Join us on Tuesday April 21 & Thursday April 23 for UMBC BookFest '26, a celebration of writers, readers, makers and advocates. All events are free! Full information is available on the event website, or through the myUMBC event posts linked below. Hope to see you there! 

>>> BookMarkIt on the Library Plaza, Tuesday April 21, 11am-1pm 

>>> One Maryland, One Book event, Tuesday April 21, 5-6:30pm, UC312. An evening with Lawrence Burney, author of the 2026 OMOB selection, No Sense in Wishing

>>> Freedom to Read: Libraries and Our Democracy, Thursday April 23, 5-6:30pm, Library Gallery

Mark your calendar for Public Humanities presentations at URCAD 2026 on April 22 in the Retriever Activities Center (RAC):

11:20 – 11:35 a.m. (RAC 106) - Sophia Crowell
Bay Shore Amusement Park: A Forgotten History Of Sparrows Point
Sophia Crowell, Biological Sciences major, Public Humanities minor
Michael Casiano, American Studies, Mentor

11:40 – 11:55 a.m. (RAC 106) - Finley Bandy
Our City Is A City Without An Expressway: A Historical Review Of Transportation Injustice In Baltimore City
Finley Bandy, History major, Public History and Public Humanities minor
Michael Casiano, American Studies, Mentor

11:40 – 11:55 a.m. (RAC 230) - Andrea Quispe
Visualizing Enforcement: ICE Activity and Community Response in Maryland
Andrea Quispe Majors: American Studies, Economics; Public Humanities minor
Tamara Bhalla, American Studies, Mentor

3:15 – 3:30 p.m. (RAC 230) - Kat Gill
The Case For A Public Internet
Kat Gill, American Studies and English double major, Public Humanities minor
Michael Casiano, American Studies, Mentor

2:55 – 3:10 p.m. (RAC 230) - Bryan Castro-Velez
Museo Garifuna Sawaina In Context: Honduran Neoliberalism, Anti-Colonial Ethnographies & Garifuna Celebrations Of Life
Bryan Castro-Velez, GES Major, Public Humanities minor
Sarah Fouts, Public Humanities, Mentor

For the full URCAD schedule see:

urcad.umbc.edu

Mark your calendar for AMST and PubHum presentations at URCAD 2026 on April 22 in the Retriever Activities Center (RAC):

11:20 – 11:35 a.m. (RAC 106) - Sophia Crowell
Bay Shore Amusement Park: A Forgotten History Of Sparrows Point
Sophia Crowell, Biological Sciences major, Public Humanities minor
Michael Casiano, American Studies, Mentor

11:40 – 11:55 a.m. (RAC 106) - Finley Bandy
Our City Is A City Without An Expressway: A Historical Review Of Transportation Injustice In Baltimore City
Finley Bandy, History major, Public History and Public Humanities minor
Michael Casiano, American Studies, Mentor

11:40 – 11:55 a.m. (RAC 230) - Andrea Quispe
Visualizing Enforcement: ICE Activity and Community Response in Maryland
Andrea Quispe Majors: American Studies, Economics; Minor: Public Humanities
Tamara Bhalla, American Studies, Mentor

3:15 – 3:30 p.m. (RAC 230) - Kat Gill
The Case For A Public Internet
Kat Gill, American Studies and English double major, Public Humanities minor
Michael Casiano, American Studies, Mentor

2:55 – 3:10 p.m. (RAC 230) - Bryan Castro-Velez
Museo Garifuna Sawaina In Context: Honduran Neoliberalism, Anti-Colonial Ethnographies & Garifuna Celebrations Of Life
Bryan Castro-Velez, GES Major, Public Humanities minor
Sarah Fouts, Public Humanities, Mentor

For the full URCAD schedule see:

urcad.umbc.edu

Join RIH for Student Mental Health Conversations on April 22, 27,and May 6th (details in flyer). These conversations are intended to be opportunities for students to share with others their experiences with mental health, how the university is doing in addressing mental health concerns of students, and barriers/access points to care on the campus. Students will also have an opportunity to play some trivia games, find resources for mental health services both on and off campus, and enjoy lunch/dinner.

April 22, 12pm-2pm, Lower Flat Tuesdays

April 27, 11am-1pm, The Gathering Space

May 6, 6pm-8pm, Lower Flat Tuesdays

Ready to step up? 👀

The UMBC Pre-Physical Therapy Society is looking for its next: President, VP, Treasurer, and Secretary. If you’ve been thinking about getting more involved, this is your sign.


