The Daily Bruin

Newberg is hosting a Relay for Life on Friday and Saturday, June 22-23, and you are invited to be part of a George Fox team!

The event is scheduled at Joan Austin Elementary and the Austin Sports Complex. Relay for Life is a community-wide overnight walking event to support the American Cancer Society. This year’s theme is “Give Cancer the Boot!” Join fellow members of the George Fox community as we walk to honor cancer survivors, remember people we have lost, and also raise funds and awareness to help save lives!

For more information and to join the team, e-mail Vangie Pattison at epattison@georgefox.edu.

Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.

We are still in need of many willing servants to serve as ushers at both the undergraduate and graduate/professional studies commencement ceremonies on Saturday, April 28. Take tickets, hand out programs, direct graduates’ family and friends to their seats, and help make graduation a special event for all involved. All employees who participate as ushers will be paid $25 per ceremony through payroll.

There are three opportunities for involvement:

• Graduate/Professional Studies Ceremony
  Time commitment: 8:30-11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 28
  Location: Wheeler Gymnasium

• Traditional Undergraduate Ceremony
  Time commitment: 1:30-5 p.m. on Saturday, April 28
  Location: Wheeler Gymnasium

• Time commitment: 1:30-3:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 28
  Location: Bauman Auditorium

See that special student graduate … Be a part of an exciting event … Volunteer in a much-needed area of service … Be an usher at the Spring 2012 commencement!

Please let Lynn Scott know A.S.A.P. if this is something you would like to be a part of. Thank you for considering being involved in this memorable event.

– Lynn Scott (lscott@georgefox.edu or ext. 2140)

Faculty: Please submit your textbook requests for fall 2012 as soon as possible. Orders are needed this week for us to have enough time to process them before buyback begins.

Without your orders, students will not get the highest value for their books. To date, we’ve received only one-third of expected requests.

Questions? Contact Sandy Gidding at sgidding@georgefox.edu.

The university’s engineering department will present its annual Engineering Expo on Friday, April 20, between 3 and 6 p.m. in the EHS Atrium on the Newberg campus.

The expo will include project displays, a robotics competition and lab demonstrations. Also featured will be projects from the program’s Senior Design and Servant Engineering teams for companies and community organizations such as Daimler, CUI, VibeTech, NASA, 219 Technologies, Providence, Engineering World Health, 5-Rock Ranch, Medical Teams International, Oregon Commission for the Blind, Mennonite Central Committee, Aprovecho, and the Newberg Rotary.

In addition, high school design projects will be featured. Refreshments will be provided. All are welcome!

For more information, please contact Kristin Bontrager at kbontrager@georgefox.edu or 503-554-2780.

The campus may be closed for Good Friday, but the Bruin Store will be open! Join us for our Great Friday Sale on April 6! All merchandise in the store is 20 percent off the lowest marked price.

You don’t want to miss this sale!

Richard Zeller, one of America’s foremost baritones, will join with music professor and Bösendorfer Educational Artist Kenn Willson to perform at the university’s Bösendorfer Concert Series at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in Bauman Auditorium.

Zeller, a 1983 George Fox graduate, is known for his sonorous dramatic voice, a compelling stage presence and musicianship. His opera engagements have included 12 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera and dates at opera houses around the world.

Willson, a tenured professor of music at the university, has traveled to Vienna, Austria, and to the Piano Academy in Recanati, Italy, to perform. He is also known throughout the region for his “Encounters with Beethoven” performances.

Tickets for the recital are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and alumni, and $5 for students and children under 12. Tickets may be purchased at music.georgefox.edu or by calling the school’s box office at 503-554-3844.

Zeller will sing a selection of pieces that include works by Johannes Brahms (Botshaft, Wie Melodien Zieht es Mir), Richard Strauss (Allerseelen, Morgen), Robert MacGimsey (Land of Degradation, Sweet Little Jesus Boy), and Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (Some Enchanted Evening).

Willson will perform the Beethoven pieces German Dance #1, Sonata Op. #31 #3 and Sonata Op. 27 #2, ‘Moonlight.’ He will perform on the university’s Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, often called the “Rolls Royce of Pianos,” he said.

For more information, call ext. 2620.

April is here already, so it is time to think about nominating a colleague for April’s Employee of the Month award for 2012. If you know of someone whose recent contributions make him or her worthy of this honor, please take a few minutes to send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg that includes a specific summary of the person’s contributions (past 30 days or so) and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

The winner will be recognized and awarded a $100 gift card to The Allison at our community meeting on April 24. (March’s winner will be recognized at our April 5 community meeting.)

All Newberg, Portland, Boise, Salem and Redmond offices will be closed tomorrow (Friday, March 30), for the spring break holiday. All libraries and bookstores will be closed as well.

Nominations for Support Staff Member of the Year and Administrator of the Year for 2011-12 will be accepted through Friday, April 13.

If you have any colleagues you believe are deserving of this award, please take a few minutes to submit a nomination. Links to a memo about the nomination process and criteria, the nomination form, and the list eligible employees can be found at the top of the Payroll and Performance Forms page of the HR website.

Using the nomination form is optional. Nominations can also be submitted in an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg (pkilburg@georgefox.edu).

Sign up today for Run for Romania! Run for Romania will be held at 9 a.m. on Sunday, April 22, at the Newberg campus track. It is a 5K walk that will benefit the June Serve team’s trip to Romania and Moldova this summer.

