Wendy Jones's Archive

Staff Pre-Session will be on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Hunter Welcome Center, followed by lunch in The World Famous Bean. All staff are encouraged to participate in this time together to prepare for the upcoming year and celebrate our peers who receive the John C. Stevens, Unsung Hero and Outstanding Staff Awards. See you Wednesday!

Each year during Pre-Session, we take the opportunity to present awards to two outstanding staff members. Please submit your nominations for this honor by filling out this form. The Senior Leadership Team will select the honorees based on nominations they receive from faculty and staff. The deadline to submit nominations is Tuesday, June 18.

Please remember that all hires should be coordinated with Human Resources and processed through PageUp. If you are considering hiring someone who lives outside of Texas or the United States, it is critical that you contact HR prior to any discussions with a potential applicant. Please email humanresources@acu.edu with any questions.

Mark your calendar for our next faculty and staff meeting on March 6 at noon or 4 p.m. in Hart Auditorium in the Onstead-Packer Biblical Studies Building.

We are saddened by the passing of Terry Bowman, director of off-campus properties for the Abilene Christian Investment Management Company (ACIMCO), after battling multiple forms of cancer in recent months.

Terry, 59, has been part of the ACU community for more than 30 years, first as a plumber, and for the last 14 years supervising ACU’s off-campus rental properties. His wife, Mary, is an employee of HES, ACU’s facilities management company. Terry was a diligent, committed staff member, and colleagues recall his genuine care for students who lived in the properties he managed.

The funeral is scheduled for Saturday, February 24, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. at the Hillcrest Church of Christ.

Please join us in praying for Mary, their children and grandchildren, their extended family, and the ACIMCO staff.

ACU’s flag is flying at half-staff in Terry’s memory.

The Fall 2023 to Spring 2024 first-year cohort persisted at 94% – the second highest in recorded data. By comparison the Fall 2022 first-year cohort persisted at 91.5%.

Thanks to each of you for your continued focus on student persistence and success!

Departments with 100% Fall-Spring Retention included accounting; Dukes School of Finance; engineering and physics; history and global studies; marriage and family studies; music; political science and criminal justice; and theatre. Many programs were very close to 100% retention.

In partnership with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, ACU is hosting the biennial Best Practices in Christian Higher Ed national conference on Sept. 29-Oct 1, 2024. This conference is an exciting way to showcase our campus and national leadership in student success, as well as an opportunity for you to participate in this important conversation. The theme for the 2024 conference is “Expanding Minds and Hearts Through Global Learning and Study Abroad.”  We invite you to submit a proposal related to the conference theme or any intersection of high-impact practices and Christian Higher ed.

The conference will provide attendees the opportunity to network, share insights and research, reflect on the distinctiveness of Christian education, and join together in worship. We hope ACU faculty and staff will be well represented at the conference, whether by attending or presenting.

Participants will hear from two keynote speakers:

• Melissa Torres joined The Forum on Education Abroad as president and CEO in 2019 and has more than two decades of experience in higher education and program design, development, and implementation. She previously served as vice president for Academic Programs at IES Abroad where she supervised 36 international study abroad centers around the world.
• Alex Sosler is an assistant professor of Bible and ministry at Montreat College and assisting priest at Redeemer Anglican Church in Asheville, North Carolina. He is also author of Learning to Love: Christian Education as Pilgrimage and editor of Theology and the Avett Brothers.

Interested in presenting?
We invite you to submit a proposal about how one or more high-impact practices relates to Christian higher ed. Tracks include teaching and learning; diversity, equity and inclusion; Christian spiritual formation; vocational and leadership development; and retention and outcomes. Sessions might address questions such as: How has your institution implemented high-impact practices? What insights have you gained? How have high-impact practices enhanced your institution’s mission or improved student outcomes?

The deadline for submission is March 1. If your proposal is accepted, you will have the opportunity to submit your paper to be considered for inclusion in an edited volume published by ACU Press.

If you have any questions about the conference and call for proposals, contact Scott Hamm.

ACU’s block tuition model promotes students graduating on time and more affordably. We have been committed to not increasing tuition at the rate of inflation, and for the 2024-2025 academic year, tuition will only increase by 4%, and block tuition will be adjusted from 36 hours to 33 hours in a full academic year. Each hour a student goes over the 33 hour block rate will be charged a reduced flat rate of $750 per hour. Adjusting block tuition and moving to a reduced flat rate over block is financially beneficial to most students and allows students who maximize a 33-hour block to save $9,000 over four years and graduate early or on time! Faculty staff dependents qualify for 100% tuition coverage until the calendar year in which a dependent turns 24 or marries; at that point, they are no longer eligible to receive any tuition discount.

We don’t have to look far to see division in our world. And in many ways, we are confused, angry, and disillusioned by all the chaos we’re experiencing. How should Christians respond to the chaos? What does it look like to live faithfully in these strange and challenging times? Join bestselling author Bob Goff in this six-session series as he helps us answer these questions. Learn what it looks like to follow Jesus and obey his commands even in a time of chaos. Email humanresources@acu.edu if you need access to a RightNow Media account.

ACU provides faculty, staff, students and alumni unlimited access to RightNow Media—the world’s largest streaming library of video Bible study resources? This extensive library has more than 20,000 videos and the Bible study videos can be used as part of a group study or personal devotions. Many series include free discussion guides and handouts.

RightNow Media is a tool that can help you live out your faith in every area of your life—at home, at work, and in your community. In addition to series on books of the Bible, RightNow Media has videos for everyone in your family on various topics like marriage, parenting, personal finances, mental health, and more. There’s even a library for kids with over 2,000 safe, entertaining videos. RightNow Media has a free app available on all major streaming devices so you and your family can access content anywhere, anytime.

To sign up, just visit this personal invite link.