The Division of Information Technology community extends its warmest congratulations to the exceptional Class of December 2025! This winter commencement marks a monumental achievement for all graduating students, symbolizing years of rigorous academic effort, personal growth, and dedication. We celebrate the unique contributions and relentless commitment of every Retriever reaching this milestone. Your journey at UMBC has prepared you not only with knowledge but also with the resilience and critical thinking skills necessary to thrive in your next chapter, and we eagerly anticipate the great things you will accomplish as new alumni.

A special and heartfelt congratulations goes out to the graduating students who have served as invaluable employees within DoIT. These student employees have masterfully balanced challenging coursework with the essential, hands-on work of keeping our campus technology running smoothly, whether through the TSC, desktop support, AV, cybersecurity, networks or other critical teams. The real-world experience gained in DoIT has provided a powerful complement to your academic learning, turning theoretical knowledge into practical expertise. Thank you for your incredible service, professionalism, and dedication to the UMBC mission. We wish you all the very best as you transition from UMBC students and staff to global leaders and innovators!

Congratulations to our DoIT graduates!

Pamela Adegbite

Saiteja Benkannagari

Joshua Cheeks

Jervon Drakes

Eugene Ferguson

Prudhvi Reddy Koduru

Michael Marti

Courtney Pelkey

Dereck Roman Rosario

The UMBC Instructional Technology Update is provided by the Division of Information Technology for students, faculty and staff. If you have questions or need help, please consult the Blackboard Help FAQs or directly at www.umbc.edu/blackboard/help.  You can also contact the Technology Support Center at 410.455.3838 or submit an RT (Request Tracker) ticket via the myUMBC Help Menu or directly at my.umbc.edu/help.

HEADLINES

What's New

• Yuja Migration Delayed to Mid-January
• Blackboard News
• Blackboard courses created on Nov 21, 2025
• Blackboard to Launch New FAQs in mid-December
• Blackboard Revamps Course Navigation to Streamline Workflows by Jan 9
• Three Faculty Named 2025-26 UMBC LA Fellows
• Instructional Technology team earns the Job Well Done 2025 Award
• Congratulations to Dr. Josh Abrams! New Doctoral Research on Digital Accessibility Solutions

Digital Accessibility

• A Commitment to Inclusion: UMBC's Digital Accessibility Initiative
• UMBC Faculty receive course accessibility mini-grants from Kirwan Center
• The Three-Step Framework for Accessible Documents: Reduce, Remake, Remediate
• 5 Ways to Create "Born Accessible" Course Materials
• Free Digital Accessibility Workshops from Blackboard
• The Art of the Description: How to Write Alt Text for Everyone
• Make Your Course Media Accessible: Video Captions and Audio Descriptions Support Every Learner

Training & Professional Development (recording archive | view upcoming events)

• Improve Your Blackboard Course Accessibility Score with Ally(01.08)
• Digital Accessibility Winter Camp (01.09)
• What's New in Ultra Courses for Teaching & Learning SP2026(01.13)
• Ultra Essentials: Blackboard Content, Organization, and Accessibility (01.14)
• YuJa Video Production Lab (hands-on) (01.20)
• Ultra Essentials: Create Assessments in Blackboard Ultra (01.21)
• YuJa Video Production Lab (virtual) (01.22)

In Case You Missed It: Recordings & Tips

• YuJa Migration Videos
• Recording & Sharing
• Editing
• Course Prep Checklists
• Tips to Wrap Up Your Blackboard Course for the Semester
• Effective Practices for Delivering Blackboard Tests
• Tips to Get Your Blackboard Course Ready for Next Semester

Other DoIT & UMBC News

• Important Update: Legacy Travel System Pre-Approvals Ending December 12
• Sherman Hall's Phase 1 renovation is complete, creating space for creative collaboration
• Tech Boost: Major AV Upgrades Enhance Teaching & Learning
• Tips and Best Practices for Managing Your Cloud Storage
• Declutter Your Inbox: A Guide to Cleaning Up Your Email
• Graduating Students' Access to UMBC Cloud Storage Services
• Google Career Certificates Available to Help You Gain In-Demand Skills
• Security Updates:
• Don't Take the Bait! How to Spot a Phishing Scam
• Stop! A DUO Push You Didn't Initiate
• Congratulations to the 2025 DoIT Service Award Recipients

It's that time of the semester, you're finishing finals, wrapping things up, and getting ready for break – BUT WAIT! Before you go, you should clean up your cloud storage space so you will be set for when you come back. 

During the semester, you probably created and used a bunch of documents for your classes that probably won't see the light of day again. Now is a good time to assess whether those documents are worth keeping or trashing to make room for the documents you'll use next semester. 

Check your Google Storage

To see how much storage you're using, click here:

Check my Google Storage Usage

Here are some FAQs and Resources to help free up your cloud storage

Tips and Best Practices for Managing your Cloud Storage

Take Control of Your Google Drive: A Guide to Freeing Up Space

Declutter Your Inbox: A Guide to Cleaning Up Your Email

Cloud Storage Quotas & Changes - UMBC FAQs 

Dear UMBC Community,

This is a reminder that starting Friday, December 12, UMBC will disable the ability to create new Pre-Approvals in the Legacy Travel System. All new travel pre-approvals must be submitted in SAP Concur beginning on this date.

