In a short video, Interim President Pete Menjares sends a Christmas greeting to Seattle Pacific University students, alumni, family, and friends.

This winter, Faith & Co. will offer two online courses: Serving the World, will be taught by SPU Professor of Management Randy Franz. It incorporates the Faith & Co. season 4 films and explores how faith shapes the way organizations think about their impact in the local community and natural environment. Serving Employees will be taught by John Terrill, executive director of Upper House in Madison, Wisconsin, and former director of SPU’s Center for Faithful Business. This course incorporates the Faith & Co. season 2 films and considers how faith shapes the way organizations engage with and manage employees. Both courses start January 10, 2022, and there are free and for-credit options available. Learn more and register.

The holiday season ushers in many time-honored traditions — wrapping gifts, sending out greeting cards with the latest family photos, unpacking beloved tree ornaments we haven’t seen for a year. But what many most anticipate is gathering around the table with those special dishes that truly mark the arrival of the season. The celebrations might include turkey and stuffing, but in our multiethnic Seattle Pacific University family, other culinary traditions abound. In this episode of the SPU Voices podcast, international faculty and staff share favorite foods and traditions from their native countries.

From Mailing Services: Please note our updated Thanksgiving and Christmas break hours:

• Nov. 29–Dec. 23, 8 a.m.–4 p.m., however there will be no mail deliveries to the departments. You are welcome to come in during those hours to pick up your mail and/or packages.
• Dec. 24, 8 a.m.–12 p.m.
• Dec. 27–31, 8 a.m.–12 p.m., with no counter sales. If you wish to pick up your departmental mail, please come to the back door for assistance.
• Jan. 3, 2022, Mail Services resumes normal operational hours, 8 a.m.–4 p.m., with afternoon department mail and package deliveries.

The new issue of Response magazine invites you to spend time with Advent 2021: Weekly Advent Meditations from Scott Cairns, professor of English and director of the MFA program; Rick Steele, professor of moral and historical theology; Dominique Gilliard, guest speaker on campus this fall; and past reflections from the late alumnus Eugene Peterson ’54.

Seattle Pacific University enhanced continuing education offerings include career accelerators specifically designed to build workplace skills. Students can extend their marketability with a variety of courses, including Project Management, Leadership in Healthcare, Financial Success and Professionalism, Foundations of Data Analytics, and more. Designed for busy professionals, and only $250 per course, career accelerators make a great gift for someone who wants to develop their skillset through self-paced curriculum led by respected industry experts. Learn more and review all the career accelerator courses.

The Jan. 1, 2022, deadline for completing Cybersecurity Awareness training is quickly approaching. All faculty and staff are required to complete this training. Instructions for accessing and completing the training are available in the SPU wiki Cybersecurity Awareness Training section. Reminder: Any employee unable to complete the training by this date will lose access to systems and information until the training is completed. This is the first time this training is required at SPU, and will be required annually in the future.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published weekly during the academic year. The next deadline is Wednesday, Dec. 22, and the next issue will be published Monday, Jan. 3, 2022. If you have announcements or news for the first two weeks of Winter Quarter, send it now with an image or graphic to Bulletin editor Tracy Norlen at fsb-editor@spu.edu. Submissions may be edited for clarity.

Athletic Director Jackson Stava will be a member of the NCAA Division II Implementation Committee to lead the division's work on a new constitution. Jackson is the only athletic director from the West Region and only one of 28 people (presidents, chancellors, faculty athletic representatives, senior woman administrators, etc.) who will serve on the committee. The committee will review the division's rules and policies and make recommendations to ensure changes are consistent with the principles agreed upon in the new constitution.

An op-ed by Mohammad Qadam Shah, assistant professor of global development, and Mohammad Bashir Mobasher, adjunct professor of law at Western Washington University, titled “Examining the Taliban’s words, Thoughts, and Deeds, Part 1: The Myth of Taliban 2.0,” was published on Dec. 14, 2021, in the The Diplomat.

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

• Israel Branham, enrollment operations coordinator, Student Financial Services
• Rachel Goodrich, international student services advisor, Global Engagement
• Grace Teno, stores manager, Facility and Project Management

From University Archivist Adrienne Meier: Students walk past the north side of a snow-covered Peterson Hall, circa 1950. The building edge on the left of the photo is where Moyer Hall now stands. At the time, Peterson Hall housed the library, chemistry lab, prayer chapel, classrooms, and the president’s office. (Select the link for a larger image.)

More