You may have heard the news: RT is better, shinier, and faster than ever before! The move to RT 6 brings a more intuitive experience to our daily workflows. While there are plenty of technical improvements under the hood, here are the standout features that will make your day-to-day tasks smoother and more efficient.

What’s New in RT 6?

1. Avatars: A More Visual Experience
   RT has gotten much more colorful. RT 6 introduces native support for user avatars. Instead of just seeing names, users are now visually identified throughout the interface—such as in ticket history and menus—using either uploaded images or auto-generated initials.
   Pro Tip: Update your look on the About Me! Go to your Initials > Settings > About Me > Picture.
   
   

2. Modern Compose Window
   The editor is newly upgraded and offers a cleaner toolbar and superior native support for dark mode. Most importantly: you can now build links using text! No more messy URLs cluttering your responses. You can now also paste images directly into your reply without having to save them and attach them as an image. 

1. Calendar View
   Need to visualize your deadlines? In any saved search, look for the grid of four boxes on the top right. You can now toggle between a standard table and a color-coded calendar view. Try adding "Date" fields to your searches to see a helpful layout of upcoming due dates.
   
   

2. Smarter Inline Editing
   When you make an inline edit to a ticket, RT 6 automatically reloads the ticket history and smoothly scrolls you to the newly added transaction. Inline Editing is practically everywhere. On the ticket display page, look for the subtle edit icons next to fields like Owner, Status, or Custom Fields. You can change these values right on the display page, and they will save instantly in the background without refreshing your screen.
   
   
   

3. Seamless Mobile Support
   Working on the go? The interface now scales beautifully on mobile and zoomed-in screens. Navigational menus now auto-close on click and dynamically highlight your active sections for better clarity.
   
   

4. Log your time in My Day and My Week
   If you’re a heavy user of the “Time Worked” part of RT, updating tickets individually is a chore. Instead, go to Tools > My Week and see an overview of all tickets worked this week and an easy way to add time to all of the tickets at once. My Day provides an easy way to enter updates all at once with multiple assigned tickets.
   
   

There are many tips and tricks for the beginner to the expert - did you know…

• There’s a dark mode for RT? Set your Theme Mode to dark on the Preferences page (Initials > Settings > Preferences) and hit Save Changes. 

• That if you highlight text on the ticket display screen and reply, it quotes the text in your reply?

• There are handy keyboard shortcuts to quickly navigate and triage tickets - press the ? (Shift + /) on your keyboard to see them! 

• If you type a ticket number into search and hit Enter, RT will take you straight to that ticket?

• At the top of the Ticket History section, look for the little link that says "Hide ticket history" or the option to filter out system messages. You can toggle this so you only see the actual comments and email replies from humans, collapsing all the automated system noise.
  
  

There are many more improvements under the hood, and more to come. Let us know what you’ve been enjoying in the new RT upgrade! If you have any questions or concerns, you can Request Help here. 

Rithik Kavanakudy, a UMBC student majoring in Media Communication Studies and Information Systems, shares his enriching internship experience on the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) Communications team. In May, Rithik will be joining the other members of the Class of 2026 as they graduate from UMBC. 

Rithik’s Digital Story

In celebration of this milestone, Rithik recaps his experiences in the DoIT Student Digital Stories series. This video highlights hands-on projects like filming, live replays, and community promotion. All of these helped him refine his career focus and passion for behind-the-scenes work.

Work Highlights

Check out a few highlights of Rithik's work from local restaurant videos to DoIT collaborations: 

• OCA Mocha Video Highlight (46 seconds)
• Taste Tea Video Highlight (35 seconds) 
• DoIT x AOK Library: Streamlining Transcription: How DoIT and the AOK Library Leveraged AWS to Enhance Media Accessibility at UMBC (2-minute read)
• Tips and Best Practices for Managing Your Cloud Storage (2-minute read)

Congratulations, Rithik, on your soon-to-be graduation! We appreciate your video editing, interviewing, and collaboration skills.

If you manage a myUMBC group, you've probably noticed some things look a little different lately. We've been working on a big round of improvements to the editor and groups experience, and I wanted to walk you through what changed and why.

