Ecologist Develops New Method for Detecting Biodiversity
EMBARGOED until Feb. 1, 2009

BALTIMORE – Ecologists from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Baylor University in Texas have developed a new method for measuring the impact of human-caused environmental degradation on biodiversity that is significantly more precise than current methods and has revealed a dramatically lower ecological “tipping point” at which species are threatened.

The new method of statistical analysis was detailed online Feb. 1 in the British Ecological Society’s new journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution and includes a free download of a program to apply the analysis, created by co-author, and UMBC geography and environmental systems professor, Matthew Baker.

Environmental scientists are increasingly relying on statistical methods for determining thresholds, or “tipping points,” beyond which ecological systems are damaged by changes to the environment. More recently, ecologists have asked whether biological communities show similar responses – the proverbial “canary-in-the-coal-mine” test.

Accurately measuring these tipping points is important for protecting threatened species and better understanding how ecosystems respond to major changes such as global warming, coal mine leaching, agricultural pollutants or water-runoff from highly developed areas, said Baker, who with Ryan King, a biology professor from Baylor University, used stream invertebrate samples collected from Maryland tributaries by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and data from Florida’s Everglades in their analyses.

Baker said the precision of their new method is significantly greater than methods that have been widely used for the past 40 years.

For example, a decade-old analysis widely-cited by environmental professionals and policymakers suggests that it takes up to 10-15 percent of impervious surface (meaning roads, roofs, or parking lots) or about 20-30 percent developed land in a given area before local water-systems no longer sustain normal aquatic life. Baker and King’s new method demonstrates that aquatic life actually shows significant loss of biodiversity with only 1-3 percent developed land in a watershed.

A common practice by state and federal environmental protection agencies (U.S. EPA) is to rate the health of streams by comparing overall biotic life with data from “reference” streams using indices that combine various measures to provide a general scoring of health. This approach does a good job distinguishing highly degraded and relatively pristine systems, but isn’t as clear about what happens when conditions fall in between, Baker said.

“Our method of measuring response to degradation is more precise because we track the response of every species separately, and look specifically for places where the abundance or occurrence of many species changes simultaneously at a particular level of disturbance,” Baker said. “This allows us to detect, with a high level of statistical certainty, when we are approaching a point at which species are threatened, and whether the response is consistent with a community threshold.”

Original reports on the allegations of assault and sexual assault against former UMBC professor Ramachandra Hosmane can be found here and here. The charges against Hosmane were nolle prossed (dismissed) last week in district court in Catonsville.

Since that time, we’ve received tips, including a comment on one of the previous posts, that the charges against Hosmane were dropped as some sort of deal with his accuser. The tipindicates that some sort of financial settlement deal between Hosmane and his accuser was made. Presumably this meant a civil or private settlement of some sort in which the accuser agreed not to testify in court – which would result in the charges being thrown out. The tipsters also indicated that Hosmane had retired from UMBC as of January 1, 2010. The commenter indicated that a UMBC investigation corroborated what the accuser had alleged.

In doing further research, we discovered that Hosmane is no longer listed on the faculty page for the Chemistry Department at UMBC and the Hosmane Research Group is missing from the list of research groups. We also sent email to the office of his attorney, Arthur M. Frank, asking for comment last week on the charges being dismissed and again today regarding the latest tips we received. Additionally, we made similar requests of the attorney for the accuser and received no responses.

I did receive confirmation from Eleanor Lewis at UMBC that Hosmane has indeed retired from the University.

Anyone with further information on this story is welcome to send email to mail@insidecharmcity.com. We welcome comments from Dr. Hosmane, Mr. Frank, Hosmane’s accuser, her attorney, and anyone else with information confirming or refuting the previous information relayed to us.

To sum things up, Ramachandra Hosmane is retired from UMBC. This reportedly happened January 1 and then charges were dismissed against him January 6. We received information that indicated Hosmane reached some sort of financial agreement with his accuser in which she agreed not to testify against him. We are still seeking additional confirmation on the details of any settlement and his retirement.

