Archive for ‘Training and Development’

Many of you picked up Austin Channing Brown’s book, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, to read over the summer. In it, Brown writes to an audience largely composed of white Christians, challenging perceptions and calling for racial justice.

As academics, we’ve been trained to value dialogue and critique, but if we’re not careful dialogue can succumb to what Alice Raynor calls “the coercive force of dialectic” — an attempt to force others’ stories into a predetermined meaning, often one that makes us feel comfortable. One response to this impulse is to practice Krista Ratcliffe’s concept of rhetorical listening: “a stance of openness that a person may choose to assume in relation to any person, text, or culture.”

This summer we have the opportunity to listen to Austin Channing Brown’s sharing of her experience, to choose a stance of openness, and to learn. Every two weeks, you will be emailed thought questions, created by Brown to help listen to her work. We challenge you to sit with those questions, not rushing to answers but considering what you can learn.

Laura Bolin Carroll, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Adams Center for Teaching and Learning

Thought Questions for June 3 
(pages 11-39)
Chapter 1: White People are Exhausting
Chapter 2: Playing Spades

What was the racial diversity like at your elementary or middle school? Was there diversity among teachers? Administration? Was there diversity in your library? Artwork? Curriculum?

Austin discusses how it generally feels to be the only black woman in a predominately white organization, especially one that uses phrases like “Is this person a good fit for our organization?” Asking this question is not inherently negative, but it can be used as a code to mask closed attitudes. How do you think the language of being a “good fit” impacts racial diversity in hiring, performance reviews, and work experiences?

We are excited to share improvements that have been made to the Concur Expense experience! This update delivers a simpler, more streamlined expense reporting process. We have been transitioning users to this over the last few months but have officially turned it on for all ACU users. If you haven’t already been switched to the new UI, the next time you log in, you’ll notice changes were made to the layout. With these changes, you’ll be able to complete expense reports quicker than before. If you have questions or would like more information, please visit the user welcome page or contact Stephanie Knight in the Travel Office.

On Wednesday, May 22 The Betty Hardwick Center, in conjunction with ACU, will offer all interested employees the opportunity to earn a certificate in Mental Health First Aid. The course will be offered in the LYNAY Classroom from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You must register to attend by Tuesday, May 21. Space is limited to the first 24 registrants.

The Harassment and Discrimination Online Training course deadline has been extended by a week. All employees are required to complete the online training course by Friday, March 29th. Training is self-paced. You can start and leave the course as often as you’d like. You should have received an email from Everfi, our resource company for the online training.

The Travel Office is now providing walk-in training sessions at the Brown Library Computer Lab (BL301) the 3rd Monday of every month from 1-3 p.m! Stephanie Knight will be available to answer any travel related questions or provide hands-on Concur assistance and training.  If you cannot attend this training or wish to schedule training for your department, please contact Stephanie Knight via e-mail at snk18a@acu.edu.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and on Wednesday Oct 24, IT will host a Cyber Security Awareness presentation in the Innovation Foundry (Library 3rd floor) from noon to 1 p.m.

Phone Call Scams: Recent reports project that half of next year’s US cellphone calls will be scams. You can protect yourself from these scammers by not answering phone calls from telephone numbers you don’t recognize.   If it’s important enough the caller will leave a voicemail or text message. If they do leave a message exercise caution before proceeding with a follow up. You can also search for the number on Google and look for any spam reports associated with the number. If you can’t find any reports associated with the number and your Google search didn’t indicate that the number belongs to a local business or person.  Another option many mobile devices offer is the ability to block numbers.

For the month of September we are offering multiple training sessions for the new applicant tracking system, PageUp. Sessions are one hour and each session will focus on one type of hire: either staff or student employment. Please signup to attend. Training will take place in the The Woods Classroom of the Adams Center.

Have you checked out the new employment page? Now all job openings at ACU are located in one convenient location. We’re encouraging all hiring managers, whether you hire faculty, staff or students, to sign up for training to learn about Page Up. We’re offering weekly sessions through July: Sign Up for Page Up.

Beginning Friday, June 1 we will be live in a new applicant tracking system, Page Up. The new system will handle all employment postings (faculty, staff and student) for the university. We are excited about bringing all of our employment opportunities into one system.

We’re encouraging all hiring managers, whether you hire faculty, staff or students, to sign up for a training session to learn about Page Up. We’re offering multiple sessions this week: Sign Up for Page Up. If you can’t make a session this week watch My ACU News for weekly options beginning next week.

Join Melissa Atkinson, Online Librarian, and Erica Pye, Research and Instruction Librarian, in the Adams Center on Thurs., March 1, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. as Two Librarians Tackle Copyright and Fair Use: PANE, TEACH, IP, CC, OER Hike. Learn about fair use, the TEACH Act, Intellectual Property, Creative Commons, and how to find free Open Educational Resources like music, videos, and images.