To help with your benefit decisions, Human Resources will host its annual Benefits Fair over two days, Tuesday, Oct. 24 and Wednesday, Oct 25, in Upper Gwinn. Take a few moments to stroll around the fair and enjoy some snacks with your co-workers. This will be an opportunity to talk with benefits providers from Aetna, HSA Bank, Delta Dental, VSP, Transamerica, Emeriti, a Medicare specialist and more. It will also be the time to meet with a representative of SPU’s new Life and AD&D Insurance provider to renew or enroll for the first time in these voluntary benefits. There will be raffle gifts at each table, including two chances to win a $100 door prize!

Benefits Seminars:

11 a.m. Unum Long Term Care Solutions

11:30 a.m. “Taking Full Advantage of Your HSA” – HSA Bank

12 p.m. “Perfect Balance – Health Care for the Whole You” – Aetna & Aetna Wellness

12:30 p.m. Emeriti Retirement Health

1 p.m. “Protection for When the Unexpected Happens” - Colonial Life Vol. Benefits

New This Year: 

Voluntary Life and AD&D enrollment will require meeting with a representative of our new vendor, Unum/Colonial Life.  To re-enroll or enroll for the first time in Voluntary Life or AD&D insurance, Make An Appointment

Medicare Individual Appointments:  Meet with Dan McCarley, an experienced Medicare Health plan broker.  Make An Appointment

A message from Human Resources: Open Enrollment is now underway and runs until Nov. 3! This is your opportunity to make changes to your benefits election, including medical, dental, vision, and flexible spending accounts executed through Banner. Voluntary Life and AD&D insurance enrollment will require a meeting with a company representative to execute enrollment for the 2024 plan year.

Please review: 2024 Open Enrollment Information.

To enroll in Voluntary Life, AD&D and other voluntary benefits, Make An Appointment.

Here is how to make changes: Banner Instructions.

A dedication of the Dr. Ken Tollefson Friendship Bench will be Tuesday, Oct. 31, at 11:30 a.m. near the Story Pole behind Alexander and Adelaide Hall. The late Professor Emeritus of Anthropology Ken Tollefson spent his life committed to serving indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska and mentoring colleagues and students. He was given full membership of the (Tlingit-Alaska) Snoqualmie and Duwamish tribes in gratitude for his advocacy for the tribes’ federal recognition and protection of their aboriginal sites, like naming Snoqualmie Falls as a natural historic site.

The bench will serve as a reminder to honor and maintain the legacy of friendship that Professor Tollefson fostered with the Coast Salish and Alaskan tribes and to commit to the work of continuing to cultivate true friendships with indigenous neighbors on this land.

Fundraising for the bench was completed during Giving Day last May, and the bench was built by SPU Facilities. Members of the Snoqualmie Tribe and the Tollefson family will be present for the dedication. An exhibit displaying artifacts from Professor Tollefson's work will be on display in the Alexander and Adelaide Hall foyer.

The Writing Program will host an awards reception for its student winners on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 11:15 a.m. in the Ames Library. These awards recognize some of the best work in the first-year writing program. In addition to publicly recognizing their accomplishments, each winner will be presented with a certificate. The reception will also include a talk from our guest speaker, Sara Shaban, assistant professor communications, titled "How I Learned to Write." Dr. Shaban's talk continues a tradition for this event. Previous speakers were Professor of Biology Eric Long (2018) and Professor of Urban & Intercultural Ministry David Leong (2019). The event is open to all and students are welcome to bring friends and family to celebrate their accomplishment.

SPU Dining Services and the Filipino American Student Association (FASA) are collaborating to celebrate Filipino-American Heritage Month with a special lunch featuring a variety of traditional dishes to give a glimpse of Filipino culture! Come enjoy a Filipino lunch from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. in Gwinn Commons on Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023.

A message from Computer and Information Systems: During October, CIS is posting weekly blogs about phishing, spear phishing emails. social engineering (whaling), passphrases for passwords, and ransomware as part of Cybersecurity Awareness Month. At the end of the month, there will be a quiz released to employees and students. Receiving 100% on the quiz will automatically enter the user into a raffle. The raffle will have two winners, one student and one employee, who will each receive a prize from CIS! Be sure to check out the CIS blog each week.

