We at Retriever Essentials would like to express our heartiest gratitude to all our collaborators and guests who made UMBC’s first Home for the Holidays event a reality. The event offered a communal atmosphere to UMBC members who cannot travel back home or did not have family living in proximity during this holiday break. The event was celebrated on Thanksgiving Day, November 28^th. 

Through the support of Chartwells team, True Grits Dining Hall became the “home” and through the contributions from the collaborators, the community became one big family. The collaborators brought various food items ranging from classic Thanksgiving dishes to international cuisines. OCA Mocha brought in its fresh coffee to warm up the guest on the cold windy afternoon. The event also included fun activities like board games, arts and craft time, letter writing, and music. The event concluded with a raffle contest where our guest won giveaways and goodies. 

Home for the Holidays brought the campus community together and provided a warmhearted holiday experience to its attendees. We thank all of those who participated in the event and hope that Home for the Holidays continues to become yet another inclusive tradition at UMBC. 

Our key collaborators were: Academic Success Center, Campus Dining Services, English Language Institute, Financial Literacy Committee, Off-Campus Student Services, Office for Academic and Pre-Professional Advising, OCA Mocha, SAHAP Department, Student Government Association, The Campus Police, The Registrar’s Office, The Shriver Center, and UMBC Sustainability.

Here is a recap of the event: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UzdKkwIMStEmsT0n0yP6WZBcTT1nvLD7/view

For more updates from Retriever Essentials please visit our Facebook and Instagram pages.

Dear UMBC LGBTQA+ and ally community members, 

The votes are in! The Queer Student Lounge (QSL) is now...

...(drum roll please)...

The Center!

It is our belief that this new name will better reflect the current and evolving needs of the LGBTQA+ community and better represents our diverse and inclusive needs. Please, remember to be patient with us. The full rebranding process will take some time (we'll have lots of online and hard copy materials to update). However, you should start witnessing a slow roll out of the name throughout the semester - with an eventual ribbon cutting by the end of spring.

We will be sure to keep you posted with updates as they become available.

A very special thanks to Heidy George, Program Associate for Student Diversity and Inclusion and the UMBC LGBTQ+ community members who participated in our poll!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at mosaic@umbc.edu.

- Campus Life's Diversity and Inclusion Staff

The Women’s Center is pleased to introduce Bri Gumbs, pronouns she/her/hers, as our full-time program coordinator and the newest addition to the Women’s Center professional staff team! Please help us give the warmest of UMBC welcomes to Bri! Below is a short bio so you can learn a little bit about the newest member of our team! You can meet her in-person when you come into the Women’s Center as she will be one of the first people to welcome you into our space. 

Bri, identifies herself as an unapologetic queer, multi-racial Latinx, womxn. Born and raised in San Diego, CA Bri has devoted her work to being an educator, femtor and advocate for increasing and improving access, representation and retention for students with underrepresented identities in higher education by using an intersectional feminist framework. The revolutionary work of Audre Lorde, The Combahee River Collective, Marsha P, Silvia Rivera and Gloria Anzaldua continues to inspire and motivate her to be an agent of change. Bri hopes to empower others to speak their truth, mobilize and cultivate community care and joy in their various communities. Bri loves her two cats and her extensive hat collection! Bri expresses her truth through zine making, personal narratives, affirmations and through the various community programs she continues to create and facilitate. Bri holds a B.A in Psychology with a minor in Counseling and Social Change and a M.A in Student Affairs.  

Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance where we honor the memory of the transgender people whose lives we have lost to acts of anti-transgender violence.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) was started in 1999 by transgender advocate Gwendolyn Ann Smith as a vigil to honor the memory of Rita Hester, a transgender woman who was killed in 1998. The vigil commemorated all the transgender people lost to violence since Rita Hester's death, and began an important tradition in raising public awareness of hate crimes committed against transgender people. 

According to an annual transgender violence report published by the Human Rights Campaign, at least 22 trans and gender-nonconforming people have been fatally shot or killed by other violent means. Most of those killed in 2019 were young, black women. We do not know the actual number of deaths because too often these stories go unreported – or misreported. 

On Transgender Day of Remembrance, we name, honor, remember and mourn the transgender people whose lives our country has lost to anti-transgender violence this year: 

Brianna “BB” Hill | Itali Marlowe | Ja’Leyah-Jamar | Bee Love Slater | Bailey Reeves | Tracy Single| Bubba Walker | Pebbles La Dime Doe | Kiki Fantroy | Denali Berries Stuckey | Brooklyn Lindsey | Zoe Spears | Chanel Scurlock | Chynal Lindsey | Paris Cameron| Michelle “Tamika” Washington | Muhlaysia Booker | Claire Legato| Ashanti Carmon| Jazzaline Ware | Dana Martin | Layleen Polanco | Johana “Joa” Medina Leon

Sources: GLAAD, HRC, NBC news, List of Transgender people killed around the world , Remembering Our Dead

If you've experienced or witnessed anti-LGBTQ+ violence, or are concerned about someone who has, you can call the Anti-Violence Project hotline 24/7 at 212-714-1141. All calls are confidential. You can also report violence anonymously or ask for a counselor to reach out to you online.