Update: The Retriever Weekly’s blog picks up the story about the retirement and the charges being nolle prossed.

According to online court records, the second degree assault and fourth degree sexual assault charges against UMBC Chemistry Professor Ramachandra Hosmane today were nolle prossed. We previously discussed the charges here and here.

UMBC release

December 15, 2009
UMBC Receives $83,208 BRAC Higher Education Grant

Cybersecurity Program Will Help Develop BRAC Workforce

CONTACTS:

Deborah Shapiro, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
410-455-1509
dshapiro@umbc.edu

Michael Raia, Office of the Lt. Governor
410-260-3888
mraia@gov.state.md.us

ANNAPOLIS, MD – December 15, 2009 – Lt. Governor Anthony G. Brown announced earlier today that the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) received one of 12 BRAC Higher Education grants. The grant, made available through legislation passed by the Maryland General Assembly (the Higher Education Investment Fund) in 2008, will help UMBC establish a Center for Cybersecurity Training focusing on developing regional workforce with qualifications and skills to support local cybersecurity needs, as well as national cybersecurity initiatives within the State.

Fifteen courses will be developed by UMBC Training Centers and will be targeted to employees of state and federal government agencies and contractors, active military, veterans and any others seeking job training or skill enhancement. Courses planned include Java Development for Secure Systems, Enterprise Linux Security Administration, and Securing .NET Applications and Web Services. The goal is to begin delivering pilot courses to small groups of students this spring, at either UMBC or a government or contractor location via a mobile computer lab. While it is projected that 75-150 students will be served during the pilot phase, ultimately the goal is to serve about 720 students per year.

“We want to thank Governor O’Malley and Lt. Governor Brown for their outstanding support of our efforts to build a strong education and training foundation for the BRAC workforce,” said Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, president of UMBC. “This grant from the Maryland Higher Education Investment Fund (HEIF) will enable us to establish a Center for Cybersecurity Training which is an essential component of BRAC.”

“I applaud UMBC and the ten other institutions of higher education on their successful grant application. It is only through our partnerships that Maryland will reap every benefit of BRAC,” Lt. Governor Brown said. “Governor O’Malley and I have set clear priorities that put an emphasis on job creation and we wholly understand that our strong network of public, independent and community colleges play an important role in reach our ambitious goals.”

The 2005 decisions by the Commission on Base Realignment and Closure will create as many as 60,000 new jobs across Maryland, including jobs in communications, intelligence and other high-skilled fields. To fully grasp the potential of this expanding economy, Governor O’Malley and the General Assembly created the BRAC Subcabinet, which Lt. Governor Brown chairs. In 2008, the General Assembly passed an administration bill that funds the BRAC Higher Education Grant program. This is the second year grants have been awarded to colleges and universities across the state.

Every Maryland institute of higher learning is eligible to apply for the BRAC Higher Education Fund grants, including two- and four-year public or independent colleges or universities, Maryland research institutions, Maryland Regional Higher Education centers, and Maryland private career schools.

This post has been updated in two spots. The updated portions are additions that are boldfaced and italicized.

On October 6, Stan Moore of Inside Charm City posted about circumstances at UMBC. On October 5, The Retriever ran a story about an allegation that ” a UMBC student was allegedly sexually assaulted by a UMBC faculty/ staff member.”

The Retriever article pointed to a blog post made September 23 that referenced UMBC’s police logs from September 13. Stan included a copy of the police log in his post on October 6. The October 5 article in the Retriever indicated that the investigation was ongoing and that UMBC police chief Antonio Williams said they weren’t releasing any names in the case, including that of the suspect. The article indicated that the alleged events took place on September 9 and weren’t reported until September 13. The events allegedly took place in the Meyerhoff Chemistry Building

The September 23 Retriever Weekly blog post indicates that Deputy police chief Manual Lewis said no details were being released out of respect for the victim. Lewis also would only tell them the suspect was a “non-student” even though campus police logs said that it was a faculty or staff member.

