The Daily Bruin

Continuing the practice begun last year to approve holiday schedules two years in advance, the 2012-13 holiday schedule has been finalized and approved. It is now available for employees to see at this link.

This link takes you to a three-page document that contains the current year’s holiday schedule on page 1, the 2011-12 holiday schedule on page 2, and the 2012-13 schedule on page 3. These holiday schedules are being provided well in advance to assist in the long-term planning of academic programs and calendars.

This is a reminder that an all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. this Monday, Nov. 15, in Bauman Auditorium (note the location change).

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available for viewing at stream.georgefox.edu/live/commmtg.sdp. In addition, a chat room has been set up to allow for interaction, and a video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

It’s time to order university stationery. For detailed order instructions, go to the university’s communications website.

Elizabeth Holme (Print Services) will work with the Office of Marketing Communications in ordering general university (i.e. non-departmental stationery) letterhead and envelopes. You will continue to purchase all non-departmental stationery (including “second-sheet letterhead”) through her.

Orders are due by Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Please nominate a colleague that you believe is deserving of the November Employee of the Month award. Your nomination should include a concise but specific summary of the 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 via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by next Friday, Nov. 12. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the recipient from the nominations submitted. Both the October and November awards will be presented at our community meeting on Monday afternoon, Nov. 15, and each will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.

The university community is invited to hear Rebecca Addleman, Carol Brazo and Tatiana Cevallos present their research on “Internationalizing Teacher Education.” This final Faculty Research Forum of the semester will take place this Friday, Nov. 5, at 10:40 a.m. in Hoover 105. Refreshments will be served.

All  women employees – faculty, administrators and staff – are invited to a:

Brown Bag Lunch
Monday, Nov. 22
Cap and Gown Rooms, Newberg Campus
Noon – 1:15 p.m. (the event will be live-streamed for all other university sites at noon PST).
Guest speaker: Barbara Palmer

Barbara is senior vice president and market executive of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, where she has been employed for 37 years. She has management responsibility for two offices in Portland and Vancouver. Barbara has served on the university board of trustees for 17 years and also participates on boards for Transitional Youth, United Way Campaign, Medical Teams International, and Employers for Excellence in Education.

From her wealth of experience, Barbara will share with us her leadership journey and thoughts about mentoring and being mentored.

The Women’s Leadership Development committee invites all women employees on the Newberg campus to join us for this event as we continue exploring leadership development. Please bring your own lunch to this event. Beverages and cookies will be served.

The university community is invited to the final Faculty Research Forum of the semester, to be held Friday, Nov. 5, from 10:40 to 11:30 a.m. in Hoover 105. The forum will feature Rebecca Addleman, Carol Brazo and Tatiana Cevallos speaking on their research in leading MAT students through the transformative learning experience of intercultural immersion.

Now is the time to submit your request for business cards. Marketing Communications will be processing a business card order soon. Place your order directly with B&B Print Source by Tuesday, Nov 9.

The login user ID is “gfubc” and password is “gfu123” (please save for future reference). Contact Danette Newkirk (Marketing Communications) if you have any questions.

The all-employee meetings originally scheduled for Oct. 28 and Nov. 24 have been canceled. Instead, an all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 15, in Bauman Auditorium (note the location change).

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available for viewing at stream.georgefox.edu/live/commmtg.sdp.  If you have any problems connecting, contact the Service Desk at ext. 2569. In addition, a chat room has been set up to allow for interaction. A video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

As a reminder, a tuition remission information session will be presented online at 1 p.m. (PST) Thursday, Oct. 21. The session is meant for anyone who is interested in receiving more information regarding tuition remission, tuition exchange and admissions.

The intended audience are those who are preparing (either for themselves or someone they know) for undergraduate admissions for the 2011 year. This is a repeat of the on-campus meeting that was held in September.

Questions? Contact Taylor Martin (Admissions) at 503-553-2257.

If you wish to participate, register at this link.

Please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg (HR) by Friday, Oct. 22, if you would like to nominate a support staff member or administrator for October Employee of the Month. Your e-mail should include the person’s name, job title, a concise but specific summary of this person’s contribution(s) to the university, its students, and/or its employees in the past 30 days or so, and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select someone for this honor from the nominations submitted. The winner will be announced at the next all-community meeting (to be scheduled in November) and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.

