UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Provost's Office

Spring 2021 Provost’s Initiative for Undergrad Research Recipients (Summer Applications Due Feb. 15)

The provost’s office is pleased to announce recipients of the Spring 2021 Provost’s Initiative for Undergraduate Research awards. These faculty members have been selected to collaborate with and mentor an undergraduate on a co-designed research experience during the 2021 spring semester:

  • Sherry Abbasi, Shiley School of Engineering: “Brain imaging and psychological self-assessment correlation in PTSD patients” with Erik Liu
  • Andra Davis, nursing: “Integration of oncology nurse-led telephone support for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy using evidence-based symptom guides into clinical practice” with Cassandra Padgham and Dasha Efremov
  • Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi, political science: “Refugee Women’s Livelihoods in a Global Pandemic” with Trevor Riedmann
  • Cara Hersh, English: “No Curtains in Atonement: Early Modern Drama and the Postmodern Novel” with Siena Di Sera
  • Andrew Lafrenz, nursing: “The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental and Physical Health in College Students” with Brylee Kiminski
  • Jordy Wolfand, Shiley School of Engineering: “Using machine learning to uncover patterns in water quality in the Los Angeles River Watershed” with Anna Tinoco

A reminder to faculty: applications for Summer 2021 Provost’s Initiative for Undergraduate Research awards are available now in PilotsUP on the Undergraduate Research page. Applications for Summer 2021 are due February 15, 2021.

 

2021 Commencement Honorees: Nominations Welcome

The University of Portland invites nominations for the 2021 Commencement speaker(s), Christus Magister Medal recipient, and honorary degree recipients. All nominations should be emailed to University Provost Herbert Medina (medinah@up.edu) and Evan Leadem, President’s Office (leadem@up.edu) and should contain the following information:

  • Name of nominee.
  • A paragraph or two answering the following questions:
    • If a nominee for Commencement Speaker: Why would this nominee be an exceptional Commencement Speaker? What sort of message would this nominee deliver to the graduates of the University and their families?
    • If a nominee for Christus Magister Medal: How has this nominee evinced a vigorous spiritual life and an accomplished professional career in service to others? How has this nominee been a source of inspiration and consolation to the world? How has this nominee illustrated and enhanced the mission of the University of Portland?
    • If a nominee for Honorary Degree: How has this nominee contributed to the University’s values of teaching and learning, faith and formation, and service and leadership? What impact has this person had on his/her local community and/or the world? Is this a person that the University would like for its students and faculty to imitate in their own lives?
  • Any contact information for the nominee (if possible).
  • Any connection between the nominee and the University of Portland (if applicable).

For a list of past honorees, please use this link.

Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Applications due Sept. 15, 2020

The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program offers hundreds of awards each year to teach, research and conduct professional projects internationally. University faculty members and administrators as well as for professionals, artists, journalists, scientists, lawyers, and independent scholars are all eligible to apply. Awards vary in duration from two weeks for the International Education Administrator programs to a year for some research and teaching placements. View the Awards Catalog to determine if there is a good fit for your professional interests.

All eligibility criteria must be met at the time of grant application. Basic eligibility criteria are included below, but specific countries may have additional requirements.

  • U.S. citizenship
  • Two years since the date of completion of a prior Fulbright U.S. Scholar grant
  • Residing outside the U.S. for no more than one year in the six-year period preceding application submission
  • Generally, a Ph.D. or equivalent professional/terminal degree is required
  • Foreign language proficiency may be required depending on the country, type of grant activity (teaching or research), and the nature of the proposed project. English is sufficient for teaching activities in many areas of the world.

Contact John Orr, orr@up.edu, if you plan to submit an application this year.

Farewell Birthday Brain Teaser for Provost Emeritus Tom Greene

University of Portland provost emeritus Tom Greene officially retired on June 30, and as a token of his esteem, Aziz Inan, Shiley School of Engineering, put together the following farewell birthday trivia brain teaser to thank him for his leadership and friendship:

