Towson University Points of Pride

Towson University's Points of Pride are specific achievements and milestones in six of its eight colleges. It deals more specifically with the success of students who have graduated from the school, and its achievements in University of Maryland System, and is listed on its website.^[1]

College of Business and Economics

• CBE is the largest undergraduate business school in Maryland, with more than 3,000 undergraduate students.

• TU is the only institution in Maryland's university system with an undergraduate degree in e-Business.

• CBE is one of just 30 exclusively undergraduate programs accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International), and the only University System of Maryland institution with AACSB International accreditation for both its business administration and accounting programs.

• Towson University students were responsible for 82 of the 174 business plans submitted to the Greater Baltimore Technology Council's (GBTC) area "Mosh Pit" competition.

College of Education

• The College of Education is the oldest and largest producer of teachers in the state of Maryland.

• The Center for Leadership in Education offers practical workshops for school administrators, teachers and parent groups across the state. Its members serve as unpaid consultants and advisors to school leaders and system administrators.

• The college is nationally recognized for its network of more than 110 professional development schools where teacher candidates receive hands-on training in the classroom and guidance from experienced mentor teachers.

• The College of Education has assumed a leadership role in Towson’s metropolitan university outreach program with Baltimore’s Cherry Hill community.

Jess & Mildred Fisher College of Science & Mathematics

• The Fisher College named Dr. Joy Watts, a nationally recognized molecular ecologist, as the first holder of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair in the Biological and Physical Sciences, which is the only endowed faculty chair at the university.

• More recently, Dr. Jennifer Scott, an award-winning astronomer, became the second holder of the Jess & Mildred Fisher Endowed Chair.

• The Department of Chemistry offers the only B.S. program in Forensic Chemistry in the state.

• Towson University and the Fisher College’s Department of Computer and Information Sciences have been designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Security and Assurance by the National Security Agency.

• The Fisher College annually receives nearly $2 million in external grants and contracts to support pure and applied research and curriculum development. An important component of this is a successful record of providing undergraduate research opportunities through major support from the National Science Foundation.

• The Fisher College has established state-of-the-art interdisciplinary labs in materials science, nanotechnology, and biogeochemistry to conduct faculty/student research dealing with environment and high technology.

College of Fine Arts and Communication

• In the Broadway production of Candide, the costumes were designed by Tony Award winning TU graduate—Judy Dolan. Award-winning actors Charles S. Dutton and John Glover, are also TU graduates.

• The U.S. Air Force Band includes Towson University music graduates.

• Towson University’s M.F.A. in Theatre program has attracted the attention of American Theatre magazine. American Theatre describes Towson’s program as a “unique international project”. Students from Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Poland and the United States participated in the Warsaw Project hosted by Towson University.

• Towson University’s production of R & J was recently performed at the Kennedy Center "American College Theatre Festival".

• Towson University music alumnus Shea Welsh toured as guitarist for pop singer Britney Spears and played on her two most recent albums. Music alumnus Austin Caughlin played guitar for the tour of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

College of Liberal Arts

• Towson University’s Department of Women’s Studies, founded in 1973, is the second-oldest in the United States.

• The English Department's Online Writing Support Web site has received over 55,000 hits from users as close as Towson and as far away as Singapore. The site offers information, interactive exercises and self-teaching units on grammar, punctuation and usage. It also includes a grammar hotline.

• Omar H. Ali, Department of History, will be a Visiting Fulbright Professor at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá during the fall 2006 term.

• Atlantic Cousins: Benjamin Franklin and his Visionary Friends, the critically acclaimed book by Jack Fruchtman, Department of Political Science, will be available in paperback in late 2006 or early 2007.

• The 2005 issue of Grub Street, the student literary publication sponsored by Department of English Professor Clarinda Harriss and run entirely by Towson University students, won a Gold Crown Award from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. Only four other universities (one of them Harvard) had student literary publications that received this award last year.

College of Health Professions

• The College of Health Professions enrolls more bachelor’s and master’s health care and sport-related students than any other institution in Maryland.

• The Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science has the state’s only combined B.S./M.S. program in Occupational Therapy.

• The Department of Nursing is Maryland’s second-largest nursing program.

• The Department of Kinesiology is the largest producer of teachers in physical education and sport-related programs.

• The Department of Health Science has the only program in Health Care Management certified by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration.

• The Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Program is one of only two state-supported programs and the only program to provide the opportunity for students to do a clinical practicum experience in the on-campus clinic.

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