All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Strategic Planning: A Beginning

Dear UMBC Community,

As I said at my inauguration in the spring, there is much to celebrate in reflecting on UMBC’s journey and the institution it has become since its founding in 1966. Over the decades, UMBC has become a national model for inclusive excellence, a comprehensive Research 1 public university, and a welcoming learning community that engages actively in advancing our surrounding neighborhoods, the state of Maryland, and the wider world. We are inspired and propelled by our shared values and a shared vision for UMBC.

We have the vision. The time is now to take up the challenge of setting a course to realize that vision. Over the coming year, it will be our collective endeavor to articulate a set of strategic aims for the university. We launch that effort officially today, and you will hear more in the coming days and weeks about the process by which we will invite your broad engagement–first in helping to determine how we will go about the work of strategic planning, and then in developing the plan and its aims. I have met this month with shared governance leaders and asked for their partnership in this effort.

Our strategic planning will be informed by the UMBC Bold Campus Conversations we convened last spring–listening sessions facilitated by students, faculty, staff, and alumni and attended by more than 1,000 members of our community. I am pleased to share with you the final report from those listening sessions prepared by our Bold co-chairs, Professors Vandana Janeja and Michelle Scott, and Vice President for Institutional Advancement Greg Simmons. It is a terrific summary of the sessions, which explored our aspirations for the undergraduate and graduate student experience, the research enterprise, economic development, community engagement, and more. I am deeply grateful to our co-chairs and to all who facilitated or participated in those sessions.

If you did not participate, do not worry: You will have many opportunities to engage in strategic planning. The Bold conversations were critical for our collective listening and learning, but they were just a beginning. As we move forward with strategic planning, we will look to continue to engage every part of UMBC and to hear diverse perspectives and voices from throughout our community.

Why bother with strategic planning, you may ask? The process of developing strategic priorities can unite a community, and a strategic plan that is grounded in our specific purpose and values can serve as a consistent reminder of who we are and what truly matters. It can engage all our audiences–our stakeholders, our neighbors, and our prospective students, families, and employees–in understanding and joining us in service of our purpose.

And articulating our purpose is both important and urgent in today’s world, when the value of higher education is questioned daily; when the public mission of our institutions can easily be forgotten; when diversity, equity, and inclusion are positioned aggressively as barriers to excellence, rather than integral to it; and when a liberal arts approach to education is essential to solving the complex challenges of today and tomorrow. We have not only the opportunity, but also the responsibility to continue the pursuit of our vision to redefine excellence in higher education, and, as we do so, we will communicate to our community and to the world the extraordinary, distinctive value of our beloved UMBC.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

From the President: Nominations for Staff Awards

Dear Colleagues,

UMBC is fortunate to have so many talented and dedicated staff working to support our mission and our students every day. The annual staff awards provide the opportunity to recognize and honor the exceptional contributions of our staff.

I encourage you to reflect on the work happening within your units and across the campus, and take a moment to nominate a staff colleague for one of the following prestigious awards:

UMBC Presidential Distinguished Staff Awards

University System of Maryland Board of Regents’ Staff Awards

Jakubik Family Endowment Staff Award for Exempt or Non-Exempt Staff

Karen L. Wensch Endowment Award for Outstanding Non-Exempt Staff

Teresa Lupinek Endowment Award for Exempt or Non-Exempt Staff

Please visit the 2023 – 24 Staff Awards page to nominate a staff colleague by October 31.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

UMBC Again Named a “Great College to Work For”

Dear UMBC Community,

It is my great privilege to share the news that UMBC has again–for the 14th consecutive year–been recognized in the Great Colleges to Work For program, and that we were among just 11 institutions nationwide (and one of only two universities with the Research 1 Carnegie Classification) to excel in all 10 recognition categories.

Of course, it comes as no surprise to me that UMBC would be recognized nationally time and again for its workplace community and culture. We are fortunate, indeed, to come to work each day propelled by the worthy and noble mission to serve our students, our state, and the wider world through the transformative education we provide and the knowledge we create. I am grateful every single day for this extraordinary community, and I thank all of you who took the time to participate in this year’s Great Colleges to Work For survey.

