The Daily Bruin

For a variety of reasons, the Staff Development Committee has decided to cancel our staff worship event, originally scheduled for Feb. 24. We hope that, beginning spring semester 2010, this will become an annual event which promotes fellowship and encourages each person as we worship together. We will be working between now and then to bring this about and would greatly appreciate your prayers for direction and support.

We pray God’s richest blessings for each and every one as we serve Him together.

– Your Staff Development Committee

Don’t forget to register for Kaleo 2009, scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, Feb. 7, in Bauman Auditorium. We desire our youth not to simply be believers in Christ, but followers of Christ — ordinary people living radically in the love of Jesus Christ, called to bring forth another world among us.

Come and enjoy worship and teaching with guest speaker Shane Claiborne and worship leader Aaron Strumpel. The event also features workshops covering more than a dozen topics.

Ticket prices for faculty, staff, and graduate students are $37. Traditional undergraduate students are free. Online registration ends on Friday, Feb. 6.

If you have any questions, contact Amy Lorenz (University Relations) at 503-554-2134 or alorenz@georgefox.edu.

Shane Claiborne, author of Irresistible Revolution and guest speaker for the Kaleo youth ministry conference Saturday and the Monday, Feb. 9, chapel, will host a talk-back session after chapel from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Bruin Den Annex. Students and employees are invited to attend.

Dr. David Kinzie, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University, will speak at the Newberg campus at 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the  Villa Academic Complex’s Room 117.

Kinzie founded the Intercultural Psychiatric Program and the Torture Treatment Center of Oregon. Founded in 1977, the center was the nation’s first psychiatric center for immigrants who escaped war and genocide. The clinic, formerly housed at OHSU and now located in southeast Portland, is one of the largest of its kind in the country, treating 1,200 people from around the world.

Lon Fendall (Center for Peace Studies/Center for Peace and Justice) invites anyone who has a interest in hearing how Kinzie helps people deal with their psychological trauma and how he has made a difference in the lives of so many.

The Center for Peace Studies and Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology are co-hosting Kinzie’s visit. The event begins with lunch at 12:30 p.m., followed by Kinzie’s presentation. There is no fee to attend.

Questions? Contact Fendall at lfendall@georgefox.edu or ext. 2685.

The university’s basketball squads are teaming up to raise breast cancer awareness through the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s “Pink Zone” campaign this Friday, Feb. 6, in Wheeler Gymnasium. The evening also will recognize National Girls and Women in Sports Day.

Tip-off for the women’s game is at 6 p.m. against Lewis & Clark College, followed by the men’s game against the Pioneers at 8 p.m. The Bruin women will be looking to improve upon their 19-0 record — a mark that has them ranked sixth in the latest D3hoops.com poll.

Fans also are encouraged to wear pink to show their support of the event. Anyone wearing pink will get in free with a $2 donation to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer fund. All young women under the age of 18 and any breast cancer survivors will be admitted free of charge. “Pink Zone” T-shirts will be available for purchase, and all proceeds will go to breast cancer research.

In addition, George Fox athletics will be celebrating the 23rd annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day by honoring all senior women student-athletes and athletic training students at halftime of the men’s basketball game. Awards will be presented to 20 outstanding women student-athletes.

The university has been given a group code with Family Life that provides a 31 percent savings for employees and their spouses interested in attending one of the organization’s conferences. Family Life hosts weekend conferences designed to promote healthy marriages. Registration must occur at least 10 days before a conference in order to get the discount.

If you are planning to attend one of these conferences, simply fill in “corporateprogram” on the online form where it asks for Group Code.

Marketing Communications is currently collecting orders for name tags. Please submit your requests online. Provide the name of the person for whom the name tag is needed; title or department; and the budget to be charged. Examples of titles/departments include: Dean of Students/Office of Student Life, Admissions Counselor/Undergraduate Admissions. Supervisors should determine a standard for his or her area and attempt to remain consistent.

The next order will be placed Friday, Feb. 13. Communications will verify your request and the information provided and place your order with all others.

The Office of Marketing Communications is now collecting orders for business cards. Orders are due Tuesday, Feb. 10. Please place your orders through your department’s administrative assistant. Expect delivery in mid-March.

Please submit your order using our online form: georgefox.edu/offices/communications/creative_srv/bus_cards.html.

If you have not already done so, please submit your January time sheet (support staff) or time-off report (administrators) this week. Please be sure it is complete, accurate and signed by both you and your supervisor before sending it to HR at Box 6108. If your supervisor is not available to sign it, please send a copy to HR and keep the original until it has been signed.

We have added spaces to include your Cost Center and Employee ID numbers since that information is needed to access your record in PeopleSoft, so please take an extra moment to provide that information.

Link to the time-off report: georgefox.edu/offices/hr/Timeoffreport.doc
Link to January time sheet:  georgefox.edu/offices/hr/TimesheetJan09.xls

Holiday note:  Do not write any hours on January 1, 2 or 19 unless you worked any of those days.

The Performing Arts Department will host the return of world-renowned Italian pianist Gianluca Luisi for the third annual Bösendorfer Concert Series at 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15, in Bauman Auditorium.

Luisi, who first performed on the Bauman stage in 2007, will play works by Chopin and Liszt. The afternoon will feature a set of Six Paganini Grand Etudes.

Kenn Willson (Performing Arts) first invited Luisi to perform at the university after meeting the pianist at the Bösendorfer Mozart Celebration in Vienna, Austria, in May 2006. Luisi has played at master classes held by internationally known musicians such as Lazar Berman, Jorge Demus, Alexander Longuquich, Paul Badura Skoda, Antonio Ballista, and Rosalyn Tureck.

Luisi will perform on the Bösendorfer “Imperial” grand, one of the finest pianos made today and the only concert grand piano in the world with 97 keys.

