President Freeman Hrabowski and Provost Arthur Johnson invite all faculty, staff and students to a town meeting for a conversation about the draft self-study report. The town meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 7 from 12 to 1 p.m. in University Center 312. Light refreshments will be served.

For the past 18 months, over 60 UMBC faculty, staff and students have been preparing a campus-wide review of the university. This review, called a self-study, chronicles our accomplishments over the past 10 years, identifies challenges, and provides recommendations for meeting those challenges. UMBC undergoes this self-study process every 10 years as part of the reaccreditation review by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

A draft of the self-study is now available electronically (PDF, 134 pages). To download the document, go to www.umbc.edu/blackboard and log onto Blackboard. On the "My Blackboard" page, scroll down to the self-study@UMBC box, which has links to the report, a discussion board, and the self-study web site. There are also paper copies of the draft at the Reserve Desk in the Albin O. Kuhn Library.

The next step in the self-study process is to obtain campus feedback on the draft report. The feedback will inform the final report. Please read the draft report and then come to this special campus-wide town meeting to share your thoughts on whether the draft self-study report accurately reflects the current state of UMBC, our accomplishments over the past 10 years, our challenges, and areas in need of improvement.

For additional information, contact self-study coordinator Anne Roland (anne@umbc.edu; 58457).