Archive for October, 2024

You are invited to nominate students for the December 2024 Honor Awards! Click on this link to view a list of the eligible graduating seniors in a drop-down menu. Each nomination should include a paragraph or more describing the student’s personal attributes or contributions that correspond to the award. Your input will assist the Student Life committee in making decisions with respect to the final recipients for Honor Man or Honor Woman, Trustees Award, B Sherrod Scholarship and Dean Adams Achievement Award. Nominations are due by Noon. on Friday, Nov 8, 2024.

The Library will be hosting the 7th annual Cover to Cover event on October 31 in the Reading Commons. We will be reading the book, The Princess Bride. The event starts at 9am and will end when the book is finished. If you are interested in reading, sign up on this spreadsheet.

The Office of Advancement is now accepting applications through Nov. 25 to be one of the featured funds in ACU Gives 2025, our annual giving event. ACU Gives, which will be April 29-30, is a great way to promote and raise funds for small projects across campus. The ideal fundraising goal for these projects is $5,000 to $10,000. We’re looking for projects that will directly affect or aid students in the 2025-26 academic school year, which are mission and vision fit. Please fill out this application form or reach out to Samantha Adkins at seb97m@acu.edu or Ext. 2589 with any questions.

Mark your calendar for 11 a.m. Monday, Nov. 11, to attend a special Chapel in Moody Coliseum in honor of Veterans Day. This patriotic ceremony will thank and recognize veterans and active duty military members in our Abilene and ACU communities. If you are a veteran or active duty military, or if you are a spouse or dependent of a member of the military, we’d especially like to honor you during this time. You and a guest are invited to sit in a special reserved section in Moody during the ceremony – RSVP here by Nov. 4, to let us know if you’d like to participate.

The presentation slides from the Open Enrollment meetings are now available. Meetings are being held:

• Monday, Oct. 21, 9-10:30 a.m. (ADM 100) and 3-4:30 p.m. (LIB 272)
• Tuesday, Oct. 22, 3-4:30 p.m. (LIB 272)
• Wednesday, Oct. 23, 9:30-11 a.m. (ADM 100) and 3-4:30 p.m. (LIB 272)
• Monday, Oct. 28, 9-10:30 a.m. (ADM 100) and 3-4:30 p.m. (LIB 272)
• Tuesday, Oct. 29, 3-4:30 p.m. (LIB 272)
• Wednesday, Oct. 30, 9:30-11 a.m. (ADM 100)
• Thursday, Oct. 31, 3-4:30 p.m. (LIB 272)
• Friday, Nov. 1, 9-10:30 a.m. (ADM 100)

One Zoom meeting will be available on Tuesday, Oct. 29, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. for those who cannot attend an in-person meeting. Visit the HR Calendar to join the Zoom meeting. After clicking on the link above, you may have to choose ACU Human Resources within your “My calendars” section to view the calendar.

All full, reduced, and half-time employees will need to participate in Open Enrollment the week of November 4th – 8th.

Please plan to attend an informational session as there will be changes to our benefits for 2025.  Sessions will be held in either the Hardin Administration Building in classroom 100 (ADM 100) or the Brown Library Core Classroom (LIB 272).

Open Enrollment Informational Sessions

• Monday, Oct. 21st from 9:00-10:30 (ADM 100) & 3:00-4:30 (LIB 272)
• Tuesday, Oct. 22nd from 3:00-4:30 (LIB 272)
• Wednesday, Oct. 23rd from 9:30-11:00 (ADM 100) & 3:00-4:30 (LIB 272)
• Monday, Oct. 28th from 9:00-10:30 (ADM 100) & 3:00-4:30 (LIB 272)
• Tuesday, October 29^th from 3:00-4:30 (LIB 272)
• Wednesday, October 30^th from 9:30-11:00 (ADM 100)
• Thursday, October 31^st from 3:00-4:30 (LIB 272)
• Friday, November 1^st from 9:00-10:30 (ADM 100)

There will be one Zoom meeting available for those who cannot attend an in person meeting on Tuesday, October 29^th from 9:30-11:00 (Zoom meeting only). Visit the HR Calendar to join the Zoom.  You may have to choose ACU Human Resources within your “My calendars” section after clicking on the link above to view the calendar.

During the week of Benefits Open Enrollment, HR will be in the Computer Lab on the 3rd Floor of the Library Monday-Wednesday and in the HR Office Thursday-Friday for those who would like help with their enrollment.  You can schedule an appointment by visiting the Benefits Enrollment Calendar or simply come by for assistance.  We can also schedule your appointment via Zoom if needed.  For Zoom, please schedule your appointment and email us letting us know you would like to meet via Zoom and we will create a zoom link within your appointment.

As a reminder, all benefits-eligible employees must go through the enrollment process to have benefits next year.

Please contact humanresources@acu.edu with any questions.

Plan to join your colleagues for university updates this week on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at noon or 4 p.m. We will meet in person at noon in the Hunter Welcome Center’s McCaleb Conference Center. At 4 p.m., we are piloting a virtual-only option, so faculty and staff who work remotely or are traveling will have the opportunity to participate in the meeting. Remote employees can access the virtual meeting here.

ACU ALERT is an emergency notification system that gives Abilene Christian University the ability to send urgent and emergency information quickly by email and text message.

Sign up or renew your subscription here.

You can provide up to two cell phone numbers and one email address to receive the alerts. This s a free service to all ACU students, faculty and staff.  You may opt out at any time by replying to the messages with the word STOP.

Faculty and staff will have the opportunity to meet together four times in the Spring over the lunch hour in the LYNAY classroom in Hunter Welcome Center.

In 1970, 60% of college students were young men and 40% were young women. Fifty years later those numbers are the exact opposite. In K12 schools, boys of all ages are doing worse than girls, by almost every metric: they are disciplined and diagnosed with learning disabilities at higher rates, their grades and test scores are lower, and they’re less likely to graduate from high school. Universities struggle to find male students eager to opt into leadership roles. In his book, Of Boys and Men, Richard Reeves addresses this complex and urgent crisis. As faculty and staff who recruit, enroll, mentor, teach, support, and encourage male students, we must consider who these young men are arriving on our campus and how we might best equip them in four years at ACU. Join us for this community book group this Spring to consider how to best serve our male students.

Dates: 1/22, 2/19, 3/26, 4/16.

The Adams Center and the Office of Enrollment are partnering to provide books to participants who register. Register for the book group here.

ACU’s Endowment will be selling a few of our rent houses that are no longer strategic to the university. The university would like to encourage ACU faculty/staff to live in the neighborhood and would like to extend the opportunity to purchase one of these available houses to anyone interested:

• 541 E.N. 20th
• 525 E.N. 20th – UNDER CONTRACT
• 573 E.N. 21st – UNDER CONTRACT
• 834 E.N. 13th
• 650 E.N. 20th

To learn more about any of these houses, please email Keaton Kerrigan at kjk16b@acu.edu