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NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS
Benefits open-enrollment deadline approaching — All benefit-eligible employees must confirm their benefit selections by Wednesday, Nov. 23. Please log on to https://wartburg.employeenavigator.com. You must register and create a username and password. The company identifier is Wartburg College. Click here to find all 2017 benefit information. If you have any questions regarding online enrollment or benefits, please contact Amy Wilson, 352-8278.
Order bakery items for break — Dining Services is selling bakery items to take with you over Thanksgiving Break. You can order items through your GET account until noon Wednesday, Nov. 23. There are gluten-free options as well. If you have questions, contact the Dining Office at 352-8303.
Presidential Forum date change — The date for the December Presidential Forum has been changed from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8, 7:30 a.m., in the Hagemann Castle Room.
Commendation from Board of Regents – More reports have been posted to the President’s Reports section of the InfoCenter. At its recent meeting, the Board of Regents passed a resolution recognizing the efforts of the Wartburg community during September’s flooding. The motion reads as follows:
“That the Board of Regents hereby proudly recognizes and extends its appreciation to the entire Wartburg Community ... faculty, staff and students ... for the extraordinary efforts to serve families in Waverly and throughout the Cedar Valley during the September flooding of local rivers, as well as to the Center for Community Engagement for the leadership it provided. Their work demonstrates the deep commitment that the Wartburg Community has to its neighbors and to its mission to provide ‘leadership and service as a spirited expression of their faith and learning.’”
Recruitment of Wartburg faculty/staff children — Prospective students enter into the recruitment system in three primary ways:
- By taking a standardized test (ACT or SAT) and having their name purchased, or by sending their name to Wartburg when they take the test.
- By attending a Wartburg recruitment event (visit day, IPCW, etc.), attending a camp, filling out a sport questionnaire, etc.
- By taking the initiative to submit their name to Admissions, requesting further information.
Due to privacy laws, Human Resources does not provide Admissions with the names of employees’ children. If you have a high school-age student whom you want to be recruited by Wartburg College, please have the student fill out the following information request form: http://www.wartburg.edu/domestic-request/
New May Term leadership course — LS395 Leadership Insights: The American Family Insurance Experience is a P/D/F May Term course developed for highly motivated third- and fourth-year students who wish to observe and interact with the leadership team and members of the board of directors of a Fortune 500 company, American Family Insurance, with headquarters in Madison, Wis. The course is open to all majors with an interest in leadership and corporate social responsibility. Time will be split between the Wartburg campus and Madison. Enrollment is limited. Applications, due Friday, Dec. 2, are available upon request. Contact Dr. Fred Waldstein or Professor Kim Folkers for more information.
Informational budget meeting — The last of the Finance and Administration Office informational budget meetings — open to all faculty, staff, and students — is Monday, Nov. 21, 4-5 p.m., in McCoy East, to review the 2015-16 and 2016-17 budgets as well as preliminary assumptions for the 2017-18 budget. The presentation will be posted to the Wartburg intranet no later than Nov. 22.
Festival of Trees deadline — Monday, Nov. 21, is the last day for offices, academic departments, or groups/organizations to register a tree for the annual Wartburg-Waverly Festival of Trees. To sign up, go to www.wartburg.edu/trees. The festival, which attracts more than 5,000 guests each year, will brighten the halls of the Classroom Technology Center Nov. 30-Dec. 15 and will be open to the public daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. If you have any questions, contact Joni McDonough, 352-8648.
PREVIOUS ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wartburg Ambassadors — As you encounter the more than 50 Ambassadors who volunteer their time to give tours, please take a minute to thank them for their outstanding work. Our survey and informal comments identify them as one of the important factors in the positive experience visitors have. If you have comments related to Ambassadors that you would like to share, please email todd.coleman@wartburg.edu.
KNIGHTtime user group meeting —The next KNIGHTtime user group meeting will be Monday, Nov. 21, 2-3 p.m., in McCoy East. All users are invited to attend, but material is geared toward supervisors. We will address any challenges and provide solutions or tips to help you navigate the system more efficiently.
PTO donations — Are you losing PTO on a daily or monthly basis? If so, consider donating to the PTO Bank, as the balance is low. Donations can be made via KNIGHTtime. The PTO Bank is used for employees who have a nonwork-related illness or injury or an FMLA-qualifying event causing them to miss work more than five consecutive days and have exhausted their own PTO. Employees are able to donate up to five days per year. If you have any questions on how to make a PTO Bank donation in KNIGHTtime, please contact Tracy Keller, 352-8394.
Learn more about St. Elizabeth during May Term — RE 277: “Reformation Then and Now” includes visits to St. Elizabeth’s birthplace, the Wartburg Castle where she lived, and her burial place. Sites associated with Martin Luther and the Reformation also are included. The May Term course meets a Faith and Reflection requirement. Contact Dr. Kleinhans for more information.
Presentation on Peru — Dr. Michael Bechtel is taking a group of Wartburg students, along with a group from Upper Iowa University, to Peru during May Term. The trip, led by NiCole Dennler, has room for more students or community members to join! If you are interested in learning more about the Amazon River Basin in Peru, including the wildlife and indigenous people, come see DC Randle, director of Education and Citizen Science Programs based out of Minneapolis, who will be on campus Tuesday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m., in SC140 to talk about his experiences in Peru. Randle works with ACTS Peru to allow learning opportunities for students, adults, and families in the Amazon rainforest. For more information about the Peru May Term trip or Randle’s presentation, contact natalie.peyton@wartburg.edu or michael.bechtel@wartburg.edu.
Benefit Information for 2017—The HR and Payroll Office has posted 2017 benefit information to the InfoCenter as noted by President Colson at the last forum. Click the links below for details:
PROFESSIONAL NOTES
Dr. Kunihiko Terasawa, assistant professor of world religions, was an organizer for the Cedar Valley Interfaith Council’s Service of Prayer for Our Leaders on Nov. 13 in Waterloo. The Cedar Valley’s faith communities of Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern religion gathered together to pray for our elected leaders at the local, state, national, and world levels, asking for mutual respect and acceptance of diversity. Dr. Terasawa offered Tao Te Ching’s passage for meditation and a Buddhist prayer for the community at the service. A number of Wartburg students, faculties, and staffs also participated for community engagement and dialogue.
Tony Lutz, ITS, earned third place for his “Reflections” photograph in the Amateur Photography category at the 36th annual E.H. Stumme Denver (Iowa) Public Library Art Show on Nov. 17.
Students Madison Mix '17 and Ashley Anderson '18, along with research adviser Dr. Douglas Brusich, attended the Midwest Drosophila Conference in Allerton, Ill., Nov. 12-13. The conference is a regional gathering of biologists who work with fruit flies as their model organisms and share recent scientific findings. Madison and Ashley presented a research poster, Traumatic brain injury induces substantial mortality of Alzheimer’s disease-model flies and nuclear translocation of actin. Mix also recently was awarded a research grant from the Tri-Beta Biology Honor Society for the project, which aims to uncover a cellular stress mechanism thought to underlie neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease and traumatic brain injury. Funds from the grant will be used to purchase research supplies for the project.
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