Maryland Business

Racking up “likes” on Facebook or Twitter followers could help a group of University of Maryland students win $5,000 toward a cause of their choice and a private jet to Atlanta for courtside seats at an NBA game.

The two prizes are part of a contest announced at last Saturday’s men’s basketball game, when the Terps got a video message from actor Kevin Bacon.

The university has teamed up with the film star for the “Do Good Challenge,” aimed at encouraging students to engage in philanthropy.

“What we’re trying to do here is get a lot of people out doing good, and to promote giving and make a difference at the same time,” said Robert Grimm, who is directing the challenge and also directs the University’s Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management program.

Eleven groups registered in the first 48 hours, Grimm said.

Students can start their own projects, work with an existing student group, or work with a nonprofit.

“I want to see how you can use your creativity to encourage social change,” Bacon said in his video message.

Students have until March 26 to submit a statement explaining the impact they’ve had and what they’ve learned.

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Howard County Executive Ken Ulman talked about a wide range of topics in his Newsmakers interview. The University of Maryland alum also gave his thoughts on the football team’s new Under Armour uniforms.

Judging by the video clip below, I’d say he’s a fan.

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By now everyone has given their opinion about the football uniforms the University of Maryland unveiled Monday night during their season-opening win against Miami.

Paul Lukas, an authority on uniforms, wrote on ESPN.com the Terps were in “court jester” mode and looked like “living chess pieces.” An athletic department spokesman told the New York Daily News the design is a “branding thing,” while an Under Armour spokesman said they were a way to “define Maryland pride and to differentiate.”

“Maryland Pride,” perhaps not-so-coincidentally, is also the title of a one-minute video the Terps were reportedly shown before receiving the uniforms last night. I was ready to put on cleats as a narrator described the Compfit Pride Jersey, “tight where it needs to be, no drag, no grab, more flex.”

You can see the ad below, which Under Amour also posted on YouTube last night. (Lukas and others reported receiving a press release about the uniforms right around kickoff time.)

Love them or hate them, the uniforms “accomplished exactly what they want to do,” Stewart Mandel, a college football writer for SportsIllustrated.com, told the Daily News.

“For three hours last night, everyone was talking about Maryland football,” he said. “When’s the last time anyone talked about Maryland football?”

All of this means one thing to this College Park alum: I can’t wait to see which of the 32 uniform combinations the Terps break out for their next game, Sept. 17 against West Virginia.

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University of Maryland Medical Center is starting a new advertising campaign, called “Medicine on a Mission.”

If you check out their website, you’ll see the new campaign. On the right side of the page click on the links under the video player to watch the television commercials, listen to the radio advertisements, and see the print advertisement.

The ads will begin airing on TV, radio and appearing in print next week. They all carry the new logo that was rolled out a few weeks ago, and they all drive individuals to our web site for more information.  The site contains more than 500 videos featuring patient stories, interviews with faculty and staff, and in-depth consumer health information.

The campaign is targeting the entire state of Maryland with some national reach, to raise awareness and build the reputation of the University of Maryland Medical Center as an academic medical center that delivers complex medical care in a personal way.

According to hospital executives in a release, “reputation is also important in attracting the best and the brightest employees, enhancing physician recruitment and strengthening our relationship with referring physicians that trust us with their most difficult cases.”

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This Tuesday, University of Maryland Head Football Coach Ralph Friedgen and U.S. Naval Academy Head Football Coach Ken Niumatalolo will visit Baltimore Ravens training camp in Westminster to promote their upcoming head-to-head in September.

The two are scheduled to attend the 8:45 a.m. training camp practice session and the coaches will meet with Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh and his staff before addressing the media on the practice fields at McDaniel College.

I asked around and it seems this is the first time in recent memory the Maryland and Navy coaches will make an appearance at training camp to plug the game. (The last time the teams played was in 2005 — and that was after a 40-year hiatus.)

