Past Events
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!
Junior Parents Weekend
Junior Parents and Families Weekend 2016
Students, their parents, and interested faculty and staff filled the University’s primary convocation hall, Buckley Center Auditorium, on Saturday morning, February 20th, 2016 for an Academic Showcase spotlighting the College of Arts and Sciences. The Office of Student Activities hosted the Showcase and featured thought-provoking “Ted Talks” styled presentations presented by expert faculty in the humanities, social, and natural sciences showcasing the wide variety of expertise in the College of Arts and Sciences. Through hearing from different disciplines, the speakers gave the audience a chance to sample the offerings a core education provides to students.
Dean Michael Andrews was acting MC for the showcase, and began the event reminding those present of the University’s mission, the education of the head, heart and hands, and what a benefit this mission is to our students. CAS pulls together a required 39 credits of core classes that are the life blood of the University. These core education classes are an important part of a Catholic education which prepares students to be successful throughout their lives. The average graduate today faces a future in which they will change careers a minimum of 5 times. To add to the challenge, changing technology means we don’t even know how that future will look. Our job in the College is to help envision that future. Today’s graduates will live their lives in a world of knowledge we can’t begin to imagine. A strong core education is the best preparation for the challenges our graduates will face.
Dean Andrews shared what a privilege it is for CAS students to associate with the best faculty and the best students. He said faculty members don’t even wait for office hours, they sit with door open, and they want to know “what are you thinking about.” CAS faculty help studentss with the question “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?”
Dr. Elinor Sullivan, introduced by Dean Andrews, recently received a NIMH grant of almost $4 million, a Bill & Melinda Gates grant and a Murdock Life Science Grant. Dr. Sullivan’s presentation: “Physiology: The Study of How Our Body Functions” included a slide show giving a visual view of our cells and showing the effects of the obesity epidemic on our bodies and the long-term impact of maternal obesity on the mental health and physiology of the developing offspring. Obesity leads to inflammation and there is increasing evidence that this inflammation damages the body’s ability to function and, importantly, maternal obesity exposes the developing offspring to elevated levels of inflammatory factors that negatively impact the development of critical organs such as the brain. She emphasized that studying maternal obesity does not place any blame on mothers, but rather that we are trying to understand the process by which maternal obesity impacts the developing offspring so we can develop effective therapeutics and preventative interventions. The results of our studies can also be used to provide information to physicians so they can most effectively advise pregnant patients and to policy makers to allow them to create policies to improve our nation’s health.
The second speaker, Dr. Kevin Jones, who is the Social Work Practicum Director, presented on research concerning the relationship between Native American values and Social Work. Dr. Jones mentioned his interest in foster care and other challenges in our society, creating a demand for Social Workers. He proceeded by presenting for the audience “The Circle of Courage in College: Integrating Native American Cultural Principles into Social Work Education.” Dr. Jones introduced research into how Native American concepts can be beneficially applied to the field of Social Work. These Native American values create an environment where every member of the tribe belongs. For example, they don’t even have a word for cousin; those who are related to each other as cousins refer to each other as brother and sister. This belonging environment develops trust, inclusion, warmth, friendship, cooperation, and finally mastery, yielding a positive cascading chain of events that help to develop a whole person who is well-rounded, competent, generous, able to identify their feelings, offers complements, and works well with others. Dr. Jones reviewed each of these attributes and what they look like, such as how true generosity involves real sacrifice. What this means is learning to cope with adversity, deal with competing tasks and priorities, to learn and do better and to develop independence, not as self-sufficiency, but rather the ability to make decisions with the support from belonging.
The final speaker, Dr. Alex Santana spoke of how the core curriculum exposes and engages students in metaphysics. This emphasis on metaphysics is distinctive to the University of Portland and gives students an exposure they otherwise would not have an opportunity to experience. Metaphysics is the study of the nature of the constitution and structure of reality. The study of what “is” is called ontology and the question “is it real” is called cosmology. The question “Is there God?” is ontology and the question “What is space and time?” is cosmology.
Dr. Santana’s presentation was titled “Some Aztec Metaphysics.” The Aztec view of reality was that universal change is how the universe works, that stability is an illusion. The Aztec had a word “teotl” for the one and only primordial cosmic energy force or power that underlies all existence. This teotl is the underlying of all existence and is entirely non-personal in the same way that electricity is impersonal. Teotl neither likes, loves, nor hates, it just is and should be respected, channeled and nourished. Teotl is the power that makes the universe and all of us go.
The final presentation was followed by a Q&A session in which audience members raised several important points, including some tough questions to the panel.
The CAS Showcase was closed by a thank you to the audience from Dean Andrews. He reminded us again that the goal of UP’s humanities-based, liberal arts University Core Curriculum is to partner with students and parents, that we all want to help students become the kind of people they want to be, the kind of people their parents want them to be, and the kind of people God wants them to be.
Junior Parents and Families Weekend is an annual tradition hosted by the Office of Student Activities and includes presentations from the College of Arts and Sciences and each of the professional schools of the University of Portland. Again this year the presentations gave students and their parents an opportunity to experience first-hand the joy of the University of Portland’s Catholic and Holy Cross mission.
Nov. 7, 7:00 p.m; “Sharing Economy meets the Driverless Car”
University of Portland will host a symposium titled “Sharing Economy meets the Driverless Car” at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7. The symposium, free and open to the public, will be in the Buckley Center Auditorium on campus, 5000 N. Willamette Blvd.
Emerging technologies bring the promise of progress coupled with the danger of disruption. In this timely symposium, three thought leaders – Steve Brown, Steve Gutmann, and Diane Michelfelder — discuss and debate the intersections of two potentially disruptive innovations: driverless cars and the sharing economy.
Driverless cars present exciting business opportunities and potential social benefits, but also have tremendous disruptive potential. The panelists will explore such questions as: If our driverless car hits someone, who’s responsible? Would we drive more or less? What’s the consequence for climate change? Would people commute from farther away or live closer in? What’s the consequence for suburban sprawl? What about hacking and privacy?
The sharing economy, and car sharing in particular, is a social innovation with equally impressive capacity for positive change and disruption. Sharing is often seen as a way to reduce our environmental impact and increase our social connections. Other questions the panelists may explore include: If car sharing were coupled with driverless cars, would we have less traffic? Would it result in fewer parking spaces or more efficient use of cars? Will it affect climate change? What’s the effect on employment?
“By thinking about these consequences before these technologies are widespread, we as citizens can get out in front and help to guide the development.” notes Greg Hill, a University of Portland professor of mathematics and environmental studies.
The three panelists bring a wide range of perspectives to the symposium, according to Hill, an organizer of the event:
Steve Brown is the “Chief Futurist and Evangelist” of Intel corporation. A thoughtful technological optimist, Brown scans the horizon for opportunities for Intel while deeply considering the broader questions those opportunities imply.
Steve Gutmann has been “a driver” in the car sharing industry since its birth. Through his work in that industry, and his latest project Stuffstr, Gutmann creates transformative business models with social and environmental values built into the core.
Diane Michelfelder is a leading researcher into the ethical considerations presented by emerging technologies. A renowned scholar and professor at Macalester College, Michelfelder brings an incisive and constructively critical voice to any discussion of innovation.