The Daily Bruin

As a follow-up to the all-employee meeting on Jan. 21, the advancement office wanted to share fundraising progress year-to-date (YTD). It’s the mission of our office to raise funds to support all the amazing things that George Fox staff and students do every day.

One of our main priorities is raising money for the Student Fund, which provides unrestricted dollars for financial aid, student athletics and arts, study abroad programs, campus improvement, etc. But we also are always working on special projects. One of our top priorities this year is raising funds to build a new activity center that will allow students of all skill levels to exercise, do intramurals and meet for clubs, student government, etc. We are also always partnering with faculty members on grant opportunities for research and program funding.

It has been a great year so far! God has been blessing our work.

FY16 Highlights:

• At this point in the year, we have raised $2.5 million in total giving. This compares to $1.2 million at this time last year. We ended last fiscal year (June 2015) with total giving at $4.5 million.
• We are already up to $390,000 (plus 113,000 in pledges) in Student Fund giving; at this time last year, we were at $319,000.
• Our student team is rocking and rolling on the phone-a-thon, bringing in $39,000 (as compared to $24,000 at this time last year).
• Due in part to the phone-a-thon, we’ve also increased the total number of donors actively giving from 748 at this time last year to 1,163 currently.

We’re off to a great start this semester. Please reach out to advancement with any questions, donor ideas, grant proposals, etc. We’re happy to answer your questions! Call us at 503-554-2115.

If you gave your consent for an electronic W-2, they will be available in MyGFU “Self Service” on Wednesday, Jan. 27.

If you will be receiving a paper W-2, regular and student employees will receive their W2 in their campus box on Friday, Jan. 29. Temporary and adjunct employee W-2s will be mailed on Friday, Jan. 29.

Not sure what each W-2 box means? Additional information is available on the Human Resources webpage under Payroll and Performance Forms here.

Please email Katie Sol at ksol@georgefox.edu with any additional questions.

Seven staff and administrator positions are currently open. Listed in order of recency they are:

• Graduate Admissions Counselor, Seminary
• Carpenter
• Associate Vice President of Human Resources
• Head Women’s Volleyball Coach
• Director of Financial Aid
• Associate Registrar
• Accounting Specialist II – General Ledger

The link to each of these position announcements can be found at jobs.georgefox.edu. If you know of someone you believe might provide a good fit for any of these jobs, please refer the person to the website for information about the job and instructions about applying.

The university community is invited to an all-employee meeting from 3:30 to 5 p.m. today (Thursday) in Bauman Auditorium (note location change). The event will be live-streamed at the Portland Center in Room 160.

We want to remind you that George Fox University is committed to providing a Christ-centered community that fosters a safe living, learning and work setting for students, employees and visitors. A core value of this institution is to maintain a respectful environment for all individuals that is free of the following:

• Sexual harassment
• Sexual assault
• Domestic violence
• Dating violence
• Stalking
• Harassment and discrimination
• Bias-related incidents and hate crimes

These behaviors and actions are contrary to the mission, values and lifestyle standards of our community. It is our firm belief that engaging in any aspect of this behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated by members of the George Fox community.

Should an incident of this nature occur, the person is strongly encouraged to report the incident to University personnel. For further descriptions of these policies, resources for support, and the process for reporting, please visit studenthandbook.georgefox.edu.

We have complimentary tickets available to the 2016 Renovation and Landscaping Show coming up Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 22-24, at Portland’s Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum/Moda Center.

Employees can pick up two tickets each ($8 total value) from Barbi Doran at the Information Services Desk in Stevens Center this week. Portland and Salem employees can request tickets by emailing Barbi at bdoran@georgefox.edu. She will send them to you through campus mail.

We have a limited supply, so please request/pick them up only if you are reasonably certain you will attend.

The university community is invited to an all-employee meeting from 3:30 to 5 p.m. this Thursday, Jan. 21, in Bauman Auditorium (note location change). The event will be live-streamed at the Portland Center in Room 160.

The university’s offices, libraries and bookstores will be closed Monday, Jan. 18, to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Also closed will be the Fitness Center on the Newberg campus.

This coming Monday, Jan. 18, there will not be any courier deliveries because we will be closed on MLK Day. We will have the courier deliver our packages between the two campus on Tuesday and Thursday. Please plan your packages accordingly.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach Richard Silver at 503-554-2551 or rsilver@georgefox.edu.

Eight staff and administrator positions are currently open. Listed in order of recency they are:

• Graduate Admissions Counselor, Seminary
• Custodian
• Carpenter
• Associate Vice President of Human Resources
• Head Women’s Volleyball Coach
• Director of Financial Aid
• Associate Registrar
• Accounting Specialist II – General Ledger

The link to each of these position announcements can be found at jobs.georgefox.edu. If you know of someone you believe might provide a good fit for any of these jobs, please refer the person to the website for information about the job and instructions about applying.

Attention all staff: This is a “save the date” notice to put Thursday, March 3, on your calendars for our spring workshop conference! Stay tuned for details on the workshop offerings and how to sign up, but block out 8 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. on your calendars now for this great time of fellowship, learning and a delicious lunch.

Questions? Contact Nadine Kincaid at nkincaid@georgefox.edu.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued the 2016 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2016, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car will be 54 cents per mile for business miles driven, down from 57.5 cents for 2015.

Please make sure you use the correct/current Expense Reimbursement Request Forms. Turn in separate sheets for 2015 and 2016 mileage. These forms are found at this link.