Are you ready for the FoxTALE-MyGFU integration? It will be fully implemented for spring 2011. Join IT for a session in which you will set up course sites today that auto-enroll students in spring term courses.

IT will host two face-to-face workshop sessions on Tuesday, Oct. 19, from 11:30 a.m. to noon at Portland Center Room 210 and on Thursday, Oct. 21, from 4 to 4:30 p.m. in Hoover 211. Can’t make it? Join our webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 20, from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Pacific (PDT) for an informational meeting.

Space is still available for these sessions. Sign up on this R.S.V.P. form. For details on what this session covers, see Add Assignments and Grades printable instructions at Faculty Quick Guides for FoxTALE.

See all of the faculty and staff development sessions IT hosts at Schedule of Events.

A tuition remission information session will be presented online at 1 p.m. (PST) Thursday, Oct. 21. The session is meant for anyone who is interested in receiving more information regarding tuition remission, tuition exchange and admissions. Our audience in mind are those who are preparing (either for themselves or someone they know) for undergraduate admissions for the 2011 year. This is a repeat of the on-campus meeting that was held in September.

Click on this link to register.

Interested in living or working overseas, but not sure how to do it? The Big Guide can help. The Office of Career Services has a subscription to this great interactive website that allows you to access its abundant resources for free.

Visit careers.georgefox.edu and find the link under “News and Updates” to activate your free account. Once registered, you can network with others interested in living or working abroad, both inside and outside of George Fox, and can access numerous videos and text resources to help you prepare for your upcoming adventure.

If you have any questions, contact Career Services at 503-554-2330 or via e-mail at careers@georgefox.edu.

Have you wondered how health care reform is affecting your benefits? The HR department will be tracking and communicating the changes as they become effective on the Benefits webpage. Please check this page regularly for updates. There are two changes that affect your flexible spending account – one immediately and one Jan. 1.

Thank you to the 155 employees who responded to a request earlier this month to update your ethnicity and race information to allow the university’s data to be in sync with the new reporting requirements of the U.S. Department of Education.

There are still about 350 employees who have not yet taken time to do this; hence, this second request. Your voluntary self-reporting will help the university (and Sheila Abercrombie in particular) more easily and accurately report this data (in aggregate only) on reports such as IPEDS.

If you have not already done so, would you please take just a minute or so to update your information now?

1. Log into MyGFU.

2. Navigate to Self Service > Campus Personal Information > Ethnicity. (The message in the screen mentions “students” but it is applicable to employees as well.)

3. If you indicated racial/ethnic information to George Fox in the past, it will be shown. Respond to the questions, and check the “The information is correct as entered” box.

4. Click Submit.

Again, reporting your race and ethnicity is voluntary but it is very helpful to us as we assess our programs and serve our diverse world.

The Newberg campus will be closed Friday, Oct. 8, for the mid-semester holiday. All offices, the Bruin Bookstore and the library will be closed.

With the advent of October, we ask you to please nominate a colleague that you believe is deserving of this month’s award. Your nomination should include a concise but specific summary of the 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.

Please submit your nomination via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by Oct. 22. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the recipient from the nominations submitted. The winner will be announced at our community meeting on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 28, and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.

Gmail has announced the option of turning off the conversation view in your e-mail. Tired of related e-mails being “stacked” into one message? Simply click on “Settings” in the upper-right corner, then the “General” tab. The sixth option on the list will turn off conversations and let every e-mail you receive remain independent in your in-box.

If a balance of more than one year of vacation accrual remains after December time sheets and time-off reports are processed (in January), the employee will lose the portion that exceeds one year’s accrual.

Available on the HR website are vacation accrual charts with instructions, one each for support staff and administrators. Please use this chart along with the information on your Sept. 30 pay statement to determine how many hours of vacation you need to use before Jan. 1, 2011. Your vacation balance on your Sept. 30th pay statement does not take into account any vacation you may have taken in September since those time sheets and time-off reports have not yet been received or processed in HR. Links to these charts can be found by clicking this link.

If you have any questions after you have reviewed your vacation balance and the chart that applies to your vacation accrual, please contact HR for assistance.