The Daily Bruin

Marketing Communications will host a staff/faculty portrait session from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 1, in our Le Shana Hall studio. These high-quality studio portraits will be used on the university website and will be available for professional promotional use.

Please call or e-mail Danette Newkirk (ext. 2125) to let us know what time you are planning to come. You can still come without prior notice, but your university photo ID will be required for entrance at the southwest side (the side facing Coffin Residence Hall) of the building.

Don’t forget Wednesday afternoon’s all-employee meeting, scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Bauman Auditorium (please note the location change).

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available for viewing at this site. A chat room has also 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.

We are beginning the process of returning unsold textbooks to publishers. Please encourage your students to buy them now at the Textbook Annex.

After next week, we will have limited stock on hand. Also, a friendly reminder that students may no longer receive a refund for books purchased. If you are considering canceling a book, keep in mind the money students have already spent and will not be able to get back.

Thanks for your continued support.

FoxTALE will be unavailable from 6 to 7 a.m. (Pacific Time) on Tuesday, Feb. 1, for scheduled maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Come see the university theatre department’s winter play, Doubt, by John Patrick Shanley. Performances are Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 3-5, and Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 10-12, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 6, at 2 p.m. in Wood-Mar Auditorium.

All George Fox employees receive one complimentary ticket. Students will be admitted free on both Thursdays. Your complimentary ticket is only available at the Box Office in the Bruin Bookstore. Additional tickets are $12 for adults, $8 for alumni and seniors, and $6 for students and children under 12. To purchase tickets or read a synopsis of the play, visit theatre.georgefox.edu.

Tickets for this Friday’s Oregon Symphony concert are still being requested! If you have had a change of plans and will be unable to use your two tickets, please return them to Barbi Doran (ext. 2099) because several George Fox employees still hope to attend!

Faculty are invited to attend a Lunch and Learn session entitled “POGIL (Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning); a Strategy for Teaching and Learning,” with Michael Everest (Chemistry) on Wednesday, Jan. 26. Join us from noon to 1 p.m. in Cap and Gown A.

POGIL is a learner-centered strategy that uses guided inquiry to lead students to construct new knowledge. It develops process skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and communication through collaborative learning.

Please R.S.V.P. to Karen Buchanan for this event.

Science Outreach Program classes will begin the week of Jan. 31 and end the week of March 14 (seven weeks). These are classes planned, primarily, for home school students and are taught by upper-class George Fox science students. Click this link for a list of classes being offered.

For additional information, please contact Jana Kaye at jkaye03@georgefox.edu or call 503-554-2728.

If you are a benefits-eligible employee and there is any possibility that you will use tuition remission during the 2011-12 academic year (fall, spring and/or summer semesters), whether for yourself, a spouse, and/or dependent(s), a Tuition Remission Request Form for each person needs to be submitted no later than Tuesday, Feb. 1 – one month earlier than in previous years.

Please go to this document for instructions on completing the form(s). Links to the forms themselves are contained in the instructions document. It is important to read this information before completing a form.

Please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by this Friday, Jan. 21, if you would like to nominate a support staff member or administrator for January Employee of the Month. Your e-mail should include a concise but specific summary of this person’s contributions to the university, its students, and/or its employees in the past 30 days or so, and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.

The winner will be announced at the community meeting in Bauman Auditorium next Wednesday, Jan. 26, and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.

Because it is wet and cold outside, those without homes put on layers of clothes to try and keep warm. The GFU Portland Center has agreed to be a collection site for jeans, socks, sweats, and coats to support local organizations who distribute these to the homeless in Tigard.

During the next two weeks a tent will be in the main lobby. The tent is to resemble where many of the homeless live throughout Tigard. Please bring clothing items you are no longer using, and drop them into the tent.

If you have questions or would like to know more about the effort to meet the needs of the homeless in Tigard, contact Darla Samuelson by email.

