UMBC's first commencement took place June 7, 1970 at 7pm on the Quad. 152 of the total 244 students who graduated were part of the "Founding Class," the first group of students to complete four full years at UMBC. The class of 1970 was also one of the firsts to organize a senior project. Seniors collected donations from the UMBC community to start a campus fund that would assist students that needed help to pay their tuition bill. The students collected a total of $13,000 which is equivalent to $80,000 today! 

Learn More: 

-History of UMBC Research Guide 

-University Archives Webpage 

-Digital Link to Commencement 1970 Program 

-UMBC BreakingGround 1970 Senior Project 

-Photo of 1970 Commencement on the Quad 

-Senior Gallery in 1970 Skipjack Yearbook 

View All: my.umbc.edu/groups/library/posts?tag=archives-gold 

Undergraduate students: This workshop is for you! On Friday, July 16, 2016, UMBC will host the annual Summer Horizons program. This program is for undergraduate students (at any school), and for others who are interested in learning more about graduate school admission, particularly in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Career professionals and non-traditional students who are thinking about graduate school are invited to attend, as are students who already have a master’s degree and are now ready to pursue the Ph.D. Parents, family members, teachers, and friends, who have students in community college, high school, or jr. high who want to think ahead to consider graduate education for the future are also welcome to attend.

The 3-hour workshop will feature the following sessions:

• The graduate school application timeline
• The Graduate Record Exam (GRE overview)
• The Statement of Purpose
• Recommendation Letters (and how they are different from character references)

We will also present other topics related to preparing for graduate school.  The Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows program will be a panel hosted by current graduate students, and the keynote speaker will be the President of UMBC, Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski, III. 

(Read about Dr. Hrabowski in Time Magazine: 10 Best College Presidents, World’s 100 Most Influential People. See Dr. Hrabowski talk about UMBC on 60 Minutes. Watch Dr. Hrabowski’s  TED Talk.) 

https://embed-ssl.ted.com/talks/freeman_hrabowski_4_pillars_of_college_success_in_science.html

The 2016 Summer Horizons program is co-sponsored by PROMISE AGEP, UMBC’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), and the Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program. The Co-chairs for the 2016 Summer Horizons program are Justine Johnson, Associate Director for the Meyerhoff grad program, and Yarazeth Medina, Coordinator for the PROMISE AGEP program.

 

2016 Summer Horizons Program

• Friday, July 15, 2016
• The 2016 program will begin at 9:30 AM and will end at 12 noon. (Registration and Seating will begin at 9:00)
• The Gameroom, The Commons
• Light refreshments will be served.
• This event is FREE to the public but (participants must register). 

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AGENDA (subject to modification)

9:00 – 9:30 a.m

• Registration and Breakfast Refreshments

9:30 a.m.

• Welcome and Overview
  • Justine Johnson, Associate Director, Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows Program
  • Sunji Jangha, Co-Director, LSAMP Program

9:40 a.m.

• Preparing for Graduate Study: Timelines and Choices
  • K. Jill Barr, J.D. –  Sr. Assistant Dean of Graduate Enrollment, The Graduate School
  • Gay Warshaw,  Manager, Recruitment and Admissions, The Graduate School

10:00 a.m.

• Elements of the Graduate School Application: GRE, Transcripts, Letters of Recommendation, Statement of Purpose
  • Dr. Renetta Tull, Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Student Development & Postdoctoral Affairs, Director of PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP

10:30 a.m.

The 2016 Summer Horizons program is open to anyone who is interested in learning more about UMBC and the graduate admissions process.

The graduate school preparation material that we will present  is applicable to most U.S. institutions.  Faculty and staff may invite prospective students to this event.  Visitors from out-of-town are welcome to attend. Invitations are  extended to:

• All UMBC undergraduate students

• As part of the PROMISE Pathways project, undergraduate and master’s students  from schools within the University System of Maryland (USM) have a special invitation to attend
•  Students from all summer programs within the DC/Maryland/Virginia (DMV) region

• Students from NSF programs such as LSAMP, AGEP, NSF ERC, RDE etc., at any school

• McNair programs at any school.

• Students from organizations such as SHPE, SACNAS, NSBE, and AISES at any school in the country are welcome to attend.

• Students from any college or university, who are either local or will travel the distance to learn more about graduate school.

• We also invite professionals who are considering returning to graduate school for an advanced degree.

This program is free, but participants must register.

