The Daily Bruin

Along with the new year comes the opportunity to select the first Employee of the Month for 2013. Is there someone you believe is deserving of this recognition? If someone comes to mind, please nominate him or her via e-mail Peggy Kilburg by Friday, Jan. 11, with a summary of this person’s recent contributions and any other information that makes this person deserving of this award. Because of the earlier community meeting this month, there will be no reminder ennouncement about submitting nominations.

The president, provost and vice presidents will select a recipient from among the nominees, and the winner will be honored with a citation and a $100 gift card to The Allison. We will honor both December’s and January’s employees of the month at our next community meeting scheduled for Jan. 17.

Some end-of-semester reminders from IT …

• If you used the FoxTALE grade book for any of your FoxTALE course sites, we recommend that you back up your Fall 2012 grade book to a spreadsheet that is saved outside of FoxTALE. See the instructions here for backing up grades.

Prepare for Spring 2013

• Use your new, empty Spring 2013 sites as the sites in which you will teach. You may import content from another course site. See the instructions here for importing.

• Your Spring 2013 sites are unavailable (hidden) to students. When you are ready to make a site available, go to Settings > Course administration > Edit settings on the course home page. Scroll down to the “Availability” section and select “This course is available to students” from the drop-down menu. Scroll to the bottom of the page and “Save changes.”

• If you have course content to move from old FoxTALE to new FoxTALE, please contact the Service Desk.

Come join us as we honor Arden Butler and celebrate his retirement from George Fox. Refreshments will be served at Plant Services from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 21 (please note the new date).

Questions? Contact Debby O’Kelley at dokelley@georgefox.edu.

FoxTALE will be unavailable from 6 a.m. to noon (Pacific Time) on Monday, Jan. 7, for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have questions, please contact the IT Service Desk.

Come join us as we honor Arden Butler and celebrate his retirement from George Fox. Refreshments will be served at Plant Services from noon to 1 p.m. this Thursday, Dec. 20.

Questions? Contact Debby O’Kelley at dokelley@georgefox.edu.

The university box office will operate under its normal hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. this week with the exception of Wednesday, Dec. 19, when it will close at 11:30 a.m. It will also be closed on Friday, Dec. 21.

Beginning Friday, the box office will be closed until Thursday, Jan. 3, when it will resume regular hours. During this time you can reach the box office by e-mail at boxoffice@georgefox.edu. Information on upcoming shows can be found at boxoffice.georgefox.edu, where there is a link labeled “Current Season” to purchase tickets online.

The box office e-mail and phone line will be checked periodically between Dec. 21 and Jan. 2 with response only to urgent requests. All other requests will be responded to on Jan. 3.

Questions? Contact Mary Monahan at mmonahan@georgefox.edu.

If you would like to nominate a colleague for December’s Employee of the Month, please e-mail Peggy Kilburg a summary of this person’s contributions/outstanding performance in the past 30 days or so. Nominations should be in by this Friday, Dec. 21.

The winner will be announced and presented with a $100 gift card to The Allison at our January community meeting.

We are looking for someone to drive a faculty member from Newberg to the Portland Center as follows:

• The first five Mondays and Tuesdays of spring semester (Jan. 14-15, Jan. 21-22, Jan. 28-29; and Feb. 4-5, Feb. 11-12)
• On Mondays, pick-up at Newberg residence is at 8 a.m. Pick-up at the Portland Center is at 5 p.m. to return to Newberg residence.
• On Tuesdays, pick-up at Newberg residence is at 7:30 a.m. Pick-up at the Portland Center is at 9:15 p.m. to return to Newberg residence.
• This driving will take approximately two and a half to three hours each of day.
• A car will be provided.
• Driver license and good driving record are required (to be verified by the DMV).

If you know someone who might be interested, please ask him or her to send an e-mail to hr@georgefox.edu. If the person does not already have an application on file, one will be required.

It’s time to sign up for MLK Serve Day 2013! I know it seems early, but it is just so we can prepare for the approximately 1,000 volunteers that day. Will you be one of them? Our 2013 MLK Day will have a special focus on literacy.

