CAS Dean
Kunal Nayyar ‘03 Challenge Gift for Performing Arts
Kunal Nayyar ’03, star from the Big Bang Theory, has pledged to give $200,000 to support the Performing Arts Department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Kunal hopes to inspire at least 100 donors to make a gift to any designation in the College of Arts and Sciences campaign. When this goal is reached, his gift will provide support for performing arts students and programs.
Join the challenge starting tomorrow at 12:00 p.m.! On April 4-5 from noon to noon, the UP community will come together for our first ever day of giving:#PilotsGive. With nearly $400,000 in challenge funds available, University of Portland has an ambitious goal of securing 1000 donors in one day! #PilotsGive is OUR chance to make UP stronger. pilotsgive.up.edu Together we all add UP!
July Update from the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office
The College of Arts and Sciences is excited to announce that Dr. Gary Lee Malecha, professor of Political Science, has taken up his new position as interim dean.
Dr. Malecha, who has been at the University of Portland since 1992, has served on numerous committees at the University, most recently leading the University Ad Hoc Committee on Mental Health in 2016. He provided leadership as chair of the Political Science Department for many years, currently serves as the faculty athletics representative to the NCAA, and has served in many more leadership roles throughout his time at UP. Dr. Malecha is an expert in the area of American politics, teaching courses on U.S. Congress, the U.S. Presidency, public policy, and the politics of food. He was awarded the University’s highest honor for faculty, the James Culligan Award, in 1999 (University of Portland News).
Dr. Malecha agreed to serve the University in this capacity for one year to allow for a national search for the new dean of College of Arts and Sciences.
Shepard’s Shepherds Award 2016
The following CAS faculty have been nominated by first year students as “Shepard’s Shepherds” for AY2016:
Madonna Buenviaje, CHEM
Andrea Castanette, ILC
Marcela Cinta, ILC
Jeffrey Gauthier, PHI
Alexandra Hill, ILC
Molly Hiro, ENG
Steven Mayer, CHEM
David Turnbloom — (with three nominations), THE
Please join us in congratulating each of our fine colleagues for being named a Shepard’s Shepherd for the “positive impact each has had on a member of the University of Portland class of 2019.” On behalf of the College of Arts and Sciences: thank you for your personal and professional presence in the lives of our students and the many ways you continue to enrich the liberal arts mission of this University.
CAS Senior Toast
The third annual College of Arts & Sciences Senior toast was held on Founder’s Day, April 12th in St. Mary’s Lounge. Hosted by the Dean of CAS and the Student Leadership Advisory Council, CAS faculty and graduating seniors gathered to celebrate the Class of 2018’s journey.
Among the acknowledgements was the announcement of the first Kay Toran CAS Student Award for Excellence in Service, created in honor of 1964 CAS alum Kay Toran. Toran has been continuously living a life of service; she currently serves on the UP Board of Regents and is president of Volunteers for America, a non-profit organization that supports men, women, and children in various stages of transition, including the homeless, from New York to Portland. Three CAS students received this honor, representing the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, respectively.
Dean Andrews made the following remarks in presenting the awards to the honorees:
Ana Fonseca is an English major who exudes a habit of service that challenges and changes structures within the local community here in North Portland. Whether working with Youth and the Law or the Portland Police organization, or the Mayor’s office, Ana had devoted many hundreds of hours serving youth, including as a tutor at Roosevelt High School. Ms. Fonseca epitomizes the kind of service towards structural change that reflects Kay Toran’s own passion. She will be joining Jesuit Volunteers Corps after graduation.
Gianna Carducci-Huchingson is a Psychology major who personifies a sense of service as mission, as envisioned by the Congregation of Holy Cross in which serving others means serving the compassionate Christ. In particular, Ms. Carducci has worked extensively with refugees from Congo, Ukraine, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan resettling in the City of Portland. Gianna is expecting to be placed next year with the Lutheran Community Services of as a director of Refugee Care Collective.