Please contact Matt Hammar at ext. 2162 or Jen Klapp at ext. 2170 with questions.

The alumni relations office is looking for an original painting of the Centennial Tower done for a George Fox Christmas card in 1998 by alumnus Ken Gilmore (see photo). The painting was last seen in the Pennington House in the summer of 2014.

If you know of its whereabouts, please contact the alumni office at alumni.georgefox.edu or 503-554-2134.

Thank you

Faculty, staff and administrators: If you are new to George Fox, please register your vehicle(s) on MyGFU. You will need your DMV registration card in front of you to complete the registration form. If you need to register more than one car, please register your vehicles one right after the other. If you want to purchase a second permit for $5 cash, you can do so in the security office.

Please remember to put your campus PO box along with your campus’ physical mailing address for the “mailing address” part of the registration, as all permits will be sent via campus mail. Every staff/faculty member receives one gratis parking permit; any additional permits or replacements for lost permits can be purchased for $5.

Adjuncts: If you did not register during last summer or fall, your 2015 permit has now expired and you will need to go on MyGFU and register your vehicles. If you registered last summer or fall, your parking permit is valid until December of this year and no further action is required.

Portland employees do need to register if you are frequently on the Newberg campus.

Questions? Contact Nadine Kincaid at nkincaid@georgefox.edu.

Please remember to consider who has made a positive difference at George Fox in recent weeks! Send an email to Lisa Burton (lburton@georgefox.edu) by Thursday, Jan. 14, with a description of this person’s good work, to nominate him/her as our next employee of the month.

Welcome to the start of a new semester! As we finish up the calendar year, we have had much excitement in advancement, processing more year-end gifts than ever before! In order to finish well, we need your help.

Now that everyone is back on campus, take a moment to check your mail today and bring any donations received to advancement immediately (corner of Sheridan and Meridian streets). It is critical we receive all donations as quickly as possible in order to receipt the donors in a timely fashion and process the gifts in the correct calendar year.

In order to care for our donors, check your mail, send an email notifying Kristi Hagen (khagen@georgefox.edu) of any donations received, and hand-deliver them to advancement today.

Thank you!

Questions? Contact Kristi at ext 2111.

When there is an emergency campus closure, usually due to inclement weather as was the case Monday, Jan, 4, the university’s policy indicates the following in the Employee Handbook, Section 7.1 Emergency Closure:

• If the university is closed, employees are paid as if they worked.
• If the university has a late opening and/or early closure, employees who work are paid for a full work day.
• If employees cannot make it in, their absence is covered by the use of vacation or is unpaid if vacation is not available.
• Employees who are required to work to assist with facilities and safety issues as a result of the weather (primarily plant services employees) will be given time off within the following 30 days equal to the time they worked during the closure.

A revised staff time sheet for January has been posted to the Human Resources webpage. If you have already started your January time sheet, please download and use the revised form. Staff should mark their time sheets with hours worked only on the day of the closure. If you were not required to be at work, please record only hours worked through the end of your regular daily work period. You will be paid your scheduled hours between those times.

Staff who normally report to work before 8 a.m. should specify their regular work day start and end times in the designated area on the revised January time sheet.

If you were required to be at work, please make a notation on the bottom of your time card of the number of hours you were required to work during the two-hour closure. Later, please enter the equivalent hours taken off in the bottom section of the specific day’s time, so that it doesn’t show as hours worked, sick leave, or vacation. Then please write on the time sheet that these were “snow hours.”

Please note: Employees who happen to be on vacation or using sick leave the day of a closure should record those days/hours as vacation or sick leave the same as they would had the campus been open.

Please email Katie Sol at ksol@georgefox.edu with any additional questions.

Changes are coming to the George Fox wireless networks. Bruin-Secure is the new secure wireless network that you should connect to using your George Fox credentials.

Bruin-Secure is replacing the older foxwifi network. Please connect soon, as the foxwifi wireless network will be turned off Feb. 1. A new wireless guest network will be announced in the coming weeks. Watch for it!

If you have trouble connecting, check out the IT WiFi webpage.

Changes are coming to the George Fox wireless networks. Bruin-Secure is the new secure wireless network that you should connect to using your George Fox credentials.

Bruin-Secure is replacing the older foxwifi network. Please connect soon, as the foxwifi wireless network will be turned off Feb. 1. A new wireless guest network will be announced in the coming weeks. Watch for it!

If you have trouble connecting, check out the IT WiFi webpage.

Use your new, empty 2016 Spring sites as the sites in which you will teach. You may import content from another course site. See the instructions here for importing.

Your 2016 Spring sites are hidden to students. When you are ready to make a site visible, go to Administration> Course administration > Edit settings on the course home page. Scroll down to the “Visible” section and change “Hide” to “Show” from the drop-down menu. Then “Save changes” at the bottom.

Remember that all students enrolled in your class in MyGFU will automatically be enrolled in your FoxTALE course site. As students add and drop your course in MyGFU, they will be added or removed automatically from your FoxTALE site

If your course site is set to “Weekly” format, your course might show incorrect dates. To change the dates, go to Administration> Edit settings on the course home page. Scroll down to the course start date and change it to the first day of your 2016 Spring course. Scroll to the bottom of the page and “Save changes.”

Visit the FoxTALE for Faculty webpage for guides and resources.

Questions? Contact servicedesk@georgefox.edu.