Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion has been making waves in the rap industry since releasing her first mixtape earlier this year, “Fever.” Megan, who is currently a third-year student at Texas A&M, signed to Jay-Z’s label, Roc Nation, before being announced as one of the artists performing at UMBC’s Fall Fest.

On the night of Nov. 21, the line to get into the University Center Ballroom looks more like an amorphous blob. A small handful of student workers affiliated with the Student Events Board verbally chastise concert guests who attempt to cut the line. “For all of you who are cutting the line: Don’t!” a young woman shouts, wrapping her UMBC logo coat tight around her shoulders. And later, paramedics wheel stretchers into the Engineering building to hold on standby. “Just in case,” says a nearby officer. 

Luckily, no one is harmed during Megan Thee Stallion’s performance this night, save for those in the front of the audience who push to the stage once the rapper appears, standing six feet tall, and dressed in a blue, revealing two-piece. This identity as a “stallion,” or a tall and attractive woman, is what Meg has built her fan base upon. 

She shifted her concept of the “hot girl summer” into that of a “hot girl semester” once she resumed taking classes in health policy administration. She embodies confidence, sex positivity and, not to mention, has an ability to spit incredible rhymes. According to the Student Events Board, all 700 of her Fall Fest tickets sold out in a record time of twelve minutes when they went on sale in October. 

Her performance is more intimate than DaBaby’s on account of the smaller audience size and smaller venue. Both artists have collaborated with each other in the past year, resulting in an overlap of fans at each concert. An audience member at both Fall Fest concerts, senior Biology major Darius Mckoy, commented on the difference in venue size, “There’s no way this show sold out! DaBaby’s [performance] was way more packed.”

However, venue locations and ticket numbers were both non-disclosable items of negotiation between UMBC and the external artists. It can also be difficult for UMBC to bring big artists to perform during the spring semester when performers like Meg or DaBaby might choose to play festivals or go on tour. 

“The specific location of each performance is based on the contract we have with either artist,” explains senior psychology major and SEB president Mayra Perez-Oliver. “We wanted to make the show affordable and accessible to a large part of our UMBC community so that is another factor that plays into the negotiations,” she says. 

She credits Jen Dress, Associate Director of Campus Life for securing the contracts for DaBaby and Megan Thee Stallion. SEB remains optimistic about how the new Fall Fest will continue to improve student life on campus in upcoming years.“The fact that we have the opportunity to bring two great artists in the fall is a blessing,” Perez-Oliver says.

The thousands of students, faculty and alumni who engaged with or attended these new concerts are building important new traditions in UMBC’s fall semester. Fall Fest is giving the UMBC community the opportunity to offset its hard academic life with big musical artists, such as Megan Thee Stallion, who celebrate its hard-working population.

We are very excited to announce a new Scholarship and Seed Funding opportunity made available by one of our entrepreneurial alums, Markus-Allen Proctor '16.

Markus recently set up the Innovators of Progress Scholarship which will award $1,000 per semester towards tuition AND $1,000 per semester seed capital for winners until they graduate!!

This is a competitive program open to entrepreneurial students in the Baltimore/Washington region and Markus is particularly hoping some Retriever entrepreneurs will apply. Here are some of the requirements:

- Mentor Letter

- Cover Letter

- Transcript

For more information click here:

http://innovatorsofprogress.org

Deadline for applications is December 15, 2019.

Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity!

We are very excited to announce a new Scholarship and Seed Funding opportunity made available by one of our entrepreneurial alums, Markus-Allen Proctor '16.

Markus recently set up the Innovators of Progress Scholarship which will award $1,000 per semester towards tuition AND $1,000 per semester seed capital for winners until they graduate!!

This is a competitive program open to entrepreneurial students in the Baltimore/Washington region and Markus is particularly hoping some Retriever entrepreneurs will apply. Here are some of the requirements:

- Mentor Letter

- Cover Letter

- Transcript

For more information click here:

http://innovatorsofprogress.org

Deadline for applications is December 15, 2019.

Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity!

As we approach the holiday season, the editorial board of The Retriever wants to reflect on our current health services accommodations. We found that the only present we want this holiday season is a better approach to mental and physical health on campus. Here’s our wish list.

A way to help students when they can’t physically access a health screening

Accessibility issues on this campus have been frequently called into question, and while University Health Services (UHS) have never been the direct subject of these complaints, they also aren’t particularly accessible. Tucked away in the basement of Erickson — but, conveniently, also disconnected from the other side of the basement and therefore unable to be reached directly by elevator — the health center is hard to find, hard to get to from the apartments, and even hard to enter, considering its narrow entryway. 

You’d think, considering this, that the UHS would have ways of helping students who can’t physically get to the building due to a disability, injury or even a particularly debilitating illness. But, instead, if you explain that you can’t make it to the UHS and need treatment, the only advice you’ll be given is to call an ambulance. The UHS needs to create a system to get care to students who need it, but for whom an ambulance is unnecessary or infeasible. 

At least one staff member available after-hours

College is stressful, and the societal requirement to not just succeed but excel takes a massive toll on most students. From breakdowns because of ALEKS to stress eating because of an exam, college is filled with moments where you just can not handle what professors and life is throwing at you. UMBC tells students that, in those crises, you can turn to the Counseling Center for help. What UMBC does not tell you is that you better have your crisis scheduled three to four weeks in advance. 