From that blog post:

Lewis explained that more information will be released when there is a conclusion to the case. The Retriever Weekly will continue to update UMBC on this as more information is released.

As a quick aside, do you really think they wouldn’t release the name of a sex assault suspect on campus if it was a student or someone not affiliated with the University, especially when that information is supposed to be public?

Williams also told The Retriever that an internal sexual harassment investigation was ongoing besides the criminal investigation his department was conducting.

From the October 5 article:

Police have spoken to both parties and are continuing the investigation. Chief Williams has said the police are looking to see if any other alleged incidents have occurred, either with the alleged victim in this case or any other alleged victim. He also pointed out that since the investigation is still ongoing, all information regarding any current or previous actions are alleged but they are looking into it. “We take the matter very seriously and are investigating it vigorously.”

After the Inside Charm City blog post on October 6, I sent an inquiry to UMBC on October 12 asking for any updates in this story or any official statement from the University. I received a reply back the next day from Eleanor Lewis saying there were no updates or statements. I also sent an email to the Retriever staff using their email form on their website at some point in October asking if they had any updates and telling them of the non-response I got. No one from The Retriever ever responded.

The Retriever Weekly again blogged about the investigation on October 24. This report finally confirmed information (that was already reported by the Retriever and in the police logs) that the alleged suspect was a faculty or staff member but the police chief refused to provide any other details. Chief Antonio Williams went even farther this time in his refusal to provide details. Instead of just saying he was protecting the rights of the victim and the accused, Williams said he wasn’t releasing information because doing so would create a “threat to the campus community.”

On October 31, an anonymous commenter posted on the October 24th TRW blog post with information that charges had been filed in the case way back on September 14th and that Ram Hosmane, a chemistry professor, had been charged with 2nd degree assault and fourth degree sexual assault. The commenter chided UMBC for not being more open in this matter.

Court records indicate that the victim also filed a peace order against Hosmane the same day charges were filed but that file was later closed (The Retriever later reported it was dismissed.) I was surprised to see that the victim’s name was listed online as the plaintiff in the peace order action. I realize that victim information is in the actual paper records that the media sees (and normally doesn’t report on) but I figured that the state’s online case records would do a better job of protecting the victim in a case like this. As such, we are not linking to the peace order information or providing any other information from it.

The court records for the assault and sex offense indicats that Ramachandra Hosmane was charged on September 14 with 2nd Degree Assault (a felony) and 4th Degree Sex Offense (a misdemeanor.) Hosmane is a resident of Columbia who will be turning 65 next month. His attorney is listed as Arthur M. Frank. Officer Torain of UMBC was the officer listed as the complainant. The trial date is set for 1 p.m. on January 6, 2010 at the county court building at 900 Walker Avenue (in the shadow of UMBC.) I have a screen capture of the online records for the charges at the bottom of this post.

According to my reading of Maryland law, the maximum penalty Hosmane could receive on the second degree assault charge is 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. The maximum penalty for the fourth degree sex offense charge is 1 year in prison and a $1,000 fine. The fourth degree sex offense charge appears to be a law that prohibits a person in authority (like a teacher, coach or school administrator) from abusing that authority to take advantage of a student in a sexual manner.

On November 3, The Retriever Weekly (possibly acting on the tip from the anonymous commenter to their October 24 blog post) published a story on the charges against Ram Hosmane.

The November story mentions that the alleged victim is a PhD student at UMBC. Not surprisingly, the UMBC Police refused comment for the story. It is also mentioned that the victim did have a temporary peace order against Hosmane, which was dropped at the victim’s request on September 21.

