Archive for July, 2013

The following office spaces will be coming available in the Hardin Administration Building by early September:  Suite 211 is three offices and a reception room, suite 215 is two offices and a reception room, and suite 217B is one office and one reception room. Suites 215 and 217B are currently connected through the reception rooms and can be requested together or separately (if the opening between them is closed off). Departments interested in these spaces must submit a Space Request Form by August 23^rd. The Space Committee will then review the requests and make a decision. Additional information and the Space Request Forms are available from Scott Duncan at duncans@acu.edu.

Bring the family, some lawn chairs and join ACU for Oz the Great and Powerful at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 6.

Bring your appetites, too; The Smokery food truck will be there; popcorn, lemonade and candy also will be for sale; and we’re thrilled to introduce a new vendor: Kona Ice, which will sell snow cones. The movie begins at 8:30 p.m.

Admission is your donation to Global Samaritan. They’re asking for new or lightly used sports items — especially balls and frisbees.

Like the previous movies, we’ll be on the front lawn of campus, east of the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building. Parking is available on ACU Drive, accessible from Ambler Avenue or East North 16th Street;  the Teague Boulevard circle driveway will be closed to traffic.

Did you know ACU’s health insurance plan is self-funded? What this means is that ACU, not BCBSTX pays for every dollar that you don’t pay on your claims. Being self-funded allows ACU to have more control over the plan administration but it also means ACU assumes the risk associated with the plan. This is important to you because the total plan costs impact things like premiums. Things like taking generics, if applicable, and getting lab work done at a preferred provider really do add up. Thank you for doing what you can to help keep costs down!

At this moment, IT is working hard to bring you a new wireless registration system. This will provide more security and flexibility to our wireless network as well as provide a better user experience to our guests when they visit campus. Beginning August 1st, the new system will be online and all users will need to re-register their wireless devices. Once your wireless device is registered, you will be able to use our ACU network just as before. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Helpdesk.

If you have not yet made plans to attend Summit 2013, put it on your calendar for September 15-18.  This year’s theme, Margins, comes from Luke’s Gospel and focuses on the variety of surprising characters with which Jesus spends his time.  Brochures are available in the campus center.

Please join us for a farewell reception honoring Phil Boone, Vice President for Advancement. There will be a come-and-go reception celebrating Phil’s dedicated service to ACU on Thursday, August 8, from 3:30-5:00 p.m., in the Hunter Welcome Center, East Lobby. We hope you’ll take time to come by and visit with Phil and his wife, Patsy.

Each year during Pre-Session, we take the opportunity to present awards to two outstanding staff members. The Senior Leadership Team will select the honorees based on nominations they receive from the campus. Please take time to nominate a member of the staff for this honor. The deadline to submit nominations is Wednesday, August 7 at 5 p.m.

If you do not wish to have your personal information (home address and phone number) published in the 2013-14 Hello Book Faculty/Staff section, please change your Directory Profile in Banner by Friday, August 30, 2013.  To do this, go to the Personal Information tab on your myACU Banner page.  Select Directory Profile and remove the check from the Permanent Address and/or Permanent Telephone box under the Display in Directory column.  Please make sure to select Submit Changes.  This is the only way to ensure that your personal information is not included.  The Hello Book staff cannot remove your personal information from the report.

During Benefits Annual Enrollment last fall, we discussed the fact that ACU has begun the process of terminating two of our frozen retirement plans (401a & 401k). We now have confirmation from the IRS that the request is in the final evaluation stage with Quality Assurance. Please keep in mind that until the IRS issues the determination letters we are still in a holding pattern. Once the determination letters are issued, you will have a 60 day window to make elections.  What you can do during this time is review the FAQ’s we have developed. The FAQ document will be updated as information is received. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact TIAA-CREF at 1-800-842-2252, or humanresources@acu.edu.

The Center for International Education would like to know!  If you can converse fluidly and easily with a good accent in a language other than English, please fill out this quick poll. If you would like access to the results, please include this in the comments or email:  Lucy.Dawson@acu.edu