Newsbriefs

Distinguished Alumnus Richard Blewitt
Students Hold Job Fair in Siberia
DOD Extends UMUC Contract

Richard F. Blewitt '73, a corporate officer and spokesman who has spent many years successfully handling business public affairs issues, was honored as UMUC Distinguished Alumnus during the May 30 commencement activities in College Park, Maryland.

Blewitt has a diverse professional background. He is a former reporter with the Scranton (Pennsylvania) Times, served as a U.S. Navy journalist in Japan, and has held public relations positions with several corporations and trade associations. Working as vice president of corporate affairs for Velsicol Chemical Corporation while the company was receiving intense scrutiny from the media helped give him the experience he needed to start Rowan and Blewitt Incorporated, an international issue and crisis management firm. Other accomplishments include serving as a contributing editor to World Book Encyclopedia and being named "Man of the Year" by a national trade magazine.

Blewitt serves on UMUC's Board of Visitors, is past president of the Alumni Association, is a member of the President's Club, and chaired the UMUC 50th Anniversary Council during the year-long celebration in 1997. He is currently chair of the search committee for a new president for UMUC.

Blewitt holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and is a graduate of Harvard Business School's Owner/President Management Program.

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In an event unique in the heart of the former Soviet Union, 40 students of the Siberian-American Department of Management at Irkutsk State University organized a job fair on the campus. Some 20 representatives of Russian businesses, nearly a dozen academic and government officials, and more than 200 faculty and students attended the April 21 job fair.

Activities at the job fair included remarks by special guests, formal presentations, and an informal networking session between students and industry representatives. Participants said that the presence of Irkutsk Mayor Vladimir V. Yakubovsky and government Department of Human Resources Director Vladimir M. Ezhkov contributed to how seriously people took the job fair.

UMUC and Irkutsk State University jointly established the Siberian-American Department of Management in 1991. Management students in Communication Studies 390 Writing for Managers, taught by Gae Holiday, organized the event in its entirety.

"We did prove to the faculty members, employees, sponsors, and students from other courses that we are able to organize such an event," says senior Anna Zhukova, one of the event organizers. "I hope that the job fair becomes a tradition of the Siberian-American Department of Management."

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The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded the UMUC European Division a five-year contract through July 2003, allowing the university to continue providing both undergraduate- and graduate-level coursework throughout the U.S. European, Central, and Southern Commands. DOD has awarded a contract for the same period for the UMUC Asian Division to provide undergraduate and graduate-level programs for the U.S. Pacific Command.

"The success of UMUC's overseas programs—past, present, and future—is a tribute to the experience, talent, and dedication of UMUC's faculty and staff in the field," notes former UMUC President T. Benjamin Massey. "These decisions mean that UMUC will remain the principal provider of post-secondary educational programs for U.S. military personnel and their families overseas."

During the 1996–97 academic year, more than 30,000 students took courses in the European Division and more than 20,000 took courses in the Asian Division. In Europe, where UMUC began its work in 1949, the university operates as part of a consortium that includes four other Maryland institutions (Bowie State University; University of Maryland, College Park; Charles County Community College; and Montgomery College). In Asia, where UMUC has been offering educational opportunities since 1956, the University of Maryland, College Park, also offers a master's program.

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