UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

05-03-2021

Faculty Development Day (May 11) Program is Available

The Committee on Teaching and Scholarship is pleased to announce that the virtual Faculty Development Day program is ready! We hope this helps you plan your schedule so you can get the most out of it and support your colleagues who are presenting.

The day begins at 8:45 a.m. with a welcome and keynote, followed by an array of excellent sessions to choose from, and closes with the Faculty Awards and Retirement Ceremony at 5:30 p.m. These are all Zoom-based and the ones that will be recorded are noted in the program. Those recordings will be made available later through the Faculty Development Day Moodle page.

This annual event was cancelled last year, so we are excited to bring it back in 2021! It’s a great opportunity for faculty to learn, share, connect, and appreciate each other! Please contact Diane Sotak, sotak@up.edu, with questions or requests for accommodations.  

Clark Library: Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and pays tribute to the history, accomplishments, and contributions of people with Asian and Pacific Islander heritage in the United States. We invite you to visit our latest guide to discover more through the Clark Library’s books, eBooks, and streaming videos.

Want us to add an item? Send suggestions to Heidi Senior, Clark Library, at senior@up.edu.

Clark Library: Contribute to the All Together Project

Challenging times can inspire creative reflection! The library continues to collect creative works that capture your experience of the events of 2020-2021 for the All Together project. Examples of creative works are photographs, videos, essays, poems, drawings, paintings, etc. Visit the site to see some submissions and consider adding yours! 

Questions? Please contact José Velazco, Clark Library, at velazco@up.edu.

Leadership Coaching for UP Faculty & Staff

Dave Houglum, Director of Leadership in the Franz Center for Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, is currently offering free leadership coaching as a service for UP employees and has three openings currently available for faculty & staff to start the coaching process in the near future (beginning in May). Coaching will be conducted via Zoom or phone.

If you are interested in receiving leadership coaching, complete the very short interest form found here by Friday, May 7.

Houglum earned the CPCC credential (Certified Professional Co-Active Coach) from the Co-Active Training Institute by completing over 200 hours of training, 100+ hours of coaching clients, feedback on multiple recorded coaching sessions with individual coach supervisors, group coaching supervision, mentor coaching, and final practical exam. The Co-Active Training Institute is widely recognized as the most rigorous professional coach training and certification program in the industry and is known as the “gold standard” of coaching by the Institute of Coaching, a Harvard Medical School affiliate.

For questions & more information, please reach out to Houglum at houglum@up.edu.

2021 Writers Magazine Published Online

The English Department is proud to announce the publication of UP’s student-run creative writing journal Writers Magazine.  This year’s all-online 2021 edition is built around the theme of “Good Bones” and gathers the year’s best writing and images by students from across campus.  It’s now available here.

Additionally, we are excited to announce that beginning fall 2021, UP will offer a Writing minor.  This addition will give a broader spectrum of students on The Bluff the chance to exercise their creative and communicative powers.  (Students in the professional schools are especially encouraged!)  The Writing minor involves a combination of workshop-style courses (playwriting, news writing, nonfiction, poetry, fiction, screenwriting) and English electives.

For details in the fall, students can contact Fr. Pat Hannon, hannon@up.edu, John McDonald, mcdonald@up.edu, or English Chair Lars Larson, larson@up.edu.

Move-Out Donations to help UP Students, Faculty, and Staff

At the end of each year, we see many perfectly re-usable items and non-perishable food get thrown away by students during move-out. This semester, Residence Life, Printing & Mailing Services and several other UP community members have worked together to coordinate opportunities for students to donate their unwanted items and share them with our UP and local communities.

Each residence hall has donation boxes set up in key locations where students can place their unwanted food, clothing and household items any time between now and May 7. For students living off campus, Printing & Mailing Services has donation boxes set up in their vestibule which can be accessed using their student ID cards.

From Tuesday, May 11  to Friday May 14, the Anchor will be open every day from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. and from 4 p.m. – 6 p.m. to welcome University community members, staff, and students to come in to browse and grab what they need. Left over items will then be donated to our local community partners.

If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out to Reneé Byrd, byrd@up.edu, or Joshua Bode, bode@up.edu.

