The Daily Bruin

During open enrollment, benefit-eligible employees may make changes in benefit plans without a “change in status” reason. Any other time of the year you may only make changes for reasons such as adding or removing a dependent child, marriage, divorce, loss of other coverage, etc. Changes made during open enrollment will take effect April 1, 2018.

How to Get More Information
The Open Enrollment Guide is available online

What You Need To Do
Whether or not you make any changes to your benefit plans, all benefit-eligible employees must complete the Open Enrollment Election form. You must be logged into your George Fox University email to complete this electronic form (for authentication purposes).

If you decide to add coverage or make any changes to your current coverage, you must complete the appropriate enrollment form(s) (available on the EE website and in the links below) and return them to Employee Empowerment on or before Friday, March 2.

• Kaiser Medical and Dental Insurance Enrollment Form
• Pioneer Health Trust Medical and Dental Enrollment Form
• Allegiance Flexible Spending Account Enrollment Form (Medical and/or Dependent Care)
• TIAA Retirement Plan Tax-Deferred Annuity: You may change your TIAA Tax-Deferred Annuity plan anytime by submitting the payroll deduction authorization form.

Your Online Connection: You may access the benefits web page to download forms and get more information.

If you are not sure what your current benefit election is, please see your pay statement in MyGFU.

We welcome your questions by phone, e-mail, or in-person. Let us know how we can help as you consider changes in your benefits. Contact Darby Thiessen: 503-554-2188 or dthiessen@georgefox.edu.

Join the George Fox University Players at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Friday) for a free 50-minute performance involving music and theatre exploring the theme “A Touch of Yellow,” featuring stories where we are surprised by hope and find beauty in the ordinary.

The performance will then be followed by Playback theatre, a time for communal storytelling and sharing. Come support your fellow students in Wood-Mar Auditorium!

Questions? Contact JeanneAnn Faris (jfaris15@georgefox.edu).

The School of Physical Therapy is hosting its second annual Health and Wellness Week March 12-17. This event is designed to impact Newberg and surrounding communities through nutrition, exercise and behavioral health classes, a 5K run/walk, and a pool party for kids.

Classes are free and open to the public. The 5K run/walk has an entry fee of $10 for students and $25 for the general public. To learn more or to register for the events, visit georgefox.edu/health.

Questions? Contact Tyler Cuddeford at tcuddeford@georgefox.edu.

Drop by for some lunch or dinner at Sandwich Express on Wednesday, March 7, between 3:30 p.m. and closure, to show your support for George Fox physical therapy students going to Ghana and Uganda this June!

Fifty percent of the proceeds from the event will go toward supporting the students and this great cause. Please come show your support! Sandwich Express is located at 901 Brutscher St. #B, in Newberg.

Contact Nick Gammie (ngammie16@georgefox.edu) with any questions.

Thank you!

The women’s basketball team is in the NCAA Division III National Tournament! The Bruins are in Iowa to play Saint Benedict in the first round, but you can still catch the action right here on campus. The game will be streamed in Canyon Commons 101 beginning at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon (Friday). Snacks will be provided!

If the team wins today, join us for a livestream and snacks in the same spot on Saturday, March 3, at 5 p.m. for the next round of the tournament!

Questions? Contact the sports marketing office at sportsmarketing@georgefox.edu.

Hey everyone! The Coast to Coast Swing Dance Club invites you to join us tomorrow (Saturday) in the FoxHole! Bring your friends and bring your dancing shoes. All levels of dancers are welcome! We hope to see you there!

Beginners learn at 6:30 p.m., followed by the intermediate dance at 7 p.m. and  the free social dance from 7:30 p.m. on.

Contact Justin Chang (jchang15@georgefox.edu) with any questions.

Come join Nutrition Matters as Emily Forbes from “Love and Plants” gives a cooking demonstration on how to use lentils in everyday meals. Join us at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6, in Canyon Commons 101. Free food is available afterwards, and credit is available for nutrition classes.

Contact Kelsey Herschberger (kherschberger14@georgefox.edu) with any questions.

Hungry for discounts? “Lettuce” share a link to our local restaurants page, where you’ll find a smorgasbord of delicious deals cooked up just for our George Fox community! Check it out and “spread” the word!

Questions? Contact Barbi Doran at bdoran@georgefox.edu.

