MARYLAND BRIEFING

Saturday, June 24, 2006

HIGHER EDUCATION

Regents Elect Chairman

The University System of Maryland Board of Regents yesterday elected Clifford M. Kendall to be its next chairman.

He will replace David H. Nevins, who will remain on the board but asked not to be reelected chairman after his term ends this month, citing increasing professional demands.

Kendall, a business leader who served as chairman during a previous term, was recently reappointed to the board by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R)

The regents also voted to launch a School of Public Health at the University of Maryland at Baltimore. Students at the downtown Baltimore campus already can earn master's of public health degrees.

The regents' decision begins the process of adding the first new school there in 45 years. Over the next few months, the university will be preparing for accreditation by the Council on Education for Public Health.

The ultimate goal, according to University Chancellor William E. Kirwan, is for the College Park campus to launch a school as well.

-- Susan Kinzie

Bowie President Named

Mickey Burnim, a chancellor in the University of North Carolina system, will become the next president of Bowie State University, the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Chairman David H. Nevins announced yesterday.

Burnim, currently chancellor of Elizabeth City State University, also has served as provost of North Carolina Central University and was an economics professor there, at the University of North Carolina and at Florida State University.

He oversaw expansion and renovations at Elizabeth City, and enrollment, which had been shrinking, increased. It now has about 2,600 students.

-- Susan Kinzie

Lab Blast Injures Woman

A 25-year-old woman was taken to a hospital last night after a small explosion in a chemistry lab at the University of Maryland at College Park, Prince George's County authorities said.

A fire department spokesman said a beaker exploded after two chemicals were mixed in it. The woman was taken to Washington Hospital Center for observation.

-- Martin Weil, Clarence Williams

HOWARD COUNTY

Accountant Indicted

A Howard County man has been indicted in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud investors in an obesity treatment clinic.

Wilkins McNair Jr., 48, of Ellicott City was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on 12 wire fraud charges and 11 money laundering charges. McNair did work as an accountant for Bariatric Care Associates LLC, a clinic for people with morbid obesity.

Prosecutors said McNair misappropriated about $1.3 million entrusted to him by investors in the clinic.

-- Amit R. Paley

IMMIGRATION

Former Deportee Jailed

A man described by authorities as a Central American gang member has been sentenced to two years in prison for entering the country illegally after being deported in 2003.

Jaime Ricardo Guzman, 25, formerly of Rockville, was sentenced yesterday by U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus in Greenbelt.

According to the U.S. attorney's office, Guzman, a member of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, was deported to El Salvador after an encounter with police in Prince William County in January 2003. Montgomery County police arrested him in 2005.

-- Ernesto Londo?o