Important announcement from Human Resources: It’s time to transition our HSA or HRA accounts to a unified HSA Bank structured account for the 2021 plan year. What to expect:

Nov. 11: To make this go smoothly, HSA Bank has advised us not to use our existing HSA/HRA debit cards as of Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Nov. 24–30: We will experience a brief period with no access.

• Plan ahead for purchases or services that need to be paid during these dates of no access.
• After Monday, Nov. 30, your existing debit card will be reactivated for 10 more days — before it is then disabled permanently.

New HSA bank debit cards should arrive by Tuesday, Dec. 15.

More information at HSA/HRA Fund Transition to HSA Bank and New Debit Cards.

The Office of Inclusive Excellence invites you to “Tell the Whole Story” on Friday, Nov. 13, 12–1 p.m. Sheila Wise Rowe, the author of Healing Racial Trauma: The Road to Resilience, will share with us why she wrote the book, as well as insights and practices that offer hope and healing. All SPU students, faculty, and staff are welcomed to this virtual event. Register here.

The new SPU Voices Podcast, “No One’s Listening and It’s Your Fault,” features Pam Marmon, 2012 MBA graduate and CEO of Marmon Consulting, a firm that helps companies transform through management strategy and execution services. She is also the founder of Threefold Tribe, a consulting firm that helps growing churches multiply.

On Thursday, Nov. 12, at 11 a.m. join students, staff, and faculty of Catholic faith for a Mass led by Fr. Jordan Bradshaw O.P., from the University of Washington Catholic Newman Center. Here's the Zoom link.

Vanpools are still operating from campus to other locations, such as the Eastside. For information about joining a vanpool, contact Safety and Security at 206-281-2922 and visit Safety and Security’s Vanpools and Vanshares commuter page.

The 10th of each month is the last day to make changes to your upcoming payroll check. Do you need to add or remove your spouse and/or children from your health care plans? If so, contact Human Resources (HR) to complete the appropriate form. Changes might include events that are expected to impact your benefits and deductions, such as your spouse or children gaining or losing coverage due to employment, birth, marriage, etc. Additionally, any changes to your 403b account may take up to seven days to be provided to SPU for processing, so please contact Transamerica by the first of the month prior to your requested change. For changes to your 403(b) account, contact Transamerica Retirement Solutions at 1-888-676-5512 (5 a.m.–6 p.m. PST), or 1-800-755-5801. If you have any other benefits-related changes, call Cherylin Shdo in HR at 206-281-2816.

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 or 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.

A message from Health Services: Students and employees should contact SPU Health Services at 206-281-2231 right away if:

• They are feeling sick and experiencing any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19 (e.g., fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle aches, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea). For this purpose, fever is a temperature of 100.4°F or higher.
• You have been in close contact with a confirmed positive case of COVID-19 within the preceding 14 days. If you are unsure whether your exposure constitutes “close contact,” contact SPU Health Services to discuss. 
• If you test positive for SARS CoV2, with or without symptoms.

If you have questions, contact Health Services.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published weekly during the academic year. The next Bulletin will be published Monday, Nov. 16, and the deadline is Thursday, Nov. 12. 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.

In recognition of her service to the SPU community, Sophia Ross, field placement coordinator in the School of Education, was nominated by her peers and selected by Staff Council as the November Staff Member of the Month. Congratulations and thank you, Sophia! Learn more about Sophia and nominate a colleague for recognition on the Staff Council website.

Several faculty members in the Family and Consumer Sciences department have seen results from their recent scholarship:

Jaeil Lee, professor of apparel design and merchandising. Two papers by Jaeil were recently published. 

• Lee, J. (2020). "A Fulbright scholar’s report on Myanmar’s textiles and apparel education," Fashion and Textiles Research Journal, 7:24.
• Jin, B. Lee, J. & Lee, Y. (2020), "Challenges of COVID-19 and insights for the future," special online lecture presented to Myanmar Korean Apparel Association, Yangon, Myanmar.

Sharleen Kato, professor of human development and family studies and department chair, authored a second edition of the textbook Careers in Human Services, Goodheart-Wilcox Publisher, for use in secondary Career and Technical Education. 

At the Washington Association of Family and Consumer Sciences virtual annual meeting:

Daniela Gheleva, associate professor of food and nutrition and director of SPU’s Community Kitchen, gave a lecture on “Community Kitchens as a Promoter of Personal and Social Change.” 

Raedene Copeland, associate professor of apparel design and merchandising, and Sharleen Kato, professor of human development and family studies, gave a workshop titled “Beyond Talk: Active Classroom Strategies to Address Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Issues” at the WAFCS annual meeting and at the American Association of Family Consumer Sciences virtual conference this past summer.

Janet Hauck, business and social sciences librarian, and Kristen Hoffman, psychology and scholarly communications librarian, recently received the John F. Helmer Continuing Education Award for their proposal to hold a regional academic library conference. This virtual event, High-Impact Practices in Academic Libraries, was held Oct. 27 and attracted nearly 100 attendees from across the country. Janet, Kristen, and Cynthia Strong, education librarian, planned and led the half-day conference. 

• Janet and Carrie Fry, sciences librarian, presented “HIP, HIP, Hooray for Writing and Research,” highlighting the library’s Research, Reading, and Writing Studio as a high-impact practice that integrates with SPU’s writing-intensive courses and first-year experiences. 
• Kristen and Liz Gruchala-Gilbert, arts and sciences librarian, presented “Service Learning as the Foundation for an Undergraduate Librarian-Taught Information and Society Class,” showcasing the high-impact practice of service learning they built into their Information Studies course offered in spring 2019 and again in spring 2021.

Leland Saunders, associate professor of philosophy, had his article, “Virtues as Reasons Structures” published in Philosophical Studies.

An article by Kerry Dearborn, professor emerita of theology, titled, “Rethinking the Dark Side: MacDonald’s Subversive Challenges to ‘Enlightened’ Theories of Social Darwinism.” was recently published in North Wind Journal, Vol. 38 (2019): 1–24.

Please join the Office of Human Resources in welcoming Soon Ok Malsch, custodian, Facility and Project Management.

Daniel Castelo, professor of dogmatic and constructive theology, was quoted in the Nov. 4, 2020, Christianity Today article, “Latino Evangelicals Boost Trump in Florida and Texas.”

Bill Woodward, professor emeritus of history, was interviewed on Q13 News (KCPQ-TV) on Nov. 2, 2020, about the Electoral College and possible future reforms to it.

For his monthly cartoon, Nate Hoover, associate director for the Center for Biblical and Theological Education, explains this month’s feature: This summer was heavy with orb spiders around our house. I had to frequently break “web links” just to navigate out the front door. And of course, for this web “site,” bugs are a good thing for the webmaster.

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