Communion and the State of the University address will be held on Wednesday, September 25, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. at First Free Methodist Church, adjacent to campus. Prior to these events, faculty and staff are invited to enjoy coffee and doughnuts in the Fine Center located at the church from 9–10 a.m. Please come for refreshments and fellowship before communion. Thank you in advance for being a welcoming presence on campus and in the residence halls as new students and their families join the SPU community.

A new video produced by University Communications highlights faith at Seattle Pacific. SPU students Serina, Andrew, and Daniel, and Professor of New Testament Studies David Nienhuis talk about how SPU's community of faith helps students expand and deepen their views of God, community, the Body of Christ, and calling.

SPU Health Services facilitates health and wellness for our student body. Funded by student fees, Health Services is staffed with licensed health care providers to deliver on-campus health care to our registered students.

SPU provides health care benefits, through Cigna, to eligible employees and encourages staff and faculty to access their own off-campus health care resources as needed. Occasionally, for convenience (immunizations or travel consults) or in an emergency, Health Services providers see staff and faculty in the clinic. A nominal $25 required for all faculty and staff visits (unless specifically waived) reduces the impact on our student-funded resources.

Thank you for your continued support for the student experience at SPU.

A message from Human Resources: Open Enrollment is October 7–18, This is your opportunity to make changes to your benefit elections, including medical, dental, vision, and flexible spending accounts for the upcoming 2020 benefit year. To help you with your benefit decisions, Human Resources will host our annual Benefits Fair on Thursday, October 10, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. in Upper Gwinn. Please take a few moments to stroll around the fair and enjoy some snacks with your co-workers. This will be an excellent opportunity to discuss questions or concerns you may have with our dedicated Cigna team. Presentations will be given about SPU’s medical plan, wellness plan, value-added programs, and more. Representatives from BAC (administrator for flexible spending accounts), Delta Dental, VSP (vision plan), Transamerica, and many more will also be present. These representatives will provide information, answer questions, and bring giveaways. Don’t forget the prizes! We look forward to seeing you there. REMINDER: Pay careful attention to all communication from Human Resources, particularly during this open enrollment season.

Get connected and share the ride. Our new vanpool webpage will give you the resources you need to find a vanpool/vanshare in your area. If you’d prefer to carpool, complete the carpooling questionnaire at the bottom of the page and be added to a list so that other SPU employees living in your area can find you. You may also contact Transportation Manager Heather Eide at eideh@spu.edu for more information.

Live on the Eastside? Tired of paying the Highway 520 toll? Our Kirkland vanpool is looking for at least one new rider to meet the 5-person minimum. We meet at the South Kirkland Park and Ride, located at 10610 NE 38th Place, at 7:05 a.m. Monday–Friday, and work a 7:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. schedule. We leave campus at 4:35 p.m. for the return trip. Van pools are paid for by the SPU Commute Trip Reduction Program, so there are no expenses to riders. If you are interested or have questions, email Eastside vanpool driver Lynn Anselmi in University Communications at lynnnanselmi@spu.edu.

A message from Staff Council: The 2019–20 Staff Council is excited to begin this new academic year! Read more about our membership, focus, and goals for the year. We will be at Wednesday’s opening refreshments at First Free Methodist Church before communion and look forward to seeing you there.

Faculty and staff are invited to attend the Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarship Day on Friday, September 27, 10 a.m.–12 p.m. in the School of Health Science building, 36 Cremona Street. DNP students will present their scholarly projects.

The 2019 Palmer Lecture will be Tuesday, October 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Upper Gwinn Commons. Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School, will give a lecture titled “The Land as Kin: Renewing Our Imagination.” For more information about the lecture, visit the website.

In addition to the lecture, faculty are invited to a luncheon with Dr. Davis on Wednesday, October 9, 12–2 p.m. in Upper Gwinn Commons. To RSVP for the luncheon, contact Nate Hoover at theology@spu.edu.

The SPU community garden is blooming with several different veggies and herbs to be enjoyed by the SPU community. Pumpkins and gourds have come in, and there are still plenty of tomatoes to be harvested. Chives, parsley, and basil are also ripe in addition to the vegetables,  Please feel free to visit and enjoy the peace and quiet of the garden before campus is filled up and busy schedules resume. The garden is located just south of the main SPU campus, across the street from 3042 4th Ave. W. Select the link to see more photos of the garden.

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The weight room and fitness center in Brougham Pavilion are available to faculty and staff. If you are interested in using these facilities and need locker room access in Brougham, contact Madi Velling, office manager in Athletics, at 206-281-2085 or vellingm@spu.edu. The cost for locker room access is $6 per month, paid through payroll deduction.