Hosmane, who has been at UMBC for 26 years and heads the Hosmane Research Group, issued a statement to the campus newspaper:

“I vehemently and emphatically deny all charges of sexual assault lodged against me,” Hosmane said in a statement to The Retriever Weekly last week. Hosmane claimed his accuser “has falsely and maliciously accused me of the crimes I did not commit… One cannot build a brick tower on a sand foundation; sooner or later it is going to collapse. Similarly, one cannot produce a documentary based on lies, deceptions and distortions; it will simply look like fiction.” Hosmane also said, “I am confident that all pending criminal charges against me at the court as well as the university will be… dismissed.”

John Singleton, an attorney representing the victim also issued a statement:

John Singleton, an attorney representing the alleged victim, told The Retriever Weekly he was “confident that UMBC is acting swiftly but prudently to contain the damage that has been inflicted and to ensure that the UMBC community is protected.” He emphasized that a zero tolerance policy must be followed. “It would be shameful indeed to allow students to be pressured into supporting and covering up the acts of a wrongdoer, as they also become victims,” he noted.

The last part of his statement is odd and seems imply to me that maybe students in Hosmane’s research group, at least one of whom was on the record in the article supporting Hosmane, are being pressured into assisting in his defense.

UMBC’s Eleanor Lewis, who told me they had no statement last month, finally issued a statement from the University for this article in The Retriever:

“We want to assure the campus community that appropriate campus offices are responding with actions consistent with UMBC’s applicable policies. Members of the university faculty and staff are providing support to the student as she continues with her studies.”

The Retriever, on Hosmane’s professional background:

The Maryland Association for Higher Education named Hosmane Outstanding Educator of the Year (2000-2001). The American Chemical Society also named him Maryland Chemist of the Year in 2002. Hosmane has achieved a series of other awards and honors throughout his academic career, including Outstanding Mentor of the Year, UMBC Presidential Research Professor, and UMBC Presidential Teaching Professor.

During the time that this investigation has been proceeding, Chief Antonio Williams has been mentioned as a candidate for multiple other jobs, including another campus here in town. UMBC reportedly matched that local offer. I’m not sure if that might be affecting his conduct of the investigation or not. I would imagine the pressure to stonewall or withhold information is coming from somewhere in the administration building on campus however.

Also, early on the statement by Deputy Chief Manual Lewis that no other details were going to be released until a conclusion of the case indicates the original intention may have been to keep a lid on this whole matter until the court date was over.

This story has still not made it in print off-campus from what I can tell. The only place it has been covered besides the campus newspaper is here at Inside Charm City. The campus paper appears to be a victim of the stonewalling process as well, and I’m sure that if they got too interested in the case that they could be stonewalled even more effectively than outside media because of their dependence upon the University to function.

Crime at UMBC is like crime everywhere else. There are the usual laptop thefts, car break-ins on the loop or thefts from lockers in the RAC. The usual campus drinking violations and other charges pop up from time to time as well. Offenses like the ones Hosmane is charged with happen on rare occasions at most campuses, even UMBC. The most prominent crimes on campus this semester have been a string of thefts of computers and electronics equipment. The reaction so far by campus and police officials make it look like they have something to hide, even if they don’t.

There are a ton of good stories in the news about UMBC over the past couple of years – many about how dynamic of a figure University President Freeman Hrabowski is. Additionally, UMBC keeps rising in all the right categories on college rankings and articles every year. To me, the coverup of a case like this would tarnish the university even more than being honest about it would be. It would appear that some on campus feel otherwise. I’m sure they just want the case to be a number with no other details on their end of year crime statistics report required by federal law.

Any reasonable person following this story would have to conclude that if the alleged suspect in this case was a student, or even a less distinguished faculty member, that things might have gone quite differently in how things have happened.

Thanks are deserved by the tipster who passed the information on to the Retriever by a blog comment and also to the Retriever for sticking with the story.

I do consider Hosmane innocent until proved guilty. This post is more about whether the whole case has been characterized by a series of cover-up on campus that would not have happened if the suspect was not a distinguished faculty member.

Anyone involved in any part of this story is welcome to send a statement or comments to mail@insidecharmcity.com and we will run them unedited and uncut (Continue reading…)