Core Matters: ENV – The Science of the Sustainable Gourmet

Plant food in beakers

This essay by Heather Carpenter, Lecturer in the Department of Environmental Studies at UP, is the fourth in a series of short pieces that offer faculty across the campus an insider’s tour of one of the courses that make up UP’s Core program. Since the Core involves almost a third of the curriculum for every UP student, faculty…Continue Reading Core Matters: ENV – The Science of the Sustainable Gourmet

Core Matters: Chemistry

Chemical smoke

This essay by Steve Mayer Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Chemistry at UP, is the third in a series of short pieces that offer faculty across the campus an insider’s tour of one of the courses that make up UP’s Core program. Since the Core involves almost a third of the curriculum for every UP student, faculty can…Continue Reading Core Matters: Chemistry

Core Matters: Thinking through Literature in English 112

what we see when we read

This essay is the second in a series of short pieces that offer faculty across the campus an insider’s tour of one of the courses that make up UP’s Core program. Since the Core involves almost a third of the curriculum for every UP student, faculty can benefit from these discipline-by-discipline essays, to better understand…Continue Reading Core Matters: Thinking through Literature in English 112

Core Matters: PSY 101 – Come on and tell me, who are you?

Brain and skull in a room

This essay by Andrew Guest, Ph.D., Professor and Chair in the Department of Psychological Sciences at UP, is the first in a series of short pieces that offer faculty across the campus an insider’s tour of one of the courses that make up UP’s Core program. Since the Core involves almost a third of the curriculum for every…Continue Reading Core Matters: PSY 101 – Come on and tell me, who are you?

Core Matters: A (Re) Introduction to the UP Core Curriculum

University of Portland campus

Starting in the 2017-2018 academic year, as UP began a process to revitalize its liberal arts core curriculum, one of the most frequent comments I’ve heard is that the core has simply become a “checklist.” People still like the idea of the core, and people still believe in the value of the liberal arts. But…Continue Reading Core Matters: A (Re) Introduction to the UP Core Curriculum