CAS News

Mark

Fr. Claude Goes to Washington

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On January 21, Fr. Claude Pomerleau attended President Obama’s second inauguration.  (Click on photos to enlarge.  Captions by Father Claude.)

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 Note from Father Claude:

The pictures try to give the viewer a sense of ritual determined by space and people.

For me, being present at this large dramatic civil ritual of renewal and commitment to the principal of non-violent transfer of power is one of the special qualities of swearing-in ceremony that occurs every four years in D.C.. It is an event that involves hundreds of thousands who are physically present at the event and millions that virtually affirm the event.

There is a special joy and excitement that is shared as we all wait in the cold for hours — all bundled up and sharing our stories as we wait.  And then, the ceremony itself, short and dramatic, leaving everyone satisfied and hopeful.

The pictures describe some of the events of the Inauguration and the role of Senator Leahy, who took most of the pictures. He was up close and personal before, during and after the event.

[Read more…] about Fr. Claude Goes to Washington

Spring 2013 Promotions and Tenure Announcement

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 Please join me in congratulating the following faculty who were recently awarded tenure and promotion, effective July 1, 2013:

Dr. Warren Wood

Dr. Warren J. Wood, Chemistry, tenured and promoted to associate professor;

 

Dr. William Curtis

Dr. William M. Curtis, Political Science, tenured and promoted to associate professor;

 

Dr. Edward Valente

Dr. Edward J. Valente, Chemistry, tenured (already serving at the rank of full professor).

 

 

 

My gratitude, also, to the members of the University Rank and Tenure Committee and to all our colleagues who supported these faculty for tenure along the way.  There is no more sacred duty of a college or university than the tenuring of its faculty.  The College is stronger for having them among us.

Warm regards,

Dr. Michael F. Andrews
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
McNerney-Hanson Endowed Chair in Ethics
and Professor of Philosophy
The University of Portland

University Singers Tour the Puget Sound Area

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The University Singers traveled to the Puget Sound areas January 9-13, performing at seven high schools, three churches, and a large retirement community during the five days before the spring semester.  Twenty-six members of the choir were able to.  As the conductor of the choir, Michael Connolly led the tour, assisted by Dr. David De Lyser, of the music faculty.

On all stops, the tour promoted the University of Portland.  At schools and the retirement center I spoke about the University, majors offered, repeated the UP web address.  School directors were given recruiting posters, music and drama brochures, and multiple copies of the Admissions Office preview booklet.  The purple satin banner from the Events Office was displayed.  At churches, the choir was introduced at each Mass.  Bulletin notices were sent in advance to the parishes to promote the choir’s performance and the University.

Over 3,200 people heard the choir sing at the 12 events during the five-day tour.  Reception was very enthusiastic.  The tour was very successful.  The Singers promoted the University in general, and raised their level of performance in a way that will certainly help the group grow in the future.

Spring 2013 Dean’s Welcome

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Dear Friends of the College of Arts and Sciences,

Welcome to the Spring 2013 A&S News Website!  On behalf of the faculty, students, staff, and alumni of the College: it is good to visit with you.

Within winter’s solstice lies the promise of spring, of hope and resurrection!  As we enter Spring 2013 semester, I invite you to come to campus for one of our excellent symposia events or enjoy a cappuccino or hot chocolate from The Commons while taking in a crisp afternoon walk along the Bluff.  Nothing quite says “College of Arts and Sciences” like listening to a first-rate academic lecture or watching a student-directed play or catching the University of Portland’s Ethics Bowl.

Please take a couple of minutes to check out our “ethics and the arts” highlight events for spring semester.  And while you’re on campus, don’t forget to stop by the Dean’s Suite in Buckley 201 to introduce yourself.  We look forward to meeting you and welcoming you home.

