A new monthly series, Meet My Religious Neighbor, starts on May 6 with a multi-ethnic mosque, Masjid an-Noor. The mosque is located 1117 42nd St in Des Moines. Feel free to drop in any time from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and tour a sacred space, learn how religion is practiced in it, and meet the congregation who worships there.
—Kayla Jenkins, College of Arts & Sciences
The final Comparison Project Lecture is at 7 p.m. on May 4 in the Cowles Library Reading Room where four scholars will make comparative philosophical reflections on the 2015–2017 Death and Dying series.
—Kayla Jenkins, College of Arts & Sciences
Several staff members joined the Drake family in April.
Katherine Coady, Administrative Assistant 2, Events Management
Thomas Smith, Major Gift Officer, Law School
Wendy Borst, Application Operations Facilitator, Office of Admission
Mark Reiter, Assistant Director, Alumni Relations
David Thorson, Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach, Athletics
Susan Sandeen, Accounts Payable Clerk, Accounting
Ana Espinoza, Administrative Assistant 1, Head Start
Ali Farokhmanesh, Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach, Athletics
—Diana Lei-Butters, Human Resources
Healthy4U BINGO is a great way to have fun and win prizes, all in the name of better wellbeing! The goal is to fill up a blank BINGO card (or two) with healthy activities you complete from a list and then play a game of Healthy4U BINGO for prizes.
How does it work?
Participants will receive a packet which includes directions, a list of Healthy4U BINGO activities, and a blank BINGO card. During the month of June simply complete various activities from the list and record them on the blank BINGO card. There’s a broad range of activities to choose from and you can complete them from home or work so everyone can participate.
On Friday, June 30, at 12 p.m., bring your completed BINGO card to the Olmsted Center, Conference Room 310/311, and join us for a fun game of Healthy4U BINGO for prizes! If interested in participating, send an email to Linda Feiden at linda.feiden@drake.edu with the subject line “BINGO.” Deadline to register is noon on Wednesday, May 31.
—Linda Feiden, Human Resources
Now that we have your attention, we’d like to remind you to register for the upcoming All Staff Council kickball tournament! We’ll be giving away (first come/first serve) mini-cupcakes from Crème Cupcakes (flavors include margarita, Bailey’s, pina colada, and vanilla).
Cupcakes not of interest? How about a kickball trophy for your department to brag about all year long? Yes, we have upgraded to include our own Drake ASC Kickball traveling trophy! Don’t forget to register your team or as a free agent by May 12 at www.drake.edu/asc and join us at Helmick Commons on May 17, 2–4 p.m.!
—All Staff Council
Friday, May 5: Cinco de Mayo Lunch in Hubbell. Faculty & staff dine for just $5
Saturday, May 13: Commencement Lunch
Katie Overberg, Drake’s Title IX coordinator, was honored last week with a Called to Be True Blue Award from All Staff Council. Said her nominator, colleague Brett Niederhauser, assistant director of public safety, “Ever since Katie has started at Drake, I’ve asked myself countless times, ‘How did we ever survive before her?’”
Niederhauser highlighted Overberg’s professionalism in working with students, staff, faculty, and the community; successful coordination of numerous policy changes; and her skills in creating clear communications to help people understand Title IX and navigate through reporting procedures.
“Although Katie is technically a 10-month position, she’s always on campus doing training for Title IX issues,” he wrote. “The multitude of responsibilities in her position are generally handled by an entire department, but Katie is not only managing that well, but succeeding in real positive change that is impactful for the whole Drake community.”
Join Overberg and the other True Blue nominees from this academic year who are in the running for Sapphire Awards at our year-end event, May 4 at 2 p.m. in Levitt Hall.
—All Staff Council Recognition Committee
Thank you to all who participated in this year’s Drake Student Survey. 1,419 students completed the survey out of 4523 contacts (31 percent response rate). We appreciate the engagement and want to give an update on our plans to respond to this information.
While we need additional time to fully analyze the data, here is a quick rundown of some findings.
These represent positive findings regarding students’ overall experiences at Drake.
This month, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment will be sharing unit-specific results, compiling a summary of longitudinal results, and analyzing survey comments to identify areas of success and challenge. In the fall, we will pursue specific strategies to promote the use of this data across the University. We look forward to turning this important feedback into action.
—Kevin Saunders, Office of Institutional Research and Assessment
The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center at Drake is now accepting nominations for the Iowa Character Awards, which annually recognize individuals, organizations, and communities who demonstrate good character. Nominations are due May 9—learn more in the Drake Newsroom.
On March 23, ITS held a town hall meeting to provide an update on what we accomplished last year, and what we’re focusing on for the year to come. It was a well-attended event, but for those of you who were unable to attend, I’m going to recap some of the highlights from that presentation.
ITS Organization
The realigned ITS organization comprises four primary areas.
Campus Relations—Led by Jerome Hilscher, Campus Relations is the face of ITS. The campus community is most likely to interact directly with their staff with personal computing issues, academic technology support, video production, and classroom support.
Infrastructure—Chris Mielke’s team manages and supports the University’s large-scale physical technology including more than 250 servers, 4,500 wired network ports, 500 wireless access points, 800 telephones, 2 data centers, and more than 340 terabytes of storage.
Professional Services—This team, managed by Keren Fiorenza, provides coordinated service and support for the University’s complex enterprise applications like Banner, business intelligence, and blueView, among others. It also ensures that ITS’ complex projects are well-executed.
Administration—The Administration team includes staff who manage the University’s IT budget (Alicia Mann), coordinate centralized technology purchasing (Monita Jackson), ensure effective campus communication (Carla Herling), and protect the University’s electronic information (Peter Lundstedt).
The goal of our reorganization efforts has been to maximize the value that ITS provides to the University.
This past year
Over the past year, we have been able to demonstrate ITS’ value in several ways:
This summer and beyond
ITS is working on projects that we think will continue to improve campus technology and further maximize the value that ITS provides to students, faculty, and staff.
Finally, I want to reiterate ITS’ commitments to you. We will:
Regular status updates on these and other upcoming projects will be provided in future issues of OnCampus.
I hope you have a safe, happy, and productive summer.
—Chris Gill, Chief Information Technology Officer
