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Pamela Potter, associate professor of nursing, will retire at the end of fall semester. She came to the Bluff in 2007 with a BS from Northern Illinois University, an MA from the University of New Mexico, and a DNS from Yale University. Potter is well-known for her work in facilitating the development of the School of Nursing’s new undergraduate degree in integrative health and wellness studies.

A farewell reception for Pamela Potter will be held on Monday, December 16, in Franz Hall’s Murphy conference room, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend the reception, thank Pamela for her years of service, congratulate her, and wish her a fond farewell.

Tara Prestholdt, biology, won the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association of College and University Biology Educators (ACUBE). The award is offered annually to honor faculty who both practice and promote effective, innovative teaching in the biology classroom.

While the entire campus is no doubt aware of Prestholdt’s polymathic proficiency, mathematics professor Stephanie Salomone explains it best: “Tara is a true mentor to her undergraduates. Tara’s expectations for her co-researchers are high. They will not just do good science, but they will be able to explain their work to people who are as far as possible from experts. They will not just enjoy science, or like science; they will find science exciting,the process of discovery exhilarating, and the difficult cognitive task of explaining science to laymen motivating. Every student that I’ve known who has worked in Tara’s lab has come out skilled in scientific research, and eager to get back into the lab or the field to do more.

“Further, Tara Prestholdt is dedicated to improving undergraduate education on campus and beyond. Tara’s work on the NSF-funded REFLECT project has helped transform the culture of undergraduate STEM education at UP into one that responds to the evidence of what makes for great teaching – active, hands-on, engaged approaches to instruction. She is a supportive mentor for other faculty who are new to evidence-based practices, she is innovative in her own approaches to teaching, and she is a leader who deeply deserves this recognition.”

All students, faculty, and staff are invited to participate in UP’s sixth annual ReadUP program. This year’s selection is The Leavers by Lisa Ko, who will speak on February 10, 2020 as part of this year’s annual Schoenfeldt Writers Series.

The Leavers, Ko’s 2017 debut novel, was a National Book Award finalist, winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Fiction, and was named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, BuzzFeed, Bustle, Electric Literature, and others. According to a review in The Atlantic, “For topicality, Lisa Ko’s novel The Leavers, about an undocumented mother who suddenly disappears and the young American-born son she leaves behind, could hardly be better timed.”

ReadUP is the University’s annual celebration of literature in which the entire local campus community — students, faculty, and staff — are invited to read “one book together.” Free copies of each year’s selection are distributed by the Clark Library and in residence halls, and book discussion groups are formed in the residence halls and at faculty/staff brown bag lunches. The campaign culminates with a public lecture and discussion by the book’s author, as part of the Schoenfeldt Distinguished Visiting Writers Series. The author’s visit to the UP campus — and the efforts to get each year’s riveting selection into the hands, heads and hearts of UP students, faculty and staff — is sponsored by the Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series, the Office of the Provost, Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life & American Culture, Clark Library, Office of Residence Life, the Office of University Relations, and the Office of Marketing and Communications.

To order your free copy, please click here. Orders will be taken starting Monday, October 21 through Friday, November 1. Starting Monday, November 11, students living in residence halls will pick up their books from their hall directors and for everyone else, books can be picked up from the Clark Library, any time between 7:30 a.m. and 10 p.m., at the main circulation desk.

All are welcome to join student activities in celebrating their annual Día de Muertos event, a night full of cultural celebration with authentic cuisine, educational performances, sugar skull decorating, music, and so much more, on Friday, November 1, at 6 p.m., in Bauccio Commons. Family members and the public are free to attend. To showcase a photo of a loved one for display the altar please email Stephen at laphen21@up.edu. Don’t forget to RSVP on Engage and please encourage participation from your students!

Catholics believe in the Communion of Saints—the spiritual connection with those loved ones who have gone before us and the saints that lived as examples for us. Through the month of November we remember all of those who have gone before us in faith, especially our loved ones who have died.  

Starting Monday, October 21, stations will be available in many offices around campus where anyone is welcome to inscribe the names of loved ones on a card and place it in the accompanying basket. The cards will be placed near the altar in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher during Mass for All Saints Day on Friday, November 1, and they will continue to be a focus of prayer throughout November, the month of remembrance. There is also an online form at this link.

We will also celebrate Mass on Sunday, November 17, at 10:30 a.m., with special intentions for the loved ones of our UP community who have died in the past year.

For more information contact Rev. Tim Weed, C.S.C., Campus Ministry, at x8919 or weed@up.edu.

The deadline for submitting a nomination for the 2020 Alumni Awards is October 15, 2019. If your nominee is selected as a finalist, members of the National Alumni Board will contact you to obtain more information about the individual you have recommended. Honorees will be chosen this fall, and will be celebrated at the President’s Alumni Awards Gala during Alumni Reunion Weekend in June 2020.

Kaiser Permanente has announced their 2019 walk-in flu shot clinics, which will take place from October 12 through 25:

• Saturday October 12 and 19: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Monday-Friday, October 14 through 25: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The flu is a serious virus that can cause severe illness. A flu shot can help protect you against the flu, which is why Kaiser doctors recommend that everyone 6 months of age and older get a flu shot every year.

Kaiser members can visit this website to find a location near them.

For more information contact Laura Barnard, human resources, at benefits@up.edu.