I invite you to let the University of Portland’s College of Arts and Sciences help renew you, body and spirit!  For more information, check out the specific links on the College’s news website.  Some highlights of activities involving faculty and students in the College during Spring 2013 include:

  • Earth Care Summit, January 28, 2013 from 5:00 – 8:30pm at St. Andrew Lutheran Church.  The theme of this year’s Summit is entitled, “Living Waters,” and will include a keynote address by Bishop Skystad, leader in the Columbia River Pastoral Letter Project;
  • Winterreise Concert, Sunday, April 7 (details to be announced), with acclaimed pianist John Wustman and A&S faculty member Nicole Leupp.   Winterreise is a dramatic song cycle of 24 poems for voice and piano.  Written by German romantic poet Wilhelm Müller and published as Op. 89 by Franz Schubert in 1828, this song cycle is a celebration of human intellect, interpretive power, and the human spirit.
  • The Ethics Bowl, tentatively scheduled for Saturday April 20.  Specific room location and time to be determined.
  • Graduation Weekend, May 4-5, with Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony beginning at 2pm on Sunday, May 5 in the Chiles Center.
  • His Holiness, the Dalai Lama will speak in the Chiles Center on May 9, 2013.  Details regarding tickets and information will be made available later in the semester.

Thank you!  As you can imagine, the College of Arts and Sciences depends on your generous financial support to be able to offer and expand upon the many academic, social, religious, and public events that make us a unique and excellent Catholic university serving Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.  We have great hopes to continue to build upon the strong foundations established by those who came before us.  Still, we need your help to ensure that our commitment to the humanities, the arts, and the social and natural sciences continues to grow and flourish.  Please choose to be a part of the conversation, a conversation that will help the College engage our nation and the world in striving to be the kind of place we want it to be for our children and our children’s children.  Any gift of financial support is deeply appreciated.  Please visit the “Support Us”  link, located here and on the main CAS News page.

Welcome to the College of Arts and Sciences!  Welcome to a whole new world!

Warm regards,

 Michael F. Andrews, Ph.D.

Dean, College A&S

McNerney-Hanson Endowed Chair in Ethics

Women admitted to UP!

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In 1951, the University of Portland began admitting women as students to the College of Arts and Sciences.  Though women had been admitted to nursing and music before the 1950s, since these were considered the proper sphere for women’s activities, the opening of CAS prompted the opening of the entire campus to women who wanted to study in any field.

The display featuring this milestone in the University’s history was created by the University Museum using photographs from the University Archives for the display case on the first floor of Buckley Center. Visit the display the next time you are in BC!

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American women in the 1950s:

In her best-selling 1963 publication, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan painted a picture of a 1950s world in which a life of domesticity proved the only option available for American women, noting that college admission rates for women had actually declined from the 1920s to the 1950s.  Although Friedan’s claim accurately reflected some aspects of 1950s America- including the shifting gender ideologies brought about by the post-World War II era- it didn’t capture or define all of American women’s experiences in the 1950s.

In reality during the 1950s American women continued to attend college; they continued to work outside of the home (in fact married women’s labor force participation, increasing since the 1920s, continued to climb upward throughout the 1950s); women continued to be involved in political activities, spearheading some of the first anti-nuclear and peace organizations of the McCarthy era; and, though often over-looked, women such as Ella Baker, Pauli Murray, Rosa Parks, and Jo Ann Robinson played critical roles in laying the groundwork for and organizing the Civil Rights Movement.

If you’d like to learn more, consider taking one of the following courses in the Fall, 2013:

HST 316: History of Modern American Women

SW/PSY 356 Perspectives on Human Sexuality

For further reading:

Joanne Meyerowitz, editor, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Post-War America, 1945-1960, (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1994.)

Elaine Tyler May, Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, (New York: Basic Books, 1999.)

History Journal Wins Top Prize . . . Again!

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University of Portland’s history department awarded first place for student journal, Northwest Passages

University of Portland’s Department of History department was awarded first prize in the Gerald D. Nash History Journal competition for its student journal, Northwest Passages. This marks the second year in a row that the journal has placed first and the fourth time overall.

The 2012 Northwest Passages editorial team includes 2012 alumni Tessa Daniels, Cassie Passion, and Whitney Simpson; senior Renne Erb; and junior Lindsey Tsuruda. Faculty advisor is history professor Mark Eifler.

