🚨 LAST CALL — IT’S TONIGHT 🚨

Take a break from the midweek grind and pull up to Bingo Night 🎉

We’re not talking about small prizes either… we’re giving away BIG wins like:
☕ Espresso machine
📺 TV
🎮 PS5… yes, a PS5 WHATTTT

If you’re not there, you’re honestly missing out.

🗓️ Tonight
⏰ 5–8 PM
📍 UC Ballroom

Grab your ticket, bring your friends, and come win something worth showing off. Don’t overthink it — just show up.

Dear UMBC Community, 

Inclusive excellence is at the heart of UMBC’s identity. We are strengthening this commitment by introducing a framework that helps form a shared definition to guide our work.

The Division of Institutional Equity team has developed a draft framework for inclusive excellence, building on ideas shared by our campus community through the series UMBC Talks in 2024 and 2025. The framework is intended to articulate our shared commitments, communicate our values, guide action, inspire collaboration, and support the development and implementation of UMBC’s next strategic plan.

This spring, we are inviting the entire campus community to participate in dialogue sessions to help continue to shape the framework. These conversations are an opportunity to share your experiences, reflect on your values, and provide feedback to strengthen this work.

UMBC Talks dialogues are 90-minute, facilitated conversations led by Ciara Christian, M.A. ’18, Ph.D. ’22, director of the Center for Social Justice Dialogue, and David Hoffman, Ph.D. ’13, director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Life.

The following UMBC Talks dialogue sessions are currently scheduled:

• Friday, April 10, 2:30 – 4:30 p.m., UC 312 - Focused on faculty and staff experiences but open to all. Participants will have opportunities to connect with others who share similar UMBC affiliations. RSVP here.

• Wednesday, April 15, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., UC 312 - Open to all. Conversations will take place in mixed groups. RSVP here.

• Friday, April 24, 10 a.m. – noon, UC 312 - Focused on graduate student experiences, but open to all. Participants will have opportunities to connect with others who share similar UMBC affiliations. RSVP here.

• Friday, April 24, 2 – 4 p.m., UC 312 - Focused on undergraduate student experiences but open to all. Participants will have opportunities to connect with others who share similar UMBC affiliations. RSVP here.

• Tuesday, April 28, 3 – 5 p.m., Virtual - Open to all. Conversations will take place in mixed groups. RSVP here.

Each session will follow the same format, so you can choose the time that works best for you. We encourage you to participate and share your perspective as we shape this important work together.

Sincerely, 

Tanyka M. Barber
Vice President for Institutional Equity and Chief Diversity Officer

For CARPOOLING INFO

JOIN OUR GROUPME: https://groupme.com/join_group/92270993/0Y2WPlKd

Private room available in a townhouse for a male at Westland Gardens for a 3-month move-in, available from May to August. 

Fully furnished 2BHK townhouse: 

• Spacious Living Room with a sofa + TV. 

• Oven, Microwave, Fridge, Dishwasher.
• In-house Laundry(Washer + Dryer).
• Centralised Heater and Cooler.
• 1 min walk to the UMBC Bus stop.
• 10-minute walk to UMBC campus.
• Rent is 600$ + utilities.

DM for more information: +12029375716 or email me at IO95979@umbc.edu

11:30am-12:00pm LIVE in the RAC!

Come for the performance and stay for the keynote. Lunch will be served.

The Dana Idnay Band is an Alternative Rock band playing selections from Sparrow, their recent EP. Featuring Dana Idnay (Biology Pre-Pharmacy), Gabriel Schauf, (Music Technology) Nik Redcay (Music Technology), Logan Williams (Music Technology)

Mentor: Felipe Garibaldi, UMBC Affiliate Artist

URCAD is Wednesday, April 22 in the RAC:

URCAD.umbc.edu

The UMBC Institute of Politics invites you to the event honoring Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This event is part of their Politics Everywhere series.

Politics Everywhere: Understanding the AAPI Vote examines the growing influence of Asian American voters and what drives their political engagement.

Location: Skylight Room, The Commons
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Time: 6:45 pm to 8:30 pm

The event features a reception with (free!) food and drinks from different Asian cultures.

Lt. Governor Aruna Miller, the first Asian American to serve in statewide office in Maryland, will deliver a keynote address. The event also includes a moderated panel discussion with Asian American leaders in Maryland.

The event is free, but space is limited, and an RSVP is required.  

Click here for more details about the event and to RSVP. 

The SWSA E-Board Interest Form will close tonight at 11:59 pm!

We are still looking for a candidate for Off-Campus Service Chair! This positon offers the opportunity to build volunteer coordination skills, engage with our broader community, learn how to partner with community organizers, and more!

The outgoing officers have prior connections and annual service projects that will be passed down to the next service chairs, so don't fret! If you are interested, please apply!

Interest Form Link:

https://forms.gle/PyMcgBNb9KYb6huy7 

The 2026-27 Executive Board Election will begin next Wednesday, April 15th.

All candidates will be confirmed and contacted later this week.

Save the Date!

CARAT, the CAHSS grants team, is rolling out a new series of one-hour grant workshops on topics of interest for CAHSS faculty. The goal of CARAT Gems (Grant Education Modules) is to increase faculty's understanding and comfort level with the grants process at UMBC. 

