Dear UMBC Colleagues,

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

P&A Group has provided an FAQ page that may answer some of the questions that our affected employees may have. Please Click Here to view that page.

The page linked above includes a "What to Expect Next" table of their services and is where P&A Group will declare which of their services are back to normal business processes.

Currently, the only service not operating properly is their phone system, all other systems are back up-and-running.

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

Sincerely,

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

Congratulations to our 2026 inductees!

Tal Amit Adashek
Sean Erik Alvarado
Ashley Barrientos
Mischa Blevins
Willow Eve Brandey
Addie Crowley
Jenifer Cruz-Reyes
Nora Erabhaoui
Shannelle Hanson
Sergio I. Hernandez
Monique D. Holman
Mandi R. Kirk
Amy Lennon
Marina Leon
Raquel Mejia

Cherly Montano Herrera
Vanesa F. Navarrete
Sheilla Nkwenji
Angelina O'Day
Oluwaseun Titiade Olejiya
Cindy Melissa Ortez
Josephine Prentice
Kolby Reese
Alexis Russell
Oliver Guy Trent Salter
Viorina S. Smith
Banka Djamilat Toure
Tiffany J. Townes
Melitza Victoria-Escobar
Alycia Wilson
Kate Arbaugh

We are also proud to welcome our new board members for the 2026-2027 year!

Please feel free to contact them with any ideas for activities you might have.

Main Campus:

President:  Josie Prentice-  Jprenti1@umbc.edu

Vice President: Melitza Victoria Escobar-    MVictor1@umbc.edu

Treasurer: Alycia Wilson-     alyciaw2@umbc.edu

Secretary: Kolby Reese-     KReese3@umbc.edu

Communications/Activity Liaison- Raquel Mejia rmejia1@umbc.edu

Shady Grove Campus:

President: Sergio Hernandez-   shernan2@umbc.edu

Vice President: Sheilla Nkwenji-   snkwenj1@umbc.edu

Treasurer/Secretary: Shannelle Hanson-   wx79097@umbc.edu

Earlier today, Procurement held their first session in their new Supplier Spotlight series.  This series is designed to highlight strategic supplier partners that assist UMBC in conducting it's business for the campus community.

Today's session was with Club Colors, a company that specializes in supporting custom merchandise, custom apparel, and promotional products.

A recording of the session (34 minutes) can be viewed at this link.

Be on the lookout for information about future sessions in this series.

We hope everyone has a great summer break! Congratulations to our 2026 graduates. 

The Mosaic Center will be closed during the Summer 2026 session. Staff members will be available via email and WebEx. Should you have any questions, please email us at themosaic@umbc.edu or the appropriate staff member. 

If you are interested in reserving the Mosaic Center for a summer meeting or event, please reach out to Angelina R. Jenkins at arjenkin@umbc.edu. 

We will re-open for the 2026-2027 academic year on Monday, August 24, 2026. 

We look forward to reconnecting and meeting new community members in August! 

SGA is HIRING!! 

Do you wish to join UMBC's Student Government Association in its mission to spread leadership and support the student body? 

We are hiring for all appointed positions and the Vice President for Student Organizations. Please scan the QR code or use this link to fill out the application. You must fill out multiple applications if you are interested in multiple positions! 

For any questions regarding the application or positions, please email us at sga@umbc.edu or text through Instagram: @umbcsga

Deadline for application: June 10, 2026

AI-powered fitness apps are transforming personalized training by combining data, recovery insights, and adaptive workout planning into a single experience tailored to individual goals. For UMBC Data Science graduate student Manikanta Sirumalla, that realization came from years of personal experience in the gym. After struggling with disconnected fitness apps and generic workout plans, he decided to build something better. In this conversation with Dennise Cardona, he reflects on his journey from iOS developer to founder, how UMBC shaped his thinking, and what it takes to build an AI-powered fitness platform from the ground up.

The library will be open the following schedule during summer session:

Monday–Thursday        8:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Friday                            8:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Saturday                       Closed

Sunday                          12:00 PM – 7:00 PM

The RLC and atrium are open 24/7 with Retriever Card swipe.

To all chip users,

On Tuesday June 2nd, the chip cluster will be inaccessible during business hours starting at 0800ET. This downtime will be to apply critical security patches, and to perform some maintenance on the ceph storage cluster.

We understand that this downtime will be disruptive, but the Research Computing Team will endeavor to complete this and other routine maintenance quickly and alert the user base to resumed operations.

Please note that the current downtime plan does not include cancelling running jobs, but any jobs requiring access via the login nodes (e.g., interactive jobs) will be disrupted. Though it is not the plan, do note that circumstances may arise that would require the compute nodes to be rebooted, which would cause running jobs to be killed.