Noah Forrest is a Chemistry major who possesses a global and international sense of service that lovingly reflects Kate Regan’s own spirit. Mr. Forrest has worked extensively with issues from Rural Immersion in Yakima, WA; immigrant communities in Tucson, AR affected by harsh immigration policies; Friends of Trees here in Portland; and volunteers three hours every Friday with Spanish-speaking children in his capacity as a bilingual volunteer. Mr. Forrest was a Nicaraguan Immersion Coordinator for the Moreau Center and will be working with an organization called Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos at an orphanage in Latin America next year.
Dean Andrews also recognized two retiring faculty with respect and gratitude, Dr. Robert Butler, a professor of Environmental Science, and Fr. Tom Hosinki, professor of Theology. Graduating senior Ms. Jacqui Howard toasted Dr. Butler. Theology junior Mr. James Paul Gumataotao’s toasted Fr. Hosinki. Both men leave the UP community with contributions of outstanding service, scholarship, and a fantastic inspiration for knowledge.
Dean’s Welcome: Spring 2016
Dear Friends of the College of Arts and Sciences,
As the anticipation of spring approaches and we near the conclusion of another successful school year, faculty and staff are recognized for their hard work and innovation, graduating seniors look forward to their future, and the University’s community continues to grow in size and spirit. While we are also in the beginning of the season of Lent, the coming of Easter provides University members a time for reflection and self-examination. During Lent and with the growth of a new year we are called to acknowledge the progress and enterprise of the College by commending several professors and accomplishments.
Congratulations to the seven CAS professors awarded tenure: Bradley Franco (HST), Jennette Lovejoy (CST), Tara Maginnis (BIO), Charles McCoy (MTH), Gregory Pulver (PFA), Mark Pitzer (PSY), and David Taylor (BIO).
Congratulations to the seven CAS faculty members granted sabbatical during one or both semesters of AY2017: Valerie Peterson (MTH), Kathleen McManus (THE) Hannah Callender (MTH), Jeff Gauthier (PHL), Patrick Murphy (PFA), Martin Monto (SOC), Lora Looney (ILC), Amy Beadles-Bohling (BIO), Eugene Urnezius (CHM), Mark Eifler (HST), Allie Hill (ILC), and Oz Bonfim (PHY).
CAS Faculty Recognition and Congratulations:
Martin Monto wins Hugo Beigel Award for Scholarly Excellence
University of Portland sociology professor Martin Monto has received the Hugo Beigel Award for Scholarly Excellence from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. The award goes to the best paper published in their Journal of Sex Research, and was chosen from a field of 70 papers. The award is designed to promote and reward research excellence in sexology. Monto wrote the paper with former UP student Anna Carey as co-author. The award will be presented at the society’s annual conference on Nov. 12-15 in Albuquerque, N.M.
Laura McLary named Oregon Professor of the Year
On Thursday, Nov. 19th, the national Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the international Council for the Advancement and Support of Education awarded University of Portland German professor Laura McLary for her innovation and dedication on teaching international languages, highlighting her leadership in growth of the University’s German language program.
Previous UP professors who have been recognized by the national organization include Kate Regan, who was named National Professor of the Year; Becky Houck, Terry Favero and Karen Eifler, who were all named Oregon Professor of the Year.
Difference Award:
Dr. Sarina Saturn, Department of Psychological Sciences
Dr. Mark Pitzer, Department of Psychological Sciences
Dr. David Turnbloom, Department of Theology
At the beginning of this semester, each senior and junior athlete-student was invited to nominate one professor for The 2015 Difference Award. The main criterion for this award is that the faculty member embody whatever difference-making characteristic, idea or attitude students felt made a positive and substantial impact in their life as an undergraduate Pilot. Professors Saturn, Pitzer, and Turnbloom were chosen by our athlete-scholars as key difference-makers at our University. I know we are all excited that students have chosen to honor three of our colleagues who have touched the lives of undergraduate students and who continue to work hard to make athlete-students successful both in the classroom and on the field. Sarina, Mark, and David will be honored as Difference Award recipients at a public presentation during the UP Men’s Basketball game on Thursday the 18th of February.
