• Friday, August 21 7:30-8:00pm

• Saturday, August 22 11:00am; 7:00pm

• Sunday, August 23 NO MEETING, just send a reminder

• Monday, August 24 11:00-11:30am; 7:00-8:00pm Check-in + social event

• Tuesday, August 25 7:00-7:45pm

• Wednesday, August 26 7:00-8:00pm

**See original post from University Health Services and Health Promotion here: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/healthed/posts/94911**

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Welcome to the fall 2020 semester at UMBC! We’re excited to welcome you back even though these extraordinary times create unique challenges for many of us. We want to provide you with information about how to protect yourself, support the health and safety of our campus community, and reduce the risk of spread of COVID-19 at UMBC and beyond. We also write to share UMBC’s community expectations during the transition back to campus.

All students who will be attending face-to-face classes and/or living or working on campus this fall are required to complete the Return to Campus COVID Awareness training by August 27, 2020. To access the training, please use the following instructions:

·Log in to your UMBC Blackboard site.

·Select the “Organizations” section located on the left side of your screen.

·Select the training “Return to Campus COVID Awareness.”

·Select Module 1 to begin the training.

·This training does not have to be completed in one sitting; however, you must complete all five training modules.

If you are having any issues accessing the training, please follow the instructions located at this FAQ page to self-enroll in the Return to Campus COVID Awareness.

At the end of module 5, you will be asked to acknowledge and sign the Retriever Community Agreement making a personal commitment to precautions and actions required in order to minimize the potential spread of COVID-19 on our campus and beyond.

If you do not complete the training and sign the Retriever Community Agreement by August 27 you will be required to take classes online and/or live off campus until circumstances allow for a return to campus.

Additional information on all of the requirements for students approved to return to campus, including information on COVID-19 testing options and daily symptom tracking, is available on the Retrievers Return Roadmap site.

Thank you very much for your commitment to helping us keep our UMBC community as healthy as possible. We look forward to seeing you soon!

The DoIT has recently been notified of a malicious actor trying to impersonate a UMBC staffer. This scammer is sending emails with the subject line “QUICK REQUEST” and asking victims if they are available with the goal of getting gift cards from the victim. An example of an email chain is shown below with the name of the From and the email signature removed for privacy reasons.

The scammer targets a department and tries to impersonate some senior person in that department. The scammer will send emails asking the victim if they are “available.” 

If the victim respondes, they will receive a second email asking the victim to purchase gift cards because the scammer is currently in a meeting and can’t do it themselves. Note that the second email has poor grammar and random capitalizations. This email also has a sense of urgency with the scammer claiming to be in a meeting and using words like “important” and the subject “QUICK REQUEST” all in caps.

Note that the sender’s address in both messages is <.umbc@gmail.com>. The full email from the scammer was shortened for privacy reasons. This address allows the victim to see the “umbc” and, without close examination, to assume that the message is coming from a UMBC source when in actuality it is coming from an unknown Google mail address. The email also had an email signature which was based on that of an actual UMBC staff member.

If you do receive this or any other email that you suspect is a scam, please do not click on any URL or reply. Either of those actions confirms to the sender that your email address is valid. Please forward the message (with the email headers) to security@umbc.edu.

How do I forward full email headers?

https://wiki.umbc.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=1867970

To read more articles published by DOIT visit: 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/critical/?tag=notice. 

https://itsecurity.umbc.edu/home/covid-19-news/?tag=covid19

This Fall the nation will continue to confront the implications of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2) which leads to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).  This speaker series will feature experts in politics and policy who will describe the implications of COVID-19 on

• Why do states and localities differ in their responses to COVID-19?
• What role does intergovernmental relations play in the politics of this issue?
• How does media and information impact these political decisions?
• How should we evaluate the responses by governments and on what outcomes (public health, economics, etc.)?
• What impact will this have on economic growth, higher education, state and local finances?

This speaker series will be facilitated by Eric Stokan, Ph.D. (UMBC, Political Science) and will take place virtually on Mondays from 12-1 p.m.  Webex links for each session will be posted here as the dates approach.

Schedule of Speakers

• September 14th: Dr. Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor at UMBC and Dr. Zoe McLaren, Associate Professor at UMBC:  Laying the foundations for the series and describing what is known and unknown on COVID-19 at this point. 

Politics

• September 21st: Hon. Steven M. Bieda, Former State Rep and Senator from MI:  Describing the politics of state legislative decisionmaking regarding COVID-19 in an intergovernmental structure.
• September 28th: Dr. Christopher Goodman, Assistant Professor, Northern Illinois University:  Describing the intergovernmental dimensions of COVID-19 policies and particularly state pre-emption of local decisions.
• November 16th: Dr. Susan Serett, Professor & Director, UMBC & Dr. William Blake, Assistant Professor, UMBC:  Understanding the constitutional dimensions and ramifications of COVID-19.

Data and Decision-making

• October 5th: Dr. Aaron Deslatte, Assistant Professor, Indiana University (Virtual ahead of time and then will call in for Q&A): Understanding citizen and bureaucratic perspectives through experimental studies.
• October 19th: Dr. Nick Hart, President of the Data Foundation: Using survey data to better understand citizen perspectives and implications for citizens.

Policy Implications

• October 12th: Gregory Simmons, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, UMBC: Implications of COVID-19 on higher education: Industry, Athletics, and Entrepreneurship
• October 26th: Jeff Finkle, President and CEO of International Economic Development Council:  Understanding the economic implications and role of economic developers in stabilizing communities due to the public health crisis.
• November 9th:  Alison Ciborowski, President of Leading Age Maryland: Understanding the public health impacts on our aged population and what actions are being taken to help this vulnerable population.
• November 23rd:  Bill Wells, Senior VP Baltimore Housing: Understanding the implications that COVID-19 might have on housing within Baltimore City.
• December 7th:  Meredith Cohn, Reporter, Baltimore Sun: Understanding COVID-19 disparities and the role of journalism in informing our policy-making process around this issue.