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All an Atlantic Coast Conference spokeswoman and a spokesman for ESPN will say is “negotiations are ongoing.” Representatives from University of Maryland’s Department of Athletics won’t even talk about it.

But unconfirmed reports are running wild on the Internet and it appears Maryland and the ACC’s 11 other schools are due for a huge financial boon in 2011 as the conference nears a television deal that could increase each school’s share by roughly $7 million per year.

According to reports, the ACC has reached a 12-year, $1.86 billion television deal with sports giant ESPN, doubling the conference’s broadcast agreement with Raycom Sports and ESPN, which ends at the close of the 2010-2011 season.

Citing unnamed sources, the Sports Business Journal reported Monday that ESPN will pay the ACC $155 million a year to broadcast the conference’s football and basketball games through the 2022-23 season, more than double the approximately $75 million the ACC is making now.

Charlotte-based Raycom will continue its long association with the ACC by subleasing games from ESPN for regional syndication.

Maryland’s Department of Athletics serves 27 sports teams and has an annual expense budget of approximately $55 million, according to the school.

Translation: $7 million more a year will put each school’s share at about $13 million. That’ll make a nice difference for a school considered to have a mid-sized budget. And let’s not forget the cuts Maryland had to make in this most recent year’s athletics budget (for more details click here.)

And for the cherry on top of the sundae, rumors have it that Maryland could get an even bigger slice of  conference revenue sharing pie — but not with the ACC. According to The (Newport News, Va.) Daily Press’ Teel Time blog, the Big Ten Conference’s planned realignment could include Maryland. No one’s saying anything yet (again, unnamed sources cited here) but money-wise it’s huge: Big Ten schools receive about $22 million per year.

For you math nerds, that would be a near-quadrupling of Maryland’s conference money (although Maryland would have to play in a historically much tougher conference).

Either way it appears good financial times are ahead for Maryland athletics. Now about that football team …

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A budding business from the mind of a University of Maryland student is in the running for seed funding from the Dell Social Innovation Competition.

Tseai Energy Unlimited works to empower communities through agriculture. The company develops bioprocessing plants to bring electricity to underdeveloped countries — with a focus on Africa, where many of the countries lack access to reliable and consistent electricity — and boost their economies at the same time.

Trevor Young, a University of Maryland Hillman Entrepreneurs Program student originally from Sierra Leone, established the company in May 2009. He named it after his daughter Tseai, which means sunshine.

Using abundant local crops and employing local farmers, the company installs small-scale agricultural processing plants.  Much of the revenue from the sale of the products goes back into the community through economic development and social services, including a free or low-cost health care clinic and free access to educational courses.

To get the energy piece of the project, Tseai converts waste from the mill into fertilizer and biogas to generate electricity. The first plant will be launched in Sierra Leone, where the company plans to process palm fruit into palm oil, and convert the waste into methane to generate electricity.

Dell whittled down the initial  pool of 700 applicants from 200 universities, and now Tseai is competing with 60 companies for the $50,000 grand prize. Three finalists will be chosen to travel to the University of Texas at Austin in May to present their business plans to the judges. Tseai is up against several other projects looking to bring change to Africa.

Tseai has already won $25,000 in other competitions. It’s also looking to nab winnings as a finalist in the Wake Forest Elevator Competition this weekend, where students get two minutes to make the pitch of their lives.

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The University of Maryland Medical System’s storied history is chock full of larger-than-life personalities. In my reporting on the system’s 25th anniversary since it separated from the state, some interesting and humorous anecdotes emerged. Below are some tidbits that we couldn’t fit in the story in the paper…

After the system went private in 1984, some big changes had to be made to make it financially stable.

Frank Gunther, the first UMMS chairman of the board, told me one change was that the clinical chiefs at the University of Maryland Medical Center were going to be held accountable for their budgets, something that had never really been a practice. That didn’t quite sit right with R Adams Cowley, the world-renowned doctor behind the Shock Trauma Center, according to Gunther.

