Welcome to a new school year! Last week was a flurry of activity on campus as first-year and transfer students started their Drake experience with Welcome Weekend. Many on campus did some heavy lifting during Move-in Day—thanks to those who volunteered their time—and we formally welcomed our new students at Convocation on Friday.

While campus is typically “quiet” during the summer with all the students gone, it is always a busy time for the University as we prepare for the next school year. In July, we welcomed Sue Mattison as our new Provost. Sue has already proven herself to be a great fit with Drake and someone who will provide valuable leadership and expertise into how we continue to improve our exceptional education experience.

At the beginning of the summer, we officially adopted the Drake University Statement on Diversity and Inclusion, which you can find online. This is an important step in our efforts to creating a welcoming campus environment and was born out of the Campus Climate Assessment, which many of you participated in during the last academic year. More than 300 faculty, staff, and students helped craft this statement, making it one that truly represents the aspirations and values of our campus community.

In July, we announced a new recruitment initiative called The Drake Commitment. The Drake Commitment is our pledge to our students to provide opportunities that help them achieve their goals after graduation and create a memorable college experience—one that rests on our foundation of integrating a liberal arts and sciences education with professional preparation. I encourage you learn more about The Drake Commitment by watching this brief video.

You have probably noticed by now that we made significant progress on both the Science Connector Building and Collier-Scripps Hall over the summer. The steel structure for the Science Connector Building is complete, giving us a real picture of that facility’s footprint and scale. You will see the steel structure start to take shape at Collier-Scripps over the next several weeks. And while the walls and floors are not yet up, we’re already thinking about the furniture that will go into both buildings. The STEM@DRAKE steering team will be working with faculty, staff, and students to ensure broad input into the configuration of classrooms, collaborative spaces, and offices.

As I have previously shared, we are experiencing some departures that affect the composition of the President’s Council. With Deb Lukehart moving to Grinnell, University Communications will join Alumni Relations and Development to form a new division—University Advancement. John Smith will represent that division at President’s Council as its vice president. After observing the 60-day hold on replacing positions, I will hire a new chief of staff to take the place of the departing Shannon Cofield. The chief of staff will, among other duties, provide support to the President’s Council, but will not formally be a member of the council. At the point of this change in the chief of staff role, the President’s Council will consist of me, Provost Sue Mattison, CFO Teresa Krejci, Vice President John Smith, Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb, CAO Venessa Macro, and CITO Chris Gill.

We have a very exciting year to anticipate. In September alone you’ll find countless ways to enjoy our campus community. This weekend, you can cheer on the football team at their first home game of the year on Saturday at 6 p.m. Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, will speak on “The Child Labor Epidemic: A Pattern of Poverty & Illiteracy” on Sept. 19 as part of the Sussman Lecture series. On Sept. 21, Dan Alexander, professor of mathematics, will give the Stalnaker Lecture on “Tree Bites Man: What I Wish I Knew about the History of Mathematics.” And, we can look forward to a performance by our two jazz ensembles on Sept. 24, part of the Parents and Family Weekend festivities.

As always, please continue to look to OnCampus for weekly updates on events, important deadlines, useful resources, and more. Good luck with the first week of classes.

—Marty Martin