The Daily Bruin

All university offices will be closed Monday, Jan. 2, to observe the New Year’s holiday.

Student supervisors, please submit the rest of your students’ December time sheets to HR right away — by Wednesday, Jan. 4, by noon. Pay day is Friday, Jan 13, because Monday, Jan. 16, is a holiday.

Please be sure the student’s name, ID number and cost center number is legible on each one. Please total them, sign them, and be sure the students did as well. (If the student is not available to sign it, please send it without the signature, and HR will contact the student.) Please do not send students to HR to sign their time sheets.

Federal Work Study regulations require that students delivering their own time sheets must have them in a sealed envelope.

If you happen to still have any paperwork to submit on a student hired in December, please hand-deliver it right away — no later than Tuesday, Jan 3. We need to set up students in the system before the time sheets arrive.

Thanks very much.

– HR

Did you get peanuts for Christmas?

Mail Services can use all of the peanuts and other packing materials that you received. Please bring them to Mail Services and they will gladly be put to use by other shippers – including those from departmenst on campus.

Thanks!

– Mail Services

Marketing Communications is collecting orders for name tags. For those who have regular face-to-face contact with the public and need to order a name tag, you may now submit and view your name tag requests at this link online.

Be sure to provide the name of the person for whom the name tag is needed; title or department; and the budget to be charged. Examples of title or department include: Dean of Students/Student Life and Admissions Counselor/Admissions. The next order will be placed Friday, Jan. 13.

Now is the time to submit your request for business cards. The marketing communications office will be processing a business card order soon. Place your order directly with B&B Print Source by Friday, Jan. 13. Please create a new “Individual Account” on the form.

Contact Danette Newkirk (Marketing Communications) if you have any questions.

It’s time to order university stationery. For order instructions, go to the marketing communications website. You will continue to purchase all non-departmental stationery (including “second-sheet letterhead”) through the university’s Print Services.

Orders are due by Thursday, Jan. 12.

Security Services placed yellow Emergency Response Guides in all of the classrooms on campus during the summer. The orange guides for each department’s main office are now being placed in the buildings, and some of the information is new. Please take time to thoroughly review the information on the guides and check out the locations of the fire extinguishers and exits.

Also, please go over these guides with your work-study students, discuss them as a department, and plan your escape routes in case of emergency. If there are any emergency procedures on the guides that you don’t understand, or need more clarification, please don’t hesitate to contact Security Services at ext. 2090.

Minimum wage in Oregon is going up to $8.80 for 2012. Your students will love it, but it could be a challenge to manage your budget. Please remind your student employees that their Jan. 13 check will still reflect the 2011 rate since it covers hours worked in December.

And, as a reminder, remember to turn in December time sheets for each of your students as soon as they have worked their last shift of the month! Our processing time in January is critically short with the New Year and MLK holidays. Thank you!

– HR

To simplify the process of preparing for a new semester, IT automatically created a FoxTALE site for all of your spring and summer 2012 courses that are listed in MyGFU.

Spring 2012 FoxTALE course sites have “2112” in the title, and summer 2012 FoxTALE course sites have “2114” in the title. Please note that May term courses are included in summer 2012. Each FoxTALE site automatically enrolls students, but the sites are hidden from students. You have control over when, or even if, you make a site available (visible) to the students.

See the FoxTALE for Faculty web page for more details. Questions? Contact Gloria Doherty (gdoherty@georgefox.edu) or Sheila Abercrombie (sabercro@georgefox.edu).

All university offices will be closed on Friday, Dec. 23, as well as Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 26-27, to observe the  Christmas holiday.

The Newberg and Portland campuses have adopted a new tobacco-free campus policy beginning Jan. 1, 2012. While tobacco use by traditional undergraduate students and employees has already not been allowed (on or off campus), guests have been permitted to smoke outside buildings on university property. The new policy prohibits smoking and all forms of tobacco use everywhere on-campus by any person.

For more information and FAQs, please see this Tobacco-Free web page or contact Mark Pothoff (Student Life) at ext. 2313 or mpothoff@georgefox.edu.

The end of the year is quickly approaching – three business days, to be exact! Gifts from George Fox employees make it possible for students to receive tremendous opportunities for spiritual formation, vocational development and character growth.

To see videos and students’ testimonies of how these types of opportunities at George Fox deepen their relationship with God and prepare them to transform culture, please go to giving.georgefox.edu.

For an easy way to give via payroll deduction, please follow this link.

