The Association of American Colleges & Universities has recently announced that UMBC will be one of ten institutions to serve as locations for the first Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation campus centers.

The Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation process is a community-based, multi-year initiative designed to promote positive race relations, erase structural barriers to equal treatment and opportunity and address longstanding racial hierarchies.

For this initiative, the AAC&U has partnered with and received financial support from Newman’s Own Foundation and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. From these funds, an initial grant of $30,000 will be given to each of the selected institutions to “engage and empower campus and community stakeholders” and challenge the “biases and misbeliefs” that have led to racial violence and tensions in American society.

In addition to the monetary award each campus center will receive, the AAC&U will also provide strategic direction to the selected institutions.

The AAC&U states that they believe “the work of the first ten TRHT Campus Centers will empower people to live and to prosper in a civil and humane society that promotes full inclusion for everyone.”

A total of 125 applications were received, from which ten colleges and universities were chosen using a competitive process to be the first group of campus centers. The AAC&U’s website reveals that the institutions were selected “based on their proposals’ ability to create positive narratives about race, identify and examine current realities of race relations in their communities, envision communities without entrenched racial hierarchies, and pinpoint levers for change and key individuals to engage.”

Lynn Pasquerella, the president of the AAC&U, stated that she was “eager” to work with the UMBC community. She also remarked that UMBC’s president, Freeman Hrabowski, “has demonstrated a deep and abiding commitment to promoting racial and social justice,” echoing considerations made when selecting institutions to participate in this program.

The program will be launched through the Shriver Center, known to many UMBC students as a hub for service-learning and community engagement. Pasquerella noted that UMBC’s proposal “emphasizes inter-generational work to take advantage of local epistemologies and the lived experience of those in surrounding communities alongside the voices of those in the Youth Action program and student mentors.” She added, “students will also benefit from curriculum development focused on confronting issues of race and difference in the classroom and pedagogies that demonstrate the power of the TRHT approach to reconciliation.”

Following an initial TRHT project meeting in September 2017, the AAC&U will convene the first annual TRHT Institute in January of 2018. During this meeting, the campus centers will develop their own visionary plans for the initiative, as well as provide input for a guidebook supporting the implementation of future TRHT campus centers.

Justin Johnson, a sophomore political science major at UMBC and the Social Justice Chair for the campus’ Black Student Union, expressed his general support and interest regarding the initiative and its implementation details, saying, “I feel a program directed toward helping heal racial tensions at UMBC would be helpful.”

Apply to join the UMBC Eco-Ambassador Team! (Or nominate a student) 

The warm mid-morning air above Erickson Field pulsed with energy. Students rushed between tables, hoisting up tri-fold boards and arranging displays. Noon approaches. A flood of students leaving their morning classes is visible just beyond the Commons. Months of meticulous planning are about to be put into action. Involvement Fest begins.

Involvement Fest is born from intensive planning by a team of student staff, Commons staff and the Vice President of Student Organizations. Planning begins early. The organization of Fall Involvement Fest begins with registration during May of the prior spring semester.

After organizations register, the team draws up a map and assigns tables to organizations. Including flexibility in this design is key.

According to the Coordinator of Student Life for Student Organizations and Involvement Romy Hübler, “It is very important that we have an overflow section [for] student organizations that have been created after the map is drawn up.”

The Student Life staff also actively creates resources for student organizations. Staff keeps in frequent contact to assist organizations in creating a successful booth.

Another major part of Involvement Fest planning involves contracting outside organizations. Hübler works to rent tables and chairs from a company and bring a food truck. Coordinating outside contracts was particularly complicated this year since Involvement Fest was moved due to inclement weather.

Creating contingency plans is complicated by the sheer size of Involvement Fest. Hübler explains, “We can’t reserve a rain location [on campus] because [Involvement Fest] is large and there are too many other things going on within the university.”

Students leaders from all organizations prepare extensively for Involvement Fest. History Student Council was not maintained for two years and subsequently had to apply as a new club. For those reasons, their members were particularly looking forward to Involvement Fest.

HSC President and sophomore history major Jeanette Richardson recognizes the importance of retaining students.

“Sending out emails and maintaining a social media presence will be important,” she said. “We will also send out a survey to find out when students can meet and what they are interested in. We want to cater to interested students.”

Justin Chan, senior information systems major, finds that his club easily retains students: “Smash Bros creates a friendly atmosphere. Many people have a childhood connection from the game, so they come to relax after class,” he said.

