This year, SGA's Prove It! grant competition features many student groups looking to create real change on campus.  On the week of March 24-28, UMBC students will vote for the grant proposals they like the most.  The two winning ideas will receive $10,000 to implement their programs on campus.

One of the campaigns that students can vote for is Veteran Peer Mentor Program.

The student veteran population is one of the fastest growing populations at UMBC.

A solid support system at UMBC has not yet been developed to meet all their needs.

We need to implement a Veteran Peer Mentor Program to help meet those needs and provide the camaraderie many vets miss after leaving the military.

 Transitioning veterans to be successful students adds a valuable resource and benefit to the whole UMBC community.

Having veterans adds depth and diversity to the student body. Veterans are an incredibly team oriented, resilient, and motivated group of individuals.  They bring unique perspectives to the classroom from their experiences.  They understand the importance of cooperation, having been used to working in close-knit teams in the military; their peers were sometimes the difference between life and death.

Their military training prepared them to handle life and death situations but not how to transition to being a college student.  When a veteran doesn't feel connected to their university they may be more inclined to leave school.  Student veterans do not respond to traditional methods of outreach.  A Veteran Peer Mentor Program will enable veterans to achieve a higher level of academic success and smoothly transition to student life which not only benefits veterans but the entire UMBC community

Veterans have invested in our nation.  Now it’s our turn to invest in them.  Vote for the Veteran Peer Mentor Program on the Prove It! poll at http://my.umbc.edu/discussions/11313

1. The WT2014 Bb server will be taken completely offline on Friday, 3/21.
2. WT2013 courses will be restored on the UMBC Bb production server. We encourage you to download a copy of your grade center, and any other content that you might need to your local machine. If instructors have students finishing incomplete grades, and students must have continuing access to their WT2014 course over spring break, the instructors should put in an RT ticket request prior to Thursday, March 20.

Thank you for your patience during this transition.

As part of our ongoing commitment to security, the Unix Infrastructure will be conducting its quarterly patching of systems.  While many of the systems will be patched without any service disruption, there are several systems which require the downtime of key services.  The schedule below outlines which key services will be offline and for how long.

Monday March 17th, 9am to 1pm

• myUMBC lite page will be up resulting in  reduced myUMBC functionality

• The sites (wordpress) web hosting environment will be down

• The new web hosting environment will be down (pages will be available but any database calls will not work)

• All HFS (user) servers will be down

• Student mySQL databases will be offline

Tuesday March 18th, 9am to 1pm

• RT will be down

• Userpages will be down

• Wiki will be down

• R25 will be down

• License5 will be down (autodesk, cadence, idl, schrodinger, xilinx)

• Student mySQL databases will be offline

• Perseus will be down

There will be no data loss during the outage and no user action is required prior to the downtime. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Technology Support Center at x53838.

Do you like competing? Do you love being green? Do you love recycling? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ll love RecycleMania!

What is RecycleMania?

It is an annual 8-week competition between universities to see who can recycle the most! Sounds fun right? So go around and grab all your recyclables (and your friends) and help our school win!

RecycleMania is not just a competition; it’s also a great way to educate people about recycling. There are plenty of events to attend like the RecycleMania Parade and “Regames” which feature giveaways and musical performances!

For more information on events and scheduling, visit http://my.umbc.edu/groups/sustainability/news/39998 . If you still are not interested, maybe checking out their website will help? Just give it a try and recycle when you can!

Our PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation (PROMISE: AGEP-T) project invites you to save the dates for two big events coming this spring and summer:

Saturday, May 3, 2014: PROMISE AGEP Family and Friends Celebration of Graduates Cookout

PROMISE Cookout and Celebration of Graduates 2013

Register for the PROMISE Friends and Family Cookout and Celebration of Graduates:

Centennial Park – Pavilion D

Main/South Entrance

10000 Route 108

Columbia, MD 21042

Directions:
Main/South
PDF | Google Maps

Boat rentals will be available for an additional charge (See rates for paddle boats, kayaks, canoes, etc. so that you can plan accordingly. http://countyofhowardmd.us/Departments.aspx?id=6442456361.)

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Saturday, August 16, 2014: PROMISE AGEP Summer Success Institute (SSI)

SSI 2013, Top to bottom: 1) Session on planning for the professoriate with Dr. Christine Grant, 2) Webinar with Coursera’s Co-founder Dr. Andrew Ng, 3) Postdoctoral opportunities with NIH’s Dr. Jaron Lockett.

