Full Title: UMBC Opens Fall Semester with Construction and Parking ChangesCommunity Neighbors Encouraged to Report Illegally Parked Vehicles FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Lisa Akchin 410-455-2889 akchin@umbc.edu As UMBC’s fall semester begins August 31, students, faculty, staff, and community neighbors will note several changes on campus. A crane now marks the construction site for the new Performing Arts & Humanities Building. The building’s first phase will be complete in summer 2012 and will include classrooms, writing labs, multi-media study and collaboration spaces, a 275-seat main theater and a 100-seat black box theater. Construction has also begun for an addition to Patapsco Hall. The 183 new beds will provide flexibility needed to close and renovate aging residence halls in the coming years. New students and visitors will be welcomed by improved directional signage and maps at entry points and throughout the campus interior. The signs and maps will highlight parking areas for visitors, faculty, staff and students. Many other improvements in campus parking are also being implemented to maximize the use of parking capacity on the campus. These include specific parking zones for resident students, commuter students, faculty and staff and an intra-campus shuttle for convenient travel from more distant campus parking areas. “Stewardship of the campus’s natural environment is a cornerstone for the current physical changes on campus,” says Lisa Akchin, assistant to UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski. “The Patapsco Hall Addition and the Performing Arts and Humanities Building will qualify for LEED certification and add new green spaces to the campus. And improving access to existing but lesser-known parking spaces on campus will help the University avoid construction of an additional parking garage.” As students, faculty and staff adjust to new parking locations during the first weeks of the semester, campus police and student volunteers will be actively engaged in monitoring parking activity on and off campus and directing drivers to their appropriate parking zones. During the first weeks of the semester, student marshals working with the UMBC Police Department will be present in areas of Arbutus adjoining the campus. They will work closely with Baltimore County police to monitor parking conditions and respond to situations involving illegally parked vehicles. Members of the Catonsville and Arbutus communities who have parking concerns should speak to a student marshal when present, or call University Police at 410-455-5555. Providing the license plate and parking hang tag numbers of the vehicle when making the call will assist UMBC Police in contacting the owner.