Summer Horizons is co-sponsored by PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP, The Meyerhoff Graduate Biomedical Fellows Program, and The Graduate School at UMBC. For additional resources, including access to funding opportunities: Please visit the Institute for Broadening Participation’s website,  “Pathways to Science,”  and fill out the form in the left corner:  http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/. The website has information on a variety of opportunities, which include as an example, a wealth of information on funding and internships through NASA:  http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/nasa.aspx. Our student participants have taken advantage of this resource in the past, and several have had offers for great opportunities. _________________________________________________________________

Directions and Parking 

To the Main Campus:

From the north, take Interstate 95 to Route 166 (Exit 47B, Catonsville) or take Interstate 83 to the Baltimore Beltway (I-695, west) and then take Exit 12C (Wilkens Avenue, west); follow the signs to UMBC.

From the south, take Interstate 95 to Route 166 (Exit 47B, Catonsville); follow signs to UMBC.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport is only five minutes away. Bus service is available from downtown Baltimore. AMTRAK and MARC commuter trains serve the nearby BWI Rail Station.

Visitor parking is available at metered garages located at Administration Drive, The Commons Drive and Walker Avenue. Locations labelled with a “P” on the UMBC campus map.Meters are enforced Monday through Friday for hours posted. Except for meters, all other campus roadways and lots require a permit. Meters are located on the 1st floor. Credit cards, cash and debit cards accepted.

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Walking Directions to Commons Gameroom for Summer Horizons Event:

1. Walk from the garage to the Commons Building.
   1. From Commons Garage: Turn left from the entrance of the Commons garage. The Commons building will be the white building with windows.
   2. From the Walker Garage: Walk down the sidewalk towards the UMBC library. Then take the diagonal walkway from the UMBC library to the Commons building.
   3. From the Administration Garage: Walk to Administration Drive. Continue Walking straight. At the Biology Building, turn right. The Commons building will be the white building next to the Biology building.
2. Take the stairs or elevator (located in the center of the Commons building) to the 2nd floor.
   The Commons has several levels:

   1. Ground Floor
   2. First Floor
   3. Mezzanine
   4. 2nd Floor
   5. 3rd Floor

3. From the stairs, continue walking straight on the 2nd floor. The door at the end of the hallway is the Gameroom.

From the elevator, turn right and walk to the end of the hallway. The door at the end of the hallway is the Gameroom.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• UMBC President Named In Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People (baltimore.cbslocal.com)
• Reading material: Tull, R. G., Nino, M.  and Ramoutar, N. (2012).  Preparing for Engineering and Other STEM Graduate/Post-Graduate Masters and Doctoral Programs.  [Spanish Version of Section 4 here: Preparación para Programas de Maestría y Doctorado]

_________________________________________________________________

Partial sponsorship for this program has been provided by the National Science Foundation, University System of Maryland Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) # Collaborative Research: AGEP – T: PROMISE AGEP Maryland Transformation # 1309290,   PROMISE: Maryland’s Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP).  Read more about PROMISE:  https://promiseagep.wordpress.com/publications/. Additional support is provided by The Graduate School at UMBC, and the NIH Meyerhoff Graduate Fellows program.

The Summer 2016 Dissertation House is coming to UMBC (July 5, 2016 to July 8, 2016)!  Students who participate in this program will spend each day thinking, writing, and sharing ideas about their doctoral dissertations.  Students will learn effective time-management skills; learn how to set small manageable goals, and will meet with a dissertation coach in one-on-one consultations to discuss and address obstacles that might prevent them completing their degrees.

HOW TO APPLY

Graduate students who plan to participate should follow the application procedure below: 

PART I:

I. Submit a brief description (maximum 2 pages, font size 11-12 point 1 inch margins) that describes the project that you wish to accomplish during the Dissertation House period.  Applications will neither be reviewed nor accepted outside of the application enrollment period.

PART II:

II. Please use the following guidelines  for the application:

(1) Summary of the project, including research question(s), data or texts, and method

(2) Amount completed on the project to date

(3) Any obstacles that you are encountering that hinder completion of the dissertation.

