Let's get going, with SAP Concur!

Today is our official launch of the new travel system, SAP Concur.  Over the past three weeks, over 800 campus community members have attended training sessions for the new system.  Thank you so much to all of you who have made the effort to get up to speed.   The training presentation slides and videos are now available on our new travel website. There are still training sessions scheduled this week as well – so please feel free to join us for training! 

You can start your journey with us at travel.umbc.edu, the myUMBC Travel Group, and easily login to SAP Concur at umbc.edu/go/concur. 

Along with the changes needed to both support this new system and simplify the travel process, an Interim Travel Policy is effective on November 3 for travel booked via SAP Concur. This interim policy streamlines and clarifies the current published travel policy. Take a moment and celebrate with me that the new policy—at nine pages—is a bit more digestible than the prior one at 26 pages. 

THE LEGACY TRAVEL SYSTEM IS STILL AVAILABLE

Please remember that the legacy Travel System is still up and running.  If you have existing pre-approvals, you are welcome (even encouraged) to proceed with the reimbursement in the legacy system.  Even if you need to book a trip and haven't had a chance to get training on the new system, you can still create a pre-approval in the Legacy Travel System.  Pre-approvals will be sunset in early December, reimbursements will still be processed into early 2026. We will announce the full phase-out plan for the Travel System coming soon.  

Help Desk Support

If you have any questions or concerns as you get up and running, we are providing help desk support both live and virtual to help.

• Tuesday, November 4 from 9:00 - 11:00 AM (LIVE in the UC Lobby in Front of the Center for Global Engagement, Room 207 + (Virtual on Webex)

• Tuesday, November 4 from 12:00 - 2:00 PM ( LIVE in the UC Lobby in Front of the Center for Global Engagement, Room 207  + (Virtual on Webex))

• Wednesday, November 5 from 9:30 - 11:00 AM (Virtual on Webex)

• Wednesday, November 5 from 2:30 - 4:30 PM (Virtual on Webex)

• Thursday, November 6 from 1:00 - 2:30 PM (Virtual on Webex)

• Friday, November 7 from 1:15 - 2:30 PM (Virtual on Webex)

Training is ongoing 

We continue to offer training, check here for upcoming training dates.

Hello Retriever Entrepreneurs!

Mark your calendars for our final workshop of the semester!

Join us on Friday, November 14th from 12–1pm in University Center 310 for an insightful session led by Elizabeth Dougherty, Northeast Regional Outreach Director at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

During this session, attendees will:

-Discover the role of the USPTO and why it matters to innovators

-Learn about the different types of intellectual property (patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets)

-Understand why protecting your IP is crucial for startups and entrepreneurs

-Learn practical steps to begin securing your intellectual property

Students, faculty, alumni, and members of the business community are welcome to attend! We hope to see you there!

Abstract:  This presentation takes the assassination of South African anthropologist and activist David Webster, murdered on May 1, 1989, as a point of departure for reflecting on the intersections between politics and disciplinary history in anthropology.  It examines the events that followed his death, including his funeral, the memorial held at the University of the Witwatersrand, letters of condolence, public tributes, and obituaries.  The paper seeks to understand how Webster's assassination became an emblematic event both in the political context of the end of apartheid and in the intellectual history of the discipline.  The episode reveals how the biography of an anthropologist, his public engagement, and his networks of intellectual solidarity became part of a collective memory and a site of symbolic dispute over anthropology's social role.  The presentation advances a reading that combines ethical, political, and historiographical dimensions, proposing Webster's assassination as a biographical event that illuminates the connections between political commitment and knowledge production in South Africa during the 1980s.