UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

09-11-2023

UP’s Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writers Series Fall Lecture—Jess Walter (Nov. 1)

Spokane fiction writer Jess Walter comes to UP as our fall Schoenfeldt Distinguished Writer on Wednesday, November 1. We will host an informal classroom Q&A 4:30-5:30 in Franz 206 prior to the presentation at 7:30-8:30 p.m. in BC Auditorium. A book-signing will follow.

Jess Walter began his career as a newspaper reporter before going on to write seven novels, a nonfiction book on Idaho’s Ruby Ridge incident, and two collections of short stories. His novels, such as The Financial Lives of the Poets, Beautiful Ruins, and The Cold Millions, have been hailed as satirical, poignant, and wise.

To learn more about Jess Walter, read the full announcement here.

E-mail larson@up.edu for a free copy of his latest collection of stories The Angel of Rome. 

For questions, contact Lars Erik Larson, larson@up.edu 

Join the UP Grading Collaborative

Dear colleagues, how many of you have ever wondered if grading really, truly reflects student learning? How many of you have wondered if there is a better way? If the answers to these questions are ones you would like to explore in a supportive community, please consider joining the nascent, grassroots, UP Grading Collaborative that sprung up in the summer of 2023. We will be hosting a series of casual, friendly, come-as-you-are lunch conversations meant to build a community interested in new adventures in “Grading for Growth.”  

The come-as-you-are conversations will be held in the Teske dining room with lunch provided (buffet in the Holy Cross Dining room) on:  

  • September 25 12:30-1:45 p.m. 
  • October 24 11:30-12:45 p.m.  
  • November 20 12:30-1:45 p.m. 

Please RSVP here for the events. The come-as-you-are lunch conversations are sponsored by UP’s $500K, 5-year Howard Hughes Inclusive Excellence 3 Grant focused on supporting adoption of inclusive teaching practices.  

Questions? contact vanhoomi@up.edu 

Help us build a Universal Design info hub @UP!

Curious about implementing Universal Design or Universal Design for Learning in your work? Join the new Universal Design & UDL info hub Team, hosted by the UP Employee Disability Affinity Group. This open team is a central space to share ideas, resources, initiatives, and promote cross-campus collaboration in making UP more accessible! 

How you can contribute: 

  • Share resources you’ve found helpful.  
  • Add an idea to the “There are no bad ideas” whiteboard.  
  • Describe what your unit is doing now to promote UD(L) and accessibility.  
  • Add a professional development opportunity to the Upcoming Opps calendar.  
  • Post a link to a great example of UD(L) at another university or company.  
  • Post a question for colleagues.  
  • Invite colleagues to join this Team! 

Questions? Email Sarah Nuxoll, coordinator of the UP Disability Affinity Group, at nuxolls@up.edu. 

Honors Reading Course Available to Faculty (Proposals Due by Dec. 1)

Faculty members interested in offering an Honors Program reading course during the 2024-2025 academic year are invited to send a course proposal to program director Cara Hersh by Friday, December 1. Honors students, in their junior and senior years, take two one-credit reading courses. Courses are limited to 15 students and are offered pass/no pass. Team-taught courses are particularly welcome. This is a great way to test something new and faculty are compensated $1000 for teaching a course on a topic of their choosing that would appeal to an interdisciplinary group of students. Proposals should include a course title and a brief, one-paragraph description. 

For more information, or to submit a proposal, contact Cara Hersh at hersh@up.edu. 

Core Samples Lunches This Fall

Learning cool stuff from our stellar colleagues is one of the great perks of being at UP! This fall we will continue to experience the Revitalized Core in a series of three Core Samples Lunches open to all faculty and staff, especially program counselors. Enjoy lunch as a guest of the Garaventa Center and Core Program—seats are limited to 12 per gathering in the Teske Room. Please RSVP to Karen Eifler, eifler@up.edu.  

Here is the schedule for Fall:  

Tuesday, October 3, 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.—Gregory Pulver will teach “What IS Art?” from his FA 107/108 Foundations course.  

Tuesday, November 7, 11:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m.—Elise Moentmann will teach from the Core Habit of HOPE.  

Wednesday, November 15, 11:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m., Neil Oculi will teach from his X-level ENV course on “Global Environmental Justice.”

