Dear Campus Community,

As part of UMBC's continued transition to SAP Concur, we are writing to share important upcoming dates regarding travel reimbursements.

Key Dates at a Glance

• March 1, 2026 – Creation of reimbursement requests from approved pre-approvals in the legacy system ends.

• March 1, 2026 and after – Reimbursements for pre-approvals in the legacy system must be submitted in SAP Concur.

• Ongoing – Legacy system remains available for reference-only access to past travel and reimbursement data.

Effective March 1, 2026, the legacy travel system will no longer be available for creating reimbursement requests associated with pre-approvals in the legacy system. All reimbursements tied to these pre-approvals must be submitted through SAP Concur. As of March 1st, approximately 5 travelers may have trips which will require a reimbursement after returning from travel. These travelers should contact travel@umbc.edu upon their return for assistance with next steps.

The legacy system will remain up and running for reference-only purposes, allowing campus users to view historical travel and reimbursement records. No new reimbursement requests tied to approved pre-approvals may be created in the legacy system after March 1, 2026.

Upcoming Virtual Training Sessions

To assist with this transition, the following virtual training sessions are available for travelers, arrangers, and approvers:

• Concur Traveler + Arranger Training: Feb 6, 10:00 AM

• Concur Approver Training: Feb 9, 10:30 AM

• Concur Traveler + Arranger Training: Feb 17, 10:00 AM

• Concur Approver Training: Feb 26, 10:00 AM

In August 2025, StoryCorps featured a discussion on interfaith work between Matt Hoffman, director of the Center for Religion, Spirituality, and Pluralism, and Dr. Fernie Rodriguez, associate vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. During the Interfaith America conference, Hoffman and Rodriguez discussed the role religion and spirituality played in their upbringing, their life experiences, the impact of world and national events in their current work, and how they work with students in their current roles.

StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit committed to the idea that everyone has an important story to tell and that everyone's story matters. Since its founding in 2003, StoryCorps has helped over 700,000 people across the country have meaningful conversations about their lives. These recordings are collected in the U.S. Library of Congress and in an online archive which is now the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered.

Have you ever wanted to promote your club, group, or organization's event or announcement on the front page of myUMBC? Well, here is a quick guide on what you need to know. 

The promotion feature allows you to share content from your myUMBC group to all myUMBC users on the front page, reaching a much wider audience than if it were just posted to a group's page. This is a free feature for departments and official student organizations to use that operates on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Before you are able to promote content to the front page of myUMBC, there are a few requirements that must be met. 

• The post or content you wish to promote must be published in an official and public myUMBC group run by a UMBC department or student organization

• To have the option to promote content, you must be an admin of the group from which the content originates. This does not mean you have to be the creator of the post. 

• There must be an approved thumbnail image to go along with the post

• The content should be appropriate for all UMBC audiences

• Content can be promoted by a group once every 3 days, and only 10 promotions can be scheduled in advance

If these requirements are met, you should have no trouble promoting your content.  

To start, you will need to create a post as normal on myUMBC, including your text, thumbnails, alt-text, and any relevant tags. After you hit publish on your post, you may have to refresh the page or navigate to the main page of your group to find the post. 

Here you should see a box on the right side with the posts analytics as well as buttons to "Edit", "Copy", "Mark Important", and "Pin". If you are an admin for this group and it qualifies as a department or official student organization, then you should see a purple button labeled "Promote".

Dear UMBC Community,

It is my sincere pleasure to finally welcome everyone to the start of spring classes! With this Happy Monday message, I am carrying on the weekly personal reflections I began last fall, and this one is a huge thank-you note. In the wake of a storm that brought significant snow and ice and days of freezing temperatures, UMBC, like most institutions in our area, had to alter plans and work tirelessly to get us to today. 

Thank you to all who played a role—in caring for students, clearing pathways and parking lots, adjusting schedules, and pitching in and adapting in so many ways. I have had the privilege of seeing how you have risen to meet the challenges, and I am profoundly grateful. Happy first day of classes!  

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Four staff members of Student Affairs were part of the inaugural cohort of Human Resources and Strategic Talent Management’s Aspire Program: Emily Aiello, Event and Conference Services, as well as Candida Williams, Patrice Marshall, and Crystal Knight from Retriever Integrated Health. 

Aspire, launched in September 2025, is a semester-long program that provides aspiring leaders – individuals who are not currently supervising staff – with the essential professional competencies and interpersonal skills needed to effectively lead in the future. The cohort-based experience is delivered through a mix of engaging in-person instruction and team coaching. It's a unique opportunity open to all non-supervisory employees past their probationary period who are eager to take the first step on their leadership journey.

"The ASPIRE program not only taught me about my personal strengths and potential as a leader here, but in connecting me with other colleagues across campus gave me a support group to lean on to reach my goals," said Aiello, "It was also just nice to have a room full of people from across campus with similar goals to me that are also navigating changes in university leadership and and staffing, as well as policies. The support in that room was unmatched. I highly recommend anyone and everyone participate in the program."