All posts by: UMBC News Staff

Dear UMBC Community,

 

It is my great pleasure to share the wonderful news that Manfred H. M. van Dulmen has accepted our invitation to join UMBC as provost and senior vice president. Manfred, who will begin in the role in July, currently serves as senior associate provost and dean of the Graduate College at Kent State University in Ohio, where he has spent the bulk of his career. I could not be more thrilled about this appointment, and I am deeply grateful to the members of the search committee and all who participated in this critically important search. 

 

A faculty member in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Kent State since 2004 and a full professor since 2015, Manfred has excelled in academic leadership at all levels, including as interim department chair, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, dean of the Graduate College, and associate provost for academic affairs and senior associate provost in the Office of the Provost. In these roles, he has led strategic planning in academic affairs; led the university through the COVID-19 pandemic; and developed strategies for enhancing graduate education and for supporting student mental health at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He is deeply committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, centering these principles in all his work.

 

Like UMBC, Kent State is a public Research 1 institution that values the combination of student success and research excellence. Manfred’s own record as a faculty member and an administrator demonstrates his understanding of faculty excellence as the integration of teaching, research, and service. 

 

In coming to know UMBC, he cited such integration–that teaching, research, and service go hand-in-hand here–as a standout quality. And he said UMBC’s long-demonstrated interest in innovating and setting the course for where higher education needs to go spoke to him and contributed greatly to his enthusiasm for joining UMBC. He is particularly excited about working with the UMBC community to articulate and advance our strategic priorities for the future. 

 

As a first-generation college student and a first-generation immigrant to the U.S. who attended graduate school in America, Manfred is passionate about the transformative power of higher education and about its public mission in service of students and society broadly. 

 

From the first time I met him, his commitment to students, his care for people with whom he worked, his humility, and his drive for mission-driven excellence were clear, as was his desire to be at UMBC. The alignment of UMBC’s values with his own, along with the opportunity to help set the course for UMBC’s future, made this role–in this community, at this moment–uniquely appealing to him.

 

“It is a tremendous opportunity and privilege to be chosen to serve in this role, to build on the incredible history and legacy of the institution to further its excellence and its role as a national leader in higher education,” he said. 

 

At Kent State, Manfred has helped to enhance and promote research strength across all disciplines. His own research is interdisciplinary in nature–his research interests include adolescent and young adult relationships and experiences, externalizing behavior problems and aggression, and measurement and methodology–and he has led efforts resulting in new collaborative degree programs in data science and cybersecurity, as well as in innovative micro-credential programs at Kent State. 

 

An award-winning scholar, he has received more than $6.5 million in research funding, published more than 100 articles and book chapters, and edited or co-edited three books. Manfred founded and served as editor-in-chief of the Sage Publications Journal Emerging Adulthood. Before joining Kent State as an assistant professor in 2004, Manfred was a research associate at the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, where he earned his Ph.D. in family social science. He holds a doctorandus (the equivalent of a master’s degree in the U.S.) in clinical child and adolescent psychology from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. 

 

My sincere gratitude to the search committee, led by music Professor Linda Dusman, for its dedication and outstanding work that has led us to this terrific result. Please join me in thanking them and in extending a warm UMBC welcome to Manfred!

 

Sincerely,

 

Dear UMBC Community,

 

I wish you all a happy and healthy start to the new year. My hope for us in the year ahead is that we strive always to support and lift up one another and value the diverse perspectives that our community comprises. 

I hope, as well, that as we work together on a vision for UMBC’s future, we remain grounded in and inspired by the core values that have long defined us: inclusive excellence, collaboration, innovation, and impact. UMBC, higher education, and the wider world are better for those values and for your dedication and contributions to our noble mission. 

Happy New Year! 

 

Dear UMBC Community, 

 

With winter Commencements fast approaching, I wanted to share some updates with you before the break and express my sincere thanks to the entire UMBC community. This has been a demanding semester for everyone, I am sure, and I hope that as we head to the end of the year, you will find the time and opportunity for rest and reflection in the coming days. 

 

I am pleased to share with you that we sought and have received incredibly helpful input from UMBC’s shared governance leaders toward creating the best possible process for strategic planning. I am so grateful for the thoughtful work of our shared governance leaders to answer the questions of how best to engage the populations they represent and how we connect with and hear from those members of our community who perhaps did not participate in our Bold Conversations. I am excited to build on the interest and enthusiasm we saw in the Bold sessions in new conversations with you all in the spring. 