There's a lot here, so I'll try to keep it organized.

A Much Better Editor

The most visible change is the editor itself. We replaced the old one with a modern rich-text editor that, hopefully, just gets out of your way.

Paste from Word or Google Docs and it just works. Formatting comes in cleanly without a wall of mystery HTML. This one has been a long time coming.

Images are easier to work with. You can paste, drag-and-drop, or upload images directly into the body of your post. No more hunting for a separate upload button. When you insert an image you'll be prompted for alt text (more on that in a minute).

Paste a YouTube URL and it becomes a player. Drop a YouTube link into the editor and it automatically embeds as a video player. In the notification email that goes out to your group, recipients will see a clickable thumbnail linking to the video instead of a broken embed.

Attachments and tags got some attention too. The interface for attaching files is cleaner, and the tag editor now works like a chip input: type a tag, press Enter to add it, click the x to remove it.

One small but important change: the "Silent" option on the post form has been renamed to "Send Notifications." It's on by default, which is the right behavior for most posts. If you don't want to send a notification, just uncheck it. We made this change because "silent" wasn't exactly self-explanatory.

Preview Before You Publish (and Scheduling!)

Instead of going straight from editing to publishing, there's now a Preview step in between.

On the edit form, you'll choose whether to publish immediately or schedule your post for later. Group admins can schedule up to 30 days in advance. Once you've made that choice, you click Preview before anything goes out.

From the preview screen you can:

• See exactly what your post will look like to readers before it goes live
• Send yourself a test email to see what the notification looks like in your inbox
• Copy a shareable preview link to send to other group admins if you want a second set of eyes before it goes live

Then you confirm the publish or the scheduled time from there.

If your group does a lot of time-sensitive announcements, scheduling should make your life a lot easier.

Alt Text is Now Required

We're making a serious push on accessibility, and one concrete change is that alt text is now required on all images before you can publish. If you've got images without alt text, the Publish button will stay disabled until you fix them.

When you insert an image you'll be prompted right then. If the image is purely decorative, you can check "decorative" and move on. Otherwise a short description goes a long way for people using screen readers.

You may notice other accessibility-related changes around myUMBC as we continue this work. We do our best to make sure nothing breaks along the way, but if something feels off please don't hesitate to reach out to me or the team.

Archive Your Content

Groups can now archive posts and events rather than choosing between leaving old content in the feed or deleting it forever.

Each post and event now has an Archive button. Archiving moves that item out of the main listing into a separate archived view. On your Posts tab, there's a button on the right side that says "View Archived Posts" to toggle between active and archived content.

This is especially useful for groups targeting students with announcements. Old posts that aren't relevant to new visitors can be tucked away without losing them permanently.

If you want to do a bulk cleanup, say archive everything before a certain date, submit a ticket and our team will take care of it.

A Few More Things

Events: In-Person, Virtual, or Hybrid. When creating an event you now explicitly choose the format, and the form shows or hides relevant fields based on what you pick. No more filling in a location for a fully virtual event.

Subscription tag filtering. If your group subscribes to another group's content, you can now limit that subscription to specific tags so only the content you care about comes through.

Group inactivity process. After eight months of inactivity, your group will start receiving emails letting you know. You'll have the option to extend the group for four more months, or choose to archive or delete it. Archiving sets the group to read-only so people can still see past content but no new posts can be made. Deleting removes the group itself but keeps individual posts intact since we hold onto public content for the historical record.

My Events page. Go to the Events section in the left nav and choose My Events to see upcoming events you're signed up for, plus upcoming events from the groups you belong to.

Personal posts are now called Messages. For groups that use them, you'll see the updated label.

Questions?

If something isn't working right or you have questions about any of this, reach out to our team and we'll be happy to help.

James Hyatt, a UMBC senior studying Media and Communications, has been an important member of the Division of Information Technology’s (DoIT) Communications team. His journey working for DoIT began with a UMBC partnership with the Southwest Visions Foundation and soon expanded into the world of internal communications, storytelling, and sports broadcasting. 

