With the fall semester upon us, join some of the Campus Life team to learn more about what the welcome experience will look like for new students and how you can get involved.  

We have two online sessions available for people to attend:

We will review some schedule highlights and overall programmatic elements of our welcome programs and answer any questions you may have about those first few days and weeks of school.  

Follow Campus Life on myUMBC for more information!

This week-long event is completely virtual and free for all USM employees. 

The professional development week will have a keynote panel, workshops, networking opportunities, and engagement.

Are you ready to invest in your career in higher education? Whether you're new and looking to forge your path, mid-career and looking to inject some energy, or staring down retirement and considering your legacy, there's something for you at the USM Learning and Talent Development Committee's annual, virtual, week-long conference, USM Professional Development Week. Save the date for inspiring panels, engaging workshops, and networking with your colleagues across the system. Fall into Success: Inspire, Innovate, Lead! 

Click here to RSVP and get more information.

During Volunteer Days, we will do on-campus tasks, such as organizing The Essential Space's shelves after Maryland Food Bank deliveries, collecting food from food bins around campus, and restocking Free Corner Stores and Food Zones. 

Follow UMBC Community Read on myUMBC.

Day One: Developing a Restorative Worldview

This workshop will challenge you to think differently about how you build relationships, build community with groups, and respond to conflict or incidents of harm. We will wrestle with the notions of discipline, conflict and justice through lecture, discussion, activities and role plays-looking closely at what our current systems are accomplishing and if the real needs of victims, offenders and communities are being met. Ultimately, we will emerge from day one of the workshop with ideas of how we can use restorative practices as a way of thinking about how we exist in community with others.

Day Two: Using Restorative Tools

This workshop focuses on practical skills to set up and host a circle, how to use different types of circles and concrete tools and techniques to support engagement from participants in the circle process. The workshop uses adult education and experiential learning techniques, as well as activities and discussion. Circles can be used for:

E-mail restorativepractices@umbc.edu for more information!

The Starbucks Truck is open from 8:30 AM - 3 PM today at Erickson Field!

You've probably heard a lot more about air quality in the past few days...and for good reason! Air quality is consistently an issue in the Baltimore region (especially in the summer), but the current air quality issues from the Canadian wildfire smoke are significantly higher than usual. 

Throughout all of this, you've probably heard of AQI. Think of the Air Quality Index (AQI) as a yardstick that runs from 0 to 500. The higher the AQI value, the greater the level of air pollution and the greater the health concern. For example, an AQI value of 50 or below represents good air quality, while an AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality.

For each pollutant, an AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to an ambient air concentration that equals the level of the short-term national ambient air quality standard for the protection of public health. AQI values at or below 100 are generally thought of as satisfactory. When AQI values are above 100, air quality is unhealthy: at first for certain sensitive groups of people, then for everyone as AQI values get higher.

The particular pollutant we are concerned about in this weather event is PM 2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns across, 30 times smaller than a human hair). This can get into the respiratory and cardiovascular systems and can cause issues for everyone, but particularly for sensitive groups (those with asthma, heart disease, children, pets, etc.). 

UMBC has several air quality monitors on campus that you can check to see the air quality right here on campus, but you can also find information for other areas from a quick internet search (and even on your weather forecasts). 

A few tips:

Stay up to date on how the air quality changes and adjust as needed.

For more information, the Office of Sustainability has a whole webpage dedicated to air quality, including a guide of what activities should be limited at different pollution levels and over different amounts of time to provide some guidance. 

Follow the Office of Sustainability on myUMBC for more information!

We hope you can join us for one, or all, of the Commencement ceremonies as a volunteer. If you do, there is an opportunity to hand out gifts to our new UMBC alumni after the ceremony concludes. 

There are three opportunities to volunteer next week:

"Professionally, PSS has absolutely helped me forge bonds that make my job and connecting easier. Personally, I feel so fortunate to spend two years with a group of thought leaders who truly strive to improve our working life." - Kait McCaffrey