On July 30, 2016, the UMBC Police Department was awarded accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) for the quality of its personnel, policies, processes, and procedures.

CALEA is a national credentialing authority that reviews public safety services. UMBC joins several other University System of Maryland (USM) institutions that have become accredited by the organization.

“This exceptional acknowledgement reflects the quality and commitment of our police department and its leadership,” said Vice President of Administration and Finance Lynne Schaefer. “We have one of the finest departments in the System and the state, and this accreditation reaffirms that.”

During the three-year review, the accrediting body looked at the campus’s effectiveness and adherence to industry standards. The review team analyzed the department’s policies and procedures by reviewing its documentation and interviewing faculty, staff, and students from the campus.

“Being acknowledged by CALEA as an institution that upholds the highest standards of excellence is an incredible honor,” said Chief of Police Mark Sparks. “This exhaustive accreditation process presented a great opportunity for our department to review its processes and procedures, and it helped us to recognize ways in which we can continue to support the unique needs of our campus community.”

An important part of the accreditation process includes identifying ways in which the department plans to advance its mission to support members of the campus community. Implementing these approaches, of which there were nearly 200, is integral in maintaining compliance with CALEA. Some key areas identified include fair enforcement across all populations on campus, overall department diversity, and systems for reviewing and reporting on officer activity and behavior.

The CALEA accreditation team will visit the campus again in 2020 to review the department’s progress on its commitments.

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On August 22, the World Bank Group’s Development Policy Research Unit hosted an hour-long virtual discussion on labor regulations and enforcement. Tim Gindling, a professor of economics and expert on minimum wage policy impacts in Latin America, joined the discussion with other leading experts from around the world for the event which was broadcast live on the World Bank Group website.

Check out the UMBC News post and video discussion here. 

Princeton Review has again selected UMBC as one of the nation’s top universities for undergraduate education, featured in its flagship guide, The Best 381 Colleges.

“UMBC’s outstanding academics are the chief reason we chose it for this book and we strongly recommend it to applicants,” says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior VP-publisher. The 2017 guide includes the top 15% of U.S. colleges and universities, judged through administrator and student surveys across eight categories.

Princeton Review’s UMBC profile highlights the strength of a UMBC education and the university’s commitment to student success. “UMBC wants to see every student succeed—they provide you with the tools, people, and resources to make sure you get where you want to go in life,” one student shared. Others remarked that UMBC has “extremely intelligent professors that have a knack for inspiring the students” and “this is a university where teaching comes first.”

UMBC’s proximity to Baltimore and Washington DC earned high marks, with one student noting, “The location of UMBC is true brilliance.”

The university community itself was recognized as a welcoming environment that values inclusive excellence. “UMBC is a place where it is cool to be smart, and everything about the campus, including the students, exudes ‘nerd-chic,'” said one student. “The school has a strong reputation for diversity,” the profile notes, quoting one student’s comment that students feel diversity “enriches our school.”

At UMBC, the Princeton Review writes, the student experience is about finding your passion and exploring issues that matter, in the classroom and the community. “People fit in by being intellectually creative and finding a community with which to discuss important issues,” one student says. Another shares that in addition to a commitment to doing well academically, “almost every student at UMBC is involved with at least a couple of extracurricular activities, which connect them to the campus.”

The Princeton Review’s final verdict: At UMBC “students are happy,” “career services are great,” and “the school is well run.”

Earlier this year, UMBC was also featured in Princeton Review’s 2016 edition of Colleges That Pay You Back, among the nation’s best colleges for students seeking an exceptional education with great career preparation at an affordable price. That publication’s profile of UMBC noted:

Arguably the “best public college in Maryland,” UMBC is an “extremely diverse school” that manages to maintain a “small community feel.” And from the moment you set foot on campus it’s evident that the university is focused on “providing exceptional education and research opportunities for students.”

For more information, see UMBC’s page on the Princeton Review website.

Header image: UMBC library. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.