Each spring, two staff members are nominated by their peers and selected by Staff Council to receive the Oral V. Hemry Non-Exempt Staff Member and Exempt Staff Member of the Year awards.

Criteria for these awards are: living out their Christian faith at SPU; demonstration of competence, skill, and initiative in their role; connection with colleagues and modeling grace-filled community in the workplace; and demonstration of service and leadership.

We encourage you to nominate a colleague to be recognized for their outstanding contribution to the SPU community. Nominations are open through Friday, March 27.

Summer reservation requests are now being taken for the Faculty/Staff House at the Camp Casey Conference Center for full-time faculty and staff. The dates of stay are June 15 through September 28, 2020. Online reservation requests are due by Wednesday, March 25.

Summer rewards are based on years of service to SPU and past summer stays at Casey. Employees are ranked by their years of service as verified by Human Resources. Once the ranking is developed, the past summer stay history is cross checked. If you have stayed at Casey during the summer, your ranking is replaced with the years it has been since your stay at Casey. If you have questions, contact Camp Casey at 866-661-6604 or campcasey@spu.edu.

The CIS Mini Conference has been canceled due to COVID-19. Virtual webinars will still be held on two tools that will be particularly valuable to faculty and staff during this time: Microsoft Teams and OneDrive for Business. RSVP online. CIS plans to reschedule the mini conference during the summer.

Switchboard is the place for SPU alumni, students, faculty, and staff to connect with each other. This private community is an opportunity for Falcons to help each other by either “asking” for what you need or “offering” what you have to share, ranging from job and internship opportunities or listings, advice, housing, and more. Sign up online.

A message from the Eastside vanpool riders: Do you commute across the Highway 520 bridge? If so, you could be saving as much as $300 a month by joining our vanpool. We meet up at the South Kirkland Park and Ride, Monday–Friday at 7:05 a.m., and work a 7:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. schedule. The vanpool is completely free to SPU employees which means the Highway 520 toll, gas, parking, and car maintenance are all covered through the Trip Reduction Program. Can’t ride every day? Even if you can only ride part time, we’d love to talk to you. Please email Lynn Anselmi at lynnanselmi@spu.edu. For more benefits of riding in the van, visit spu.edu/vanpools.

Check out this month’s ODEI Connections to see the spring diversity seed grant recipients, learn about Student Academic Service’s engagement with the work of diversity, find the monthly recommended reading and teaching tool, and sign up for upcoming professional development opportunities.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published every Monday (or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday) during the academic year. The next Bulletin will be published Monday, March 23. The deadline is Thursday, March 19. If you have information or event news, send it as soon as possible to Bulletin editor Tracy Norlen at fsb-editor@spu.edu. Submissions may be edited for clarity.

Matthew Benton, assistant professor of philosophy, presented a paper on “The Epistemology of Interpersonal Relations” at the American Philosophical Association’s Central Division meeting in Chicago on February 27. The talk was part of an Invited Symposium on Contemporary Epistemology; his paper was on the epistemology of knowing other persons and how it provides a framework for understanding interpersonal issues in moral psychology.

A peer-reviewed article by Traynor Hansen, instructor of writing and English, was published in Prose Studies: History, Theory, Criticism this winter. The article, “Public Confidences: Hazlitt’s ‘Table-Talk’ and the Romantic Familiar Essay,” explores two series of essays by William Hazlitt — one series published in a monthly magazine, the other series in a collected volume — in order to explain how publication contexts and other historical tensions influence authorial self-presentation.

An article co-authored by Peter Rivera, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy, was recently published in the peer-reviewed journal, Frontiers in Psychology. The article is titled “School Burnout Inventory: Latent profile and item response theory analyses in undergraduate samples.”

Jennifer McKinney, professor of sociology, contributed a chapter on transgender in an IVP Academic book co-edited by Hak Joon Lee, professor of ethics at Fuller Seminary, and Tim Dearborn, former director of the Ogilivie Institute of Preaching (and former SPU dean of the Chapel), in the book, Discerning Ethics: Diverse Christian Responses to Divisive Moral Issues. The book is designed to foster dialogue and deepen understanding regarding the divisive issues of our day that are fracturing the church, society, and politics.

The faculty in the Marriage and Family Therapy department recently presented a paper titled “The ORCA stance: A practice beyond cultural humility when working in cross-cultural relationship” at the Society for Cross Cultural Research.

An article by Alberto Ferreiro, professor of history, titled “Vos estis sal terre: Saint Dominic in a Catalán Sermon of Sant Vicent Ferrer,” Congreso Internacional XVIII Simposio de Teología Histórica, (Valencia 4, 5, 6 de Marzo de 2019), was published in San Vicente Ferrer, Mensajero del Evangelio. Ayer y Hoy, 1419–2019, pp. 1–17. It was delivered at a conference by invitation on the 600 anniversary of the 14th century Dominican preacher Vicent Ferrer. It was sponsored by the theology faculty of Valencia, Spain. This is his 11th publication on Vicent Ferrer, who preached in the Catalan language.

From Master Gardener Jeff Daley. We have changed our clocks, and are now gaining a few more daylight hours. All of the early spring bloomers are taking the garden stage for the start of the big show — nature's orchestra warms up as songbirds begin to chirp in the early morning hours, and you can feel the anticipation that spring is in the air! It's only going to get better as we crescendo into the season. 

When you walk around campus right now in March, you can see the hellebores by Alexander and Adelaide Hall — their flowers bowing for another curtain call. Daffodils are here and there, standing tall and proud with their bright yellow attire, as well as a few crocus providing a little extra spring color. The second act comes in April, and we will have a blaze of color as tulips take center stage in a chorus line. Much like a choreographer, I'm excited to share this spectacular show with you, and welcome you to come for a walk and enjoy the season. There is nothing better than to be in nature's theater to witness and experience God's creation in all its splendor. This is your invitation to treasure the moment! (Select the link to see photos of flowers around campus.)

More