The Senior Leadership Council announced on May 7 that COVID-19 vaccinations will be required for students this Autumn 2021. A decision about vaccine requirements for employees will be made after further consultation and additional review of applicable guidance, but employees are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated. Learn more on the vaccination requirements FAQ webpage.

From the SPU High Events Team: Please help us collect at least 100 video submissions as we honor our graduating students. Follow these instructions, and send your video to David Rither in Educational Technology & Media at ritherd@spu.edu by Friday, May 14. The video greetings will be available on the Commencement webpage a week in advance of the ceremonies, and will be sorted by school, department, or unit, making it easy for students and families to access them. Thank you for taking a few minutes to help celebrate our graduating students as a community!

The Office of Student Involvement and Leadership (OSIL) is seeking returning undergraduate students interested in serving as Orientation leaders this September. Orientation leaders are responsible for a group of new students throughout the Orientation program, and they must possess strong leadership, collaboration, and communication skills. If you have a student to recommend, contact OSIL Campus Program Coordinator Alli Bautista at bautistaa@spu.edu.

If you’ve been using Microsoft Teams and feel comfortable with messaging and calling, this training session is for you. RSVP here to join CIS on Thursday, May 27, 1–1:45 p.m., for an overview of the advanced features this platform has to offer, plus time to have any of your questions answered. Become a Teams power user by using Teams’ collaboration features: Create your own teams, manage communications, file sharing, shared notebooks, and more. This session will be recorded so you may watch it at a later date if you’re unable to attend. Contact CISTrainings@spu.edu with any questions or to let CIS know you want to be notified when the recorded session is available. In the meantime, find more information on the CIS Training Program.

Join Alumni and Family Relations and the Center for Career and Calling as we introduce Falcon Connect — only for the SPU community! Falcon Connect replaces Switchboard, and it’s the new way for students to connect with SPU alumni, staff and faculty, and alumni to connect with each other. It’s a great way to find help on the career journey. Search for people by major, job title, industry, company, or even the SPU club they were a part of. Check out Falcon Connect here.

The Office of Inclusive Excellence invites you to join us on Thursday, May 13, 12–1 p.m., for “Diversity 102: Understanding Our Social Identities in the Context of Christian Community.” Learn more and sign up here.

Filming is complete and the editing process is underway for the SPU Theatre Department’s Spring production, Held Together, an original play devised by student members of the SPU Theatre community under the direction of Associate Professor Candace Vance. Held Together magically weaves together three artists’ stories as they live through pandemics — past and present. This production is free and will be streaming Friday–Saturday, May 21–22, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, May 23, 2 p.m. Register here for show access.

Latinx FLAGG is a safe space for Latinx identifying faculty and staff to create a strong sense of community dedicated to professional support and success. To join the Friday, May 21 meeting at 12 p.m. send an email to Nina Vizcarrondo in Multi-Ethnic Programs at vizcarrondon@spu.edu to receive the Zoom link.

Shannon Huffman Polson MFA ’12 is the author of The Grit Factor: Courage, Resilience, and Leadership in the Most Male-Dominated Organization in the World, and the founder of The Grit Institute, an institute committed to whole leader development with a focus on grit and resilience. As one of the first women to fly an Apache helicopter in the U.S. Army and to lead line units on three continents, Shannon now shares her firsthand experience and knowledge with world-class companies and organizations like Gradient Corporation, Boston Scientific, and Microsoft. Listen now.

From Educational Technology and Media: SPU provided Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor over the past year as part of support for emergency remote teaching. This tool is not part of SPU’s ongoing technology budget and, after a review of usage and with our return to more on-campus teaching, this contract for an online proctoring tool is not being renewed. Respondus LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor will be removed from Canvas and will no longer be supported after the end of Spring Quarter. We appreciate that this has been a helpful tool for some faculty and that this may impact some summer courses. Please get in touch if we can assist in helping think through other options or approaches. Brennan Stewart, one of ETM’s instructional designers, has shared some thoughts on alternatives to proctoring on our blog.

From the Office of Human Resources: Transamerica representative Ronee Dakin will be available for one-on-one phone consultations Wednesday, May 12, and Thursday, May 13. She will be available to discuss your retirement strategy over the phone. Please have access to the internet during your phone consultation. Make an appointment here.

