UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

09-06-2022

Poet Naomi Shihab Nye at UP (Sept. 13)

Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye isUP’s fall 2022 Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer. On Tuesday, September 13, Nye will be available for an informal Q&A hour (4 p.m.–5 p.m. in Franz 214) where students, staff, and faculty can engage her in questions about poetry and the writing life. Then at 7 p.m. she’ll give a poetry reading in Buckley Center Auditorium. Attendance is free and open to the public. For details see the Schoenfeldt site or contact English chair Lars Larson larson@up.edu.

“Reading opens us up so we can live everywhere.” -Naomi Shihab Nye in Bill Moyers’ series The Language of Life

Women in Leadership Forum Kickoff Event (Sept. 14)

Faculty and staff are invited to attend the kickoff event for our Women in Leadership Forum. Regardless of position or title, we are all leaders on campus. Our goal is to come together in community to support one another and create space for growth and connection. This initial meeting will be an informal opportunity to get to know each other and discuss topics of interest for future events. Light refreshments will be provided. Please reach out to chase@up.edu or herdener@up.edu with any questions. 

Register here: https://uportland.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dnXnEVtWfv53l30

What: Women in Leadership Forum

When: Wednesday, September 14 from 4 p.m.–5 p.m.

Where: Franz 120

University Core Exploration Level Course Information Sessions–Join the (Interdisciplinary) Fun

This Fall semester the revitalized University Core has launched the new exploration level for sophomore students who’ve come in on our new shared curriculum for all UP students. Each semester moving forward we’ll be offering more ‘X’ courses as additional students come to UP needing to take two X courses before graduating (this year first-year students and sophomores are on the revitalized Core; in 2023–2024 it will be first-years, sophomores, and juniors; and then in 2024–2025 we’ll reach full implementation). The general goal of X classes is to bring together multiple Core habits of heart and mind, embedding multiple ways of knowing from the liberal arts and sciences, to engage students in interdisciplinary inquiry on timely and timeless topics of interest. More information is available for UP faculty and staff on the pilots.up.edu Core curriculum page, and also on the public facing Core website. 

If you have a potential interest in, or ideas for, creating new X courses or evolving existing courses in an X direction, we’ll be hosting several information sessions in September prior to the October 1 priority deadline for course approvals through the Undergraduate Core Curriculum Committee (who can also consider other proposals on a rolling basis through the year pending department or program scheduling):

  • Thursday, September 15, at 2:30 p.m. in Franz Hall 222: A joint production between the Public Research Fellows program and the Core for purposes of networking across disciplines—finding ways for everyone to connect with the engaged humanities and imagining possible X courses that could come through collaboration.
  • Tuesday, September 20, at 4 p.m. via Zoom (https://uportland.zoom.us/j/7284758438) with the Core Director (Andrew Guest) to understand the design of X classes and the process for approval. 
  • Monday, September 26, at 4 p.m. in Franz Hall 205 with the Core Director to understand the design of X classes and the process for approval. 

Also feel free at any time to contact Andrew Guest (guesta@up.edu) for questions related to the Core.

Clark Library: Digital Lab Workshops 

Those who would like to start their year with some new skills are encouraged to sign up for the Clark Library’s introductory workshops including Illustrator, Podcasting, Graphic Design, and Canva. Workshops run from September 13 through September 23 and are free and open to current students, faculty, and staff. Visit the Digital Lab’s site to see the detailed schedule and to register online.

Reminder About Restricted Work Areas

Physical Plant and Environmental Health and Safety would like to remind you to pay attention to signage on campus such as barricades created by caution tape and signage indicating hazardous or restricted work areas. Restricted areas are closed for your safety and the safety of our facilities workers and contractors.

Fall 2022 Fire Drills

Fire drills will occur in all campus buildings at the beginning of the fall 2022 semester. All fire drills in classroom buildings will occur on September 7 or September 8. Faculty and staff should be aware of the evacuation routes for the building that they work in. Faculty should review emergency planning information with students on the first day of class, including building evacuation routes and what to do in the event of a fire or other emergency. Faculty should identify the quickest escape route from their classroom along with a secondary route if available in case the primary route is inaccessible. Faculty should identify a location outside and away from the building where the class can meet to ensure all students are accounted for. On the date of the fire drill faculty should instruct students to meet at the designated location and wait outside the building until they are granted permission to return to the building. Avoid gathering directly outside the building and instead move away from the building. Additional information on fire safety is available here. Faculty and staff are required to exit the building in the event of a fire alarm. All fire alarms should be treated like a real emergency.

Faculty, Staff Classes Available at Beauchamp Center

The Beauchamp Center is offering faculty/staff fitness classes for fall 2022, including yoga, barre sculpt, Zumba, and more.

Monday–Friday 12:05 p.m. –12:45 p.m.

