I am pleased to announce that Dr. Esau McCaulley will be the speaker for both our Graduate and Undergraduate Commencement ceremonies in June 2024. Dr. McCaulley is an award-winning author, associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, and a theologian. His works include Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope and How far to the Promise Land: One Family’s Story of Hope and Survival in the American South.

I look forward to having him as a part of both ceremonies.

A message from Jake Carlson, director of Camp Casey: Camp Casey will open the Colonel’s House to the general public on January 1, 2024, and we'd like to feature publications from SPU faculty and staff in the library on the sun porch. If you’re interested in having guests peruse the pages of your prose, consider donating your published works to Camp Casey. Email me at jake@spu.edu to learn more.

A message from the SPU Bookstore: Get your holiday gifts at 20% off all SPU merchandise and check out the limited “End of Range” section with selected tops at $15 and T-shirts at $10. Our holiday sale at the campus bookstore will run through Friday, Dec. 15. Get your goodies while supplies last.

A message from Computer and Information Systems: Microsoft has released a new update to its Microsoft Teams platform that came into effect October 5, 2023, but all Windows and Mac users will be automatically shifted to the new version in January 2024. All information is derived from Microsoft Support, which you can view in Microsoft's article: Switch to the new Microsoft Teams

The new Microsoft Teams is for both Mac and Windows and comes with many new features that we briefly cover in this blog post!

A message from Human Resources: Your Transamerica deduction change requests must be in place by the of tenth of the month to ensure they process it on your current paycheck. Also, any changes made during the Holiday Break (December 22, 2023–January 1, 2024) will not get processed until we return in January. Please plan accordingly and if you need help changing deductions, go to the wiki page for step-by-step instructions on how to make your changes.

We have two different perks programs for you to find fantastic savings from your email:

1. Perks At Work: Travel to auto savings, community online academy to groceries, and so much more PerksAtWork.com.
2. Tickets at Work: Don’t miss out on savings for holiday shopping and everyday life savings at TicketsAtWork.com.

Have you checked your Flex Spending Account balances lately? Flex accounts don’t have 100% rollover and currently we have employees with around $19,000 unclaimed Flex Spending dollars! Don’t lose your dollars; go check your FSA balances at HSABank.com and get your reimbursement claims in before Dec. 31, 2023.

The winners of the Computer and Information Systems Cybersecurity Awareness quizzes are student Ethan Erickson and Allyson Rachal, undergraduate program specialist in the School of Education. Congratulations! Thank you to all who participated in this year’s CSA quiz.

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.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published every Monday during the academic year, or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday. The next deadline is Thursday, Dec. 7, and the next issue will be published Monday, Dec. 11.

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.

Tucker Goodman, assistant professor of theatre, designed the lights for Taproot Theatre Company’s production of A Charlie Brown Christmas, which runs from December 1–23, 2023.

An article by adjunct history faculty member Nathaniel Weston titled, “Unearthing Victims and Survivors: Coming to Terms with the Bettauer Family in the Holocaust,” was published by S:I.M.O.N. Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation., special issue, “Precarious Archives, Precarious Voices. Expanding Jewish Narratives from the Margins,”10, No. 2 (2023). Published online Nov. 23, 2023:151-65.

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

Rigo Aguas Torrez, security officer I, Safety & Security
Lynnette Parks, weekend conference services coordinator, Casey Conference Center

We were saddened to learn of the passing of George Scranton, professor emeritus of theatre. George was an active member of the SPU emeriti faculty and served with distinction as its president from 2016 until he recent resignation due to illness in August 2023. He blessed us with an ongoing love and enthusiasm for SPU even in retirement.

George earned his BA and MA from Seattle Pacific College, in 1968 and 1971, respectively. He also earned an MA from the University of Washington in 1975 followed by his PhD from the Graduate Theological Union and Pacific School of Religion in 1994. He was an SPU faculty member since 1970, teaching theatre for more than four decades. His degrees include speech (with a drama emphasis) and religion, biblical literature, theatre history and criticism, and theology and theatre. He has also taken stage movement training at Webster University’s American Movement Institute in St. Louis, Missouri, and at the Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshop in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Of the dozen plays George wrote and/or adapted, three received national awards by the Christians in Theatre Arts Guild (CITA). Another was selected as one of seven national winners in a contest co-sponsored by the American Theatre Association’s Religion and Theatre Forum Group and Anchorage Press for inclusion in Wrestling With God: New Plays With Jewish or Christian Themes. One of his last full-length plays at SPU, Ring-a-Ring of Roses, won the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's Religion and Theatre annual playwriting contest.

He directed and toured with Seattle Pacific's “Chancel Players” for 20 years and wrote many of their performance scripts. His academic and professional acting credits include performing in more than 30 plays. His directing credits include more than 90 plays in both educational and professional venues, including Taproot Theatre Company; Acacia Theatre Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and TOV in Manhattan, Kansas. George was ordained to specialized ministry in the Evangelical Covenant Church.

George described his experiences as a professor. “I have been blessed with a long series of mentors, without whom I would not have been at SPU in any capacity. Just as they lovingly invested in my nurture and growth both in theatre and in theology, I wanted to ‘pay it forward’ with my students. As we collaborated in the classroom and on the stage, I hoped to become a mentor to them, as we sought to grow both as artists and as persons, who are made in the image of God and who strive to become more and more conformed to the ‘mind of Christ.’”