Please mark your calendars for Thursday, Nov. 21, in Upper Gwinn, 2–3 p.m. for a town hall with President Porterfield and an update on the autumn Board of Trustees meeting.

A message from the Office of Intercultural Programs: International Education Week is this week! It is celebrated and hosted by university campuses across the nation and the goal is to highlight the global initiatives present in day-to-day campus life. It is all encompassing from international students to study abroad participants to our faculty and staff from around the world. Follow OIP’s Instagram for detailed information of each event throughout the week. Email oip@spu.edu if you have questions. We are excited to celebrate International Education Week with you this year!

All events are 12–2 p.m. on the second floor of Weter Hall.

Monday (11/18): SPU International Staff and Faculty Poster Fair.
Tuesday (11/19): Featuring the Intercultural Club Council — Engage with some of our student intercultural clubs and organizations such as Vietnamese Student Association and African Student Association.
Wednesday (11/20): Exploring the World — Come learn about some of our cross-cultural study away opportunities.
Thursday (11/21): Culture Share — Students from the GS 1007: Cultural Adjustment class will share their final projects with our community.
Friday (11/22): Global Photo Contest winners announced via email.

Global Photo Contest — Photo contest extended. We want to see how you have engaged globally! Submit your favorite photo showing us how you have participated in global engagement: engaging the culture, changing the world. We will select one photo from each of the following categories: People, Places, Culture. Submissions can be made here and are due by 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22. See previous contest winners on the International Education Website. No location — email announcement on contest winners will be early next week.

Join the SPU Music Department and choirs for a beautiful choral program on Monday, Nov. 25, to reflect on Advent and Christmas. Traditional choral works by Mendelssohn, Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns, and Britten, as well as more recent pieces by Rosephanye Powell and Eric Whitacre will be performed. The free concert begins at 7:30 p.m. in First Free Methodist Church.

A message from Facility and Project Management: As a reminder, and unless there is an event scheduled on EMS or a request via TMA, temperature in offices will be lowered during the Thanksgiving break from 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 27, through Sunday, Dec. 1. Offices located in buildings without networked temperature controls (i.e., houses that were converted to offices) are asked to turn their thermostat to 60 F before departing for Thanksgiving. 

Regarding the upcoming Christmas closure, please let us know via TMA if there is a date earlier than Dec. 24 when all of the staff in a building will be working from home and the building temperatuire can be turned down. This would help us save energy as many buildings' HVAC systems heat the whole building, even if just a few offices are occupied. 

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published every Monday during the academic year or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday. The next deadline is Thursday, Nov. 21, and the next issue will be published Monday, Nov. 25. 

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.

Grace Inae Blum, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, presented two sessions at the 50th annual Washington Association for the Education of Speakers of Other Languages conference on November 2, 2024. The first session was titled, "The Power of Language Portraits: Developing Linguistically Responsive Practices in P-12 Teacher Education," and the second session was titled, "From Presentation to Publication: Transforming Your WAESOL Conference Presentation into a Peer-Reviewed Article." 

Jennifer McFarlane-Harris, associate professor of English and cultural studies, was a guest co-editor of a special issue of Christianity & Literature, “Christianity and African American Literature," with Messiah University Professor Peter Kerry Powers (Volume 73, Number 3, September 2024). This issue also includes an essay by Jennifer titled, “Autotheography ‘Now’: Theorizing Genre and Sanctification in Julia A. J. Foote’s A Brand Plucked from the Fire.”

An illustration by adjunct art professor Abigail Platter is on the cover of the 2024 November/December issue of Christianity Today The issue highlights themes of life’s hardship and the wonder of the incarnation.

Kim Sawers, professor of accounting and management, has been appointed editor for Faith in Business Quarterly.

A short story titled, “Nothing Has Happened Yet,” by Jason Thornberry was longlisted for The Masters Review's 2024 Reprint Prize. This story appears in Issue 13 of Letters Journal from Yale Divinity School. Jason is a writing professor and office coordinator in the School of Education.