All are welcome for a time of community worship at the annual Thanksgiving Chapel on Tuesday, Nov. 26, at 11:10 a.m. in First Free Methodist Church. The chapel will include testimonies from community members and an offering for the Student Benevolence Fund.

Staff Council invites to join us for our annual Staff Council Christmas Party on Monday, Dec. 16, from 12–1:30 p.m. in the SUB’s Gazebo Room. Bring your lunch and join us for cookie decorating, creating Christmas cards, photo booth, hot chocolate, and a raffle. Staff Council will also be collecting donations for The Bridge Care Center. We look forward to connecting with each of you!

Faculty and staff: Save the date for Homecoming and Family Weekend, Feb. 7–8, 2020. Bring your friends and family and enjoy fun and entertaining experiences on campus, including the Alumni Awards Dinner, Falcon men’s and women’s basketball, Urinetown: The Musical, a live taping of the SPU Voices Podcast, and more. Save money on admission prices and get the All-Access Pass for individuals or families up to six members. Tickets are sold separately for the Alumni Awards Dinner. For more details and to register for events, visit spu.edu/homecoming.

OneDrive for Business. What is it? How does it work? What’s in it for me? RSVP for a OneDrive training event led by Computer and Information Systems and learn how OneDrive for Business integrates with Microsoft Office so you can store, share, and access documents securely, wherever you are. Light refreshments will be provided.

Tuesday, December 3, 3 p.m., Otto Miller Hall 128
Wednesday, December 4, 12:30 p.m., Otto Miller Hall 227

A message from Residence Life: The Resident Advisor selection process begins Winter Quarter and we need your help to recruit qualified candidates. Our campus is blessed with students who have academic, spiritual, and servant-leadership gifts. However, many students do not apply without the encouragement of faculty, staff, and peers. We are seeking an applicant pool that reflects the ethnic and cultural diversity of our community, with increased numbers of male students who engage in the selection process. We hope you will partner with us by submitting your recommendations by email to BeAnRA@spu.edu with the names of students whom you’d like to see apply by Thursday, January 9, at 12 p.m. Thank you in advance for your support!

Important announcement from Human Resources: The 2020 voluntary life and accidental death and dismemberment insurance open enrollment takes place Nov. 20–Dec. 4.

SPU will transition on January 1, 2020, to The Standard as our provider for Life and AD&D Insurance, and guaranteed issue coverage is offered for 2020.

This special open enrollment is significant because guaranteed-issue coverage is being offered anew to all eligible individuals — even if they do not have coverage currently. Health underwriting normally applies to this kind of coverage, meaning that any enrollment or increase in coverage is only accepted for those that the insurance company underwriters approve of. If you request coverage greater than the guaranteed-issue amounts, or apply for coverage outside of Open Enrollment, the health questions apply. That means based on your health, you might not be approved for the coverage you apply for based on your health.

• Current coverage will roll to 2020.
• Premiums for 2020 coverage match current coverage.

For more information, watch for upcoming email announcements from Human Resources.

The 11th annual Jingle Trail 5K run (or walk) is Saturday, Dec. 7,  at 10 a.m. at Camp Casey, a co-sponsor of the event. It would be fun to have faculty and staff participate. Lodging is available in Fort Casey Inn for Friday or Saturday nights at $115 night. Visit jingletrailrun.com for more information. If you spend the night with us at the Fort Casey Inn, you can register for the run at half price. To reserve a room at Fort Casey Inn, go to fortcaseyinn.com and let the staff know you are an SPU employee in your booking notes.

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. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the next deadline is Wednesday, November 27. The next Bulletin will be published on Monday, December 2. 

Stephanie Armes, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy, presented research posters at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in Boston on November 15. The posters, titled "Measuring Secondary Traumatic Stress in a National Sample of Marriage and Family Therapists" and "It Takes a Village: Marriage and Family Therapists’ Exposure to Trauma, Access to Support, and Intention to Leave," presented findings from the first national mixed methods sample focused on secondary trauma in marriage and family therapists.

Robin Henrikson, assistant professor of education and director of assessment, has had two articles published recently: “Building Purposeful Superintendent and School Board Relationships Through Examining the Historical Narrative of Evolving Roles,” addresses the dynamic relationship between the school superintendent and the school board. It was published in the journal International Dialogues on Education: Past and Present (IDE). Her second article, “A Summary of the Current Landscape of Superintendent Evaluation Practices and Preferences,” was published in Education Leadership Review and calls into question existing evaluation practices and how effective they are at creating opportunities for continual professional learning for the superintendent.

The School of Education received official notification that the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) has approved funding support for ten candidates, or $140,000 per year, for the 2020-22 biennium. This is wonderful news for the Alternate Route to Certification program, and is the result of the persistent and hard work of Teacher Education Instructor Kirsten Koetje. Congratulations!

An article by Steve Perisho, theology/philosophy librarian, titled "Here I fall: A blunder in Roland Bainton’s Here I stand," was published by Theological librarianship, 12, no. 2 (October 2019): 5-20.

The Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII) recently announced that Assistant Professor of History Alissa Walter’s dissertation has won its biannual Modern and Medieval Iraq Dissertation Prize. Her dissertation was titled “The Ba’th Party in Baghdad: State-Society Relations Through Wars, Sanctions, and Authoritarian Rule, 1950–2003.”

Eugene Lemcio, emeritus professor of New Testament, had his article “The Role of Nathan, King David’s Immediate Heir, in Luke’s Genealogy: Proposal and Prediction,” published in the Canadian-American Theological Review. 8.2 (2019). Next year, Wipf and Stock will publish The Way of the Lord: Plotting St. Luke’s Itinerary. A Pedagogical Aid. This is the fourth in an informal series of such aids to instruction and learning, the others being for Revelation (2011), Mark (2012), and John (2013). Eugene has also been invited to preach monthly at Magnolia’s Ascension Episcopal Church, beginning on the first Sunday of Advent. His wife, Diane, (a former Music Department adjunct) is interim minister of music.

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

Stuart Jacobs, customer service specialist, Casey Conference Center
Rachel Mansfield communications officer/dispatcher, Office of Safety and Security
Emily Powers, research assistant, Physics Department
Carolynn Tulluck, transfer admissions counselor, Undergraduate Admissions and Recruitment