A message from Student Involvement and Leadership: Following a successful New Student Orientation schedule shift last fall, we are excited to announce that New Student Orientation will once again take place over three days this September (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September 27–29) to better accommodate our students and their families. Faculty Council and Senior Leadership have approved moving the opening ceremony for the 2024-25 academic year to Saturday, September 28, 2024.

As you remember, New Student Convocation is where we join to formally welcome our new students into the academic community at SPU by circling around them, visualizing the care and wisdom that will surround our new students throughout their time at SPU. This ceremony has proven to be a meaningful experience for our new students, their families, and our faculty and is a great powerful connection to Ivy Cutting at the end of a student’s journey with us.

Faculty are invited to join our students and families for lunch in Tiffany Loop beginning at 12 p.m., with the convocation and Circle of Matriculation ceremony occurring at 1:30 p.m. We hope you’ll be able to join us for the community meal; it’ll certainly make gathering for the convocation processional that much easier.

Saturday will also have additional opportunities for faculty to engage with new students (including UCOL Connections) and their families (Faculty Academic Forum). More details will be provided in the coming weeks. Questions or ideas can be directed to Orientation@spu.edu or Kevin Deschler, assistant director, Office of Student Involvement and Leadership, at deschlerk@spu.edu. Thanks!!

A message from Student Life: Although it has been ten years since the tragedy of June 5, 2014, the memory of Paul Lee and our campus response continues to be etched on many of our lives. Family, friends, floormates, classmates, and many others were impacted then and in continued ways over these past ten years. Many of you are aware that Seattle Pacific worked with the Lee family, artists, contractors, and others to create a memorial in front of Ashton Hall. Through the generosity of many of you with your gifts and talents, this memorial was finished a few years ago. We are thankful to you who were supportive of these efforts in so many different ways.

We now invite you to join the Seattle Pacific University community and the Lee Family on dedicating this memorial installation on Monday, June 17, at 1 p.m. outside of Ashton Hall (611 W. Dravus St, Seattle, WA). We will have a short program and an unveiling of a plaque that honors Paul’s life and the SPU community response. Your attendance would be greatly welcomed and appreciated, as has your support over the years.

If you have any questions or need further information, please contact the Office of Student Life at studentlife@spu.edu or via phone at 206-281-2841.

An Instrumental Concert featuring the String and Wind ensembles will be held Wednesday, May 15, 7:30 p.m. in First Free Methodist Church. Admission is free.

The SPU Percussion Ensemble will present a practicum performance on Thursday, May 16, at 11 a.m. in the E.E.Bach Theater in McKinley Hall. All are invited and free admission. Works by the Manian Ethnic Group, John Beck, Ivan Trevino, Art Cappio, Josh Gotty, Saul Goodman, and Evelyn Glennie will be on the program

The Faculty Diversity Committee and Faculty Life Office invite faculty and staff of color to a networking luncheon on Thursday, May 23, 12:30–1:30 p.m., in the Library classroom on the main floor. Please register here by May 16 so that we can order the appropriate amount of food. Please let us know if you have any questions by contacting Sara Shaban, assistant professor of communication, at sshaban@spu.edu.

The SPU Art Department is pleased to present the 2024 Senior Art Exhibition titled, "in • finite." This culmination of artworks features projects by students Chloe Christopher, Alfie Riley, Seorin Park, and Kade Franco. Though diverse in style, their works all hold the central message of honoring the human experience.

in • finite brings together a dynamic collection of paintings, each offering a unique perspective on the world through the lens of these emerging artists. Through bold brushstrokes and intricate details, to imagined worlds and dynamic storytelling; the artworks on display showcase the depth and breadth of talent nurtured within this creative community.

The exhibition in the SPAC Gallery in the Seattle Pacific Art Center will be on view through Friday, May 17.

The Center for Faithful Business 2024 Bruce Kennedy Ethical Leadership Lecture will feature Dr. Richard Stearns, president emeritus of World Vision U.S. He will deliver the evening’s lecture, “Lead Like It Matters to God.” Joe Sprague, regional president of Hawai’i-Pacific for Alaska Airlines, will be the evening’s lecture respondent. The event will take place Thursday, May 23, 7–8:30 p.m., in Upper Gwinn Commons. Please mark your calendar and plan to join the Center for an evening of insight and reflection. Register online.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published every Monday during the academic year or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday. The next deadline is Thursday, May 9. The next issue will be published Monday, May 13.

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.

A message from Human Resources: Our sincerest apologies to the following faculty members who were not recognized during the recent Celebration of Service for their five years of outstanding service to Seattle Pacific University.

• Andy Chen, Assistant Professor of Marketing and Data Analytics
• Tracie Delgado-Stuck, Associate Professor of Biology
• Ji-Young Um, Assistant Professor of English and Cultural Studies

Please join us in celebrating their exceptional dedication and hard work! We greatly value their individual contributions to their students and the Seattle Pacific community at large.

A message from Les Steele, interim CAO: We hope you'll join on Thursday, May 23, at 2 p.m. in the Falcon Club in Brougham Pavilion to say farewell to Dr. Cindy Price, vice provost for Academic Affairs, to celebration her 31 years at SPU. There will be a brief program at 2:30 p.m. but please come as you are able. There will be refreshments.

A message from Les Steele, interim CAO: You are invited to an informal reception to say thanks and goodbye to Dr. Michael Paulus on Thursday, May 30, in the Library Seminar Room. Michael serves as assistant provost for educational technology; dean of the library; and associate professor of information studies. Michael has accepted a position as Head of Library at Creighton University, and his last day at SPU is June 30.

A new book by Matthew Benton, associate professor of philosophy, titled Knowledge and God, was published by Cambridge University Press. It examines a main theme in religious epistemology: the possibility of knowledge of God. It surveys familiar issues about the rationality and justification of beliefs about God, then explores newer terrain by articulating an interpersonal epistemology — that is, what it takes to know another person. It explores the prospects for understanding what knowing God relationally consists in and the contours of which are significant for most theistic traditions. The book is free to download through May 20.

Bill Woodward, professor emeritus of history, has joined the National Park Service team of guides on Amtrak long distance routes, a program known as “Trails and Rails.” Under the auspices of the Klondike National Historical Park in Pioneer Square, the Seattle-based guides narrate real-time descriptions and stories about points of interest seen from the daily Coast Starlight train on its segment to and from Portland.

An article by Alberto Ferreiro, professor emeritus of European history titled  “Recte ergo haereses in cauernis quibus latent congregant: The Image of Caverns as the Dwelling Place of Heretics in Leander of Seville," was published by La Latinidad Medieval, Estudios Hispánicos 2022. Estrella Pérez Rodríguez y Alberto Alonso Guardo, eds., VIII Congreso Internacional de Latín Medieval Hispánico, 12-15 Julio, Universidad de Valladolid, 2022. mediEvi, 40. SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2023, pp. 389-401. The image of caverns to describe the place where heretics spiritually dwell was prominent among the church fathers. This article traces the New Testament and patristic background of Leander's use of it in his sermon that he delivered at the Third Council of Toledo in 589 to celebrate the end of Arianism. The article identifies the likely patristic writers who influenced him.

Nate Hoover, program coordinator for the MFA in Creative Writing Program, explains his monthly cartoon: Get ready for another silly clock pun. To see more of my cartoons, follow me on Instagram @hoovernathaniel.

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