Zaher Wahab, professor of education at Lewis and Clark University, will speak about his experiences in Afghanistan at the next Liberal Arts and Critical Issues Forum, scheduled this Monday, Oct. 18, in Hoover 105. Wahab, a senior advisor to the Ministry of Education in Afghanistan, will speak from 4:40 to 5:40 p.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m.
Contact Caitlin Corning (History) for additional information.
Please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg (HR) by Friday, Oct. 22, if you would like to nominate a support staff member or administrator for October Employee of the Month. Your e-mail should include the person’s name, job title, a concise but specific summary of this person’s contribution(s) 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 President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select someone for this honor from the nominations submitted. The winner will be announced at the next all-community meeting (to be scheduled in November) and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.
Are you ready for the FoxTALE-MyGFU integration? It will be fully implemented for spring 2011. Join IT for a session in which you will set up course sites today that auto-enroll students in spring term courses.
IT will host two face-to-face workshop sessions on Tuesday, Oct. 19, from 11:30 a.m. to noon at Portland Center Room 210 and on Thursday, Oct. 21, from 4 to 4:30 p.m. in Hoover 211. Can’t make it? Join our webinar on Wednesday, Oct. 20, from 3 to 3:30 p.m. Pacific (PDT) for an informational meeting.
Space is still available for these sessions. Sign up on this R.S.V.P. form. For details on what this session covers, see Add Assignments and Grades printable instructions at Faculty Quick Guides for FoxTALE.
See all of the faculty and staff development sessions IT hosts at Schedule of Events.
Career Services is pleased to announce the program for this year’s Graduate Fair:
Wednesday, Oct. 20
“Getting into Grad School Workshop”*
6:30p.m.-7:30 p.m.
Stevens 109
Thursday, Oct. 21
George Fox Graduate Program Fair
9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Hoover Atrium
*Registration for the workshop is available on MyGFU, under Career Services-Bruin Careers. There is no registration required for the fair.
A tuition remission information session will be presented online at 1 p.m. (PST) Thursday, Oct. 21. The session is meant for anyone who is interested in receiving more information regarding tuition remission, tuition exchange and admissions. Our audience in mind are those who are preparing (either for themselves or someone they know) for undergraduate admissions for the 2011 year. This is a repeat of the on-campus meeting that was held in September.
Click on this link to register.
We look forward to a great day of fellowship and community building during our staff conference. The theme of this year’s conference is “Abiding in the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.” All staff are expected to attend.
As a reminder, the conference is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 19, at Tigard Friends Church, from 8:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Drivers of a carpool of three or more will be eligible for mileage reimbursement. The church is located at 15800 S.W. Hall Blvd., in Tigard.
Please take just a couple minutes to click this link and take the pre-conference survey. This will help us make final plans for the day. Your participation is appreciated.
The School of Business will host a VIP lecture featuring Richard G. Reiten, retired chief executive officer of Northwest Natural, at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in EHS 102.
Reiten will present on the topic “Ethics and Values – Your Code for the Road.†There is no charge to attend.
Reiten served as CEO of Northwest Natural Gas from 1997 until 2002. He joined the company as president and chief operating officer and was elected to the board in 1996. He was appointed to the additional position of chairman of the board in September 2000, a position he held until 2005.
For more information on the event, contact Nancy Almquist at ext. 2120.
Exciting new changes are being made to the Christmas celebration for George Fox employees! After experiencing tremendous growth in the number of students and employees over the last 20 years, the long-held campus Christmas celebration is being retired.
The new event will be hosted for George Fox employees (halftime and over) and their spouses (no children, please), and will include free admission to the performing arts department’s Christmas concert, “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” This spectacular performance, involving more than 175 students, is adding a third on-campus concert this year to accommodate all who want to attend.
The celebration is set for Saturday, Dec. 11. It will include:
Hors d’oeuvres reception
Invitations will be sent in the mail. Responses for the reception should be sent to the Office of University Relations by Dec. 6.
Concert
George Fox employees may pick up their tickets – limit two per employee – starting Wednesday, Dec. 1, at 9 a.m. at the first-floor Information Center in Stevens Center. Phone reservations will not be taken except for employees at the Portland and Salem centers. (If you find you will not be able to attend the concert, please return your tickets).
Robin and Ruth Baker look forward to starting this new tradition with you!
Have you wondered how health care reform is affecting your benefits? The HR department will be tracking and communicating the changes as they become effective on the Benefits webpage. Please check this page regularly for updates. There are two changes that affect your flexible spending account – one immediately and one Jan. 1.
Career Services will host a Graduate School Emphasis Week Oct. 18-22. The week will include a “Getting Into Graduate School” presentation from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20, in Stevens 109; a George Fox graduate schools fair from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, in the Hoover lobby; packets of information for students; and a discussion blog on Career Services’ website.
