UMBC’s 2024 fall semester is already poised to be one for the record books. With 2,250 new first-year undergraduate students, UMBC officially enrolled the university’s largest entering class in history. Campus also opened its arms and its doors to 800 transfer students and over 800 new graduate students this fall.
“These students come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences from all over the world,” says Dale Bittinger, M.P.P. ’16, assistant vice provost for strategic undergraduate engagement, partnerships, and pathways. “They have impressive credentials—from valedictorians to community engagement to research and creative performance—and we look forward to them joining the UMBC community and all they have to offer.”
In an email to students marking the start of the semester, President Valerie Sheares Ashby wrote, “Anyone who knows me knows that the start of the academic year fills me with joy and inspiration. I am reminded of the meaning and importance of our mission and the remarkable human beings who constitute our beloved UMBC community.”
In addition to sharing her excitement throughout events at Welcome Week, Sheares Ashby took time to note a few upcoming initiatives on campus, including announcing the new UMBC Institute of Politics (IoP)—an academic, political research, and public outreach center that will harness the university’s robust research capacity and civic-focused public mission to provide a regional base for local, state, and national political analysis. Led by Mileah Kromer, the IoP’s inaugural director, the institute’s most important purpose will be to provide UMBC students with unique opportunities for experiential learning and to build career-ready skills.
Embracing the UMBC spirit
Addressing this year’s new cohort of students at Convocation, Manfred van Dulmen said, “As provost, my commitment to you is that I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you have access to a great educational experience and that you have the support to excel, graduate with a degree, and be ready to make a difference in your community and in the world.”
With a plethora of Welcome Week events, UMBC’s newest Retrievers took advantage of the many ways they could connect with their peers. Student Government Association (SGA) president, Meghna Chandrasekaran, political science and biological sciences, spoke at Convocation, sharing the importance and impact of being engaged with the campus while recounting how it was during her first weeks on campus that she found her niche in the SGA.
“UMBC is a special place because the minute you become a part of our community, you are now part of a longstanding culture that promotes agency,” said Chandrasekaran, now a senior. “Even the smallest of actions like going to an organization’s meeting or hosting a grand scale event is part of that agency. It is all because you decided to fully embrace the UMBC spirit.”