⏰ Applications close April 27th at 11:59 PM
Application Form

4 stackable wooden paper trays: 3 (10-1/4" x 12-1/2") and 1 (10-1/4" x 15-1/4"). Please see image attached.

If you are interested, you can contact Andrea Morales at amoral2@umbc.edu. Thanks!

Blackboard course shells for Summer 2026 were created on April 16, 2026.

All Summer 2026 courses listed in the UMBC Schedule of Classes (SOC), regardless of designation as lecture, lab, etc, or instructor assignment, now have a Blackboard presence. RT requests are no longer needed for research, independent study, or practicum courses. As new course sections are added to the SOC by Department Scheduling Coordinators, corresponding Bb shells are automatically generated overnight. 

• If you are an instructor and your name is not associated with the course you are teaching in the SOC, please contact your Departmental Scheduling Coordinator to resolve the issue. Once you are listed in the SOC, your access to the Bb course shell will be updated automatically.

• If you and your Department Scheduling Coordinator believe you are correctly assigned as the instructor of record in the SOC and you do not have access to your course shell in Blackboard, please submit a Request Tracker (RT) ticket via my.umbc.edu/help.

Course Merge Request Process

As announced by DoIT in April 2025, instructors teaching multiple sections of the same course will find a separate Blackboard course shell for each section or course component. Courses will not be merged by default. Instructors planning to use separate shells will no longer need to submit an RT request. Cross-listed and combined courses will be merged automatically. Courses with multiple components will not be merged by default.

Course shells may be merged or removed upon request using the new Blackboard Course Merge or Removal form(UMBC login required), which we recommend submitting at least one week before the semester starts, if not as soon as courses are created in Blackboard. NOTE: Courses should not be merged or split after student grade data and engagement activity is recorded, since it will be purged as part of the separation process.

Create an Inclusive & Accessible Course Environment

Plan your accessibility and Universal Design for Learning strategy before students begin working with course materials. Ally, an accessibility tool, is enabled in all course shells. Ally automatically scans uploaded and created course content, then performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Please review the Ally FAQs for more information about the accessibility indicators on course content andalternative formats, or attend an upcoming training session.

UMBC instructors are invited to "enroll" in the self-paced, online Course Roadmap to Equity (CoRE) Foundations training, which provides practical tools to achieve the ‘Strive for 85’ digital accessibility goal -- an overall Ally course score of 85% or better by the end of 2026. 

Connect with Instructional Technology

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options:

• Check our extensive FAQ collection 
  • What's new in Ultra? | Known Issues 
• Open a ticket via RT
• Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
• Request a consult with instructional technology staff
• UMBC Digital Accessibility| Ally FAQs | Ally Demo | Ally Report (VPN required)
• PIVOT | Academic Continuity |Keep On Teaching |Student Technology Resources

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!

Shared from the Office of Equity and Civil Rights. 

Reminder that we will be having a meeting today from 4-6 PM at the Harbor MPR, and if you are interested in the picnic to fill out the form below. We hope to see you all there!

https://forms.gle/kWWGjkex7pwK4adM8

This event is part of the daylong Global Asias Symposium & Celebration on Monday, May 4! Full information is available on myUMBC and the event website.

Join us on Monday, May 4 for a celebration of the many accomplishments of the Global Asias Initiative here at UMBC! The Global Asias Initiative, a three-year initiative funded by the Mellon Foundation, has created a forum for engaging in conversations in the fields of Asian American Studies, Asian diaspora studies, and Asian Studies. The Initiative has has created connections across disciplines, institutions, organizations, and communities here on campus and beyond. 

Welcome & Belonging and Community Luncheon: Conversations on Asian experiences at UMBC
Monday, May 4
11:00am-12:30pm

Join us for our Belonging and Community luncheon to kick off the Global Asias Closing Symposium, which is dedicated to the power of storytelling, creative expression, and community. We will share personal stories through art and reflection to celebrate the joy, calm, and cultural heritage that sustain us. From these individual stories, we will build a shared vision of grounded community and understanding of Asian experiences at UMBC. Through a series of collaborative art activities and dialogue, we will turn our hopes for connection and belonging into a visual representation of our future at UMBC. Hosted in partnership with the Mosaic Center, the Center for Democracy and Civic Life, and the Office of Residential Life.

Location: Fine Arts Room 011
Lunch is Provided

*

This events are 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.

See the original post and RSVP here.