See information about these annual activities from past events:

• Cookout 2013: http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/save-these-springsummer-dates-may-4-cookout-july-9-12-dissertation-house-august-16-17-ssi/
• Cookout 2012: http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/promise-friends-family-celebration-of-graduates-cookout-sat-may-5-2012/
• SSI 2013 (Agenda & Information): http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/promise-summer-success-institute-ssi-10th-anniversary-celebration-august-16-17-2013-in-baltimore/
• SSI: 2012 (Agenda & Information): http://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/2012-summer-success-institute-august-17-18-2012-umbc-the-hotel-at-arundel-preserve/

Our PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation (PROMISE: AGEP-T) project invites you to save the dates for two big events coming this spring and summer:

Saturday, May 3, 2014: PROMISE AGEP Family and Friends Celebration of Graduates Cookout

PROMISE Cookout and Celebration of Graduates 2013

Register for the PROMISE Friends and Family Cookout and Celebration of Graduates:

Centennial Park – Pavilion D

Main/South Entrance

10000 Route 108

Columbia, MD 21042

Directions:
Main/South
PDF | Google Maps

Boat rentals will be available for an additional charge (See rates for paddle boats, kayaks, canoes, etc. so that you can plan accordingly. http://countyofhowardmd.us/Departments.aspx?id=6442456361.)

_____________________________________

Saturday, August 16, 2014: PROMISE AGEP Summer Success Institute (SSI)

SSI 2013, Top to bottom: 1) Session on planning for the professoriate with Dr. Christine Grant, 2) Webinar with Coursera’s Co-founder Dr. Andrew Ng, 3) Postdoctoral opportunities with NIH’s Dr. Jaron Lockett.

See information about these annual activities from past events:

• Cookout 2013: https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/save-these-springsummer-dates-may-4-cookout-july-9-12-dissertation-house-august-16-17-ssi/
• Cookout 2012: https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/promise-friends-family-celebration-of-graduates-cookout-sat-may-5-2012/
• SSI 2013 (Agenda & Information): https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/promise-summer-success-institute-ssi-10th-anniversary-celebration-august-16-17-2013-in-baltimore/
• SSI: 2012 (Agenda & Information): https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2012/06/29/2012-summer-success-institute-august-17-18-2012-umbc-the-hotel-at-arundel-preserve/

Dear University Community,

We invite you to join us for an address from UMBC’s President, Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, next Wednesday.

• Wednesday, March 12, 2014
• AOK Library (http://www.umbc.edu/aok/main/index.html)
• Gallery (1st Floor, next to the Circulation Desk)

In addition to his role as UMBC’s president, Dr. Hrabowski chairs the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans:  http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/26/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts

More about President Hrabowski: http://president.umbc.edu/

• UMBC Graduate Community: RSVP on http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/19707
• University System of Maryland Graduate Students (outside of UMBC): RSVP by replying to this post in the comments with your name, department, and university.

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This event is shared with the University System of Maryland as part of the National Science Foundation’s PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation (PROMISE: AGEP-T) project.  

We encourage graduate students to take many opportunities to present their work and to become comfortable with presenting STEM content.

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PROMISE will be participating in the Regional Research Symposium at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on April 17, 2014. Please see the information below regarding the April conference at UMES:
__________________________________________________________________

PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transformation (An AGEP-T Project) invites graduate students from universities within the University System of Maryland (USM: http://www.usmd.edu/institutions/) to participate in the Fifth Annual Regional Research Symposium, sponsored by the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

SYMPOSIUM 2014

UMES REGIONAL RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Student Services Center
University of Maryland Eastern Shore

http://wwwcf.umes.edu/CampusMap/index.cfm?ID=Building&BuildingID=ssc

Directions: http://www.umes.edu/About/Default.aspx?id=245

Graduate students are invited to participate in one or both of the following ways:
1) Present research within the “Graduate Student” category
2) Serve as moderators within the “Undergraduate Student” category

Please visit UMES’ website for details: http://www.umes.edu/Symposium2014/Default.aspx?id=45811.

SUBMIT AN ABSTRACT:

Based on such great participation in the PROMISE Research Symposium at College Park on February 28, 2014, graduate students from the universities in Maryland have been given a short extension. 

Please submit your abstract by Friday, March 7, 2014. This is the final deadline. Here is the link: http://www.umes.edu/Symposium2014/Form.aspx?ekfrm=45816

All attendees must register online.

If you are interested in being a moderator as part of your professional development, please contact Dr. Andrea Johnson, akjohnson@umes.edu, with the subject “PROMISE AGEP: Moderator for UMES 2014 Symposium” and cc: promisestaff@gmail.com.

Transportation:

A bus will leave UMBC’s campus to travel to the Eastern Shore in the morning of April 17, 2014 and will return the same evening.

• DEPARTURE: Leave UMBC at 5:00 AM (arrive at UMES between 7:30 and 8:00 AM. The program begins at 8:00 AM)
• RETURN: Leave UMES by 5:00 PM (arrive at UMBC between 7:30 and 8:00 PM).

If you are interested in bus transportation, please send an email to promisestaff@gmail.com, with the subject “Bus for UMES 2014.”

Last year at UMES:

Read the story of our PROMISE visit to UMES in 2013: https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/promise-students-celebrate-new-umes-president-dr-juliette-bell-on-umes-campus/

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Participation in this event is part of the PROMISE AGEP: Maryland Transportation (PROMISE AGEP-T) project.  Our PROMISE AGEP-T promotes connections between universities in Maryland, professional development, and preparation for the professoriate.