News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.
Need some help with your Moodle life? Drop by Franz 33 any time between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Monday, December 2 through Thursday December 5 and academic technology services and innovation staff will be there to help with issues big and small, from gradebook set-up to getting your spring courses into tip-top shape. This is a great way to go into the Thanksgiving holiday free of care with Moodle issues squared away by December.
For more information contact Ben Kahn, ATSI, at kahn@up.edu.
Each month, the marketing office schedules a photographer to take a small number of head shots, available on a first-come, first-served basis, for our online directory. The next session is Tuesday, November 26, 11 to noon, in Clark Library’s Digital Lab, located on the second floor, Room 215. To schedule an appointment or for questions, please e-mail Suzanne Frey at freys@up.edu no later than 3 p.m. on Monday, November 25.
Only those with confirmed appointments may attend. Please note: These appointments are limited to faculty and staff who currently do not have a professional headshot in the online directory.
The Committee on Teaching and Scholarship is now accepting faculty nominations for the 2019-2020 Teaching Award and Scholarship Award. These awards are an opportunity for the University community to recognize and celebrate two of its own for outstanding achievements in teaching and scholarship. The committee will accept nominations until noon on Friday, January 24.
Nominations should be submitted to the Committee’s Moodle site. Submission of supporting materials by nominees will be due by noon on Friday, March 13. Visit the Academic Senate resources pages for information regarding the nomination process, award criteria, and supporting materials that will be needed by the committee. Contact Hannah Highlander at tas@up.edu for more information.
International Education Week (IEW) is a joint initiative sponsored by the US Department of State and Department of Education. It celebrates internationalization and diversity on college campuses across the nation each November. This year, UP will celebrate IEW from November 18 to 22.
Please join your colleagues and student organizations in recognizing and celebrating international education and exchange on campus. Events include faculty discussions, films, art, international cuisine, workshops, class visits and more. Visit the IEW website for the complete calendar of events. Questions may also be directed to Gwen Sandford, international student services, at x7367 or sandford@up.edu.
The Open Enrollment period for UP employee benefits is happening now and will end on Friday, November 22, at 11:59 p.m. All benefited employees are required to confirm or elect changes to their healthcare benefits during this time. During open enrollment, benefited employees can elect new flexible spending amounts, add or change supplemental life insurance, as well as add or drop dependents from healthcare. Employees who use the Share the Savings plan will need to submit new forms for 2020 enrollment. Any changes made during open enrollment will go into effect January 1, 2020.
All forms can be found on the Human Resources benefits pages in Pilots UP.
The annual Silent Auction fundraiser will benefit the Tanzania and Peru Immersions in early December. The Moreau Center for Service & Justice needs faculty and staff to help them out. Donations are the backbone to the success of this fundraising event. People may donate individually or as a group. We appreciate a wide range of items, from inexpensive to expensive, purchased or handcrafted, gifts of time or services, gently used items in great condition, or gift cards large or small. We request that items be delivered to the Moreau Center office in St. Mary’s before Thanksgiving. Thank you in advance for your support.
For more information, questions or ideas about what to donate, please contact Theresa McCreary, Moreau Center, at x7131 or mccreary@up.edu.
The development office and academic technology services & innovation will offer an IGNITE Grant information session on Friday, November 22, at 11:15 a.m., in Franz Hall room 33. The event is open to any staff or faculty member (or students working with faculty of staff), and topics will include:
A Q& A session will include a former IGNITE grantee.
The session will last for 45mins and refreshments will be provided. There is a blog post with more information and a registration form here. Capacity is capped at 20 people, but interested parties can also email Ösel Jessica Plante to be entered on a waiting list.
All UP employees are welcome to stock up on winter outdoor gear and potential Christmas presents at the Columbia Sportswear Employee Store from now until Sunday, December 1. Be sure to register here in order to be sent the official invitation and further instructions. Brought to you by the alumni and parent relations office and Pilot athletics.
The next Humanities Collaborative luncheon will take place on Friday, November 22, noon to 1:30 p.m., in the Teske dining room. Lunch will be provided courtesy of the CAS dean’s office.
The featured presenter will be Matthew Warshawsky, international languages and cultures, who will discuss “Making the Baroque Less Baroque: Helping Students Understand Texts from Long Ago and Far Away.” This conversation invites you to share strategies for engaging students with texts that at first glance they might consider unrelated to their own experiences, but that in fact have a surprising and important relevance. The frame through which Warshawsky approaches that challenge is literary and artistic production in Spain during the Medieval through Baroque eras, asking students to consider questions of right and wrong, idealized love, gender roles, religious (in)tolerance, and what makes a “good” and even holy life. Participants will consider translations of two poems that students read as a way of approaching some of these issues: “The Dark Night,” by San Juan de la Cruz, and “She Argues to be Inconsistent the Desires and the Criticisms of Men, Who in Women Find Culpable That Which They Themselves Cause,” by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
Space is limited, so please RSVP to Andrea Egger, egger@up.edu, as soon as possible. Also contact Laura McLary with questions at mclary@up.edu.
Faculty, staff and students who are interested in learning more about CISGO’s diversity, inclusion, and internationalization seed grants are invited to attend their session during International Education Week. The session takes place on Tuesday, November 19, from 4 to 6 p.m., in the Terrace Room. A group of 2019-2020 grant recipients will share their projects and discuss the ways in which their funding can (or did, or will) infuse a greater sense of internationalization, diversity and inclusion into the University community. Refreshments will be served.
Questions? Contact Lisa Reed (reedl@up.edu), CISGO chair, or Eduardo Contreras (contrera@up.edu), assistant provost for international education, diversity and inclusion.