All are invited to the 2018 Spring Faculty Lecture this Tuesday, March 6, at 6 p.m. in Hoover 105. Our featured speaker, and recipient of the 2016-17 Faculty Achievement Award for Graduate Research and Scholarship, is Jason Brumitt, assistant professor of physical therapy.

Brumitt’s lecture, “Can Preseason Performance and Fitness Testing Identify Athletes at Risk for Injury?,” will focus on a recent trend in sports science research to identify athletes at risk for injury based on measures of preseason fitness. His research has entailed collecting measures of preseason fitness and functional performance in collegiate athletes to identify associations between sport readiness and future injury.

Come early, between 5 and 6 p.m., and check out the work of our Richter Student Scholars and Steinfeldt Peace Scholars at a symposium in the Hoover lobby. George Fox students will present their research and peace projects in a conversational poster format.

Both events are sponsored by the Faculty Development Committee. Refreshments will be served.

Contact Laurie Fair (lfair@georgefox.edu) for more information.

Interested in joining the BSU officer team? Let us know by clicking the link below.

BSU form

Got questions? Contact Khadija Bruce (kbruce15@georgefox.edu).

Want to support a missions trip to Nicaragua? Want to see a professor get “pied?” Come to Canyon Commons today (Friday) and the Bruin Den March 6-9 between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Drop money into the jar with the name of the professor you want to see “pied.”

The top four jars with the most money in them will be “pied” on Tuesday, March 13, right after chapel! The participating professors are Kelly Chang, Sue O’Donnell, Chris Koch, Kris Kays, David Martínez, Steve Sherwood, Matthew Stump, Katie Mastropaolo, Abigail Favale, Javier Garcia and Matt Dyment.

Contact Julia Toews (jtoews17@georgefox.edu) for more information.

Fox and Friendsview is happening this Monday, March 5! All are invited to join in on the fun to make an elderly person’s day and to take advantage of this opportunity to get to know others in the Newberg community.

For those joining us, meet in the Bauman lobby at 6:15 p.m. to head over to Friendsview as a group. The game night ends at around 8:30 p.m., but feel free to leave early if you have other obligations. If you have any questions, contact Kyla Norell at knorell16@georgefox.edu.

Hope to see you there!

Vote for your favorite shops, restaurants, and more in the 2018 “Best of the Berg” survey! Results will be published in the next issue of The Crescent.

If you have a minute, we’d love your opinion! Vote by clicking the survey link below.

Best of the Berg Survey

Thank you,
– Bethany Woods (bwoods15@georgefox.edu)

Disclaimer:
These surveys are student generated and are not to be associated with any official research conducted by faculty and staff at George Fox University. Any views or opinions presented in these surveys are solely those of the students and do not represent those of George Fox University. The distribution of these surveys is a service provided to George Fox University students as they prepare their research required by the curriculum. Students are required to have department approval. Any questions about these surveys should be directed to the students associated with the survey in question.

The Wineskin is now accepting submissions! The theme for this semester is “heritage” – the heritage of parents, of teachers, and, most of all, the heritage of creativity and art.

Submit all poetry, prose, photography, and artwork to gfuwineskin@gmail.com (limit all prose to 1,000 words). Please title each piece and remove all watermarks.

Submissions close on Monday, March 19! Contact Kiale Palpant (kpalpant16@georgefox.edu) with any questions.

Faculty, please alert your students to this opportunity.

All are welcome to join in the next BSU club meeting this Sunday, March 4, at 5:30 p.m. in the IRC across from Pennington. We will have good company, light snacks, and a Koinonia follow-up discussion!

Contact Khadija Bruce (kbruce15@georgefox.edu) for more information.

Intramural signups are available online at imleagues.com, or the IMLeagues app.

Sports include:

• 5-on-5 Basketball (Monday and Wednesday nights)
• Ultimate Frisbee (Tuesday and Thursday nights)
• Floor Hockey (Tuesday and Thursday nights)
• Flag Football (Saturday mornings)

Registration is open until Saturday, March 3, at midnight. If you have any questions, please email Mark Nathlich at mnathlich14@georgefox.edu.

All sports are open to both active students and employees!

