Sept.
26
G e or g e F ox U n i v e r s i t y
Colleague
Next Issue: Oct. 10
Volume 12
No. 15
E m p l oy e e N e w s l e t t e r
Send news items to spatterson@georgefox.edu
P r e s i d e n t ’s P r o l o g u e
Katrina and now Rita have entered our
vocabulary as much more than names of
women and girls. I doubt that, in the near future,
parents will be choosing these names for their
newborn girls. Katrina and Rita become part of
United States history as storms with a
profound impact on the country. Still reeling
from Katrina, the nation then braced for Rita to
hit the Gulf Coast. In all of this, Oregon seems
far from the action — even our gasoline prices
did not soar as they did on the East Coast.
Still, we are involved, and the George Fox
University ethos of service is alive and well. Last
week two students, two staff persons, and two
alumni went to Slidell, La., to work on helping to
restore that town. The group did “dirty” work
— the kind I would prefer to avoid. They were
in direct and constant contact with “mold and
mildew and other nasty substances I tried to
avoid,” as one resident wrote to me. I received
the note from the daughter of one person the
George Fox group helped. It emphasized how
the timing of this visit was perfect for her
mother. Since our group included several
students and alumni connected with our
women’s basketball program, the note was
thankful for the bond set up with the mother,
who played basketball through high school and
several years after that.
The last paragraph of the note said:
“This area will need more than money, more
than food and water, for a very long time.They
need healthy, young, strong bodies to do exactly
what your young people did: care, and be willing
to get dirty.”
Since this came on the heels of Serve Day, I
couldn’t help but reflect on the similarity to
Serve Day and what it accomplishes. If it teaches
us that it’s important to “care and get dirty” to
help others, I would be more than pleased.
Serve Day stories continue to come in. Some
groups are continuing to serve agencies they
got to know on Serve Day. One group plans to
use the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday for
service. I find myself overwhelmed by the
personal generosity of George Fox students
and employees. We really are about service. I
couldn’t be both more proud and more
humbled by the behavior of George Fox
University people.
My hope is that we will continue to be involved
in responding to the needs of others. It is
important for us to remember Galatians 6:9:
“So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued
doing well. At the right time we will harvest
a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.”
(The Message)
Thank you to all who serve for the sake of
God’s kingdom.
Deadline for Copy: Oct. 4
Bump in Numbers
Three-Day Weekend
A flurry of late registrations and academic
clearings on Sept. 9 pushed the
university’s 10-day enrollment figure to
3,210 students. Of those, 1,865 are
undergraduates, 1,093 are in graduate
programs, and 252 are seminary students.
George Fox’s overall enrollment grew by
6 percent, up from 3,034 last year. A
record incoming freshman class of 457
marked a 15-percent increase over last
year’s incoming class total.
The Newberg campus will take its midsemester holiday on Friday, Oct. 7. No
classes will be held, and the university’s
offices, bookstore, switchboard, and library
will be closed.The Portland and Boise
sites will remain open.
Pulitzer Visitor
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nigel
Jaquiss of Willamette Week will give
a free public lecture at 3 p.m.Wednesday,
Oct. 5, in Kershner Lecture Hall on the
Newberg campus. He is expected to
discuss the changing world of newspapers
and the challenges of reaching a modern
readership.The George Fox student
newspaper, The Crescent, is hosting the
event. Jaquiss won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize
for investigative reporting.The event is
free to the public. For more information,
contact Crescent Editor Ann Dorn
at ext. 3011.
FoxFiles a Go
The Department of Institutional
Technology has created a utility, FoxFiles,
as a document management system that
provides the George Fox community
with convenient Web access to computer
files.Think of it as a Web-accessible file
storage area.To access it, logon to
foxfiles.georgefox.edu using your standard
George Fox username and password.To
learn more, visit the IT website at
it.georgefox.edu or call the Service Desk
at ext. 2569.
Improving Our Serve
Marketing and Communications is
hosting more training sessions to
help you understand how to get the
publications you need, when you
need them.The presentations will
demonstrate how to navigate the online
publications manual, provide tips on
making processes run smoothly, and give
an overview of what you can expect from
Marcom.The training sessions on the
Newberg campus are at 2:15 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 13, and at 2:15 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 27. Both sessions will take
place in Stevens 209. A session at the
Portland Center will be announced in the
public folders and the next Colleague.
R.S.V.P. by Oct. 10 to Tamara Cissna
(Communications) at ext. 2126.