We are in a great place with our provost search as well. We hosted four finalists for campus visits this month. UMBC’s next provost and senior vice president for academic affairs will join us in our strategic planning effort and be a key partner in all of our work to advance this outstanding institution. 

I hope you never tire of my expressing gratitude to you all. I feel it so deeply and so often, and I want you to know it! With my thanks, I am pleased to share with you this brief video of highlights from this calendar year. I hope you enjoy the look back at our journey together this year. 

In this moment, I find myself truly inspired by the ways in which so many of you are engaging directly and wholeheartedly in the work to make this community better. Students, faculty, and staff: You are showing up, sharing your ideas, asking hard questions, and communicating with each other and with me, and that is helping me to learn and to do my job better. 

I am grateful for the trust that you have shown in our work together, especially as we navigate global challenges that are deeply dividing society. I do not take your trust for granted. Nor do I take lightly my responsibility to honor that trust and return it, as we pour our hearts and minds into making this institution we love even better–for everyone here today and for those who will come after us. 

This work matters, as you matter, and as UMBC matters. Thank you!

 

Sincerely,

 

Dear UMBC Community,

We are delighted to share with you the news that Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE) has completed installation of a new electrical feeder to our campus. This third feeder comes from a different substation than the campus’s other feeders, providing much-needed redundancy for our power supply, greatly improving reliability and reducing the likelihood of campus power outages. 

This milestone concludes a years-long effort to improve the reliability of our electrical system. Going back at least to 2019, the university has engaged BGE leadership in this effort, as our community endured numerous power outages and waited for relief. Each power outage we experienced disrupted research, teaching, administrative work, and student life. Earlier this year, after more outages to our campus, we met with BGE leadership again. We appreciated their prompt response–which included a meeting on campus for numerous members of their team to hear from our community about the negative impacts of the outages–as well as BGE’s continued work to address short-term fixes while advancing steadily on this long-term upgrade. 

While it is impossible to prevent every outage, this system redundancy will go a long way toward improving reliability. Over the past year, UMBC has also made numerous improvements to our campus utility infrastructure, enhancing the system’s overall resiliency. We commend BGE and our own Facilities Management team for their collaborative efforts to complete this project and to have done so with minimal disruption and a month ahead of schedule. Well done! 

Sincerely, 

Dear UMBC Community,

 

As we look ahead to the remainder of the semester, we know that the usual busyness of this season and the last few weeks of classes and final exams may feel especially challenging in the context of world events, most especially the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Many among our UMBC community continue to feel direct and indirect impacts of the conflict, as well as of the resulting rise in antisemitism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia toward Israelis and Palestinians that we are seeing throughout society. 

 

Here on our campus, the month of December brings not only end-of-semester deadlines and exams, but also celebrations and special occasions, including many student-organized religious observations. 

 

All of this is on our minds. We are thinking carefully about how to continue to best support and attend to the well-being of all members of our community–students, faculty, and staff–and foster a healthy campus climate that is safe, welcoming, and inclusive. We have reached out with support and care for individuals who are being directly affected by events abroad and here at home. We are attending to safety and security needs and responding to any reports of harassment, discrimination, or threats. We also have met and are continuing to meet with relevant student organizations, as well as with members of UMBC’s Religious Council, to hear and understand their perspectives and work toward the ongoing co-creation of the inclusive community we strive to be. 

 

Some additional updates: 

As we continue to work closely with student organizations to ensure the safety of their events and activities, we have increased the level of security in the Commons broadly. If you have an immediate concern about safety on campus, please contact the UMBC Police Department at 410-455-5555.For students in particular, we will offer resources and events to help you manage stress through the end of the semester. Please watch for details in the coming days. Faculty and staff can continue to access such support through our Employee Assistance Program.We know that UMBC’s academic calendar is especially demanding in the fall semester. We are undertaking a review of the calendar for potential adjustments in future years. 

 

Heading into the final weeks of the semester, remember that it is our collective responsibility to help ensure that every member of our community feels safe, welcomed, and valued. Please continue to report any incidents of harassment or bias through the Office of Equity and Civil Rights’ online reporting form, or by emailing ecr@umbc.edu or calling 410-455-1717. We must show respect for differing viewpoints, beliefs, practices, and needs, and we ask you to continue to extend kindness, compassion, and flexibility to one another, knowing that individuals may be struggling. Grant yourself some grace, as well. These are challenging days. 

