The Daily Bruin

George Fox University is excited to announce a tour of alpine Europe to see the Passion Play at Oberammergau, Germany, in early-summer 2010.

Open to all employees, students, alumni, parents and friends of George Fox, our 11-day tour, departing May 31, will include visits to the beautiful alpine European cities of Frankfurt and Munich, Germany; Salzburg, Austria; and Lucerne and Interlaken, Switzerland. Among many other highlights, the tour will include travel through the Rhine Valley, Black Forest, as well as the Swiss, Austrian and Bavarian Alps. Additionally, visits are planned to Neuschwanstein and Heidelberg castles, and Rothenburg, Germany’s best-preserved medieval town.

The highlight of the trip will be the Passion Play, an inspiring one-day play, dating back nearly 375 years, which is performed for sold-out audiences every 10 years in a magnificent outdoor covered amphitheater with the Bavarian Alps as a backdrop.

To read the full itinerary, request more information, and register for the trip, click here.

Employees are invited to attend an all-community meeting from 4 to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, in Hoover 105. The meeting will provide employees an opportunity to receive campus updates. Your participation is strongly encouraged.

For those at the Boise and Portland centers, the meeting will be available for viewing at stream.georgefox.edu/live/CommMtg.sdp. After the meeting, it will be posted at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

Even though the Oct. 17 deadline is passed, if you tried unsuccessfully to enroll in long term care insurance online and were not able to, please contact Lisa Burton or Peggy Kilburg (Human Resources). We have been notified by Long Term Care Solutions that we can give you the opportunity to sign up this week using a hard-copy application form. This applies to employees and spouses who want coverage effective Dec. 1.

Due to high demand from participants, TIAA-CREF’s two newest, very timely, and highly successful seminars — “Staying on Track in a Volatile Market” and “A History of Strength and Stability” — are now available on its website as a web seminar. The first seminar addresses the historical returns and inherent volatility of stocks as well as the importance of asset allocation. The second seminar provides information on the financial strength of TIAA-CREF.

Given the current financial situation, both topics may be of interest to you, and the web seminars will enable you to learn more about both topics at a time convenient to you.

The seminars may be accessed by going to the TIAA-CREF homepage, tiaa-cref.org, then selecting the tab “Education & Support.”

Congratulations to Patti Odenweller (Registrar’s Office), winner of the iPod Touch that was generously donated by our University Store for the long-term care insurance meetings. A total of 39 employees attended one of the meetings, and all were entered in the drawing. Thanks to all who attended. If you still have questions, please contact Long Term Care Solutions at 877-286-2852 or Lisa Burton or Peggy Kilburg (Human Resources).

The Graduate Department of Counseling is changing the name of its on-campus clinic. The Portland Center for Counseling and Family Therapy is now called Individual & Family Matters, a Counseling Service of the Graduate Department of Counseling.

Individual & Family Matters is a nonprofit educational and counseling clinic offering therapeutic services to families, couples, individuals and children/adolescents. It is staffed by advanced graduate students supervised by American Association of Marriage & Family Therapy-approved supervisors and George Fox University faculty supervisors. Ellen R. Minshew, MS, LMFT, is the director of the clinic, located in the Portland North Building. More information is available at 503-554-6060.

Employees enrolling in long-term care insurance who wish to have coverage effective Dec. 1 (with payroll deductions beginning Dec. 31) and with guarantee issue (enrollment guaranteed without medical questionnaire required), enrollment must be completed Friday, Oct. 17.

To enroll online, go to enrollment.jhcorpchoice.com/login.aspx
User name: georgefox; Password: mybenefit

This website also provides a calculation function to compare costs of various levels of coverage before you enroll. Enrollment is very quick and easy — 10 minutes or less. You also can have your questions answered and/or enroll by calling Long Term Care Solutions at 1-877-286-2852.

If you enroll with the paper enrollment form in the packet, it must be submitted to HR by the deadline. Bring, fax or e-mail the completed form to Peggy Kilburg or Lisa Burton (Human Resources). Our fax number is 503-554-2186.

Spouses of employees also can have premiums payroll deducted. To begin coverage Dec. 1 (for a Dec. 31st deduction), however, a spouse’s enrollment must be done by Friday as well. Spouses and other family members may enroll at any time and will be required to complete a medical questionnaire as part of the enrollment process.

