For more information on disability services at UMBC, including how to get accommodations and reporting issues of inaccessibility, please see our previous post outlining these resources.

This October, as we begin to recognize National Disability Awareness Month, we here in the Women’s Center are excited to relaunch Critical Social Justice with the theme of Disability Justice + Access Matters!

Our goal is for our conversations to build a vision of a world where all bodies are valued and essential, and where we acknowledge and affirm that other identities intersect, creating a unique lived experience.  A society built on global capitalism, colonialism, and the multiple oppression of disabled people asserts everyday that people’s bodies are “expendable.”  However, we work to challenge that idea and honor that everyone has inherent worth independent of their productivity or labor.  As we attempt to “return to normal,” we have to reconsider who “normal” serves and take into account the lessons learned from how we have lived and survived through the pandemic.  What can we do, and what should we do, to carry forward the practices of accessibility?  

To kick off a year of Critical Social Justice events, we began with CSJ 101: Disability Justice at UMBC + Beyond.  Leading this workshop was the Women’s Center’s own, Amelia Meman, who described for participants the current state of the disability rights movement and what disability justice means as a more radical concept.

Participants started by discussing a few definitions of disability justice and the ways it resonated with each individual.  A few examples were intersectionality and the myth of a “neutral body”.  The conversation then moved into highlighting some important founders of the disability justice movement, which included:

• Patty Berne: co-founder and artistic director of Sins Invalid, a radical crip artist and activist group prioritizing queer people of color with disabilities
• Mia Mingus: writer, educator, and trainer for transformative justice and disability justice
• Stacey Park Milbern: a Bay Area-based organizer and disability justice thought leader
• Leroy Moore Jr.: a Black artist, writer, poet, activist, feminist, founder of Krip Hop, and co-founder of Sins Invalid

These four figures (and several other queer and disabled activists) developed the idea of disability justice which prioritized the needs of disabled people located at the intersection of multiple identities, and thus, experience layered oppression. With this established, the discussion then illustrated a vision for disability justice (originally developed by Sins Invalid), where we recognize that: 

• All bodies are considered unique and essential.
• All bodies have strengths and needs that must be met.
• Each and every person is powerful, not despite the complexities of our bodies, but because of them.
• All bodies are confined by ability, race, gender, sexuality, class, nation state, religion, and more, and we cannot separate them.

With the main founders and principles laid out, the group thought about how we do disability justice, starting with revisiting how we think about disability.  The medical model of disability “others” people’s bodies by viewing them as something to be rehabilitated, fixed, or cured.  Meanwhile, the social model was established to assert that disability is something born from people with impairments interacting with a society that doesn’t account for accessibility or justice in communication, interpersonal relationships, the political world, or in physical infrastructure.  It is the social model which has provided the foundation for the disability justice movement, the idea that disability isn’t related to personal deficit, but that it is the result of an inaccessible society that “disables”.  

Next, Amelia led the group through a few ways that allies and others with positional power can do the work to practice and leverage disability justice.  This included accepting feedback and changing as necessary, learning about disability justice, considering how to use positional power to create intentional accessibility, making content and spaces accessible, and finally listening and centering disabled people’s experiences.

To wrap up CSJ 101, the group discussed their experiences with disability and access at UMBC and off-campus. Some of the experiences named by those in attendance were*:

• “I often experience the physical campus as inaccessible.”
• “Accessibility routes can be confusing and accommodations are limited for some.”
• “Ableist implicit biases inform us all. We are all unlearning ableism.”
• “I have had frustrating experiences of inconsistent communication and support.”
• “I feel like there is a general lack of understanding, compassion, and humility on the part of UMBC faculty, staff, and other students when it comes to disability access and equity, and in working with disabled students.”
• “The pandemic has made UMBC consider and vastly improve digital and remote accessibility. The hope is that these practices should not end with the effort to “return to normal,” especially since many disabled community members have required and asked for these services for a long time.”
• “We should question the nature of medicalization, and what is considered the “normal” expectation of how a person’s body should look and function in and out of the classroom.”

Just as CSJ 101 participants were left with these questions, we also urge readers and our community members to consider: “What does disability justice mean to you?” and “How will you incorporate disability justice into your life?”  Even if it is through small practices such as changing vocabulary or practicing online accessibility, consider what you can do personally and in coordination with any positions of privilege to be in solidarity with the disabled community on and off-campus.  

If you are interested, you can access a recording of the CSJ 101: Disability Justice at UMBC + Beyond.  We also invite you to join us in our learning by attending our upcoming Critical Social Justice: Disability Justice and Access Matters events.  Check out our myUMBC page and follow along by subscribing to this blog!

*Considering this was an event with a small subset of UMBC community members, these themes and personal experiences should be viewed as individual opinions. In other words, many others experiencing impairments may not share the same opinion that this campus feels inaccessible.

