Dear UMBC Community, 

As we continue to monitor and respond to actions and executive orders from the federal government, we are meeting regularly with campus groups, including shared governance leaders, and with individuals who have been impacted by recent changes. Today, we write to share with you a comprehensive update on several areas of activity. 

First, we want you to know that in addition to our work on campus, we are coordinating and collaborating closely with the University System of Maryland (USM) and the state, including the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, seeking guidance and opportunities to advocate for UMBC and its community members and for the values that are core to our mission and to higher education. 

Among the proposals we are watching closely is the draft legislation advanced by the U.S. House of Representatives recently that would mean massive changes to the federal student financial aid system, restricting access to aid for parents and students, ending the grad PLUS loan program for graduate students, and more. We are speaking directly to our representatives in Congress about supporting our students and affordability and access to higher education.

We also are standing up for higher education with fellow university leaders. As you may know, the university recently joined hundreds of institutions and associations in signing on to a statement issued by the American Association of Colleges and Universities that speaks out against the “unprecedented overreach and political interference now endangering American higher education.” Nearly 600 university presidents, chancellors, and other leaders have added their voices to this call for constructive engagement. 

You may also be aware that the USM recently joined 85 other institutions and associations in an amicus brief filed by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration in AAUP v. Rubio, a federal lawsuit challenging the administration’s revocation of visas and detentions of noncitizen students and scholars. USM is a member institution of the President’s Alliance, and we are grateful for the system’s leadership in supporting our community members. 

We have a few updates related to our international community and international travel. First, in a campus message last month, we shared that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had taken action within the federal Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) to terminate the F-1 immigration records of four members of our campus community. Neither the affected students nor UMBC officials were ever notified or given justification by DHS regarding these terminations. 

Today, we are pleased to share that the immigration records for the affected UMBC international graduate students have been reactivated by DHS, and all four remain in the U.S. Staff members in UMBC’s Center for Global Engagement will continue to conduct daily audits of immigration records in SEVIS.

Second, we understand that many members of our campus community are planning international travel this summer. We want to remind you of the information and resources shared in an earlier communication as you make your plans. 

The U.S. Department of State has now resumed posting visa appointment wait time estimates at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide. While this information can be useful for trip planning purposes, we continue to advise international travelers who require new visas to return to the U.S. that they confirm their visa appointments prior to departing, as appointment wait times can change dramatically without notice.

Finally: In recent weeks, many members of our campus community have contacted the Center for Global Engagement (CGE) with concerns regarding international travel and immigration enforcement. This outreach has included U.S. citizens seeking assurances that they will not face challenges when seeking to reenter the U.S., as well as inquiries related to the immigration status of family members. Given the specific scope of CGE’s services and limitations on the immigration classifications upon which its staff may advise, namely F-1, J-1, and H-1B, we ask that all other inquiries be directed to UMBC’s Employee Assistance Program or private immigration counsel. This will help CGE focus resources effectively and ensure timely support for those who depend on the specialized services the office provides. Thank you for your understanding.

Recent executive orders, combined with decisions from a variety of federal agencies, have led to an increasingly significant impact on UMBC’s research endeavor, as has been the case for nearly every research university across the country. For UMBC, the impact has so far amounted to the termination of more than 30 multi-year grants and awards (some of which had started only recently, and some of which were in their final few months of funding). The numbers change frequently, but to date, the net financial impact of these grant terminations is in the range of $30 million, or about $10 million a year over the next three years. This represents a decrease of about 10 – 12 percent in the amount of annual research funding UMBC has received from the federal government in recent years. 

We are working closely with our university counsel and the Maryland Attorney General’s Office, as well as with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (Karl Steiner, vice president for research and creative achievement, is a member of the executive committee of APLU’s Council on Research) to understand and mitigate the impact of these terminations. 

We also are carefully monitoring the recent release of the president’s federal discretionary budget proposal and the growing list of announcements by federal agencies to cap indirect costs for research, also known as facilities and administrative (F&A) costs, and working with appropriate representatives to address them. 

To our research community: Please continue to work with your departments and colleges to pursue external funding opportunities. Our Office of Research Development (ORD) can provide help in this regard and is actively assisting faculty members who are pursuing alternate funding sources. ORD can share information and guidance on such opportunities and provide grant-writing support. 

Please continue to visit our information and resources website for up-to-date information and for answers to frequently asked questions specific to our research and creative achievement community. 

The impacts of federal actions and orders on our research enterprise also stand to disrupt the career trajectories and development of our faculty. To address such potential impact related to research funding, teaching, and service, we are putting in place modifications to the university’s tenure and promotion reviews, beginning in the fall. For more information about these changes, please see the message sent recently to UMBC faculty. 

As you know, UMBC is currently in the final stages of the self-study component of our accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), and we certainly took note of the executive order issued last month concerning higher education accreditation and the related Dear Colleague Letter from the Department of Education. MSCHE has issued a statement in response and indicated they will be in contact with universities with additional information when available. For now, we are staying the course with our accreditation process, and we appreciate the work of everyone involved in this significant effort. 

One brief note about our budget planning: The April 9 campus message noted that with the passage of the state of Maryland’s budget, we had clarity on what our funding from the state would look like—amid the ongoing uncertainty of federal support. As we shared then, the USM directed its institutions to prepare three-year budget projections. Our update today is simply that the USM has extended by a few weeks the timeline for completing those projections (which had been early May). We will share further details about the projections and our budget planning process in the coming weeks. 

We cherish the incredible breadth of identities, perspectives, and lived experiences of our community members, and we know that some individuals, including members of our LGBTQIA2+ community, may be feeling especially vulnerable in the current moment. Our collective responsibility is to care for one another and to continue to live UMBC’s value of inclusive excellence, to ensure that we provide an educational environment and workplace that is welcoming, inclusive, and safe for all. 

Please continue to seek out support when needed, including from the many student resources for care and support and our Employee Assistance Program. We also ask you to continue to support one another. Sincere, simple gestures of care can go a long way.

As we near the end of the semester and the celebration of our newest graduates later this month, we reaffirm our commitment to inclusive excellence and to academic freedom—core values that are essential to who we are, to what we do, and to why it matters. We will not waver in our devotion to these fundamentals, and we are grateful for your shared vision and dedication to UMBC. 

Sincerely,