Did you know you can be awarded up to $1,500 to support your research?

Ken knew! And he's feeling just fine...

"One day, I was thinking about the history of hairstyles, wondering how my blown-dried hair could be compared to others. Turns out, it can't but that led me down a very interesting research path. I'm glad I learned about the Undergraduate Research Award," Ken commented.

You can apply here: https://ur.umbc.edu/ura/

"It was easy. Easy as a Sunday morning," Ken later noted.

URAs provide up to $1,500 to undergraduate students to support their research, scholarship, or creative work with a UMBC faculty mentor on an original project. UMBC students of all years and disciplines are invited to apply, as long as they remain enrolled at UMBC long enough to complete the proposed work.

URA scholoars are enrolled in the fall URA PRAC and are required to present at URCAD 2027. Award period is June 1, 2026- May 31, 2027.

Applications require a research proposal and mentor statement of support.

Deadline: Friday, May 1, 2026

UR.umbc.edu/ura

Dear Students,

Thank you so much to those who have already taken the UMBC Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey. Your responses are invaluable to creating a community of inclusive excellence at UMBC. If you have not yet participated in taking the climate survey, and you still want to, please do so now.

The online survey will only be available until Thursday, April 30, 2026. As a reminder, the survey is confidential, and your responses will be completely anonymous. The survey will take approximately 15-25 minutes to complete. You can access the survey here.

Content note: This survey asks some questions about personal experiences with sexual and interpersonal violence. Some of the language used in this survey is explicit and direct, and may be triggering or uncomfortable for some participants. Information on how to get help, if you need it, appears before and after the survey and is available on the ECR website.

All participants in the survey will be entered into a drawing to win one of five $100 UMBC Bookstore gift cards. At the end of the survey, you will be directed to a separate link, where you can enter your name and contact information to be eligible for the prizes.

If you have questions about the purpose or content of the survey, please contact the Office of Equity and Civil Rights at ecr@umbc.edu or 410-455-1717.

Sincerely,

Tanyka M. Barber
Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer

Dear Students,

Thank you so much to those who have already taken the UMBC Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey. Your responses are invaluable to creating a community of inclusive excellence at UMBC. If you have not yet participated in taking the climate survey, and you still want to, please do so now.

The online survey will only be available until Thursday, April 30, 2026. As a reminder, the survey is confidential, and your responses will be completely anonymous. The survey will take approximately 15-25 minutes to complete. You can access the survey here.

Content note: This survey asks some questions about personal experiences with sexual and interpersonal violence. Some of the language used in this survey is explicit and direct, and may be triggering or uncomfortable for some participants. Information on how to get help, if you need it, appears before and after the survey and is available on the ECR website.

All participants in the survey will be entered into a drawing to win one of five $100 UMBC Bookstore gift cards. At the end of the survey, you will be directed to a separate link, where you can enter your name and contact information to be eligible for the prizes.

If you have questions about the purpose or content of the survey, please contact the Office of Equity and Civil Rights at ecr@umbc.edu or 410-455-1717.

Sincerely,

Tanyka M. Barber
Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer

The 2026 UMBC Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey was launched! Information gathered from the survey will be used to inform our ongoing education, prevention, and response work, and is an important component in campus-wide efforts to stop, prevent, and remedy the effects of sexual misconduct at UMBC.

All students who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to win one of five $100
UMBC Bookstore gift cards.

You can access the online survey here. The survey will be open from Wednesday,
April 15 until Thursday, April 30, and will take about 15-25 minutes to complete.

This survey is anonymous and confidential. After completing the UMBC Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey, you will be prompted to enter your name and email address in a separate voluntary survey to enter for a chance to win one of the gift cards.

Content note: This survey asks some questions about personal experiences with sexual and
interpersonal violence. Some of the language used in this survey is explicit and direct and
may be triggering or uncomfortable for some participants. Information on how to get help, if you need it, appears before and after the survey and is available on the ECR website.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

The 2026 UMBC Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey was launched! Information gathered from the survey will be used to inform our ongoing education, prevention, and response work, and is an important component in campus-wide efforts to stop, prevent, and remedy the effects of sexual misconduct at UMBC.

All students who complete the survey will be entered into a drawing to win one of five $100
UMBC Bookstore gift cards.

You can access the online survey here. The survey will be open from Wednesday,
April 15 until Thursday, April 30, and will take about 15-25 minutes to complete.

This survey is anonymous and confidential. After completing the UMBC Sexual Misconduct Campus Climate Survey, you will be prompted to enter your name and email address in a separate voluntary survey to enter for a chance to win one of the gift cards.