During open enrollment, benefit-eligible employees may make changes in benefit plans without a “change in status” reason. Any other time of the year you may only make changes for reasons such as adding or removing a dependent child, marriage, divorce, loss of other coverage, etc. Changes made during open enrollment will take effect April 1, 2018.

How to Get More Information
The Open Enrollment Guide is available online

What You Need To Do
Whether or not you make any changes to your benefit plans, all benefit-eligible employees must complete the Open Enrollment Election form. You must be logged into your George Fox University email to complete this electronic form (for authentication purposes).

If you decide to add coverage or make any changes to your current coverage, you must complete the appropriate enrollment form(s) (available on the EE website and in the links below) and return them to Employee Empowerment on or before Friday, March 2.

• Kaiser Medical and Dental Insurance Enrollment Form
• Pioneer Health Trust Medical and Dental Enrollment Form
• Allegiance Flexible Spending Account Enrollment Form (Medical and/or Dependent Care)
• TIAA Retirement Plan Tax-Deferred Annuity: You may change your TIAA Tax-Deferred Annuity plan anytime by submitting the payroll deduction authorization form.

Your Online Connection: You may access the benefits web page to download forms and get more information.

If you are not sure what your current benefit election is, please see your pay statement in MyGFU.

We welcome your questions by phone, email, or in person. Let us know how we can help as you consider changes in your benefits. Contact Darby Thiessen: 503-554-2188 or dthiessen@georgefox.edu.

Midterm grades are important indicators of how you are doing in your classes. While they are not a part of your permanent record they are important to pay attention to. In some cases, midterm grades represent about half your grade in the course. If you have questions, you should check with your professors. It is vital to know where you stand in each of your classes.

Midterm grades are meant to encourage you to get in touch with others: your professor, your advisor, your CAP Coach and/or the Academic Resource Center.

The worst thing to do about midterm grades is to ignore them or to assume you can improve them on your own.

Professors do want to meet with you. Do not hesitate to make an appointment with each of them.

Midterm grades are due by this Sunday, March 4. You should plan to check your midterm grades after this date.

To check your midterm grades in MyGFU:

• Click on “Self Service”
• Click on “Enrollment”
• Click on “View My Grades”
• Click on the correct term
• Click on the “Midterm Grades” tab (If you do not see a “Midterm Grades” tab then it is likely none of your professors have entered any midterm grades for you. Please contact your professors to find out what your grades are.)

Now you need to determine what to do next:
 Contact your professors. Faculty are not required to enter midterm grades. You are advised to check with each of your professors about your status in their class. Consider whether to withdraw from one or more courses if it looks likely that you’ll get an F (or maybe even a D).

The last date to withdraw is Sunday, March 18 (without grade responsibility).

You can usually go below being enrolled in 12 credit hours (at this point in the semester) without impacting your financial aid or housing. However, you should contact representatives in these departments to be certain:

• Residence Life (Dave Johnstone) – djohnstone@georgefox.edu
• Student Financial Services – sfs@georgefox.edu

Withdrawal results in a “W” on your transcript but does not factor into GPA. If you were to get an F, it would impact GPA.

Confirm any thoughts of withdrawing from classes with your advisor. Meet with each professor, especially those teaching courses you’re struggling in. Even if your professor doesn’t post midterm grades, find out from the professor what your grade is. Meet with your advisor to discuss options.

Use labs, help sessions and the ARC. If you think you might have a learning disability, have some assessment done. Contact the Health and Counseling Center at 503-554-2340 or stop by their office on South River Street.

Plan well for your semester. Contact your CAP Coach to get advice about how to plan well.

Not sure how to take the next step? Email studentlife@georgefox.edu.

Do you want to go on a Juniors Abroad trip in May 2019? All eligible students should attend the Juniors Abroad Information Meeting to get information about the different trips and tent city registration.

Join us from 6 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7, in Wood-Mar Auditorium.

Questions? Email Lynn Scott (lscott@georgefox.edu).

The new training, self-evaluation, and assessment tool for staff and administrators is available beginning today, March 1.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the survey and testing. Your feedback was used in our decisions to simplify the tool and process. We trust you’ll love the improvements as much as we do!

Watch your email for instructions and links.

Employee Empowerment welcomes your questions by phone, email, or in-person. Please contact Darby Thiessen at 503-554-2188 or dthiessen@georgefox.edu if you encounter any issues or have questions.