The UMBC Purchasing Card Program, part of the State of Maryland’s p-card program, allows departments to make small purchases (less than $5,000) quickly and easily. Although the adoption of this program reduced the amount of paperwork and processing time required for such purchases, the UMBC Department of Procurement and Strategic Sourcing (Procurement) is still required to strictly enforce the State’s policies and procedures for purchasing cards. This means that each application, agreement, and authorization must follow its own strict approval sequence to include the appropriate department head, as well as approvers from Procurement and Financial Services.

When the approvals were captured on a paper form, the signing process was quite an ordeal. Executive Director of Procurement & Strategic Sourcing Elizabeth Moss regretted the inefficiency and inconvenience of the need for staff to hand carry documents to each signer, often leaving the form to wait among dozens of other forms on the signer’s desk, before finally having each completed form filed away with the hope that it could be located if it was ever needed. The cost of paper and ink for printing all of these forms, when combined with the time spent transporting, storing, and retrieving countless documents, made it apparent that Procurement needed a more efficient solution.

As a result, Procurement turned to DocuSign, the electronic signature and digital workflow platform that UMBCs Division of Information Technology (DoIT) has integrated with the business processes of numerous departments on campus. This automated system eliminates as much excess as possible while simultaneously injecting a modest amount of urgency into the process in order to boost compliance.

DocuSign does more than just create electronic versions of paper forms. It also enables users to create digital envelopes that will travel via secure email along a predetermined signing route. Each signer just clicks on the “View Document” button and is transferred directly to the form, where they are guided through each required field in their portion of the form. Once they have signed, the form is automatically sent to the next signer in the workflow, during which the initiator may track the form as it progresses and view timestamps recorded when each signer viewed and submitted their section. When the form is completed, each signer gets another email allowing them to review the completed document, which can be automatically uploaded to a specified Box cloud folder and sent to a designated Request Tracker queue.

Using this tool, Procurement can fine tune the process to be as efficient as possible. Senders can specify the exact information each signer needs to provide while offering tooltips to clarify each field when necessary. Senders also can always see where the form is in the workflow and send reminders in order to rush a particularly time sensitive form.

“Typically, people don’t immediately sign every paper document as soon as it reaches their desk. Most will wait until they have reached a stopping point with their electronic work to turn to those papers that have accumulated in their inbox. With DocuSign, people are much more likely to approve the form quickly since they can sign it electronically as soon as it reaches them through email, and send it on its way immediately,” Moss explains. “This allows us to promptly act upon the information in whatever way needed by the card holder.”

By taking a sizeable chunk of their purchasing card paperwork out of the process, Procurement has made a big step towards a more streamlined and sustainable workflow for p-cards.

More Info:

·       Visit the DocuSign myUMBC Group

·       Visit UMBC's FAQ knowledge base

We began 2018 with a monumental victory in basketball that UMBC still cannot seem to stop talking about; we will end with a $10 million civil suit alleging UMBC’s mishandling of sexual assault cases, a monumental event in the university’s history that will likely be glossed over in future admissions events with a quaint “We can and will do better.”

The suit, which has now named President Freeman Hrabowski as a defendant, has been filed two years after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into UMBC’s handling of sexual assault cases. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the OCR investigation is still ongoing, and administrators were notified when the investigation began – two years ago.

While the solutions addressed so far by campus administration – changing light bulbs and updating the campus card to include campus resources – are both needed and appreciated, they feel as helpful as band-aids on a bullet wound. They may soak up some blood, which is certainly necessary, but ultimately they do not address the larger issue.

The administration’s promise to bring in outside experts sounds great on paper, but reading between the lines reveals that they will review “all aspects of [UMBC’s] sexual misconduct prevention and response policies and training and awareness programs,” according to an email sent on Oct. 11. Nowhere does it mention external review of UMBC administration and staff.

The Accountability Team set forth to engage in damage control is a pitiful attempt at smoothing over relations with the student body. Though they work together with students, there are still no students on the team, a slap in the face to the university’s idea of shared governance. Additionally, some of the administrators on the team are part of the Title IX office itself or on President Hrabowski’s immediate staff.

How can we expect those who are implicated in the recent allegations or those who have worked at this university since the OCR investigation began in 2016 to truly move this campus forward and protect its students?

The administration must realize that this is a far bigger issue than they are trying to make it out to be. Did listening to the stories of survivors stir nothing within them? Will the $10 million civil suit finally be enough to get them to pay attention?

When President Hrabowski sat down with the editorial board of The Baltimore Sun a little less than two weeks ago, he assured them and the community at large that this was something of the greatest concern for the UMBC campus community.

But transparency is not forthcoming, and so here we are again, writing almost the same staff editorial we wrote two issues ago – one we will probably have to continue rewriting should the administrative response remain the same.

As of yet, there has been no official response from UMBC to the amended lawsuit filed last Wednesday besides the standard press response. We call on the administration yet again to take action and to commit to transparency. Attempting to make the problem go away will only result in further loss of trust and further tarnishing of our university’s irreplaceable reputation.

Although only in its third year, the Grit X talks are already becoming a Homecoming favorite among the UMBC community. Introduced in 2016 by Dr. Karl Steiner, the Vice President for Research, the event features alumni and professors sharing their passions and innovations with the campus. “I originally conceived GRIT-X back in 2016,” Dr. Steiner recalls, “to highlight the amazing and inspiring research, scholarship and creative achievement that is underway on our campus and among our alumni.”

