The Institutional Review Board (IRB), the UMBC committee responsible for approving and monitoring research involving human subjects, seeks applications from graduate and undergraduate students wishing to volunteer as full members of the board. 

Student members serve for a one (1) year appointment, complete training in the ethics of human subjects research, review research protocols, and attend approximately five meetings. Meetings are scheduled from 10am-12pm on the first Monday of October, December, February, April and June; IRB members vote on issues with the aim to protect the rights and welfare of the research subjects.

Serving on UMBC's IRB is an opportunity to learn about ethical issues of ongoing/proposed research and can be included on a curriculum vitae or resume. Please contact Dr. Susan Sonnenschein, IRB Chair, (sonnensc@umbc.edu) and copy the IRB Office (IRB@umbc.edu) no later than September 23, 2024 if you wish to apply. Please include a

copy of your curriculum vitae or resume and a few sentences describing your research interests and experience. We especially encourage student applicants who have had research experience with human participants.

The Office of Research Protections and Compliance (ORPC) offers training and guidance throughout the protocol review process. Please contact the ORPC at IRB@umbc.edu or click on the IRB's web page for additional information.

Near UMBC!  PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE DESCRIPTION BEFORE CONTACTING! Looking for a roommate for a furnished bedroom including linens in a Maiden Choice area private single-family home. The landlord couple resides in the home and would prefer a kind person that respects diversity that are a UMBC/UMB Graduates or Junior/Senior Undergraduates that are non-smokers within the home, non-drug users, pet-free, and a tidy person to share a large open concept newly renovated 4 bedroom and 3.5 bathroom on a dead-end quiet street. If you have a medical support animal; no cats or shedding animals are allowed due to allergies, and you will need your updated documents from your physician and veterinarian. All support animals must remain in the tenant’s bedroom and crated when not home or in their room. You will have to submit proof of renter’s insurance. Other than medical support animals, absolutely no other animals are allowed. We currently have a non-shedding older friendly labradoodle that will not be crated, will not run away if the door is left open, and the sole responsibility of the landlord.

The house is less than 2 miles from the UMBC campus and close to two shopping centers. The UMBC Shuttle and public transportation bus stop is located a short walk the next street over. The UMBC Transit runs buses almost every 25 minutes from the Paradise-Purple Line during the week from 7:25am-10pm (Leeds Avenue and Colchester Road bus stop pickup location is roughly starting around 7:45/8am). You have a choice between two bedrooms; the first-floor bedroom is a master suite with its own private bathroom and doesn’t matter your gender (this room cost $200 more a month), the upstairs medium bedroom has a very large closet and a huge hall bathroom that is shared with another female PhD student tenant which we prefer a female for this room. You have access to the front covered large porch, an open area kitchen with everything you need to cook and eat, living and dining rooms with a large TV, and laundry room. Wi-Fi with streaming cable services are in all the bedrooms and throughout the house, water, gas and electric are included in the lease. Again, all the rooms are completely furnished and have a TV, includes linens and bathroom towels. We will only rent to one person for each room, and we have lease restrictions for overnight guests and shared cleaning responsibilities. There is street parking that we ask our tenants to be respectful to our neighbors and park directly in front of our house only. We are still doing minor renovations to the outside landscaping and foundation boarder. Both rooms are available August 20th and after. We prefer a 9 month or a month-to-month lease starting August 20th to August 24th with the lease ending the third week of May 2025, that includes Winter and Spring Breaks. We’re a private home and not a campus apartment or dorm, nor an Airbnb. All you need to do is bring your personal belongings and books!  If interested, call 410-999-4668, Monday-Friday, from 6pm to 8pm to discuss and a time to show you the house.

The Office of Sustainability has been hard at work this summer updating our Greenhouse Gas Inventory, which outlines the environmental impacts from every sector of campus from our commuter's transportation to solid waste.  

Tableau also features our course inventory of sustainability related academic opportunities, as well as a net zero timeline.

Before the bustle of Fall 2024 begins, I wish to invite Human-Subjects researchers to reach out to our office with questions or anticipated needs related to IRB protocol submissions/approval. My colleagues and I can be reached at IRB@umbc.edu

Here are just a few reasons to contact the IRB Admin Staff:

• Researchers (past/present/future) wishing to make Introductions
• New UMBC faculty wishing to set-up a human-subjects research project or program
• Community members interested in volunteer service on the IRB (may include non-scientists, ad-hoc expert consultants, graduate students, voting board members, etc.)
• Mentors and their current/prospective Post-Doc, Graduate student, and/or undergraduate student (human-subjects) researchers
• Course instructors whose students may design and implement human-subjects research as part of a class project or assignment
• Department Chairs that may wish to invite IRB Admin to an upcoming Department meeting
• SoTL (scholarship of teaching and learning) researchers learning to navigate the IRB process through UMD College Park

We are looking forward to a new semester with lots of new faces scheduling and planning events on campus. We wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone that until the academic class schedule is finalized, we are unable to place events in academic classrooms, except during free hour. We refer to this in the Event & Conference Services office as Academic Clearance.

Any requests received for academic classrooms will be held in queue in the order in which they were received for processing after we have received academic clearance. That usually occurs two or more weeks into the semester, but can vary, depending on the Registrar's needs. 

You may also notice that you were unable to place requests for academic spaces at all during the first 2 weeks of the semester outside free hour. If you are placing recurring requests, you will want to start the dates of those requests after September 12.

Event & Conference Service managed spaces are available for booking during these times, however, due to the limited availability of these spaces, we may not be able to place your request during this time. We also are likely to experience extended processing times during this time, so please have patience.

In partnership,

The Event & Conference Services team.

Retriever Integrated Health (RIH) is taking part in a scheduled departmental retreat and will be closed on Wednesday, August 14. RIH will reopen on Thursday, August 15. 

Students having a mental health crisis can call RIH at 410-455-2542 to be connected with an on-call counselor through Protocall. Those with health concerns can call RIH at 410-455-2542 to be connected with a nurse for consultation.

In case of an emergency on August 14, please contact UMBC Police at 410-455-5555. 

The ESS & NESS Staff Cookout is this Wednesday!!  If you can make it come out.  If you plan to attend, please RSVP here.