A message from Tracy Norlen, editor: The Faculty/Staff Bulletin will continue to be published every week through the end of Spring Quarter. Please send information and department news to fsb-editor@spu.edu by Thursdays, and the Bulletin will continue to be published on Mondays. If you have any questions, contact me at tcnorlen@spu.edu.

Supervisors, join Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Sandra Mayo for “Navigating Difficult Conversations.” The purpose of this workshop is to provide practical strategies for navigating difficult conversations in the workplace around issues of race, equity, and inclusion. Participants will explore common examples of difficult dialogues; examine how past experiences, biases, and fears can trigger unproductive responses; and acquire tools to turn challenging situations into opportunities for growth. The session will take place via Zoom Wednesday, March 25, 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Sign-up through Skillsoft and contact odei@spu.edu with questions.

A message from Undergraduate Admissions: Due to the COVID-19 situation and Governor Jay Inslee's mandate, we have canceled all of our admissions events through the month of April, including Admitted Student Express (April 3) and both Admitted Student Preview events (April 16–17 and April 23–24). Given that these are crucial events for our admitted students as they discern whether SPU is the best fit for them, we are creating virtual opportunities and experiences that we will share with you soon. In the coming days (after grades are in!), we will be reaching out to faculty to film department info sessions and share program information. We thank you, our SPU community, for your continued prayers for the next crop of SPU students coming next fall. Please stay safe and healthy!

A message from Dining Services: We are offering a $5 lunch to-go meal for faculty and staff. Stop by the Gwinn Commons Dining Hall March 23–April 10, 12–1 p.m. Check out the online menu.

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

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.

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 30. The deadline is Thursday, March 26. 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.

Creative in the Image of God: An Aesthetic Practical Theology of Young Adult Faith by Katherine Douglass, assistant professor of educational ministry and practical theology, has been published by Cascade Books this month. Wrote the publisher, “A closer look into the faith lives of thirty young adults who are, or were at one time, connected with a church, however, shows an articulate and aesthetically embodied faith life ...”

Rob Wall, The Paul T. Walls Professor of Scripture and Wesleyan Studies, published Studies in Canonical Criticism: Reading the New Testament as Scripture (LNTS, London: Bloomsbury). This monograph gathers together several studies on a variety of interpretive issues from across the New Testament, most of which revise essays Rob previously published in his books, academic journals, and scholarly collections over the last decade. Each of these studies seeks to demonstrate the theological and rhetorical importance of the aesthetic of the New Testament’s final (or canonical) form. By elevating an interpretive approach that considers each NT collection as a discrete whole (e.g., a fourfold Gospel or a 13-letter Pauline corpus), Rob seeks to demonstrate the purposeful nature of the church’s formation of the New Testament in order to form the church. This purpose is evinced not only by each collection’s precise internal arrangement and also by the “canon logic” of each collection’s final placement within the NT. Because Rob reads the Christian Bible as God’s word for God’s people, the endgame of each study targets Scripture’s canonical practices in worship, catechesis, mission, and personal devotions.

An article by Alberto Ferreiro, professor of history, titled “Sancti Vincenti, Beatus vir qui in sapiencia morabitur: Saint Vincent Martyr in a Catalán Sermon of Vicent Ferrer,” was published in Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum. Nova Series 4 (2019) 93–119. The journal has been published since 1931 in Rome at the Dominican Institute of Historical Studies of the Angelicum University.

Jeff Jordan, vice president for student life, and SPU junior Kiana Kahusi were featured in The Seattle Times article on March 19 titled, "Stay on campus or go home? For Washington students, the coronavirus makes spring break a complicated gamble."

Ashlee’ Thomas, coordinator for local community engagement in the John Perkins Center, appeared on KING-TV's New Day Northwest on February 21. Thomas discussed the importance of white parents discussing issues of race with their children.