Faculty who plan to use clickers for instruction during the ​​Fall  2015 semester will need to have device order(s) submitted to the Bookstore no later than Friday, March 27, 2015. This deadline allows the Bookstore to shop national wholesalers early for used books and items, prepare for buyback, avoid sending back to publishers leftover stock that will be reused next semester, and notify faculty of any availability problems.

The University’s due date for textbook and course materials information is Friday, April 24, 2015. The University has instituted this deadline so that all textbook information, including clicker requirements, may be posted on the Bookstore's website, in adherence with State Law, as students prepare for their Fall 2015 schedules.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the UMBC bookstore at  textbook@umbc.edu or 410-455-2699.

To learn more about the clickers:

• visit our  Clicker FAQ page

• open an  RT Ticket  for any technical issues

• view the schedule of training workshops on the DoIT group page

• contact  the Instructional Technology Team with any questions or concerns

The new Career-Life Balance Initiative at UMBC is sponsoring a February 2015 workshop on preparing career paths that will include a healthy integration of work and those things that are important to life, e.g., health and wellness, family. This workshop is sponsored by UMBC’s initiative new project, “On Ramps” to Full Professor: Institutional Support for Post-Family Leave Faculty Research Reintegration, National Science Foundation Grant #1446406.” The series of workshops and seminars will be open to the campus community at UMBC, and guests from the University System of Maryland. The sessions will cover topics that support development of a better integration of career and activities that shape everyday life.

The precursor event will be a Career-Life Balance “Writing Corner” breakfast session for graduate students on Monday, Feb. 23. During this session, graduate students will be able to have some dedicated time to work on grant submissions, CV updates, dissertations, applications, etc. The Career-Life Balance “Writing Corner” is a new initiative that is taking the best practices from the PROMISE Dissertation House, PROMISE Writing for Publication, and PROMISE Postdoctoral Writing Suite activities, and combining them with needs that graduate students expressed in a CLB poll launched at UMBC during the Fall semester 2014. The “Writing Corner” concept was developed by the CLB GA, Amanda Lo, who worked with graduate students to gauge interest. Amanda describes the space as follows: “This room will serve to help others achieve career-life balance by providing a comfortable environment where graduate students, post-doctorate fellows, faculty, and staff can allocate time to work at ease on their writing. All participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops and any materials that they might need to assist them with their writing.” Students may RSVP for the Monday, February 23rd “CLB Writing Corner” here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/careerlifebalance/events/30310.

The key CLB event for the month will be a Wednesday, February 25, 2015 workshop on planning your career portfolio. This workshop will be led by Dr. Laura Koppes Bryan, Dean of the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, at the University of Baltimore (UB). Dean Bryan is an advocate for effective strategies on managing both work and life responsibilities. She worked as an independent consultant for LK Associates, where she consulted with organizations on various areas, including work-life effectiveness. She also served as Director of Work-Life at the University of Kentucky where she analyzed data surveying the work-life culture for both faculty and staff members. She developed and implemented the UK Work-Life vision and strategy; through her advocacy and presentation to the University Board of Trustees, she was approved of a budget of 11 million dollars for the work-life initiatives. Dr. Bryan is a member of the PROMISE AGEP STEM Deans Council, and is partnering with The Career-Life Balance Initiative at UMBC, The PROMISE AGEP for the University System of Maryland, UMBC’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and The Graduate School at UMBC, to provide this seminar for all graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, in all disciplines. All members of the campus community are invited to attend.

