Are we lying about how long we sleep?
March 13, 2008
Americans may not be the sleep-deprived victims we’re often made out to be, say researchers at the University of Maryland in a new report today.
In sharp contrast with estimates recently given by the National Sleep Foundation, the UMD report says we’re averaging 8 hours, 12 minutes of sleep on workdays (NSF: 6 hours, 40 minutes) and 9 hours, 12 minutes of sleep on weekends (NSF: 7 hours, 25 minutes).
So how do the UMD researchers explain the difference between their findings and those of the NSF? Basically, “everybody lies.”
The NSF sleep poll asks Americans to estimate how much sleep they get. The Maryland analysts used “time-use” data collected by the U.S. Census that accounts for every minute of a person’s day.
“It’s a status symbol,” UMD sociologist John Robinson told The Washington Post. “If you are a good American, you work all hours. It’s virtuous in American society to not get enough sleep.”
It must be a whopping fib: while UMD says Americans total 59 hours of sleep a week in 2005, the NSF poll claims only 48 hours per week. That’s more than one full night’s difference.
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentIn donations, UMD can’t hold a candle to Hopkins
February 20, 2008
As a University of Maryland alum, I’m feeling a little ashamed of myself and my fellow graduates now that the Council for Aid to Education’s report is out.
The CAE report reveals the total contributions raised by colleges and universities around the nation in 2007. Overall, contributions were up.
Here’s how some of Maryland’s higher ed institutions fared in 2007:
- Johns Hopkins - $430.4 million
- University of Maryland, College Park - $85.5 million
- University of Maryland-Baltimore - $46.2 million
- UMBC - $13.2 million
- Towson University - $7.8 million
And here’s how some of our neighboring state schools fared:
- Rutgers - $102.7 million
- New York University - $287.6 million
- Penn State University - $182.9 million
- University of Virginia - $282.6 million
- UNC-Chapel Hill - $246.9 million
Why do you think contributions to UMD fell behind what other nearby state universities received?
According to President Mote, over 6,000 students graduated in 2006 from the undergrad program alone, and the quality of applicants continues to rise. And UMD is ranked in the top 20 public research universities. So why can’t it even raise one-fourth of what JHU did? Or compete with UNC?
JACKIE SAUTER, Web Editor
Sphere: Related ContentStill reaping the whirlwind in Baton Rouge
January 31, 2008
Can you imagine being held more than a month in jail and not even knowing what your charges are?
In Baltimore, detainees are brought before a court commissioner for a bail hearing within 24 hours of the arrest. But earlier this month in Baton Rouge, a handful of University of Maryland School of Law students spent their winter break working for the public defender’s office, preparing and interviewing detainees who had spent more than a month in jail without being charged.
The students were there as part of the school’s third annual law trip to volunteer in the Gulf Coast area affected by Hurricane Katrina and were the first student group to volunteer at the Baton Rouge jails.
Under Louisiana law, arrestees must be charged within 45 days for a misdemeanor and 60 days for a felony. They are not assigned a public defender until they are officially charged, according to third-year student Anne Deady.
“Another thing is that the Baton Rouge population doubled after Katrina,” said Deady, who helped organize the trip. “The government there was really worried there was going to be more crime so they beefed up the police force but not the PD’s office. So you had more people being arrested than before with fewer people to handle it.”
The public defender’s office is so strapped for resources that one PD currently has 850 cases — more than 10 times the American Bar Association’s recommended caseload, Deady said.
While Deady said the law students’ presence was “so welcomed” in Baton Rouge, there is only so much they can do. Is there anyone out there helping to lighten the load? If you’ve been down to the Gulf Coast to lend a helping hand — whether it’s in the legal system or the rebuilding effort — we’d love to hear about your experience.
LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThe cultural significance of the noose
January 28, 2008
Jim Downs, an assistant professor of history at Connecticut College, has an interesting essay posted today on the History News Network’s Web site about the cultural significance of the noose.
He mentions the noose-hanging incident last year at the University of Maryland’s Nyumburu Cultural Center in College Park — also the impetus for a hate crimes legislation introduced this year in the General Assembly — as well as other recent incidents that garnered media attention.
Downs suggests that the “recent rash of noose hangings seems to have less to do with the viscous horrors targeted against African-Americans, and more to do with how the history of the noose has enabled the leading media, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times, to define racism.”
Sphere: Related ContentCan you picture a Whole Foods in College Park?
January 7, 2008
I have a hard time with this one: the development of “East Campus,” a $700M town center development at my alma mater that hopes to lure an upscale grocer, a four-star hotel and a movie theater.
WaPo says that UMd. is planning to tear down old student housing (the Knox Boxes, oh please?), abandoned greenhouses, its mail facility (students still get paper mail - who knew?) and maintenance buildings to create space for the 38-acre tract.
