University Communications and Marketing is sponsoring a professional portrait day Monday, Aug. 21, from 12–1 p.m. in Old Main, Conference Room 115. The photo session is free and open to all faculty and staff. High-resolution portraits are made available for download through SmugMug.
There is no advanced sign up. Photos will be taken on a first-come, first-serve basis.
— Jimmy Hoover, University Communications and Marketing
It is with great sadness that we share the passing of three former professors who held long and distinguished careers at Drake.
Phyllis Kingsbury, associate professor emeritus of biology, passed away May 12. She was a cornerstone of the original environmental track in the biology department and taught at Drake until her retirement in 1996. See Professor Kingsbury’s obituary.
Robert (Bob) Kodama, professor emeritus of biology, passed away May 30. For more than 30 years, Professor Kodama served on the Drake faculty. He was known fondly as “Dr. K” by his students. His legacy will live on in the many students he taught who went on to lead rewarding careers in medicine. See Professor Kodama’s obituary.
Robert (Bob) Lutz, associate professor emeritus of physics, passed away June 12. Professor Lutz was not only a revered educator during his time at Drake, but he also served as Director of Computing and Telecommunications in the 80s and led Drake’s early adoption of technology solutions, including the University’s membership in the Apple Consortium, which made computers more accessible to faculty, staff, and students. See Professor Lutz’s obituary.
Professors Kingsbury, Kodama, and Lutz will be missed dearly. They had a profound impact on our University and on the lives of their students and colleagues.
Are you a new student? Find out everything you need to know about The Bulldog Shop. Learn more about how to order course materials, resources to get you started, and how we can help you be first-day ready.
If you’re on campus for orientation this June, don’t forget to visit The Bulldog Shop to shop exclusive savings. Enjoy 75% off select merchandise (in store only) and enter to win a $100 textbook scholarship. Visit us in the Olmsted Center during our special orientation hours.
Special Orientation Store Hours
Monday–Friday: 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m.–1 p.m. (June 3 and 17 only)
Sunday: 12 p.m.–4 p.m. (June 11 and 25 only)
Staff upgrade requests and limited market adjustments are included in the fiscal year 24 budget. Managers will be notified in the next week if their requested upgrades were approved. If so, job upgrade adjustments will be effective July 1, 2023. A limited pool is also available for some staff market adjustments. In addition to our standard formula for assessing market adjustments, we are also faced with a potential change in the law that could inform market adjustment decisions.
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced over a year ago that they would be proposing a new a new salary threshold for overtime eligibility. The anticipated proposal was originally supposed to be published last April, then last October, and it has most recently been pushed to this current month of May.
If the DOL raises the salary threshold for exempt (salaried) status, employers will need to evaluate whether to increase a position’s salary to meet the threshold or adjust positions to non-exempt (hourly) status. Clearly, without knowing what the new salary threshold will be, we cannot project what we will be able to do for each impacted position.
We hope the coming months will bring with them answers—what the new threshold will be, when it will take effect, and what our approach to the new threshold will be.
The waiting game will impact the decisions we need to make regarding staff market adjustments. As soon as we have more concrete information to share we will. Please know we understand this is a topic of both great interest and importance to staff. If the Department of Labor does not issue a new threshold by early June, we will determine whether to proceed with limited market adjustments effective July 1. Watch for additional information about this process from Human Resources.
At present, we are not far enough into the budget process to have any substantive update regarding staff merit adjustments. Going forward, the plan is to roll out any merit increases as of January 1 of the relevant fiscal year (January 1, 2024, for the next fiscal year).
Please note that faculty salaries are being actively reviewed by the Provost’s Office, with support from Drake HR. Faculty fall under a different exemption category under the FLSA, so a change to the hourly threshold will not impact anyone holding a faculty position. Faculty market salary letters will be sent in June from the Provost’s Office, and faculty promotion salary letters will come from their respective deans.
— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources
Drake Professor of Sociology Nancy Berns, author of Closure: The Rush to End Grief and What It Costs Us, shared her expertise around grief and the pressure to “move on” and find “closure” in a recent Yahoo Life article.
In the article, titled, “How those who grieve feel pressured to ‘move on’ — and why that makes the loss hurt even more,” Professor Berns said,
“Closure grew in popularity particularly in the ’90s, but has roots in the ’60s and ’70s, with the rise of pop psychology and victim survivor movements.” The “made-up concept” has been exploited by groups including politicians pushing the death penalty and those in the funeral industry, she said.
“It carries a lot of baggage and can create more harm than help for those who are grieving. We grieve because we love. Even as it changes over time and people learn how to carry it, it’s still going to be part of our lives in many ways.”
But when people receive messages about closure, she adds, “What it sounds like is, ‘You don’t want to listen to my pain,’ and it shuts them down and isolates them further.”
At its April meeting, the Drake Board of Trustees voted to approve the newest cohort of tenured and promoted faculty, the Sammons Endowed Professorship of Actuarial Science, the inaugural Flapan Professorship of Biology, and Troyer fellow. Our colleagues’ hard work and passion as educators are truly extraordinary.
College of Arts & Sciences:
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
School of Education
Zimpleman College of Business
— Sue Mattison, Provost
The Zimpleman College of Business is implementing a new leadership structure to enhance its ability to manage and develop faculty, recruit new students, and support current students in achieving their goals.
This new lineup, dubbed the Senior Leadership Team, supersedes the Administrative Council, and includes the promotion of several recognized leaders into college-wide roles and the continued contribution from a number of proven leaders. These changes will take effect July 1, 2023:
New and revised roles:
New leaders in current roles:
Continuing roles:
I want to thank Sean Severe for the work he has done to move the Zimpleman College of Business forward during his tenure as Associate Dean. As he is welcomed back into the faculty, it is clear that his sensible, thoughtful, intelligent, passionate, and compassionate approach to leadership has been essential to the success of the College.
— Alejandro Hernandez, Dean of the Zimpleman College of Business
May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 national public health emergency. Drake has adjusted its COVID-19 guidance to reflect the expiration of the PHE as indicated below.
As always, the University will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation carefully and adjust these measures as needed. Although the official public health emergency has ended, please remain vigilant about protecting yourself and others.
For questions on Drake’s COVID-19 guidance, contact Scott Law at scott.law@drake.edu.
May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 national public health emergency. Drake has adjusted its COVID-19 guidance to reflect the expiration of the PHE as indicated below.
Note: If you are on Drake’s medical plan and wish to get tested for COVID-19 at a pharmacy, you will be required to submit a claim form to Wellmark for reimbursement. The service will be processed per the plan’s cost-share amount. Medicap and Hy-Vee Pharmacies can submit claims for testing services directly to Wellmark.
As always, the University will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation carefully and adjust these measures as needed. Although the official public health emergency has ended, please remain vigilant about protecting yourself and others.
For questions on Drake’s COVID-19 guidance, contact Scott Law at scott.law@drake.edu.
An important part of Drake’s ongoing compliance and safety efforts is timely disposal of hazardous waste. If you have waste to be picked up by EHS please complete the following form by Friday, May 12:
https://forms.gle/r1XwPXjHn2gnj4jQ9
Nick Crumpton, chemistry lab instructor, is coordinating the waste disposal effort this spring. If you have questions, reach out to Nick at nicholas.crumpton@drake.edu.
— Venessa Macro, Chief Administration Officer