March 13, 2014

In this issue…

• Current News
• Family Updates
• Personnel Updates

Current News

Heart association recognizes CBU as “fit-friendly worksite”

The American Heart Association (AHA) has recognized California Baptist University as a gold-level “fit-friendly worksite.” The award acknowledges CBU for its commitment to providing and promoting resources for an employee “wellness culture” and encouraging healthier choices in physical activity and eating behaviors.

“The Fit Friendly Workplace Award is a great step forward for our CBU family,” said Stephani Plummer, director of the university’s Recreation Center. “It’s encouragement that we are doing something positive for our community’s well-being. It is praise to the departments involved in the Well at Work Employee Wellness Program, that the information, programs and services they provide are being recognized.”

Currently, CBU offers physical activity classes, weight-management and nutrition programs to help staff and faculty balance the demands of both their professional and personal lives through the Well at Work Employee Wellness Program.

“We have only scratched the surface of employee wellness,” Plummer added. “The purpose behind it is to pour into the faculty and staff so they are better equipped to pour into the students. It’s a simple concept. We are diverse in our needs, and the program is growing to meet as much of that as we can. It is exciting to see our faculty and staff investing in their own wellness.”

 

Jay Lucas named to spearhead CBU athletics marketing efforts

Jay Lucas becomes the newest member of the California Baptist University athletics staff, taking over the role of associate athletic director for marketing and media relations, as announced Wednesday by Dr. Micah Parker, director of athletics.

“I’m very excited for the opportunity to work with the Lancer athletic staff, as well as the university,” said Lucas. “I’m grateful to Dr. Parker, Kent Dacus (CBU vice president) and Dr. Ronald L. Ellis (CBU president) for this opportunity. I’m really looking forward to helping CBU athletics reach its vision and goals.”

Lucas brings a wealth of marketing and communications knowledge, including professional sports experience through Major League Baseball.

Prior to CBU, Lucas was the vice president of communications for the Houston Astros. There he was responsible for all external and internal club communications efforts and served as club spokesperson when needed. He also coordinated media interview requests for players, coaching staff and key members of the executive business staff, while developing relationships with various media outlets.

Read the full story by clicking here.

 

Odendaal challenges students to use sense of “vujà dé”

“We have to rethink how we do missions,” Dr. Gil Odendaal said. “It has to be a seamless integration of the physical and the spiritual.”

Odendaal, vice president of integral mission for World Relief, was the featured speaker March 10 at CBU’s College of Allied Health Distinguished Lecture Series. His topic was “Healthcare is a justice issue: From ideology to practice and the changing role of the church.”

Odendaal told an audience of CBU students that they should be concerned about what they did with their lives globally.

“Disaster relief has become an industry,” he said, pointing to reports about ineffective funding. “As a graduate of CBU, I hope you know that your intervention will be worth more than intervention by a secular organization. We are not interested in giving crumbs to the poor but giving them a place at the table.”

Odendaal said he grew up in South Africa and learned prejudice in a culture of apartheid.

“My skin was the right color,” he said, “but I had to get out of the country to realize that apartheid was not just an evil system, it was sin. The attitude Jesus had must be in us.”

He encouraged students to look at justice in the world with a sense of vujà dé instead of déjà vu. Vujà dé, he said, is the ability to look at something familiar like you’ve never seen it before.

“Thousands die weekly, millions die yearly for unnecessary causes because of inequity in healthcare,” he said. “When you provide medicine, you don’t do it so you can present the gospel. You do it because that’s what Christ would have done.”

Odendaal said he lost a granddaughter to an illness that she should have survived in a country with good medical care.

“In your own life, do you truly believe that healthcare is a basic right for people everywhere?” he said. “Should the quality of healthcare be based on where someone lives? Should someone in a city have better medical care than someone living in a rural area?”

Odendaal recounted the biblical story of the paralytic in Luke 5, when a group of friends took a paralyzed man to Jesus. He said they did so because they wanted to make a difference in the man’s life, but they had to work together.

