Calling all students, faculty, and staff!
UMBC Dining is hosting upcoming focus group sessions and wants your feedback. Share your experiences and help shape future dining improvements.

Student participants will receive $25 Retriever Dollars, plus food and beverages during the session.

Please review session details and sign up for a preferred group:

• Monday, April 20: COMM 328 (The Commons)
• Tuesday, April 21: True Grit’s Conference Room

Register here: https://signup.com/go/bYtYsFE

Program: 6-week Parent-Child Connect parenting workshops for Asian American parents

Speaker: Cixin Wang, Ph.D., Associate Professor in School Psychology at University of Maryland, College Park

Time: Sundays 7-8:45 p.m. from  4/26-6/7

Description: Please Join our supportive 6-week Parent & Child Connect Workshop, designed specifically forAsian American parents who are navigating the challenges of raising school-aged children (PreK-12). Through evidence-based parenting strategies, supportive discussion, and roleplays, this program helps families strengthen family bonds, improve communication, and
nurture their children's growth, confidence, and emotional well-being. 

Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSegtO0oorB1lkYgT4kbfaL7JmptDQdBmiAk7RZwF6Xou-bNBQ/viewform?usp=header

We are also offering 6-week youth SEL program for elementary and middle school students. Please see the flyers attached. Registration link for youth SEL class: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSci2XrosjJDdh2VdsY-4Mszvmdknp9KBSWQoTWSj2fMcsQ9WQ/viewform?usp=header

Be the Green Dot. Make Our Campus Safer.

A Green Dot is any behavior, choice, or action that promotes safety for everyone and communicates zero tolerance for sexual violence, dating/domestic violence, and stalking.

A Green Dot can look like:

• stepping in during a high-risk situation
• checking on a friend at a party, bar, or social event
• attending a bystander intervention training
• sharing prevention resources on social media
• displaying a prevention poster in your room or organization space
• wearing Green Dot gear and showing your commitment

Participants can earn a Green Dot badge! Electronic badges are credentials that you can attach to LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook to show others your commitment to reducing power-based personal violence. 

Your contribution is necessary. Your voice is powerful. Your commitment is our hope.No one has to do everything, but everyone has to do something.

This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, gender, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

Hello!

Stop by The Pride Center for coffee and donuts this morning! Start your day off being in community with other LGBTQ folks.

-Gavin

Aircrafts by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics chapter at UMBC, Design, Build, Fly (DBF) and Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) teams

Presenters: Shrikant Bhatnagar, Kalel Kai, Ben Bazarsuren, Daniel Shin, Jonah Malcom, Austin Wagener, Nebiyu Mammo, Murali Indukuri, William Vandenberg

Mentor: Joseph Washington, Mechanical Engineering

Students will display the prototypes of their aircafts on the RAC track throughout the day.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics chapter at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County was created to address the absence of a formal aerospace engineering program on campus. Without dedicated coursework in aeronautics, many students had limited ways to explore a field that plays a central role in transportation and national security, and engage in fascinating research. In response, the chapter built an experiential pathway into aerospace through student-led competition teams. At the core of this effort were the Design, Build, Fly (DBF) and Student Unmanned Aerial Systems (SUAS) teams, where students took ownership of the full engineering lifecycle. From early design concepts to manufacturing, systems integration, and flight testing, members engaged in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles for international competitions. Students experienced aerospace theory through processes that mirror those used in professional aerospace development. Members strengthened not only their technical abilities, but also their capacity for teamwork, documentation, and leadership under real constraints. Over time, this approach positioned UMBC’s teams as the leading undergraduate-led aerospace competition groups in Maryland, demonstrating how experiential learning can meaningfully expand access to aerospace education.

This work was funded by UMBC SGA, UMBC Mechanical Engineering Department, UMBC COEIT, Northrup Grumman Corporation.

URCAD is Wednesday, April 22 in the RAC:

URCAD.umbc.edu

Link to the event: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/asianstudiesprogram/events/153250

Join us to celebrate Professor Sharon Tran's new book, Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of US Empire! We are excited to gather on Wednesday, 4/29 at noon in FA 558 to talk about this new book and enjoy some refreshments together.

Book Raffle:

Asian Studies will be giving away a copy of Dr. Tran's book to one affiliate faculty member and one student at the celebration. 

Book Summary:

Representations of the “Asian girl” as lucky objects of humanitarian rescue and rehabilitation have been used to advance America’s imperial ambitions from World War II to the wars in Korean and Viet Nam. In this compelling work, Sharon N. Tran traces the production and instrumentalization of this figure through an examination of state documents, military newspapers, documentary photographs, and other archival materials. Theorizing “Asian girlhood” as a technology of imperial power, Tran exposes how the Asian girl is invoked as a shield that protects the innocence of US empire while she is excluded from innocence herself—relegated instead to a precarious position between child and adult, human and nonhuman, plaything and laborer.

