The Daily Bruin

The Spring Faculty Lecture, “Channeling the Inklings: A Dialogue About Writing Group Success,” will be presented by Ed Higgins, Polly Peterson, Melanie Springer Mock (Writing/Literature), and Kendra Weddle Irons (Religious Studies) from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, in Hoover 105.

The presenters will examine the use of writing groups for teaching and scholarship and discuss their group’s parallel to the Inklings, a famous English writing group that included C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien.

Friday, Feb. 27, marks the advent of employees no longer receiving printed direct deposit statements. Instead, employees will be able to view (and print) their pay statements through PeopleSoft by following these simple steps:

• If you do not already access PeopleSoft, you can use this link to get to the sign-in page. If you haven’t already added the login address to your favorites, this would be a good time to stop and do that.
• Use the same user ID and password that you use to login to e-mail and Bruindata.
• Open “Self Service” in the menu on the left and click on “Payroll and Compensation.” You will see a list of all of your pay statements that have been processed in PeopleSoft (beginning with our first payroll on Oct. 31) with some basic information included in each of the columns.
• Click on the pay date in the far left column labeled “Check Date” to open your statement as a PDF file. You can then print it if you want a hard copy, you can save the PDF file to another folder, or you can just refer to it again in the future in PeopleSoft.

Please note: If you have difficulty getting the self-service system to function correctly, please contact the IT service desk at ext. 2569.

This new process helps the university be a good steward of both financial and natural resources by reducing paper and envelope usage. It also will save significant time for staff in both HR and Mail Services.

Employees who are not on direct deposit will continue to receive their paychecks with statements attached through the mail. However, all employees (except student employees) are strongly encouraged to sign up for direct deposit.

Attention student employee supervisors: February student time sheets must be in HR no later than Tuesday, March 3, so please have them hand-delivered to HR as soon as you get them. If you are not on the Newberg campus, please fax your student time sheets to 503-554-2186 and then send the originals to HR in campus mail.

Also, please check to be sure all of your students have submitted their time sheets to you and follow up with any that have not. And, as always, we appreciate you checking for the following:

• Student’s name (be sure it is legible)
• Student’s ID number
• Cost center number
• Student’s signature (if the student forgot to sign it, please bring it to HR anyway. Do not send students to HR to sign time sheets.)
• Your signature

Reminder: If a student delivers his or her own time sheet to HR, it must be in a sealed envelope to comply with Federal Work Study regulations.

Thanks very much.

– Human Resources

All employees are invited to attend the Grandma Zula’s Legacy film presentation from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, March 2, in Stevens 101. Please R.S.V.P. to Joel Perez (Student Life) at jperez@georgefox.edu if you plan to attend.

How do we engage our students on ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, and gender diversity? A Faculty Teaching Forum, led by Melanie Hulbert (Sociology), will explore the ways in which we can successfully and boldly incorporate diversity issues in our curricula and classroom environments.

The session will be held from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, in Hoover 104 (Hoover Hatfield Library). To reserve a lunch e-mail Jere Witherspoon (Student Life) by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3. Everyone is welcome to attend the session, whether bringing a lunch or reserving a lunch. Please have your lunch ready so we can begin the conversation at noon.

All faculty — full time, part time and adjunct — are invited to attend Faculty Teaching Forums (FTFs). Video podcasts of FTFs will be available at the “Events and Resources” link on the Center for Teaching and Learning website.

Parents of George Fox students will gather at the Newberg campus and in homes along the West Coast to pray for the George Fox University community from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, March 14. We are gathering prayer requests that will guide this time of prayer.

If you have a prayer request that you would like to be remembered in prayer, please send your request to the Office of Spiritual Life at spirituallife@georgefox.edu. If you would like the request to be anonymous, please indicate so in your e-mail. Please e-mail your requests by this Friday, Feb. 26.

Beginning Monday, March 2, the Mail Services courier will be delivering to the Salem campus on Mondays and Thursdays each week. Service to the Portland Center will continue each day Monday through Friday.

Items for the Portland or Salem campuses must be brought to University Mail Services by 9:45 a.m. and clearly labeled to show the intended recipient or department.

Shane Roghaar, our TIAA-CREF representative, will be available for one-hour appointments between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. March 10 (Portland Center), March 11 (Newberg) and March 12 (Newberg). You may make an appointment with him to discuss your investments using the online reservation system. See the invitation posted on the HR/Benefits Web page.

Employees in other locations, or those who are not available at this time, may call Shane to arrange a telephone consultation at 503-452-6981.

Eligible employees should be receiving a customized packet from Sun Life with information about our new voluntary life insurance benefit. You must have been here at least a year and working three-quarters time or better to be eligible. Please be sure to return your enrollment forms to HR by March 16.

Sun Life will be on campus to present this new benefit to you and to answer questions at the following dates and times:

• Thursday, Feb. 26, at noon in Portland Center Room 295
• Monday, March 2, at 9 a.m. in the Executive Dining Room
• Monday, March 2, at 9:30 a.m. in Hoover 104
• Monday March 2, at 11 a.m. in VAC 117
• Tuesday, March 3, at 11:30 a.m. in VAC 117
• Tuesday, March 3, at 1:30 p.m. in the Executive Dining Room
• Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Plant Services

This is your opportunity to sign up for the benefit without having to show proof of good health. Employees in other locations will hear soon about long-distance info sessions.

