The Daily Bruin

The staff lunch scheduled for this Monday, Oct. 12, will be held on the roof of Wood-Mar/EHS. A boxed lunch will be provided, along with a special university history presentation by Clyde Thomas (Plant Services Director) — and a spectacular view of campus.

Take the elevator to the third floor, walk around to the far northwest corner of Wood-Mar, then walk up a short stairway to the rooftop. Staff Development Committee members will be available for direction and special assistance.

Please R.S.V.P. to Danya Ochsner (University Relations) at ext. 2121 or by e-mail at dochsner@georgefox.edu. We need to give Bon Appetit a head count for lunch. Please join us for a unique and meaningful “Lunch on the Roof.” The cost is $3 per person.

All Portland and Newberg staff are asked to fill out a quick survey for the Staff Development Conference coming later this month. Click on this hyperlink to complete this survey. Please take two minutes to complete it by Friday, Oct. 9.

This is a reminder that the Staff Development Conference is less than two weeks away! “How Great is Our God” is the theme for this year’s conference, scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at Family Life Church in Newberg. The keynote speaker will be Mark Doyle (Biology).

This will be a day of spiritual renewal, as well as a fun-filled day of learning and serving together. All staff members are expected to attend. Watch your campus mailbox for more information.

Business cards may now be ordered directly from B&B Print Source at eorder.bbprintsource.net/avnet/avlogin.asp. The login user ID is “gfubc” and the password is “gfu123.” Please contact Danette Newkirk (Marketing Communications) to walk you through the process the first time.

Business card orders will be printed quarterly (September, December, March and June).

Funds for independent student research at George Fox are available through the Richter Scholars Program. Applications for the program are now being accepted. All George Fox graduate and undergraduate students are eligible.

The program supplies funds for research in collaboration with a faculty member. Applications are due in Hoover 110 by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1. Visit georgefox.edu/academics/richter/index.html for more information.

As announced in June, PeopleSoft works on a calendar year to track support staff and administrators’ vacation carryover balances, rather than on a fiscal year as it did with IFAS. As a result of this change, employees did not lose any vacation after June 30 if they carried balances into July that were greater than one year’s accrual. This change resulted in all staff and administrators having an extra six months (July-December 2009) to use any extra vacation.

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.

To determine your accrual rates and how much you may need to use by Dec. 31, HR has prepared a chart and instructions for support staff and one for administrators to be used along with the information on your Sept. 30 pay statement. It also provides useful information about the balances on your monthly pay statements. To learn more, visit georgefox.edu/offices/hr/EmployeeBenefits/beneforms.html.

If you have any questions after you have reviewed your vacation balance, please contact HR for assistance.

Terry Huffman (School of Education) will present the fall 2009 Fall Faculty Lecture, “American Indian Higher Educational Experiences: Cultural Visions and Personal Journeys” at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, in Hoover 105. The lecture series has been a George Fox tradition since 1955 and is hosted by the Faculty Development Committee.

Michael Bevis (English Language Institute) and Thomas Peng (China and East Asia Programs) will lead a Faculty Teaching Forum addressing the educational environment of our international student population. With the increasing number of international students on campus, questions arise about how to effectively engage international students in the educational process without overextending faculty resources. Join the ongoing conversation about how to support international students in their academic endeavors.

The session is scheduled from noon to 1:20 p.m.  Thursday, Oct. 8, in Cap & Gown A (note the different location than on academic calendar).

To reserve a lunch, e-mail Jere Witherspoon (jwithers@georgefox.edu) by 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6. 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 on iTunesU.

Please send an e-mail to Peggy Kilburg if you would like to nominate a support staff member or administrator for Employee of the Month for October.  Your e-mail should include the person’s name, job title, a concise but specific summary of this person’s  recent contributions (past 30 days or so) to the university, its students, and/or its employees (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 by Friday, Oct. 16. The President’s Executive Leadership Team will then select the Employee(s) of the Month from the nominations submitted. The winner(s) will be announced at the all-employee meeting on Thursday, Oct. 22, and will receive a $100 gift card to The Allison Inn & Spa, including its restaurant, Jory.

George Fox partners with three organizations which allow employee dependents to apply for tuition exchange with a variety of educational institutions. Please note that this is not the same as tuition remission. If you have questions about tuition remission, please contact Human Resources.

If you have a dependent interested in applying for tuition exchange at another university, please thoroughly read information at the following address: georgefox.edu/resources_for/employees/tuitionexchange.pdf.

Applications are submitted by the Office of Academic Affairs, on behalf of the student, between October and early spring. Tuition exchange award decisions are usually made in February or March. To apply, please send the following information to Karlyn Fleming (kfleming@georgefox.edu):

• Dependent’s name

• Dependent’s mailing address

• Last four digits of dependent’s SSN

• Dependent’s telephone number

• Which colleges/universities your dependent would like tuition exchange application sent to

• What year in college your dependent will be in fall 2010 (freshman, sophomore, etc.)

Thank you.

Time is running out to sign up for our free eight-week series on improving your parenting skills. No matter what challenges your children are presenting you with, we offer practical skills for improving your effectiveness as a parent for children of all ages. Seating is limited, so e-mail us at GFBHC@georgefox.edu to sign up.