Offering fresh insight into how imperial power operates, Tran analyzes figures such as the Japanese American school-girl in the context of World War II incarceration, the elusive “camptown girl,” and the objectified image of the “Napalm Girl.” Her innovative feminist approach interrogates the tendency to reclaim innocence for the Asian girl or to reframe her as an empowered woman. She engages the work of writers and artists such as Kiku Hughes, Nora Okja Keller, Aimee Phan, and lê thi diem thúy to demonstrate how Asian American literature offers rich theoretical interventions for critiquing the child–adult dichotomy that underpins key structures of imperial domination, illuminating more capacious conceptions of girlhood.

Restoring the dignity and agency of a figure too often denied both, Asian Girlhood in the Shadows of US Empire is a groundbreaking intersectional contribution to studies of gender, race, childhood, and state power.

This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

The College of Engineering and Information Technology has officially launched scholarship applications for current UMBC students for the 2026-2027 academic year!
Applications are due by April 24th.

Start your application today at https://scholarships.umbc.edu/retriever/Students must fill out both the COEIT General Application and the Scholarship Application!


COEIT Specific Scholarships:
CMSC, CMPE, & IS AFCEA CMD Scholarship Gregory Schwerdt Scholarship Verizon Scholarship
CMSC Rite Aid Corporation Scholarship
CMSC & Engineering Carmi Family Scholarship
CMSC, IS, & BTA Legg Mason Scholarship
IS & BTA John B. Schwartz Vijay Jose Scholarship
Information Systems Moshope Oyeyemi Memorial Scholarship
Chemical Engineering Janice Antoine Lumpkin Scholarship
Engineering W Patrick Wilson

Mechanical Engineering Anthony Alvarez Award
Danaher Scholarship
Dottie Koh
Mercedes-Benz Scholarship

Please Note:
These scholarships are only for currently enrolled UMBC students who will be attending UMBC in the 2026-2027 academic year. Graduating seniors, or any new, incoming UMBC freshmen or transfers are not eligible.

Questions? Please email eastephe@umbc.edu 

Join us for a meaningful conversation with Joe Lambert, founder of StoryCenter, as we explore the intersection of AI, ethics, and storytelling. This event invites participants to reflect on how emerging technologies are shaping the way we create and share stories while staying grounded in community, accountability, and collective care. Community members will engage, reflect, and reimagine story work in an evolving digital world.

Date: April 14th

Time: 11:30 am to 1:00 pm

Location: Online 

Click here to RSVP to the event at MyUMBC Groups 

 Co-sponsored by:  The Shiver Center at UMBC, The Dresher Center for the Humanities at UMBC, The Department of History at UMBC, and The Department of Media & Communication Studies at UMBC.

This event is open for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University's nondiscrimination policy.

The Election Board recently received an election complaint pertaining to alleged active campaigning on The Commons Terrace by Oyinkansola Osolo. The complaint connects to a potential violation of the following election rules:

Rule 5: “’Campaigning’ refers to advertising one's candidacy through verbal, written, printed, or electronic promotion. ... “Active campaigning” refers to activities which involve direct physical, verbal engagement with people, and direct messaging via social media (see Rule 7).”

Rule 12: “No active campaigning is allowed from 12:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. during the campaign, and voting periods; passive campaigning will be permitted during the voting period.”

As a related note, all candidates received the following reminder via email from the Election Board Chair on Tuesday, April 7th: “Remember that active campaigning concluded [sic] this Saturday at 11:59pm. While you can share the link with students and explain how to vote, you are only allowed to campaign in a passive way for the duration of election week.”

After careful review of the complaint and 2026 Election Rules, the Election Board voted to open an investigation of this complaint into Oyin Osolo.

Since the information regarding Oyin’s involvement was limited, the Election Board contacted Oyin to request additional details. Oyin shared that she had picked up her campaign materials from commonvision that morning and was sitting together with a friend after said friend provided her with a frame for a poster. She clarified that she had been “organizing [her] materials,” not “actively campaigning or engaging others in campaign-related activity outside what is permitted.” As a result of this information, Election Board voted against issuing any sanctions.

The Election Board wants to reiterate that any student who believes that they have witnessed an Election Rules violation should report a complaint to the Election Board, remembering that complaints must be filed by 48 hours after an alleged violation is discovered OR by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, April 19th-- whichever is earliest.

EDITED on April 14, 2026 at 11:28am to correct errors in the spelling of Oyin's name. We apologize for these mistakes.

Calling all students, faculty, and staff!
UMBC Dining is hosting upcoming focus group sessions and wants your feedback. Share your experiences and help shape future dining improvements.

Student participants will receive $25 Retriever Dollars, plus food and beverages during the session.

Please review session details and sign up for a preferred group:

• Monday, April 20: COMM 328 (The Commons)
• Tuesday, April 21: True Grit’s Conference Room

Register here: https://signup.com/go/bYtYsFE