I trust you will enjoy reading several stories about our talented students and faculty by catching-up with the most recent edition of the CAS Blog. In the meantime, I look forward to welcoming you the next time you are on campus, especially if you are planning to celebrate UP Commencement in early May.
Warm regards,
Dr. Michael F. Andrews
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences and
McNerney-Hanson University Endowed Chair in Ethics
Martin Monto Receives The Becky Houck Award for Excellence in Advising
The Becky Houck Award for Excellence in Advising presented to Dr. Martin Monto at All-College Celebration, February 24, 2016
“This annual Award is named in honor of our beloved CAS faculty colleague, Becky Houck. The Award honors and recognizes an individual who has committed a large part of his or her faculty work to mentoring and advising students — something that doesn’t typically show up on a vitae. Like past recipients, this year’s award winner exemplifies Becky’s indefatigable spirit and love for helping prepare undergraduate students to live a life of integrity, compassion, and service. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Martin Monto of the Sociology Department as this year’s Becky Houck Award recipient.
Several former students note:
“Dr. Monto helps students find direction and often assists them to creatively pursue double majors or to customize their programs to individual goals and interests. “
“His creativity in advising serves the mission of the University in developing the whole person, which is only successful if we take the time to learn their individual goals and needs. In this regard, Dr. Monto is a rock star.”
“I transferred into the major late from Engineering. Not only did Dr. Monto help me to draw up a plan of classes to help me graduate on time, he also made it possible for me to add a minor in Education and take extra classes my senior year! After I graduated, my sister (then a sophomore at UP) was having difficulty scheduling classes without much assistance from her assigned advisor. All it took was a single email to Dr. Monto and he immediately took my sister under his supervision as an academic advisor. Professor Monto eased much of my sister’s stress and she actually graduated on time.”
Over the last many years Martin has been a long-term mentor on advising issues for other faculty members in his own department, in CAS, and across the university. Here are several peer comments:
“I regularly discuss advising issues with Monto and routinely solicit his advice on how to best help and mentor students during advising sessions. . . . I have worked with him to become a better advisor using methods that he has developed over the past two decades.”
“Several years ago, Martin served on the College’s first Advising Consortium. As a member of the consortium, he took an active role in building the initial advising website for the College of Arts and Sciences. He also helped to design and lead an early session focused on advising at the University of Portland on Faculty Development Day. “Dr. Monto has spearheaded several surveys of graduating seniors, each time taking the data received seriously and implementing changes [to the major that would] that help students improve internship experiences and better prepare them for graduate studies.
Martin has been a faculty model in helping further develop the advisor’s role from “course scheduler” to “mentor” or even “life coach.” In his role as mentor to undergraduates, Martin’s good influence reaches beyond simple scheduling and career advice, as he has also sponsored undergraduate research, even publishing an award-winning article with a former student, for which he received the Hugo Beigel Award for Scholarly Excellence for the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality.
An extension of Martin’s advising / mentoring role to students is clearly evident in his taking the lead on the Green Dot initiative, a university-wide mentoring effort to educate students about violence. Through traditional and non-traditional advising, Martin’s efforts as a respected faculty advisor to students inspires students to live the kind of life of service to one another that represents the highest goal of the College’s educational mission.
I am very pleased to present this year’s 2016 Becky Houck Award for Excellence in Advising to Dr. Martin Monto.”
