Provost's Office

Good Friday, Easter Sunday

April 14, 2014

University offices will be closed and no classes will be held on Friday, April 18, 2014, in observance of Good Friday, according to Tom Greene, provost. The closing actually begins at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 17; no classes should continue beyond that time, and other events, apart from those connected with the religious observance of Holy Week, should not be scheduled from that time through Monday, April 21. Even though classes are not scheduled for Easter Monday, University offices will be open as usual.

The early closing on Holy Thursday is intended to allow students, faculty, and staff to attend the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, which will be celebrated in the Chapel of Christ the Teacher at 4:30 p.m. The University’s custom of closing on Good Friday is in acknowledgment of the special religious character of the day. In Catholic tradition, Good Friday has always been recognized as one of three important days (the Sacred Triduum) of religious observance: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.

For more information contact the provost’s office at 7105 or staten@up.edu.

Apply For Sabbaticals by June 15

April 14, 2014

Applications for sabbaticals for the 2015-2016 academic year are due along with faculty development plans to faculty members’ respective deans by June 15, 2014. Faculty eligible to apply for a sabbatical must have completed seven years of full-time teaching at the University of Portland, or have completed at a minimum an additional seven years of full-time teaching since a previously funded University of Portland sabbatical.

Sabbatical requests are coordinated with departmental planning as well as the individual faculty member’s annual development plan. With careful planning the academic units have been able to take into consideration the needs of both the individual faculty member and the department or school. Additional information about sabbatical leaves can be found on page 37 of the Faculty Handbook: http://tinyurl.com/mvzbek8.

For more information contact the provost’s office at 7105 or staten@up.edu.

Scholarly Activity Portal Ready For Faculty Input

April 14, 2014

The updated version of the scholarly activity portal is now live and ready for faculty input on PilotsUP under the “Academics” tab. The data obtained via the portal will be used to populate A Community of Scholars, published annually by the provost’s office. That data will also be used for the Clark Library’s annual celebration of UP authors.

Faculty members will send a report from their portal to their respective deans as a part of the annual self-evaluation, and they can also use the data entered to develop their personal curriculum vitae. New features include the ability to send a notice about a presentation or publication directly to upbeat, as well as numerous other changes, most suggested by faculty members who used the portal last year.

For information on where to access the portal and how to use the new features, please see the help sheet at http://tinyurl.com/mjfhg6t. For any questions about uses of the portal, please contact John Orr (orr@up.edu); for questions about how to use the tool, please contact Michele Leasor (leasor@up.edu).

Founders’ Day, Tuesday April 8

March 31, 2014

The University’s annual Founders’ Day celebration will take place on Tuesday, April 8. Four sessions of student presentations will be held in place of regularly scheduled classes, and all students and faculty are encouraged take part in the day’s events, featuring senior presentations, undergraduate research, panel discussions, recitals, and more. Classes scheduled to begin after 4 p.m. will be held as usual.

Founders’ Day was first celebrated at the University in 1902, when University founder Most Rev. Alexander Christie visited the school he had established on The Bluff the summer before. For more information, including a schedule of the day’s events, go to www.up.edu/foundersday.

Deadlines For 2014-2015 Bulletin Revisions

March 24, 2014

Updates to the narrative section of the 2014-2015 University Bulletin (program descriptions, requirements, anything but the course descriptions section) were due to reviewers by Monday, March 17, according to Matt Baasten, associate provost.

While all schools and departments are set up differently, in most cases “reviewers” are deans or associate deans; updated bulletin sections are submitted to them by “editors,” who can be admin assistants, program specialists, department chairs, or whoever is tasked with bulletin updates in each program or office.

Reviewers must submit their sections for approval (approvers are Matt Baasten and Marc Covert, no need to submit separately) by Monday, March 31. The publication deadline for the online 2014-2015 Bulletin is Wednesday, May 14. A calendar with deadlines for bulletin updates through 2016-2017 can be found on the registrar’s webpage at http://www.up.edu/showimage/show.aspx?file=21431.

As in the past two academic years, all updates will be made through the Sitecore updating tool provided to UP by Smartcatalog. The Sitecore login page can be found at http://smartcatalogiq.com/sitecore/login. A user’s guide for bulletin updates is available at http://help.smartcatalogiq.com/en/iq-user-guide. There are also podcasts from the original Sitecore training sessions:

Day 1: http://tinyurl.com/77ckx8k
Day 2: http://tinyurl.com/kcdeqad
Admin Training: http://tinyurl.com/ljne7uq

For more information or help with updating your bulletin pages, please contact Marc Covert, marketing and communications, at 8132 or mcovert@up.edu.

2014 Rank and Tenure Decisions

February 24, 2014

Effective July 1, 2014, the following professors will be promoted from assistant to associate professor and granted tenure, according to the provost’s office:

Tanya Crenshaw, Engineering
Andrew Golla, Performing and Fine Arts
Christin Hancock, History
Hillary Merk, Education
Patrick Murphy, Performing and Fine Arts
Craig Swinyard, Mathematics
Eugenijus Urnezius, Chemistry

For more information contact the provost’s office at 7105 or staten@up.edu.

2015-2016 Bulletin Updates

February 16, 2014

Faculty and staff members who are tasked with updating their departmental and office information in the 2015-2016 University Bulletin need to submit changes to reviewers by Monday, March 16, according to Tom Greene, provost. The Smartcatalog tool used to update information can be accessed by going to the “Provost” section under the Academics pulldown menu on the main UP webpage. The link is located under “Faculty Resources” at http://tinyurl.com/ad5nzkk (“Smart Catalog (Online Bulletin) Login”) or by using this link (http://smartcatalogiq.com/sitecore/login). Access is limited to designated users who have been issued usernames and passwords.

A list of deadlines for Bulletin updates is available here.

For assistance with usernames, passwords, new accounts, or using the Smartcatalog tool, contact Marc Covert, marketing and communications, at 8132 or mcovert@up.edu.

Founders’ Day Celebration, April 8

February 3, 2014

Founders’ Day was first celebrated at the University in 1902, when University founder Most Rev. Alexander Christie (pictured) visited the school he had established on The Bluff the summer before. For more information, including a schedule of the day’s events, go to www.up.edu/foundersday.

Teaching Circles Workshop, Jan. 9

December 13, 2013

The Teaching & Learning Collaborative and the associate provost invite all faculty to participate in a one-hour workshop on using Teaching Circles on Thursday, January 9, 9:30-10:30 a.m., in Buckley Center room 163. Teaching circles are a promising practice for understanding what is going on pedagogically in one’s classroom and can take many forms. Colleagues from several disciplines currently employing Teaching Circles will offer a glimpse of their practice and engage participants in a dialogue about the possibilities this strategy offers for strengthening teaching and offering useful data to complement course evaluations. Seating is limited. To RSVP or seek further information, please contact Karen Eifler at eifler@up.edu or 8014.