 

Finally, we share with you the attached message from University System of Maryland Chancellor Jay A. Perman, which he sent to system colleagues just before Thanksgiving. In it, he reminds us of the promise of higher education to help us bridge what divides us, and he expresses his hope that in time we will go beyond words denouncing hate to achieve “a shared commitment to using our work for light and peace.” We join Chancellor Perman in this hope, and we believe in the power of this extraordinary community to realize it. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Dear UMBC Community,

As the crisis in Israel and Gaza deepens, reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia are on the rise, including on college campuses in the U.S. These incidents are deeply troubling, and we know that they add to the anxiety and concern that our own community members are feeling. 

College campuses have long been epicenters of activism, including protest against military action and government policy here and abroad. In recent years, campuses also have become targets in American culture wars, in part because of the very values we espouse as institutions of higher learning. Among those core values are the free exchange of ideas and information and a respect for diverse perspectives. These, along with academic freedom, are key to our mission to advance knowledge and understanding. 

We write to you today to reaffirm our commitment to these values and to provide practical guidance on what it means to live these values, especially in times of conflict. We know that recent events on campus and posts on social media have raised concerns. Individuals have reported feeling unsafe in response to language they have seen or heard, and some have expressed fear of speaking out for fear of reprisals of various kinds, including doxxing. We want to be clear: We are hearing these concerns from students, faculty, and staff who represent all sides of the issues. We hear calls simultaneously to curtail speech and calls to protect it. 

Ensuring freedom of expression, especially at a public institution, means protecting speech with which we may disagree or even find offensive or objectionable. The right to free speech comes with responsibility, as our collective belonging in this extraordinary UMBC community comes with the responsibility to respect and care for one another, even when–perhaps especially when–we disagree. Free speech does not extend to harassment or true threats. Learn more about speech that is protected under the First Amendment, as well as types of speech that are unprotected.  

We urge all recognized campus groups and members of our community to provide constructive outlets for dissenting views when addressing controversial or divisive issues. We encourage you to avail yourselves of information and resources for knowing how to express your voice effectively and in ways that are consistent with legal guidelines, university policies and practices, and our institutional values. Guidance on how to have challenging discourse productively, how to organize peaceful protest, how to distribute information on campus, and more can be found on the Using Your Voice page provided by the Center for Democracy and Civil Life. More resources are listed below for your reference. 

We ask that you continue to show kindness, grace, and flexibility to one another, knowing that students, faculty, and staff may be struggling. Let us work together, every day, to support UMBC as a community that embraces vibrant dialogue and mutual respect.

Sincerely,

Dear UMBC Community,

 

We cannot know how long the war between Israel and Hamas will last, but we know that with each passing day, our own community feels deeply the pain and anguish of what is happening and sympathy and compassion for the people of that region and all that they have lost and will yet lose. And we know that many within our community are increasingly concerned about antisemitism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred everywhere, including here at home. That concern, most especially the need to ensure the safety of our community, is why I write to you now.

 

So, with a heavy heart but deep faith in this community’s caring, I want to extend my support to you all, share information about resources and spaces for reflection, and urge us all to show kindness, grace, and flexibility to one another, knowing that students, faculty, and staff may be struggling.

 

UMBC community members are already doing this in so many ways, providing support and space for caring for one another. The Gathering Space for Spiritual Well-Being has offered hours for prayer, silence, and reflection. I attended and was so grateful for yesterday’s gathering, and I encourage students, faculty, and staff to attend to help support one another. Another such opportunity will be offered tomorrow from noon to 5 p.m. in The Commons Fireside Lounge.

 

If you are struggling or know someone who is, please also avail yourselves of the support resources at UMBC, including Retriever Integrated Health’s mental health services and resources for helping others, as well as our Employee Assistance Program. 

 

As we see increasing activism around the world and locally, I urge care and caution here, too. We value freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. We do not tolerate hate or harassment. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that every member of our community feels safe, welcome, and valued. To that end, please report any incidents of hate or bias. You may do so through the Office of Equity and Civil Rights’ online reporting form, or by emailing ecr@umbc.edu or calling 410-455-1717. If you have an immediate concern about safety on campus, please contact the UMBC Police Department at 410-455-5555; the department’s safety escort service is another available resource. 

