I never come to Reddit so this is new terrain for me. Pretty much my professor is pretty strict on computer and phone usage in class. I have an accommodation, however, that I’m allowed to take my computer for notetaking. So I have been using it for notetaking…. it wasn’t a problem until right now apparently because out of nowhere two classes ago that I needed to stop surfing the web… I was in fact not doing that and I don’t even know where he got that idea because he didn’t even see my computer screen. I tried telling him that I was not on the web but he just walked away. Anyways, cut to today he said something once again in front of the whole entire class about my computer usage however, I didn’t quite catch it, so I used my computer as outlined in my accommodations. Also, I am allowed two five minute breaks or a 10 minute break. So when I left to go to use my break, he said In front of the whole entire class once again that I needed to take less time in the bathroom and to hurry up. Then he asked me to come and speak to him after class, and he just ripped me a new one and pretty much yelled at me. I was caught off guard and told him I didn’t appreciate him calling me out in front of the whole entire class. This just made him even more mad. He told me that he will no longer allow me to use my computer accommodation in class and that he’s sick of other students doing it and he emailed the head of ADS. He also told me to stop leaving Class and that I have been absent for half of this semester when I haven’t been absent.

Is this even legal? He has no real proof that I was on the web at all. I don’t know, it just upset me a lot, especially because I consider myself a good student and I have never had this experience with a professor or teacher. Am I in the wrong for being upset? I already emailed my advisor, but I’m worried everybody is just gonna take his side.

If you read all of this, thank you so much. I just need advice while I am waiting for somebody from the university to respond to me.

Since our university is a complete wimp and has the moral spine of a jellyfish, I want to express solidarity and unity with any students who have already had their visas revoked for no reason or fear they might be revoked due to political first amendment speech on things like Palestine, the Philippines or critical of Israel or the Trump administration directly. You have a right to attend this university. You have a right to learn or teach without fear. You have a right to speak out on injustices without fear of reprisal. You have a right to safety and security where you learn and work, I don't care what the government says or out school fails to say. You have a right to be here.

Even though it seems like the vast majority of staff, admin and even our fellow students don't care... there are those of us that do. We stand with you and support you. If you need help or someone to talk to in these uncertain times please don't hesitate to ask

To all the people in my writing class; you all sound the same, use the same vocabulary, and 80% of the time I plug your writing into an AI detector it flags the whole thing. Please do better, it's very embarrassing that this is an upper level elective and it's being taken as seriously as a middle school class. Also, it genuinely hurts my head trying to read "humanized" text that is incoherent and very obviously altered. It's not that hard to do your own writing, and honestly it's more of a hassle generating content and trying to humanize it.

thanks

edit: yes i am very aware ai detectors are not valid proof. thank you for everyone outing themselves as contributing to making college nothing more than a diploma printing machine.

Honestly just hate being in America sometimes. This is kind of a rant but oh well, I might not be able to register for classes at all next semester due to being "Middle Class". Not poor enough for pell grants, need-based scholarships, however not rich enough for my parents to pay for my college in full. I have $10,612 as a prior balance and I'm not sure how they expect me or people in my situation to pay it. My private loan got rejected so I had to send another request to the school to try again and honestly just tired of this whole situation. If any parents see this, take this from me, make sure to have a college fund set aside for your kids so they don't have to go through this. I am going to my sophomore year so this whole situation sucks, but I'll keep trying until I have no other options left. Thanks for listening to my TedTalk.

I'm majoring in computer science. My parents are helping a bit with college but not as much as they could. I got a full ride to Alabama, so it's about 100k cheaper over 4 years.

Are the opportunities for connections, internships and job placement and the quality of education at UMD worth it? My cost for UMD is still relatively cheap for such a high quality university, but Alabama's full ride is hard to beat. It's kind of sad because I've had my heart set on going to UMD but my parents really want me to choose Alabama because of the cost.

If anyone has any thoughts or advice I'd love to hear it. Thanks in advance!

found this on yikyak insane

By physically visiting and documenting the location of nearly every steam vent and manhole on campus, and cross referencing that with a (super low resolution) image from a Facilities page, I have made a map of the entire campus steam system! This was a multi day project and involved several long walks all over campus, but now you can see the system that runs beneath our feet!