The program, run by ModernThink, recognizes colleges that create great workplaces and is based on employee ratings and participation rates in ModernThink’s faculty/staff survey. Nearly 200 institutions participated in this year’s program, and UMBC received recognition in all 10 categories, including job satisfaction; professional development; compensation and benefits; well-being; diversity, equity, and inclusion; and more.

You can see all the details about UMBC’s recognition on the Great Colleges to Work For website. Thank you for all you do for UMBC, and congratulations on this high honor!

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Happy First Day of Classes!

Dear UMBC Community,

We have arrived: It is the first day of classes! Whether you are a long-serving faculty or staff member, a returning student, or one of the many members of our community for whom today is the beginning of your first academic year at UMBC, welcome to the start of the fall semester.

The first day of school has been a favorite day of mine since I was a young child, and the excitement never diminishes for me. Today, I am inspired to see our new students beginning their journeys, and I am filled with joy to see our campus alive with the possibilities that our intellectual community brings. Enjoy the day, and my best wishes to you all for a wonderful year ahead!

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Announcing an Interim Provost for UMBC ↗

Dear UMBC Community,

I am pleased to announce that David Dauwalder has accepted my invitation to serve as interim provost at UMBC beginning August 15. David was selected from a highly qualified pool of interim candidates from The Registry, a firm specializing in placing interim higher education leaders.

As I shared earlier this summer, the national search for our next provost and senior vice president for academic affairs is ongoing. Retaining an interim provost will allow us to continue to advance our strategic interests — including moving forward with strategic planning — as we recruit and select the next provost this year. My expectation is that the new provost will join us by next summer.

In the meantime, we are fortunate to be gaining in David a deeply experienced, wise, and strategic academic administrator. Throughout his career, he has served as provost at several institutions, both public and private, including Central Connecticut State University; Woodbury University; University of New Haven; California State University, Stanislaus; and Central Washington University.

After earning his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in education from Northern Arizona University and Arizona State University, respectively, David began his academic career as an assistant professor at Central Michigan University, and he served on the faculties at several universities before moving into academic administration while on the faculty at California State University, Los Angeles. In addition to his provost roles, he has served as dean of the School of Business and Economics at Central Washington, interim dean of the Eberhardt School of Business at the University of the Pacific, and interim president at Woodbury University.

Along the way, he has led numerous accreditation processes and strategic planning processes, advanced student success initiatives, improved transparency and accountability of budget planning and tracking, increased support for research and creative activity, and in myriad ways advocated on behalf of faculty and embraced and advanced effective shared governance.

David is excited to join our community and partner in advancing our distinctive academic mission and vision as a model of inclusive excellence. He is not a candidate for the permanent role; his service is intended to ensure continuity of leadership in all areas of academic administration during this period. Following a visit to campus recently during which David met with numerous members of shared governance and me, I am even more confident that he will integrate into our community and get up to speed quickly. I am gratified that UMBC has attracted such an outstanding academic administrator to provide interim leadership. Please join me in congratulating and welcoming David to UMBC. We will host opportunities for the UMBC community to meet David around the beginning of the semester, starting with Fall Opening Meeting on August 24. Other opportunities will be announced shortly.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity as well to express my deepest appreciation once more to Philip Rous, who served so admirably as our provost and senior vice president for academic affairs and who has provided invaluable support to me and been a generous and gracious colleague to us all.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Announcing an Interim Provost for UMBC

Dear UMBC Community,

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

UMBC’s Next Vice President for Student Affairs ↗

Dear UMBC Community,

It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of Renique T. Kersh as the
next vice president for Student Affairs at UMBC. Renique will join us from
Simmons University in Boston, where she currently serves as vice president for
student engagement, success, and diversity and a professor of practice in
public health.