-Dean Micheal F. Andrews
Dean’s Welcome: Spring 2015
Dear friends and colleagues of the College of Arts and Sciences,
As we enter more fully into what promises to be a spectacular spring 2015, I am reminded that much of what we do in the College helps our students learn how to learn. With support from our alumni, faculty, and staff, we invite our undergraduate and graduate students to engage fully in the intellectual and social life of a Holy Cross education. All of us are invited to raise perennial questions of faith and reason, of ethical concerns, and of meaning and practical wisdom about what the good life entails, that is, what the Greeks called “sophia.” And we don’t stop with questions. Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences teach many of the 39 credits that comprise the University’s Core Curriculum to every undergraduate student, regardless of one’s major or professional school discipline. This ensures that every undergraduate student shares a common “U Portland experience” — a unique and integrative multi-lens perspective through which students can critically experience the integration of faith, culture, science, humanities, and the arts. Our commitment to the spiritual, ethical, and intellectual development of the whole person remains the heart or “core” of what we mean by a Catholic and Holy Cross liberal arts education in the College.
In the College of Arts and Sciences we strive to form men and women who will provide ethical leadership to the nation, who will offer hope to our world, and who will engage the joys and sufferings of our age through a faith that seeks justice. For over a century the College of Arts and Sciences has remained a very special place in which to grow in body, mind, and heart. We expect our graduates to respond effectively and compassionately to complex social, economic, and cultural issues and to have a capacity that envisions a more just world.
We will challenge you as never before to become an ethical leader in your family, local and regional community, professional field, and beyond. We invite you to imagine how you might better promote the common good through the transformative power of human creativity, moral discernment, and love.
Whether studying here on the Bluff or at the University’s campus in Salzburg or in one of our other signature Study Abroad programs, you, too will come to experience what thousands of UP alumni already know: in the College of Arts and Sciences, the world is our classroom.
I am grateful that you are a part of our CAS community, and I invite you to explore our CAS News blog and let us know what you think.
Warm regards,
Michael F. Andrews, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
McNerney-Hanson University Endowed Chair in Ethics and
Professor of Philosophy
First Annual CAS Senior Toast a Success
The College of Arts and Sciences’ Student Leadership Advisory Council (SLAC) and the Dean’s office hosted the first annual Senior Toast, 4:15-4:45pm, following Founders’ Day, on April 8th. Click here to view a slideshow featuring CAS student senior quotes about faculty who have made a difference in their lives.
Spring 2014 Dean’s Welcome
Dear Friends of the College of Arts and Sciences,
Welcome to the Spring 2014 College A&S News Website! On behalf of the faculty, students, staff, and alumni of the College: it is good to visit with you.
Springtime on the Bluff offers a deep and reverent sense of hope and resurrection. Cherry blossoms burst along the Quad, and everywhere we see signs of the goodness of all creation. As we enter the final months of the semester, I invite you to come to campus for one of our excellent symposia events and be inspired by the College’s academic pursuit of excellence that promotes a vision of the common good through engagement with the humanities, liberal arts, and the social and natural sciences. 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 annual Ethics Bowl.
I invite you to check out the College’s many upcoming events for spring semester. And while you are 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.
The Catholic intellectual tradition promotes a habit of mind and heart that is reflective, contemplative, and integrative. And so I invite you to let the University of Portland’s College of Arts and Sciences help renew you, body and spirit, during this special time of Lenten and Easter preparation. 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 2014 include:
- The Ethics Bowl, scheduled for Saturday April 5 from 4-6pm in Mago Hunt. This year’s second annual McNerney-Hanson Ethics Bowl Showcase will feature undergraduate students from the University’s nationally-acclaimed Speech and Debate Union.
- Five CAS faculty members awarded Tenure and Promotion;
- Sr. Angela Hoffman, OSB named the Oregon Academy of Science 2014 Outstanding Higher Education Teacher in Science and Mathematics;
- Professor Alexandra Hill awarded the Graves Award in the Humanities;
- Professor Susan Baillet Awarded the Becky Houck Award for Excellence in Advising;
- Graduation Weekend, May 3-4, with Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony beginning at 2pm on Sunday, May 4 in the Chiles Center.
- World Conference on Science and Soccer, June 5-7, held for the first time in the U.S. For more information visit https://sites.up.edu/wcss2014usa/
Thank you for your loyal and continued support of the College of Arts and Sciences. 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