The Daily Bruin

FoxTALE will be unavailable from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. (Pacific Time) on Wednesday, Jan. 4, for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Join us for a FoxTALE Gradebook open lab hosted by your educational technology team. Come to get your 2017 Spring courses ready. Sessions are scheduled on the following dates:

• Tuesday, Jan. 3, 1-3 p.m. in MLRC 101 (Newberg)
• Wednesday, Jan. 4, 1-3 p.m. in PDS 132 (Portland)

Visit the Schedule of Events page to RSVP, plus see the schedule for webinars offered.

If you have any questions, email servicedesk@georgefox.edu or call 503-554-2569.

– Your Educational Technology Team

Students who are eligible to change their meal plan may do so starting today (Wednesday, Dec. 28). Please note: All your grades must be entered in MyGFU in order for your eligibility to be registered in the Meal Plan Form.

The final deadline for ALL meal plan changes is Friday, Jan. 20, 2017. Students eligible to do so can make changes in their MyGFU account through Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. After Jan. 13, students will need to contact the student life office to make any changes through Jan. 20.

Please contact Jere Witherspoon (jwitherspoon@georgefox.edu or 503-554-2316) in the student life office if you have any questions regarding the meal plan. Please include your student ID number when making an inquiry about your plan.

Do you know that if you don’t sign up for Student Account Direct Deposit your refunds, including financial aid refunds, will be delayed? Please sign up now!

Also, any student who has previously received refund checks via their campus box, we are no longer able to send checks to your campus box so please sign up for Direct Deposit.

There are two steps to sign up. Go to your Student Center in MyGFU to access an easy link via your “To Do List.” If your “To Do List” is not updated after 48 hours, look for help at this link or stop by our office.

Campus buildings will be locked until the morning of Jan. 3 for the safety of employees working this week. Please bring your ID card and office keys to campus to access your work spaces if you are working this week.

The quad side card-lock door of Stevens will remain unlocked Wednesday through Friday, and also on Jan. 2 during business hours due to students needing to pay their bills and the arrival of admissions guests. Other buildings on campus, including Wheeler, will be card-lock access only. Please make arrangements to meet your guests at an entry door and do not prop open any doors, as that puts the entire building at risk.

Please contact Nadine Kincaid at 503-554-2090 or nkincaid@georgefox.edu if you have concerns or an out-of-the-box situation.

TIAA individual consulting appointments are coming up at the Newberg campus Jan. 12-13, and there is no cost to you!

No matter where you are in life – just getting started or planning for retirement – a session with Braden Danielson can help you create a unique plan for your goals. And, it’s at no additional cost as a part of your retirement plan. You’ll get answers to these questions and more:

• Am I invested in the right mix of investments to help meet my goals?
• Am I saving enough to create the retirement income I need?
• How do I take income from my retirement account once I stop working?
• How do I plan for short-term goals such as saving for a house or education expenses?
• How do I manage debt, save money and balance various financial priorities at the same time?

To schedule your one-hour appointment, click on this link. The on-site appointment slots fill quickly, so don’t delay! Take advantage of this excellent resource!

You can also visit the Advice and Guidance page on the TIAA website to access online tools and resources that can help you stay on track and save even more for retirement.

If you would like to make a change to your retirement account contribution amount or have questions about your George Fox University benefits, please contact Darby Thiessen at 503-554-2188 or dthiessen@georgefox.edu.

George Fox is a private college, so if students can pay to enroll, they can certainly pay for their books, right? Not necessarily. Click this link to see stories of students who would have benefited from help buying course materials.

For some students, purchasing textbooks can make the difference between a college education and dropping out of college. The Textbook Assistance Fund has been created to provide assistance to undergraduate students who cannot purchase required textbooks or course materials due to financial hardship.

We invite you to donate to the Textbook Assistance Fund. One faculty member contributed a portion of royalties, turning income from book sales into funds that enable students to acquire textbooks. See the invitation to contribute if you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the fund.

Contact Rick Muthiah (rmuthiah@georgefox.edu) if you have questions about the Textbook Assistance Fund.

Campus facilities will be locked beginning Friday, Dec. 23, for the five-day Christmas holiday. Buildings will also stay locked until the morning of Jan. 3 for the safety of the few employees working next week. Please bring your ID card and office keys to campus to access your work spaces if you are working next week.

The quad side card-lock door of Stevens will remain unlocked next Wednesday through Friday, and also on Jan. 2 during business hours due to students needing to pay their bills and the arrival of admissions guests. Other buildings on campus, including Wheeler, will be card-lock access only. Please make arrangements to meet your guests at an entry door and do not prop open any doors, as that puts the entire building at risk.

Please contact Nadine Kincaid at 503-554-2090 or nkincaid@georgefox.edu if you have concerns or an out-of-the-box situation.

George Fox is a private college, so if students can pay to enroll, they can certainly pay for their books, right? Not necessarily. Click this link to see stories of students who would have benefited from help buying course materials.

For some students, purchasing textbooks can make the difference between a college education and dropping out of college. The Textbook Assistance Fund has been created to provide assistance to undergraduate students who cannot purchase required textbooks or course materials due to financial hardship.

We invite you to donate to the Textbook Assistance Fund. One faculty member contributed a portion of royalties, turning income from book sales into funds that enable students to acquire textbooks. See the invitation to contribute if you are interested in making a tax-deductible donation to the fund.

Contact Rick Muthiah (rmuthiah@georgefox.edu) if you have questions about the Textbook Assistance Fund.

Join your colleagues at an all-employee meeting today (Wednesday) from 4 to 5 p.m. in Canyon Commons. The event will be live-streamed at the Portland Center in Room 160.

