News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.
Josh Williams joined the Office of Residence Life on January 9 as the new Assistant Hall Director for Shipstad Hall. Josh came from Miami Dade College where he worked in Academic and Learning Resources.
The Office of Alumni & Parent Relations is excited to welcome parents and families of our first-year and sophomore students to Family Weekend, February 17–19. Here is the tentative schedule. Contact Bryn Rose at roseb@up.edu by February 7 if your department wishes to host an open house on Friday starting at 3:30 or at any other time during the weekend.
Application for Summer 2023 Provost’s Initiative for Undergraduate Research awards are available now in the Undergraduate Research section of PilotsUP. Applications for Summer 2023 are due February 15 at noon.
The Committee on Teaching and Scholarship (TAS) invites all full-time faculty, lecturers, and instructors to submit proposals for the Spring 2023 Arthur Butine Faculty Development Fund. Projects and Conference applications are limited to $2,000 in the spring funding cycle. Please use the most current application forms which are now available for download from the Butine Moodle site. Also, a reminder that applicants should discuss their Butine proposals with their respective deans (and chairs for CAS applicants) before applying. Deadline to TAS and to Chair/Deans, Friday, February 17. Contact TAS chair Patrick Murphy, tas@up.edu, with questions.
We are bringing back this annual event for the first time since February 2020, and we are so happy to be able to be in person again.
On February 26, 10 a.m.–1 p.m., we’ll be turning the Chiles Center into a learning center for kids (ages 1–12). KDP is organizing tables for literacy learning, and I’m organizing tables for STEM. We welcome faculty tables and student tables. If you’d like to host, or have your students host as part of a class project, or advise a club that might like to volunteer, please forward this email and encourage them to do so. In the past, we’ve had skeletons, plants, gravity projects, origami, etc., and we think about STEM broadly and hope that we have a variety of table activities for kids of all ages. This has been used as a class assignment, extra credit, or club activity, and it’s also something that folks participate in because it’s fun.
To sign up to host a table, please fill out this form.
Faculty members interested in offering an Honors Program reading course during the 2023–2024 academic year are invited to send a course proposal to program director Cara Hersh by Monday, February 27. Honors students, in their junior and senior years, take two one-credit reading courses. Courses are limited to 15 students and are offered pass/no pass. Team-taught courses are particularly welcome. Proposals should include a course title and brief description.
For more information, or to submit a proposal, contact Cara Hersh at hersh@up.edu.
Applications for sabbaticals for the 2024–2025 academic year are due along with faculty development plans to faculty members’ respective deans by June 15, 2023. All materials including a letter from the Dean to the Provost are due to the Provost by September 1, 2023. Faculty eligible to apply for a sabbatical must have completed seven years of full-time teaching at the University of Portland or have completed at a minimum an additional seven years of full-time teaching since a previously funded University of Portland sabbatical.
Sabbatical requests are coordinated with departmental planning as well as the individual faculty member’s annual development plan. With careful planning the academic units have been able to take into consideration the needs of both the individual faculty member and the department or school. Additional information about sabbatical leaves can be found in the Faculty Handbook.
For more information contact the provost’s office at 7105 or staten@up.edu.
The planning process for Fall 2023 new student orientation programs and activities is under way, including summer communication and Pre-Orientation programming. Any suggestions, recommendations, proposals, requests, or other “we should really do that!” ideas will be gratefully accepted by Jeromy Koffler, student activities (koffler@up.edu); Brad Franco, history (franco@up.edu); or Montana Hisel-Cochran, business (hiselcoc@up.edu). Submit by Tuesday, February 14.
All faculty and staff are invited to the first Core Samples lunch of the semester on Tuesday, February 14, 11:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m. in the Murphy Room, 4th Floor of Franz Hall. Cheri Buck-Perry will offer a 25-minute slice from her new Exploration-level course, Literature and Cultures of Food, “A Feast for The Senses: Lunching with MFK Fisher,” followed by discussion and questions from participants. Learn cool stuff from a great colleague, and enjoy a catered box lunch, compliments of the Garaventa Center and Core Program! Seats are limited; please RSVP directly to Karen Eifler, eifler@up.edu.
Each year an individual faculty member is recognized for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service. Recipients of the awards are honored in May at the Faculty Gala.
The service award seeks to identify and recognize faculty members that enhance the UP community, professional communities, and/or the world community through their service and leadership work with students, colleagues, and community members. Examples of excellence in service include:
Eligibility and selection criteria for the Excellence in Service award are established by the Academic Senate and can be found on the Senate’s website (see “Resources” and “C on C Faculty Awards Criteria and Submission Information”). The selection process includes a formal nomination, the submission of supporting materials by the nominees, final selection by the Committee on Committees, and announcement and presentation at the Faculty Gala.
The deadline for nominations is February 24.
The deadline for supporting materials by nominees is April 7.
Please submit a nomination letter on the Service Award Moodle page.