Northwest Passages is sponsored by the Rho Pi Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the national history honor society. Published in the spring of each year since 2000, each edition of the journal includes several senior theses as well as a diverse sample of smaller papers completed in history courses offered throughout the academic year. The writings are selected by the editorial team which is staffed entirely by students. Each year over the past six years, the journal has received recognition in a national journal competition.

Student Symphony Conductors take Music in Hand

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The University of Portland’s Undergraduate Conducting Associates Program (UCAP) is an innovative musician training program that allows UP students to conduct the University’s Wind Symphony. Conducting Associates conduct pieces at every UP Wind Symphony concert, and have conducted nearly 20% of all pieces performed over the past five years. Students are selected based upon ability shown in MUS 331 (Fundamentals of Conducting). Upon invitation from Dr. Patrick Murphy, students then take private lessons and lead weekly rehearsals of the Wind Symphony. Students in the Program receive podium time and lessons that make it similar to a master’s degree conducting program, and gives them a unique learning experience not available to most undergraduates in the United States. All of their rehearsals and performances are recorded for critique and the development of a video portfolio. This year’s Associates are Amanda Pilcher and Tim Blaydon. [Read more…] about Student Symphony Conductors take Music in Hand

Rebecca Chavez: Hightower Scholarship Recipient

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Rebecca Chavez, this year’s recipient of Molly Hightower scholarship, has “taken advantage of all that UP has to offer”

Rebecca Chavez, a University of Portland senior, barely recalls a time when service was not part of her life.Recipient of this year’s Molly Hightower Endowed Scholarship, Chavez was under the age of 10 when she regularly volunteered with her family at a home for developmental disabled adults. Her job included transporting the home’s residents via wheelchair to Sunday Mass.

“It was often noisy in those Masses,” she said. “But I realized they were praising God just like anyone else.”

“I have been doing service since I could walk,” she added. “My mother is an immigrant, and my father was born to immigrant parents, so my siblings and I grew up with understandings of social justice.”
Chavez, born and raised in Santa Clara, near San Francisco, is majoring in Spanish and social work and minoring in communication studies. She is the third recipient of the Molly Hightower Scholarship. The scholarship was established by the Class of 2010 in memory of Hightower, who died in the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti while volunteering with special-needs orphans. [Read more…] about Rebecca Chavez: Hightower Scholarship Recipient

The Third Epiphany

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When I taught in Nairobi, Kenya in the late 1980s, one of my students shared with me a saying from his Ugandan village: “If a priest puts a curse on you, curse him back, but if a bishop puts a curse on you, dig your grave.”  While this ominous maxim had nothing whatever to do with the ecclesiology I was trying to teach, it did serve as evidence that bishops were formidable figures in East Africa.  The most formidable bishop I met over there was Serapio Bwemi Magambo, of the Diocese of Fort Portal Uganda.

Bishop Magambo praying at the grave of Bishop McCauley.
Photographer: Mark Thesing.

Fort Portal is a market town near the Rwenzori Mountains – sometimes called the Mountains of the Moon.  It is the home of the Congregation of Holy Cross in East Africa.  The first members of the community to serve there were three newly ordained Holy Cross priests who arrived in 1958 to assist the White Fathers who had established the mission long before.  A Holy Cross priest, Vincent McCauley, was consecrated the first bishop of the newly established diocese in 1961.  Bishop Magambo, McCauley’s successor, was the first African bishop of the diocese.  He held the memory of his predecessor in great reverence, preserving the founding bishop’s old office just as he had left it, as a kind of shrine.  In this Bishop Magambo proved prescient, as Bishop McCauley’s cause for sainthood has since been introduced.  Bishop Magambo was a burly, robust, charismatic man with a deep, booming, resonant voice.  He had an ample waistline in at a time when great girth was indicative of high status.  He had a warm, avuncular personality and exuded sublime confidence in the dignity of his office.

[Read more…] about The Third Epiphany