UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

12-09-2019

Holiday Payday Information: Please Note

Christmas break is around the corner and to ensure the correct payment of employee wages, we ask that you report your timecards correctly and submit them on time. Please follow the holiday policy found under “Payroll Guidance for Non-Exempt Employees on Holidays and Shutdown Days” at this link.

Timecards are due on the following schedules:

  • Monthly (exempt) timecards are due by December 17, 2019, for the entire month of December (vacation/sick hours), and will be paid on December 23, 2019. Note that the next paycheck for the monthly employees are not paid until January 31, 2020.
  • Semi-monthly (hourly) timecards are due by December 16, 2019 for the pay period 12/1/19 to 12/15/19 and will be paid on December 20, 2019. The second half of December timecard is due on December 19, 2019 for the pay period 12/16/19 to 12/31/19 and will be paid on January 3, 2020. This paycheck includes shutdown and Christmas day hours so please report your timecards appropriately to reflect the holiday.
  • Student timecards are due on December 16, 2019 for the pay period 12/1/19 to 12/15/19 and will be paid on December 23, 2019. The second half of December timecard is due on January 3, 2020 for the pay period 12/16/19 to 12/31/19 and will be on January 10, 2020.

Please be sure to submit your timecards on time for these accelerated payroll schedules. The 2020 payroll schedule will soon be available on the payroll page.

Contact the payroll office for more information at x7338 or payroll@up.edu.

Personal Packages? Please Don’t Send to Campus

Due to the high volume of packages that are received for on-campus students and official University of Portland business, personal packages for faculty, staff, and off-campus students are not to be sent to the University address, according to Mary Scroggins, printing and mailing services. For more information contact the mail center at x7179.

UP’s 25 Days ’til Christmas Advent Calendar Is Here

This Advent season, count down to Christmas with UP’s 25 Days ’til Christmas online calendar. Share Advent prayers, cookie recipes, historical winter photos of campus, and more with the rest of the UP community. Be sure to visit the site for a new surprise each day leading up to Christmas. Find the calendar here at giving.up.edu/25days.

Advent Visio Divina: A Time of Peaceful Quiet

All members of the community are invited to step aside from holiday madness for 25 minutes of a silent prayer form known as Visio Divina, “sacred seeing,” in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher following the noon Mass, about 12:35-1 p.m., on Thursday, December 12. This ancient contemplative form of prayer asks only our quiet presence as we are guided through an experience of a sacred image from our illuminated Saint John’s Bible. Sponsored by the Office of Campus Ministry and the Garaventa Center. Contact Karen Eifler (eifler@up.edu) with any questions.

Anticipation of Christmas: Did You Know?

Did you know about the role of anticipation in preparing for Christmas?

“On that day…” is a phrase that features in many of the first readings through the beginning of the Season of Advent. The Season starts with a sense of anticipation. Those using the readings are taken into the Book of Isaiah and the longings of the people of Israel for the coming of the day of the Lord – the day when many of the anxieties and struggles of life are brought to a peaceful resolution. The readings point to a longing that Christians understand as finding fulfillment in the birth of Jesus, celebrated on Christmas. They also point to a longing that remains in our hearts to this day.

Jesus did come into the world in a manger one day in Bethlehem. Yet a return is awaited, a return in glory when the fullness of the kingdom of God is to be made manifest in its fullness. It is a return that will bring about the justice and peace and life that our hearts long for. The Season of Advent then seeks to draw our longing to the foreground and awaken a greater awareness of the anticipation that we hold in our hearts for the fullness of life that God seeks to draw us into. Consider the many aspects of this season leading up to Christmas – even the aspects that may seem to some as getting into Christmas before it is even Christmas. Throughout are images, songs, and emotions that point ahead with a bit of nostalgia for a something that we long for.  Throughout is a sense of anticipation for something that we might not even be able to name. Throughout is an anticipation for the fullness that is yet to come, a fullness we long for and eagerly await its arrival.

Did You Know? is a mostly weekly feature in upbeat that pokes around the many interesting features of UP as a Catholic and Holy Cross university. If you have a question or topic of interest that you would like covered in this feature, please send it to Fr. Jim Gallagher, C.S.C., Campus Ministry, or Karen Eifler, Garaventa Center.

