Stress and anxiety may lead to digestive symptoms like indigestion, stomach cramps, diarrhea, loss of appetite, emotional eating, or nausea. There’s a powerful connection between your brain and digestive tract, and the gut-brain connection may be why. Your gut is called your “second brain” because of the millions of nerve cells that line your GI tract. Many studies have shown that improving gut health leads to better mental health.
Your Dedicated Health Coach and Dietitian can help you find stress management and mindfulness practices and a personalized nutrition plan that work with your daily life.
Click here to learn more and take action.
GIThrive is a program to help you improve your health — starting with digestion. It includes an app, unlimited access to your Health Coach and Registered Dietitian over the phone or video, and a free GutCheck microbiome kit. It’s all done from home – and no cost to you!
Learn more about this fully covered benefit.
I’ve worked as an illustrator and graphic designer for the past decade or so and started teaching about 5 years ago. I’m an illustration fanatic and have done research in the field as well as produced work for clients like The New York Times, Reader’s Digest and Scientific
American. My work has been recognized by associations like Communication Arts, American Illustration, the Society of Illustrators and the American Advertising Federation.
I started teaching to be an advocate for illustration and design and am proud to be part of a fantastic team here at UCO.
I came to UCO to pursue an MFA in Graphic Design a few years ago and was fortunate enough to join as an adjunct instructor soon after. As time has passed I’ve climbed up the ranks to become an assistant professor in the School of Design.
I’m proud of the work we put in as a faculty during this pandemic under some very challenging circumstances.
Spend time with my family and/or exercise.
The Talent Development team has been working diligently for these past 8-10 months to create a tailored program geared toward acclimating our new supervisors to their position at UCO. They will be learning the basics on topics like:
Do you have a clever name idea? If so, please leave your top three choices in the form linked here. The first round of submissions will be due by Monday, May 9th at 5:00pm. The finalists will be announced and voted on by everyone across campus. The last day to vote will be Monday, May 23rd at 5:00pm. The winner will be awarded a $50 certificate to the UCO bookstore in the Nigh.
Let loose and get to writing, we are excited to see what you all have in store.
Employees receiving gifts from UCO are considered non-cash earnings by the State of Oklahoma. Individuals will be taxed on said items as additional wages of $50 or more per calendar year.
Human Resources has arranged for MidCon Data Services to bring a shredding truck to campus from 11am-2pm, May 5th, in parking lot No. 11 (between Hurd and Main). All files, including personal files from home and work documents, are accepted.
For more information about compliance, call the Office of the General Counsel at 405-974-3377. For information about the shredding event, email Human Resources or call 405-974-2366.
The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is happy to announce a more efficient method to report suspicious email and for our users to handle junk emails. The Outlook Report Message button will allow for more efficient handling of suspicious emails and make our systems more secure.
UCO users will be able to report e-mail messages as Junk, Phishing or Not Junk with the click of a button.
Simply select the ‘Report Message’ button from the menu at the top right-hand corner of Outlook.
If a user receives an e-mail in their Junk e-mail folder that is legitimate (not junk), they can use the button to report the message as ‘Not Junk’ and the message will be moved back to the Inbox and the sender of the e-mail will be added to the Safe Senders’ list for that user.
If a user receives an e-mail in their Inbox that is potential Junk, they can use the button to report the message as ‘Junk’ and the message will be moved to the Junk e-mail folder and the sender will be added to the ‘Blocked Senders’ list for that user sending e-mails to the Junk e-mail folder for the user in the future.
If a user receives an e-mail in their Inbox that is potential Phishing, they can use the button to report the message as ‘Phishing’ and the e-mail will be sent to phishbowl@uco.edu. It will not block the sender from sending the end user messages in the future and it will not add the sender to the ‘Blocked Senders’ list.
For more information, review the Reporting Suspicious Email knowledge base article (KBA) or call the UCO Service Desk at 405-974-2255.
