Real People Profiles: Jack Suess

I’m asking some of the people you might encounter on the UMBC campus, including students, faculty and staff, to answer a few questions about themselves and their experiences. These are their responses.

Name: Jack Suess

Hometown: Baltimore

Q: How long have you been at UMBC?

A: 12,131 days (33 years, 2 months, 17 days) as of 11/23/09.

Q: In 12 words or less, what role(s) do you play on campus?

A: I oversee the academic and administrative use of information technology at UMBC.

Q: What aspect of your UMBC role(s) do you enjoy most?

A: I really enjoy the opportunities I get in my role as Vice President to interact with, and celebrate the success of, our students and faculty. I especially enjoy watching them use technology in unintended ways.

Q: What is the most important or memorable thing you learned in college/have learned at UMBC?

A: For me it was two things. One, college is a place where you make life-long friends. I still catch up regularly with my two best friends from college. Second, it is a cliche but the power of getting an education is life-changing. I was first to go to college in my family and one of the few in my neighborhood and the experience of college changed my life.

Q: Complete this sentence: “I am a big fan of __________”

A: Even though I can’t sing I am a big fan of the old-time 50's musicals. I love movies like Seven Brides for Seven Brothers or South Pacific. This year I’m hooked on the Fox show Glee.

Q: Do you have any UMBC stories, little-known facts about UMBC, favorite spots on campus, or anything else you’d like to share?

A: I know space is limited but i have two stories from the days of attending UMBC in the late 70‘s. At that time it was legal to drink at 18 in Maryland and I remember going to the old Hillcrest building every monday and thursday night when we closed the computer center at 10pm. In the basement they had a pub called the Rathskellar, which everyone called the “Rat”. For a student video of the hillcrest with a picture of the RAT see http://www.umbc.edu/studio/videos/qtdetail?ID=350,( look at the 3 minute mark). The pub owned about 15 albums (yes the vinyl kind) from the early 70‘s and you could almost set your watch by what they would play. When I go out with my friends and we hear the Led Zeppelin song Stairway to Heaven we always joke it must be closing time since that is what they played at Rat when it was closing.

The other thing I remember when coming in from the Beltway to UMBC is the formation of the commuter students association in the fall of 1976. What was interesting was it showed me that students could get involved and change things for the better. I was a freshman and two upper-class students that were in my Calculus class started this up and pulled me into helping them. A big push was to get a traffic signal where the exit ramp hits Wilkens Ave. In 1976 there was no signal and every morning traffic would back up trying to make the left hand turn onto Wilkens to get to UMBC. These two students started the CSA and ultimately got the administration to press the issue with the MTA and get the light installed. Ultimately those two students went on to run SGA and went on to dental school. As someone that was commuting to UMBC every day I would smile when I got off the beltway and think of them and how much better this was!