The gut-wrenching part: Doug Duncan, former MoCo executive and current university VP, plans to draw on “a lot of the ideas used to create the town centers in [Downtown] Silver Spring and Rockville.”
Blech.
Don’t get me wrong, College Park needs a major overhaul - I can’t imagine it makes recruiting students and faculty a breeze. And if a mall-esque makeover reduces crime in the area, I can suck it up and get behind it. (Even more so if the Trader Joe’s is housed in a Georgian-style facade).
But as residents told the Post, they envision a college town with the feel of Madison, Wisconsin or Charlottesville, Virginia - not Gaithersburg.
And I’m with them.
JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
P.S. The good news: University officials are asking for $125 million in public financing for a parking garage. Thank God.
(Above: Foulger-pratt and Argo Investment, courtesy of washingtonpost.com)
Sphere: Related ContentUMd. dubbed one of the “ugliest” college campuses
December 6, 2007
If you attended the University of Maryland at College Park, as I did, you might be used to defending your alma mater to outsiders after gameday riots or the like.
But this is a new one to me: the blog Campus Squeeze has listed UMd. as No. 20 on the Top 20 Ugliest Colleges in the USA (hey, at least we’re better than Rutgers, listed as No. 19).
Drew University in New Jersey also made the list at No. 11, NC State is No. 7 and the No. 1 “most ugly” college: Drexel University in Philadelphia.
I always thought Maryland’s campus - while not in the best of neighborhoods - was beautiful. Anyone feel its position on this list is justified?
Which Maryland campuses are the nicest? The least attractive?
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentPlease don’t foul the P.A. announcer
December 4, 2007
Philip Hochberg, the lawyer and longtime P.A. announcer profiled in Monday’s Maryland Lawyer, showed his true grit last weekend at the BB&T Classic basketball tournament in Washington, D.C.
(Hochberg, a sports lawyer, announced Redskins games for 38 years until 2001 and has announced George Washington University basketball games and University of Maryland football games for more than 30 years.)
While announcing the Maryland game against Virginia Commonwealth University Sunday night, Hochberg became an innocent bystander in a crash collision between Terp Bambale Osby and the scorer’s table. Hochberg put his left arm up when he saw the 6′8″, 250-pound center falling toward him, but it was clearly an unfair fight.
I’m sure the BB&T crowd would have forgiven the 65-year-old an “injury time out” from his announcing duties, but the old pro went right on calling the game while the medics bandaged up his swollen and bleeding hand. Talk about tough!
The Terps didn’t fare any better - they lost to VCU, 85-76. Hochberg reported Tuesday that his hand is still swollen but at least he’s getting a free DVD of the collision from the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which aired the game and replayed the scene on its sports show.
“It’s the first time in 50 years of doing basketball P.A. that that’s happened,” Hochberg wrote in an e-mail. “I’ll survive.”
Iíll bet you lawyers out there have some stories of your own about unusual injuries on the job - care to share?
-LIZ FARMER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentConsidering an MBA? Turn to blogs
November 6, 2007
I stumbled across a collection of blogs today that I think you might find interesting, especially if you’ve been pondering a return to academia.
The Smith School of Business at U-Md. hosts four blogs, written by MBA students, to allow prospectives (or alumni) an “inside view” of the two-year program.
Meet Donna, Pete, Adam and Lettie, and you too can reminisce on sleepless nights, the interviewing process and an 18-hour day. One is even a former journalist.
One criticism: what’s with all the block text? It’s a bit maddening for the eyes.
-JACKIE SAUTER, Multimedia Editor
Sphere: Related ContentHaunted halls of academe
October 30, 2007
According to a story on the Capital News Service wire, several buildings at some of Maryland’s colleges and universities are haunted.
At the University of Maryland, College Park, the Rossborough Inn on U.S. Route 1 is home to “Miss Betty,” who is rumored to have been a nurse at the inn during the Civil War. She has been sighted by several people wearing a yellow dress.
At Morrill Hall, mysterious noises and smells have been detected, and on stormy nights, according to Anne Turkos, an archivist at Hornbake Library, people have heard a piano playing in Marie Mount Hall, even though there hasn’t been a piano in the building for years.
For more ghostly tales, check out the Web site of the Maryland Ghost and Spirit Association, which tracks and documents apparitions around the state.
What ghostly spirits have you seen or heard?
-PAUL SAMUEL, Associate Editor
Sphere: Related ContentIn the eyes of the law
September 12, 2007
University of Maryland police are treating the hanging of an alleged noose on the College Park campus last week as a possible hate crime.
But, before an act can be a hate crime, it has to be a crime.
Is putting a noose in a tree an actual crime under Maryland or Prince George’s County law? What are your thoughts?
-CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor
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