Remember to submit any issues you have here:https://rtforms.umbc.edu/rt_authenticated/doit/DoIT-support.php?auto=Research%20Computing

and check out our documentation here:https://umbc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/faq/pages/1082589207/UMBC+HPCF+-+chip

As always, keep computin’,

Max Breitmeyer

HPC Specialist

Hello everyone!

Retriever Essentials will close early today at 3:00pm

Please plan your trip accordingly, and we apologize for any inconviences. 

Wow, what a year! As we tuck the 2025-26 academic year into bed, I will say that the hectic last weeks of a semester are also some of the most fulfilling and rewarding weeks. I enjoyed meeting so many of you over the past weeks and celebrating all you accomplished throughout the year! 

Today’s Provost’s Perspective will be the final installment until fall semester. I hope that you have found these weekly round ups to be informative and beneficial. I have enjoyed sharing a little bit about what makes me tick and connecting in a way that can’t always be realized in a formal setting. If you have themes you would like to explore in the newsletter when we pick back up in the fall, please share them here.

On Wednesday and Thursday I had the honor of addressing the Class of 2026. I discussed the often overlooked importance of kindness and care for others in both our personal and professional lives. Kindness helps us work on solutions together that we cannot find alone. Kindness transforms ordinary acts into extraordinary actions by influencing how messages land with the receiver of the message. And lastly, when we are kind to each other it brightens our day. Have you seen anyone get mad or upset by someone being kind to them? I encourage you over the summer to embrace kindness and its transformative effects. 

The last two Provost’s Perspectives have been heavy on music, so I figure why not make it three in a row. It came to my attention this week that Bill LaCourse, the outgoing dean of the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, curated a special Spotify playlist for his upcoming celebration honoring his 15 years of leadership of the college. Bill will be returning to the faculty following a research leave. Do you have a Spotify playlist that is perfect for the summer? Do you have a go-to playlist when lounging by the pool or taking in the sun and scenery on the shore? I would love to hear what brings you joy and helps you relax and let go. Share your playlists here. 

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NEWS & NOTES

Celebrating Bill LaCourse May 27

A celebration of Bill LaCourse’s 15 years of leadership as dean of the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences will be held on Wednesday, May 27, 1-3 p.m. in UC 312. Bill has been a steady force for progress at UMBC in his decade-and-a-half at the helm of CNMS. Please join us in thanking Bill for his many years of service.

Thank You to John Stolle-McAllister

I want to thank John Stolle-McAllister for his leadership as the interim dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences since July 2025. John proved to be a thoughtful and effective leader for CAHSS. I greatly appreciate his insightful contributions to the academic leadership team. He will be returning to his role as professor and chair of modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication. Please join me in thanking John for his service to CAHSS and UMBC.  

Meet the Class of 2026

Take a minute to meet some members of the Class of 2026 and learn more about the many ways they left their mark on UMBC.

Final Day for Faculty Applications: 2026-27 Generative AI Pedagogy Fellows Program

Today is the last day the USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation will accept applications for the Generative AI Pedagogy Fellows Program for 2026-2027. This year-long program offers faculty a unique opportunity to deepen their expertise in AI pedagogy while contributing to evidence-based teaching practices across our system.

Learn more about the call for faculty applications for the 2026-27 Generative AI Pedagogy Fellows Program.

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MARK YOUR CALENDAR

Using Generative AI to Support Your Course Design: A Faculty Workshop

Use AI iteratively to align course objectives & activities.

Monday, June 1, 9 - 10:30 a.m., Virtual

Join colleagues to explore how generative AI can support teaching, course design, and student learning and where faculty judgment remains essential. 

This session practically demonstrates how generative AI can support course design when embedded within a backwards‑design workflow. Rather than isolated prompting, faculty will learn to use AI iteratively to align objectives, assessments, and course activities. Participants will gain repeatable, model‑agnostic workflows for using Gen AI to augment design while preserving faculty voice and pedagogical intent. 

The FDC is co-sponsoring this workshop, facilitated by John Schumacher, professor of sociology, anthropology and public health and a USM Generative AI Pedagogy Fellow for 2025-26. This workshop is a condensed version of The AI-Assisted Educator: A Course Design Sprint that was initially offered in January 2026.

Register for part III of Introduction to Generative AI in Teaching Series.

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Help Make this Newsletter Better

The goal over the last academic year of this newsletter is to deepen our connection to UMBC, whether that is learning about an upcoming event, a divisional accomplishment, an innovative program, or an  update from the Office of the Provost. If you know of a program or event that should be highlighted, please share it here.