If you want to receive 2011 tax credit, please make sure your donation meets the following deadlines:

• Checks must be postmarked no later than Dec. 31.
• Online donations must be processed no later than Dec. 31 at midnight (Pacific time).
• Credit card payments must be processed in our office no later than Dec. 30 at 5 p.m. (Pacific time). To reach us on Dec. 30, please call Kristi Hagen at 503-554-2111.

Many thanks to those who have already responded! You make such a difference in students’ lives.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

If you have any questions, please contact Mandria Montplaisir, director of annual giving, at mmontplaisir@georgefox.edu.

The next Staff Development Committee support staff luncheon is set for Monday, Jan. 30, at noon in the Cap and Gown Room. We will be celebrating the Super Bowl, so feel free to wear the colors of your favorite team (a team jersey, etc.) and get an extra ticket for our prize drawing.

Our menu will be a choice of soup in a bread bowl, salad, dessert and beverage. Mark your calendars now to join us.

Questions? Contact Sherri Moore at smoore@georgefox.edu.

Know of a former George Fox athlete you feel is deserving of recognition? The university is currently accepting nominations for the 2012 Sports Hall of Fame induction. You are invited to join in this 17-year tradition by nominating someone whom you feel is deserving of this honor. Honorees will be inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame at the 2012 ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 15.

Up to three athletes, one coach, one meritorious service recipient, and one team may be selected by the committee to enter the Sports Hall of Fame.

Please use this online form to submit your nomination. Nominations are due by Monday, Jan. 16, 2012.

For more information on criteria or the Sports Hall of Fame in general, contact Steve Grant at ext. 2917 or sgrant@georgefox.edu.

IT is offering two webinars during the first week of January:

• FoxTALE Introduction, Wednesday, Jan. 4, 9-10 a.m.
• FoxTALE Assignments, Thursday, Jan. 5, 4-4:30 p.m.

Join IT throughout the spring for 30-minute webinars on FoxTALE, FoxFiles and Google Docs. 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. We’ll continue to add webinars and post additional announcements.

Questions? Contact Sheila Abercrombie at sabercro@georgefox.edu.

Faculty members: As you enter final grades for fall 2011, please note the following change. If you enter an “F” grade for a student, this student’s name will be populated in a row at the bottom of your grade roster. You will be asked to select one of three “F Grade Attendance Reasons”: Never Attended, Attended Until Term Completed, and Attended Until (for this option you will need to enter the student’s last date of attendance in your class).

This feature replaces the FSA grade that has been used for students who stopped attending but are still listed on the grade roster. If you have questions, please contact your enrollment counselor.

Just a reminder that the Bruin Den and Villa Cafe will be closed starting Monday, Dec. 19, for Christmas break.

The Bruin Den will reopen Jan. 3-6 from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will resume normal hours on Jan. 9. The Villa Cafe will also reopen on Monday, Jan. 9.

We want to thank the entire George Fox community for a wonderful year, and we wish you all a very special and blessed Christmas as you celebrate this season with family and friends.

– Bon Appetit staff

As a reminder, the university has free tickets to the 2012 Build, Remodel & Landscape Show, scheduled Jan. 6-8 at the Oregon Convention Center. The event is an opportunity to get started on your home improvement plans.

The show will feature displays and exhibits by kitchen and bath remodelers; window, siding and roofing companies; landscaping consultants; and many other vendors. Hours of the show are Friday, noon to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Newberg employees, please stop by the Information Desk in Stevens Center to pick up your free tickets (normally $6 each); limit two per employee. Portland and Salem employees, you can request yours by phone or e-mail by contacting Barbi Doran (ext. 2099 or bdoran@georgefox.edu), and we will send them to you in campus mail (please note that Barbi is the contact person).

More than 200 students will receive undergraduate and graduate diplomas at the university’s midyear commencement ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 17, in the Wheeler Sports Center. Seating begins at 1 p.m., and the ceremony will start at 2 p.m.

Tickets are not required; however, seating is limited to 10 guests per graduate. At 1:45 p.m., a live broadcast of the ceremony will be available to watch at this link.

Chris Skaggs, who graduated from George Fox with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1999, will serve as commencement speaker. He is a 12-year veteran of the Web and mobile software industry and founder of Soma Games, a video gaming company with a Christian worldview.

Still need a Christmas tree? Performing Arts is making available some noble trees from last week’s Christmas concert. Feel free to drop by the front of Bauman Auditorium and pick one up.

Questions? Contact Debbie Hawblitzel at ext. 2620 or dhawblit@georgefox.edu.