Starr on Campus
Oregon Sen. Charles Starr (R) will hold
a town hall meeting at 7:30 p.m. on
Monday, Oct. 10, in Kershner Lecture
Hall. Starr represents Oregon Senate
District 13, which includes Newberg.
The public is welcome.
Driver’s Ed
All George Fox employees and students
who intend to drive a 15-passenger van on
university business are required to take a
safety training class. Classes will be
offered three times a year, early in the fall
semester and before winter and Spring
Serve trips.The next training session is
scheduled for 10:40 a.m. on Friday, Oct.
14, in the Edwards-Holman Science
Center’s Room 102.The class lasts about a
half-hour, and those who have already
received this training don’t need to attend
again. For more information, contact Dan
Schutter (Plant Services) at ext. 2014.
COMINGS AND GOINGS
Matt Meyer joins the
School of Arts and
Sciences full time this fall
as an assistant professor of
media communications.
Previously, he was an
adjunct professor in the department while
also working as a sound designer, editor,
and mixer at Newton Bard Studios in
Portland. Matt also gained experience in
the industry as a re-recording mixer at
Soundtrax Studios in Burbank, Calif., in
the early 1990s. He received a master’s
degree in film production from the School
of Cinema-Television at the University of
Southern California in 1990. Matt lives in
Tualatin with his wife and two daughters.
The family attends Grace Community
Church in Tualatin, where Matt regularly
plays guitar with the worship team.
Janet Tucker joined the
financial affairs office as a
senior accountant in late
August. Since 2003, she
was a controller for the
Schellinger Construction
Company near Whitefish,
Mont. Janet has extensive accounting and
computer system conversion experience,
working as an accountant, finance officer,
Colleague • Newberg | Portland | Boise | Salem • Sept 26, 2005
controller, and CPA manager at various
employers since 1981. She earned a CPA
certificate in 1981 and graduated from the
University of Washington with a bachelor’s
degree in business administration in 1979.
Janet lives in Newberg with her husband,
Charles, and the couple has four children —
Brianna, Krista, Ben, and Josh.
The Newberg library
welcomes Becky Artinian
Kaiser as an assistant
librarian. Becky began as an
adjunct professor in George
Fox’s religion department in
the spring, and she worked as the Christian
education coordinator for Reedwood Friends
Church in Portland from 2003 to 2004.
Before that, she was a periodicals assistant for
the Perkins Library at Duke University in
Durham, N.C., from 2002 to 2003. Becky
earned a master of theological studies degree
from Duke Divinity School in 2003 and a
bachelor’s degree in sociology from George
Fox in 2001. She lives in Tualatin with her
husband, Josh Kaiser, and they have two cats.
A 1992 graduate of George
Fox, Karen Gilmore, has
joined the Department of
History and Political Science
as an administrative assistant.
She has been a stay-at-home
mom, home-schooling her seven kids –
including three adopted children from Russia
– in recent years. She has been a part-time
retreat hostess at Tilikum since 1999 and was
a Creative Memories consultant from 1999 to
2002. She earned a bachelor’s degree in
international studies from George Fox. Karen
and her family live in St. Paul and attend
Newberg Friends Church.
The IT department hired
John Taggart as a computer
support specialist this month.
He comes to George Fox
from Charter Communications
of Vancouver,Wash., where he
assisted business customers and representatives
with Internet connection troubleshooting
since 2001. He has also held positions with
Intel and at Azusa Pacific University, where he
was an IT and media services system technician,
as well as a sound technician, from 1995 to
1999. He earned a bachelor’s degree in management and information systems from Azusa in
1999. He lives in Beaverton and attends
Harvest Community Church in that city.
Sheila Abercrombie joined
the School of Management as
an assistant professor of
economics. She has worked
as a training specialist for LSI
Logic Corporation of
Gresham the past eight years and, before that,
was a systems analyst for the Texas Workforce
Commission in Austin,Texas. Sheila earned
an MAT degree in mathematics from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in 1991 and a master’s degree in economics
from Duke University in 1989. She lives in
Sherwood with her husband, David.The
couple attends Good Shepherd Community
Church in Boring, Ore.
The School of Arts and
Sciences welcomes Eric
Funasaki as an associate
professor of mathematics. He
has spent the last three years
in the Department of
Mathematics at the University of MontanaWestern, where he was an associate professor
(since 2003) and department chair (since
January of 2004). Before that, he was an
assistant professor of mathematics at Georgia
Southern University from 1996 to 2002. Eric
earned a doctorate in mathematics from the
University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1997
and a master’s degree in applied mathematics
from the University of Washington in 1992.