An all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26, in Bauman Auditorium (please note the location change).

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available for viewing at this site. A chat room has also 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.

If you’re like most youth mentors, close to half of your graduating seniors pick up their diplomas and ditch their faith. Why is that? For those graduates who remain connected to Jesus, what is it that makes the difference? And how can we be made aware of the ways we may be subtly sabotaging our students’ faith, despite our best intentions?

Kaleo 2011, scheduled on the Newberg campus Saturday, Feb. 26, will take a deep look at ongoing research conducted by the Fuller Youth Institute on students just like yours. Kara Powell and Jon Furman will provide practical ways to keep students of all ages and grades engaged in your ministry, and more importantly their faith, so that they build faith that sticks.

To learn more about the speakers, schedule, cost or registration information, visit kaleo.georgefox.edu.

Volunteer to help throughout the day and receive a discount on your registration fee and a free Kaleo T-shirt! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Amy Lorenz at alorenz@georgefox.edu or ext. 2134.

Peter Greer, president of the nonprofit relief agency HOPE International, will present a free public lecture from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 20, in Hoover 105.

HOPE International focuses on alleviating physical and spiritual poverty in countries such as Haiti, Afghanistan and DR Congo. In addition to serving as president, Greer is the founder of the HOPE Global Investment Fund, a microfinance investment fund that targets underserved regions of the world.

Greer is the coauthor, with Phil Smith, of The Poor Will Be Glad. The book, one of the first of its kind, delineates a Christian approach to microfinance as a means of fighting global poverty.

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

Nasser Abufarha, a Palestinian-American scholar and social entrepreneur, will present a free lecture, “Insisting on Life: Martyrdom and Fair Trade in Palestine,” on campus Wednesday, Jan. 19. A guest of the university’s Center for Peace and Justice, Abufarha will speak from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in Hoover 105.

Abufarha is the founder of the Palestine Fair Trade Association and Canaan Fair Trade, which is bringing Palestinian olive oil and other traditional foods to mainstream American and European markets, while also improving economic conditions for more than 1,700 farmers in the West Bank.

He is also the author of The Making of a Human Bomb: An Ethnography of Palestinian Resistance, a book that explains how geographic separation of Palestinians and mimetic actions to Israeli state repression will continue to be a source of violence until Palestinians can experience actual rootedness in their land and start to explore alternative exchanges between themselves and Israelis.

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

No tickets remain for the Oregon Symphony Orchestra concert hosted by Austin Industries and George Fox University on Jan. 21. This means that additional tickets requested by employees who picked up their original two tickets will not be available. Employees who have not picked up their original two tickets will be put on a waiting list to receive returned tickets.

If you have tickets but find you will not be able to use them, please return them to Barbi Doran at the main switchboard through Jan. 20. If they become available at the last minute and are being held under your name, they can be collected from Sheri Philips in Bauman Auditorium after 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 21.

The university is seeking to fill the position of director of academic computing, vacated with the passing of our colleague, Russ DeVore. This position is currently open only to internal applicants (employees). Please e-mail hr@georgefox.edu to ask for a copy of the job description.

To apply, please submit a completed transfer request, cover letter and resume to Human Resources no later than Friday, Jan. 21, at 5 p.m. The link to the transfer request form can be found here.

The university will close Monday, Jan. 17, to observe the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. There will be no day or evening classes or chapel at the Newberg campus, and the Portland Center, Salem Center and Boise Center will be closed. Libraries at all campuses will be closed as well.

It is time to think about nominating a colleague for the first Employee of the Month award for 2011. 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 deadline for nominations is Thursday, Jan. 20. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will select the recipient from the nominations submitted. This award and a $100 gift card to The Allison will be presented at our community meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 26.

Looking for some quality classical music? Kenn Willson (Performing Arts) can help. His CD, “Encounters with Beethoven – The Live Recording Project,” is available in the music office on the Newberg campus and on his website.