The Daily Bruin

It has been three years since the university participated in the Best Christian Workplaces Survey, and the executive leadership team and I would again like to receive your feedback on a variety of topics such as communication, job satisfaction, compensation, benefits, mission, and a number of other items.

If you haven’t already, please take about 10 minutes to complete this confidential, online survey between now and Dec. 10. If you would like to complete a paper copy of the survey rather than online, you can contact Chris Koch, our director of assessment, and return a completed survey to him. He will ensure that it is entered confidentially.

The Best Christian Workplaces Institute collates all employee responses and provides a valuable assessment of our organization, presenting the survey results in summary format to maintain your confidentiality. During spring semester, we will share with employees a summary of the survey results, including a comparison with the results from fall 2005 and fall 2007. We will then consider ways we can improve in any area where we may not be doing as well as we would like.

To access the survey, please click here, then enter this organization access code where requested: 2079-571

I very much appreciate you taking time to complete this survey, and I look forward to sharing the results with you in early 2011.

– Robin Baker

The Bruin Bookstore will close for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend starting at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 24. The store will reopen at 8 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 29. All the bookstore employees wish you a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you for supporting your Bruin Bookstore!

The Center for Peace and Justice and Center for Global Studies will host the second symposium of the semester on Thursday, Nov. 18. Please join us as we learn about two of our faculty members’ involvement with issues of peace and justice.

Speakers:
Ed Higgins – Professor of English
Marcella Gowan – Assistant Professor of Nursing

Time: 7:15 p.m. – Treats
Program: 7:30- 9 p.m.
Location: Quaker Heritage Room (upstairs in the library)

A question-and-answer session will follow. Chapel credit is available for those students who attend. For more information on this event, please contact peaceandjustice@georgefox.edu.

Academic Affairs has announced a new spring commencement schedule. The following schedule will be implemented next semester:

Saturday, April 30, 2011

• 10 a.m. Graduate/SPS Commencement Ceremony
• 11:30 a.m. Faculty Lunch honoring retirees, emeriti faculty, award recipients, etc. (Klages West)
• 1 p.m. Department Dessert Receptions
• 2 p.m. Graduates assemble/doors open
• 3 p.m. Traditional Undergraduate Commencement Ceremony

The midyear commencement schedule remains the same, with doors opening at 1 p.m. for the 2 p.m. ceremony. Please contact Karlyn Fleming (kfleming@georgefox.edu) in the Office of Academic Affairs if you have questions. Thank you!

Don’t forget the women’s brown bag lunch event, featuring Barbara Palmer, this Monday, Nov. 22, from noon to 1:15 p.m. in the Cap and Gown Room. All faculty, administrators and staff are invited. For those at the regional sites, the event will be streamed at this link.

Barbara is senior vice president and market executive of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, and has served on the university’s board of trustees for 17 years. From her wealth of experience, she will share with us her leadership journey and thoughts about mentoring and being mentored.

The event is being sponsored by the Women’s Leadership Development Committee. Please bring your own lunch. Beverages and cookies will be served.

We have extra mums in various fall colors from Bruin Preview for sale. You can purchase the chrysanthemum flowers for $5 in the admissions office (second floor of Stevens Center).

They make great Thanksgiving centerpieces!

Correction to Cultural Celebration Week schedule: The Invisible Children “Face-to-Face” Tour event is not Wednesday, but is Tuesday, Nov. 16. This event is co-hosted by the Center for Peace and Justice and Center for Global Studies and Invisible Children. The evening will include a showing of the 40-minute film Go!, which documents three American students who traveled to Uganda, met students their age, and through these relationships saw their lives changed.

In addition, two Ugandans, James and Robert, who have lived through the war and have been involved with Invisible Children’s partner school program, will share their stories and address ways in which students can respond and participate in advocating on behalf of northern Uganda’s children. This will include a talk-back session with a question-and-answer time following the film.

Please join us Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. in Hoover 105.

This is a reminder that all women employees – faculty, administrators and staff – are invited to a brown bag lunch with guest speaker Barbara Palmer from noon to 1:15 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22, in the Cap and Gown Room. The event will be live-streamed for all other university sites at noon PST.

Barbara is senior vice president and market executive of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management, where she has been employed for 37 years. She has management responsibility for two offices in Portland and Vancouver. Barbara has served on the university board of trustees for 17 years and also participates on boards for Transitional Youth, United Way Campaign, Medical Teams International, and Employers for Excellence in Education.

From her wealth of experience, Barbara will share with us her leadership journey and thoughts about mentoring and being mentored.

The Women’s Leadership Development committee invites all women employees on the Newberg campus to join us for this event as we continue exploring leadership development. Please bring your own lunch. Beverages and cookies will be served.

The Health & Counseling Center is coming to the Portland Center to give flu shots from 4 to 6 p.m. on Monday, Nov 15. The cost is $15 or $1.50 if you have the GFU student insurance. FREE for employees with Regence. Call the Health Center to schedule an appointment at 503-554-2340.

This Tuesday, Nov. 16, the Center for Peace and Justice and Center for Global Studies will co-host an event with Invisible Children as part of their “Face to Face” tour. The evening will include a showing of the 40-minute film Go!, which documents three American students who traveled to Uganda, met students their age, and through these relationships saw their lives changed.

In addition, two Ugandans, James and Robert, who have lived through the war and have been involved with Invisible Children’s partner school program, will share their stories and address ways in which students can respond and participate in advocating on behalf of northern Uganda’s children. This will include a talk-back session with a question-and-answer time following the film.

Please join us from 7 to 9 p.m. in Hoover 105.

Continuing the practice begun last year to approve holiday schedules two years in advance, the 2012-13 holiday schedule has been finalized and approved. It is now available for employees to see at this link.

