UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

02-06-2023

Imagining New Courses: A Focus Group Discussion on Interdisciplinary Teaching (Feb. 24) 

Have you been curious about developing a new Core Exploration course but haven’t yet taken the plunge? Do you feel like you understand interdisciplinarity as a concept, but not how to put it into practice in the classroom? The Core Curriculum (Andrew Guest) and the NEH “Core Humanities” grant team (Jen McDaneld and Molly Hiro) would love to get your insights on these and other questions at a focus group discussion over lunch (on us) at the Teske Room/Holy Cross Dining Room on Friday, Feb. 24, 11:45 a.m.–1:15 p.m. (you’re welcome to join for just part of this time if you’re teaching). We’ll discuss new ideas you may have for courses, support UP might provide, and opportunities for making innovative classes happen. We’ll also offer a mini-preview of the pilot Engaged Humanities institute Jen and Molly will be leading in May (which will come with a $1,000 stipend for participants). Please email Andrew Guest (guesta@up.edu) to reserve your spot; faculty from all schools and ranks are welcome! 

Founders’ Day: A Celebration of Student Scholarship (Apr. 4)

The University’s annual Founders’ Day celebration will take place on Tuesday, April 4, and all UP community members are invited to take part. The University pauses on Founders’ Day to celebrate its rich past and its promising future: the past as we honor the bold leaders who dared to dream of a Catholic university overlooking the Willamette River and the future as we learn from our most outstanding seniors whose research as undergraduates portends great things. The University holds no classes during the event and instead opens its doors to celebrate and learn from UP students.  

Founders’ Day dates back to the origins of the University. It was revitalized in 2001 as a part of the University’s centennial celebration. This year, the day has been renamed and will be called, “Founders’ Day: A Celebration of Student Scholarship.” It includes an awards breakfast for graduating seniors, followed by presentations, panel discussions, recitals, and the Scholarship Luncheon, where students who receive financial aid from scholarships meet the benefactors whose generosity helped them attend the University. Classes scheduled to begin after 4 p.m. meet at their regularly scheduled times. 

For more information on last year’s program visit PilotsUP. 

Pilot Stories (Video Series)

Marketing & Communications and Admissions recently teamed up to launch an ongoing series of videos that capture students’ transformative experiences while attending UP. The short videos are in each student’s own words and highlight them engaging in some of their favorite activities on campus. Marketed on social media, the videos aim to help prospective students imagine themselves here, see the value of a UP education, and make connections that are relatable. 

The first three videos in the series can be viewed on our website, Instagram, or Facebook. Please feel free to share them on your social feeds as well! 

To view more Marketing & Communications videos, check out our YouTube.

Counseling Groups Available for Students 

The Counseling Center offers students four group options to enhance mental health and wellbeing. Don’t hesitate to tell students about the group offerings and to contact the Counseling Center to sign up for services or learn more about the groups. 

Coping Skills Group: This group meets weekly on Thursdays from 3 p.m.–4 p.m. on a drop-in basis. This group is designed to help Pilots develop and advance their coping skillsets and promote effective behaviors for dealing with school stress, relationship difficulties, and the regulation of complex emotions through mindfulness and evidence-based coping strategies. 

Interpersonal Trauma Group: This group meets weekly on Tuesdays from 3 p.m.–4:15 p.m. on a drop-in basis. This group is designed to help students receive support and care after experiencing interpersonal trauma and/or violence. Sometimes, after an interpersonally traumatic incident, it can help to find a safe and supportive environment to discuss and begin to process what has happened to begin the journey toward healing. While this is a drop-in group, feel free to book a counseling consult session to discuss with an individual therapist if the group would be right for you. 

Queer Support Group: Identifying as LGBTQIA+ is difficult enough as it is and can be made even more so with the compounded stressors of college life. This group is a space where members of the queer community can gather to receive support and be in community with other queer folks. It meets on Tuesdays from 4 p.m.–5:15 p.m. on a drop-in basis and is co-facilitated by queer-identified clinicians. 

Core Group Therapy: This group meets weekly from 3 p.m.–4:15 p.m. and is open to new group members at the beginning of each semester. The purpose of this group is to create a space for members to practice vulnerability by sharing their struggles, giving and receiving feedback, and helping each other to practice emotional openness. Core group members may be struggling with a range of concerns, from depression or anxiety, difficulties with family and friendships to questions about identity and life direction. If interested, please contact the Counseling Center to discuss with a therapist if this group may be right for you. 

Invitation to Influence the Development of the Interpersonal Violence Prevention Advisory Committee 

As we are working on redefining the Interpersonal Violence Prevention Advisory Committee, the attendees identified that it would be worthwhile to develop a defined mission/purpose for our IVP Advisory Committee at our last meeting. After a mission is developed, our committee needs a structure for how we can learn about interpersonal violence prevention needs on campus and provide education and empowerment opportunities for our community to engage in action. The IVP Advisory Committee is inviting staff and faculty to participate in this constructivist process by requesting to self-select into an MS Teams channel where we will work on: 

  1. Development of the IVP Advisory Committee’s purpose 
  1. Develop a structure for IVP Advisory Committee action 
  1. Develop a strategic plan for engaging the UP Community in Interpersonal Violence Prevention across all campus domains. 

If you want to be a part of this conversation, please respond and let Greg Peterson know you would like to be added to the Teams channel. 

We look forward to changing campus culture together. 