The classes, sponsored by the George Fox Behavioral Health Clinic, meet each Tuesday from Oct. 13 through Dec. 1 from 5:30 to 7 p.m., in the Villa Academic Complex (V103). Sorry, no childcare is available at this time.

Student supervisors, please submit your students’ September time sheets to HR right away — by this Friday, Oct. 2. If you have any “stragglers,” we will take those as late as Monday morning, Oct. 5, but there should be very few. Please deliver all other time sheets to HR by this Friday.

Please be sure the student’s name, ID number and cost center number is legible on each one. Also, don’t forget to sign them and be sure the students did as well. (If the student is not available to sign it this week, please send it without the signature, and HR will contact the student.) Please do not send students to HR to sign their time sheets.

Federal Work Study regulations require that students delivering their own time sheets must have them in a sealed envelope.

If you happen to still have any paperwork to submit on a newly hired student, please hand-deliver it right away — no later than Thursday, Oct. 1. We need to set up students in the system before the time sheets arrive.

This Oct. 15 payroll involves setting up a new pay record for every student employee, whether new or returning, so receiving time sheets and any outstanding paperwork earlier than usual will be a big help to us.

Thanks very much.

Peggy Kilburg, HR

The Writing Center (formerly known as The Portland Writing Center) now has e-mail and website addresses to match its new name.  Students wishing to use the center’s writing consultation services should check the appointment schedule at the website, wc.georgefox.edu, then e-mail to schedule an appointment at wc@georgefox.edu.

Order Bruin Directories for your department now with our easy online form at bit.ly/bd09-10. No orders will be taken after Oct. 2. Directories cost $4 each. Please submit one order for your entire department. Questions? E-mail Rob Leslie at rleslie06@georgefox.edu.

Ruth Baker’s Fall Salad Supper scheduled from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 29, will meet in a different location than originally planned. Due to the threat of rain, the event will now meet in the Villa Academic Complex (VAC 117). It is open to all women associated with the university, whether as employees or spouses of employees. We hope you can join us as we gather to welcome newcomers, renew old acquaintances and celebrate the coming of fall.

Please bring a salad to share (if you are new to George Fox, please be our guest). Drinks, bread and dessert will be provided.

The 17th Hoover Symposium is scheduled for this Saturday, Oct. 3, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Hoover 105. Joshua Hawley, author of Theodore Roosevelt: Preacher of Righteousness, will speak on the origins of the conservationist movement. Kendrick A. Clements, author of Hoover, Conservation, and Consumerism, will address the question of whether Hoover was a conservationist, an environmentalist or something else. Also, a panel of experts will consider whether or not history can offer practical lessons for modern environmentalists.

Registration and lunch are free for the first 100 people to register. Contact Mark Hall at ext. 2674 or mhall@georgefox.edu to register or for further information.

University employees have until Friday, Oct. 2, to turn in book suggestions for the library book display featuring books that have positively impacted George Fox employees. Use the online form at georgefox.edu/offices/murdock/bookdisplay.html to do so.

We ask that, along with the title and author of the book, you write a few sentences about how the book has impacted your life. Questions? Contact Jane Scott or Michael Foster.

George Fox has purchased licenses for the Turning Technologies classroom response system. This system enables you to have your students respond to a your question via their laptops, iTouches, or data-enabled cell phones. (This system is an Internet-enabled “clicker.”)

To begin, contact Russ Devore or Greg Smith for an account.

Read more about the response system on the IT website.

On Tuesday, Sept. 29, all Bon Appetit cafes across the country will serve a meal that is made completely from local ingredients. Everything we’ll use here in the preparation of our food will come from within a 150-mile radius of Newberg, with the exception of salt. 

We’re doing this because we believe everything starts with flavor, and we’re committed to creating food that simply tastes good. Food that is grown locally is fresher and dramatically more flavorful than food that is harvested before it is fully ripened so that it can be transported thousands of miles. Locally produced food is picked at the height of freshness, and often we have it delivered less than 24 hours after harvest.

We also support purchasing locally, as it supports the dozens of local farmers in our community and helps keep them in business. Last year that totaled more than $300,000 in purchases from more than 20 different farmers in our area.

Please join us next Tuesday. We also encourage you to take our Eat Local Challenge Facebook Quiz, available at cafebonappetit.com/georgefox.

Denny Lawrence,
Bon Appetit

A group to discuss effective parenting skills will begin meeting in the Villa Academic Complex’s Room 103 Tuesdays beginning Tuesday, Oct. 13, through Dec. 1. Sponsored by the George Fox Behavioral Health Clinic, the group will meet from 5:30 to 7 p.m. each night to discuss such topics as:

• Improving communication between you and your child
• Eliciting cooperation from your child (no more yelling)
• Replacing problem behaviors with helpful ones
• Identifying your parenting style
• Improving your emotional connection with your children

All ages welcome and there is no cost. Sorry, no childcare is available at this time. Space is limited, so call or e-mail to reserve your spot: 503-554-2368 or GFBHC@georgefox.edu.