by a three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This project will preserve the immense archival holdings of The Afro-American Newspaper, a fantastic publication for Baltimore's African-American community. The longest-running periodical of its kind in the United States, the family-owned newspaper covers both national and international news from an African-American perspective. Most of the publication's archival collection, which includes older print editions and thousands of photographs, currently resides in stacks of boxes in the "morgue" of its Baltimore headquarters, but the Project promises to dig these findings out of hiding and make them accessible to the public.      In November, the program selected five students from Johns Hopkins, Goucher College and Morgan State University as its initial cohort to uncover and describe the contents of the paper's archives. To read more about the initiative, click here.