If you are planning travel after spring break, please begin using SAP Concur now. We expect to fully retire the Legacy Travel System before the end of the spring semester.

Need support?

SAP Concur offers 24/7 assistance, including live chat, phone support, and a robust Help & Learning Center—available anytime, anywhere. Business Services is also available during normal business hours for UMBC-specific questions.

Resources

Training sessions, guides, policies, FAQs, and other support materials are available at travel.umbc.edu.

Secondary Note: Business Services & Accounts Payable Holiday Deadline

As a reminder from Business Services & Accounts Payable:

To ensure timely processing before the State of Maryland's end-of-year closure, the following items must be submitted to Business Services with all required approvals by close of business on Thursday, December 12:

• Payment Requests

• Invoices

• Travel Reimbursements

• Working Fund Requests

Items received after December 12 will be processed in the new calendar year due to State holiday processing pauses.

Thank you for your attention to these deadlines and for your cooperation.

Warm regards,
UMBC Business Services

Original Travel Post

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) is thrilled to announce that Bill Mehrz has been awarded the November DoIT Gritty Award! This recognition celebrates Bill's outstanding contributions to DoIT and the entire UMBC community, embodying the spirit of going above and beyond in his work.

Cybersecurity Awareness: Timely, Relevant, and Fun

Bill earned this well-deserved award through his truly exceptional planning and execution of this year's Cybersecurity Awareness activities. He designed an awareness campaign that was not only timely and relevant but also genuinely fun and engaging.

• He incorporated current, relevant threats into weekly awareness posts (available on the my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/itsecurity/posts group and the doit.umbc.edu/ homepage). Topics covered included Phishing scams, Duo Fraudulent Notifications, ClickFix scams, and banking scams.
• Bill made cyber awareness fun by organizing tabling events near the Commons to directly engage the student population. The in-person efforts included a catching fish game, Swedish fish treats, and cyber plastic cups.
• He also coordinated a Cybersecurity Trivia game for the monthly divisional all-staff meeting, co-hosted with Anna Plass, to test and reinforce the team's knowledge.

His efforts have dramatically increased cybersecurity awareness on campus, engaging his peers to become champions of awareness. A measurable result of this campaign is the dramatic increase in the reporting of phishing emails! DoIT staff will also remember his effective call to action to not enter passwords into Google Forms.

Professionalism Under Pressure

What makes Bill's achievement even more remarkable is that he accomplished all of this while simultaneously transitioning our semi-annual IT Cybersecurity control validations to OnSpring, a substantial effort in itself.

Furthermore, the extensive planning for the October campaign had to be meticulously detailed as Bill was anticipating the birth of his second child right before October began! His professionalism, detailed approach, and understanding of the importance of cybersecurity ensured seamless teamwork in selecting topics, gathering feedback, and coordinating the in-person activities despite the personal demands.

We are proud to present Bill Mehrz with the DoIT Gritty Award. Congratulations, Bill!

About the DoIT Gritty Award

The Gritty Award is in recognition of outstanding work within the Division and beyond. Full-time DoIT employees, DoIT student employees, and teams are eligible to be nominated for going above and beyond! Anyone in DoIT can nominate someone for the Gritty by completing this short Gritty Nomination Form. 

The DoIT Community & The DoIT Gritty Committee

Erica D'Eramo

Ada Crutchfield

Andrew Shebest

Anthony Finneran

Carlos McKinney

Daniel Loftus

Dave Souder

David Toothe

Debbie Michaels

Dondre Hatef

Josh Abrams

Khalil Alston

Matt Baker

Nick Beech

Peter Ariev

Today's 2025 Service Award Celebration is an opportunity to pause and take a moment to thank those award recipients for their service. In doing that, I wanted to thank everyone in DoIT for all you are doing for UMBC. I'm very honored to be the leader of DoIT, everyday I see the dedication, caring, and knowledge that you bring to your work and by extension to UMBC. The work you do in managing complex systems, securing critical data, and advancing digital accessibility is more than technical support; it directly powers higher education by fostering a dynamic, technologically-driven environment that is essential for a leading research university like UMBC. Thank you for your commitment to excellence and for being a vital force in our mission.

Please take a minute to congratulate your coworkers on the list below for their years of service to the USM and UMBC!

5 Years

Peter Ariev, Instructional Technology and Media

Ally Hepp, IT Administration

Melissa Manthorne, OIT Business Systems

10 Years

Helena Dahlen, IT Administration

Michael Fosu, OIT Infrastructure and Support

15 Years

Eric Ludy, OIT Business Systems

Jennifer Moser, OIT Business Systems

William Schneider, IT Administration

20 Years

Carlos E. McKinney, Telecommunications

Andrew Smith, Telecommunications

Ray Soellner, OIT Infrastructure and Support

James Sonnichsen, OIT Infrastructure and Support

25 Years

Vladimir Plotkin, OIT Infrastructure and Support

Christopher Sutherin, OIT Infrastructure and Support

30 Years

John Fritz, Instructional Technology and Media

Kevin D. Joseph, OIT Business Systems

Retirees

Lance Rand, OIT Business Systems