Many organizations, however, find it difficult to keep students coming back. Hübler identifies retention as a major difficulty. However, Student Life staff are trying to address [this difficulty] through programs like Leading Orgs, which is a retreat in September for leaders of student organizations.

Involvement Fest may ended at 3 p.m., but the hard work is far from over.

Find a carpool: 

Incentives: 

In the month of August, UMBC had four hate crimes or acts of intolerance committed on campus. Four separate cases of intolerant and racially-charged vandalism were reported to the UMBC police department.

Three of the cases involved Swastikas drawn in permanent marker in bathrooms located in the Fine Arts and Public Policy buildings. Another was considered a hate crime by the UMBC police department as well as an act of vandalism towards UMBC property. As stated in a UMBC police report, a swastika was etched into a classroom desk.

There were no cameras or witnesses to any of the incidents.

“We’ve had drawings of swastikas in various locations, two being in bathrooms, three in classrooms,” said Deputy Chief of Police Paul Dillon. Four of the occurrences were categorized as acts of intolerance, while the etching on a desk was classified as a hate crime. Dillon added that UMBC police suspect a single individual may be behind the drawings, however, there are no further leads at this time.

Though recent, these incidents were not the first the UMBC community has faced. In January, The Retriever covered similar episodes of racial and religious hate crimes. At the time, stars of David, the term “Jew propaganda,” as well as another swastika were drawn throughout the Information Technology and Engineering building.

There is no apparent link between the January events and those carried out in August.

There has been an uptick in similar situations. Since last November, universities and colleges across the country have increasingly reported hate crimes and other acts of intolerance perpetrated on their campuses, from drawings such as those found at UMBC to nooses and fliers calling for violence and vigilante squads.

“One month having four acts of intolerance is a great increase statistically,” said Dr. Rebecca Boehling, Director of the Global Studies Program and Director for the minor program in Judaic Studies at UMBC. “I told the students in my Holocaust study class and they were greatly concerned.”

News of the recent acts of intolerance on campus comes soon after recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia made national news. President Hrabowski addressed them in a school-wide email, condemning the rallies and “racist, hate-filled ideology used by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups to attack and instill fear in our fellow citizens.”

When imagining a new UMBC student, one might picture a teenager just out of high school, unfamiliar with college life. While this is true of many incoming freshmen, transfer student culture at UMBC and nationwide is very expansive.

According to a study performed by the National Student Clearinghouse research center, 37 percent of the students who entered college as freshmen in 2008 transferred schools at least once. Because of lateral student movement through universities in the United States, every college should have a competent transfer student admissions and advising office.

UMBC, who has a 12 percent transfer student ratio, provides a host of information for potential transfer students through multiple offices. The Office of Undergraduate Admissions provides a step-by-step plan of how to apply for transfer admission, including specialized instructions for international transfer students and spring transfers. The Registrar’s Office goes into more detail about transfer transcripts and credits by providing a website that states the UMBC equivalent of classes students have taken at their original schools.

UMBC also has a specialized Transfer Student Alliance (TSA) that works with local community colleges, such as CCBC and HCC, to ensure student admission, scholarship and potential housing for those with associate’s degrees from specific schools. The TSA program can even help waive the transfer application fee.

However, once a student has successfully transferred to UMBC, the specialized information slows to a trickle. Dakota Simons, a sophomore undeclared major, recently transferred from Towson University to begin at UMBC for the fall semester. “The transfer process was easy for the most part,” Simons said in an interview, “One major change I would make to the transfer process is an inability to meet with an academic advisor and schedule classes after a certain point in time.”

As of now, the UMBC policy on transfer students scheduling classes is that they must wait until they attend orientation to pick their classes and meet with their advisor. Simons believes it would be more beneficial to the students if they were able to meet with advisors before orientation, “because a student would then be able to ask questions and find out information they may need for a specific class, such as where the building is located, during the orientation.”

This is only the first of a few possible changes that would greatly improve the overall experience of new transfer students. Another possible post-admission tool is a set of transfer-specific advisors prepared to organize classes around those with irregular major paths. Sometimes a transfer student will have to retake a few basic classes if their credits are incompatible with their UMBC degree progress, and the average advisor may not be accustomed to planning a schedule with a mix of basic and advanced classes.

These, amongst other additions, are needed to refine UMBC’s incoming transfer package. It is one thing to ensure that students can quickly and simply transfer to UMBC, and another to make sure that they are informed, comfortable and better able to succeed as new students.