Employees and students each receive one complimentary ticket that may be picked up at the University Store. Additional tickets ($10 for adults, $8 for seniors and alumni, and $6 for students and children under 12) are available by calling the box office at ext. 3844 or visiting music.georgefox.edu.

Student supervisors, we need your students’ January time sheets to HR as soon as you get them. Please check to be sure all of your students have submitted their time sheets to you. Time sheets must be received no later than Tuesday, Feb. 3.

Please be sure the student’s name is legible on each one, and also include each student’s ID number and the cost center number. Also, don’t forget to sign each time sheet, and be sure the student did as well. (If the student left without signing it, please send it to HR anyway. Do not send students to HR to sign time sheets.)

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

Thanks very much.

– Human Resources

Learn about the issue of racism in Portland through the film Grandma Zula’s Legacy at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2, in EHS 102 (note room change) on the Newberg campus. Meet the film’s creator and producer through a talkback discussion.

Please come a few minutes early to enjoy munchies and get a seat. Free for all students.

We have discovered that the leave accrual balances showing on pay statements this month are not correct. The current monthly accrual was not added, and the year-to-date totals did not start over with the new year. With the rush to produce W-2s, we have not yet found an answer why, but be assured that we are aware of the problem and will get it fixed for you. Thanks for your patience!

– Human Resources

George Fox Evangelical Seminary and Shapevine are co-hosting “Recalibrating Concepts of Church” from 2 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, in Bauman Auditorium.

Authors Len Sweet, MaryKate Morse, Frank Viola, Alan Hirsch, and Dan Kimball will discuss their books and engage in conversation with each other and the audience. Lance Ford will moderate. Online registration is available at seminars.georgefox.edu. An optional $15 roundtable dinner and book-signing event is scheduled afterwards from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m.

When sending an order via e-mail to Print Services, you are now able to send it directly using Print Services’ e-mail address. Several employees are aware of this and have been using it, while others have always sent orders directly to Elizabeth Holme. Due to the quantity of orders now coming by electronic transfer, the two e-mails have been separated.

To send a work or supply order to Print Services, use printservices@georgefox.edu. To send “other” communications, use Elizabeth’s e-mail (eholme@georgefox.edu). Both e-mails are checked throughout the day.

Along with your Jan. 30 direct deposit statement (or paycheck), please watch for your 2008 W-2 in your mail Friday, Jan. 30. Most of the information on these forms is easy to understand or explained in the fine print on the reverse, but we thought it would be helpful to provide a little extra information.

Items in Boxes 12a through 12d are required by IRS. The amount (if any) in Box 12a labeled “C” is the taxable cost of your group term life insurance paid by the university in 2008. (This amount was also included in your pay as taxable income in 2008.) The amount (if any) in 12b labeled “E” is the contribution you made to a supplemental retirement plan beyond the 3 percent that the university matches.

Box 14 shows the amount of your contribution to the university-sponsored retirement plan and is labeled “403B,” which is the IRS code/section assigned to our plan. This represents 3 percent of your pay from the time you began participation.

Employees (and their tax preparers) often ask why the amount in Box 1 is different than the amount listed in Box 3 and 5. Because any contributions you made to the retirement plan(s) are not subject to income taxes, those amounts (shown in 12b and 14) are not included in Box 1. However, those contributions are still subject to Social Security and Medicare (FICA) taxes, so they are included in the amount shown in both Box 3 and 5. If you add the amount in Box 1 to any amounts in Boxes 12b and 14, the total will equal the amount in Box 3 and 5.

You may find this information boring and/or confusing, but we recommend you save and keep it in a safe place, along with your W-2, so you will have both when you (or your tax preparer) files your tax return.

Finally, big kudos and many thanks to Brooke McGillivray, Melodee Powers and Tory Cole for their extra efforts to get these 2,300 W-2s out ahead of the legal deadline. Processing these for the first time in PeopleSoft created some extra challenges and extra work.

Oregon income tax booklets and forms are available in the hallway at Mail Services. The orange booklet is for part-year resident/nonresident and the blue booklet is for full-year resident. There are no federal forms or booklets available at Mail Services. They are only provided online.

Where did racism take place in the 1940-’70s? Was it just in the South? Have you ever heard the stories from Portland? Expand your knowledge with an exciting film and discussion with the producer and filmmaker.

The university is hosting another showing of the film “Grandma Zula’s Legacy” at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 2, in Stevens 208. A documentary about racism, community service and activism, the film includes anecdotes from those who actually lived the struggle and arose triumphant.

According to a Chronicle Review article by Tim Clydesdale, “Today’s students know full well that authorities can be found for every position and any knowledge claim, and consequently the students are dubious (privately, that is) about anything we claim to be true or important.” Given our students’ unprecedented access to information, often accompanied by ambivalence toward authority, what changes might faculty and administrators make to better engage our students?

This will be the topic of a Faculty Teaching Forum, “Wake up and Smell the New Epistemology,”  from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, in Hoover 104 (Hoover-Hatfield Library). You are welcome to join in this discussion facilitated by Patrick Allen (Provost). If you would like to read the article “Wake up and Smell the New Epistemology” ahead of time, visit this FoxTrax site.

To reserve a lunch, e-mail Jere Witherspoon (jwithers@georgefox.edu) by 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 2. 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.

Marketing Communications is hosting two studio photo shoots for faculty and staff on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 11-12, in Cap and Gown Room A. Wednesday’s session is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Thursday’s studio time is set from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

These high-quality studio portraits will be used on the university website and will be available for professional promotional use. To sign up, call Marcom’s main number at ext. 2139 or e-mail news@georgefox.edu. Drop-ins are welcome, but appointments will be given priority.