We have complimentary tickets available to the 2017 Build, Remodel & Landscape Show at the Oregon Convention Center Jan. 6-8.

Employees can pick up two tickets each ($8 total value) from Barbi or Anne at the Information Services Desk in Stevens Center this week. Portland and Salem employees can request tickets by calling the information desk at Ext. 0. Barbi or Anne will send them to you through campus mail.

We have a limited supply, so please request/pick them up only if you are reasonably certain you will attend. Questions? Contact Kera Hallman (khallman@georgefox.edu).

The university’s offices will be closed on Friday, Dec. 23, as well as Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 26-27, in observance of Christmas. In addition, offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 2, in observance of the New Year’s Day holiday.

Libraries on the Newberg and Portland campuses will be closed on those days as well.

The Office for Spiritual and Intercultural Life is looking for leaders for next semester’s Lent (Spring) Life Groups. Life Groups begin the week of Feb. 12 and culminate the week of March 19 (six weeks). Leaders may host Life Groups on campus, at a nearby coffee shop or in their homes.

Interested? Please use this link to apply by Monday, Jan. 16. Contact Kearsten McCoy (kmccoy@georgefox.edu) if you have any questions.

Adjuncts: Your parking permits all expire on Dec. 31, and we will be switching you over to staff permits which do not expire. In order to get your new parking permit, you will need to come to the security office with your old permit and the DMV registration paper if you have a different vehicle than what you had previously registered. We will then revoke your old permit and issue a new one to you on the spot.

It is a quick process, so please be sure to do this before the spring semester begins! Our office hours are 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. during Christmas break.

Questions? Call 503-554-2090 or e-mail Nadine Kincaid at nkincaid@georgefox.edu. Thanks to those of you who have already completed the process!

Do you know that if you don’t sign up for Student Account Direct Deposit your refunds, including financial aid refunds, will be delayed? Please sign up now!

Also, any student who has previously received refund checks via their campus box, we are no longer able to send checks to your campus box so please sign up for Direct Deposit.

There are two steps to sign up. Go to your Student Center in MyGFU to access an easy link via your “To Do List.” If your “To Do List” is not updated after 48 hours, look for help at this link or stop by our office.

Here’s the summary of our snow days (so far!) this month.

• Thursday, Dec. 8: Newberg late start (10 a.m.) and early closure (4 p.m.); Portland and Salem closed all day
• Friday, Dec. 9: All campuses open at 10 a.m.
• Wednesday, Dec. 14: All campuses close at 4 p.m.
• Thursday, Dec. 15: All campuses closed all day
• Friday, Dec. 16: All campuses late start (10 a.m.)

Staff who are eligible for benefits may be paid for hours that they were scheduled to work during time that the campus was closed. Here are detailed instructions for each box of the time sheet:

• Top box: All hours you actually worked each day
• Sick: If you were sick and couldn’t have come in that day anyway, enter all hours here (no snow hours)
• Vacation: Enter all hours previously scheduled to be off that day, OR enter hours that you were unable to work due to weather when the campus was NOT closed
• Snow: All hours you were scheduled to work but couldn’t, while the campus was closed

If you were required to work during the closure, you’re eligible to take the same number of hours off in the next 30 days, so work that out with your supervisor. When you take the time off, record those hours in the bottom box and write to the side that these are “snow hours” and we’ll pay them without charging vacation time.

Please contact Katie Sol at 503-554-2181 with your questions.

If you used the FoxTALE grade book for any of your FoxTALE course sites, back up your 2016 Fall grade book to a spreadsheet that is saved outside of FoxTALE. See the instructions here for backing up grades. You will want to keep an archive of your course grades that cover the last five years.

Use your new, empty 2017 Spring sites as the sites in which you will teach. You may import content from another course site. See the instructions here for importing.

2017 Spring sites are currently hidden from student view. When you are ready, you can share the sites with your students. Here is a quick guide on how to make the courses visible: FoxTALE Making Courses Visible to Students.

If your course site is set to Weekly format, your course might show incorrect dates. To change the dates, go to Administration> Edit settings on the course home page. Scroll down to the course start date and change it to the first day of your 2017 spring course. Scroll to the bottom of the page and “Save changes.”

Several webinars and open labs are offered Jan. 3-6. See the schedule and sign up here.

Questions? Contact servicedesk@georgefox.edu or call 503-554-2569.

– Your Education Technology Team

Mail and Print Services will be closing early Thursday, Dec. 23, at 3:30 p.m. Print Services will be closed the week between Christmas and New Year’s, while Mail Services and the courier service will operate on their normal schedule (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) during that time frame.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Richard Silver at 503-554-2551.

With the holidays quickly approaching, the finance department would like to bring to your attention the schedule for processing check requests and expense reimbursement requests to accommodate the short holiday weeks.

Please refer to the Forms page on the finance department website to view the Accounts Payable Holiday Payment Processing Schedule.

Happy Holidays!
– The Finance Team

Since the winter weather forced the cancellation of last week’s meeting, an all-employee meeting is set this week from 4 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 21, in Canyon Commons. The event will be live-streamed at the Portland Center in Room 160.

The Office for Spiritual and Intercultural Life is looking for leaders for next semester’s Lent (Spring) Life Groups. Life Groups begin the week of Feb. 12 and culminate the week of March 19 (six weeks). Leaders may host Life Groups on campus, at a nearby coffee shop or in their homes.

Interested? Please use this link to apply by Monday, Jan. 16. Contact Kearsten McCoy (kmccoy@georgefox.edu) if you have any questions.