The Orbis Cascade Alliance, in conjunction with Online Computer Library Center, is finalizing work on the new Summit catalog. Summit is the catalog for ordering books and media from other academic libraries in Washington and Oregon. With one search, this new catalog will allow you to discover materials from all over the world. One search will soon allow you access to both the Summit and WorldCat catalogs.

The new catalog will be available to use beginning Dec. 1. Some inconveniences and disruptions in Summit features and functions may be part of the transition. The library is working hard to bring you better searching and discovery tools and will appreciate your patience while we work on implementing the new Summit system.

To learn more, go to orbiscascade.org/index/new-summit to read an FAQ on the new Summit catalog.

The Newberg campus will take its mid-semester holiday on Monday, Oct. 13. No classes will be held, and the university’s offices, bookstore, switchboard, and library will be closed. The Portland and Boise sites will remain open.

Employees interested in learning more about long-term care insurance are invited to an information meeting from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9, in Hoover 102, on the Newberg campus. Spouses and/or other family members are welcome to attend as well.

Long-term care insurance helps protect your retirement savings and other assets from potentially devastating long-term care costs. With the average cost of care being $68,985 per year, long-term care costs could seriously impact your nest egg.

Employees have the advantage of this one-time “guarantee issue,” which means they are guaranteed to be issued a policy upon application with no medical questions asked if they enroll by Oct. 17.

Two other opportunities to hear about long-term care insurance are also available:
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 10-11 a.m., webinar (see link below for instructions)
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Portland 280 (sub sandwich served)

Employees attending any of the meetings at the Newberg or Portland campuses are eligible to win an iPod, compliments of the University Store. Employees from Boise, Salem and Redmond who participate by joining the webinar also will be included in the drawing.

Go to georgefox.edu/offices/hr/benefits.html for instructions on how to participate in the webinar and to read a longer article about long-term care insurance.

Employees can ask questions or enroll at a meeting or call LTC Solutions at 877-286-2852 if attending a meeting or the webinar is not convenient.

Beth LaForce (Education) and Kathleen Gathercoal (Psychology) will present the fall faculty lecture, “For Such a Time as This,” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 7, in Hoover 105 on the Newberg campus. The lecture honors the work of  Sherrie Schulke, an assistant professor of social work at George Fox until her death in 2003 after a long battle with cancer. Beth and Kathleen were part of a team from Portland State University and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital that finished and published Schulke’s research project.

AT&T Mobility 15 percent discounts are available for George Fox University employees. Visit http://att.com/wireless/gfuemployees to learn more. You will need this employee FAN number: 2601384. An individual original iPhone account may not be eligible.

Employees interested in learning more about long-term care insurance are invited to an information meeting from noon to 1 p.m. this Friday, Oct. 3, in the Cap and Gown Room on the Newberg campus.

Long-term care insurance helps protect your retirement savings and other assets from potentially devastating long-term care costs. With the average cost of care being $68,985 per year, long-term care costs could seriously impact your nest egg.

The university is hosting a series of sessions about enrollment in this voluntary insurance through mid-October. Employees have the advantage of this one-time “guarantee issue,” which means they are guaranteed to be issued a policy upon application with no medical questions asked.

Meetings are scheduled as follows. Please note that the Portland room location is a change from the Sept. 18 e-nnouncement.

• Friday, Oct. 3, noon-1 p.m., Cap and Gown Room (sub sandwich served)
• Wednesday, Oct. 8, 9-10 a.m., VAC 117 (bagels served)
• Thursday, Oct. 9, 7-8 p.m., Hoover 102 (cookies served)
• Tuesday, Oct. 14, 10-11 a.m., webinar (see link below)
• Wednesday, Oct. 15, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Portland 280 (sub sandwich served)

Employees attending any of the meetings at the Newberg or Portland campus are eligible to win an iPod, compliments of the University Store. Employees from Boise, Salem and Redmond who participate by joining the webinar also will be included in the drawing.

Go to http://www.georgefox.edu/offices/hr/benefits.html for instructions on how to participate in the webinar and to read a longer article about the insurance LTC Solutions offers.

Employees can ask questions or enroll at a meeting or call LTC Solutions at 877-286-2852 if attending a meeting or the webinar is not convenient.

Please take a few minutes to submit your September time sheet (support staff) or time-off report (administrators) to your supervisor right away. As always, be sure it is complete, accurate and signed by both you and your supervisor before sending it to HR at Box 6108. (If your supervisor is not available to sign it, please send a copy to HR and keep the original until it has been signed.) The link on the HR website for these documents is georgefox.edu/offices/hr/forms.html.