Renique will bring to UMBC deep and broad expertise in student affairs and student development, as well as exceptional leadership capacities and a richness of experience in higher education that spans student engagement and academic affairs. This will be a homecoming for Renique, who began her career at UMBC two decades ago as a community director in the Office of Residential Life. I am thrilled that Renique accepted my invitation to return to UMBC to lead the Division of Student Affairs and collaborate with us in envisioning and creating a future that enhances the experience for all of our students — graduate and undergraduate, degree and non-degree, domestic and international, first-time and transfer, residential and commuter. She joins UMBC at an exciting and transformational time, and I know we will benefit greatly from her strategic leadership and partnership.

In her role at Simmons, Renique leads a division of more than 70 staff members in areas including residential life, student support, leadership and engagement, spiritual life, the health center, counseling center, and athletics and recreation. She is a strong partner with academic affairs, and she recently led the development of a new Division of Student Engagement, Success, and Diversity that integrates student-facing units in academic affairs with student affairs and diversity, equity, and inclusion teams. Renique has significant experience in strategic planning, both at the divisional and institutional level. She also is a highly effective collaborator and champion for student support, having secured significant foundation and private philanthropic support to launch programs in student leadership development, mental health and suicide prevention, and other health and wellness initiatives.

Prior to Simmons, Renique served for several years in the Office of the Provost at Northern Illinois University, first as associate vice provost for engaged learning and then as associate vice provost for student engagement and success. In those roles, she provided leadership and strategic vision on initiatives to increase student retention, persistence, and completion and on efforts to ensure a high-quality student experience and high-impact practice initiatives for engaged learning campus-wide. She previously served in leadership roles at North Central College in Naperville, IL; University of Missouri-Kansas City; University of Illinois; and University of Maryland, College Park. Her list of accomplishments at these institutions is long, as are the lists of courses she has developed and taught and papers she has published in the fields of public health, leadership, and higher education.

Renique was recently selected as a 2023-24 Fulbright Scholar in the U.S.-Germany International Education Administrators Program. As a Fulbright Scholar, she will have an opportunity to join a learning community of other higher education leaders through a two-week experience in Berlin, where they will learn about the German higher education system and identify opportunities for partnerships and collaboration. Renique earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Oakland University in Rochester, MI; a master’s degree in education from the University of Maryland, College Park; and a Ph.D. in community health from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It was UMBC’s long-held commitment to inclusive excellence that drew Renique to this role. That fact, combined with her experience and expertise, inspires in me both great confidence in her appointment and genuine excitement for the part that she will play in our work to create UMBC’s future.

My sincere thanks to the members of the search committee and Vice Provost and Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs Katharine Cole, who served as chair of the committee, as well as to all who participated in this incredibly important search.

Renique will begin in the role on August 15. Please join me in extending to her a very warm, UMBC welcome.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

UMBC’s Next Vice President for Student Affairs

Dear UMBC Community,

Renique will begin in the role on August 15. Please join me in extending to her a very warm, UMBC welcome.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Today’s Ruling on Race-Conscious Admissions

Dear UMBC Community,

While not surprising, today’s long-anticipated ruling by
the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the consideration of race as a factor in
college admissions is deeply troubling. Throughout higher education, diversity
is widely understood to be of critical importance to the education we deliver.
At UMBC, we have long championed and served as a national model of inclusive
excellence. We know that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not merely moral
imperatives; they are imperative to the excellence of our teaching and
research, and they are foundational values for our university.

In striking down race-conscious admissions as a violation of the Equal
Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, the court’s ruling stands to turn back
decades of progress. And all of higher education faces new challenges with
respect to the strategies and tactics with which institutions seek to diversify
their communities. As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissenting opinion: “In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a
constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has
always mattered and continues to matter. The Court subverts the constitutional
guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in
education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic
society.”

UMBC does not explicitly consider race as a factor in its admissions reviews;
however, there is work ahead to understand the full impact (both real and
potential) of today’s ruling. To that end, a working group of broad university
representation, led by Tanyka Barber, UMBC’s vice president for institutional
equity and chief diversity officer, will take up the work of a comprehensive
review in light of the ruling. This review will extend beyond race and
admissions to encompass a thorough consideration of programs and activities
related to all protected categories. The group’s work will inform any changes
that may be necessary to comply with the court’s decision while maintaining our
commitment to inclusive excellence.