Mr. Darwin's Tree, the acclaimed British one-man play about Charles Darwin, will be performed in the E.E. Bach Theatre on Thursday, October 3, at 7 p.m. The production will be followed by a faculty panel who will respond to the performance and answer audience questions. The event is free, wheelchair accessible, and open to the public.

Written by noted playwright and director Murray Watts, and starring leading British film, TV, and theatre actor Andrew Harrison, Mr. Darwin's Tree has been described as “a brilliant, fast-paced and beautifully detailed performance” (Church Times). Broadway Baby reported that “Mr. Darwin’s Tree explores not only science, but religion, the divine intricacies of the soul, and what it is to be human…. A rare treat.”

The play is produced by Scholarship & Christianity In Oxford (SCIO), the UK Centre of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU), and underwritten by the Templeton Religion Trust and The Blankemeyer Foundation. The play explores the life and work of Charles Darwin and his impact on science and religion.

Faculty are encouraged to incorporate the show into fall courses as appropriate.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published every Monday (or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday) during the academic year. 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. The next deadline is Thursday, September 26. The Bulletin will be published on Monday, September 30.

Peg Achterman, assistant professor of communication, served as a mentor for the annual Online News Association Student Newsroom. This year, she directed the “visuals” team, and the newsroom posted 48 stories over three days of the conference. Here’s the information on the student newsroom. SPU students were selected to the newsroom in 2017 and 2018, and this is the seventh year Peg has helped with the newsroom.

Dale Cannavan, associate professor of health and human performance, gave a presentation at the Special Olympics 2019 Coaches Conference. The title of the presentation was, “Sports performance training for the Special Olympic athlete."

Alberto Ferreiro, professor of history, had a busy summer in the U.S. and abroad:

• He hosted and taught Spanish teachers from California, as well as WWU and SPU students, on the 30th edition of the Spanish Language and Culture at the University of Salamanca in July.
• He spent a four-day weekend on the beach in Aveiro, Portugal, translating medieval Catalan sermons on John the Baptist.
• He organized and led a two-week Carmelite pilgrimage, “In the Footsteps of Teresa of Jesus and John of the Cross,” visiting Salamanca, Medina del Campo, Avila, Alba de Tormes, Segovia, Toledo and Madrid, and staying in the Carmelite monasteries. The pilgrimage included 24 pilgrims from 12 states and one from Australia, and the group celebrated mass daily in historic places related to Teresa and John with Father Matthias OCD (Order of Discalced Carmelites) from California. This was the fifth pilgrimage that Alberto has organized.
• After that, he went to Belgrade for four days, because he had been to Serbia twice to conferences but had never visited the capital.
• He attended the XVIII International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford in August where he presented, “Que tots quants som en aquest món, batallam en grans batalles: Sant Vicent Ferrer’s Catalán Sermon on Saint Antony of Egypt” (submitted, under peer review).
• While in Salamanca and elsewhere, he also did research for upcoming conferences in 2020 in Leon, Spain, Finland, and Dresden, Germany, and for a series a lectures he will give in Moscow, (not Idaho) October 2019.
• Summer reading included Ramón Llamas, Biblia en Santa Teresa, Madrid, 2007, and Jaime Brufau Prats, La Escuela de Salamanca ante el descubrimiento del Nuevo Mundo. Salamanca, 1989.

Munyi Shea, associate professor of counselor education, and David Wicks, associate professors of curriculum and instruction, developed and facilitated multiple teacher development workshops for over 300 teachers in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Jakarta during the summer. The workshops covered student-centered learning, digital education, action research, work-life balance, and subjective well-being. They also delivered keynote speeches at Krida Wacana Christian University in Jakarta, and they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish research and program partnerships on behalf of Seattle Pacific University. Select the link to see images and more information abou the workshops.

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Please join the Office of Human Resources in welcoming the following new staff members. 

Lauren Campbell, program coordinator, Art, College of Arts and Sciences
Michael Chew, program coordinator, Immersive and Global Engagement, John Perkins Center
Brian Kearney, student financial services counselor, Student Financial Services
Chris Landerdahl, student financial services coordinator, Student Financial Services
(Correction) Blaire McCreary, enrollment coordinator II, Enrollment Operations 
Rhea Williams, welcome team manager, University Recruitment and Admissions

The Office of Human Resources would like to congratulate Joseph Lam on his new position as student financial aid and loan coordinator in Student Financial Services.