I have a very vivid memory of telling them they had to submit their budgets. And Dr. Cowley came in and said, “Here you go, see you next year.” And I said, “No, we’re going to be looking at this and making sure that you’re following your budget.” He was aghast that anyone would be looking at his budget and checking up on him.

The system also struggled with changing the employment culture. Those who stayed on from the old system were still state employees, with state benefits and two times as many holidays as system employees.

When Gov. Harry Hughes declared the Friday after Christmas a state holiday in 1986, it was great news for the state employees, but bad news for the system. The hospital system needed to run 24-7, and so it had to pay state employees double time for their work. It was a Christmas present that cost UMMS $400,000.

Morton Rapoport was the system’s CEO for more than two decades, beginning in 1982. He was trained as a doctor and had some management experience from his time at the medical school, but mostly he told me he was learning his business skills on the job.

It turned out his management style left a little something to be desired. The clinical chiefs of staff at the hospital publicly said that they wanted Rapoport out.

Around that time, Shock Trauma was getting new helicopters, and Cowley, its chief, had really been pushing for the state to pick a French company as the vendor. One day, Cowley called and said the CEO of the helicopter firm was in town and wanted to take Rapoport for a ride.

For a fleeting moment, perhaps an insane moment, I thought that the clinical chiefs had come up with an ingenious plan to remove me. I would be killed in a helicopter crash. ~Excerpted from Rapoport’s book “Alignment,” about the system’s privatization, written with Stephen C. Schimpff, the former executive vice president and chief operating officer of the system.

Rapoport only agreed to take the trip if Cowley came along, not knowing that the pilot would let Cowley take over the controls.

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University of Maryland men’s soccer coach Sasho Cirovski has signed a deal with Mondo, a sports flooring manufacturer, in a five-year sponsorship agreement.

Cirovski, who led Maryland to NCAA championships in 2005 and 2008, will endorse Mondoturf Ecofill Star, Mondo’s artificial turf, through speaking engagements, trade shows and meetings.

It’s not exactly Gatorade…but it’s nice to see Cirovski getting some recognition for his team’s success. So often, college sports that don’t end in “-ball” get overlooked by sponsors because they don’t draw nearly as many fans.

But this is a case where you have a niche sport, and Cirovski’s a known name. And you have a product that’s very specific. The same circles that know Cirovski are the people Mondo is trying to sell this product to. It’s not as glamorous as the big names like Gatorade, but then again, most Gatorade drinkers probably don’t know who Cirovski is.

So in that sense you have a good fit here that’s very targeted. The terms of the deal were not disclosed but I certainly hope they’re paying him enough money to sit through those trade shows.

Just one problem, I’m forseeing here: Ludwig Field, where Maryland plays its home games, has a Bermuda grass surface. Hmmmm….

–Liz Farmer, Business Writer

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As a Web Editor who dabbles in online marketing, I know a good (or bad) email subject line when I read one. Here’s a beauty, delivered to my inbox last Tuesday:  “See Yourself in This Maryland Video?”

The email continues:

It takes more than perseverance for many Terps to make it to graduation. It takes the generosity of each and every member of the Maryland family, like those in this video.

Maryland students benefit greatly from the contributions made by Maryland donors and friends. As you will see in this video, much of what they experience would not have been possible without you.

Make your gift by June 30 and help keep students at Maryland.

That’s a hard request to say No to, especially for alumni like me who are still employed through the recession.

I just donated in February, in honor of a college advisor who passed away, but I feel obligated to donate again – after all, they’re not asking for new buildings or a fancier student union; they want to keep kids in school. (I might’ve already done it, even, except the video won’t play beyond the first four seconds. D’oh!)

Are you getting similar nudges from your own alma maters? Are the pleas as effective on you?

Update: Finally got the video to play, and it’s touching – lots of alumni sharing their tales of donating for the greater good. One nitpick: There’s no “share” functionality for me to embed the video here or elsewhere. Wouldn’t UMD want to encourage people to spread it around?

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