We will keep you apprised as this work progresses and the full ramifications of
today’s ruling become clearer. To be sure, we will not shrink from our
commitment to diversity. I expect that other institutions, as they have in the
past, will look to UMBC to lead the way. We aim to do so with the courage of
our convictions and the strength of this remarkable educational community.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Provost Search Update

Dear UMBC Community,

I write today to provide an update on the search for our next provost and
senior vice president for academic affairs. Over the past several weeks, the
search committee, our external partner Isaacson, Miller, and I have considered
compelling candidates from a variety of excellent institutions across the
country. It is a testament to UMBC’s outstanding academic reputation, its
institutional values, and its extraordinary community that so many talented
individuals have expressed deep interest in this role.

To date, however, none has emerged as the right candidate for us, and so the
search will continue. While we had anticipated naming a new provost this summer
and welcoming that person to campus soon after, we will take the time necessary
to find the person who is right for the role, for UMBC, for the present moment,
and for UMBC’s future. The search committee will continue its work with
Isaacson, Miller. Anupam Joshi, however, will not continue as chair of the
search committee given his new role as acting dean of the College of Engineering
and Information Technology.

As Provost Philip Rous concludes his tenure this summer, we will name an
interim provost and senior vice president shortly, and that person will be in
place before the start of the academic year. We will share more information
soon about an interim provost. For now, my thanks to the search committee for
its diligence and dedication to this important work, and to all who have
participated in the search. I am confident that our collective efforts will
lead us to find the very best person to succeed Philip and to advance our
mission and vision.

Sincerely,

President Valerie Sheares Ashby

Announcement Regarding COEIT Leadership

Dear UMBC Community,

I write today to share with you the news that Dean Keith J. Bowman, who has led
the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) since 2017, will
be on leave during the upcoming academic year to pursue key academic and
professional projects. Oros Family Professor Anupam Joshi, chair of the
Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) and director
of UMBC’s Center for Cybersecurity, will serve as acting dean of COEIT,
effective July 1.

During his leave, Keith will be working to stay updated on fast-moving
advancements in his field, serving on review teams for federal research
agencies, and partnering with colleagues who are focused on STEM education and
STEM equity research in the Department of Experiential Engineering Education at Rowan University. Part of that work will include a focus on those marginalized
due to LGBTQIA+ identity, disability, or socioeconomic status. Upon his return
to UMBC in the 2024 – 25 academic year, Keith plans to resume his role as
Constellation Professor of Information Technology and Engineering in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering.

I am deeply appreciative of Keith’s outstanding leadership of COEIT and his
service as a member of the university’s senior leadership team. During his
tenure as dean, the college has greatly increased the number of undergraduate
and graduate students — from 4,800 to more than 6,000 students — as well as the
diversity of the student body represented in the college’s increasingly
innovative and expanded portfolio of academic programs. This includes the
expansion of COEIT’s computer science and mechanical engineering programs to
the UMBC-Shady Grove campus and the introduction of a new professional master’s
degree in software engineering. Even before his important role as a founding
co-chair of UMBC’s Inclusion Council, Keith co-led efforts to make UMBC more
welcoming to the LGBTQIA+ community.

Keith’s focus on student success has improved student outcomes within the
college, significantly increasing first-year and transfer student retention and
graduation rates each by more than 10 percentage points. He has overseen the
recruitment and support of the college’s exceptional and increasingly diverse
faculty — a third of whom have joined UMBC since 2017 — and supported and expanded
the college’s research portfolio, as well as its national reputation and
ranking as among the best engineering, computer science, and IT schools in the
nation. The college’s significant increase in research productivity was a key
component of UMBC’s recent Carnegie designation as an R1 institution.

