Dear UMBC Colleagues,

The Benefits and Wellness team is writing to inform you of a current system infrastructure disruption affecting P&A Group, the vendor that manages the State's Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs).

While P&A Group is actively working with specialists to restore their network, you should be aware of the immediate impacts:

• Active Debit Cards: P&A Debit Cards remain functional for eligible purchases

• System Outage: The P&A Group website, online portals, email servers, and call centers are currently down and inaccessible to users.

• Reimbursements Delays: Manual claim processing and check reimbursements are temporarily halted.

Current Status & Next Steps

The State is actively waiting on official communication from P&A Group regarding an estimated timeline for when their portals and administrative systems will be fully back online.

We understand this disruption may cause inconvenience and frustration. Please be assured that we are monitoring the situation closely and we will send out a follow-up communication to all employees as soon as we receive an official update.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we wait for this issue to be resolved.

Sincerely,

The Benefits and Wellness Team,UMBC Human Resources and Strategic Talent Management

Fall into Success: Learning, Leading, and Thriving Together - September 14 - 18, 2026

The USM Learning and Talent Development Committee is still accepting workshop proposals for Professional Development Week 2026, and we would love to see more submissions from colleagues across the system.

This year’s theme is Fall into Success: Learning, Leading, and Thriving Together, with sessions focused on practical strategies that help higher education professionals navigate change, strengthen skills, lead well, support well-being, and work more sustainably.

If you have a topic, tool, lesson learned, conversation, or area of expertise that could benefit colleagues across USM, please consider submitting a proposal.

Sessions may focus on:

• Leadership and supervision
• Professional skills and career growth
• Equity, inclusion, and belonging
• Workplace effectiveness and innovation
• Well-being and sustainable work

Presenters do not need to be professional trainers. We are looking for practical, engaging sessions that offer useful takeaways for employees across institutions and roles.

Submit a Proposal: https://forms.gle/Zw4GVqtEkfLMbjae6 

For questions about the proposal process, contact Monique Conelius at mconeli1@umbc.edu. For general inquiries, contact the USM Learning and Talent Development Committee at usmtrainingdev@usmd.edu

Proposal deadline: May 19, 2026