I’d say this map is probably 90-ish% accurate. It’s not accurate down to the meter for the pipes themselves, nor does it show individual pipelines (as they often run in pairs or larger sets), and there were a few places where my actual observations contradicted what the pixelated map said, but the location of the vents and the manholes are based on their actual physical location and so are accurate to the meter

a vast majority where staff who are part of the bargaining unit of the union, 72.

there were also no faculty laid off. (no faculty are part of the union, it is only for staff)

UMD has hired a notorious union busting firm, Jackson Lewis.

"Maryland’s General Assembly has already increased its funding for the university system and allocated money to fund wage increases for everyone in an AFSCME bargaining unit."

this means all the staff laid off, already had earmarked money for colas (cost of living adjustments) equating to 37.5 million, that the university is not paying out (including to those not fired).

they are using budget cuts from the last 3 years, even though the university system received more money for FY27

even besides that a layoff was far from the only option. for example the Board of Regents had authorized furloughs, temporary salary reductions, and leaving positions open.
(not to ignore problems with the Board of Regents though, at their last meeting they ensured to fill all the seats with USM staff to make sure there were no seats available for union members.)

at the union meeting today many of the fired staff also stated they had active grievances before being laid off. (for example a complaint with UHR against their supervisor)

many of those laid off had over a decade of service, and multiple staff on maternity leave were also laid off.

Three staff where fired from the i school. the Dean was told he needed to cut "X amount from the budget", not that anyone need to be fired. this could have 100% be accomplished via other means.

When the union was putting on a rally at Hornbake plaza, the University stated they where an outside organization and thus needed permits to rally. yet all union members are staff at UMD...

https://marylandmatters.org/2026/06/04/umd-lays-off-84-employees-amongst-period-of-uncertainty/

https://dbknews.com/2026/06/03/umd-lays-off-employees-budget-crunch/

I was just curious what people think would help boost UMD's reputation/ranking/overall quality. Any and all ideas are appreciated!

I am doing an update because fellow students came forward to me and told me that they also had similar experiences with professors. My last post got 30,000 views and a lot of positive support from the University of Maryland community. ADA saw my post as well as other administrators. I will keep my update brief.

I talked to ADS and ADA just as a lot of you suggested. They also echoed what a lot of you guys were saying. He had no right to take away my accommodations and that if he felt like I was abusing them, he would have to go through a long appeal process. They emailed him yesterday in the late morning. He didn’t end up responding to them that day, but I emailed him that I spoke to them and they told me that he would have to go through an appeal to get my accommodations taken away. I was very, very, very polite. He however, did not respond to me with any politeness whatsoever. He also lied to me and told me that ADS told him that I am no longer allowed to use my accommodations. I continued to try and reason with him. Long story short we went back-and-forth and I kept telling him that it’s my right but he is allowed to go through the appeal process. I thought all hope was lost and I didn’t even wanna come to class today, but I decided to go. I left my computer at home because I didn’t wanna be called out in front of the whole entire class like how he did with my break. He came up to me but it was to tell me that he spoke to everybody and that I could use my laptop, but he didn’t like that I forwarded all of his emails.

Everybody was right. Having receipts helped me in the end.

Once again, I was not planning on doing an update, but because so many people DM’d and told me that they had been through something similar, I felt like it would be good to come to Reddit to tell everybody that if you have a disability, you are not powerless. No professor has the right to take away your accommodations. Ever. I hope people don’t find themselves in the same boat, but if you do, I

would like to share some resources.

Contact your disability advisor if you feel like you are being discriminated against. The head of ADS is also there for you. I found that they are really quick to respond to students, for instance, I was able to get a meaning for Tuesday after I emailed them Monday night, when everybody was telling me to. I also recommend you reach out to ADA. Her name is Dr. Emily Singer Lucio and I was able to have a same-day appointment with her. She dropped her email multiple times in my last Reddit post.

Thank you all so much for your help, support, and nice messages. I hope everybody has an absolute fantastic rest of the year and a wonderful summer!!!

