All posts by Ashton Hockman

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Course material requests due Oct. 20

The deadline for submitting course material requests for the upcoming J-Term and spring semester is Oct. 20. Receiving material requests as soon as possible enables the bookstore to source the most affordable books for students and provide top dollar to students selling books back at the end of this semester. With the bookstore’s Online Adoption Tool, selecting course materials is fast and easy. Also, download 6 Ways to Help Students Save on Textbooks to learn about different types of course material purchasing options.

Access the Online Adoption Tool

  • Visit bkstr.com.
  • Go to Books in the top navigation and under the Information heading, click Online Adoptions.
  • If you need additional training to use the Online Adoption Tool, contact Donna Hallstrom at donna.hallstrom@drake.edu.

New User?

  • Follow the steps listed above.
  • Click on Register Here and complete the required fields.
  • Enter 1623 in the Bookstore Supplied Password field.

—Donna Hallstrom, University Book Store

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

From the Provost: Midterm grade deadline Oct. 23

As a reminder, the deadline to submit midterm grades is 10 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 23. Midterm grades can be entered through blueView, MyDUSIS, and Blackboard 9. For instructions or questions on grade-entry, contact Kevin Moenkhaus, associate registrar, at kevin.moenkhaus@drake.edu or 271-3902.

Please submit all midterm grades––not only D or F grades––for first-year students, and D or F grades for upper-class students. It’s important to note, because of the documented impact on student persistence and support, some college and school leaders have asked that faculty submit all grades for all students (first year and upper-class) so please follow the direction of your dean.

If you have not yet formally assessed your students, and would like to submit an alternate form of assessment that indicates you believe a student is performing satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily as of midterm, please contact Kevin Moenkhaus for instructions.

Academic performance is an essential ingredient to helping students persist and succeed at Drake. As you are aware, research indicates that mid-term grade entry is an important feedback mechanism for students to understand their progress to-date, so they can make necessary adjustments and seek out resources and support. It also helps to celebrate students who are doing well and hold them to high standards. Mid-term grade deadlines are timed to allow students to make informed decisions about their progress.

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to student success.

—Sue Mattison, Provost

Campus Announcements Archive

OneDrive launch update

Over the past few months, ITS has continued its planning and testing for the release of a cloud storage solution, OneDrive. ITS is excited to announce that OneDrive will begin rolling out to some administrative departments at the end of this month.

OneDrive will be released in phases to ensure that ITS has sufficient technical support available to help familiarize faculty and staff with this new platform for document storage. The initial launch will focus on storage for individuals and will be completed by the end of the fiscal year. Next summer, ITS will begin working with departments to migrate shared storage to OneDrive.

OneDrive allows students, faculty, and staff to store all of their individual files in a location that can be accessed both on and off campus from any device. It will also enhance collaboration by supporting document sharing, simultaneous editing of Microsoft Office files, and document versioning.

—Carla Herling, ITS

Campus Announcements Archive

Banner planned outage: MyDUSIS, blueView unavailable Oct. 14

Starting Saturday, Oct. 14, from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., all Banner (DUSIS) services will be unavailable. Access to blueView, MyDUSIS, DUSIS (INB) Forms, Workflow, eTranscripts, Job Submission, and ODBC (Microsoft Access) will be unavailable. This outage will allow ITS to install necessary infrastructure upgrades for the Banner system.

If you continue experiencing issues after this window, please call the Support Center at 515-271-3001, or report your issue using the Service Portal.

—Carla Herling, ITS

Strategic Updates Archive

Accreditation visit nears, supporting documents available online

Drake will host representatives from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 23 and 24. The five-member team will conduct focused interviews, meetings, and open forums to learn more about our mission, operations, and aspirations, as we make our case for ongoing institution-wide accreditation. This visit gives the HLC team a chance to ask questions, hear input, and generally follow up on information we shared with them in a dossier filed with the commission in early September.

For the next couple weeks, please keep an eye out for invitations to attend meetings and forums. Visit the Conversations website to learn more about the accreditation process and to view Drake’s 108-page self-study. More information can also be found on the HLC website.

—Craig Owens, Professor of English/Accreditation Committee Chair

For Students Archive

SJMC Internship Panel

Join the E.T. Meredith Center for Magazine Studies tomorrow at 7 p.m. in Meredith Hall, Room 124B, to hear from Drake journalism students who had prestigious summer internships. Meet students who worked at Better Homes and Gardens, The Knot, Cityview Magazine, and more.

—Katie Bandurski

For Students Archive

Education Abroad Fair tomorrow

An informational fair on education abroad will be held in the Breezeway and on the Pomerantz Stage in the Olmsted Center tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Learn about study, internship, and service-learning abroad programs Drake offers. Faculty, former Drake study aborad students, and the University’s international partners will be on-hand to share their experiences.

—Karen Williams, Center for International Programs and Services