Freeman Hrabowski was news last month when he announced his plan to retire. After three decades as president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Hrabowski will resign at the end of the academic year. As one of the majority of the dynamic leaders in US higher education, Hrabowski turned the relatively new, the four-year public university in a flourishing research institution and challenged the narrative that only prestigious, rich institutions can offer quality education .
Today UMBC graduates to the blackiest students who are going to win doctorates in natural sciences and techniques than any other American institution. The University has increased its six-year graduation rate for first-year full-time students 55.7 percent to 69.2 percent in the last 10 years. Investment in campus infrastructure has also skyrocketed during the Hrabowski mandate, from $ 118 million per year at $ 1.2 billion.
Inside Higher ED recently spoke with Hrabowski about his management, leadership strategies and his post-umbc plans.
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The Next interview has been edited duration and clarity.
Q: First, it went to school for mathematics; What made pivot decide to higher education?
R: I had gotten a Master's degree in Mathematics and I really liked the abstract algebra, but I did not have anyone to talk to. No one would work with me in groups; I was generally the only black in the class.
The most important thing is that I wanted to be able to talk about the work. I started to see that a large number of graduate students were having problems with their quantitative courses in social sciences. I was especially interested in seeing how the statistics could be used to explain different challenges and trends in higher education
Q: So Mathematics has continued playing a role in his Higher Education career? googleg.cmd.push (Function () Googleg.Display ("DFP-AD-Article_in_Article"););
R: a lot. One learns to think critically on mathematics, and I am a strong advocate for mathematics and to encourage students to study mathematics, either as an important or as part of their programs. My approach has been for years in the evaluation - quantitative and qualitative evaluation. So all my research in the last 40 years has focused largely on STEM education and program evaluation and the use of statistics
Q:. How does your experience in civil rights activism contribute to your style or leadership practices?
A: I've heard Dr. King when he was 12 years old "tomorrow may be better than today". All the things we saw as children - who go to schools that do not have resources, is giving the broken books in the progress of white schools - the world did not have to stay in that way. I could get a day when we could go and sit at the table in a restaurant instead of going through a side door to pick up something.
The message of him gave me hope and opened my mind to the possibilities that the United States could much better than it was at that moment.
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Q: UMBC was founded in 1966 and that I have been president for more than half of its existence. How does the relative novelty of the institution affected its ability to direct and implement changes?
R: We were the first campus founded in our state to accept students of all races. Every other university - usually in the south in general - it was either for blacks or whites. We were attracting a large number of people of interracial origin and the people of the military, the people of intelligence com
