The original post from CNMS Advising, as well as the link to join the webinar, may be found on the CNMS Advising myUMBC Group.

Are you taking CHEM101/102 this fall? This week we will be talking to Learning Assistants for introductory Chemistry courses! While these folks may only be working as an academic support person for one of these courses, they've also taken courses in Biology, Physics, and Math, so they have some of the absolute best advice for you! 

Not sure what a 'discussion' is? Looking for the best tips on success in the courses? Wondering how a professor creates test questions or the best study strategies to be fully prepared? They'll answer all these and more!! Join us tomorrow, August 11, at 2PM in WebEx (just click the link). We can't wait to see you!

UMBC Hillel is looking to organize a weekday Orthodox mechitzah minyan for Mincha. Please use the form linked here to let them know if you are interested. 
This will be participant-led, but the logistics will be handled by their office. 

Please join me in welcoming a few CNMS Dean's Office new hires.

• Dr. Marc Seigar recently joined UMBC as the CNMS Dean.  The Provost's detailed announcement can be found here: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/provost/posts/160468
• Destiny Whitehead started this week as the CNMS Dean's Office Executive Administrator Assistant II.  Destiny has provided executive-level support for many leaders over the span of her career.
• Sierra Jackson started this week as the CNMS Dean's Office Specialist focusing on travel and effort report assistance.  Sierra joined us from UMBC's Creative Achievement and Research Administration Team (CARAT).

We are delighted to have them all join our office!

Regards

Rebecca Struckmeier, CNMS Assistant Dean of Finance

The Dresher Center for the Humanities is pleased to announce that we are able to provide close to the same level of funding for scholarly research as previous years thanks to continued support from the Division of Research & Creative Achievement (ORCA), as well as the Dresher Center Endowment. There are some changes that we would like to share with you.

What Has Changed

• The maximum award amounts for our three major research funds have changed.

  • Scholarly Completion Funds now have a maximum of $4000.

  • Scholarly Development Funds now have a maximum of $2000.

  • Research Funds for Teaching Professor and Part-Time Faculty now have a maximum of $2000.

• Instead of rolling deadlines there will now be 3 deadlines throughout the year: September 15, December 15, and April 15. The Dresher Center cannot fund expenses retroactively. Only apply when you will be expending the funds in next three to four months, otherwise wait for the next deadline.

• The separate funding for Faculty Manuscript Workshops has been ended; these workshops can be funded through the Scholarly Completion Fund.

• We have transitioned to Google Forms for the application process for all of our research opportunities.

We have made all of these changes in response to faculty usage and to ensure funding supports a large number of Humanities faculty throughout the entire year

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to director, Amy Froide, froide@umbc.edu.

To all chip users,

On Tuesday August 25th, the chip cluster will be inaccessible from 0800ET - 1800ET. This maintenance window will focus on installing critical security patches for the chip cluster, upgrading the version of ceph running on RRStor to improve performance, and implementing Slurm scheduler tweaks to reduce queue bottlenecks caused by large job volumes.

We understand that this downtime will be disruptive, but the Research Computing & Data 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 could interrupt access to storage volumes or require the compute nodes to be rebooted, which would cause running jobs to be killed; please plan your jobs accordingly.

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

--

Give me all the bits!

Gregory Ballantine

HPC Specialist

Hello, we have a tall, black, metal bookshelf in the VPSA suite, located in Commons 319, that we no longer need! Available for pickup by Departments only. Please respond to Gina Hoagland at ghoaglan@umbc.edu if interested.

NIST seeks feedback on its TEVV-Athlon Framework, a flexible, four-stage methodology developed to help organizations design customized Test, Evaluation, Verification, and Validation (TEVV) assessments tailored to the real-world risks and objectives of their AI systems. Adaptable across diverse technologies, including LLMs, agentic systems, and multi-modal models, it structures evaluations around specific Events and Tools that capture performance data across targeted measurement domains (Blocks). By producing context-driven, repeatable evidence, the framework can verify that an AI system reliably achieves its intended goals while minimizing potential harms. Read the complete TEVV-Athlon Framework here.

The USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation shared the resources from the Ready, Set, Accessible! Fall Course Prep Day.

Held on August 3rd, this half-day virtual event was designed to help faculty take practical, manageable steps to improve the accessibility of their courses before classes begin. Whether you're updating an existing course, preparing new materials, or looking for a realistic place to begin, these resources offer concrete strategies, examples, and tools you can apply right away

Session 1: Digital Accessibility 101: A Coffee Chat Refresher 

Nancy O’Neill, Executive Director, Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation, University System of Maryland

• Digital Accessibility 101 (YouTube recording) 
• Digital Accessibility 101​​ ​(slide deck)Digital Accessibility 101

Resources Shared: 

• Accessible by Design: PDF Practices that Promote Digital Accessibility
• Boosting Course Accessibility Faculty Fellows Call for Applicants
• Course Accessibility Self-Paced Guide
• WCAG 2.1 Guidelines 
• USM Digital Accessibility Checklist 

Session 2: Before You Assign It: Checking Course Materials for Accessibility

Haley Cristea, Instructional Designer, Salisbury University

• Before You Assign It (YouTube recording) 

Links Shared: 

• How to Create Accessible PDFs (when necessary) 
• Color & Contrast Quick Fix Guide 
• Coloring for Colorblindness 
• WebAIM Color Contrast Checker 
• YouDescribe (Audio Description for YouTube) 

Session 3: The 10-Minute Assignment Makeover 

Teresa Valais, Senior Instructional Designer, Towson University

• The 10-Minute Assignment Makeover (YouTube video recording) 
• The 10-Minute Assignment Makeover (Presentation Slides) 

Links Shared: 

• CAST UDL Guidelines 
• TILT Higher Ed Website 
• AI Prompt Template for Assignment Redesign 
• UMBC Academic AI Resource 
• TILT Resources for Teachers 

Session 4: Sense-Sational Design: A Full Spectrum Approach to Accessible, Inclusive and Interactive Learning 

Karen Silverstrim, Instructional Designer, Salisbury University

• Sense-Sational Design: A Full Spectrum Approach (YouTube video recording) 
• Sense-Sational Design: A Full Spectrum Approach Presentation Materials 

Links Shared: 

• CAST UDL Chart 
• Karen Silverstrim’s Website/Portfolio 

All recordings will also be available on the Digital Accessibility Hub in the coming days.

Watch your email, myUMBC and Blackboard for notifications regarding online Student Course Evaluations beginning August 10th.

The survey window for Session One (12 week) and Session Two (6 week) Summer 2026 is August 10th through August 14th 11:59pm. 

The secure online system grants students 24/7 access during the evaluation period. Surveys must be completed before the August 14th deadline.

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

The Mentor newsletter for Summer 2026 is now available!

 The Mentor is the MD State Retirement & Pension Agency's newsletter for Active members. The newsletter provides news, information, and legislative updates.

 The Summer 2026 edition of The Mentor features: 

• How and why employees in the Pension should set up their mySRPS account.
• Tips for how to properly fill out paperwork.
• Awareness of the rules regarding reemployment for retirees.
• The importance of making sure your beneficiary information is up to date.

Have you signed up for your mySRPS account? The mySRPS account allows members to access their current account balance, update their beneficiary information, run estimates of their future monthly benefit, and much more! 

The Maryland State Retirement and Pension System administers death, disability and retirement benefits for more than 430,000 members and retirees.