 

TLC Teaching Tip of the Week: Managing YOUR Stress as a College Instructor

The “UP Way” of being here for our students is unparalleled. Done with our whole minds, hearts and souls, it can also take quite a toll on us as teachers. As we head into the amazing perk of Christmas Break, the Tweet version of this TLC teaching tip is TAKE THE BREAK! The longer version is available in this brief article from the American Psychological Association. You’ve been told countless times on airplanes to put on your own oxygen mask before trying to help others. That goes for college instructors too! These are the 10 tips suggested by the APA:

  • Eliminate as many stressors as possible, and it’s almost always possible to stay away from campus for a few days, go email-free for hours at a time.
  • Cultivate social support. Swap meals with a friend so you each get a night off from cooking. Say yes to an invitation or two to enjoy a cup of coffee or happy hour.
  • Seek good nutrition: no particular diet is required here; just aim for a rainbow of colors on your plate. Maybe the long break gives you a chance to try new recipes or restaurants your can’t in the bustle of the semester.
  • Relax your muscles through stretches, a warm bath, a massage, etc. when the rest of the world is working.
  • Meditate, pray, be mindful of a given moment. Light a candle and allow yourself to be taken into its bright flame.
  • Flex your muscles. A brisk walk to enjoy the lights in your neighborhood, perhaps? The research on the link between moderate enjoyable physical movement and de-stressing is unambiguous.
  • Protect your sleep. Just do it. Seriously.
  • Get out in nature. This one combines several other suggestions on this list, and we live in a part of the world where we are spoiled with choices on natural areas to enjoy.
  • Choose your own pleasurable activities and do them. Sing along to holiday songs while driving, binge-watch The Crown, savor a novel, paint some pottery.
  • Reframe your thinking. If you feel yourself spiraling into imagining worst-case scenarios, stop and put your mind elsewhere. Set realistic expectations for yourself. Strive for acceptance of situations outside of your control. Here’s a novel way to disrupt harmful mental loops: alphabetize your favorite books or spice rack in your head.

You know this! None of these are rocket surgery, and it’s quite likely you dispense similar advice to your students when they are anxious. Take your own sage advice; you are every bit as important as those worthy young souls you tend so conscientiously.

For more information contact Karen Eilfer at eifler@up.edu.

Looking for Gonzaga Tickets? Or Free Kids’ Tickets?

If you’re still looking for Gonzaga tickets the athletics office still has some available, but they’re going fast. Click this link to purchase tickets to the biggest Men’s basketball game of the season.

Don’t forget that kids 12 and under get free tickets to men’s and women’s basketball games over the holiday break:

  • Dec. 13: Men vs. Evergreen State, 7 p.m.
  • Dec. 15: Women vs. PSU, 2 p.m.
  • Dec. 16: Men vs. Florida A&M, 7 p.m.
  • Dec. 19: Men vs. Jackson State, 7:30 p.m.
  • Jan. 9: Women vs. Pacific, 7 p.m.
  • Jan. 11: Women vs. St. Mary’s, 2 p.m.

For more information contact athletics at x7117 or go to portlandpilots.com.

UP Wind Symphony: Blowing Away The Competition

The University of Portland Wind Symphony has been invited to perform at the 2020 Oregon Music Education Association conference in Eugene, OR on Friday, January 17, at 4 p.m., in the Soreng Theatre at the Hult Center. The ensemble was selected through a blind audition process. The concert is free and open to the public.

The Wind Symphony consists of 55 members representing every school on campus and is conducted by Patrick Murphy, performing and fine arts. The undergraduate conducting associates for 2019-20 are seniors Mike Cleary and Bianca Salazar. The Wind Symphony is recognized as one of the finest ensembles in the region and is committed to performing diverse repertoire and commissioning new works for wind band. This performance marks the second time the Wind Symphony has been invited to perform at OMEA in the last five years.

For more information contact performing and fine arts at x7228 or pfa@up.edu.

A Taste of UP for Friends, Families, Founders

From early years—when Archbishop Alexander Christie would come to campus to celebrate his Name Day, i.e., later becoming Founder’s Day—UP has been privileged to share the life and wonders of its campus with friends and families. For a brief retrospective of the recent Junior & Senior Family Weekend, plus news of a picnic under the pines in 1934, follow this link to read a post from the University Archives and Museum.

For more information contact Carolyn Connolly, museum coordinator, at piatz@up.edu or x8038.