 

Our UMBC community is a treasure, and our educational mission matters for the world. Even amid such troubling times, my belief in you and our shared mission is stronger than ever. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Dear UMBC Community,

 

For the second time in less than a week, a local university community has seen its celebrations marred by gun violence. This time the incident occurred at Bowie State University, one of our fellow University System of Maryland institutions. While the two people injured in the shooting Saturday are not Bowie State students, the campus community is nevertheless feeling the impact of this incident. I have extended a message of care to Bowie State President Aminta H. Breaux, and I know that the entire Bowie State family is in our thoughts. 

 

As we advised last week after the incident at Morgan State, please avail yourselves of the support resources at UMBC as needed, including Retriever Integrated Health’s mental health services and resources for helping others, as well as our Employee Assistance Program. Please also review our information and resources related to emergency management and make sure you are signed up to receive emergency alerts. 

 

Sincerely,

 

Dear UMBC Community, 

 

I write to share updates on two searches for key university leadership roles: vice president for communications and marketing and provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. 

First, I am pleased to announce that we are beginning the search for the vice president for communications and marketing. University Communications and Marketing, formerly part of the Office of Institutional Advancement, comprises a team of talented individuals dedicated to advancing our mission by telling the UMBC story and engaging diverse audiences and stakeholders here on campus, among our alumni, families, and friends, and externally in our local and statewide communities and the wider world. As this new division continues to evolve, we aim for it to provide comprehensive strategic leadership for the university in all areas of communications and marketing–to ensure that the world knows UMBC and the difference it makes in the lives of individuals, in the creation of knowledge, and in the advancement of an informed, equitable global community. The vice president will report to me and serve as a member of UMBC’s senior leadership team. 

I am delighted that UMBC will partner in this search with Isaacson, Miller. My thanks to the following individuals who have agreed to serve on the search committee for this role: 

 

Vice President for Communications and Marketing Search Committee:

 

Chair: Kacey Hammel, Chief of Staff to the PresidentDale Bittinger, M.P.P. ’16, Assistant Vice Provost, Strategic Undergraduate Engagement, Partnerships, and PathwaysHelena Dahlen, Executive Administrative Assistant, Division of Information Technology, and Vice President of Nonexempt Staff SenateCandace Dodson-Reed ’96, Vice President, Government Relations and Community AffairsEleanor Lewis, Communications Manager, Division of Student AffairsCael Mulcahy, Director of Operations, College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and Vice President of Professional Staff SenateStanyell Odom, Director of Alumni Engagement, Office of Institutional AdvancementChristopher Steele, Vice Provost, Division of Professional Studies 

We will develop a position profile and begin recruiting very soon. We anticipate moving expeditiously to fill the role. Angela Paik (formerly Angela Paik Schaeffer) continues to serve in the role on an interim basis, helping to advise me and support the work of our communications and marketing team. 

 

Regarding the search for a permanent provost: As you will recall, we are extending that search in partnership with Isaacson, Miller. The search committee, whose members are listed here, continues to serve, chaired now by Linda Dusman, professor of music. Anupam Joshi stepped down as committee chair when he took on his new role as acting dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology. I would like to thank Anupam for his leadership and service on the search committee.

We expect to have a permanent provost by next summer. Interim Provost David Dauwalder will serve at UMBC through this academic year. My thanks to our interim leaders, Angela and David, and to all who will take part in these important search processes. 

Sincerely,

 

Dear UMBC Community,

 

Our care and support go out to the Morgan State University community after last night’s shooting on campus that left five people injured. Through colleagues, friends, family members, and neighbors, we are closely connected to Morgan State, and I know our colleagues throughout Baltimore and across Maryland are likewise extending their support to Morgan State President David Wilson and everyone in the Morgan State family.

 

For any members of our community who may need support, I encourage you to please find help through the counseling resources and other forms of support available to you, including Retriever Integrated Health’s mental health services and resources for helping others. The UMBC Employee Assistance Program provides counseling services to staff and faculty. Please do not hesitate to reach out for help. 

 

This also is a moment to review our information and resources related to emergency management and make sure you are signed up to receive emergency alerts. 

 

Please take care of yourselves and hold the Morgan State community in your hearts today.

 

Sincerely,