The Daily Bruin

Due to a last-minute conflict, Provost Patrick Allen will not be leading Thursday’s regularly scheduled Faculty Teaching Forum. Instead, a panel of George Fox professors will take part in a roundtable discussion about teaching practices that have been effective at the university.

The session will still meet from noon to 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in Cap and Gown Room A (note different location than on academic calendar). All faculty – full time, part time, and adjunct – are invited to attend Faculty Teaching Forums (FTFs). Video podcasts of FTFs will be available on iTunesU.

Tilikum is offering an opportunity for women who are ready for a different kind of retreat experience Oct. 2-4. Planned activities include the challenge course, a vineyard hike, and lake canoeing. These will be directly tied to your life, woven together with times of goal-setting and reflection.

Cost is $199 per person. Current university students and employees receive 25 percent off ($149). For more information and to register, please see the link on the Tilikum website, camptilikum.org.

Serve Day is this Wednesday, Sept. 9. The flow of the day is as follows:

7:30-8:30 a.m.: Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m.: Kickoff celebration on the quad
8:55 a.m.: Gather at your numbered post and leave
Noon: Eat lunch with your group at the service site
4 p.m.: Return to campus for volunteer, church, and activities fair celebration with mechanical surf board and giant water slide
4:30-6:30 p.m.: Complimentary dinner for the George Fox community

Please note that breakfast and lunch are complimentary for all employees but lunch is not. If you would like to buy a lunch for $6.25 on Serve Day, please come to the information table outside of the Stevens Center.

Thank you!

Through Friday, there will be a poster in the Office of Spiritual Life for Alexander Spycher’s family. If you would like to stop by and sign your name and leave an encouraging note, the Spycher family would greatly appreciate it. Alexander, a 21-year-old transfer student, unexpectedly passed away last Thursday, Sept. 3.

The spiritual life office is located on the corner of Sheridan and Meridian in the Sheridan Street House. Office hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Department of  Visual Arts will host an exhibit, “Trial By Fire,” in the Minthorne Gallery beginning with an artists’ talk and reception on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Artists Kim Hamblin (mixed media), Landry Deese (ceramics), Ruri (claywork) and David Carmack Lewis (paintings) will share about their work at 4 p.m., followed by a reception from 5 to 6:30 p.m.

The show runs through Oct. 1 and features wood-fired porcelain, wood-fired clay pieces and paintings. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The library is pleased to announce that we now provide access to a suite of 32 periodical and reference database products from Gale/Cengage. Examples of our new databases are Gale’s Academic OneFile, covering a broad range of disciplines and subject-specific databases such as the Health & Wellness Resource Center and Business & Company Resource Center.

A complete list of these new databases is available. Databases can also be found at the Databases A-Z list on the library’s home page (library.georgefox.edu), and in some library subject guides.

The university’s History and Political Science Department is hosting the 17th Hoover Symposium from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in Hoover 105.

Joshua Hawley, author of Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness, will speak on the origins of the conservationist movement. Kendrick A. Clements, author of Hoover, Conservation, and Consumerism, will address the question of whether Hoover was a conservationist, an environmentalist, or something else. A panel of experts will consider whether or not history can offer practical lessons for modern environmentalists.

Registration and lunch are free for the first 100 people who register. Contact Mark Hall (Herbert Hoover Distinguished Professor of Political Science) at 503-554-2674 or mhall@georgefox.edu to register or for further information.

The Timothy’s Charge ministry is hosting a weekly Bible study led by Professor Byron Shenk this semester. The study will meet in Hoover 102 from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays, with the first study set for Sept. 8. All members of the George Fox community are invited. Feel free to bring your lunch.

This is a reminder that employees are able to purchase a lunch on the morning of Serve Day (Wednesday, Sept. 9) by paying $6.25 at the information table outside of the Stevens Center. If you would like to do this, please e-mail us at serveday@georgefox.edu with your name so that we know how many to expect. Thank you!

With the academic year now underway, Employee of the Month Awards will resume. This year’s winners will be selected from nominations from coworkers and other colleagues. Support staff and administrators from all sites are eligible to receive this award once each year. Monthly winners will be announced at the all-employee meetings and each will receive a $100 gift certificate to the Jory Restaurant at the new Allison Inn & Spa in Newberg.

Please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg (Human Resources) if you would like to nominate a support staff member or administrator for 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 (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 by Friday, Sept. 18. The president’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the Employee(s) of the Month from the nominations submitted. The winner(s) will be announced at the all-employee meeting on Thursday, Sept 24.

Last Friday, an updated e-mail went out to all employees about individual Serve Day assignments. Unfortunately, that e-mail did not specify which employees are driving.

The first e-mail to employees sent out in mid-August recorded drivers. If you were driving then, you still are now. If you have questions regarding transportation, please e-mail serveday@georgefox.edu or call ext. 2326. Thanks for all your help!