For those who are experiencing some level of inaccessibility or ableism, it is important to know that there are resources and offices at our UMBC with the express purpose of assisting to resolve these issues. For more information on student accommodations, please check out the Office of Student Disability Services. For more on UMBC faculty, staff, and visitor accommodations/access needs OR to make a report of an inaccessibility, please check out the Office of Accessibility and Disability Services. If you believe you are being treated unfairly because of your disability and/or impairments (or any other aspect of your social identities), please consider working with the Office of Equity and Inclusion to make a report (anonymous reporting options are also available).

Stan Jackson, Director of the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), in the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) will be retiring from UMBC after 32 years of USM service, including nearly 12 at UMBC. Please join us in wishing Stan well as he transitions into retirement life:

• WebEx Celebration on Thursday, October 21, 2021, from 10-11 a.m. Please block the time on your calendar and join us using this link. Please sign this e-card before October 21.
• An in-person buffet luncheon on Thursday, October 21, 2021, from 1-4 p.m. in Catonsville. Please reach out to Dean Drake at ddrake@umbc.edu if you are interested in attending. We will have something at the event for you to sign. 

When Stan first joined USM, he started as an Accounting Associate with the Maryland 4-H Foundation, then worked as an accounting associate for UMCP’s contract and grant accounting office, before moving to the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI). He then became a Contract and Grant Administrator for the central research office and Business Manager for the Center of Marine Biotechnology at UMBI. Continuing his support at the departmental level, he moved to UMCP’s Department of Psychology before coming to UMBC’s OSP as a Grants and Contracts Manager in 2009. In 2015, Stan was promoted to Assistant Director of OSP, and then to Director of OSP in 2017. While serving as the OSP Director Stan was integral in the implementation of Kuali, a key platform necessary to support the continued growth of UMBC’s research and creative achievement activities. Stan also developed and implemented a telework plan for OSP-- the first in OVPR--and worked with the AVP on a long-term reorganization of OSP position descriptions that improved efficiencies, created transparent career paths, and decreased staff turn-over.

Stan is a Certified Research Administrator (CRA). He has presented at numerous National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) national and regional meetings over the years and has served on the Regional NCURA Program Committee. He was also a NCURA Mentor in its “Mentor Me” program. Last, but certainly not least, Stan successfully proposed and was awarded a NCURA Global Fellowship Travel Award in 2019, which improved UMBC research administrative collaborations with our Japanese partners at Kyushu University. 

In his personal life, Stan  is an active member of the Lutheran Church of St. Andrew, serving as Chair of the Board of Director and Chair of Global Missions, as well as participating in international service to collaborating schools in Namibia and Guatemala. He has also provided mentorship and religious education to the people in his congregation and has used his cooking and BBQ expertise in preparing and making food for select church events. Stan is married with one daughter and one granddaughter, whose pictures he is quick to share. He loves to cook and was once part of a competitive BBQ team, even creating his own “Bubba” BBQ sauce. His smoked salmon and Canadian bacon were always the most sought after gift at the annual OSP holiday gift exchange. 

Stan has always brought laughter, fun and, of course, food to his endeavors at UMBC. While we will all miss Stan, please join us in wishing him nothing but happiness as he embarks on his next journey.

Stan’s last day on campus is Friday, October 29, 2021.

Please see the latest updates on UMBC’s Retriever Ready website. Questions? Email covid19@umbc.edu.

Enjoying Homecoming Safely

• We hope you will attend Homecoming 2021 this weekend. Please practice safe on-campus behavior, including wearing a mask outdoors if you are not able to physically distance. 

Feeling Sick? 

• If you have cold or flu symptoms, getting tested for COVID-19 is not enough. Reach out to your healthcare provider to seek treatment (they will also arrange for testing). Students may also make an appointment with Retriever Integrated Health. Please do not come to campus to test as you may expose others to COVID-19 or other illnesses. 

COVID-19 Related Absences

• If you are feeling unwell, please do not come to campus or attend class. However, students should keep in mind that they will still need to make up missed work. Please let your professor know ASAP if you cannot attend class. More information is here.

COVID-19 Health and Safety

• Traveling domestically? Check out this guidance from the CDC.

Dear Faculty and Staff,

We are pleased to announce this year’s Open Enrollment for State of Maryland benefits will be online in SPS Workday from Monday, October 18 through 5 p.m. on Friday, November 12, 2021. During this time, employees can enroll, cancel, or make changes to their health benefits, with updates becoming effective January 1, 2022. Employees will receive alerts regarding Open Enrollment from the State of Maryland via the SPS Workday system (stateofmaryland@myworkday.com).

This year, we will share virtual Open Enrollment resources on the HR Website as they become available from the State of Maryland. Resources will include Open Enrollment videos, virtual information session dates, state wellness information, and links to the 2022 benefits guide and rates.

Prior to the start of Open Enrollment, it is important that employees gain access to SPS Workday using the OneLogin Process.Instructions can be found here.

Finally, to ensure timely receipt of vendor communications, including membership cards, we encourage employees to login to their myUMBC Profile (under About, and select View More) to ensure your home address is current. Address changes can be made in the Payroll Online Service Center (POSC).

If you have questions, please contact the Human Resources Benefits Team at hrbenefits@umbc.edu Thank you!

Human Resources Benefits Team