While Homecoming has always featured weeklong events, Steiner felt that something was missing among the annual celebrations. Considering that research was a vital part of UMBC, he thought why not have ground-breaking researchers on campus present their ideas? With this idea in mind, Steiner soon accumulated nine speakers, six alumni and three faculties, to host the first Grit-X event.

“It turned out remarkably well,” Steiner beams. Although it was a “one-time feature” to celebrate UMBC’S 50th anniversary, the talks started to occur annually during Homecoming season, showcasing prominent members of the university inspiring others with their revolutionary research.

One of the key speakers was Kavita Krishnaswamy, a 2007 graduate in computer science and mathematics, who is set to graduate from UMBC in 2019 with her Ph.D. in computer science. Since her passion is in robotics, it should not come as too much of a surprise when audience members saw a robot, displaying her face, roll onto the stage. Because the alumni, who has received awards from Google and Microsoft, has spinal muscular atrophy, she was not able to make an in-person introduction.

Nevertheless, she delivered a powerful testimony of how computer science influenced her life. As she explained her love for technology as a child, audience members learned how she was encouraged to become a Meyerhoff Scholar. It was not long before her mentors at UMBC guided her every step of the way, including studying at the graduate level in information technology.

Wrapping up her talk, Kavita displayed several prototypes she was working on, including a robotic mattress and an accessible robotic interface, explaining her hope “that technology can increase [independence] for people with disabilities.”

Dr. Manil Suri is a professor of mathematics and statistics, who talked at the event about combining story-telling and mathematics to better captivate students who may otherwise struggle in the subject. Introducing the concept of STEAM (arts mixed in with science and math), Dr. Suri explained how an English professor at UMBC collaborated with him to combine the idea of math and humanity into a theatrical play, which was portrayed in other U.S. cities, including the play being formed in India. “I like to now call it my International Hit,” Suri jokes to the crowd.

Overall, his message of how math outreach can be more effective with storytelling resonates with students. In fact, sections from “The Godfather of Numbers,” a book Suri is in the progress of writing, are taught in his math classes, so his students can better take hold of concepts.

“The goal of the talks,” Steiner emphasized, “[is to] show the inclusive excellence of what UMBC does in research and scholarship.” Not only does it highlight all of the great things occurring on campus, but it also allows a chance for alumni to come back and share how their education here paved the way for ground-breaking research they are currently conducting. “The talks are getting better every time,” said Steiner.

Although the Grit-X talks are a challenge to put together, Steiner is nonetheless pleased with how they turn out — not only for himself and the speakers, but also for those who are inspired by the talks themselves. He also encourages those interested in hearing the talks to check out the Grit-X section on the UMBC website.

Trying to make it through high school unscarred is difficult, but trying to balance it while discovering one’s sexuality can feel impossible. That’s the story of Kia and Marisol, who struggle to find acceptance in an intolerant community in Chisa Hutchinson’s She Like Girls – the Department of Theatre’s latest production, running now through October 28.

The department strives to produce new plays from diverse playwrights in its seasonal productions. Selecting Hutchinson’s work – she’s an acclaimed new African-American playwright – furthered that goal says director, Eve Muson, who chose the play, in part, to fit her students.

“We have a strong, talented, vibrant group of African-American actors. It felt right to give them the opportunity to play roles that they could absolutely play and audition for after graduation, as they pursue their acting careers.”

“It Makes You Think”

She Like Girls addresses sensitive themes of sexual orientation, community, domestic violence, and hate crimes. Muson relayed that the intention in staging this production on campus is to prompt discussion of these issues and give voice to students, faculty, and others to speak openly and mediate a conversation.

As a coming of age story, “this play speaks to a topic that directly interests our students. It’s also a coming out story and I felt like it was also relevant,” says Muson.

“This play offers up some very key, heartwarming moments that a variety of people can resonate with. It’s an interesting commentary on poverty, sexuality, language, misogyny and bullying,” said Majenta Thomas (Kia), a sophomore acting major. “It makes you think about being better to those around you, which has a place on a college campus, and honestly, everywhere.”

“I think the most important part about playing Marisol is that she is ferociously herself,” says Maria Marsalis, a junior acting major.

Both characters struggle to maintain their secret love to protect their safety.

Much of Muson’s research for the production focused on discovering more about the central character Kia and her world. Muson researched the life of Sakia Gunn, the teenager on whom this story is based, who was stabbed to death by a group of men after telling them that she was a lesbian in an effort to stop their harassment at the Newark train station. Her death was greatly overshadowed by Matthew Shepard’s story. Her world was the city and culture of Newark, New Jersey; Muson wanted to understand how it could impact a young woman.

Interrogating Language

Another part of discovering the “world” of the play was investigating playwright Chisa Hutchinson’s use of language. Language coaches Lynn Watson and Gerrard Taylor were brought into the rehearsals to assist with this process, training actors in the  specific dialect and accent needed to fit with the story.

Although the language of the play can be offensive to some, Muson was ready to challenge the audience: “I love that the play interrogates language.”

The actors were faced with the challenge of using racial epithets and slurs throughout the play. But through the process of working under the direction of Muson relayed that “reclaiming the hateful language is the characters’ way to strengthen bonds as community.”

– Justine Cataneo ’19

She Like Girls will run in the Black Box Theatre in UMBC’s Performing Arts and Humanities Building through October 28. Find out more about dates and ticketing here, as well as information on a panel discussion about the play on October 28.

Photos by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC Magazine.