James’s Digital Story

As James Hyatt prepares to graduate this May, he shares a personal reflection in DoIT’s Student Digital Stories series about his DoIT experience. In this video, he reveals a journey of transformation shaped by hands‑on learning, campus engagement, and the steady development of professional identity. The video offers a brief but meaningful window into how James has grown as both a student and an emerging professional.

Work Highlights

Check out some of the great work James has completed in the past year and a half: 

History of Arbutus Highlight Video (30 seconds)

Hollywood Cinema in Arbutus Video (30 seconds)

Launching DoIT's Cybersecurity Newsletter (4-minute read)

Launching UMBC’s Sonography Program Application (3-minute read)

Congratulations, James, on your soon-to-be graduation! We appreciate all of your hard work, organization skills, and creativity!

Like many other departments on campus, the Division of Information Technology relies on the support and talent of student employees in its work initiatives. These opportunities allow aspiring professionals to gain valuable work experience and connections while also making an immediate difference on campus. As a core pillar of DoIT, Cybersecurity Assurance and Digital Trust employs multiple Student Security Technicians, who play a critical role in ensuring that UMBC’s digital environment remains safe and uncompromised. 

Today, we would like to highlight two of these technicians who will be graduating this May. Grace Robinson and Ouwen Dai have served in their roles for the majority of their academic careers and are now taking the next step into the professional world. 

Along with their fellow members of the student team, Grace and Ouwen work on the frontlines in phishing response and outreach, monitoring threats, and investigating reports. They have also partaken in additional subprojects and development work. While a large portion of their efforts are based in dividing and individually conquering their ticket pools, they enjoy collaborating with their fellow technicians when a problem needs solving, and do their part to foster camaraderie. In a dynamic field where the workflow can go from quiet to packed in an instant, their tasks are always engaging. 

Ultimately, this work is the type you often don’t hear much about, but it has been crucial in keeping UMBC safe and operational. As Grace and Ouwen now look ahead to their futures, their experiences have similarly left them with much to reflect on. 

—

Grace Robinson

Major: Computer Science - Cybersecurity Track 

Grace got her start at DoIT after hearing from other student employees and sending out an inquiry email. With her track in cybersecurity, she knew exactly what was the best fit for her skillset and interests. She will be continuing her cybersecurity work after graduation, having secured a full-time role with a government contractor. 

Cybersecurity is a hectic and broad field where everyone still has things to learn. Grace advises focusing on what you do know in order to be successful, instead of worrying about the unknown. Hoping to have a long career in a field dominated by men, she wants to see more women and girls in cybersecurity in the future and hopes to be part of that change.

Ouwen Dai

Major: Computer Science - Cybersecurity Track 

As a sophomore, Ouwen leveraged his connections in the Information Systems Security Association to connect with DoIT leadership, eventually interviewing for a Student Security Technician position. Grateful for the experience offered by his projects, he enjoys being able to make a real difference and have a positive impact on the campus. One of the projects he is proudest of involved working with the UMBC fire panels in a joint effort with Environmental Health and Safety. This project resulted in fire personnel being able to receive panel data outputs directly to their phones, a massive upgrade in convenience, and improvements in alarm response. 

After graduation, Ouwen has a full-time role lined up with a federal nonprofit organization, where he will work as a cybersecurity engineer. In the future, he sees himself potentially working in a managerial or adjacent role. He stresses the importance of actually enjoying the work that you’re doing and always being willing to learn. True passion helps you learn outside the classroom and can take you places. 

—

Please join us in congratulating Grace and Ouwen on their work at UMBC, as well as everything they have coming up! Best of luck in your future endeavors!

Repost: RSVP at the Original Event Post here

Alt Text as Poetry Workshop

(This workshop is recommended for faculty and staff who are the site administrators for their department/program website and/or myUMBC page)

In late April, new regulations under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will go into effect at UMBC. These new requirements will ensure that our websites and mobile applications (in all their forms) are accessible to people with disabilities.

One major component of making websites more accessible is ensuring that all images have descriptions, also known as alt text. Alt text allows visual content to be accessible to people who are blind, low vision, or have certain cognitive disabilities. However, alt text is typically viewed as burdensome particularly when it is only viewed through the lens of compliance.