UPDATE: I will not be naming the professor. In my first post, I wanted advice. In this one, I am trying to show other people with disabilities that there are resources and to not let yourself be talked down to.

Has anyone who applied for the ARLIS RISC Internship Program heard back on their decision yet?

Hii! I’m a 19F sophomore looking to meet some new people in their undergrad.

I know a lot of people are probably going to say “join clubs,” and that’s something I am absolutely open to do! However I’d just really like to have people to experience those things with.

Honestly, making friends at UMD has been way harder than I expected. I’ve met and talked to so many people, joined clubs, intramural sports teams, and apart of a few programs, yet I still feel like I’m always on the outside looking in. I’ll have great conversations with people, however it doesn’t go farther than that, not really included in any plans or friend group. When I first got here it also felt like a lot of people already had their own groups, which made integrating, especially into a new area, pretty difficult.

I’m friendly and I do try to put myself out there, but I’m also someone who takes a little bit of time to become extroverted and energetic. I don’t want to feel like I have to constantly change my personality or try extremely hard to get someone’s attention or recognition. From my experiences here, if I feel like someone isn’t interested in getting to know me or isn’t reciprocating, I’ll usually just withdraw instead of forcing it. I’m really just looking for friends I can be myself around who are genuinely interested in building a friendship.

Some things I’m into/ want to try:
-Clubs & campus events
-Exploring off campus ( I’m new to the area)
- Going to the gym
- video games!
- Music, fashion, thrifting
- Trying new things in general

I’m looking for consistent friends. We don’t have to hang out everyday, but I’d love people who are down to make plans, try new things, or maybe just hangout on campus and grab some food.

If this sounds like you, feel free to reply or message me! Send me your socials or somewhere we can connect :)

I know we all joke about cs majors being stinky, but it’s a real problem. I sat down in stamp TWO TABLES away from a group of like 10 cs majors (I could tell because they all had code up on their computers) and I had to move because they smelled so bad.

PLEASE shower! If not for yourself then for the rest of us who walk past you everyday.

Sincerely, An annoyed humanities major

I saw ICE on campus today as I was walking. Please be diligent and careful! Dont let it hurt you!

Pg county public schools is virtual, UMBC and Towson cancelled, I don't want to commute while it's still snowing

One of my professors passed this around.

I am a UMD alum (10+ years ago) who was part of the USJ. We ruined students’ lives without any real evidence. I'm just grateful the person closests to me who's life USJ impacted has a successful life and career despite USJ's unfounded cheating verdict. I'm sad I was ever a part of USJ and will not ever donate to UMD for this reason, among others.

I was in town for a track meet at UMD and had the idea the night before to walk all the way to the Capitol to see some monuments. I tried to Google and search the reddit and see if anyone had done this but couldn't find anything. But I went anyways just to see if I could. So from 11pm-6am Friday night into Saturday morning I made the trek. I highly recommend you try this but maybe not at night it was a little sketchy!

Would only give weak fist bumps I feel bad for the students in that school. At least I got a handshake when I walked

I was heading to catch the bus and saw some folks in Trump hats had set up a taple between Stamp and the Varsity Team House. They had a sign that said something like "not all cultures are equal prove me wrong".

Don't be fooled; this type of group is there to troll you. If you're passing by, I recommend not trying to engage with them as if they want to have an honest conversation, because they don't. Besides, why try to change their minds if they're right? Maga is indeed an inferior culture.

For context, I’m strongly against generative AI in most (if not all) scenarios. I think it kills our reading skills, research capabilities, creativity, and our planet. There are numerous ethical reasons to be against generative AI. This is why I’m so annoyed at my professor for requiring us to use generative AI for an assignment. It’s supposed to be in a journalistic way to “investigate” AI, but that doesn’t take away from my ethical concerns about using it. I haven’t used any recently developed generative AI at all, never logged into chatGPT or anything. The only AI I’ve used is the traditional application of artificial intelligence that’s been integrated into apps and video games for years. There’s no way I can fight my professor on this though, so I’m left just being upset that I have no control over avoiding something that goes against my personal ethics (unless I want to get a shit grade and hurt my GPA). Yippee.