A tip to help you remember to do this each month: Set a recurring appointment on your Outlook calendar for the first business day of each month with a brief notation, “Turn in time sheet.” That gives you one less thing to have to remember, allowing you to save your brain space for important stuff.

Thank you.

– Human Resources

An administrative assistant II .75 FTE position (30 hours per week over 12 months) is currently open. The job is to provide administrative support to the dean and the director of the Doctor of Management program (currently Ken Armstrong and Craig Johnson, respectively) on the Newberg campus. This position is paid on Pay Range 4.

We are recruiting internally only, so it is not posted on our website, nor are we seeking external applicants.  It will be open until at least 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Please contact HR to request a Transfer Request form and a copy of the job description if you are interested in applying for this position (hr@georgefox.edu or Peggy Kilburg).

A faculty teaching forum, “Finding the Sweet Spot: Creating Assignments Your Students Want to Write — and You Want to Read,” will be presented by Melanie Mock (Writing/Literature) from 3:40 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Hoover 104.

Writing assignments can often times be tedious exercises: both for the students who have to complete them, and for the professors who have to grade them. The forum will consider how writing assignments can engage students while also meeting course objectives; how assignment presentation influences student engagement with the assignment; and how we can construct creative writing assignments that might actually be a pleasure to read. Participants should bring one of their “favorite” writing assignments to share.

Refreshments will be served. No R.S.V.P. is required.

All faculty — full time, part time and adjunct — are invited to attend faculty teaching forums. Video podcasts of the forums will be available at the “Events and Resources” link on the Center for Teaching and Learning website.

PrayerNet strengthens the university community through intercessory prayer. If you have a prayer need, please know that there are people on campus who would like to pray for you. You can send your prayer requests through the Staff Development Committee website. Submit your requests anonymously or let us know who you are.

Also, a prayer request box is located in the chapel on the Newberg campus; one will be available in the Portland Center chapel shortly. Prayer is effective and powerful!

Boise faculty members are welcome to participate in the university’s faculty business meeting via Polycom this Friday, Sept. 26, from 11:40 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (MST) in the Boise Center’s conference room. The room will be a regular meeting place for the faculty business meeting when it is on Polycom.

Should you consider purchasing long-term care insurance? You will get the opportunity to better answer this question by attending an upcoming meeting or webinar hosted by LTC Solutions, a long-term care insurance company.

With the cost of health care outpacing inflation and people living longer, people are becoming increasingly concerned about their ability to fund their retirement and long-term care needs. A long-term care policy can help protect assets, minimize dependence on family members, and control how someone receives nursing or home care.

A series of informational meetings have been scheduled. Employees attending any of the group meetings in Newberg or Portland are eligible for an iPod Touch drawing hosted by the University Store. Employees from Boise, Salem and Redmond who participate by joining the webinar also will be included in the drawing.

Following is the meetings schedule:

Friday, Oct. 3, noon to 1 p.m., Cap and Gown Room (sandwich provided)
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 9-10 a.m., VAC 117 (bagels provided)
Thursday, Oct. 9, 7-8 p.m., Hoover 102 (snack provided)
Tuesday, Oct. 14, 10-11 a.m. webinar (access instructions to come)
Wednesday, Oct. 15, 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Portland 155 (sandwich provided)

For more information, contact LTC Solutions at 1-877-286-2852. To see a video about long-term care insurance, visit this link on the LTC Solutions site.

Because HR/payroll will be going live with PeopleSoft on Oct. 1, the Sept. 30 payroll will have to be finalized several days early to have time to convert the data from IFAS into PeopleSoft and check it for accuracy before Oct. 1. This means the payroll data entry deadline for this payroll will be earlier than usual.

If you have any paperwork to submit for the Sept. 30 pay day, it must be in HR no later than Thursday, Sept. 18. This includes  an overload or adjunct contract, a new W-4, retirement plan payroll reduction authorization, a direct deposit form, etc. Supervisors, any Personnel Change Forms that would impact an employee’s pay should also be submitted (with all signatures) by Thursday as well.

Forms can be faxed to HR at 503-554-2186 if you are not on the Newberg campus. Newberg campus employees, please deliver documents to HR; please do not put them in campus mail. Paperwork received after Thursday will not be processed until the October payroll.

Thank you,
Human Resources