The Marilyn E. Demorest Faculty Advancement Award is an endowed fund created to support the advancement of all UMBC faculty members in their academic careers; to facilitate their professional development; and to recognize their contributions to faculty advancement and success at UMBC. This fund will be awarded annually to faculty who mentor and/or advise faculty and colleagues in their field.

Nominations (or self-nominations) for the 2021–2022 Marilyn E. Demorest Faculty Advancement Award should include:

• A letter of recommendation (or self-nomination),

• A current curriculum vitae of the nominee, and

• An indication of how the nominee would spend the year as the Marilyn E. Demorest Faculty Advancement Awardee. The letter should make clear the faculty member’s contribution to mentoring and advising faculty.

Nominations are due to Patrice McDermott, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, via email at mcdermot@umbc.edu, no later than February 18, 2022.

The Marilyn E. Demorest Faculty Advancement Award is conferred annually for a term of one year upon a UMBC faculty member. The Marilyn E. Demorest Faculty Advancement Award will be appointed by the Provost, based upon the recommendations of the Honors and Awards Committee of the Faculty Senate.

The award will allocate $3,000 to stipend and $500 to a discretionary expense account to draw upon for a variety of purposes (sponsoring workshops, conferences, travel, mentoring activity). Recipients will update the donor annually to show the impact of the award in advancing faculty at UMBC.

For more information, please contact Patrice McDermott, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, at mcdermot@umbc.edu.

KEY POINTS

• Our early testing results show a promising trend.

• Thank you for complying with masking, testing, and other safety protocols.

• If you need help, please reach out.

Dear UMBC Community,

We are writing to express our appreciation of your efforts to comply with current campus health and safety protocols by getting a COVID-19 booster, physical distancing, completing an entry COVID test, and wearing high quality KN95 masks indoors. If you need any more information about any of these requirements please visit our COVID-19 website.

As a result of your commitment to the health and safety of our community, we are seeing promising trends both across the state and at UMBC. Early test results indicate that we are effectively minimizing transmission on campus, and our weekend testing positivity rate was below 1%. Please continue to stay home if you are sick, and if you test positive for COVID-19, review this guidance.

We strongly encourage you to get a booster shot as soon as you are eligible. Many community members took advantage of our on-campus vaccine clinics and we are planning on offering more clinics. We also encourage you to reach out to local pharmacies to schedule your booster shot. Our experts assure us that remaining up to date with your COVID-19 vaccination is the single most important step in preventing severe illness. 

Please know that while our current safety measures are essential we understand that they can be challenging for some. We do not anticipate they will last forever and our teams meet every week to evaluate the current situation and the necessary safety protocols. We hope that if we continue to observe low testing positivity rates on campus, it may be possible to release some of the current restrictions, especially in regards to masking protocols and closures in our campus residential communities. 

Finally, we know that the continued pandemic continues to be challenging, especially for our mental health. Please reach out if you need help. Undergraduate and Graduate students can connect with Retriever Integrated Health and the Academic Success Center for both personal and academic support. Faculty and staff can access our Employee Assistance Program. You can also email covid19@umbc.edu for more information. 

Provost Philip Rous

Vice President of Information Technology and CIO Jack Suess

COVID-19 Planning Coordinating Committee Co-Chairs

Registration is open for the Multicultural Leadership Cohort Experience (MLCE), a collaborative effort between Campus Life and the Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging (i3b), to be held during the Spring 2022 semester. The purpose of all MLE programs is to provide a space for students and student leaders who identify within diverse or marginalized backgrounds to discover their own capacity to lead, while also promoting a better understanding of their experiences, issues, strengths, and outcomes in navigating their own collegiate careers. The spring cohort experience is offered SOLELY for selected applicants (up to 18 undergraduate and graduate students). All locations for meeting dates and times will be announced via email to selected participants and invited through Google Calendar. 

