Happy December! Before campus dives into finals and the holidays, Education Abroad at UMBC would like to share some exciting new updates and projects with our campus community.

 We’ve Moved!

Our office has a new suite, we are located on the 3^rd floor of the Administration building. We can be found in Admin 301 (to the right side of Student Business Services).

 New Program – Dawg Days Abroad

Education Abroad is excited to announce our first ever faculty-led program for newly admitted students! This program, set in Bristol and London, United Kingdom will help incoming UMBC students get a head start on their degrees by offering two course options, both fulfilling GEPs. Stay tuned for updates!

 New Staff – Rose Malone

This September, we welcomed Rose Malone to join our team as an Education Abroad Advisor. Rose joins us from University of Maryland, College Park where she worked with faculty-led programs from outreach and marketing to student advising and application management. Please help us in welcoming Rose to our UMBC campus and culture!

As a reminder, our Education Abroad Staff are:

Caylie Middleton (formerly Zidwick) - Associate Director of Education Abroad

Rachel McCloud – Education Abroad Advisor

Rose Malone – Education Abroad Advisor

Ways to contact us:

·         Email: sao@umbc.edu *Preferred method of contact

·         Website: https://studyabroad.umbc.edu/

·         Location: 301 Administration building

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter, we hope you found it useful. Our office is always looking to get involved with our campus partners, so please reach out if you would like us to attend an event, help with orientation or collaborate on a project.

This article will be updated.

The Faculty Senate has voted for the removal of the physical education graduation requirement at a routine meeting on Dec. 11. The decision, which was made by a majority vote, will go into effect for the 2019 Winter Session.

This proposal was brought to the Faculty Senate by the Undergraduate Council in November. Physical education classes will still not count toward the 120 credit graduation requirement, but they will count towards classifying students as full-time students or as eligible for residential housing. If students wish to use physical education credits towards the 12 academic credits required per semester to be eligible for financial aid, they will be allowed to “opt-out” of the new system and take physical education classes as required previously. These students, which according to the Provost’s office are less than 1 percent of students, will be notified via email by the Provost’s office.

Physical education classes will not be cancelled for next semester, and students are still encouraged to take these classes. The removal of this requirement is not supposed to impact the Athletic Department or courses student athletes may be required to take. The Provost’s office has agreed to fund the Athletic Department through a transitional period as the department moves from non-academic gym classes to the institution of an academic Health and Wellness program. Courses in women’s self-defense will be continued.

“I suspect [the Health and Wellness program] will take a couple years to develop,” says Philip Rous, UMBC Provost. “It fits very well into our [university] strategic plan.”

UMBC was the only school within the University System of Maryland that required physical education classes to graduate.

After searching the course catalog and finding the perfect Winter Session 2019 class, you try to register only to find that you’re blocked. Sound familiar? It can be a frustrating situation, but the good news is that there is probably a simple explanation.

There are certain situations that may cause you to be initially blocked from winter registration, including:

If you have not completed the necessary prerequisite requirements

If you receive a registration error indicating that you do not have the appropriate prerequisites to enroll in a course, submit a prerequisite override request. A prerequisite override does NOT guarantee enrollment in the course.

If you already applied for fall graduation

If you have already applied for graduation, you will be blocked from registering for any course during Winter Session 2018.  In order to take a winter session course, you need to contact the Registrar’s Office and ask that they term activate you for Winter Session 2019.

If you are registering for courses that have overlapping meeting patterns

You are not permitted to register for courses that meet at the same time or overlap in meeting patterns. However, if the overlap is minimal you may be permitted to register for courses that share a time conflict. Complete a time conflict form, obtain signatures from BOTH instructors, and submit the completed for to the Registrar’s Office before the end of the schedule adjustment period.

If you are registering for a course for a third (and final) time

You may not register for the same course more than two times. However, you can petition the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) for a third and final attempt of a course taken at UMBC or another institution.

If you are trying to register for more than 4.5 credits

Due to winter session’s compressed format (four weeks) enrollment is limited to a maximum of 4.5 credits. However, highly motivated and academically strong students can request permission to enroll in more than the designated winter course load limit. Download an Enroll for Excess Credit form and consult with your academic advisor.

If you are a visiting student and attempt to enroll in courses with prerequisite requirements

Visiting students who attempt to enroll in a course with prerequisite requirements will initially be BLOCKED from registering as UMBC’s online registration system cannot automatically verify prerequisites from another institution. You will need to submit a prerequisite override request.

What if I have a hold on my account? How do I remove it?

For specific information regarding your hold, contact the appropriate department:

Administrative Holds: Registrar’s Office
Financial Holds: Student Business Services
Health Services Holds: Health Services

Still unable to register?

If you are still unable to register for your course, contact the Office of Summer & Winter Programs.

Senior-distance runners Nathan Nadal and Kelsey Ponton helped the Retrievers beat out Loyola and Bowie State for fourth place in the 2018 installment of the Salty Dog Invitational at the United States Naval Academy. At last year’s Navy Invitational, junior-runner Briana Roberts led the way for UMBC with a time of 24:14.78, and this year her teammate Ponton improved on that time, finishing with 23:53.87. Ponton placed twelfth in the women’s 6k run while Nadal posted fourth in the men’s 8k run with a time of 25:58.73.