Despite the Counseling Center’s claim that they have a counselor on standby for walk-in appointments and any emergency, they do not because of staffing issues. Even if they did have someone available, most of the counselors are barely equipped to handle a crying student, let alone someone with a diagnosed disorder. This is particularly clear with how they treat anyone that would like recurring appointments; most counselors at the Counseling Center tell students to seek outside treatment if they seem more than simply stressed. If you seem to be or say you are having a crisis, then their first instinct is to call 911 or the UMBC police, something that hardly anybody having a breakdown wants. 

With so many issues with the staff at the Counseling Center, it is no wonder that UMBC students struggle to manage their mental health. A mind spa can not fix everyone’s problems. The UMBC Counseling Center needs to not only better staff their facility, but also better train their staff to actually handle the problems of UMBC students.

A distinction between long-term counseling and short-term care

Sometimes, life happens and students need help. That’s okay. However, some students need that extra attention and constant affirmation. That’s okay, too. However, the current distinction between long-term counseling services and short-term services is ambiguous, at best. A student may not need months of therapy to get over a bad breakup or a hectic week. They may need someone to talk to when times get rough. In those periods, dedicated counselors who work with students who need short-term care is essential. Understanding the difference between needing long-term care and short-term care can create a more personable session for each student. Students can get the exact care they need, without fear of making a long-term commitment. UHS must make that distinction between their long-term and short-term care clear in the future.

A way to schedule appointments online

For some students, the added stress of calling the Counseling Center or walking through the doors to make an appointment is too much. Since the university is investing an estimated $17 million into the new health services and counseling building, they can probably spare some change and get some software that allows students to make appointments online, outside of business hours. Besides accommodating students’ on-the-go schedules, this software could allow students to identity issues of concern before they walk into a counseling session. And it could relieve the pressure of making an appointment for students who view this first step as insurmountable. At the very least, the Counseling Center could create a Google form or calendar appointment slots where students could take this first step.

With these changes, we can ensure that students have access to the correct and specialized care they may need during their college experience.

Join Dr. Starkey this winter for the hybrid offering of POLI 395: US National Security.  You will earn SS GEP credit and learn about the field of security analysis. Learn by doing as we grapple with topics such as terrorism and cyber attacks! For more information email: bstarkey@umbc.edu

Most of the student works that hang along the walls of the Fine Arts building are accompanied by instructions not to touch them. But there exists one exception: On the building’s second floor, there is a hallway where passersby are not only allowed but even encouraged to take art off the wall and bring it home (for a small fee, of course).

“Sometimes students forget to pick up their artwork at the end of the semester,” explained Chris Peregoy, the art print program manager. Each student has about a week after the semester ends to gather their work from the studios, or else it will be collected by the department. “We had three or four drawers of prints and we didn’t know what to do with them.”

That’s what inspired the visual arts department to start a fundraiser in which anyone could buy art that had been “donated or left here over the years” by students using the printmaking facilities, according to the signage that accompanies the prints. To purchase one, students need only to take the print off the wall and bring it up to the art print office on the third floor of Fine Arts. There, they can pay using their campus card. Each print costs five dollars.

“Teachers asked, ‘Why don’t we sell [the prints] for ten or fifteen dollars?’ Well, students wouldn’t buy them then,” Peregoy said.

Right now, the department is putting the money they make directly back into benefiting the printmaking studio. It is being used to fund a sample book demonstrating what different types of printing processes look like when used on different types of paper. Peregoy estimates that this fundraiser has raised around 140 dollars each semester since it was started.

Alayna Cavey, a senior financial economics and intermedia dual degree who is currently enrolled in several printmaking classes, sees another benefit to the fundraiser: sustainability. “I think that it’s a great idea to raise money for the department since the other options for these are to throw out or recycle where possible,” she explained. “This cuts down on paper waste and also gives pieces of student art a second chance.”

Printmaking classes fall under the visual art department’s print media concentration, headed by associate professor Irene Chan, though students with different concentrations can also use the courses to fulfill their requirement for an upper-level studio elective. 

The variety of prints on display in Fine Arts can be attributed to the wide range of projects Chan and the other printmaking professors assign to their students. For instance, one of Chan’s assignments in the introductory printmaking class instructs students to base their print on a quote about the number zero. Another asks that they design a print inspired by one of the many descriptions in Italo Calvino’s book “Invisible Cities.”

“What’s really nice is, within each class project, there’s a lot of room for individuality, because the way that they do it could be so different from another class member,” Chan said .

Another of the biggest draws to the printmaking classes is the ability to work with and share equipment with other students. “It really is a community space. People tell me they’re used to working on their own — it’s really solitary,” Chan explained. “But when they take a printmaking class, they share the studio, they share the space.” This also allows students to help one another when they are having difficulty with the equipment and need help troubleshooting.

Chan encourages students who are interested to consider a print media minor — even if they’re not visual art majors, and especially now that the visual arts department is in the process of getting rid of the portfolio requirement for minors. “It makes it really interesting when people who are taking classes are other majors,” she said. “They bring a different sensibility, and different experiences.”

For more information, contact Irene Chan via email at ichan@umbc.edu. And to pick up a work of art to take home, visit the Fine Arts building, where the prints can be found in the hallway outside of the printmaking studios (rooms 207, 208, 216 and 218).