Big plans for Baltimore: The University of Maryland at Baltimore has opened the second of 10 buildings planned for its biotechnology complex. The BioPark, as it is called, is a partnership between the university and various state and city agencies. The first building in the complex is 60 percent occupied, and Baltimore City Community College is already lined up to rent space in the new building. The University of Maryland is not the only institution building a major biotech facility in Baltimore. Johns Hopkins is also working on an 80-acre bioengineering complex on the other side of the city. (Photo courtesy University of Maryland)
A ‘model green campus’: The University of Delaware is considering the construction of a new campus in Sussex County, in southern Delaware. The planning committee’s report says “this new college, built as a model green campus, should offer programs designed to take advantage of its location and … would also offer opportunities for the university to connect with new constituents, including those who are developing second careers and the culturally active retirement community in southern Delaware.”
New STARS: The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education has released a new version of the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System, or STARS. Comments on the new version are due on May 9.
The cruel swipe of a pen: Gov. Tim Pawlenty, of Minnesota, slashed money for an $11-million science center at Lake Superior College and a $5-million project at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in line-item vetoes, according to The Duluth News Tribune. A $10-million request for a civil-engineering building at the University of Minnesota at Duluth came through unscathed, as did a $35-million request for renovations in the University of Minnesota system.
A glowing meadow: A site used in the 1970s as a dump for radioactive materials from the University of Arkansas will soon become a grassy pasture. Workers have removed lab-waste detritus with low levels of radioactivity, along with contaminated soil. The Associated Press says that the university has no immediate plans for the property, which as been surrounded by chain-link fencing for decades.
And what are they smoking in Philadelphia?: Hmmm. There’s something fishy about these facilities stories from The Daily Pennsylvanian. First, the paper reports that authorities have found pot growing on the green roof of one of the college buildings. (That green roof would pay for itself in no time.) And then the paper reports that Donald Trump has given $100-million for a skyscraper project over Steinberg-Dietrich Hall, which will be renamed Steinberg-Trump-Dietrich Hall — or STD. “Once Trump starts, situations like STD will spread like wildfire and before you know it, he’ll be all over campus,” said Wharton student Phillip Milton Andover IV. I smell a joke issue, if not smoke.
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