Did you know that…

• Only one-third of all students entering high school are proficient in reading
• Only about 15 percent of African-American students and only 17 percent of Hispanic students are proficient in reading entering high school (NAEP Reading, 2009)

Register here today to be a part of the largest collective movement in the nation on MLK day!

The details:

When: Jan. 21, 2013
Time: Meet in Stevens at 6:30 a.m., where we will bus to Portland together
Why: Promote literacy in accordance to Dr. King’s dream

More than 250 students will receive undergraduate and graduate diplomas at the university’s midyear commencement ceremony on Saturday, Dec. 15, 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.

Dr. William M. Schniedewind, a professor of biblical studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a 1984 alumnus of George Fox, will serve as commencement speaker. He holds the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern Mediterranean Studies at UCLA and is chair of the school’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

The financial affairs office will process the last check run of the year on Friday, Dec. 21. In order to ensure your expense reimbursement and/or check request is processed, we must receive your paperwork no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 18. If your paperwork arrives after the 18th, it will be processed after the New Year.

Questions? Contact Andy Dunn at adunn@georgefox.edu.

Please join us for the Portland Center wassail party this afternoon (Monday)! Stop by the lobby between 2 and 6 p.m. for Christmas treats, hot beverages, and a good dose of holiday cheer!

For those who missed the presentation entitled “The State of Diversity at George Fox University” made during Cultural Celebration Week, the video recording has been uploaded to the Multicultural Programs folder in George Fox’s iTunes U.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Joel Perez at ext. 2305.

Would you like to copy content from an old FoxTALE course site to an empty spring site? Learn the details at a 30-minute webinar on Thursday, Dec. 13, from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Please R.S.V.P. at this link and we’ll send login details the day before the webinar.

Can’t attend the webinar? See the Quick Guide or three-and-a-half-minute Video Guide.

If you have any questions, please contact the Service Desk.

All three performances of this weekend’s Christmas Concert are nearly sold out, so if you picked up employee comp tickets for Sunday afternoon’s performance and will no longer be able to use them, please return them to the Box Office in the Pennington House as soon as possible.

We currently have a wait list for tickets. You can notify us that you plan to return them by calling 503-554-3844 or by informing us via e-mail at boxoffice@georgefox.edu.

Thank you.

The courier service will change for the Salem campus during the holiday season. We will be servicing Salem only on Mondays, Dec. 10 and Dec. 17, and Jan. 7 and Jan. 14. We will continue the Portland run as normal – all dates Monday through Friday when the Newberg campus is open.

Questions? Call ext. 2555.

Please join us for the Portland Center wassail party! Stop by the lobby between 2 and 6 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 10, for Christmas treats, hot beverages, and a good dose of holiday cheer!

It’s time to think about someone to nominate for December’s Employee of the Month. Is there someone you consider a gift to have as a colleague, whether in your department or another department? If someone comes to mind, please consider submitting a nomination via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by Friday, Dec. 21, with a summary of this person’s recent contributions and any other information that makes this person deserving of this award.

The President’s Executive Leadership Team will select a recipient from among the nominees, and as is our custom, the winner will be honored with a citation and a $100 gift card to The Allison at our next community meeting. We will honor both December’s and January’s Employees of the Month at our next community meeting, currently scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 17.

Congratulations again to Tim Goodfellow on being named November Employee of the Month.

The university’s music department invites you to join us as we celebrate the season with our annual Christmas Concert this Friday through Sunday, Dec. 7-9, in Bauman Auditorium.

Performances are scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. Pre-concert music begins approximately 30 minutes prior to each performance.

The concert will feature the university’s Concert Choir, Men’s and Women’s Chorale, Chamber Singers, and Symphonic Band and Strings. We will also feature a guest, the Newberg High School Choir, as part of the celebration. For more information or to buy tickets, click here.

The state of Oregon is giving student employees a raise in 2013! The minimum wage is going up 15 cents per hour to $8.95, and this will be reflected on the Feb. 15 student payroll.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

– HR