“Justice is tough and tiresome,” he said. “Pour yourself out for those who need it most.”

 

Mohler challenges students to live with conviction and purpose

I think you’re living in one of the most important generations of human history in a very long time,” Dr. R. Albert Mohler told students at California Baptist University. “We are living in one of the great turning times of history.”

Mohler, who is president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., used Romans 11:33-36 as his text, in which Paul praises God for His wisdom.

“I was raised in a climate of cultural Christianity,” he said. “Everyone around me was a Christian or acted like a Christian. My generation was one where there were three cultural spaces: secular on one end and church space on the other. The middle space was cultural Christianity. They weren’t claiming to be believers of Christ, but they still acted Christian. They still acted with a Christian worldview.”

Mohler told students they are in a generation without that middle space, because cultural Christianity is disappearing.

“All you have left are two stark choices,” he said. “There is serious, committed theistic belief on one end and committed secularism on the other. A secular worldview is so devoid of any theistic content, they are purely secular in their viewpoint. You’re living in a time when people will either know they are Christians, or they will know they are not.”

Mohler said that cultural Christianity used to be that middle ground that created stability in our culture. Cultural change used to happen slowly, he said, but now it’s happening quickly.

He pointed to same-sex marriage as an example.

“Twenty years ago, no law existed in any country that supported same-sex marriage,” he said. “Now same sex marriage is becoming more and more a cultural reality. How does that happen? There are those who believe we are making it up as we go along.”

Mohler said our society will see an ever-increasing antagonism toward Christianity, but that it comes down to the belief that either “God is and life flows from that or He is not and life flows from that.”

He challenged students to live with conviction and purpose in an age that is becoming more and more secular.

“We are living in a very different time,” he said. “If your spiritual identity is just Christian-like, it will evaporate pretty quickly. We have to make it clear that God has given us in His word all we need to flourish in this life.”

 

Banner repeats first place in national competition

The Banner, campus newspaper of California Baptist University, repeated its first place award in the 2014 “Best of Show” awards at the National College Journalism Convention, Feb. 27–March 2 in San Diego, Calif. The publication, which entered the competition in the four-year, non-weekly newspaper category, also won first place in the 2013 awards.

Seven students from the CBU Journalism & Media and Public Relations program attended the annual convention hosted by Associated Collegiate Press.

“We are very proud of our talented students and their dedication to the campus publications,” said Dr. Michael Chute, professor of journalism and director of the journalism & media and public relations program. “While we don’t produce these publications to win awards, they are validation of the outstanding work our students are doing and the skills they are mastering in our journalism education program.”

During the conference, the students attended sessions presented by keynote speakers, workshops conducted by professional journalists and had The Banner critiqued by journalism professionals and college journalism advisers.

 

Family Updates

Night of Nations will be held March 28 at 7 p.m. in the Van Dyne Gym. The event will feature performances and videos displaying where the 400+ Mobilization participants are serving this summer, as well as showcasing their tasks. In addition, there will be a World Bazaar where attendees can purchase goods to help send teams on their service projects. Tickets are on sale in the CBU game room at a cost of $10 for adults and $5 for CBU students and children under the age of 12.

 

 

 

Dr. Bradley Thomas, assistant professor of mathematics, and Dr. Ricardo Cordero, assistant professor of mathematics, along with 16 math and statistics students, attended the Pacific Coast Undergraduate Math Conference at Pepperdine University in Malibu on March 8. Three students presented at the conference: Efe Umukoro, An Application of Girth, A Preliminary Report; Benjamin Knisley, Anthropometric Indicators of Obesity in Native American Adolescents and Exploratory Data Analysis; and Joseph Gemignani, Solution of a Schrodinger Equation with a Generalized Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian. Cordero also spoke at the Department of Natural and Mathematical Sciences monthly colloquium on March 4. His presentation was titled A family of explicitly solvable Schrödinger equations with a generalized Caldirola-Kanai Hamiltonian.

