From 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, January 9 and Wednesday, January 10, DoIT will conduct maintenance on our legacy (Siemens Rolm) phone system. 

UMBC Police and other emergency phone services around campus, as well as users who've transitioned to the new phone system, should see no impact in service.

This will only affect community members with the older, beige desk phones that are still receiving service from the legacy phone system. This planned maintenance window is to make engineering changes to prepare for the last stages of migration from this phone system and ensure we can smoothly transition the remaining services. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Damian Doyle

Dear Community,

We are thrilled to announce that 533 UMBC faculty and staff have donated more than $135,000 to local nonprofits in our community through the 2023 Maryland Charity Campaign. We are always inspired by the generosity of the UMBC community! 

If you have not already participated, we hope that you will consider including the campaign, and the nonprofit of your choice, in your year-end giving. You can make a gift through December 31 at midnight. Please make your gift online today. 

We will host one final prize drawing to close the semester and the campaign, anyone who has given throughout the year will be entered to win a set of Beats Wireless Pro headphones. Congratulations to Tom Moore, Director of Arts and Culture in University Communications and Marketing, who was the winner of our last drawing. 

As this year's campaign comes to an end,, we would like to especially thank all of our departmental ambassadors for helping us spread the word and answering your questions. We are grateful to everyone who helps us continue this tradition of generosity in our community each year. We wish you a restful and relaxing break. 

Dear Community,

As the semester winds down, the Maryland Charity Campaign is also reaching its final phase. Today, December 11, is the last official day of the campaign, though all gifts will be counted through the end of the calendar year. 

So far in 2023, 430 UMBC faculty and staff have donated more than $117,000 to nonprofits that uplift and empower communities across Maryland. We are so grateful to those of you who are helping demonstrate what a generous community UMBC is. 

Congratulations to Samuel Williams, facilities manager in the Department of Biological Sciences for donating and winning our last incentive drawing. We have two more opportunities to win this year! Anyone who donates by midnight on Sunday, December 17, will be entered to win a Kindle e-reader. All donors are also entered in drawings sponsored by the State of Maryland.

 Please make your gift online today. Thank you for your generosity and support during this season of giving.

The Maryland Charity Campaign Team 

President Valerie Sheares Ashby 

Invites you to join her for

An End of Semester Celebration

Held in honor of your excellent work and your dedication to our students, to one another, and to our community.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

University Center Ballroom

3 - 5 p.m.

Please join us for food, drinks, music, and good company. President Sheares Ashby will offer brief remarks at 4 p.m. 

Please RSVP on myUMBC.

Phishing attacks via email have become more sophisticated in recent years and not all are blocked by Gmail. Many faculty, staff, and students diligently report examples of phishing emails to DoIT - this is always helpful information. In light of sophisticated and increased phishing attempts, DoIT Security began testing a new scanning solution to keep these emails from reaching your inbox. After a successful testing period, we began using this solution to filter email in student inboxes over the summer. This has had a noticeable reduction in phishing in student inboxes. 

We also know from past years that there is often a large increase in these kinds of attacks over holiday breaks and we ask everyone to be diligent. To that end, we have enabled the new scanning solution for faculty and staff so it can provide warnings to users about potential phishing messages.

Emails detected as phishing will be marked with a warning but will still be delivered to your inbox. Please use caution when reading these emails, and please let us know if any are not phishing.

What to Expect:You should expect a significant reduction in phishing that reaches you without a warning. We ask that you continue to forward any examples of spam or phishing to security@umbc.edu as we continue to monitor the performance of this solution. 

Questions: If you have any questions about this process, please submit a ticket to the DoIT Security group or reach out to me directly. 

Dear Community,

In this season of gratitude, the UMBC Maryland Charity Campaign team is excited to thank the 252 community members who have donated $72,000 to support nonprofits helping others across Maryland. This means that more than 100 new community members gave in the past two weeks alone. We are almost halfway to our goal of raising $200,000. 

If you're celebrating Thanksgiving with family and friends, we encourage you to reflect on what you are grateful for, and we hope that you will consider finding an organization that supports a cause you are passionate about. For inspiration, you can check out these short videos from the 2023 Participating Charities.

As a small way to show our appreciation for your generosity, anyone who makes their gift by midnight on Sunday, November 26, will be entered to win a YETI Portable Soft Cooler. Congratulations to Brian Van Wyck, assistant professor in history, for winning our last drawing after making his gift. 

Please make your gift online today. Thank you for all the ways you contribute to make both UMBC and our larger community stronger, healthier, and happier.

The Maryland Charity Campaign Team