Navy’s Midshipmen won the invitational on their home course and dominated the individual honors. They excelled in the men’s race, fielding five runners in the top seven, and beating UMBC by just 25 points. Their top athlete, Jake Brophy finished with a time of 25:33.13. In the women’s contest, they had six runners in the top seven and had a 55-point gap to the second position. Top racer, Claire Ostrowski, clocked in at 22:17.10.

This year’s competition was well contested. There were only 11 seconds between the top six runners in the men’s race and 12 seconds in the women’s contest. The Retrievers performed admirably, improving on last year’s showing and continuing their good form from the season debut at Mount St. Mary’s. They had three male athletes in the top eight, and eight in the top 16. Junior-distance runner Brian Cave, who led UMBC to sixth at Mount St. Mary’s, was the third Retriever to cross the tape and finished eighth overall with a time of 26:49.13.

UMBC averaged a time of 25:54.47 in the 36-man 8k race, five seconds down on last year’s average, and 24:31.23 in the 77-man 6k run, compared to last year’s average of 24:59.04. The Retrievers would be looking to compete even harder as they attempt to win Lehigh University’s large-scale Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Sept. 29.

UMBC Athletics has been on the rise on many different levels in the past year. The $85 million UMBC Event Center was opened on Feb. 3, 2018. Men’s basketball upset the number one team in the country on the biggest stage for college basketball this past March. Shortly after, men’s lacrosse joined in on the fun, upsetting the number one college lacrosse team in the nation. So what is the next big thing for Retriever Nation? UMBC soccer looks to find a new home.

UMBC alumni Tim Ryerson and Bobby “Wags” Wagner have created a fundraiser for new bleachers in the Retriever Soccer Park. The two “Original Big Dawgs” for Head Coach Pete Caringi Jr., representing the soon to be named UMBC soccer alumni association, have initiated a plan for a new soccer stadium with larger bleachers. Ryerson and Wagner were both soccer stars here at UMBC under Coach Caringi.

In fact, they were both a part of the first team coach Caringi led at UMBC back in ’91. Ryerson joined the Retrievers as a transfer from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas looking for maximum impact on a team, and played three seasons as a center defensive midfielder until ’94. UMBC Hall of Fame member Wagner played from ’91 until ’95 as an All-American goal-scoring defender, pulling off 31 goals in ’92. “It’s important to us as alumni to think: how can we give back to the program?” Ryerson said.

The two represent a group of UMBC soccer alumni who merged into a collective foundation to give back to their former school. Unofficially, according to the fundraiser’s PayPal description, the group is currently named “UMBC Soccer Foundation 2018,” but Ryerson has said that is subject to change.

The idea for a new soccer stadium first came up about five years ago when the two met with President Hrabowski, Athletic Director Tim Hall, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. Nancy Young and Vice President of Institutional Advancement Gregory Simmons. The group was excited because they assumed that this was something that the project would then kick into gear soon afterward, but that did not seem to be the case.

“We understand the amount of resources put into the new basketball arena,” Ryerson said, explaining some of the potential reasons for the lack of action on both sides after this meeting. “We decided that we needed to do something about it. It’s been five years, we needed to start some kind of action steps to getting the stadium started at least with some bleachers.”

The first “action steps” by the alumni group were announced following the season in 2017 during which the men’s soccer team broke the attendance record not once, but twice. First, during welcome week of 2017 against Howard in front of 2,873 fans and, shortly after, against then number one ranked Maryland in front of 3,766.

According to the fundraisers official PayPal account, the current goal for the proposal stands at $500,000 with a goal of reaching that by January 2020.

The first stage of the fundraiser would rely heavily on money raised through alumni groups such as the group Ryerson and Wagner represent, but also students and other fans of the program who, according to Ryerson, “see the value in UMBC student-athletes.” Ryerson also hopes to engage local partners and previous alumni that remain in the local communities in the fundraising effort. This first stage would likely take place until about the $250,000 mark, a point which will be enough for some permanent changes to the Retriever Soccer Park.

“We can probably pull off, you know, $250,000 to build some kind of permanent structure for some stands,” Ryerson stated.  Ryerson’s goal after the $250,000 mark is that the money raised would then be matched by local foundations and sponsors, or potentially the university. 

Ryerson compared this initiative to a LEGO project, suggesting that once a permanent platform is set, one would be able to complete it piece by piece. The biggest priority for the group is to have a permanent set of new bleachers with a larger capacity than the ones currently standing.

Ryerson and Wagner have already bought a domain name for a website to be the direct platform for the group as well as host information about the proposal, the group and the fundraiser. They have also created a bank account where the collected funds will be placed directly.

Once the group has a standing name, Ryerson and Wagner will then establish the foundation as a non-profit 501c3. Ryerson already has prior experience with establishing 501c3s, such as the one he established as Executive Director of the Ellicott City Soccer Club. Once they are established as a non-profit group, they will then able to increase marketing efforts and really kick into stage one.

This proposal would be the next step to UMBC’s recently opened Event Center and the timing could not be any better. In what was a monumental year for UMBC Athletics, the proposal would take advantage of the momentum and build on it. This move could end up having an even larger effect on ticket sales and improve the already incredible atmosphere at Retriever Soccer Park. 

This fundraiser is still beginning to unfold so stay tuned for more updates and information.