Dear UMBC Community, 

Following our recent announcement of the members of two key leadership search committees, I am pleased to share additional information about those search processes and opportunities for the UMBC community to engage in them. For your reference, here are the committees for the searches for the roles of Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Vice President for Student Affairs (VPSA). 

Both of these will be national searches conducted at the highest level of industry standards, in partnership with Isaacson, Miller, a global leader in executive search across the civic sector, particularly in higher education, and the firm that served UMBC in its presidential search. 

We will provide multiple opportunities for the UMBC community to share their thoughts and input on these roles. We will host two open sessions for each of the searches, which will be held virtually via WebEx at the following times: 

Provost search: 

March 28: 4-5 p.m.

March 29: 10-11 a.m.

VPSA search:

March 28: 2-3 p.m.

March 30: 4-5 p.m.

Additionally, we invite you to share your thoughts through surveys for each of the searches:

Provost Survey 

VPSA Survey 

In keeping with current industry standards for such searches–and heeding the recommendations from our search consultant for building robust and diverse talent pools–we will hold confidential the identities of candidates for these roles. This is in service of our endeavor to attract the very best candidates, and it is in service of those candidates themselves, whose ability and willingness to pursue career opportunities often depend significantly upon their sense of security in doing so. 

I want to extend my thanks again to all who have agreed to serve on the search committees and invite the community to take part in these important search processes. I look forward to keeping you informed as the searches progress, and I thank you for your continued dedication to UMBC. 

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Dear UMBC Community, 

The power outage we experienced on Tuesday was disruptive in myriad ways and to the entirety of our campus. As Vice President for Administration and Finance Kathy Dettloff and I expressed in our message to the community that day, we share your frustration with another power outage. We are committed to doing all we can to minimize the number and mitigate the impact of any service interruptions, both by working to improve resiliency of our own systems and working with BGE to take immediate action and continue to implement long-term strategies for reliability. 

I have spoken with BGE President and CEO Carim Khouzami, and he has responded with the letter I share with you here, which includes information about work BGE is undertaking now–this week–to address the issue. He also has committed to bringing BGE officials to campus to hear directly from members of our community about the impact of these disruptions and to share more about the planned response. We are in the process of scheduling that meeting with some key stakeholders.

I understand that this is an issue that goes back several years and affects not only our entire campus community, but our neighboring communities as well. Please know that I take this issue seriously. I will continue to be in contact with BGE leadership and see that we move forward in meaningful ways toward our shared goal of improved reliability of our electric service. 

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby