The Daily Bruin

Join IT throughout the fall for 30-minute webinars on FoxTALE, FoxFiles, Google Docs, Polling, and Social Media. View the schedule, and sign up at this link. Information on how to join each webinar will be delivered via e-mail 24 hours prior to the webinar.

As of Aug. 1, women faculty and staff have the opportunity to apply for participation in the 2011-12 Women’s Leadership Development Institute cohort that will commence at a retreat planned for Sept. 29-30. Applications will be available at this link. Please return all applications to Campus Box #6255 by Sept. 1. Sheri Philips will continue to give leadership to the program.

The university’s first Women’s Leadership Development cohort concluded at a celebration for the program mentors and mentees in May. After attending the kick-off retreat in October, each cohort mentee met monthly with her mentor from October to May and attended five required leadership skills sessions.

Cohort mentees read several texts during the program and shared their learning on a WLDI Foxtale site. Mentees last year included Melissa Terry, Kathy Weiss, Audrey Williamson, Shelley Yonemura, Sondra Creason, Angela Wilson Henry and Brenda Burg.

Even though only a limited number can be accepted, please feel encouraged to apply.

We are already a few days into August, so please think about a colleague that would be deserving of this month’s Employee of the Month award.  Please submit your nomination by Monday, August 15, via email to Peggy Kilburg. It should be a summary of this person’s recent contributions (past 30 days or so) — what was done, who was impacted, etc. — and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

The President’s Executive Leadership Team will select the recipient from the nominations submitted, and the winner, along with July’s recipient, will be honored and presented with a $100 gift card to The Allison at our all employee/community meeting on Friday morning, August 19.

FoxTALE will be unavailable from 6 to 8 a.m. (Pacific Time) on Tuesday, Aug. 16, for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

In the coming weeks IT will be making changes to security settings on Windows workstations. These changes are designed to provide better protection from malicious attacks. These changes should be transparent for Windows XP users. With Windows 7, users may now see notifications when important system resources are accessed.

Please contact the IT Service Desk if you have questions.

IT will begin pushing out an update to Windows 7 on Wednesday, August 3. You will be prompted to reboot your computer when the update has installed successfully. If you are not running Windows 7 this update will have no impact on you.

Please contact the IT Service Desk if you have any questions about this.

The Staff Development Committee invites you to join us for our kickoff event of “Let’s Learn Together” on Tuesday, Aug. 2 from 12-1 p.m. on the Newberg campus in Stevens 307 and at the Portland Center in room 155. We have an IT specialist teaching Excel tips, tricks, and shortcuts.

Space is limited so please click here (https://spreadsheets.google.com/a/georgefox.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFdhR3FRQnJvT2NkMjU0S2FhanFKbHc6MQ to register for the event.  Please bring your lunch and your questions.

In October of 2010 the Provost’s Council approved a set of assumptions by which semester start and end dates will be consistently set, effective fall 2011.  These calendar assumptions are as follows:

Semester Start and End Dates
Mid-Year Commencement – on the Saturday on or between December 15-21
End of Fall Semester – Friday preceding Mid-Year Commencement
Start of Fall Semester – Monday 16 weeks prior to the End of Fall Semester (may be Labor Day)
Start of Spring Semester – Second Monday in January
End of Spring Semester – Friday 16 weeks following Start of Spring Semester
Start of Summer Semester/May Term – Monday following End of Spring Semester
End of May Term – Friday three weeks after start of May Term
End of Summer Semester – Friday 16 weeks following Start of Summer Semester

Spring Break Dates are scheduled as follows:
Oregon – Week that ends with the last Friday in March
Idaho – Week that begins with the last Monday in March

5 Year Semester Dates Based on the Above Assumptions:

2011-12
Fall Semester: 8/29/2011 – 12/16/2011
Spring Semester: 1/9/2012 – 4/27/2012
Summer Semester: 4/30/2012 – 8/17/2012

2012-13
Fall Semester: 8/27/2012 – 12/14/2012
Spring Semester: 1/14/2013 – 5/3/2013
Summer Semester: 5/6/2013 – 8/23/2013

2013-14
Fall Semester: 9/2/2013 – 12/20/2013
Spring Semester: 1/13/2014 – 5/2/2014
Summer Semester: 5/5/2014 – 8/22/2014

2014-15
Fall Semester: 9/1/2014 – 12/19/2014
Spring Semester: 1/12/2015 – 5/1/2015
Summer Semester: 5/4/2015 – 8/21/2015

2015-16
Fall Semester: 8/31/2015 – 12/18/2015
Spring Semester: 1/11/2016 – 4/29/2016
Summer Semester: 5/2/2016 – 8/19/2016

Provided by Melissa Thomas, Registrar

Starting Aug. 1, women faculty and staff will have the opportunity to apply for participation in the 2011-12 Women’s Leadership Development Institute cohort that will commence at a retreat planned for Sept. 29-30. Applications will be available at this link. Please return all applications to Campus Box #6255 by Sept. 1. Sheri Philips will continue to give leadership to the program.

The university’s first Women’s Leadership Development cohort concluded at a celebration for the program mentors and mentees in May. After attending the kick-off retreat in October, each cohort mentee met monthly with her mentor from October to May and attended five required leadership skills sessions.