Facilitated by Courtney Hobson, manager of the Dresher Center for the Humanities, this workshop will explore the ideas developed by artists Bojana Coklyat and Shannon Finnegan in their ongoing Alt-Text as Poetry project. Participants will also learn how to write creative alt-text to describe images on digital platforms and make online communities more accessible, fun, and welcoming.

Join us in-person and online via Webex. Please note that we have limited space in-person.

Webex link: https://umbc.webex.com/umbc/j.php?MTID=m21cf4dc40dd5ca7f96d95d201f87e8db

This public forum is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

To ensure the smoothest possible transition and to give our team a little extra time to perform final checks, the RT 6 upgrade has been pushed back and is now officially scheduled to roll out next Friday, April 17 at 6 PM EST.

We know how much everyone is looking forward to the new improvements, and we want to make sure everything is perfect before it goes live! If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out at help.umbc.edu.

Update:

7:19 pm, April 8, 2026

Status: Resolved

Note from Google: The issue has been fully resolved. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support.

Original Post:

As of Wednesday, April 8, 2026, Google is aware of an issue affecting Gmail users, who are experiencing delays in receiving and sending emails. No mail loss is expected. 

Google's engineering team is working on the issue. 

For direct updates, click Google Workspace Dashboard.

Over this past weekend, April 4-5, 2026, one of UMBC’s services experienced a disruption, resulting in slower loading times. This affected some users' ability to log in to platforms such as Blackboard, Google Services, and myUMBC. This also caused a backlog of emails for some accounts. The issue has been resolved as of April 6, 2026. No action is needed by users at this time. 

Need Assistance?

If you have any questions or experience further issues, please contact the TSC at UMBC’s Help Service. 

On Friday, April 10, 2026, we’re migrating our ticketing system to Request Tracker (RT) 6. This is a major update focused on dramatically improving system speed, tightening our security, and preparing our system for modern AI tools. Click here to learn more from our vendor. 

Impact & Downtime

• When: Friday April 10 - Sunday, April 12 

• Downtime: The system will be offline for maintenance starting at 6 PM on Friday, April 10, to finalize the migration. While we expect the upgrade activities to be shorter, we’re holding the entire weekend for potential upgrade activities. 

• No action is required on your part; the update will be applied automatically.

Key Changes & Improvements

A Faster, Customizable Interface

If you spend your day working in queues, you will immediately feel the difference in RT 6:

• Lightning-Fast Interactions: The system now uses modern web technology (HTMX) to load different parts of the page in parallel. Instead of waiting for full-page reloads every time you update a ticket, edit a field, or use "Quick Create," changes happen instantly inline.

• Custom Page Layouts: You are no longer stuck with a one-size-fits-all view. You can now arrange widgets, prioritize the fields you actually use, and declutter your ticket views to match your specific workflow.

• Independent Refresh: Do you have a saved search that you monitor? Searches can now auto-refresh on their own independent timers without reloading your entire dashboard.

• Cleaner Design: The entire interface has been upgraded with a modern framework, making complex ticket histories much easier to read and navigate.
  
  

Under-the-Hood Priorities 

Beyond the UI, we are moving to RT 6 to solve two major backend goals:

1. Enterprise-Grade Security
   Protecting internal requests and data is our top priority. Moving to this version ensures we stay compliant with the latest security standards.

2. Laying the Groundwork for AI
   While you won't see "AI buttons" on launch day, RT 6 is the necessary foundation to get us there. The updated architecture allows us to start testing AI integrations later this year. Once stable, we will explore tools to support our users, including:

   • Smart Summaries to instantly catch you up on long, complex ticket threads.
   • Response Drafting to speed up common replies.
   • Automated Categorization to route tickets more efficiently.
   • MCP Server access for advanced users to interact via workflow tools (learn more).
     
     

Need Assistance?

Support Portal: Request Tracker (RT)

The first draft of the above announcement was generated using AI and edited by the Division of Information Technology Communications and IT teams.