The hardest part

If you’re anything like me, you had Tom Petty’s song “The Waiting” as your prevailing earworm last week. The chorus is catchy enough to dig right into my cerebral cortex and was undoubtedly propelled by watching countless hours of CNN’s election coverage. “The waiting is the hardest part” played in my head as I watched John King at the map board demonstrating his complete knowledge of every single county in the United States for hours on end. But it doesn’t stop there. Waiting has become a hobby of sorts lately. Waiting for restrictions to be lifted. Waiting for a vaccine. Waiting for things to return to normal. “Make Things Normal Again” could have easily been a campaign slogan. I don’t want to go on about politics or even about songs that are stuck in my head. I do want to thank all of our Osher students, instructors, staff, and others who helped us have a successful fall semester. We are planning for next semester and putting together winter lectures to carry us through until spring starts. We are also putting together a few fun ways to connect with other Osher members in the coming weeks and months. I know that we are all waiting to return to normal but hope to be on your computer screens in the meantime. We don’t want to keep you waiting so keep an eye out for announcements in your inbox. I think we can all agree that waiting is one of the hardest things in life. However, some would argue that so is trying to get rid of a song fragment that is playing in your head on repeat. Either way, we’ll be here for you between now and “normal.”

Stay safe and healthy,

Tracy Jacobs

What positive experience did you have participating in the online fall semester? What surprised you the most about learning online?

Securing Maryland's voting process

Monday, November 16 at 10 a.m. via Zoom

Osher at Towson University is pleased to present Towson University professors Dr. Natalie Scala and Dr. Josh Dehlinger to discuss their recent work to secure Maryland’s voting process. Following the 2016 general election and in the weeks leading up to the 2020 general election, election security and the integrity of our election processes have become a prevalent, national conversation. From the 2019 Senate Intelligence Committee report indicating that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by foreign adversaries to the more recent broadened use of, and concern about, mail-based voting because of the COVID-19 pandemic, election security and integrity is increasingly important. This presentation will highlight the research results of the three main thrusts of our work in election security: 1. threat analysis and mitigations of Maryland voting systems; 2. development of effective cybersecurity training modules for election judges; and 3. threat analysis of mail-based voting and COVID-19 related impacts to election security.