Q & A with President Hrabowski

UMBC Eats sat down with President Hrabowski to discuss food, healthy choices, and his experiences as a leader.

How is the University encouraging the campus to lead healthy lifestyles?

We are always encouraging the students, faculty, and staff to exercise and make healthy food choices. There are a number of efforts to discourage smoking and inappropriate drinking.

Because all of us are under a great deal of stress, there are a number of workshops on how to manage and reduce stress. It is also important to exercise, and it helps with stress. I am always encouraged by the Midnight Madness activity at the end of the semester and when I get a chance to go over there and see people laughing. Laughter is really great, to be able to not take things too seriously and encouraging community, encouraging people to help each other.

In the past few years, there has been a lot of media attention around food issues with the book Fast Food Nation, Food Inc, and others. Do you think the media is exaggerating the problem?

We should be very concerned about obesity and bad eating habits. Large numbers of Americans are overweight and we see that children are making unhealthy choices often because they are given the wrong choices in schools. School systems have been working to become healthier in their options for children. I would say we can never talk too much about these problems.

Students at UMBC are encouraged to develop leadership skills and prepare to become future leaders in their field. Was it a conscious decision that you made to become a leader?

I was a child leader in the civil rights movement and I became involved because I wanted to see a change in the way children were treated. I was very fortunate to observe leaders that were compassionate, smart, hard working with strong values focused on making a difference in the lives of other people. True leadership is not about one person, but about groups of people that with a vision of what they want the world to become. Later on, as I became increasingly excited about education I thought about becoming a leader in the academic world.

I am very impressed by the leadership opportunities students have on campus. These opportunities give students, who will be leaders in their fields, a chance to think about what it means to lead. Students in college are preparing for professional careers and the best way to become a leader is to get a chance to do it while in college.

What valuable lessons have you learned about being a leader?

In a campus that is healthy, the term we use is ‘shared governance’. It means that leadership is spread among a lot of people. Faculty, staff, and students all serve as leaders. We learn to listen carefully to the voices of people affected by the decisions of leaders. Perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned is that the quality of the decision making will depend upon the trust among the people making the decision and the willingness of the people called leaders to listen to the voices of others.

Special thanks to President Hrabowski for meeting with Food Blogger Alison to discuss these issues.

- Alison