June Serve is a group of George Fox students and faculty that will partner with the organization Word Made Flesh, which seeks to serve Jesus amongst the poorest of the poor in Romania and Moldova.

Registration is $30 for adults and $15 for children (12 and under). To register, go to this link.

Mark your calendars: An all-employee meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 5, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Hoover 105. The session will include progress reports from our innovation team chairs.

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available at a stream site that you can access from MyGFU. Simply log into MyGFU and click the “Community Meeting Link” located under “Staff Resources/Faculty Resources.” It is the bottom link in that section.

In addition, a chat room has been set up, and a video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

Dear Student Supervisors,

Please use this reminder checklist now as you prepare to send your March time sheets to HR:

• 3 p.m. on the third business day of the month is the deadline for time sheets (looking ahead: April 4 at 3 p.m). If your student employees are not working over spring break, I would appreciate them earlier.
• Late time sheets: Please include a note explaining why it’s late
• Timesheets must be:
  • Totaled by you
  • Checked for a.m./p.m. errors (correct them)
  • Signed by you
  • Check the dates: Are the dates listed for the correct month?
  • Legible with student name and ID number
  • Checked for six-hour shifts: Note meal period in start-stop times or initial and OK by you (this should be an exception, not the rule)

To ensure that we get the time sheets on time, please hand deliver them to HR. You can ask a student employee to deliver the time sheets to us as long as you first put them in a sealed envelope (keeps us in legal compliance). The only exception to this rule is the Portland Center – please scan or fax your time sheets first, then drop the originals in the mail.

Thank you for working with me to ensure a timely and accurate payroll for our students.

Melodee Powers, HR

On Monday, April 9, 180 seniors in the Liberal Arts and Critical Issues Program will present their research on Christians and American Culture from noon to 4 p.m. in EHS and Hoover.

As part of this, we need a number of judges to help evaluate the projects. This will take about an hour. Each judge will get a chance to talk to our seniors, and we provide a small “thank you” gift. We would love judges from the faculty, staff and administration. No experience is necessary. We provide all the judging materials.

If you would be interested in doing this or have any questions, please contact Caitlin Corning (ccorning@georgefox.edu or ext. 2673).

To be successful in the new world of work, we need to create a structure for capturing, clarifying and organizing all the forces that assail us, and to ensure time and space for thinking, reflecting and decision making.

In the New York Times article “When Office Technology Overwhelms, Get Organized,” David Allen provides five actions to help optimize focus and resources. Read the article at the Employee Council site, and while you’re there, add a comment about a remarkable employee you work with (see the “8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees” article) and read about some of the remarkable employees we have.

Please help out the Bruin Directory staff by answering this short questionnaire. If you have already filled this out, then please do not feel the need to fill it out again. Your input is very valuable as it helps us determine the future of the Bruin Directory.

Thank you for your help!

MyGFU will be unavailable tonight (Wednesday) at 6 p.m. through Thursday, March 22, at 7 a.m. for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have questions, please contact the IT Service Desk.

The Bruin Bookstore, textbook annex and its online store will be closed for business to conduct its annual year-end inventory process starting this Monday, March 26, during spring break.

To strive for accuracy, we are not able to conduct any business during this closure. Phone calls, voice mail messages and e-mails will not be responded to until this procedure is completed. There will not be any money on hand to make change. Please plan ahead to get all your Bruin necessities before Monday! We truly appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

The bookstore will reopen on Monday, April 2, at 8 a.m. Thank you for supporting your Bruin Bookstore!

To benefit eligible employees: If you have considered purchasing or making changes to your Aflac supplemental insurance, now is the time. Enrollment forms must be submitted to Paul Frampton by Friday, March 30 (this is a firm deadline). See details here.

Questions? Contact Lisa Burton at lburton@georgefox.edu.

Our last Peace and Justice Symposium of the year will feature Roger and Sue Newell this Thursday, March 22. Those of you who have attended our symposiums before know this to be a wonderful time to dialogue and build a deeper understanding of what peace and justice looks like in practice both locally and globally through stories shared by George Fox faculty, staff and administrators.

Thursday’s symposium, titled “Journeys: South Africa, Social Justice, Sabbath,” will feature Sue, an assistant professor of social work, and Roger, a professor of religious studies. The event is free and open to the public.

This past summer, Roger and Sue traveled to South Africa to teach summer school at the College of the Transfiguration, a theological college in Grahamstown that trains pastors for ministry in the Anglican church of South Africa. From there, they traveled to Capetown, where Sue helped coordinate international placements for George Fox students at Cornerstone University. Their talks will reflect on their conversations last summer.

Please join us at 7:15 p.m. in the Quaker Heritage Room (upstairs library). Refreshments will be provided. Spiritual life credit is offered for students.

Questions? Contact Melanie Newell at ext. 2686 or mnewell@georgefox.edu.

Dr. Roger Nam, the university’s 2010-11 Graduate Faculty Researcher of the year, will present a faculty lecture, titled “When Amos Meets Jabez: Towards a Biblical Theology of Wealth,” this evening (Tuesday) beginning at 7:30 p.m. in Hoover 105.

The lecture will examine three seemingly incongruous messages within their socio-historical contexts, depicting a theology of wealth and poverty that is complex, challenging, and relevant to Christian communities.

The entire George Fox community is invited to this lecture, hosted by the Faculty Development Committee. Light refreshments are included.