 

Susan Tweed, president of My Staffing Coach, spoke to the School of Business’ Marketing Club on Feb. 10 about how to prepare for job interviews. Tweed provided tips on what to do before the interview, how to conduct oneself during the interview and ways to appropriately follow-up after the interview. Students were given practical suggestions on how to conquer the interview process and land their future dream job.

 

Xavier Ruiz modeled his CBU t-shirt on CBU Shirt Day at Dorothy Grant Elementary School in Fontana. Ruiz received his shirt when CBU ambassadors visited the school to talk about attending college. It is the second year students have visited the school.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Monica O’Rourke, associate professor of kinesiology in Online and Professional Studies,  Dr. Dave Pearson, professor of kinesiology, and kinesiology student Jason Guerrero recently gave a presentation at the California Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance annual conference in Garden Grove. Their topic was cardiorespiratory fitness, with findings of a research study on best pedagogical practices for secondary school physical education. About 250 professors and K-12 teachers of physical education attended the conference.

 

 

 

 

John vonPertz is the new assistant director of maintenance & operations in Facilities and Planning Services. VonPertz will supervise all of the maintenance and operations functions of the department, including work orders, small internal projects, supervision of custodial and landscape contractors, oversight of local off-site locations and liaison for Residence Life, athletics and Conferences & Events. Contact him at jvonpertz@calbaptist.edu or extension 4475.

 

Dr. Jong-Wha Bai, assistant professor of civil engineering, and 19 civil engineering students visited the construction site of the Wilshire Grand in downtown Los Angeles, which will become the tallest high-rise building west of the Mississippi.

 

 

 

Dr. Bob Stevens, president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers, spoke to CBU engineering students at a professional development workshop Feb. 26.

 

Click here to view the new video about CBU nutrition and food science students’ involvement in Path of Life Ministries.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Derek Updegraff, assistant professor of English, published an article titled The Translatability of Manuscript Pages Containing Old English Verse (with an Illustrative Translation of The Exeter Book, Folios 98r-101r and 124r-124v) in Texas Studies in Literature and Language 56.1, pp. 1-41. For more information, click here.

 

 

 

Students in CBU’s chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association volunteered their services during the California Speech Hearing Association’s Recruitment Night, held on campus March 4. CSHA’s district 10 board members served on a panel to discuss career opportunities.

 

Dr. Chuck Sands, dean of the College of Allied Health, and Dr. Laurie Black, assistant professor of kinesiology, recently made presentations to nearly 300 students at Ramona High School related to health professions and CBU. Sands made a similar presentation to about 150 students at JFK Middle College High School in Norco.

 

 

 

Dr. Mark Kling, assistant professor of criminal justice and public administration for Online and Professional Studies, presented an executive management topic at the San Gabriel Valley Police Officer’s Association monthly meeting held in West Covina, Calif. on Feb. 26. The presentation titled Working with the Media: In Times of Internal Organizational Crisis was presented to an audience of current and former San Gabriel Valley police chiefs, police captains/sheriff’s commanders and lieutenants, supervisory officers, deputy sheriffs, deputy district attorney and Southern California Edison personnel.

 

 

 

Dirk Dallas recently photographed a new campaign for Ford featuring the 2014 Ford Fusion in Utah and Palm Springs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mary Ann Pearson, associate professor of communication and education for Online and Professional Studies, was one of four presenters at a workshop sponsored by the Community Foundation and held at the United Way in Riverside on Feb.26, 2014. More than 45 nonprofit teams attended in preparation for the Give Big Riverside Campaign slated for November of 2014. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest were demonstrated and discussed as part of marketing and public relations efforts. Pearson shared strategies and practices for finding and working with social media interns.