Registration for the Oct. 20 presentation is available on Bruin Careers and is limited to the first 40 people.
Interested in living or working overseas, but not sure how to do it? The Big Guide can help. The Office of Career Services has a subscription to this great interactive website that allows you to access its abundant resources for free.
Visit careers.georgefox.edu and find the link under “News and Updates” to activate your free account. Once registered, you can network with others interested in living or working abroad, both inside and outside of George Fox, and can access numerous videos and text resources to help you prepare for your upcoming adventure.
If you have any questions, contact Career Services at ext. 2330, via e-mail at careers@georgefox.edu, or in person at our new location on the first floor of the Stevens Center.
Thank you to the 155 employees who responded to a request earlier this month to update your ethnicity and race information to allow the university’s data to be in sync with the new reporting requirements of the U.S. Department of Education.
There are still about 350 employees who have not yet taken time to do this; hence, this second request. Your voluntary self-reporting will help the university (and Sheila Abercrombie in particular) more easily and accurately report this data (in aggregate only) on reports such as IPEDS.
If you have not already done so, would you please take just a minute or so to update your information now?
1. Log into MyGFU.
2. Navigate to Self Service > Campus Personal Information > Ethnicity. (The message in the screen mentions “students†but it is applicable to employees as well.)
3. If you indicated racial/ethnic information to George Fox in the past, it will be shown. Respond to the questions, and check the “The information is correct as entered†box.
4. Click Submit.
Again, reporting your race and ethnicity is voluntary but it is very helpful to us as we assess our programs and serve our diverse world.
The Newberg campus will be closed Friday, Oct. 8, for the mid-semester holiday. All offices, the Bruin Bookstore and the library will be closed.
The George Fox Behavioral Health Clinic is offering a free eight-week parenting class for parents of ages 1-18. Build better relationships with your kids and get better behavior, too! Snacks provided. Sorry, no childcare is provided.
Sessions last from 5:30 to 7 p.m. each Monday from Monday, Oct. 11, through Monday, Nov. 29. Classes meet in the new Behavioral Health Clinic building next to the Villa Academic Complex on Villa Road in Newberg.
Questions? Contact Joel Gregor at jogregor@georgefox.edu.
Several new George Fox University employees will be introduced at a George Fox Auxiliary luncheon at noon Friday, Oct. 15, in the Cap and Gown Room. Reservations are required and tickets are $7.50 per person.
The new university employees will share their backgrounds and talk about their pilgrimage to George Fox. To make reservations, contact Margene Haworth at 503-538-0604 by Monday, Oct. 11.
With the advent of October, we ask you to please nominate a colleague that you believe is deserving of this month’s award. Your nomination should include a concise but specific summary of the person’s recent contributions (past 30 days or so) – what was done, who was impacted, etc. – and any other information that you believe makes this person deserving of this award.
Please submit your nomination via e-mail to Peggy Kilburg by Oct. 22. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the recipient from the nominations submitted. The winner will be announced at our community meeting on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 28, and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison.
Gmail has announced the option of turning off the conversation view in your e-mail. Tired of related e-mails being “stacked” into one message? Simply click on “Settings” in the upper-right corner, then the “General” tab. The sixth option on the list will turn off conversations and let every e-mail you receive remain independent in your in-box.
If a balance of more than one year of vacation accrual remains after December time sheets and time-off reports are processed (in January), the employee will lose the portion that exceeds one year’s accrual.
Available on the HR website are vacation accrual charts with instructions, one each for support staff and administrators. Please use this chart along with the information on your Sept. 30 pay statement to determine how many hours of vacation you need to use before Jan. 1, 2011. Your vacation balance on your Sept. 30th pay statement does not take into account any vacation you may have taken in September since those time sheets and time-off reports have not yet been received or processed in HR. Links to these charts can be found by clicking this link.
If you have any questions after you have reviewed your vacation balance and the chart that applies to your vacation accrual, please contact HR for assistance.
This Monday, Oct. 4, Dr. Anita Weiss will speak on the lives of women in Pakistan and Afghanistan for the university’s Liberal Arts and Critical Issues Forum. Weiss is a professor of international studies at the University of Oregon and specializes in development issues and gender. She is currently working on two books, Interpreting Islam, Modernity and Women’s Rights in Pakistan, and Pathways to Power: The Domestic Politics of South Asia.
Weiss will present in two sessions: from 4:40 to 5:40 p.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m. in Hoover 105.
Next week, the university will host the biennial meeting of the Conference on Faith and History (CFH) Oct. 6-9. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Search for Peace, Justice and Equality.” Approximately 170 attendees will be presenting more than 150 papers on a variety of historical subjects.
For location, content and cost information, visit the university’s history webpage, the society’s web page or contact Caitlin Corning.