Content note: This survey asks some questions about personal experiences with sexual and
interpersonal violence. Some of the language used in this survey is explicit and direct and
may be triggering or uncomfortable for some participants. Information on how to get help, if you need it, appears before and after the survey and is available on the ECR website.

Thank you in advance for your participation!

Dear Colleagues,

Since the beginning of 2025,  faculty members across the university may have experienced disruption to their research, teaching, and service activities due to White House executive orders and federal actions. In light of these ongoing impacts, we are continuing modification of protocols surrounding promotion and tenure reviews for the AY 2026 – 2027 cycle.

Faculty research may have been impacted in various ways: stop-work orders to federal grants; inability to access datasets or databases housed in or sponsored by federal agencies; or challenges in travel to present their work at national or international conferences or conduct international research. 

Also, there may have been potential impacts on the faculty’s ability to hire students and staff to support their research using federal support. In other instances, faculty members’ community-engaged scholarship, teaching, and service may have been severely impacted due to programs being curtailed in both the public and private sectors and due to lack of resources to conduct the work. 

Faculty whose scholarship and teaching could be categorized as diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) may have to spend considerable time navigating the current political climate in the process of conducting and publishing their work.

Provost's modifications of tenure track faculty and librarian faculty promotion protocols: AY 2026 – 2027 Cycle

To address the potential impact of  executive orders and federal actions related to research funding, curtailment or termination of DEIA initiatives, and related topics on faculty’s research, teaching, and service, the following modified protocol will be continued in academic year 2026 – 2027 faculty promotion and tenure (P&T) reviews. These modifications will be communicated to each level of P&T review through the provost’s annual P&T instructions, through the deans’ instructions for the development of letters to external reviewers, through the provost’s charge to the University Faculty Review Committee, and in deliberations made by department promotion and tenure committees.

1. If there have been any impacts on their research, teaching and/or service as a result of the executive orders and federal actions, candidates for P&T review are encouraged to reflect on such impacts in their self-assessment.

If the candidate mentions impacts in their self-evaluation: 

2. Every level of review, including outside reviewers, must consider the described impact of such executive orders and federal actions on the usual progression of our faculty towards promotion and tenure when evaluating both the work performed during this period of disruption and their potential as a scholar after promotion and/or tenure when performing on- and off-campus activities.

3. Each level of review must include a Statement of Affirmation that their review, and all previous levels of review, has taken into full consideration the impact of executive orders and federal actions beginning in 2025 on the candidate’s progression. 

[I] affirm that [my] review took into full consideration any impacts of current executive orders and federal actions on [X’s] candidacy.

If it is determined that any prior level of review has failed to do so in a way that may have resulted in negative consequences for the candidate, the current level of review shall inform the provost in their own report.

4. All letters providing guidance to external reviewers must include the following statement regarding the impact of executive orders and federal actions on P&T recommendations. 

When considering your recommendation regarding this P&T decision, please make sure to consider any potential disruptive effects described by the candidate associated with recent federal executive orders and federal actions impacting research, teaching, and service. This impact might include, but it is not limited to, the termination of federal support or faculty’s inability to present at conferences outside the United States. 

This statement recognizes the impact that current executive orders and federal actions might have on the research, teaching, and service of faculty going up for promotion and tenure.

This policy applies to the academic year 2026 – 2027 review cycle. The Office of the Provost will provide additional guidance for any promotion and tenure modifications in subsequent cycles as the impact of the executive orders and federal actions evolve. 

Sincerely,

Ana Oskoz
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

Watch your email, myUMBC and Blackboard for notifications regarding online Student Course Evaluations beginning April 28th. 

The survey window for Spring 2026 is April 28th through May 12th. 

The secure online system grants students 24/7 access during the evaluation period. Surveys must be completed before the May 12th deadline. 

Survey results available to instructors after Spring 2026 grades are posted.

See the IRADS website and Frequently Asked Questions for more information.

Hi Honors Students,

Before getting down to the business at hand, we need to thank the Honors College Council's Executive Board of 2025-2026 for giving us such a fantastic year of events! Special appreciation goes to our graduating seniors: President Vunnathi Ankem, Social Media manager Kayla Nemirovsky, and External Events chair Isabel Kendall--we will miss you!

And what is the business at hand? VOTING! Click here to access the ballot and to see who is running for what--there are some great candidates to choose from. Note that some people are running for more than one position, so read carefully!

Thank you in advnace for voting :-)

Circa 2016