 

 

 

 

Scott Parker, an alumnus of the master’s in athletic training program, served as an athletic training intern with the Seattle Seahawks this past year and accompanied the team to their Super Bowl victory in February.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole MacDonald, associate professor of kinesiology, Lindsay Warren, lecturer and athletic training program director, and Jodi Baker, associate professor of athletic training, gave a presentation titled Inter-Professional Education and Collaborative Practice in Athletic Training at the 2014 CATA Leadership and Development Conference and Clinical Symposium in Sacramento Feb. 22-23. Afterward, the three faculty members and several students “Hit the Hill” lobbying for  a licensure bill for California athletic trainers.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Matthew Barrett, assistant professor of Christian studies, recently accepted the position of senior pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Riverside. The church is located at 3624 Arlington Ave. and meets at 10:45 a.m. on Sundays.

 

 

 

 

Kushi Jones, director of the Career Center, recently participated in Read Across America/Dr. Seuss Reading Day for Erin Fitzgerald’s second grade class at Hawthorne Elementary School in Riverside.

 

 

 

 

Jim Bishop, associate professor of criminal justice and business law, and Dr. Daniel Skubik, professor of law, ethics and humanities, participated as judges in the National Appellate Advocacy Competition, covering the western region of the U.S., in Las Vegas Feb. 27 – March 1. The competition is sponsored and organized by the American Bar Association for law students around the country, who prepare legal briefs and present oral arguments in competition with teams of law schools in their geographic region. Winners from all regions travel to Chicago to compete in the national finals in April. Bishop and Skubik judged several rounds of oral arguments, sat on panels of three to five experienced attorneys and judges and helped score and select winning teams to participate in the final championship rounds.

 

Dr. Steve Strombeck, associate dean of the Dr. Robert K. Jabs School of Business, co-authored a research paper titled Modeling contextually elicited service quality expectations, which was published in Managing Service Quality, Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp.160 – 183.

 

 

 

 

Mary Davidson, administrative assistant in the College of Allied Health, experienced a scare recently when her baby nearly choked to death on a bottle cap. The story was featured in the Press-Enterprise, and Davidson wrote about it in her blog. To read her account, click here.

 

 

 

 

Leontine Armstrong, adjunct English professor, presented a paper titled A Wife’s Dedication: The Balancing Feminine Power at the Natures Conference at La Sierra University on Feb. 28.

 

Daphne Paramo, secretary in the department of kinesiology, won the CBU Cruiser bicycle, courtesy of the Campus Store, at the Wellness Fair March 3. She’ll be riding the bike on April 26 during the Bike with the Mayor event, which departs from the Recreation Center at 9 a.m.

 

 

 

 

 

Personnel Updates

DATE	DEPARTMENT	POSITION	NAME	STATUS
3/3/2014	Conference and Events	Audio Visual Service Technician	Randall Murphey	New Hire
3/3/2014	Public Safety	Assistant Director of Public Safety	Boyd “Leon” Phillips	New Hire
3/3/2014	Aviation Science	Flight Instructor	Jeff Ang	New Hire
3/3/2014	Aviation Science	Flight Instructor	Stephen Auciello	New Hire
3/10/2014	Athletics	Associate Athletic Director-Marketing and Media Relations	Jay Lucas	New Hire
3/10/2014	Marketing and Communications	Marketing Specialist for Enrollment	Mario Minwary	New Hire
3/10/2014	School of Education	Data/Administrative Coordinator	Elizabeth Olson	New Hire
3/1/2014	Online and Professional Studies	Assistant Professor	Richard Ardito	Change
3/3/2014	Facilities and Planning Services	Maintenance Technician III/Lead	David DeWitt	Change
3/3/2014	Facilities and Planning Services	Assistant Director-Maintenance and Operations	John vonPertz	Change
3/7/2014	School of Nursing	Program Specialist	Elizabeth “Beth” Wagner	Change
3/4/2014	Public Safety	Public Safety Officer	Dylan Cataline	No Longer Employed