Selah 2009 is just around the corner! The annual women’s seminar is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, in Bauman Auditorium. This year’s theme is “Reimagine: Embracing change, trusting God and moving forward.”

This year’s speakers are Sarah Thomas Baldwin, Linda Lucas and Bo Stern. For their bios and a complete list of the breakout session presenters, please visit selah.georgefox.edu. If you have any questions or if you are interested in volunteering for Selah, contact Amy Lorenz (University Relations) at alorenz@georgefox.edu or ext. 2134. All volunteers receive a $10 discount on their registration.

See you there!

A new Google Group/listserv has been created for members of the George Fox community who consider themselves Quaker, are interested in learning more about Quakers, or for those who want to be informed of events on campus and in the area related to the Friends church. Please e-mail Jamie Johnson (jejohnson@georgefox.edu) to be added to the list.

The School of Management invites the university community to its Quarterly Speaker Series, which opens with the session “Negotiations 101: How to Drive an Effective Win-Win Deal,” from 7 to 9 a.m. Friday, Sept. 18, in Portland Center’s Room 155.

Guest Jim Cross, a George Fox MBA alumnus, is a contracts and negotiations manager for Intel Corporation’s Global Indirect Procurement organization. Jim’s global organization leads negotiation teams on strategic supply chain engagements. He has worked in global supply chain management for more than 14 years and has been at Intel Corporation for 10 years.

Cross will address pertinent aspects of negotiation and dispel the notion that negotiations have a “win-lose” outcome. Effective negotiators know that long-term success is measured by “win-win” outcomes. Grounded in communication, these outcomes occur when negotiations bridge the gap of false information and miscommunication — skills especially needed by managers and leaders of complex organizations today.

Attendees will learn about negotiating, and in so doing improve their personal communication in a positive way that fosters “win-win” outcomes in all aspects of life.

Please R.S.V.P. if you plan to attend: georgefox.edu/som/events.html.

The Office of Student Life is distributing new copies of the “Faculty and Staff Guide to Working with Students in Distress.” You won’t miss them: they are bright orange.

Please integrate this document into your records and recycle last year’s yellow version. Questions can be directed to Jere Witherspoon (Student Life) at jwithers@georgefox.edu or ext. 2316.

Tuesday, Sept. 8, will be the last day for students to use their vouchers to charge to their student accounts in the University Store.

The seasonal flu vaccine will be available beginning Monday, Sept. 7, for those at high risk for complications from the flu, or caregivers of persons at high risk.

If you meet any of the following criteria, please call the Health and Counseling Center at ext. 2340 to schedule an appointment:

• Pregnancy during the flu season

• History of chronic pulmonary (including asthma), heart disease (except hypertension), kidney disease, liver disease, neurologic disease (including seizure disorders), blood disease or metabolic disease (including diabetes mellitus), or caregivers for family members with these risks

• Immunosuppression, including immunosuppression caused by medications

• Health-care personnel

• Household members and caregivers of children less than 5 years of age, and especially those caring for children less than 6 months of age

• Adults aged 50 years and older

• Children receiving long-term aspirin therapy

Beginning Sept. 14, the flu vaccine will be available by appointment to all other students and staff. The fee is $15. The H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine will also be available mid- to late-October (details to follow).

Provost Patrick Allen will lead a Faculty Teaching Forum titled “Classroom Practices: Three Paths to Better Teaching” from noon to 1:20 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 10, in Cap and Gown Room A (note different location than on academic calendar).

The session will review three “oldies, but goodies” in classroom practice: “Desirable Difficulties,” “Spacing” and “Metacognitive Monitoring,” and discuss how they can assist student learning. A recent Chronicle article suggests that they many not always be appropriate, so we will put our heads together and discuss when and where they work – and when they don’t. Inexperienced and experienced teachers invited!

To reserve a lunch, e-mail Jere Witherspoon (jwithers@georgefox.edu) by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Everyone is welcome to attend the session, whether bringing a lunch or reserving a lunch. Please have your lunch ready so we can begin the conversation at noon.

All faculty — full time, part time, and adjunct — are invited to attend Faculty Teaching Forums (FTFs). Video podcasts of FTFs will be available on iTunesU.

Please be watching for your final Serve Day assignment in your in-box. They will be sent Friday, Sept. 4. If you have not received an assignment by Monday, please e-mail serveday@georgefox.edu or call ext. 2326. Thank you!

With the start up of classes, please remember that all the chairs and tables in the Bruin Den, Klages Dining Room, Cap and Gown Room and everywhere else on campus are not to be removed for any reason. These need to be left in place, as they are critical for their intended purposes.

Please contact Event Services if you need to arrange for the use of tables or chairs for an event.