For the UP Community

When you receive a call from a reporter, see camera crews on campus or have a University-related news story to publicize, the public affairs office is the place to start.

Sharing News or Story Ideas

We want to share your story! We have several communication tools which help us get the word out in print, broadcast and online. These include news releases, media advisories, web news posts, and social media.

If you have a new research project underway, a class or program you're launching, a major award you or your students have won, or simply an interesting and newsworthy story to tell, please contact us:

Michael Lewellen
Vice President, Marketing & Communications
503.943.7824 (office)
lewellen@up.edu 

Looking for us on campus? The public affairs office is currently located within the Office of the Vice President for Marketing & Communications, 321 Waldschmidt Hall.

All news releases from the University of Portland are written and distributed from the public affairs office. We want to ensure any news releases we send to the media are truly newsworthy and that we avoid flooding our media partners with unnecessary communications.

Media Contacts

Often the media will contact UP faculty or staff directly. Unless you have an ongoing relationship as a faculty expert, we prefer you ask them to call the public affairs office to set up the interview at a time that works best for you. This allows us to ensure we're providing consistent and complete information to the media.

However, if you work directly with the media, please let the media relations office know you've been contacted, so we can be aware of any coverage of the University and its faculty, staff, or students.

If you'd like media training, television interview tips or other assistance, we are always available to consult with faculty or staff who have been contacted by the media.

Op-Eds

If you're interested in submitting an opinion piece to the media, the public affairs office can help you choose an effective topic, outline your op-ed with you, review it and/or give you additional ideas and approaches in crafting your opinion. We also can assist in submitting the op-ed for you or suggest the best outlets for submission.

Promoting Your Event

Due to the amount of news and education taking place at the University of Portland, we can't always publicize every event. However, we can be a resource to help you promote your campus events, including assistance with social media, online media calendars, event advisories and more. See our event publicity toolkit for more information.