Employees are invited to attend an all-community meeting from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, in Bauman Auditorium. The meeting will provide employees an opportunity to receive campus updates. Your participation is strongly encouraged.

For those at the university’s regional sites, the meeting will be available for viewing at stream.georgefox.edu/live/commmtg.sdp. For best results, use Mozilla Firefox for your web browser, and your computer must have QuickTime Player installed. Simply copy the link into the address bar of your browser. If you have any problems, contact the Service Desk at ext. 2569.

If you are interested in global issues, love to travel, enjoy learning about other cultures and foreign languages, and have a heart for community service, the Peace Corps may be the right fit for you. The organization will host an on-campus  information session and application workshop from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 3, in Lemmons 15 on the Newberg campus.

Come to this Peace Corps event to learn more about living and working overseas. To learn more, visit the Peace Corps website.

Jeff VandenHoek (School of Management) will give leadership to the newest School of Management graduate program — a full-time MBA program that will launch on the Newberg campus this August. It will be a highly integrative, intense, intentional, cohort-based, 11-month program. We welcome referrals. Contact VandenHoek at jvandenh@georgefox.edu for more information, or visit the MBA page on the university’s website.

Due to a reallocation of resources to the full-time MBA and the accreditation process, we will faze out the Executive Track MBA program with its current cohorts when they graduate in 2010. Twenty-two executives have graduated, and 24 are currently in the Executive Track MBA program. To hear Dean Ken Armstrong’s announcement about the changes, visit the university’s iTunes U site. Scroll to “Campus Spotlight” and click on “School of Management.”

You’re invited to join the university’s International Justice Mission Chapter for a sex-trafficking awareness event from 7 to 11 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Duke Atrium of the Stevens Center. The gathering will include food, live music, and plenty of chances to learn more about this very serious issue and ways that you can create change here in Oregon and abroad.

Beginning with our Friday, Feb. 27 pay day, you will no longer receive a printed pay statement from the university if you are on direct deposit. Instead, you will be able to view (and print if you would like) your pay statement through PeopleSoft by following these simple steps:

1. If you do not already access PeopleSoft, you can use this link to get to the sign-in page. If you haven’t already added the login address to your favorites, this would be a good time to stop and do that.
2. Use the same user ID and password that you use to log in to e-mail and Bruindata.
3. Open “Self Service” in the menu on the left and click on “Payroll and Compensation.”
4. You will see a list of all of your pay statements that have been processed in PeopleSoft (beginning with our first payroll on Oct. 31) with some basic information included in each of the columns.
5. Click on the pay date in the far left column labeled “Check Date” to open your statement as a PDF file. You can then print it if you want a hard copy, you can save the PDF file to another folder, or you can just refer to it again in the future in PeopleSoft.

HR will post an e-nnouncement for the next several months to remind employees on pay day that their statements will be available only online to give people time to get used to this new procedure. This new process helps the university be a good steward of both financial and natural resources by reducing paper and envelope usage. It also will save significant time for staff in both HR and Mail Services.

Employees who are not on direct deposit will continue to receive their pay checks with statements attached through the mail. However, we strongly encourage all employees (except student employees) to get on direct deposit.

You are represented on the university’s Safety Committee. Please read the minutes posted at your location (Physical Plant and Mail Room in Newberg; Portland location TBA). If you have any comments and/or concerns, please contact one of the following:

Dan Schutter (Chair, Safety Officer), Teresa Arnold (Secretary, Science/Chemical Hygiene), Linda Sartwell (Staff), David Hansen (Faculty), Lisa Burton (HR), Trini Marquez (Plant Services), Ed Gierok (Security), Charlie Kamilos (Portland Center), Carl Anderson (Tilikum), and Steve Petzold (Engineering)

Enrollment packets for benefits should be arriving via campus mail by Monday. Most of them will arrive in a handy envelope provided by Allegiance. However, it’s not just about the flex plan. This envelope includes your custom benefit election form that must be signed and returned to HR by Monday, March 16. We just used the envelopes provided by Allegiance to send all of your information. So look for it and don’t toss it!

Please note: The film Grandma Zula’s Legacy will be shown in Stevens 101 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Monday, March 2. This is a location change from the original announcement. All employees are invited to attend.

Please R.S.V.P. to Joel Perez (Student Life) at jperez@georgefox.edu if you plan to attend.

A Faculty Research Forum, “Why Faith is a Virtue,” based on the work of Robert Adams and Alasdair MacIntyre, will be presented by Phil Smith (Religious Studies) at 10:40 a.m. Friday, Feb. 20, in Hoover 105.

Career Services invites you to attend the university’s Seminary Fair this Tuesday, Feb. 24. Join us in the Hoover Atrium from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for an opportunity to meet with 12 seminaries. Refreshments included!

The University Store is hosting a 40-percent-off sale on all George Fox-imprinted merchandise (except diploma frames) during its Homecoming Sale Friday and Saturday, Feb. 20-21. Store hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.