Moment of Beauty with The Saint John’s Bible: Loaves and Fishes

This week, enjoy Donald Jackson’s lustrous illumination of ABUNDANCE so profound that the images spill over onto two pages, telling the story of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes. The music in this 2-minute pause is provided by Tyler Lawrence ’24, and Susan McDaniel, Performing and Fine Arts. Allow yourself to sit, breathe and BE.

Custodial Services in Offices to Resume Again

On Monday, May 10, Physical Plant’s Custodial Night Staff will resume weekly custodial service to private offices. If you would like to opt out and NOT have custodial service provided starting May 10, please complete the survey linked below by Thursday, May 6th.

https://uportland.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1OlRSvZ9q8RfBj0

Please note:

  1. You should still place your trash and recycling outside of your door if you wish them to be dumped. A communication will be going out in August to resume service, but if you wish to op back in before then, you can email luna@up.edu
  2. For those who complete this survey because they want to opt out, a small red dot sticker will be placed on the door just above the knob, this denotes offices which custodians should not enter.

For questions, please contact Marissa Grice, physical plant, at grice@up.edu.

An Important Message Regarding the University of Portland’s COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement for All Students and Employees

Dear University of Portland Community Members,

Approximately four months ago, the University of Portland established a COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force comprised of students, staff, and faculty and chaired by Dr. Casey Shillam, Dean of the School of Nursing. Among many other goals, the Task Force was asked to study whether UP community members should be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The Task Force took ample time to examine this issue closely. It considered important matters such as vaccine efficacy, equity in vaccine access, religious and/or medical exceptions to the COVID-19 vaccination requirement, and the impact that vaccination will have on the health and vibrancy of our campus community.

Ultimately, the Task Force concluded that widespread vaccination of students, staff, and faculty will advance the health of UP community members; promote the safety of our in-person, residential campus environment; and, contribute to the decline of the pandemic. The Task Force recommended that all UP community members be required to receive the COVID-19 vaccination. This recommendation was endorsed by the COVID-19 Steering Committee and approved by the President’s Leadership Cabinet.

Thus, we announce today that all University of Portland students, faculty, and staff will be required to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Employees must submit proof of vaccination no later than August 1, 2021. Students must submit proof of vaccination no later than September 1, 2021. As with other vaccination requirements, medical and/or non-medical (e.g., religious) exemptions from this policy may be requested consistent with Oregon and federal law.

We announce this requirement well in advance of the compliance deadlines so that community members can make a plan to get vaccinated and consult their medical provider, if necessary. In the coming weeks, more information will be shared with the community. Instructions on submitting proof of vaccination and requesting an exemption from the vaccination requirement will be provided. Additionally, the University will work to assist our community members experiencing barriers to receiving vaccinations, including our international students who may not have access to FDA-authorized vaccines prior to their return to The Bluff. We recognize that not all areas of the country or the world have equity in access to vaccines, and we commit to providing assistance to our students and employees. We appreciate your patience as further resources are developed and made available to the community.

As we have stated from the start of the pandemic, the health and well-being of UP community members must be our collective priority. We have adopted several measures to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and, thanks to your extraordinary efforts, the University has achieved great success in keeping COVID-19 case numbers low. The vaccination requirement we announce today is just the latest step we must take in our journey to keep one another safe as we return to the cherished in-person campus community that is so essential to our mission.

Sincerely,

Father Mark Poorman, C.S.C.
President

Dr. Herbert Medina
Provost

Father John Donato, C.S.C.
Vice President for Student Affairs and COVID-19 Steering Committee Co-Chair

Dr. Elise Moentmann
Associate Provost and COVID-19 Steering Committee Co-Chair

Jim Ravelli
Vice President for University Operations and COVID-19 Steering Committee Co-Chair

Dr. Casey Shillam
School of Nursing Dean and COVID-19 Vaccination Task Force Chair

UP Branded Virtual Backgrounds: Add Some Zip to Your Zoom

UP branded virtual backgrounds are available for download in ShareUP, according to Chris Long, marketing and communications. The virtual backgrounds create an appealing, brand-focused backdrop that you may use in virtual meetings on Zoom (or for other virtual platforms). To navigate to the virtual background files please visit ShareUP using this link, then select “ShareUP Login.” On the home page, select “Brand” then “Virtual Backgrounds.”

Directions on downloading the files and enabling the assets in Zoom are available on the virtual backgrounds page in ShareUP. Please reach out to Long (longc@up.edu) with any questions or technical issues.