These are words that might be part of a message about a groundbreaking technology, or the start of an assessment on how we’ll live in the second half of the 21st century. While what’s ahead of us is always an open question, at The University of Baltimore, we aren’t waiting for the future to come to us. We’re already out there making it, and bringing it to our community, in every way that matters.
As The University of Baltimore enters its second century in 2025—during a Centennial year in which we’re looking back to our roots, our foundational principles, and to the hundreds of thousands of lives we’ve touched through a UBalt education—we are particularly interested in what’s ahead. How will our University continue to deliver the kind of teaching and learning that ensures personal and professional success? What are the specific subjects that we’ll offer, through courses, specialized centers, clinical settings, internships and externships, fellowships and more, in support of great careers? Most importantly, how will we retain our bedrock values, our connectedness to the world around us, when in fact that world is growing more complex, and, in some ways, indescribable, with each passing decade?
The answers can be found in so much of what we do. We’ve always sought in-demand academic programs to meet the changing times, such as our early adoption of an online MBA, or a master’s program incorporating digital technology into criminal investigations. These days, we’re preparing the brick-and-mortar institution of the future with a new master plan that includes a visionary center for learning as the heart of our campus. Adaptation, growth, preparation—these are must-dos for the University.
Behind you, with you, was this small institution in the middle of Baltimore.
Specific examples have their use, but I believe there’s a better way to grasp that massive question called “the future.” It’s simple, a single word with just three syllables—a way to think about both the future and the past that is empowering, inclusive, and inviting: Improvement.
For 100 years, and for the next 100, too, UBalt has stood, and will stand, for the idea that you, your children, your neighborhood, your city, and the country you live in, are all worthy of improving. It’s the work you put in as a student—that investment you made in yourself; the job you learned to do; the career you built, sometimes from the most basic parts and pieces. It’s in the difference you made, and the way that that positive change can show itself, years after you set out on your journey. Behind you, with you, was this small institution in the middle of Baltimore. You might not be part of UBalt, but our goal of bettering life for all has affected you.
That core truth—that this institution still resonates after a century of education and will continue to do so in the same way for 100 more—is what we’re celebrating in 2025. This is much more than an anniversary. It’s a statement that I hope will inspire you to consider all that we have to share in the future.
The University of Baltimore is for Baltimore. It’s an institution with a strong past and a bright future. It’s yours to start a great life or build on one that we know has greatness within. We believe in you, believe in our city, and the big world beyond. In the times to come, look for us to be part of the solution to the challenges that lie ahead. At UBalt, the century behind us meets the century ahead, with the talent and determination to improve.
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Kurt L. Schmoke
eighth UBalt president
