UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

08-16-2021

The Writing Center will be back in business this fall!

The UP Writing Center—an awesome peer-tutoring resource that can support student writers from any discipline—opens August 29 for the semester. After a successful year of online tutoring, we will now be moving to a hybrid model where students can choose to meet their Writing Assistant online (via Zoom) or in person in the Learning Commons (BC 163). 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. Our 24 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.  

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.
  • Our Writing Assistants represent most majors as well as the professional schools, and 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, e.g.).

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 day and time 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 Director of the Writing Center, I (Molly Hiro, 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: hiro@up.edu.

Physical Plant Fall Operations

Welcome back to the Bluff! Throughout the pandemic Physical Plant services have changed many times to keep up with best practices and campus activities. Please read our update below with information on our fall operations, as well as answers to frequently asked questions. Thank you in advance for your patience and partnership. 

  1. During the month of August, the Physical Plant is focused on completing summer projects, essential maintenance and cleaning, setting academic and residential spaces, and supporting all of the many events surrounding student move-in and orientation. Requests outside of this scope are currently experiencing lead times of 3-6 weeks. 
  2. While we recommend you keep some stock on hand, if you have cleaning supplies or PPE for which you no longer have a need, please place a work request through https://workrequest.campus.up.edu/ for Physical Plant to pick them up! We would love to return these items to inventory and redistribute them as needed.
  3. Physical Plant will continue supplying hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes to departments until inventory is depleted, at which point this will be a purchase made independently by each department. Please place requests through http://workrequest.campus.up.edu/
  4. Departments are responsible for procuring additional items they deem necessary for their operations, including masks, gloves, and plexiglass.
  5. Physical Plant staff may continue wearing masks if they choose. Please respect their decision.
  6. Physical Plant Custodial staff will continue with many of the enhanced cleaning protocols implemented during the pandemic. Details can be found at https://www.up.edu/physicalplant/.
  7. Physical Plant will continue with many of the enhanced HVAC protocols implemented during the pandemic. Details can be found at https://www.up.edu/physicalplant/.

New to The Bluff: Amy Ongiri, Professor, Ethnic Studies

Amy Abugo Ongiri joins the faculty at the University of Portland from Lawrence University where they were the Jill Beck Director of Film Studies. They received their B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. Their work focuses on visual culture at the intersection of race, gender, and identity and their book, Spectacular Blackness: The Cultural Politics of the Black Power Movement and the Search for a Black Aesthetic, explores the cultural politics of the Black Power movement, particularly the Black Arts movement’s search to define a “black aesthetic.” Her academic work has been published in College Literature, Journal of African American History, Camera Obscura, Postmodern Culture, Black Filmmaker, The Los Angeles Review of Books and Nka: The Journal of Contemporary African Art. In addition to academic publications, she has also published creative non-fiction in Black Girl Dangerous, Mutha Magazine, Glitterwolf, Black Lesbian Love Lab and the Rad Families anthology. She is a member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Science and a judge for the Webby Awards. Amy and her family enjoy trips to the ocean and exploring the national park system. 

New to The Bluff: Toyin Olukotun, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing

Toyin Olukotun joined the University of Portland in October 2020. She received both her B.S. and Ph.D. in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Upon graduation from her doctoral program, she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in health disparities and health service research at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Her program of research focuses on advancing health equity in African Americans and immigrant populations using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. To that end, Toyin has disseminated her research findings through several peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations. As an educator, Toyin has taught a variety of courses including global health, cultural diversity, nursing skills and fundamentals, and health systems. In her classrooms, she aims to foster an inclusive and safe environment where students from various backgrounds can succeed. She is passionate about mentoring first-generation nursing students and is thrilled to be preparing the next generation of nurses for their professional careers. For leisure, she enjoys traveling, reading, listening to music, and trying diverse cuisines. 

New to The Bluff: Becky Kunz, Visiting Instructor, School of Nursing

While earning her master’s degree in organizational leadership in 2014 from the University of Northwestern, Becky Kunz began researching generational workforce trends and a match was lit. Becky’s capstone research involved asking the question: what factors, characteristics, or biases hinder the flow of tacit knowledge between millennials, generation Xers, and baby boomers. Before coming to UP School of Nursing, Becky worked at the University of Minnesota’s School of Nursing as their population health & systems assistant. She also worked directly with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as a regional program director of a TEAM STEPPS Master Train the Trainer team at the University of Minnesota. Her passion lies within the intersection of how we pass and create new knowledge while leveraging social capital and adult learning theories to build and grow a new generation of talent. She is a Southern California native who loves spending any amount of time outside rain, snow, or shine. 

New to The Bluff: Maj. Nicholas Cowan, Assistant Professor of Aerospace Studies, Air Force ROTC

In addition to teaching duties at the University of Portland, Major Nicholas Cowan serves as the recruiting officer for Air Force ROTC Detachment 695. He orchestrates officer candidate recruiting and outreach throughout the Portland metro area, encompassing nearly 7,000 square miles and three million people, including at all area high schools, local service organizations, and 15 universities and colleges. Maj. Cowan is a Portland native who joined the Air Force in 2007 through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Oregon State University. He is a career intelligence officer, Political-Military Affairs Specialist, and a graduate of the United States Air Force Weapons School. Prior to his current assignment, Maj. Cowan was the Director of Operations at the 30th Intelligence Squadron, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia. Throughout his career, Maj. Cowan has commanded over 10,000 hours of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions operating U-2S, RQ-4B, MQ-1B, MQ-9A, and MC-12W aircraft. He has also deployed multiple times supporting Operations Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom, New Dawn, and Inherent Resolve. When not at work, he enjoys traveling with his family, is always cooking something from the garden, and can routinely be found DIY-ing projects around the house. 

New to The Bluff: Adeya Powell, Assistant Director, Office of Institutional Research

Adeya Powell, PhD, is a graduate of University of Georgia’s Research, Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics program within the department of educational psychology. Since graduating from University of Georgia, she has worked as a post-doctoral public health researcher and statistician with Yale University, as a statistical consultant, and most recently, as a statistics/mathematics instructor at Georgia State University. As the assistant director in the IR office, she will help guide the office’s statistical analysis and predictive modeling efforts among many other functions. Please join us in welcoming Adeya!