  1. Multiply the left and right halves of Tom’s birth year Y1Y2Y3Y4 to obtain the number X. Then, look up the Xth prime number. Next, subtract the Xth prime number from the reverse of Tom’s birth year, namely Y4Y3Y2Y1 and read the result backwards. Surprise!
  2. Further, if Tom’s full birthday M1M2/D1D2/ Y1Y2Y3Y4 is split into M1M2, D1D2, Y1Y2, and Y3Y4, interestingly, half of the sum of M1M2 and D1D2 yields Y1Y2, and twice the difference of M1M2 and D1D2 results in Y3Y4.
  3. Tom’s birthday this year (2020) is numerically special: double the sum of the squares of the month and day numbers of his birthday. What comes out?
  4. The reverse of the difference of the squares of the digits of Tom’s new age this year equals the sum of the letter numbers of his last name, Greene.
  5. Tom’s 75th birthday will be special since the reverse of 75, namely 57, equals the sum of the letter numbers of his middle name, George.
  6. Tom’s 76th birthday will also be special since 76 equals the sum of the letter numbers of Thomas. Additionally, the rightmost two digits of that year equals the difference of the month and day numbers of his birthday.
  7. Tom’s 83rd birthday will be special too since 83 equals the sum of the reverses of the month and day numbers of his birthday, namely (M2M1 + D2D1).
  8. Tom’s 89th birthday will be a five-digit palindrome date. Also, 89 is the 24th prime number (see item # 6).
  9. His 90th birthday will be special too since Y3Y4 = M1M2 + D1D2.
  10. Tom’s 100th birthday expressed as M1M2/D1D2/ Y1Y2Y3Y4 has a special property: Y1Y2Y3Y4 = 2(M1+M2+D1+D2).
  11. Tom’s 153rd birthday in the year Y1Y2Y3Y4 will also be special: Y1Y2Y3Y4 = M1M2D1D2 + D2D1M2M1. Moreover, count the number of days left in the year after Tom’s birthday.
  12. Tom’s 189th birthday will be a seven-digit palindrome date.
  13. Lastly, Tom’s 508th birthday contains every whole number from 0 to 7, each appearing once.

For more information or to commission your own brain teaser, contact Inan at ainan@up.edu.

 

 

 

A Message to the UP Community: Following Up On Town Hall, Committing to Action

The following message was sent via email to the University community on Friday, June 12:

Dear Members of the University of Portland Community,

We hope that this email finds you and your loved ones safe and well.

As UP’s leaders, we write to you today in follow-up to our message of Monday, June 1. In the weeks that have followed the death of George Floyd on a street in Minneapolis, we have listened to the voices of many who have shared their experiences of pain, trauma, and discrimination. We have listened to the voices of people who boldly proclaim that Black Lives Matter amidst a stream of structures and systems that emphatically signal to them that they do not. We have listened to the voices of people in our own UP community – especially the voices of African Americans and other people of color – as they have shared their dismay, anguish, and exhaustion with a lived experience in which their God-given human dignity is denied. We have heard these voices.

Let there be no doubt about where we stand as a Catholic, Holy Cross institution. At the University of Portland, we affirm that Black Lives Matter, we stand in solidarity with our Black community members, and we commit ourselves to the cause of anti-racism. To do anything less would be to shirk our responsibilities and betray our calling as people of faith.

Many in our community rightly demand action. As an institution of higher education, we wield some of the most powerful tools in the fight against racism, discrimination, and bigotry. We believe with deep conviction that true, lasting change comes from teaching, research, service, and formation – endeavors at which UP excels. We also believe with deep conviction that such true, lasting change cannot merely be “top down.” Indeed, it is incumbent upon each one of us, whether we are an administrative leader, a faculty member, a staff member, or a student, to examine our positionality, consider our privilege, take stock of our talents, and leverage them to bring about a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world.

Members of our community rightly ask, “what can we do?” At an institutional level, we invite you to explore this PilotsUP website and the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion website which provide useful resources and address many of the steps that UP has taken, and continues to take, to combat systemic racism. We list representative examples of ongoing initiatives and announce some new initiatives here:

  • We will redouble our efforts to establish a major and minor in Ethnic Studies within three to five years and will resume our national search for an Ethnic Studies faculty member.
  • We will implement training modules on issues of institutional racism and implicit bias that will be mandatory for all students, faculty, and staff.
  • We will strengthen efforts to recruit and retain faculty, staff, and students from underrepresented groups. Such efforts will include the continued implementation of industry best practices when it comes to faculty search committees, outreach to high schools and organizations that serve prospective students from underrepresented backgrounds, and enhancements to on-campus services that promote the well-being and success of community members of color.
  • We will further empower the President’s Advisory Commission on Inclusion to collaborate with the Office of International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion on initiatives, programming, and events that will center the voices and lived experiences of people of color, and support such efforts with increased funding.
  • We will implement the University’s revitalized Core Curriculum beginning in 2021. This new curriculum features two “habits of heart and mind,” Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and the Common Good and Global and Historical Consciousness, that have a clear nexus to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and cross-cultural understanding. We commit to issuing additional grants for innovative course development within these habits.
  • We will place renewed focus on scholarship programs that widen access to UP among underrepresented groups, such as the Davis Scholars, SHE-CAN, and the various scholarships established by UP community members.
  • We will use the coming year’s ReadUP program as a platform for all students, faculty, and staff to read and discuss a literary work that addresses issues of racism.
  • We will continue to invest in and promote existing University organizations that promote inter-cultural awareness, engagement, and empathy, such as the Collaborative for International Studies & Global Outreach (CISGO).
  • We commit to strengthening the University’s relationships with community organizations at the vanguard of advocacy for historically marginalized populations, such as the NAACP, Urban League, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
  • We will continue to sponsor signature events that present our community with the chance to engage deeply in issues of racism, inclusion, and cultural humility, such as MLK Day ON, Faculty Development Day, and Staff Development Day.
While these efforts will help us to live out our ideals, we acknowledge that they won’t, in and of themselves, be sufficient. Your perspectives, insights, and recommendations as UP community members are valued and appreciated. Please direct them to the Office of International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion at oiedi@up.edu.
Healing the wounds of our broken world won’t happen overnight. However, with intentionality and full community buy-in, UP can live more deeply into its aspiration of being a beacon of hope from The Bluff. We thank you in advance for your contributions as individuals and as members of the UP community to these efforts.
Sincerely,
Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., Ph.D., President
Thomas G. Greene, Ed.D., Provost
Herbert A. Medina, Ph.D., Incoming Provost
Eduardo R. Contreras, Ed.D., Assistant Provost for International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion

 

2020-2021 University Bulletin Online

The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce that the 2020-2021 online University Bulletin is now available. You may access the Bulletin on the registrar’s website, or directly at “University Catalog: The Bulletin.” Smartphone users can also access the Bulletin using its mobile site.

For more information contact Jericho Knight, associate provost’s office, at x7848 or knight@up.edu.

Herbert Medina Named as New UP Provost

Following a wide-ranging national search, Herbert A. Medina, currently dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, has been appointed to the role of Provost effective July 1. The search for Thomas Greene’s successor attracted more than 300 applicants.

Medina has served as dean and professor of mathematics since 2018. His leadership of CAS has been marked by devotion to student well-being and success, dedication to faculty support and development, and unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. He has been a champion of experiential learning, directed the study and development of new academic programs, and has already played an important role in faculty and staff searches at the University.

An exemplary teacher-scholar, Medina is rightly beloved by his students and has earned widespread recognition for his research in functional analysis, wavelets, and polynomial approximations. He is deeply committed to the University’s Catholic and Holy Cross mission and its call for all community members to be engaged in the work of social justice, radical hospitality, and advancement of the Catholic intellectual tradition. As a leader and a colleague, Medina’s style is communicative, transparent, collaborative, compassionate, and humbly confident.

Prior to joining UP, Medina enjoyed a highly successful 26-year career as a professor and administrative leader at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He was associate dean of LMU’s Frank R. Seaver College of Science and Engineering before his appointment as CAS dean at UP. He holds a B.S. in mathematics and computer science from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley.

For more information contact the president’s office at x7105 or simek@up.edu.

Latest Academic Update Available Now

Were course evaluations higher or lower this semester? How did grades turn out for this semester? With and without P/NP? How many degree candidates took part in virtual Commencement?

If you are interested in these questions and other information, read the latest Academic Update at this link.

For more information contact the provost’s office at staten@up.edu.

Finalists For University Provost: Please Participate in Virtual Forums

University president Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., has announced the final stages of the search for the next provost. From a field of over 300 interested individuals, the Provost Search Committee has worked diligently to select the following three finalists for the provost position:

  • Herbert A. Medina, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Portland
  • Elizabeth A. Throop, Ph.D., provost and vice president for academic affairs at Frostburg State University
  • Brian D. Till, Ph.D., former dean of the College of Business Administration at Marquette University

Due to travel restrictions and social distancing guidelines, in-person interaction with finalists cannot take place. The Search Committee and Fr. Poorman have determined that thetask of selecting UP’s next provost can, and should, continue.

All members of the University community are invited to participate in a series of virtual forums with our finalists using the Zoom platform. During these forums, participants will hear directly from our finalists and will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage in dialogue. The following schedule has been established for  community member forums:

  • Monday, May 4 (Elizabeth A. Throop)
    • Forum for Students: 12 PM to 1 PM
    • Forum for Non-Academic Staff: 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM
    • Forum for Faculty and Academic Staff: 4 PM to 5:30 PM
  • Monday, May 11 (Herbert A. Medina)
    • Forum for Students: 12 PM to 1 PM
    • Forum for Non-Academic Staff: 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM
    • Forum for Faculty and Academic Staff: 4 PM to 5:30 PM
  • Thursday, May 14 (Brian D. Till)
    • Forum for Students: 12 PM to 1 PM
    • Forum for Non-Academic Staff: 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM
    • Forum for Faculty and Academic Staff: 4 PM to 5:30 PM

These forums will be recorded for later viewing. Videos of each forum will be posted to the Provost Search Portal (discussed below). In addition to these open forums, each finalist will participate in a series of interviews with smaller groups of students, faculty, and staff.

Finally, the University has created a comprehensive Provost Search Portal on PilotsUP. All students, faculty, and staff have access to the Portal, which contains:

  • Links to the finalists’ CVs;
  • Zoom links for each of the Community Member Forums noted above;
  • A form enabling you to share questions you would like our finalists to answer during their respective forums;
  • The University’s Equal Opportunity Statement, which all are asked to read prior to taking part in forums; and,
  • Finalist Evaluation Forms allowing you to provide feedback on our finalists.

For more information contact the president’s office at x7101 or simek@up.edu.