You are invited to the School of Business, Government, and Economics Dean's Speaker Series event featuring Compass Housing Alliance Executive Director Mary Steele, who will speak on the topic of affordable housing and issues related to homelessness. Please join us on Tuesday, Oct. 24, 9 a.m. in Ames Library, Seminar Room (2nd Floor). Please RSVP to cal@spu.edu as space is limited.

A message from Staff Council: The annual Staff Pumpkin Painting contest is Tuesday, Oct. 24, 11 a.m.–1 p.m. in the Eaton Hall breezeway. Prizes will be awarded for "Most Creative" and "Spookiest" pumpkin. Not feeling overly creative or spooky? Don’t have time to paint a pumpkin? No problem! Stop by for a trick-or-treat goody bag and to meet and greet your fellow SPU staff members. We hope to see you all there!

Encourage your students to attend the SVPC kickoff to learn about the Social Venture Plan Competition. Students will learn how to participate in the competition, hear from SVPC winners, and have the opportunity to form teams. The kickoff is Thursday, Oct. 26, 11:30 a.m. in McKenna 117.

Join the SPU Library in celebrating International Open Access Week by participating in a workshop in the ETM offices (Library lower level) on Thursday, October 26, 12:30 p.m.–2:30 p.m. Bring your laptop and CV and either drop in or stay the entire time to work one-on-one with librarians and ETM colleagues. Learn how to upload your scholarship and contribute to the open knowledge movement, ensuring that your research, publications, and intellectual contributions reach a broader audience. In an era where knowledge dissemination is paramount, open access is a key to making your research accessible to a global community. We look forward to coming together as a community to further the work of open access.

Box lunches will be available for those that RSVP by October 24, but RSVPs are not required otherwise. Coffee, tea, and cookies will also be available. We look forward to seeing you there!

If you would prefer to meet individually online another time, email librarian Kristen Hoffman at khoffman@spu.edu to coordinate a time that works for you.

From SPU Dining Services: We'd love to hear about your dining experience! SPU Dining's annual Customer Satisfaction Survey allows our guests to rate their dining experiences, including meal plans, dining locations, and events. Participants will get the chance to win one of three $50 Visa gift cards. Find the survey online through Oct. 28.

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

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.

On Oct. 15, Matt Bellinger, assistant professor of communication, presented “A Brief History of Christian Socialism” to the congregation of Queen Anne Lutheran Church in Seattle.

At the recent annual convention of the Washington State Psychological Association, two awards went to members of the SPU’s Department of Clinical Psychology. Professor of Clinical Psychology and Chair Lynette Bikos received the Distinguished Scholar Award and Tida Cvrkel, Ph.D. doctoral student and pre-doctoral intern in behavioral medicine at University of Washington–Psychiatry, received the Rising Star Award.

Annie Kato, assistant professor of management, and Alex Kato, adjunct instructor of preaching, presented their paper titled “The Promise and Peril of Preaching as Charismatic Leadership” at the annual conference of the Evangelical Homiletics Society on October 13-14.

A book co-authored by Alberto Ferreiro, professor emeritus of history, titled Receptions of Simon Magus as an Archetype of the Heretic. Essays by Alberto Ferreiro and Ephraim Nissan, was published by Palgrave-MacMillan, 2023, xxvii - 392 p. ill. The book is co-authored with Ephraim Nissan (University of London). The book explores more apocryphal Simon Magus legends and traditions hitherto unexplored. Simon Magus became the standard topos to condemn individual or groups deemed dangerous to church and society by associating them with him — be it magic, sexual perversion, heresy, and so on.

Please join the Office of Human Resources in welcoming Omar Ordonez, chemistry lab coordinator, in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department.

Brian Lugioyo, dean of the School of Theology, was interviewed by KING-5 news about the prayer and reflection service for Israel and Palestine led by theology and seminary faculty on Oct. 17. The news story ran in the Oct. 17 evening and Oct. 18 morning newscasts.