This spring, we will be exploring the concept of Deconstructing Grit and Greatness. We will do this in a leadership learning cohort by:

• Enhancing participants' leader identity and leadership capacity using an identity-conscious lens and student development theories;

• Increasing participants’ awareness of their personal abilities, identity development, and intersections that shape their story through authenticity, self-reflection, and cultural humility;

• Exploring the role they play in developing relationships while building intra/intercultural connections;

• And capitalizing on their unique differences, specifically in relation to their racial, ethnic, national, and other salient identity social groups

The first session will cover a brief overview of the program. However, please note that all details related to session topics will be only disclosed to the cohort. Additionally, as we continue to monitor all COVID related procedures, the first session will be held virtually followed by in-person sessions. This is subject to change according to university guidelines. Meeting dates and times are as follow:

• MLCE 101, Thursday, February 17th, 3pm - 5pm (virtual)
• Boundaries & Self Love, Thursday, March 17th, 3pm - 5pm (in-person)
• Emotional Intelligence, Thursday, March 31st, 3pm - 5pm (in-person)
• Decoding Inclusive Excellence, Thursday, April 21st, 3pm - 5pm (in-person)
• Community & Celebration, Thursday, May 5th, 3pm - 5pm (in-person)

Registration link: tinyurl.com/mle2022. Deadline for applying is Monday, February 14, 2022 at 11:59pm EST.

For questions or more information, contact:

• Beatriz Gutiérrez-Malagón, Coordinator for Leadership at bgutierrez@umbc.edu
• Carlos Turcios '15, '17 M.A., Assistant Director with Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion & Belonging at carlos6@umbc.edu 

Spring Center Hours

• The Mosaic: Center for Cultural Diversity is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesday through Friday. COVID QTY: 11

• The Pride Center is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. COVID QTY: 10

• The Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Friday. COVID QTY: 26

**Spaces are only accessible when i3b professional or student staff are present.**

We’d also like to introduce you to our Google Group listservs for each space, as well as various initiatives. Please fill out the Google Form to be added to our listservs.

i3b Community:i3bCommunity-usergroup@umbc.edu

This is our general listserv for any and all UMBC undergraduate, graduate students, staff, faculty, alumni and campus community partners to stay up to date with all i3b events, programs, initiatives and news

i3b's Mosaic Listserv:i3bmosaic-usergroup@umbc.edu

i3b's Gathering Space Listserv:i3bGatheringSpace-usergroup@umbc.edu

i3b’s PrideCenter Listserv:pridecenter-usergroup@umbc.edu

This is a Google Group for the Pride Center, one of three Initiatives for Identity, Inclusion and Belonging (i3b) centers housed within the Division of Student Affairs. This group is meant to communicate information related to the Pride Center and LGBTQIA+ engagement more broadly.

These three listservs are for center-specific news and events.

i3b Retriever Immigrants United:i3bRIU-usergroup@umbc.edu

This is the official mailing list for all news, updates, resources and announcements related to the 1st and 2nd generation immigrant population that RIU centers.

i3b SistaCare:i3bSistaCare-usergroup@umbc.edu

This is the official mailing list for all news, updates, resources and announcements related to SistaCare, a self-care and community-building group open to all undergraduate and graduate Black/Africana women (e.g. trans, cis) and femmes, regardless of their gender expression.

i3b Campus Partners:i3bPartners-usergroup@umbc.edu

This Listserv will be composed of primarily staff and faculty partners, as well as select student and alumni leaders that facilitate outreach across campus on behalf of our shared work at i3b.

Space Usage and Sign-In Process

We are delighted to see our spaces being used by students to study, connect, pray, meditate, and build community. In order to keep up with who is using our spaces, we are moving from paper sign-in sheets to UMBC ID card readers. Just like other events and programs on campus, UMBC ID cards will be scanned at entry for The Mosaic and Pride Centers, and The Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being. Collecting student and visitor data will support our assessment practices, and help us make funding decisions regarding supplies, prayer space and other needs. All data collected will be maintained confidentially within the UMBC Rex system. If a student or guest does not have a UMBC ID card, paper sign-in sheets will be available.

UMBC COVID Protocols and i3b Spaces

We will have surgical masks available in all three i3b spaces and expect that all students, staff, and visitors wear their masks for the entirety of their visit unless they are actively eating or drinking. In order to keep all students and staff comfortable and as safe as possible, please remember that proper mask-wearing is required at all times. Those not in compliance will be asked to leave.

You can find more information about the university mask mandate atcovid19.umbc.edu/masks/