The Daily Bruin

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.

Please have your prop requests (pipe and drape, centerpieces and décor items) for the month of April turned in to the university engagement office as soon as possible. There are many events on campus in the month of April, and it is imperative that requests are in early so that all may be accommodated.

Requests can be made by contacting Mary Monahan in university engagement at 503-554-2134 or mmonahan@georgefox.edu.

Michael’s (where you can find all things arts and crafts plus framing, floral, wall decor, scrapbooking, etc.) offers an educator discount of 15 percent on all purchases all the time. All employees of the university can take advantage of this, not just faculty members, but you must show your GFU ID card to receive the discount. There are many Michael’s stores throughout the Portland area and beyond, including in Tualatin.

The Walking Company has recently begun offering a 15 percent in-store discount to George Fox employees. There are stores at Washington Square, Pioneer Place and Clackamas Town Center. In addition to selling shoes, they provide foot scanning technology and orthotics. You must show your GFU ID card to receive this discount.

Note: These shoes are not inexpensive; but if you shop there already, you can now enjoy a 15 percent savings. UGG Australia products and gift cards are excluded from the discount.

To see a complete list of store/vendor discounts available to George Fox employees, go to this Employee Benefits, Forms and Resources page and look for the link near the bottom of the page under the heading (what else?) “Employee Discounts.”

FoxTALE will be unavailable from 6 to 7 a.m. (Pacific Time) on both Monday, March 26, and Tuesday, March 27, for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you have questions, please contact the IT Service Desk.

If you would like to nominate a colleague for March’s Employee of the Month award, please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 28, with a summary of this person’s contributions and/or outstanding performance in the past 30 days or so.

The winner will be announced and presented with a $100 gift card to The Allison at our community meeting on Thursday, April 5.

If you have a blog or Twitter account (or know of others connected to our community), we would love for you to let us know so we can share occasionally via the university’s social media.

If this interests you, please send a note and a link to Tamara Cissna at tcissna@georgefox.edu.

Thank you!

The all-employee meeting originally scheduled for Thursday, March 15, is being moved to up to today, Tuesday, March 13, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Bauman Auditorium. The session will include a board meeting update from President Robin Baker.

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.

In honor of Jerry Young’s six-plus years of plumbing, both at the Newberg and Portland campuses, we are hosting a retirement party today (Tuesday, March 13) at 3 p.m. at Plant Services.

You are welcome to come and say goodbye to Jerry and thank him for his contribution to the university.

This week, all staff will receive an e-mail asking for nominations for Staff Development Committee. The e-mail will contain a list of all staff eligible to be nominated for the committee.

Please reply to the e-mail with your nominations marked. Deadline for the nominations is this Friday, March 16, at 5 p.m.

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.

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 this Friday, March 16.

Do any of you have experience as a line cook? Would you like to gain experience in the art of food service and catering?

The university’s Urban Services is seeking to help All Saints Episcopal Church in Portland, which is in need of a line cook and sous chef, plus a set-up and food serving team on the third Saturday of March and April. We are seeking six or seven students who are interested in participating in this service.

Every Saturday, the church serves lunch to 80-100 homeless people in Portland. They currently do not have anyone to help with the cooking this coming Saturday (March 17) and on April 22. Volunteers wouldn’t have to commit to both of these dates.

Ideally, we would like to put together a team of students who are interested in helping over the summer as well as during the semester.

Interested? Contact Mary Owen, Urban Services coordinator for Portland, at mowen10@georgefox.edu. I need to know before Wednesday so I can let them know if they will have help or not.

Thank you!

Do you like to walk, run or volunteer? The university’s Social Work Club is seeking volunteers for a Child Abuse Awareness Walk and Run on Saturday, April 28, at Cook Park in Tigard.

Volunteers will help with the following positions: hand out food and water, cheer people on, keep people on the correct course, set up, tear down and clean up, aid people in the resource booth, hand out the blue ribbons, and talk about the blue ribbon campaign. Volunteers will receive a free T-shirt for their participation in this event.

This event is being sponsored by the Social Work Club and supported by the Department of Human Services, Healthy Start, the Domestic Violence Resource Center, Community Action, and a number of other agencies. These agencies would greatly appreciate your support.

Please contact Stephanie Abdulmajid at sabdulmajid09@georgefox.edu if you would like to volunteer or have any questions about this event.

If you are interested in walking or running, sign up here.

The Staff Development Committee is sponsoring a spring worship event on the Newberg campus tomorrow! Support staff will gather on Tuesday from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. in VAC 117. Please plan to join us for worship, praise, fellowship and snacks.

Questions? Contact Vicki Tschan at vtschan@georgefox.edu.