This link takes you to a three-page document that contains the current year’s holiday schedule on page 1, the 2011-12 holiday schedule on page 2, and the 2012-13 schedule on page 3. These holiday schedules are being provided well in advance to assist in the long-term planning of academic programs and calendars.

This is a reminder that an all-employee meeting is scheduled from 3:30 to 5 p.m. this Monday, Nov. 15, in Bauman Auditorium (note the location change).

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available for viewing at stream.georgefox.edu/live/commmtg.sdp. In addition, a chat room has been set up to allow for interaction, and a video recording of the meeting will be available for viewing in the days following the meeting at itunesu.georgefox.edu.

The Health & Counseling Center will be at the Portland Campus to give flu shots on Monday, November 15 from 4 to 6 p.m. in Room 210.

The cost is $15. It is only $1.50 if you have GFU student insurance. FREE for employees with Regence insurance.

Please call the Health & Counseling Center to schedule an appointment at 503-554-2340.

There will be limited mail service on Thursday, Nov. 11, for Veterans Day.

The details:

• Mail Services will be open during normal hours (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.), but there will be no U.S. Mail service that day – no incoming or outgoing mail.
• Other carriers such as UPS will be operational on their normal schedule.
• George Fox University mail courier will be on normal schedule to the Portland and Salem centers.

Questions? Call ext. 2556 or contact Sherrie Frost at sfrost@georgefox.edu

It’s time to order university stationery. For detailed order instructions, go to the university’s communications website.

Elizabeth Holme (Print Services) will work with the Office of Marketing Communications in ordering general university (i.e. non-departmental stationery) letterhead and envelopes. You will continue to purchase all non-departmental stationery (including “second-sheet letterhead”) through her.

Orders are due by Tuesday, Nov. 16.

George Fox Evangelical Seminary invites the university community to a free lecture featuring Dr. Erhard Gerstenberger, a world-renowned Old Testament scholar, at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15, at the Portland Center’s Room 155.

Gerstenberger, a German theologian, has authored or edited 15 books and more than 100 articles on Old Testament studies, form criticism, Psalms and ritual studies, practical theology, feminist criticism and liberation theology. He will speak on “Old Testament Theologies and Pastoral Ministry” in the seminary’s Old Testament introduction class.

He has worked as a professor at Yale and at Giessen and Marburg universities in Germany. He’s also served as a pastor in Germany and as a missionary to Brazil. To learn more about Gerstenberger, visit this link. To learn more about his visit, contact Jean Miller ext. 6150.

The Office of University Relations has Family Weekend mums for sale. Plants are 6.5-inch interior flowering chrysanthemums and are in a variety of fall colors. Each plant is only $5 and will be available for purchase at Pennington House until they are gone.

Contact Evangeline Pattison, epattison@georgefox.edu or ext. 2121, with questions or to reserve a plant(s).

The Department of Religious Studies invites you to join us for the events of Quaker Focus Week beginning Monday (Nov. 8). Come learn more about George Fox University’s heritage as we focus on Quaker spirituality. Events are as follows:

Monday: Howard Macy speaks in chapel
Tuesday: At 4 p.m., students will share about their recent trip to another Quaker college (in the religious studies department.)
Wednesday: Jamie Johnson speaks in chapel

Please join us!

Colleagues,

I encourage you, by department or individually, to participate in the following Operation Christmas Child ministry being facilitated by a group of George Fox students. If you choose to participate as a department, please contact Jessi Fink (jfink09@georgefox.edu) so the team can know where to pick up the boxes or plastic bags of items to be placed in boxes.

If not participating as a department, individuals should drop their shoeboxes or plastic bags of items with Barbi Doran at the information desk in the Stevens Center. Below is information about the ministry and a list of suggested items. I encourage you to provide sustainable items if at all possible.

– Robin Baker

Description
Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse that sends gift-filled shoeboxes to children in need around the world. Since 1993, they have sent out more than 80 million shoeboxes to more than 130 countries. For more information, go to samaritanspurse.org.

This year, George Fox is teaming with Newberg Friends Church for a goal of packing 1,000 shoesboxes! We would love for all the George Fox faculty and employees to get involved. Here’s how:

Pack a shoebox. You can pack a box for a 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14 girl or boy.

These are the items for a typical box:

• Paper (notebook, coloring book, etc.)
• Pencils
• Pencil Sharpener
• Crayons or colored pencils
• Toothbrush
• Toothpaste
• Soap (in two Ziploc bags)
• Washcloth
• Comb
• Toy (baby doll, matchbox cars, jump rope, etc.)
• Stuffed animal
• Hard candy (also double bagged)
• Miscellaneous items: shoes, shirts, gloves, hats, hair clips, etc.

*You do not need to include shipping money for the boxes.

Other ways to participate:

• Purchase items for boxes or purchase extra items when you shop for your boxes which will be used at the packing event.
• Donate money to be used to purchase supplies. Checks can be written to Newberg Friends Church with OCC written on the memo line.
• Come to the campus packing party on Nov. 21 at 2 p.m. in the EHS atrium.

Return boxes, supplies, or checks to your department office or to the Stevens Center by Nov. 12. If you need shoeboxes and/or labels, please contact Jessi Fink.

Questions? Contact Jessi at the above e-mail address.

On Monday, Nov. 22, the students in the Liberal Arts and Critical Issues (LACI) program will present their research exhibits on Islam and the West. We need about 30 people to help judge the exhibits. Each judge will look at the projects for five groups and fill out a form. This takes about one hour.

We are looking for staff, administrators and faculty judges. No experience is necessary. You can come to the Hoover and EHS atriums anytime between noon and 4 p.m. We also provide a small thank you gift. If interested in being a judge, please contact Caitlin Corning at ext. 2673 or ccorning@georgefox.edu.