College Cafe, hosted by First Free Methodist Church, is a new space for the SPU community to take a break and be served by your FFMC neighbors. Every Monday, 9–11 a.m. at College Cafe, you can get an espresso drink — just bring your SPU ID, and, if you are able, a $2 donation would be appreciated to sustain the ministry. Entrance is at First Free under the sky bridge.

University Communications needs your help identifying outstanding undergraduate and graduate students from the Class of 2021. These students and their achievements will be pitched to media outlets prior to Commencement, as well as used for promotional purposes on the SPU website. Please send the name(s) of the students and a short description about why you are recommending them. Examples would be students who overcame obstacles to graduate, were involved in community service projects, participated in innovative research, started a new venture, took a class that changed their career direction, or did something really interesting. Basically, anything that would make a good story! We will follow up with the student and get permission to use their profile. Send information by email to Director of Public Information Tracy Norlen at tcnorlen@spu.edu.

Take a 10-minute break and join Sharpen or UMin’s Instagram page for a guided time of communal “Breath Prayer.” Join us on Monday, May 17, and Monday, May 31, at 12:30 p.m.

The Celebration of Service committee would like to say congratulations again to all of the Celebration of Service award recipients achieving milestones this year! We hope that by now you have had a chance to watch the service and congratulate your colleagues. There are also a couple of corrections to note. Assistant Professor of History Rebecca Hughes is celebrating five years in the History Department, and Professor of Sociology Karen Snedker is celebrating 15 years in the Sociology Department. Regrettably, their departments were listed incorrectly in the program.

All faculty and staff who come to campus must complete an online self-screening to attest that they meet certain criteria for being on campus (e.g., not exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms). SPU has developed a campuswide tool through Banner (login into Banner and select Personal Menu) to report a daily COVID-19 self-attestation for faculty and staff working on campus (including Camp Casey and Blakely Island). A link to the self-attestation form is also available on the Stay Smart website, which is now highlighted in the top banner on the SPU homepage.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published weekly during the academic year. The next Bulletin will be published Monday, May 17, and the deadline is Thursday, May 13. If you have information or event news, send it as soon as possible with an image or graphic to Bulletin editor Tracy Norlen at fsb-editor@spu.edu. Submissions may be edited for clarity.

Wai Lau, professor of mathematics, and junior Emily Bogle were awarded a summer research grant from the Department of Energy. They will develop simulation models of cancer-cell migration using the high-performance computing facilities in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, CA.  The project will be in collaboration with Berkeley lab scientists and Dung Nguyen, SPU assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Six faculty and 14 students from SPU presented at the Western Psychological Association virtual conference, April 28–30, 2021. SPU students were co-authors on all the posters and presentations.

Munyi Shea, associate professor of counselor education, and Joel Jin, assistant professor of clinical psychology, presented the poster, “Everyday Mindfulness: A Pilot Study of a Mindfulness-Based Seminar to Promote Resilience Among First-Generation College Students.”  

Paul Kim, professor of psychology; Brittany Tausen, associate professor of psychology; Keyne Law, assistant professor of clinical psychology; and Joel Jin, assistant professor of clinical psychology, contributed to the symposium, “#HATEISAVIRUS: Asian and Asian American College Students’ Experiences of Racism During the COVID-19 Pandemic." Munyi Shea, associate professor of counselor education, was the discussant for their presentation. 

Lynette Bikos, professor of clinical psychology, contributed two presentations to symposia and paper panels: “Toward a Re-Centering of Graduate Psych State” and “MaskMaking During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis Mapped in Light of the Work-as-Calling Theory.” 

Joel Jin, assistant professor of clinical psychology, co-authored three additional posters evaluating the effects of God perfectionism on intrinsic religiosity, life satisfaction, non-organized religiosity, and personal discrepancy. 

Jordan Shannon, assistant professor of counselor education, recently successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the Syracuse University School of Education, where he was also awarded the All-University Doctoral Prize. Congratulations, Dr. Shannon!

Please join the Office of Human Resources in welcoming Emily Huff, student financial services counselor, Student Financial Services.

Louise Furrow, vice president for university advancement, was quoted in the USA Today article “Charity experts: No changes expected at Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation after divorce.”

For his monthly cartoon, Nate Hoover, associate director for the Center for Biblical and Theological Education, explains this month’s feature: I noticed this sign while riding a ferry between Camp Casey and Port Townsend. Turns out there’s more than one way to understand it. Many signs we encounter in our day-to-day lives are puns in disguise. Check out more of my cartoons on Instagram: @hoovernathaniel.

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