It’s not who you might expect. PayScale, a website that aggregates economic data to help people understand whether they’re under- (or over-) paid just released its 2012-13 data ranking various universities for their salary potential. A quick data point:  Princeton grads have an average starting salary of $58,300 and an average mid-career salary of $137,000. And because money isn’t everything, PayScale also asks alumni whether their job “makes the world a better place”; 49 percent of Princeton grads think that it does. (The site surveyed students with a bachelor’s degree from the institution, not MD/MA/PhD grads, in case you’re wondering). The lowest-earning school on the list is the online division of the Art Institute of Pittsburgh (because who goes to art school online!?), where fresh grads average $34,200 and those with a decade or more under their belt make $42,300, on average. Curious about how some local schools measure up? We’ve got the answers below:
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Near the end of UMBC president Freeman Hrabowski’s TED Talk, he cites a quotation by Aristotle:  “Excellence is never an accident.” That’s a solid summary of Hrabowski’s rousing lecture about how he and his UMBC colleagues have taken an unremarkable school and made it into a cutting-edge institution — and, incidentally, the nation’s top producer of African-American students who go on to get PhDs or MD/PhDs. Watching the video, it’s easy to see why Time has named him one of the ten best university presidents in the nation.
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Ravens-themed manicures and other Super Bowl-themed activities boost Baltimore’s economy. So go get your nails done.

Here’s another reason to run up and hug Ray Rice if you see him at the mall  next month:  according to UMBC economic analysts, the fact that the Ravens have made it to the Super Bowl will boost Baltimore’s economy by about $140 per resident.
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I still remember the book all the incoming freshmen had to read at my college (it was Octavia Butler’s Kindred — in retrospect, a sign that my college was going to be pretty cool). The idea for these programs is to give students a common intellectual touchstone to chat about in classes, or while waiting in line at the cafeteria. But freshman reading can also be a litmus test for how a school sees itself. Do they prefer the hard-hitting to the feel-good? Are they nervous about assigning students anything that looks too much like work? Our analysis of local universities’ summer reading picks — and what they say about the universities themselves — is below:
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The street artist Nanook in process – all photos by Martha Cooper.

Writer and UMBC visiting prof Deborah Rudacille looks back at Open Walls Baltimore and the complicated relationship between graffiti and street art.    

One fine evening last spring, the street artist Gaia hunched over the handlebars of his bike watching two Ukrainian artists named Alexei and Vladimir spray a Chagall-like image on the side of a Maryland Avenue senior center.

The 23-year-old Maryland Institute College of Art graduate had spent the past five months putting together Open Walls, a month-long street art project. With help from Ben Stone of Station North Arts and Entertainment, he had secured a bit more than $60,000 dollars in grant funding from PNC bank and $20,000 from a $150,000 National Endowment for the Arts neighborhood grant to fund the project. He had arranged for permits, rented lifts and gotten the mayor to appear at the launch party. He was housing a revolving collection of artists in his cluttered loft and spent most days cycling between walls in Station North and Greenmount West, making sure that the artists had enough paint and wheatpaste, that the lifts were working properly and that relations between the artists and residents of the community were amicable. And he had put up the first mural himself, on the high-profile corner of North and Charles. Read More →

Cortly Witherspoon and Sharon Black arrested at City Hall – Baltimore Brew
Image of mayor’s face on toilet paper roll causes turmoil in local fire union – Baltimore Sun
Rawlings-Blake’s family, aides get tickets to 1st Mariner shows – Baltimore Sun
Four Maryland colleges among best places to work – Baltimore Business Journal
Infographic of the Day: Do the Mainstream Media Have a Conservative Bias? – The Atlantic

Johns Hopkins publishes OUTList, a list of all the out lesbian/gay/bi/transgender students, staff, and faculty. The University of Maryland makes employees’ same-sex partners eligible for benefits. But according to a national ranking of universities, not all Baltimore-area schools are created equal when it comes to creating a LGBT-friendly campus. The LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index allots participating universities between zero (yike!) and five (hooray!) stars. Here’s how local schools measure up:
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Dr. Shirley Jackson, who will five the commencement speech at Morgan State.

I’m sure there are people out there who remember their commencement speakers forever. I’m not one of them. I vaguely remember a woman speaking in broad terms about leadership, or friendship, or maybe even both. Some of this year’s graduates are going to find that half-hour speech the most riveting part of graduation — probably those lucky kids at Goucher, who’ll get to listen to a born storyteller — while many will spend that time daydreaming about their post-graduation plans. Here’s a run-down of the rest of 2012′s commencement speakers and their relative snooze-scores:
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Time calls them the, “people who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world…the breakouts, pioneers, moguls, leaders and icons.”  This year, University of Maryland, Baltimore County President Freeman Hrabowski makes the list. Also among the top 100? Stephen Colbert, IMF Chief Christine Lagarde, Jeremy Lin and President Barack Obama, and more.

Here’s what Andrew Rotherham writes about Dr. Hrabowski:

When you think of the top science universities in the U.S., schools like MIT and Caltech may jump to mind. But perhaps the most envied science program in the country is at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. That’s where Freeman A. Hrabowski III, 61, has spent 20 years as president turning a humble commuter school into one of the nation’s leading sources of African Americans who get Ph.D.s in science and engineering. The college’s Meyerhoff Scholars program — which initially targeted black men but is now open to all applicants — creates a highly structured (no phones or Facebook allowed during boot camp) and supportive experience for math and science students, almost all of whom not only graduate but also go on to grad school. Hrabowski, who was jailed at the age of 12 for five days for participating in a civil rights protest in Birmingham, Ala., where Bull Connor spat in his face, finished college at 19 and got his Ph.D. at 24. Now, as an adviser to the National Academies, he’s devoted to helping others succeed, in school and beyond.

View the entire list at Time.com

Onlookers jeer as man is beaten, stripped and robbed in Baltimore – CNN
U-Md. Baltimore County serves its students well – Washington Post
With offshore wind gone, Assembly pushes energy from manure – Baltimore Sun
What The White House Wants You To Know About The Buffett Rule – Business Insider
Grand Jury Review Skipped in Trayvon Martin Case - New York Times
Maryland set to become first state to ban arsenic in chicken feed – Washington Post