News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.
University employees’ TIAA-CREF investment counselors, Yasemin Under (pictured) and Braden Danielson, will be on campus a number of times this spring for individual financial counseling sessions. A TIAA CREF representative will be on campus for one-on-one counseling sessions on February 18, 19, and 20 as well as March 4, 5, and 6. Go to www.tiaa-cref.org/schedulenow to schedule an appointment today. Call TIAA-CREF at (877) 842-2028 or Andy Sherwood at 8981 for more information.
Craige Champion, associate professor of history at Syracuse University, will give a lecture, “To Believe or Not to Believe: Roman Senators and the State Religion,” on Monday, February 17, at 7 p.m., in Shiley Hall room 319. Champion will present the findings of his recently completed manuscript on ancient Roman religion (Pax Deorum: Elite Religious Practices in the Middle Roman Republic, Yale University Press). Countering an embedded, widely-held interpretation over two thousand years old, he argues that Roman governing elites did indeed believe in their gods, rather than being the skeptical and incredulous manipulators still perceived by most scholars on Roman religion. The argument should be of interest to anyone who is concerned with questions of the intersections between politics and religion, and elite/non-elite social relations in any historical society.
The lecture is sponsored by the history department with the support of the Distinguished Historian Fund, founded by Fr. James Connelly, C.S.C. For more information contact Brad Franco, history, at 7192 or franco@up.edu.
In celebration of Black History Month this February, the University of Portland is honored to host its annual African American Read-In and cultural dinner on Thursday, February 6, at 5 p.m., in the Terrace Room. The African American Read-In is a national dedication to literary guests sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Multicultural Programs, the Office of Student Activities, and the English department invite all students, faculty, and staff to share in the celebration dinner and reading. Participants are encouraged to read a selection from their favorite African American author, poet, playwright, or songwriter. All are welcome to attend even if you choose not to read. Please RSVP to http://tinyurl.com/n7fnkyj by Monday, February 3. Questions can be directed to Bethany Sills, multicultural programs, at sills@up.edu or call 7470. (James Baldwin photo by Carl Van Vechten, 1955, http://tinyurl.com/lpke8z2)
Former Pilots basketball standout Laura Sale O’Connell ’96 will be one of ten individuals to be inducted in the WCC Hall of Honor this spring. The West Coast Conference will induct its sixth annual Hall of Honor class on Saturday, March 8, at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas, Nev. Ten individuals, one from each member institution, will be honored as part of the 2014 West Coast Conference Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships from March 6-11 at the Orleans Arena.
At Portland, Laura was the ultimate student-athlete, starring on the court while shining in the classroom. Sale O’Connell, who still ranks fifth all-time in UP program history with 1,542 career points, helped lead the Pilots to three NCAA Tournaments in the mid-1990s and she was named an Academic All-American in 1996.
For more information contact athletics at 7117 or go to www.portlandpilots.com.
The Committee on Teaching and Scholarship cordially invites all regular faculty to submit proposals to receive funding from the Arthur Butine Faculty Development Fund. Faculty can download Butine application materials and review selection criteria by visiting https://www.up.edu/academic-senate/tas/. Applications are due to 1) the Chair of the Committee on Teaching and Scholarship, Lauretta Frederking (by e-mail to tas@up.edu); 2) the applications’ respective department chairs (if CAS); and 3) the applicants’ deans no later than noon on Friday, February 7, 2014. Please note also that applicants must discuss their Butine proposals with their respective deans prior to submitting applications for consideration. It is imperative that the proposals must be fully completed, otherwise they will be automatically disqualified from consideration.
For more information, contact Frederking at 8076 or tas@up.edu.
Three University of Portland alumni have been named to the Portland Business Journal’s annual “Forty Under 40” list, which recognizes forty up-and-coming business leaders in the Portland area that are both professionally accomplished and civically engaged. The three UP alumni recognized this year are:
The winners will be honored at Portland’s The Nines Hotel with a lunch on Thursday, February. 13. The University of Portland is Oregon’s only comprehensive university with schools of business, education, engineering, nursing, a College of Arts and Sciences, and a graduate school. UP students and alumni provide a rich resource for research, internships, and full-time employment in the Portland area and beyond. More than half of University of Portland’s 31,000 alumni reside in the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area. To learn more about why University students and alumni make excellent employees, visit Career Services at www.up.edu/career.
The next meeting of the Faith and Intellectual Life Discussion Group will be on Friday, February 7, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., in Franz Hall Murphy conference room. The group will be discussing Antonio Spadaro’s “Interview with Pope Francis: A Big Heart Open to God,” and a Rothko image to be announced later. Readings are on electronic reserve in the library under Eifler, Karen or Martin, Norah, Faith and Intellectual Discussion Group. All faculty and staff are welcome. Refreshments will be served. For more information contact Martin at martinn@up.edu or Eifler at eifler@up.edu.
The Faculty Welfare Committee’s next meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 4, according to committee chair Tamar More, physics. The committee welcomes issues from faculty; in particular, at this meeting they will be discussing the faculty handbook, senate by laws, and other topics. Any concerns, suggestions, or comments regarding summer classes, or any other matter, can be brought before the committee by contacting any member: Tamar More, Mike Eom, Lara Trout, Caroline Mann, Ken Kleszynski, or Barbara Braband. An anonymous site for submitting information and suggestions for the faculty handbook can be found at https://pilots.up.edu/ group/facstaff/faculty-handbook.
This year marks 25 years since the first Schoenfeldt Distinguished Visiting Writer, Barry Lopez, appeared on campus. Since the Schoenfeldt Writers Series was founded by the late Rev. Arthur Schoenfeldt, C.S.C. (pictured, with the right half of novelist David James Duncan) and his sister, the late Suzanne Fields, many of the finest writers in the United States have offered public readings and visited classrooms at the University. In honor of this milestone for the Schoenfeldt Series, all are welcome to view a display of some of the past Schoenfeldt visitors in the display case across from the Shepard Freshman Resource Center on the first floor of Buckley Center, created by the University Museum. The museum is located in the basement of Shipstad Hall in room 014. Hours are Monday & Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Wednesdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; and also by appointment. Faculty, staff, students, and alumni are invited to stop in and learn more about the University’s history. Contact museum coordinator Carolyn Connolly at 8038 or piatz@up.edu for more information.
Faculty planning to process and students planning to graduate in May 2014 may order their caps, gowns, and personalized graduate announcements at the Jostens ordering event in the Pilot House lounge on February 11, 12, and 13, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Orders may also be submitted at the events office located at 6605 N. Portsmouth from February 11 through March 21. Please note: any orders received after March 21 will incur a special-handling fee of $15. Order forms for personalized graduate announcements are available now in the events office. Students may also order online at www.shop.jostens.com or by calling 1-800-854-7464. Questions? Contact university events at 8434 or events@up.edu.