Cohort mentees read several texts during the program and shared their learning on a WLDI Foxtale site. Mentees last year included Melissa Terry, Kathy Weiss, Audrey Williamson, Shelley Yonemura, Sondra Creason, Angela Wilson Henry and Brenda Burg.

Even though only a limited number can be accepted, please feel encouraged to apply.

A media production specialist position is currently open only to internal applicants (employees). Please e-mail hr@georgefox.edu to ask for a copy of the job description. To apply, please submit a completed transfer request, cover letter, and resume to Human Resources no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, July 29. The transfer request form is available here.

Qualified, temporary employees are welcome to apply but should submit a George Fox employment application with the cover letter and resume rather than the transfer request form.

Let’s Learn Together, an informational series sponsored by the Staff Development Committee, will kick off Tuesday, Aug. 2, from noon to 1 p.m. This first session of the year will focus on “Excel: Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts” and feature an IT specialist from George Fox. Watch your staff announcements for location and other information.

Questions? Contact Jan Lefebvre at jlefebvre@georgefox.edu.

Now that we have started a new fiscal year, please make sure you are using the correct Budget Reference (Bud Ref) date when creating requisitions in PeopleSoft. You need to enter 2012 as the Bud Ref in order to have the funds taken out of your new 2011-2012 budget.

If you are entering a requisition and you don’t know where to find the Bud Ref, please call Andy Dunn at ext. 2162 or Kathi Becker at ext. 2166.

With June now behind us and a new fiscal year just underway, please think about a colleague who would be deserving of the first Employee of the Month award for 2011-12. As always, your nomination should include the person’s name, job title, a concise but specific summary of this person’s recent contributions (past 30 days or so), and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

Please submit your nomination by Wednesday, July 27, via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the recipient from the nominations submitted. The winner will be announced at our next community meeting (date not yet set but probably in early August) and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.

Beginning today and using the heading “Benefit in Brief,” HR will highlight a benefit or two each month throughout 2011-12 with the goal of educating or just reminding employees about the various benefits the university provides to us.

July’s Benefit in Brief

There are two types of paid time off that employees don’t often use or think about: bereavement leave and time off for jury duty. Both of these are included as benefits for regular employees who work half time or above.

• Up to five days of sick leave may be taken for bereavement upon the death of an immediate family member: spouse, child/stepchild, parent, step-parent, parent-in-law, sibling, step-sibling, sibling-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, grandparent or grandchild. For those times when employees lose loved ones who are not family members, they should arrange with their supervisors to either use vacation time or make up the time missed from work.

• Employees are paid for time to serve on jury duty as long as they turn in any pay received from the court (excluding pay for mileage). Employees are expected to be at work for any part of their shifts that they are not required to actively serve. Administrators and staff should note time away for jury duty on their time-off reports and time sheets.

Information about bereavement leave and time off for jury duty can be found in the Employee Handbook on pages 43 and 44.

Join IT for an introduction to FoxTALE, the university Learning Management System (LMS) used by instructors and students to provide options for online classroom interaction. This seminar assumes no prior FoxTALE experience and begins with logging in to FoxTALE. Learn to develop your course site, upload course files such as syllabi, set up an online discussion forum, and set up assignments.

You can sign up at this link for sessions on Wednesday, Aug. 17, from 9 a.m. to noon in Stevens 307 in Newberg, or Thursday, Aug. 25, from 9 to 10 a.m. (Pacific) in an online webinar. (New regular faculty participating in New Faculty Orientation Aug. 16-18 will have a separate seminar as part of NFO.)

Visit Faculty FoxTALE Quick Guides for more information on using FoxTALE.

This is a final reminder that an all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, in Hoover 105.

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available at this stream site. A chat room has also been set up, and a video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

Don’t forget the upcoming all-employee meeting, scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, July 6, in Hoover 105.

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available at this stream site. A chat room has also been set up, and a video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

The IRS mileage reimbursement rate has gone up effective July 1 to $0.555. There is a new Expense Reimbursement Request (ERR) form available for download at the Financial Affairs webpage under the Common Forms link. Please update your files with the new form to ensure you are paid the correct amount for mileage.

If you have any questions, e-mail Andy Dunn or call ext. 2162.

We always appreciate receiving the previous month’s time sheets and time-off reports early in the new month, but we are especially anxious to receive June’s each year. This will enable HR to enter vacation and sick leave used in June right away so fiscal year-end balances can be reported and accounted for in a timely manner. This will, in turn, help the folks in financial affairs finish their work to close the books on 2010-11.

If you have any time-off reports or time sheets from earlier in 2010-11 that you have not yet submitted, please turn those in as well. If a supervisor’s absence will cause a delay, please send HR a copy of the original and submit the original after it has both yours and your supervisor’s signatures.

Thank you very much.

– HR

The end of the fiscal year has arrived and with it comes a few notices about year-end purchases.

• Please remember that if you order merchandise, it must physically be here before July 1 in order to be charged to your 2010-2011 budget. Goods and services received after June 30 will to be charged to the 2011-2012 budget.

• All POs created before Jan. 1, 2011, will be closed Thursday, June 23.

• Starting Monday, June 27, Andy Dunn will be contacting purchase requesters to discuss the next steps for open POs.

If you have any questions, please contact Andy Dunn at ext. 2162 or adunn@georgefox.edu.