Faculty and Staff Autumn Retreat (Oct. 6)

The Committee on Mission, Campus Ministry, the Office of the Provost, and Human Resources invite you to attend a day-long spiritual retreat for Faculty and Staff on Friday, October 6, 2023. The retreat will be held on campus. The goal of the retreat is to provide a time for spiritual reflection and renewal, to deepen faculty and staff connections to one another and to the University’s Catholic, Holy Cross mission and identity, and to invite staff and faculty to reflect on and embrace their vital contributions to our shared mission. 

Sign-up information can be found here: https://pilotsprevent.qualtrics.com

Please note that participation in the day-retreat will be considered a regular workday for staff, per supervisory approval.

Please contact Mission Committee chair Shannon Mayer at mayers@up.edu with any questions about schedule, participation, accommodations, etc. 

Yakama Valley Fall Break Rural Immersion (Oct. 14-19)

The Moreau Center for Service and Justice would like to invite all students to apply to go to the Rural Immersion this Fall Break. The immersion will take place from October 14 to 19 in Washington’s Yakama Valley. Engage with different social justice themes, including the challenges of undocumented and migrant farmworkers, sustainable farming practices, care for the environment, and United States immigration law. This is also a great opportunity to learn more about the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, the original caretakers of this land.

The application for all immersions is now open, and you can access it by visiting the Moreau Center’s Immersions Website. The deadline to submit your application for the Rural Immersion is September 22.   

For more information, feel free to email Br. Pablo (quanlope@up.edu) or email rural.immersion@up.edu.

Introducing 2023-2024 New Faculty Members

This week, the Office of the Provost is pleased to introduce the following new faculty members:

  • Daniel Bulek, Visiting Instructor, School of Nursing & Health Innovations
  • Abbey Darus, Instructor, School of Nursing & Health Innovations
  • Kaitlyn Piantoni, Instructor, School of Nursing & Health Innovations
  • Matthew Rueben, Assistant Professor, Shiley School of Engineering

Visit the 2023 New Faculty Highlights page and get to know all our new faculty members.

Spring 2024 Provost’s Initiative for Undergraduate Research (Apply by Oct. 27)

Since its inauguration in 2015, the Provost’s Initiative for Undergraduate Research has provided support for faculty members from across the University who collaborate with undergraduates on a semester-long research project. The Office of the Provost is committed to increasing opportunities for student experiential learning, and this initiative represents a key element in achieving that goal. 

Faculty members are invited to apply for a Provost’s Initiative grant to support collaborative work with an undergraduate on a co-designed research project during the spring semester 2024. During the course of the project, students are expected to meet and work with the faculty member weekly to produce a deliverable (research paper, lit review, or presentation, etc.) appropriate to their discipline. (Note: 1 credit hour typically requires 45 hours of work on the project, which includes faculty meeting time.) Students will enroll in a 493 course and earn at least 1 credit for their project work. Faculty members who are new to undergraduate research at University of Portland will receive $1,500 for mentoring the student in research, while experienced faculty members will be compensated $1,000. 

Applications are available here and are due October 27, 2023. Email ur@up.edu with questions or call Cara Hersh, assistant provost, at x7262. 

UP’s New Public-Facing Inclusive Teaching Database Dashboard is Live!

Interested in one stop shopping to research inclusive teaching practices? Then, Google “up.edu inclutch” to access UP’s searchable new dashboard of inclusive and equitable teaching resources. UP’s public-facing new Inclusive Teaching Database dashboard (https://libguides.up.edu/inclutch) exists to help colleagues easily find and immediately access resources tailored to your own inclusive teaching or pedagogic research. Use keywords to search its 120+ indexed Web, journal, book/chapter, conference, and video resources, or narrow your resource search by its targeted discipline, academic division, particular teaching subject, or resource type.  

This project was sponsored by the UP Center for Teaching and Learning’s, HHMI funded, Inclusive Teaching Scholars program and designed by a faculty/Library team working with UP’s Office of Institutional Research, these “inclutch” resources (an 8-character ‘inclusive teaching’ mashup) help you pause and re/consider your next moves.  

Reach the tool’s faculty curators at inclutch@up.edu or CT&L Director Terry Favero (favero@up.edu) with resources to add or for more information.