Mondays: Barre Sculpt W/ Katie or Shelly (Studio 45) 
Tuesdays: Sweaty 20 W/ Julee  (Studio 30) 
Wednesdays: Hatha Flow Yoga W/ Karen (Studio 30) 
Thursdays: Pilot Fit W/ Madi (Functional Fitness)  
Fridays: Zumba W/ Austin (Studio 45)   

Specialty Classes  

Tuesdays from 7 p.m.–7:55 p.m. First three weeks of school (08/30, 09/06, and 09/13): Intro to Yoga series with Karen in studio 45  

The Writing Center Will Be Back in Business This Fall!

The UP Writing Center—an awesome peer-tutoring resource that can help student writers from any discipline—is open for the semester. We count on faculty to get the word out to students about this valuable resource, so please consider encouraging your students to seek us out. Students can meet their Writing Assistant in person in the Learning Commons (BC 163) or online (via Zoom). Our 22 Writing Assistants (WAs), representing 14 majors and all five UP colleges, can help writers from all disciplines, at all levels, and at any stage of the process, from brainstorming ideas, understanding assignments, outlining, to revising. Students can book appointments through our online scheduler and explore our website for writing-related resources. Note that in addition to making appointments through the Writing Center, students can request a “Dedicated Writing Assistant” for regular meetings throughout the term and faculty may request a “Dedicated Class Assistant” to assist students from a particular class. Email (weiger@up.edu) for additional information. 

One of the best means of getting students to bring their work-in-progress to the Writing Center is for faculty themselves to encourage them to do so (some professors require at least one visit; some give extra credit to students for using our services). When talking to your students about the UP Writing Center, you might keep in mind the following: 

  • Our goal is not just to inspire better papers, but create better writers. This means we don’t “fix” papers; we work with students to improve their overall writing skills for this and future tasks. 
  • Writing assistance isn’t just for students with major grammar or mechanical problems. Instead, we focus on higher-order concepts such as argument, organization, development, and other areas. Even accomplished writers can make progress on their work in a half-hour session. 
  • While our Writing Assistants represent most majors as well as the professional schools, they are trained in a semester-long course to work with students from any discipline. 
  • You may have found that your students weren’t able to find appointment times in past semesters, especially in early fall as we await the newly trained Writing Assistants to come on staff. We’ve fixed that problem this semester, preparing the new Writing Assistants to begin working earlier in the term—so reassure students that if they want writing help, they should be able to get it! 
  • When a student meets with a Writing Assistant to discuss a paper for your course, you’ll get a copy of the conference report—a brief summary of what the student and Writing Assistant worked on (this is an easy way of keeping track of who visited the WC for assigning extra credit). 

A highly effective way to familiarize your students with the Writing Center and to demonstrate your support for our services is to invite a Writing Assistant to drop in to your classroom to give a 5–10 minute presentation during the first few weeks of the semester. Email our hotline writing@up.edu with the date, time, and place of the class you’d like a Writing Assistant to visit and we’ll get back to you shortly. 

UP no longer requires students in writing-embedded courses (English 112 and Philosophy 150) to purchase the Pocket Cengage Handbook, so if you’d like to refer your students to a reputable resource for issues of grammar, mechanics, and citation, we recommend the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL).  

To foster student writing integrity at UP (i.e., find cases of plagiarism when they occur), consider using the Turnitin function through your class Moodle page. When creating the online assignment to which students will upload their papers, simply toggle on the “Turnitin” switch and papers will be automatically screened for plagiarized content.  

Finally, as the new Director of the Writing Center, I (Sarah Weiger, English) am happy to be a point of contact on all writing-related matters this semester. Would you like a designated Writing Assistant to work with you and your students this term? Do you need insight on crafting better writing prompts? Help with strategies for evaluating student writing? I may not have all the answers, but feel free to try me: weiger@up.edu.

Sign Up for a Core Samples Lunch (Sept. 27)

Engrossing new courses are being offered at the Exploration Level of the revitalized Core. All staff and faculty are invited to attend the first in a series of “Core Samples” lunches on Tuesday, September 27, from 11:45 a.m.–12:30 p.m. in the Teske Room of Bauccio Commons. In this new series, faculty teaching such courses as “Literature & Cultures of Food,” “History of Rock & Roll” and “Global Environmental Justice,” will teach a 20-minute segment from their course, then open it up for discussion among attendees. It’s a great chance to see our colleagues shine, learn cool stuff, find out more about the new Core, and enjoy a complimentary lunch, as a guest of the Garaventa Center and the Core Director. Andrew Guest will offer the first one, “Performance Under Pressure: Scientific Thinking, Global Consciousness, and the Perfect Penalty Kick,” an excerpt from his course The World Cup in Mind & Society. There are 15 seats available; please RSVP to Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu) by September 23 to reserve a space for the first round. The second Core Samples lunch will be Wednesday, November 16, from 11:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m.