Keith also serves and will continue to serve in important roles beyond UMBC,
through leadership work with ABET, the accrediting body for postsecondary
education programs in applied and natural sciences, computing, engineering, and
engineering technology; the American Ceramic Society and broader materials
science community; and the American Society for Engineering Education.

I am pleased to express my thanks to Anupam for agreeing to serve as acting
dean of COEIT in the year ahead. As chair of CSEE, he leads one of UMBC’s
largest departments and has overseen a near-tripling of student enrollment at
the graduate level and a 50 percent increase at the undergraduate level. Not
only has the number of majors increased, but they are also more diverse. He led
the creation of new programs, including the MPS in Data Science and the minor
in Computing. The department’s research output has grown, as has alumni
support. As the director of the Center for Cybersecurity, Anupam was a key part
of the group that convinced the state to provide $3 million in baseline funding
to the center and to create the Maryland Institute of Advanced Computing at
UMBC. He served this year as an American Council on Education Fellow, spending
the intensive mentorship program shadowing USM Chancellor Jay A. Perman and
Bruce E. Jarrell, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Anupam
was one of 46 fellows selected across the U.S., and I know that his
participation in the program will serve UMBC well as he guides the college
during the year ahead.

Finally, I wish to take this opportunity to express my personal gratitude and
appreciation to Dean Bowman for his support and counsel as we have worked
together over the past six years, and for his commitment to our students and to
our shared value of inclusive excellence.

Sincerely,

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Philip Rous

UMBC awarded $1 million in grants from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support promising STEM students with financial need

UMBC has been awarded $1 million in grants from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support students with financial need who intend to pursue degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

The Foundation lauded UMBC’s demonstrated record of advancing the success of underrepresented students in STEM. UMBC is the country’s #1 producer of Black undergraduates who go on to earn doctorates in the life sciences and math and computer sciences combined, and also the nation’s leading producer of Black undergraduates who go on to earn the combined M.D.-Ph.D. (physician scientists).

UMBC has one of the country’s most diverse undergraduate communities, with more than 60 percent of its students being from minority groups. UMBC has been at the forefront of efforts to increase diversity and student success in STEM, particularly through the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which supports undergraduate students of all backgrounds who plan to pursue doctoral study in the sciences or engineering and who are interested in the advancement of minorities in those fields. The program has served as a national model that has been replicated by several other institutions.

“The Meyerhoff Scholars Program is one example of how UMBC has long worked to redefine excellence in higher education,” says UMBC President Valerie Sheares Ashby. “We are deeply grateful for the partnership of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation and its support in the form of this new grant, which will allow us to touch even more lives and advance inclusive excellence in the State of Maryland and beyond.”

UMBC is one of only two research universities to receive the grants this year—the University of California, Merced is the other.

“UC Merced and UMBC are models for our nation. Both schools have resolved to ensure that all students—especially students from underrepresented backgrounds—are set up to succeed from day one in rigorous STEM classes,” says Seppy Basili, executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. “In advancement of our mission to help exceptional students reach their fullest potential, we are honored to support the work of these important institutions.”

At each university, the grants will provide $500,000 in current-use funding—to support over the next two academic years incoming and current students with financial need who intend to pursue STEM degrees—and $500,000 in endowed scholarship support for STEM undergraduates with financial need.

These grants are part of a $7 million commitment from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support underrepresented student success in STEM fields. To date, the Foundation has granted $1 million to each of the following: Alabama A&M University (2021), Florida A&M University (2021), Morgan State University (2022), Norfolk State University (2021), and North Carolina A&T State University (2021).

All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Strategic Planning: A Beginning

From the President: Nominations for Staff Awards

UMBC Again Named a “Great College to Work For”

Happy First Day of Classes!

Announcing an Interim Provost for UMBC ↗

Announcing an Interim Provost for UMBC

UMBC’s Next Vice President for Student Affairs ↗

UMBC’s Next Vice President for Student Affairs

Today’s Ruling on Race-Conscious Admissions

Provost Search Update

Announcement Regarding COEIT Leadership

UMBC awarded $1 million in grants from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation to support promising STEM students with financial need

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