We are pleased to announce a new Christmas celebration and are inviting students, faculty, staff, and their families to join us for what we anticipate will be an annual event.

We invite you to gather for an official lighting of a Christmas tree and a time of joyful worship at the start of the Advent season on Monday, Dec. 2 , 4:45-5:30 p.m. at the corner of 3rd and Bertona Street. The event will be followed by cookies and cocoa in the SUB Gazebo/Fireplace Room.

The CIS HelpDesk will be closed for walk-ins on Wednesday, Nov. 27. However, the phone lines will remain active that day.

The SPU Percussion Ensemble will present their autumn concert on Tuesday, Dec.3, at 7:30 p.m. in the E.E. Bach Theater in McKinley Hall. The 12-member ensemble will perform contemporary works by Nathan Daughtrey, Jim Casella, and Alan Hovhaness along with traditional marimba selections from Guatemala and drumming of the Susu Ethnic Group of southwest Guinea. Also on the program will be solo performances by students Sara Mach ("Fragments for Timpan"i by John Beck), James Loffink ("Rain Dance" by Alice Gomez and Marlyn Riff), and Dylan Berlier performing his original work “Evening Shores.” Admission is free and open to the public.

The Faculty/Staff Bulletin is published every Monday during the academic year or Tuesday if Monday is a holiday. Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, the next deadline is Wednesday, Nov. 27, and the next issue will be published Monday, Dec. 2. 

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.

Professor of Music Carlene Brown was an invited panelist for the Seattle Opera’s Community Conversations series on Nov. 14. Seattle Opera is presenting a new opera titled, "Lucidity"  by composer Laura Kaminsky (former head of music at Cornish College). The opera premiered in New York in November and explores the intersection of music, memory, and the brain. The panel included Rui M. Costa, president and CEO of the Allen Institute and Sarah McKiddy, University of Washington doctoral student in the School of Nursing, studying cognitive health and music-based interventions. Carlene provided information on music therapy and how this discipline can support individuals living with cognitive decline and dementia. She also offered a post-show conversation following the Seattle performance on November 22.

Becky Hughes, associate professor and chair of history, gave a paper titled,  "Uganda as the 'Land of Promise:' Anglican Missionaries, Race, and the End of Empire," at the North American Conference of British Studies, Nov 15-17, in Denver.

An article by Alberto Ferreiro, professor emeritus of history, was published online in Council of Braga I (561). The article, “Lexikon für Konziliengeschichtsforschung — Hispano-Roman, Suevic and Visigothic Councils — Vienna-Rome," (November 2024), offers the most recent research on this important council that among other things dealt decisively with the Priscillianist heresy that was prominent in northern Spain and southern Gaul. This is the fourth of 19 entries that he has been assigned to write. A book review will also appear on the monograph written by Diego Piay Augusto,  Priscillian, The Life and Death of a Christian Dissenter in Late Antiquity, Gorgias Press, 2024, 221 p., Journal of Early Christian Studies.

Professor of Psychology Paul Youngbin Kim was a guest on "Moral Maze" on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom on Nov. 16. The live discussion program dealt with the topic, "Does intent matter?" and looked at philosophical questions about the role of intent in the way we act and in the way we judge the actions of others. BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC.