Faculty Commons SLO

Please join us as we welcome new faculty at a

“New Faculty Welcome Lunch”
Wednesday October 15th
12:10-1pm Bldg 10, Room 100 (please note this location change)

This lunch is designed to welcome all new faculty members. A couple of tenured faculty will be sharing a few brief thoughts on how to have a successful experience at Cal Poly – otherwise, the focus will be on enjoying lunch and getting to others from different parts of campus. 

We hope you’ll also consider personally inviting any new faculty from your department to attend with you – or just come.

Lunch is free for new faculty – otherwise there is a $5 suggested donation. 

Please rsvp by Monday Oct 13th (our contact info is found here).

We hope you can join us. 

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As you may have heard, the 23 campus California State University system has recently enacted a new policy that prohibits student groups from selecting leaders based on religious beliefs. This follows a similar policy enacted at several private universities, starting with Vanderbilt University – where two years ago 13 Evangelical and Catholic student organizations lost their campus recognition.

Here’s an excellent video from Greg Jao on InterVarsity’s response to the situation, and a recent article from Christianity Today.

Cal Poly (which is part of the CSU system) has historically been very accommodating to student religious organizations, so at this point we’re unsure how this new policy will affect our campus. None the less, Christian ministries (including Cru, InterVarsity and others) have already been “de-recognized” at several other CSU campuses.

Please know that regardless of current or future policy changes, these organizations are committed to actively ministering on campus. Whether or not they are formally recognized by the university, they will continue to be involved in the lives of students and faculty and serve the larger campus.

As you remember, please pray for our campus’ administration, for ministries on other campuses affected by this new CSU policy, for those making an appeal that this policy would be rescinded, and that God would be glorified regardless of the outcome.

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We hope you can join us for our 4th annual Faculty Commons kick-off event.

This year is the O’Brien’s outdoor wedding venue in Los Osos. We’ll provide BBQ and beverages. We hope you’ll bring your favorite side dish or dessert to share.

This is a family event, and we’ll have some childcare helpers on hand so you can bring kids and still enjoy adult interaction!

We look forward to your reply. Please indicate the number of people, and ages of children you are bringing, by September 21, so we can be prepared.

3:30-4 arrive and connect

4:00-4:45 BBQ and potluck

4:45-5:45 hearing from each other, vision for the year, prayer together in small groups.

Please rsvp to the evite (which also has directions) – or just contact us for more information.

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Is the Bible opposed to evolution? How should we understand human origins in light of Genesis and science? Biblical scholars John Walton and C. John Collins and biologist Jeff Schloss will share their perspectives and interact on panels. Join us for new insights, spirited dialogue, and a model of gracious conversation even without full agreement.

Saturday, October 25, 2014 – Harvery Mudd College: Claremont, Calif.

For details and registration: http://bibleevolutionhumanorigins.eventzilla.net

This event is organized by Dr. David Vosburg, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College, and sponsored in part by BioLogos.

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Cal Poly recently released an outstanding promotional video highlighting the campus and surrounding area, designed to significanlty increase the number of international students on campus over the next few years. It’s very well done and worth watching if just for the opening helicopter shots over Bishop Peak!

“Having more international students is part of our goal of getting more of the world to Cal Poly — but we also want to get more of Cal Poly into the world.” – President Jeffrey D. Armstrong.

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May 8th, 15th and 21st we will be hosting “The Reason for God”, a one-hour discussion in UU 218 (or 219). Each discussion will be based on a short article, meant to be read beforehand, available at the links below or: theReason4God.wordpress.com.  These one hour discussion groups are open to all faculty and welcoming diverse opinions.

Thursday May 8th – 4:10-5pm – meeting in UU 218 “The Question of God” PBS interview with Dr. Francis Collins, former head of the Human Genome Project, current Director of the National Institutes of Health. Click here for a pdf copy of the Francis Collins interview.

Thursday May 15th  – 4:10-5pm – meeting in UU 218 “Wrestling With One God or Another” Chronicle of Higher Education article by Dr. Stephen Prothero (Professor of religious studies, Boston University). Click here for a pdf of the Stephen Prothero article.

Wednesday May 21st – 4:10-5pm – UU 219 (please note the day and location change) “The Psychology of Atheism” excerpt of a lecture given at the University of Florida by Dr. Paul Vitz (Professor Emeritus of psychology, New York University). Click here for a pdf of the excerpt of the lecture.

We hope you’ll plan on attending – and inviting someone to go with you. Or, download an article and invite someone to discuss it with you – maybe over coffee.   –

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“Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.”
― C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer

Please join us as Cal Poly participates in the Worldwide Day of Prayer Tuesday afternoon April 22nd. Come for an hour, or a few minutes.

Students, faculty, administrators, and campus ministry staff will be meeting in conference rooms – UU 216 from 12-2pm and UU 219 from 2-5pm – starting a new segment at ten after every hour.

We’ll be praying for each other, for the campus, the larger community, and needs around our world. We hope you’ll join us.

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Every person on this planet is unique. Every person has a different story, different hopes, different dreams.

Every person who is a follower of Jesus Christ also has unique story of what God has done –  and is doing – in their lives. A story of what their lives were like before and after they choose to follow Him.

Later this quarter, hundred of students will be participating in a campus-wide “Before & After” outreach. 7th week (May 12th-16th) students will be wearing t-shirts, each with two words that personally describe their life before and after choosing to fully follow Jesus Christ. A few samples are show here.

As faculty, we would love to have you consider participating in this campus wide outreach. Whether you choose to wear the shirt during the week or simply hang it up in a visible spot in your office, it’s an opportunity support the larger student effort and to engage with others about your relationship with Jesus Christ.

What’s impactful is that each shirt is personalized and different – no two are the same.

If you’d like to participate, we need to hear back from you by Friday morning April 11th with the two words that describe your life before and after choosing to follow Christ, and your t-shirt size. The cost for the t-shirt is $8.

This same type of outreach has been done on several other campuses including U of Illinois, Michigan State, Indiana, Idaho. We’re excited to see how God uses it to here at Cal Poly.

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The new Paramount film Noah, can be a great conversation starter with students or colleagues. Of course, anytime Hollywood takes on a biblical theme it is usually a mixed blessing.

Director Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” is a relentlessly dark, conflicted, imaginatively provocative Hollywood work of fiction, inspired by the biblical story of Noah. The good news is, the movie powerfully explores themes of sin, righteousness, judgment, mercy and redemption. The film poses a number of worthwhile questions. Is mankind worth saving? Is God worth worshiping? Does God speak, and if so, how can we discern His voice? That’s why it can work as a great conversation opener to talk about the heart of the gospel.

If you choose to see the film, what follows are a series of questions you may want to use with those who’ve seen it. In brackets after each main question are some potential follow-up questions or other helpful information. (But you should know, there are also a number of plot spoilers!)

Click here for the entire article and discussion questions.

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The Family Life “Weekend to Remember” marriage conference is an outstanding weekend get-away and opportunity to invest in your marriage.

We hope you’ll consider attending March 28-30, 2014 at the Ventura Beach Marriott with a group of us from Cal Poly.

We have eight couples going and would love to have you join us.

This video gives a great overview of what the conference is all about. “Weekend to Remember” is sponsored by Family Life, a ministry of Cru. Here’s a link to the conference website.

Thanks to a generous scholarship donation to Faculty Commons SLO, we are able to waive the normal conference registration for faculty and their spouses. Each couple is just responsable for the lodging cost at the hotel.

Contact us if you’d like additional inforamation on registering.

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