The UP Portal is critical in navigating the academic side of your life here at UP, as well as other parts, too. Utilizing this portal is critical to your success in life on the bluff! Mackenzie, a student office assistant in CAS, will be giving a brief overview of all that the portal has to offer so that you incoming freshman are all set for your first semester.
When you log into your UP Portal, the first screen you will see should look similar to the one below:
We will be going over the functions of all of the programs listed under the “Quick Launch” section. This picture will be a useful reference to return to throughout reading this post, as many of the icons will be referred to. The first icon is the “Mail” icon in the upper left corner. This should bring you straight to the login page for your UP email account, and is an easy way to access that quickly. While we’re on the note of your UP email account, you can also download the Outlook app to make this accessible for yourself on your smartphone.
To the right of the Mail icon is the Moodle icon. Moodle is essential in success in your academics, as all students & faculty have access to it. Professors can upload the course syllabus or assignments to be completed, and students can upload completed assignments and view professor comments. Some professors will also use the grade book feature of Moodle, so that you can keep track of your progress in the course throughout the semester. You will become familiar with Moodle very quickly upon your arrival on the bluff!
To the right of Moodle is the Self Serve Banner. For a more detailed explanation of this, please visit https://sites.up.edu/cas/self-serve-the-basics/. Essentially, all of your personal information can be found through self serve, as well as your financial aid information, student records, employee time sheets, and more.
On the very far upper right, you’ll find a link to the UP Website, where you can find just about any general information you need to find about the University of Portland. Courses and majors offered, the academic calendar, and a directory are just a few of the things you can find on the website.
On the left in the middle row is the Bon Appétit link. Bon Appétit is the company that runs the dining halls, so this is extremely useful in that you can view what’s on the menu for the day, or even 3 days from then. You will also be able to find the nutritional information, as well as allergen lists for the menu here.
Degree Works is located second from the left on the middle row. Clicking on the link should bring you to a page where you enter your login information. You should then have access to seeing information such as your ID number, name, major, class, GPA, advisors, and more. Below that information, you’ll be able to see all of the courses that are required to take and pass for your major. This is extremely helpful in that Degree Works actually sorts what you’ve already taken, what you’re enrolled in, and what you still need to take by color. You can even set up a “What If” page where you can view what your course load would look like with a second major, a minor, changing your major, etc. This is helpful when trying to decide what you want your undergraduate path to look like — what are your focuses and what minors could potentially work well with your major?
Next to Degree Works is Engage. This is where you can find invitations to different events on campus, news, and organizations. This is necessary if you are part of a club or any type of group because invites are typically sent through this.
The Library icon on the far right of the second row will bring you to the Library page of the UP Website. This is where you’ll be able to find books on reserve, which is super helpful when writing a research paper or project of some sort. The Library page is also useful when booking study rooms and such.
On the bottom left, you’ll find the “manage passwords” link. This is pretty self explanatory — this is where you can reset a password, or change a known password.
To the right of this is the Office 365 link. Here is where you’ll have access to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and more. This all comes for free on your portal. I have found this as very convenient, as I have a MacBook, so using “Pages” and “Sheets” instead of the Microsoft options isn’t always the most efficient when the document ultimately needs to be saved as a Word doc. Definitely utilize this when writing a paper or working on a presentation — it’ll save you a lot of time when you finish!
Lastly, you will find the Student Jobs link on the bottom row. This will bring you to the Student Job Board, where you will be able to find all of the current student job openings. These are constantly changing, so be sure to continue checking this on a regular basis if you are looking for employment, or seeing if there is a position that you are interested in.
On the bottom row, you’ll see a box of three dots. Click on this and it will bring you to a whole page of links that will take you to various different useful places, such as web printing and the patient portal (where you can access your health and counseling info). However, the 11 that you see under “Quick Launch” will typically be the ones you use the most. The others will hopefully be pretty self-explanatory.
Thanks, Mackenzie! If you have any questions about the UP Portal or anything mentioned in this post, send us an email at cas@up.edu
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