UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement

Goldwater Scholarship Nominees Needed

Faculty are requested to nominate students for Goldwater Scholarships. The awards, up to $7,500 per year, provide scholarships to outstanding undergraduate students who plan to pursue research careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering. The awards are based on merit and made to students who will be juniors or seniors during the 2018-2019 academic year. Experience in research is an important criterion in the evaluation process. There will be a pre-application process to determine nominees with a deadline of November 27, 2017.

Nominations are due as soon as possible. To submit a nomination or for more information contact the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement at scholars@up.edu.

Honors Reading Courses Available to Faculty

Faculty members interested in offering an Honors Program reading course during the 2017-2018 academic year are invited to send a course proposal to program director John Orr by Wednesday, November 15. Honors students, in their junior and senior years, take two one-credit readings courses. Courses are limited to 15 students and are offered pass/no pass. Team-taught courses are particularly welcome. Proposals should include a course title and brief description.

For more information, or to submit a proposal, contact John Orr at orr@up.edu .

Scholarly Activity Portal Always Ready For Faculty Input

The Scholarly Activity Portal is always ready for faculty input on PilotsUP under the “Academics” tab. Faculty members are encouraged to update their scholarly activity as it occurs; the portal offers a one-stop opportunity to update recent activity.

Faculty members will download the report for their school and send the PDF copy of the report 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. The data obtained via the portal are also used to populate A Community of Scholars, published annually by the Provost’s office, and for the Clark Library’s annual celebration of UP authors.

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).

Senior Applications for NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program

The National Science Foundation made a significant change to their eligibility guidelines for the Graduate Research Fellowship Program in 2016. Graduate students can apply only once for the grant, as opposed to twice in the past.  The end result is that seniors going to graduate school and planning careers in research should be strongly encouraged to apply.  They will be more competitive than in the past, and the senior year will be the only time that they get the practice of completing the application along with feedback from reviewers on the application.

Please encourage your bright and high-achieving students who are going into a field funded by NSF to consider applying. The deadline for Geosciences and Life Sciences is October 24, 2017.

Even though the NSF does not require a University of Portland endorsement, the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement is more than willing to work with students in the preparation of an application. For more information about the program, visit this link. Contact scholars@up.edu if you have any questions.

Summer Research Poster Session: Students Must Apply By Oct. 3

All faculty are requested to encourage their students who had on- or off-campus research experiences this past summer to apply to participate the fourth annual Summer Research Poster Session by Tuesday, October 3. The application is available at this link. One application is needed per poster being presented, and the student presenter should complete the application.

The Summer Research Poster Session will occur on Wednesday, November 1, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the Franz Hall lobby and Franz Hall 120. All are encouraged to come see the amazing research opportunities many of our students had this past summer, both at UP and all across the nation and world. Students will be presenting posters of their work and will be available to answer questions about their research.

For more information contact John Orr at orr@up.edu. The Summer Research Poster Session is sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement.

Undergraduate Research Protocol

The Provost’s office would like to remind all faculty members conducting collaborative research with undergraduates fall semester that the Deans Council approved a uniform, University-wide protocol for all undergraduate research projects. A list of the items required each semester as part of the protocol can always be found in the Undergraduate Research section of the PilotsUP Forms page. The same information is listed below. Any student receiving a stipend or credit for an undergraduate research project at UP is expected to complete the protocol, and faculty members are responsible for informing students of this expectation.

Undergraduate Research Protocol

Learning Agreement – This form is completed by both the faculty member and student. The faculty member must complete their portion of this online form first.

Responsible Conduct in Research Training – New users will need to create a CITI account and affiliate with University of Portland during the registration process to access the course. After creating an account the user must select the appropriate Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) course from the UP course selection menu. Both faculty members and students must complete CITI’s RCR course, if they have not done so at a previous time.

Pre-Experience Survey for Students– To be completed by the student during the first week of the project each semester.

Post-Experience Survey for Students – To be completed by the student during the last week of the project each semester.

Post-Experience Evaluation – To be completed by the faculty member at the conclusion of the project each semester.

If you have any questions about this process, please contact John Orr (orr@up.edu) in the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement.

Student Opportunity Center: Undergraduate Research Resource for Students

The University of Portland is committed to helping students find undergraduate research opportunities and in December 2016 adopted a resource that connects students to over 10,000 student conferences, journals, research, and funding opportunities. The Student Opportunity Center is free to UP community members, easy to use, and customizable to student interests. All faculty are requested to encourage their students to sign up; opportunities exist for all majors. 

Students can use their up.edu email accounts to sign up at this link. This short YouTube tutorial provides information about the Student Opportunity Center. Students can contact ur@up.edu if they have any issues setting up their accounts.

For more information contact the Office of the Provost (staten@up.edu) or the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (ur@up.edu).

Off-Campus Undergraduate Research Request

All faculty members who wrote a letter of recommendation for a student to pursue off-campus research this past summer are requested to please send the student’s name to ur@up.edu. As the University prepares for its next accreditation visit, there is a need for better data on student participation in undergraduate research.

The University has made great strides in tracking on-campus undergraduate research, but the undergraduate scholarly engagement office needs faculty assistance in identifying which students participate in research off-campus. The office will follow up with students for more details about their experience; all they need from faculty are student names.

For more information, contact John Orr (orr@up.edu) in the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement.

Rhodes and Marshall Scholarship Candidates Wanted

Faculty members are encouraged to send the names of academically and experientially exceptional, ambitious rising seniors who would benefit from attending graduate school at Cambridge, Oxford, or one of the other premier UK institutions, to the Office of Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement, according to John Orr, assistant to the provost.

Students applying for these awards must have a University endorsement and formally express their intent to apply by early April. Students will be contacted and given assistance in starting the application process, will participate in campus interviews in late April, and will continue to receive support over the summer so their files can be finalized at the start of the fall semester.

For more information or to pass along names, send an e-mail to scholars@up.edu or call 7857.

For more information use these links:

Fulbright Candidates Wanted

Faculty members are encouraged to send the names of ambitious and talented rising seniors who would benefit from a year of study, research, or teaching English abroad after graduation to the fellowships and grants office, according to John Orr, assistant provost. Students will be contacted and given assistance in starting the Fulbright application process over the summer, so their files can be finalized at the start of the fall semester. For more information or to pass along names, send an e-mail to scholars@up.edu or call x7857.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program currently awards approximately 1,900 grants annually in all fields of study, and operates in more than 140 countries worldwide. For more information go to http://us.fulbrightonline.org/.