Please take notice that UCO will be observing Juneteenth on Monday, June 20th. This means the dates for New Employee Orientation will be on June 6th and June 21st (Tuesday). We look forward to meeting all our latest and greatest additions to the UCO team.
Faculty, staff and student employees can add or edit their chosen name and pronouns via Paycom Employee Self-Service at any time. Currently, these fields do not connect to Banner or other systems.
Chosen (displayed in Paycom settings as “preferred”) names added to Paycom will be displayed throughout the system where a legal name is not required. To add a chosen name to Paycom, follow the chosen name guide provided on The Hub.
Additionally, pronouns added to Paycom will be viewable by an individual’s supervisor and upline. To add pronouns to Paycom, follow the pronoun guide provided on The Hub.
Supervisors, chairs and deans can follow the viewing employee information guide to view their downline’s information, including chosen names and pronouns.
Student employees do not have access to The Hub. Guides should be downloaded and shared with them if they would like to make these changes.
Employee Relations conducts a review of current UCO policies and updates as necessary in partnership with those who manage the policy. In April, the following policy changes have been made:
The Paycheck policy was discontinued because it is a replication of the information provided on the annual Payroll Calendar which is released each fiscal year and available on the Hub. The Payroll Calendar provides a more accurate description of the actual payroll schedule then the Paycheck policy.
Visit the Policy Changes page on The Hub to see a full list of this year’s changes and modifications. If you have any questions regarding policy changes, email Employee Relations.
Staff Senate elections were held in March, and we’re happy to announce the election winners:
Ellen Schmidt, Gary Parsons, Jennifer Burris, Liliana Renteria Mendoza, Sue Haller and Zachary Hunter
Michael Hendricks, Rachel Fairchild and Stepheny Smith
Barb Andrews, Beatriz Garcia Bertrand and Teresa Delaney
Julio Mata
Jodi Elderton
To see a list of current Senators, please visit the Staff Senate website.
Staff Senate met on Tuesday, April 5th. Guest speaker Provost Charlotte Simmons acknowledged challenges on campus but also highlighted several positive happenings and accomplishments around UCO. The Stakeholder Relations and Involvement Committee introduced SSJR – Affirmation of, and Support for, Sustainability Efforts in the UCO Community, which will be debated and voted on at our May 3rd meeting. The topic of conversation during divisional caucusing was constituent responses to the recent budget forum.
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2-4pm, FSI 106
Tuesday, June 7th, 2-4pm, FSI 106
For more detailed information regarding the roles of senators, meeting agendas, minutes, how you can bring legislation topics to the senate, please visit the UCO Staff Senate website.
The UCO Faculty Senate holds meetings the second Thursday of each month. The regularly scheduled April meeting was held on Thursday, April 14th, a special meeting will be held on April 21st, and the final meeting of the year will be on April 28th. Guest speakers began with an open session with Provost Charlotte Simmons, followed by Dr. Amanda Keesee, UCO Manager of Academic Technology and Training and Dr. Alyssa Provencio, provided an update in her new role as the Academic Affairs Equity Advocate for Academic Affairs. Several proposals and one resolution were voted on passed at the first April meeting and elections for the 2022-2024 Senators took place between the March and April meetings. Faculty Senate Executive Committee elections will be held at final meeting of the year at the end of April. Thereafter, Faculty Senate does not hold regularly scheduled meetings until the fall semester.
The results for the elections for the 2022-2024 year are as follows:
Huiying Chen
Saheli Nath
Ed Cunliff
Judi Lashley
Kim Pennington
Teresa Pac
Robyn Pasternack
Keith Webb
Vicki Jackson
Stephanie Jones
Leeda Copley
Marc Goulding
Jerry Green
Rachel Fairchild
Shaye Caban
To attend any upcoming UCO Faculty Senate meetings and for or detailed information regarding contacting Faculty Senators, agendas, minutes, and legislation please visit the UCO Faculty Senate Blog.
