UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Campus Services

Rowena Bramlette ’88 Endowed Scholarship Announced

We are pleased to announce an endowed scholarship has been established in memory of Rowena Bramlette ’88.  Rowena served the University for 14 years and retired from her position of associate vice president for budgeting in 2019. She passed away after a courageous battle with cancer in January 2020. Prior to his retirement as vice president of financial affairs, Alan Timmins ’80 had nurtured the idea to create a scholarship in Rowena’s memory. Initial funding was provided by Alan and members of the Controller’s Office. Rowena’s husband, Rod Bramlette has added his support to the scholarship along with the President’s Leadership Cabinet. The scholarship will be called the Rowena B. Bramlette ’88 Financial Affairs International Accounting Scholarship, and will be given each year to an outstanding senior, non-US born, accounting student.

In remembrance of Rowena, University employees and members of the faculty may contribute to her scholarship by using this link.  To  inquire on how you can make your donation through payroll deduction, please contact Kati Duffy, development, at duffyk@up.edu.

Course Packs for Fall 2020: Please Submit Now

To ensure your classes have course packs on Monday, August 24, please submit your materials to printing services as soon as possible! Packets received after Monday, July 27 cannot be guaranteed completion because of the time it can take to confirm copyright information.

If you have any questions, please contact Kassie Hansen, printing services, at x8101 or printjobs@up.edu.

Meaningful Peer-to-Peer Conversations About Race: July 30

The Office of International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion is excited to invite faculty and staff to join us on Thursday, July 30 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. as we engage in meaningful peer-to-peer conversations about race. We will host three conversations for you to choose from on the following works, please read or watch one of the materials below in preparation for the conversations:

You will need to RSVP to these conversations Monday, July 27 so that we can assign you to a group. 

We are also seeking facilitators for these discussions. Facilitators are not trainers. These are peer-to-peer conversations. We are looking for facilitators who are comfortable helping manage conversation flow and reminding the group of community standards if appropriate. Structure and discussion questions are available here. 

If you have a discussion or affinity group already established or would like to have a conversation as an office unit, please share with us what you are doing and let us know if you would like us to help you invite others or if we can help with logistics.  

Email oiedi@up.edu with questions, comments, or accommodation requests and check this link for updates. Finally, don’t forget to RSVP here.

 

Campus Cleaning Update from Custodial Services

Throughout the campus closure, custodial services personnel have been performing cleaning and disinfecting in all campus buildings. Custodial services is also taking the time to perform deep cleaning in all residential spaces and academic buildings. Each worker has received training and is equipped with necessary tools and products to perform their job, including germicidal cleaner.

To prioritize the health and safety of everyone, custodial services has discontinued cleaning private offices. This will allow custodians to prioritize disinfecting frequently touched surfaces. If you would like trash or recycling service, please place it outside your office by 9 p.m., Sunday – Thursday. Custodians will continue to service reception and shared areas. Office suites will be provided cleaning solution should you wish to clean your space. The service of cleaning private offices will be reassessed as the situation evolves.

As the campus opens back up, frequently touched surfaces will be disinfected multiple times a day. Custodial services has purchased additional disinfecting equipment, including misting systems to clean areas more efficiently and effectively. Hand sanitizer stations are being added throughout campus as well.

For more information contact Marissa Grice, physical plant, at grice@up.edu.

New Online Beauchamp Virtual Fitness Classes

Recreational services is offering NEW online virtual fitness classes in July on MS Teams! Classes will begin on Monday, July 6th. Please see the schedule below.

  • Mondays at 12:1 5pm – Yoga Sculpt with Sammy
  • Tuesdays at 5 pm – Conditioning and Flexibility with Cameron
  • Wednesdays at 12:15 pm –  HIIT with Brie
  • Tuursdays at 12:15 pm – Zumba with Megan
  • Fridays at 10:15 am – HIIT with Brie
  • Sundays at 10:1 5am – HIIT with Brie
To become a member of the Rec Services Virtual Fitness Team, email Kaitlin at: bourne@up.edu.

Chronicle of Higher Education Data Breach: Act Now

Information services has learned that the Chronicle of Higher Education recently suffered a data breach, most likely in February 2020. The breach affected approximately 3.5 million Chronicle of Higher Education users, some of whom are University of Portland students, faculty, and staff. The stolen credentials from the breach have also been discovered on publicly accessible sources.

If you have a Chronicle account, change your password immediately. If you have used the same or a similar password for any other account, those passwords should be changed as well.

Individuals can also contact The Chronicle of Higher Education support at 1-833-579-1097, Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., ET to inquire with any further questions regarding one’s account.

Please feel free to contact Andrew Ridenour, information security analyst, at ridenour@up.edu or x7626.

Olivia Bormann: “Let’s Get Together”

All University employees who identify as Black (adjunct, faculty, staff, administration, etc.) are invited to contact Olivia Bormann, associate director of development and DIP graduate intern. Bormann hopes to create an informal group for Black identified employees to meet and greet. The group has an email list so members can all stay in contact, organize more events, and share trainings and resources. Overall, the mission is to gather and provide informal support to each other. 

Please email bormann@up.edu to be part of the group at and if you have any questions/concerns or need ADA.

Scholarly Activity Portal Unavailable Thursday, July 16

The Scholarly Activity Portal is being upgraded and will be unavailable on Thursday, July 16, 2020 until 11 a.m. Please plan accordingly.

Users will no longer have to login to PilotsClassic after the upgrade and will continue to be able to find the Scholarly Activity Portal in the Academics section of PilotsUP. The upgraded portal will look significantly different in order to work within the newer version of PilotsUP, but will continue to have the same functionality. We have tried to incorporate as many suggested improvements as possible in this upgrade.

Please contact Michele Leasor at leasor@up.edu or x8264 with questions.

A Message from Dr. Eduardo Contreras

Dear members of the University of Portland community:

We want to acknowledge the range of experiences articulated by the messages shared on Instagram by @blackatuniversityportland. As we examine each of these examples deeply and with open hearts, we realize the pain in these narratives as well as the individual and collective trauma of these events. As an institution that is committed to equity and inclusion, any instance of injustice does not align with our values and must be rectified. We are reviewing the individual posts and acting in appropriate ways, including in accordance with our harassment and discrimination policies. We are also aware of an inflammatory Instagram site that appeared over the weekend. We reject the premise and harmful impact of that site.

We also acknowledge that we have work to do to dismantle racism and ignorance on our campus, and we are committed to this work. Just as we are humbled by the work ahead, we are fortified by the strength of our community and its ongoing efforts. As some of the posts on @blackatuniversityportland note, there are allies in our community who are actively working to advance equity on campus. Indeed, our students, faculty, staff, and administration have been engaging in this work in recent years in multiple ways. As Fr. Mark Poorman mentioned on June 12, we are planning numerous activities for the next academic year that will advance our efforts, such as:

  • Further empowering the President’s Advisory Committee on Inclusion to collaborate with the Office of International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion on initiatives, programming, and events that will center the voices and lived experiences of people of color, and support such efforts with increased funding.
  • Implementing training modules on topics such as institutional racism and implicit bias.
  • Fortifying our efforts to recruit faculty, staff, and students from minoritized groups.
  • Strengthening the University’s relationships with community organizations at the vanguard of advocacy for historically marginalized populations, such as the NAACP, Urban League, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
We thank the members of our community for the work they have done to foster inclusion and amplify student voices, particularly from BIPOC students. We welcome your continued partnership and invite your perspectives and recommendations at The Office of International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion (oiedi@up.edu).