Our inaugural workshop on Wednesday, April 29, from 12:00-1:00PM (hybrid in PUP-451 or Webex) is titled, Getting Started.

In the first half hour, we will focus on what's involved in becoming a PI (Principal Investigator) and developing external funding proposals at UMBC.

In the second half hour, we will discuss, from a practical standpoint, how to begin a new award, including planning and spending. 

Time will be given for questions. You can choose to attend the entire workshop, or one half.

Please look for an invitation and registration form in the next 10 days.

We hope to see you there! Reach out to carat@umbc.edu with any questions.

Hey guys! Just a Reminder that we are having our Election Information Session GBM TODAY at 12pm in FA 215!

This GBM is MANDATORY for those wishing to run for an officer position!

Here is the link to join online if you cant make it in person: meet.google.com/amk-hhct-tdb

Or dial: (US) +1 631-946-7262

PIN: 526 775 298#

Reposted from the Baltimore Banner: Coal pollutes the air in Curtis Bay.
Researchers found it in the harbor, too. | By: Adam Willis

__________________________________________________________________________________________

South Baltimore residents have long called for the closure of an export terminal that
loads tens of millions of tons of coal each year near their homes. A 2021 explosion at
the site blanketed the Curtis Bay neighborhood in dark dust, and advocates have
documented how winds routinely blow coal off the terminal’s piles and into the
community.

State regulators in recent years have begun to acknowledge the prevalence of coal
dust in Curtis Bay’s air, but a new report suggests the fossil fuel has contaminated
nearby waters, too.

The report, conducted by a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and
the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, found coal and toxic metals in
sediment drawn from the harbor surrounding the site, which is owned and operated
by the railroad giant CSX.

The study, which has not been peer reviewed, didn’t examine whether this coal came
from the CSX piers or when it entered the water. Researchers said more work is
needed to determine the origins of the coal and hazardous metals.

A CSX spokesperson declined to comment. The Jacksonville, Florida-based company
has pushed back on claims that it’s to blame for the dark dust coating Curtis Bay, a
working-class neighborhood surrounded by other industrial sites, and pointed to
mitigations it has installed — like sprayers to dampen coal dust and fence-line
monitors to measure escaped particles.

CSX also fought a new regulation, imposed by the Maryland Department of the
Environment last year, that would force the company to build a huge windscreen
around its premises to stop coal from blowing into the community.

The new study, which examines sediment samples taken from six sites near the CSX
terminal in March of last year, found almost no life in the sediment, just tiny worms
and a single small clam — a sign that the waters don’t support underwater life, said
Maya Gomes, an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins Department of Planetary
Systems.

One of the researcher’s samples, however, contained visible coal particles, while all
of their samples contained metals often associated with coal at levels higher than
federal environmental standards.

To Upal Ghosh, a UMBC environmental engineering professor and author on the new
report, that’s no surprise.

“If we have piles of coal next to the water, some of it will get into the water,” he said.
“The question is: How much, and what’s the impact?”

For now, those questions remain unanswered.

John Scheinman, co-founder of the group Coal Kills Baltimore, which secured
funding for the new report, hopes to see the Maryland Department of the
Environment investigate the contamination source. He doesn’t expect the
windscreen will be enough to shield the community and nearby waters.

“When there is virtually no life, except a few little worms, it’s not exactly
representative of a healthy coastal community,” said Scheinman, who also sits on the
attorney general’s environmental advisory council. “So, who is responsible, and
what’s going to be done about it?”

MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said the agency appreciates research into Baltimore’s
environmental challenges and will review the findings.

The concentrations of many metals measured by the research team weren’t unusual
for the Baltimore harbor, which has suffered from generations of industrial and
stormwater pollution, but Ali Meek, an environmental researcher in Baltimore, found
the findings concerning.

Sampled arsenic concentrations exceeded those found elsewhere in the harbor,
reaching nearly four times the highest levels Meek has observed in studies of the
nearby Middle Branch.

Arsenic, a toxin linked to certain cancers, measured 11 times higher than what
researchers would expect to find in nature, said Meek, while lead levels in the Curtis
Bay samples were 18 times higher than the natural state. Both chemicals are found in
coal.

Even so, Curtis Bay is home to dozens of industrial sites, and Ghosh said it’s possible
that metals and even coal contamination could have come from somewhere other
than the sprawling CSX terminal.

The team’s samples are made up of decades of sediment accumulation, and
Baltimore has a long legacy of reliance on coal. The Curtis Bay piers date back to the
1880s, and a century ago coal provided heat for many Baltimore homes.

While Maryland has almost entirely phased out reliance on coal power, exports
through the Port of Baltimore have boomed in recent years. Between CSX’s site and
another terminal across the harbor in the Canton Industrial Area, Baltimore is the
country’s second-largest coal exporter, sending most of the black Appalachian rock
to India.

Recent research has focused largely on coal in the air around Curtis Bay, leaving
environmental advocates with little grasp of CSX’s potential impacts on the harbor,
said Alice Volpitta, a water quality watchdog with the group Blue Water Baltimore.

One reason may be the challenge of investigating waters near the terminal. Volpitta
said Blue Water Baltimore has tried to assess impacts there before, but because of
CSX’s security protocols, they’ve been unable to get close to the site.

The new findings help complete the picture, she said. “This is a really good first
step.”