(4) Include the following header information with the description:

• Name
• Address
• Telephone numbers (home, office, and fax)
• E-mail address
• Academic Program and Year in the program

Open application period: May 5, 2016 – May 19, 2016 

(Please note that there are only 12 to 15 slots for this event, consider applying early) 

Applications received after May 19, 2016 will be considered for the DH waiting list. More information about the Dissertation House: https://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/about/

• The Dissertation House runs from 9 AM – 5PM, for four days, Tuesday, July 5th through Friday, July 8th.
• Students must plan to attend the full session, for each of the 4 days. 
• Daily schedule includes 2 mini-lectures, and 5 hours of writing per day.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and a snack will be served daily.
• The Dissertation House is free for UMBC’s graduate students.
• There are 15 to 18 spaces available for the Dissertation House. 
• Details regarding eligibility can be found on the application page of the website for the Dissertation House.

Read about The Dissertation House in UMBC’s Alumni Magazine: Byrne, R.  (2011, Fall) “The Write Stuff”, UMBC Magazine. p. 12

Today tourists can easily snap a selfie at any moment during their travels. But before the convenience of modern cameras, most tourists had to purchase photographic proof of their travels. At first, only wealthy Westerners could afford to travel for leisure, thus they bought expensive travel albums as visual mementos of their vacations. Eventually the cheaper options of souvenir albums and postcards became available to the mainstream as keepsakes that more people could afford. 

Venture through this collection of albumen travel albums, souvenir albums, guide books, and postcards spanning from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s from Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and United States of America. 

Special Collections is open M-F from 1-4 until May 18th, then other times by appointment.  Please feel encouraged to make an appointment by emailing speccoll@umbc.edu or calling 410.455.2353.  Appointments are available to anyone with a photo ID!

Learn More: 

-History of UMBC Research Guide 

-University Archives Webpage 

-John Haskell Jr. Finding Aid 

-UMBC Magazine: Books and Bytes 

-Explore Baltimore Heritage: Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery 

View All: my.umbc.edu/groups/library/posts?tag=archives-gold

DoIT would like the UMBC community to know that Microsoft's deadline for a free upgrade to Windows 10 is ending on July 29th, 2016. If you are running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 and do not take advantage of this offer, the upgrade will cost $119 after.

Please note that this recommendation applies to students, faculty, and staff personal machines. In Summer 2016, all DoIT controlled computer labs will be upgraded to Windows 10 Education. DoIT does officially support Windows 10 and will be happy to upgrade faculty and staff UMBC owned machines as requested. Windows 10 also has support for Eduroam & MATLAB. 

Bryan Roper, Executive Demo Lead for Microsoft, gave 10 reasons why you should upgrade. Roper mentioned that Windows 10 has the highest customer satisfaction rate of any version of Windows ever. 

By upgrading now, you can get live tiles that display tidbits of information without the need to open an app. There are also more games and apps on Windows 10 such as Minecraft, Netflix, and Adobe Photoshop Express. The security of Windows 10 is also improved, and if your device supports a fingerprint reader you can sign into it using Windows Hello

Windows 10 screenshot. Here you can see the live tiles in action, along with a familiar Windows UI. 

The other advantage of upgrading now is you will get all future Windows 10 updates for free. This includes the upcoming summer update titled Anniversary Update which includes improvements to Cortana, Microsoft’s digital personal assistant similar to Apple’s Siri.

You can check out some guides on upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10, or how to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. 

In Fall 2016, DoIT will be making significant changes to the userpages web environment. We will be creating a new Student Web Environment and there will be an upgraded server using newer versions of critical applications such as PHP, apache, python and other software tools faculty have requested. Staff, faculty and alumni pages from userpages will be moved to a virtual box where they can be continued to be accessed with the existing URLs they use today. 

This transition is part of DoIT’s ongoing commitment to security and stability. The current web environment has aging hardware that is prone to failure. By upgrading now, DoIT will be able to provide much more powerful and easier to use interface for instructional needs. This new box will be updated regularly allowing to be more versatile with better software and security offerings. 

Users who have web directories on userpages for non-instructional use will be transitioned to a new server that will be able to host their existing content.  On the new Student Web Environment, individual users will still need to activate their site, but this will now feature a more automated process. In addition, before each new academic year the directory that will be web accessible will change so that older content is no longer accessible to help with security. For example in 2016 the publically reachable directory will be swe2016 instead of the existing “pub/www” space that is currently used.  

As a result, DoIT will be transitioning off userpages.umbc.edu for all instructional web development after this semester. DoIT will work with faculty, staff and students in assisting with migration of non instructional user pages. 

If faculty are actively using userpages and would like to be part of the shaping of the new environment please contact Damian Doyle, Director of Enterprise Infrastructure at damian@umbc.edu