Mother's Day

Mother's Day and Susan's birthday (the 21st) both fall in May, and both call for one of Susan's favorites: Chocolate.  We had two parties at Sue's this month.

Every time I get the itch for a Nikon D750 camera so I can take better indoor shots of grandchildren, I find I get a few fabulous shots among the many blurry ones I take with a D300 and a 35mm f1.8 lens.  I only need one.  The shots of Charis this month are amazing.

As the month ends, we are mere days away from Cynthia and Nathanael's little one making his long awaited debut. Only the busyness of the end of Spring quarter is distracting me from the anxiousness this Grandpa Dick feels.

The First Step Out of the SPU Door

On Tuesday, May 22nd, I met with my dean, Dr. Ross Stewart.  What he had to share was not unexpected.  For the past nine months, the SPU administration had telegraphed their need to reduce costs due to the ongoing trend in lower undergraduate enrollments.  Unlike 1990, when 30 professional staff were suddenly let go before Christmas without warning, including myself, I saw this coming this time.  Then the day before, when the generic memo from President Dan Martin mentioned that four faculty and 15 staff would face some sort of employment cuts, I knew I was on that list.                                                                 

I was offered one of two choices.  The first was to move to a 0.8 FTE contract beginning in July.  The second was to leave SPU at the end of June with the offer of a very modest buyout. Gary Womelsduff, Director of Human Resources, joined our meeting briefly in case I needed clarification.  I am sure I will accept the 0.8 work schedule. 

The truth is, I had proposed this in a backhanded way.  Back in January, I had emailed Ross with my thoughts.  "Instead of outright retirements, perhaps individuals could negotiate “phased out retirements” that would allow departments to have a softer landing with regard to the departure of a colleague."  I had used myself as the hypothetical example.

For my part, I was willing to move to 0.8 FTE, and although it wasn't my first choice for 2018-19, it will be a new adventure.  As it is, I often feel overworked.  I never have enough time to get home tasks accomplished.  Bible teaching, grandparenting, and opportunities away from SPU compete with university work.  It is kind of funny that others in the business school are more upset than I am with this move.  But I did make it clear that this change might accelerate my departure altogether.  Until this change, I would have pegged my retirement date as July 3, 2024.  At least today, I'd be sad if this moved to July 2, 2020.  God surely knows.

        [ Here's the announcement to my colleagues in the business school. ]

The monetary upshot of all this is that my base salary of $5,725 per month will drop to $4,581. But, thankfully, this will be augmented by my overload Spreadsheets teaching, to about $5,160 per month.  Still, $1,145 less in gross pay each month will curtail my otherwise frivolous spending on any number of things. That new Nikon body, that coveted next firearm (now that’s a questionable habit), and who knows what piques my interest on eBay – I hope, in 2018-19, I can focus on what matters instead of what entertains.

SBGE Honors Event and Omicron Delta Epsilon

On the 17th, I again oversaw the business school's honors event.  Preparations for this  event begin at the start of the quarter with the selection of the nominees for membership.  Then I help each of the three honor societies invite the nominees to join, collect fees, order memberships, and manage the details of three simultaneous induction ceremonies, following the opening gathering where I am  the master of ceremonies and the principal speaker.

The Pi Sigma Alpha (Political Science) Chapter Advisor, Dr. Caleb Henry went out of his way to acknowledge my efforts to make this event happen.  And retiring Chapter Advisor Dr. Doug Downing of Omicron Delta Epsilon (Economics), announced to his national office that I was their Chapter Secretary.  I certainly do that work, and it was gratifying to learn that I can expect to be inducted into this honor society of my own Economics major next year. 

This is Kathy Stegman's last honors event.  Half of her title is Event Coordinator, but this is her easiest event as she only needed to purchase and serve the cake.

West Seattle High School Class of '73 45th Anniversary Reunion On Sunday the 20th, Nancy and I invited a group of West Seattle High School classmates to a planning meeting for a possible 45th reunion. Laurie joined us via Apple FaceTime from Loveland, Colorado. With Susan at the University Street Fair promoting her 3W Medical for Women, she was willing to let us use her house for the meeting. This was a mini reunion of our honors class. We very quickly came to some decisions. Other alumni connected with us on email later. A few days later, we'd settled on Salty's restaurant in West Seattle for a Saturday, August 25th luncheon. For my part, of course, I'm the webmaster, helping to get the word out at a new domain I purchased, WSHS73.org. Sister Laurie agreed to serve as the financial lead, collecting pre-payments. Registration has begun.