His professional interests are mathematical
ecology and biology as well as involving
undergraduate students in research. He lives
in Newberg and attends the Newberg
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
The financial affairs office
welcomes Melody Velez as
an accounting specialist. She
comes to George Fox from
the University of Portland,
where she was an
administrative assistant for the chief
information officer (2004-2005) and the dean
(2000-2004). Before that, she worked at
George Fox as a work-study coordinator in
the library from 1995 to 2000. Melody
attended both George Fox and the University
of Portland. She lives in Newberg with her
husband, Fernando, and the couple has two
grown children. She attends GodSong
Community Church in Newberg.
ABOUT OUR PEOPLE
Carrie Bohl (Development) and a team that
included Liz Clark (G05), Kim Leith
(senior), Amanda Spotts (sophomore),
Kerry Rueck (wife of basketball coach
Scott Rueck), and LuVonne Votaw (G85),
were in Slidell, La., Sept. 14-20, to help
individual families clean their homes, strip
flood-damaged carpet and drywall, and clear
debris in wake of Hurricane Katrina.The trip
was a cooperative effort with Campus
Crusade for Christ.To read about their relief
efforts, visit georgefox.edu/Katrina.
Paul Otto (History) published “Historical
Studies and Creational Development:
Constructing a History Program in Light of a
Reformed Perspective,” in Pro Rege 34, No. 1,
the September edition of Dordt College’s
quarterly publication.
Tom Head (Economics) and 10 students
from his International Trade and Finance class
attended a luncheon program, “Honest Trade:
Crafting Sensible Policy,” in Portland on
Sept. 19. Speaking at the event was
Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who discussed
the impact of free trade agreements such as
the Central American Free Trade Agreement
passed by Congress last month.
IN THE FAMILY
Mark Pothoff (Student Life) and his wife,
Olivia, welcomed a daughter,Tenley Grace,
on Sept. 7. She weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces
and was 19 1/2 inches long.
Ron (Political Science/Peace Studies) and
Melanie Mock (Writing/Literature)
brought home their newest son, Samuel
Saurabh, 3, from Mumbai, India, on Sept. 10.
BIRTHDAYS
Sept. 30 Karon Bell
Terry Huffman
Laurie Lorenzen
Oct. 1
Paul Chamberlain
Anita Maher
Oct. 5
Larry Osborn
Oct. 6
Judy Keeney
Stephen Gilday
Brendon Connelly
Oct. 7
Cindy Howard
Oct. 9
Ben Kulpa
CALENDAR
Monday, Sept. 26
Newberg Chapel
Missions Week: Karen Covell,
Hollywood Prayer Network, 10:40 a.m.
Missions Week: Karen Covell
Hoover 104, 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Sept. 27
All-Employee Lunch, Noon
Men’s Soccer vs.Willamette
Morse Soccer Field, 4 p.m.
Volleyball vs. Lewis & Clark
Wheeler Sports Center, 7 p.m.
Missions Week: Karen Covell
Hoover 104, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Sept. 28
Newberg Chapel
Missions Week: Karen Covell, 10:40 a.m.
Women’s Soccer vs.Willamette
Morse Soccer Field, 4 p.m.
Friday, Sept. 30
Faculty Sharing
Hoover 104, 10:40 a.m.
Volleyball vs. Colorado College
Wheeler Sports Center, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 1
Women’s Soccer vs. Dallas
Morse Soccer Field, Noon
Monday, Oct. 3
Newberg Chapel
Steve and Elizabeth Sherwood, 10:40 a.m.
Provost’s Council and Committee Chairs Meet,
Wood-Mar Conference Room, 1 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 4
Internship & Volunteer Fair,
Stevens Center, 10 a.m.
Faculty Lunch, Noon
Volleyball vs. Cascade
Wheeler Sports Center, 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Oct. 5
Newberg Chapel
Sarah Baldwin, 10:40 a.m.
Friday, Oct. 7
Mid-Semester Holiday
Volleyball vs. Linfield
Wheeler Sports Center, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 8
Women’s Soccer vs. Linfield
Morse Soccer Field, Noon
Men’s Soccer vs. Linfield
Morse Soccer Field, 2:30 p.m.
Volleyball vs. Pacific Lutheran
Wheeler Sports Center, 7 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 9
Women’s Soccer vs. Puget Sound
Morse Soccer Field, Noon
Men’s Soccer vs. Puget Sound
Morse Soccer Field, 2:30 p.m.
Colleague • Newberg | Portland | Boise | Salem • Sept 26, 2005