• Event: Developing A Career Portfolio
• Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2015
• Speaker: Dr.LauraKoppes Bryan,
  • Dean Laura Bryan from UB will discuss developing a career portfolio with a focus on managing both career and life responsibilities. At this event, attendees will be able to walk away with ideas or an outline for developing their career portfolio.  All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of Dean Bryan’s latest book, Shaping Work-Life Culture in Higher Education: A Guide for Academic Leaders.
  • About Dr. Bryan: http://www.ubalt.edu/cas/faculty/alphabetical-directory/laura-k-bryan.cfm
• Location: UMBC, The Commons, Room 329 (Directions to events co-sponsored by the PROMISE AGEP.)
• Time: 1:00 – 2:15 PM
• Lunch will be served
• This event is free, and is sponsored by NSF #1446406.
  • REGISTRATION: The event is open to all graduate students, postdocs, faculty, staff, and alumni. The event will be applicable to all academic disciplines. Visitors from other USM institutions are invited, as part of our PROMISE AGEP alliance.
  • Members of the UMBC community can register here: http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/29579
  • Visitors from other campuses can reply in the comment section of this email so that we will know that you are coming.

The Career-Life Balance project at UMBC is part of a special initiative that is being sponsored by the National Science Foundation: http://www.nsf.gov/career-life-balance/, in concert with objectives on the topic that are being put forth by the White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/02/15/career-life-balance-fair-continues-promote-flexible-workplaces-america-s-scientists-. Read more from the press release by the White House here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/26/white-house-and-national-science-foundation-announce-new-workplace-flexi

Dear Graduate Students,

The PROMISE AGEP co-sponsors monthly professional development seminars for graduate students, and one of the increasingly popular workshops is called, “When Faculty Say ‘X’ … Understanding Faculty Expectations, Unwritten Rules.” This seminar, held annually at UMBC, features a panel of faculty members who answer questions that students post (often anonymously) on the PROMISE website. Sometimes, faculty do not have a chance to answer all of the questions since the seminar has time limits. In addition, if students ask individual or small group questions following the seminar, the general audience does not have the benefit of hearing the answer. To address these additional questions, graduate students in PROMISE asked if I would take some time to provide some answers. The result is a short video series called “Moments To Mentor” which answers all of the questions that were not addressed in the seminar.

These “Moments to Mentor” will be posted throughout the rest of the Spring 2015 semester. We invite you to visit the PROMISE YouTube Channel for other videos that showcase seminars on topics such as financial education, and advanced statistics.

Best wishes as you pursue your degree and career goals.

Kind regards,

Renetta G. Tull, Ph.D.

Director, PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP

In the event of heavy snow or other emergency when classes cannot meet, UMBC faculty can choose from several tools and technologies to support teaching and learning. Online delivery methods offer many good alternative for supporting missed classroom time. 

Blackboard Learn supports three core components: 

• With Content Management, faculty can upload course materials & handouts; post presentations, share links & resources. Faculty can also embed YouTube videos or record with a webcam to embed video anywhere in the course.
• Faculty can also support Communication, Collaboration and other Student Engagement. Continue course discussions in Blackboard, send email, post announcements, or manage small group activities.
• With Assessment and Grade Management tools, faculty can distribute & collect assignments, grade electronically, deliver tests, and maintain a gradebook -- all in one central location.

Faculty may wish to use more than just Blackboard on a snow day. Other tools available include: 

The PROMISE AGEP, The Graduate School at UMBC, and The UMBC Office of Postdoctoral Affairs are co-sponsoring the “Advanced Statistics” seminar series with Dr. Christopher Rakes. Dr. Rakes is presenting series on structural equation modeling and meta-analysis. The next lunch seminar is on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. A live webcast will be available on our PROMISE YouTube channel for those who aren’t available to have lunch with us, to learn in person.

Session 4: Feb. 11, 2015
Structural Equation Modeling
Testing the Validity of a Causal Structure

Lunch and learn: 

Lunch will be served at the beginning of the seminar. You may eat during the session.

Live Webcast

Special Collections has a new music collection available for you to come and explore! Whether you’re a musician-in-training or simply a lover of the classics, you now have access to an impressive collection of noted concert violinist and conductor Robert Gerle’s personal, marked scores. At UMBC, Gerle is perhaps best known for beginning the orchestral program here and remaining its conductor for nearly two decades. In addition to conducting the UMBC Orchestra, Gerle also taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and the Mannes College of Music in New York.

In 1972, when the first concert was planned, UMBC’s music major was actually in jeopardy of being removed from the school by the Maryland Council on Higher Education. The council cited that there were other, similar programs offered by nearby University of Maryland institutions and therefore did not need to be repeated. Despite this threat, the UMBC Orchestra’s inaugural concert remained slated to take place on December 11, 1972. To read all of the details, be sure to check out the Retriever article in our Digital Collections (hint: take a look at pages 1 and 5)! Scores from several of the pieces played at this concert can be found in the collection, including Richard Wagner’s “Overture to Die Meistersinger,” Wagner’s only comic opera.

Robert Gerle was born in 1924 to Jewish Hungarian parents. According to a New York Times article [1] published in 1958, during World War II Gerle and 26 other Hungarian Jews were caught and arrested by a group of Soviet soldiers while they were hiding in the crawl space above a music professor’s house. The Soviet soldiers suspected them of being snipers. As Gerle was brought before the firing squad, the officer in charge noticed his violin case and demanded that he play a work by Tschaikovsky. A student of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music and the Hungarian National Conservatory of Music, Gerle’s technique impressed the officer. He was convinced that Gerle was a musician, not a soldier. Gerle’s technique, which would be coined as “flawless” later in his career, supposedly saved not only his life, but the lives of the 26 other individuals with him.

When the war ended, Gerle began to play concert engagements in both New York and London, becoming best known for his performances of Back’s Chaconne for solo violin and Heinrich Biber’s violin sonatas. He and his wife, Marilyn Neely - also a UMBC professor - even won an Emmy for the video presentation of the complete Beethoven violin and piano sonatas.

The Gerle collection was transferred from College Park last year. It contains a wide variety of musical scores and compositions, ranging from full orchestral pieces to solo violin pieces. The collection contains not only classics such as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, but also a host of lesser known treasures to explore. My personal favorite is Vivaldi’s Violin-Konzert, Ops. 3, No. 6. This score, just one of Gerle’s many personal marked scores, is available for you to come in and take a look at. Check out our finding aid for more information!

[1] MEYER BERGER. "About New York." New York Times (1923-Current File), Oct 20, 1958. http://search.proquest.com/docview/114511079?accountid=14577.

This post was written by Special Collections Graduate Assistant Jessi Deane. Thank you, Jessi!

NASA OSSI Online Career Week, a virtual career fair for students pursuing degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM). This exciting initiative is sponsored by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and it will take place February 10-12.

The NASA OSSI Online Career Week will allow students to connect and engage live with NASA, top STEM employers and graduate programs across the country. Participants will learn about internship, fellowship and job opportunities in the public and private sectors. They will also be able to interact with representatives from highly ranked graduate programs and network with admissions officers.  There is no cost or travel associated with their participation in this event.

Is this for graduate students? YES! 

From the website: Who Should Attend?

• Undergraduate and graduate students looking for internship, scholarship, and fellowship opportunities at NASA.
• Undergraduate and graduate students looking for internships and jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at companies across the country.

To register, students should visit the following link: http://nasaossi.brazenconnect.com/

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This information has been brought to UMBC and all schools within the PROMISE AGEP by the Institute for Broadening Participation, http://pathwaystoscience.org/. This opportunity is open to students nationwide. Please participate!

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UMBC participates in the Council of Graduate Schools’ initiative for pathways into careers.

The Society for Invertebrate Pathology records contain documents relating to the founding of the society, society publications, papers and records belonging to society members, photographs, meeting and seminar materials, and interview recordings. The full finding aid is available online.

If you're interested in viewing the full collection, please contact Special Collections to set up an appointment at x52353 or speccoll@umbc.edu. We also hold open research hours on Monday through Friday, 1pm to 4pm, with additional hours from 4pm to 8pm Thursday nights.