DEI: Gateways & Opportunity 

Our most recent post from the University Archives and Museum reaches back to the University’s beginnings and founding ideals, to be a University open to everyone and representative of diversity and inclusion, drawing students of diverse backgrounds, cultures, gender, and all parts of the world. Read more. 

For more information, contact Carolyn Connolly, museum coordinator, museum@up.edu, 8038. 

2023 Inclusive Teaching Working Group 

We are happy to be able to offer a professional development opportunity to all of our UP colleagues: the 2023 Inclusive Teaching Working Group.  

Starting the week of March 13, we will be facilitating two professional learning communities with faculty who wish to broaden their understanding of inclusive teaching practices and adopt and skillfully implement these practices in their classrooms. We are leveraging funds from two NSF-funded projects to be able to pay faculty participants $500 for engaging with the Inclusive Teaching Working Group, which involves a free, six-week online course and concurrent in-person professional learning community discussions with colleagues from across campus. 

While the online course—a MOOC using the edX platform—has a STEM focus, we note that the course content is valuable for educators in any department. We very much hope that faculty from all disciplines and ranks will consider joining us.  

If the times we’ve selected for this semester don’t work, please consider clicking to the application and letting us know that you’d like to participate in a later cohort. 

SUMMARY 

Participants will enroll in the free, asynchronous online course (via edX) designed by the NSF-funded Inclusive STEM Teaching Project team. The course focuses on inclusive teaching in a STEM context but is relevant and accessible to all disciplines. The online course is open March 6–April 28. Each week’s module takes 2–3 hours to complete. See inclusivestemteaching.org for more info. 

Participants will also join an in-person Professional Learning Community open to ALL FACULTY who enroll in the online course, with meetings on: 

  •  Tuesdays from 12:45 p.m.–2 p.m.: 3/14, 3/21, 3/28 and 4/11, 4/18, 4/25,  

OR 

  •  Fridays 9 a.m.–10:15 a.m.: 3/17, 3/24, 3/31 and 4/14, 4/21, 4/28 

We will not meet the week of 4/3 due to Founders’ Day and Easter Break. 

A $500 stipend will be paid to faculty* who complete the online course, attend at least 4 of 6 PLC meetings, and complete a deliverable** on inclusive teaching 

We can support up to 19 faculty members in the course and PLC this Spring, and will be balancing participation across disciplines, levels of current adoption of inclusive practices, and faculty positions. 

  • Application Deadline: 10 a.m. on Friday, February 17, 2023 
  • Application Link 

If you have questions or concerns, reach out to the UP project coordinators, Stephanie Salomone (salomone@up.edu) and Valerie Peterson (petersov@up.edu). 

*We welcome applications from adjunct faculty. Stipend eligibility for adjuncts is contingent on their current contract. We will reach out to discuss this with you.  

**In order to model inclusive assessment practices, facilitators will provide options for final “projects” from which participants can select. Options will include the following: 

  • Completing a syllabus makeover applying the lessons of Universal Design for Learning creating an inclusive classroom climate. 
  • Completing an instructor identity reflection, including a consideration of the impacts of their identity on student inclusion. 
  • Completing student social identity interviews (either individually or as a focus group) and create a plan for welcoming and including students with similar identities in future courses. 
  • Aligning course learning objectives to Bloom’s Taxonomy and reflecting on the levels of the taxonomy at which students achieve the objectives and whether or not objectives are balanced across the Bloom’s levels. 

Difference Award Winners Announced 

The Athletic department would like to acknowledge this year’s winners of the “Difference Award”! Each year, student-athletes nominate a professor on campus who they felt has made a difference in their life. The definition is left intentionally vague, allowing students to reflect on the many ways a professor may have made a difference to them. This year, two professors were selected as our winners! They are: 

  • Molly Matty — Biology 
  • Renee Crowgey — Psychology 

They will be honored at the Men’s Basketball game on Thursday, February 9, at 6 p.m. at the Chiles Center. Please come out and enjoy the game and congratulate our winners for their support of all our students on campus, including our student-athletes.  

Rank and Tenure: 2023 Tenure, Promotions 

The provost’s office has announced the following promotions and grants of tenure, effective July 1: 

  • Kathleen Bieryla, Ph.D., Engineering: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Nelson Coates, Ph.D., Physics: Tenure, Promotion  
  • Lezlie Cross, Ph.D., Theater: Tenure, Promotion  
  • Ruth Dittrich, Ph.D., Economics: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Laura Dyer, Ph.D., Biology: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Christina Ivler, Ph.D., Engineering: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Anjanette Raber, Ph.D., R.N., Nursing & Health Innovations: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Isabelle Soulé, Ph.D., R.N., Nursing & Health Innovations: Tenure 
  • Kristin Sweeney, Ph.D., Environmental Studies: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Ben Tribelhorn, Ph.D., Computer Science: Tenure, Promotion 
  • Rachel Wheeler, Ph.D., Theology: Tenure, Promotion 
  • David Wynne, Ph.D., Biology: Tenure, Promotion 

New to The Bluff: Gary Laustsen, FT Visiting Faculty, School of Nursing & Health Innovations 

The School of Nursing & Health Innovations would like to welcome Gary Laustsen as a FT Visiting Faculty for Spring semester 2023. Laustsen’s work on Family Health Care Nursing: Theory, Practice, and Research was recently named Best of 2022 by the American Journal of Nursing’s Best Book of the Year Award in the Environmental Health category. Laustsen’s chapter comprehensively addresses key concepts like environmental health risks, disasters, environmental justice, and the built environment. Diverse case studies illustrate the impact of environmental exposures on family health. Congratulations and welcome!