All posts by Heidi Weiss

Water shut down Dec. 20

Drake will experience a water shutdown on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The shutdown will last approximately seven hours. The shutdown will begin at 10 p.m. on Dec. 20 and the water will be back on at approximately 5 a.m. on Dec. 21. The buildings included in the water shutdown include Howard Hall, Old Main, Carnegie, Harmon Fine Arts Center, Opperman Law Library, The Knapp Center, Cartwright, Jewett Residence Hall, Collier Scripps, Olin Hall, Drake Fieldhouse, Bell Center, and Facilities Planning and Management.

—Jolene Schmidt, Facilities Planning and Management

Toddlers, start your engines

Drake men’s basketball team will host the ever-popular Toddler Trot presented by Iowa State Bank on Saturday, Jan. 13, during halftime of its game against Evansville. Children ages three and under are eligible to compete. This is a walking, waddling, and/or trotting only competition.

Registration is open until Jan. 7 or until all spots are filled. Space is limited and contestant slots are filled on a first-come, first-served basis so be sure to register early.

There will be two separate races based on age. Contestants will receive two complimentary tickets to the game for parents/guardians. Additional tickets for friends and family will be available at a discounted rate. All contestants will receive a plush miniature Spike doll. The top three finishers in each race will receive prizes for their efforts.

Register online at www.draketix.com/toddlertrot. For more information, contact Aimee Lane, director of athletics marketing, at aimee.lane@drake.edu   or 515-271-3647.

Ryan Harris, Drake Athletics

Honors program awards ceremony

An awards ceremony and reception, celebrating students graduating with honors, will be Friday, Dec. 15, at 3:30 p.m. in the Olmsted Center, Rooms 311–313. Faculty, family, and friends of the following students graduating with honors are invited to attend.

Mollie Clark
Clarissa Davison
Chayce Glienke
Amanda O’Malley
Alexandria Porter
Johanna Smith
Katherine G.G. Smith
W.A. Chamindi Wijesinghe

A light reception and poster presentation session will follow the ceremony. Congratulations to all of Drake’s December graduates.

—Charlene Skidmore, Honors Program

Reminder: Blackboard migration Dec. 23–27

Blackboard will be migrating to a different kind of environment without much change to its users. In order to complete the migration, Blackboard will be unavailable from Dec. 23 to 27. Please be sure to plan accordingly for this migration timeline. After the system is available, faculty may generate course materials and finish their preparations for J-Term and spring courses.

Our move to Blackboard’s SaaS (Software as a Service) will make new tools available and position Drake to provide better online offerings for years to come. The planned migration from managed hosting, which is housed on Blackboards servers, to SaaS, hosted on Amazon Web Services data centers, will occur during winter break to have the least amount of impact.

Once the migration takes place, we will continue running the current experience on Blackboard known as version 9.1. By moving to SaaS, we gain some major benefits from the new environment, which will also allow us to make future upgrades and patches to our environment with little to no downtime.

—Karly Good, ITS

ITS shares Survey of Administrative Services results

The results from the 2017 Survey of Administrative Services for ITS revealed both disappointing and hopeful trends in satisfaction with ITS services.

Satisfaction with ITS services increased by .1 percent, from an average satisfaction rating of 3.7 percent in 2016 to 3.8 percent in 2017 (see figure 1). In general, responses to the survey questions were consistent between years (see figure 2). These results indicate that, while the perception of ITS service quality has not lost ground, we are going to have to work harder to make progress.

Figure 1 – Overall Satisfaction with ITS Trend

Figure 2 – ITS Staff Satisfaction Trend

Questions listed from left to right:

  • ITS staff are courteous
  • ITS staff are professional
  • ITS staff are knowledgeable
  • ITS staff resolve my requests in a timely manner
  • ITS staff resolve my requests without errors
  • ITS staff provide regular communication about the status of my requests
  • When I contact ITS, I have confidence my requests will be resolved to my satisfaction

The survey results do suggest that ITS is making some progress on our continuous improvement efforts (see figure 3). Most of the survey questions related to our priorities for continuous improvement (particularly improved communication) show modest increases in satisfaction.

Figure 3 – ITS Continuous Improvement Satisfaction Trend

Questions listed from left to right:

  • I have the right technology tools I need to do my job effectively
  • I know how to use the technology I need to do my job effectively
  • I have the right level of support to use technology effectively
  • I know how to get training when I need to learn new technology
  • I know how to find information about the status of technology issues or problems on campus
  • ITS keeps me aware of changes to technology that will impact my work

The results of the 2017 survey show that ITS has more work to do. Our key priority over the coming year will be to focus on consistency and accountability in our work. We are planning to make some changes to the design of the ITS Service Portal to make it even more user-friendly and will hold ourselves accountable to communicating consistently and regularly about the status of support requests via the service portal. I encourage you to check on the status of your requests at any time by logging into the Service Portal, selecting Services, and then looking at Ticket Requests.

The year ahead promises to be filled with challenge and opportunity. ITS wishes you a joyful holiday season and we commit to a renewed focus on services, communication, and continuous improvement in 2018.

Chris Gill, ITS

Finance and student financial planning share Survey of Administrative Services results

The Offices of Finance and Student Financial Planning would like to thank everyone for taking the time to complete the Survey of Administrative Services in October. We gained valuable feedback to help us maintain and improve the services we provide to faculty and staff.

Our median scores, on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest, were as follows:

Staff are courteous: 4.33
Staff are professional: 4.41
Staff are knowledgeable: 4.41
Staff respond to my inquiries in a timely manner: 4.39
Overall, how satisfied are you with the Finance Department: 4.30

Each of our departments individually scored between 4 and 5 on all survey questions, with the average score coming to 4.31.

In accordance with our continuous improvement plan, we currently have initiatives in place to meet the following service-oriented objectives:

• Ensure our constituents are engaged and informed
• Ensure integrity and transparency
• Process university resources timely and accurately
• Improve service excellence

In addition, we have recently implemented a service standards card to guide our interactions with faculty, staff, and students.

We appreciate all the comments included in the survey. Thank you for the many positive comments, which support our efforts to be prompt, helpful, responsive, and friendly. Also, thank you for providing feedback to help us make improvements in the future. We will especially take note to work on simplifying our processes, ensuring our communications are clear and consistent, and striving to be courteous and professional every day.

Teresa Krejci, Finance and Administration

 

 

CBPA has a new website

A new website for the College of Business and Public Administration was rolled out last week. University Communications refreshed the website in partnership with ITS and CBPA to align with Drake’s new brand platform. Look for new websites for the remaining colleges and schools to launch next semester.

Jeremy Sievers, University Communications

Hy-Vee Classic: Free student tickets available

A limited number of free student tickets are available for the Hy-Vee Classic on Saturday, Dec. 16, at Wells Fargo Arena. This college basketball event brings together the four Division I men’s basketball programs in the State of Iowa. The Drake men’s basketball team will take on the University of Iowa at 1 p.m. followed by the Iowa State–Northern Iowa game at 3:30 p.m. Students may claim one free student-section ticket by visiting The Knapp Center Ticket Office and showing a valid Drake Card during regular business hours. The ticket will give students access to both games. For more information, contact the Drake Athletics Ticket Office at 515-271-3647 or tickets@drake.edu.                                   

Ryan Harris, Drake Athletics