Graduate Assistant Opportunity with Off-Campus Student Services

 Off-Campus Student Services is seeking a Graduate Assistant to provide responsive and learning-centered support to students interested in utilizing public transportation and other off-campus services. The Graduate Assistant for Off-Campus Student Services (GA) holds a 20 hrs per week appointment with the department of UMBC Transit and the Office of Off-Campus Student Services (OCSS). Reporting to the Director of OCSS and supporting the collaboration between OCSS and UMBC Transit, the GA will provide direct customer support to students utilizing UMBC Transit, MTA Buses, Zipcar, and other forms of alternate transportation, including carpooling and other off-campus student services. The GA will also lead outreach efforts to promote these transportation and housing options to off-campus students.

For more information, please see the following position description:  OCSS Transit GA position.

2012-2013 GSA Executive Board Elected

The Graduate Student Association (GSA) Senate elected the 2012-2013 GSA Executive Board on Monday, May 7th. Listed below are the new Executive Board Members:

President – Doaa Rashed, LLC
Vice President – Jesse Fox, Biological Sciences
Vice President, External Affairs – Samuel T. Haile, Biological Sciences
Treasurer – Patricia Abete, Biological Sciences
Historian – Ian Brown, LLC

Please congratulate the new Executive Board members if you see them!

For more information about the GSA, click here.

Summer Dissertation House at UMBC: July 10-13, 2012

Spend 4 days writing … make progress on your dissertation!

The Summer Dissertation House is coming to UMBC, July 10-13.  Graduate students who plan to participate should follow the application procedures on the application webpage for the Dissertation House.

Open application period: April 30, 2012 – May 14, 2012.

Applications received after May 14, 2012 will be considered for the DH waiting list. More information about the Dissertation House: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/about/

The Dissertation House runs from 9 AM – 5PM, for four days, Tuesday, July 10 through Friday, July 13.

• Students must plan to attend the full session, for each of the 4 days. 
• Daily schedule includes 2 mini-lectures, and 5 hours of writing per day.
• Breakfast, Lunch, and a snack will be served daily.
• The Dissertation House is free for UMBC’s graduate students.
• There are 15 spaces available for the Dissertation House. 
• Details regarding eligibility can be found on the application page of the website for the Dissertation House.
• Subscribe to the website: http://www.thedissertationhouse.com

 Read about The Dissertation House in UMBC’s Alumni Magazine: Byrne, R.  (2011, Fall) “The Write Stuff”, UMBC Magazine. p. 12

 Please login to myUMBC, go to PROMISE Events  and click “I can attend”.  *AND* follow the application procedures on the main website for the Dissertation House: http://dissertationhouse.wordpress.com/apply/

 Tuesday, 7/10 – Friday, 7/13/2012, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Commons 329

This post attributed to PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP: http://www.umbc.edu/promise

Robert Deluty, Associate Dean, Publishes His 36th Book

Robert Deluty, associate dean of the graduate school, has published a new
book of poetry, “Particles of Life.” In his review, Dr. Ronald Pies writes:
“In the Jewish mystical tradition, it is mankind’s task to release the hidden ‘sparks’ of divinity that are trapped within the material world. In his wonderful new collection of poems, Robert Deluty achieves something akin to this, by releasing the poetry within the common ‘particles of life.’ This, Dr. Deluty accomplishes with his usual blend of humor, sharp-eyed realism, and deeply humane understanding.”

Copies of “Particles of Life,” as well as of Deluty’s other books, are on sale at the UMBC Bookstore.

Required Course for Graduate Assistants – Summer 2012

The Graduate School would like to remind all Graduate Assistants (i.e., Research Assistants, Teaching Assistants, Administrative Assistants, Residential Assistants, Peaceworkers, Graders, and those supported by fellowships administered through UMBC) that you must register for the required Graduate Assistant course for Summer 2012.

All Graduate Assistants must consult the following page on the Graduate School’s website:  http://www.umbc.edu/gradschool/funding/grad_assist_course. This page provides information on determining for which course to register (i.e., GRAD 600, GRAD 601, or GRAD 603), has answers to frequently asked questions, and lists the relevant class numbers for the Graduate Assistant courses.

Thank you.

Fall 2012 Orientation for All New Graduate Students will be August 16, 2012

The Graduate School is making some changes to our Orientation this year, and has scheduled both the full-day and evening orientation programs on the same day – Thursday, August 16, 2012. Given the range of our graduate student body (full-time, part-time, employed, etc.), we hope to accommodate varying schedules and allow for engagement and overlap among the different student constituencies. 

The details of the program will be published as soon as they are available, but here is a preview.  For those who can attend during the day the program will start in the early afternoon with a series of workshops.  Later there will be a Community Meeting which will cover the substantive topics which are essential for every new graduate student to learn.  This will be followed by a dinner (hopefully a cookout!) and time to mingle with current graduate students and department representatives.

Stay tuned for updates!

Thursday, 8/16/12, approx. 12:00 – 7:30 pm, locations TBA

UMBC Employee Dissertation House Participant Profile: Dr. Susan Mitchell

Dr. Susan Mitchell is an aluma of UMBC who graduated in 1979 with a B.S. in Psychology. After graduation she was hired as a clerical assistant by Technology Service Corporation (TSC).  However, based on a summer internship at the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)), she was able to use her previous programming experience to switch from her clerical job at TSC into a programming position at the same firm. She became one of the first female programmers at TSC. To further her computer science training, she enrolled in a master’s degree program in computer science at The Johns Hopkins University, where she received her MS degree in 1983.  In 1990, she decided that she would like to teach and obtained a position as a faculty member in the Computer Science Department at Montgomery College in Rockville. In 2000, she returned to UMBC as a Lecturer in the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department, and in 2004 decided to pursue her PhD at UMBC to increase her knowledge in the field of software engineering. She has been teaching computer science and software engineering courses at UMBC for the past 13 years.  Dr. Mitchell participated in several Dissertation Houses to write her proposal and her dissertation. On May 18, 2012, she will receive her PhD in Information Systems.

Congratulations, Dr. Mitchell!

To learn more about Dissertation House, please visit: http://www.thedissertationhouse.com