Polk County will offer an opportunity for qualified voters to cast their ballots early for the November General Election at a satellite voting location in the Olmsted Center on Thursday, Oct. 11, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. Qualified voters who live in the following precincts will be able to cast their ballots at that time: 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 45, 46. To confirm your precinct, visit the Iowa Secretary of State website at https://sos.iowa.gov/elections/voterreg/pollingplace/search.aspx.

Please be advised that voter registration forms will be available at the petitioned satellite station in Olmsted. Electors with a disability that need an accommodation to participate should call the Polk County Election Office at 515-286-3247 for assistance or email election@polkcountyiowa.gov

Drake University does not endorse or oppose any candidate or party for public office.

Jarad Bernstein, University Communications & Marketing

Watch the video above produced by Giada Morresi, Student Activities Board President and Student Senate VP, for a quick look at how to use the calendar. 

With nearly 5,000 students, 1,000 faculty and staff, and more than 160 clubs and organizations, there’s always something happening at Drake. In an effort to better promote our vibrant life on campus, University Communications & Marketing, in partnership with Student Senate, is excited to launch calendar.drake.edu, a new online calendar for the University.

The calendar will replace the previous University calendar and serve as the central hub for all campus events—important academic dates, athletic events, music performances, lectures, readings, films, job fairs—you name it. The calendar is user-friendly, efficient, and allows anyone with a drake.edu email address to submit events. Other benefits include increased awareness and web traffic. The tool will help University events to appear at the top of Google search results, increasing traffic to our website. The calendar can be accessed through the drake.edu website by clicking News & Events or by simply going to calendar.drake.edu.

To date, there are already more than 300 events on the calendar.

Submitting events
Anyone with a drake.edu email address can submit events—and is encouraged to do so. Click on the orange “Submit an Event” button, and you will be prompted to login using your Drake ID. When filling out the submission form, enter as much information as you can and then click “Add Event.” Your submission will go into a pending queue where it will be approved or rejected by your respective area’s calendar editor. Submissions that don’t have a complete description, are not a University organized/sponsored event, or violate the University’s Statement of Principles, will not be accepted. Please be aware that it may take 2–3 days for a submission to be approved and appear on the calendar. Submitting events at least seven days before the start date of your event is encouraged.

Customizing your view
A scrolling slide of “Featured Events” is displayed at the top of the page, followed by trending events. Click the “Upcoming” button to see everything happening this week, or select “All Events” to see events by day, week, or month. To further customize your view, you can filter events by type, audience, or topic, such as “Arts & Entertainment” or “Science & Technology.”

Add events to your personal calendar
Want to add all of the upcoming lectures to your calendar automatically? It’s easy. Just select the category you want on the right-hand side of the page, such as “Equity & Inclusion.” A new page will open listing the events within this category. Click on the appropriate calendar icon at the top of the page (Google, Outlook, iCal). All future events in this category will be added to your calendar.

For complete how-to guides and tips for calendar users, visit calendar.drake.edu/help/about. Localist, the company that developed the new Drake calendar, also has a collection of helpful resources to access as well. See the list.

If you have any additional questions regarding the calendar, please contact Kelsey Faybik, associate director of brand integration, at kelsey.faybik@drake.edu.

Jeremy Sievers, University Communications & Marketing

In January of 2017 the university adopted the preferred name policy. Since that time, we have experienced success with students finding it easier to update their preferred name. This policy is helpful for many students, and is especially meaningful for international and transgender students.

Places the preferred name currently shows up are:
· Drake ID card
· Residence hall roster (for on-campus students)
· Blackboard listing
· Class list with photos
· Advisor list with photos
· MyDUSIS classmate search
· Email

Documents that list legal name:
· Transcript
· Diploma
· Document with the Office of Student Financial Planning
· Official University records
· Visa verification

We continue to work to update our extensive systems that display student names to confirm that preferred names are displayed where appropriate. As you navigate engaging preferred names, below are some tips for navigating respectfully and thoughtfully.

Why is this important?

What to do if you accidentally misgender someone/misuse someone’s name:
While misgendering/misusing someone’s name can be harmful and uncomfortable for both parties, we are all human and make mistakes. How someone responds after making a mistake is important. Often, the best thing to do is simply correct the mistake by saying something like, “Sorry, I meant ‘she’ is attending the event” and then move on with conversation. Try not to call too much attention to the situation or apologize profusely—this puts the person who has been misgendered in the position of comforting you and can make them feel even more uncomfortable. It’s best to say a quick apology, move on, be more diligent in the future.

Keep it confidential:
If you notice a document that uses a legal first name (besides the areas listed above), continue to refer to the person by their preferred name. Notify the department/area in charge where you noticed the discrepancy so it can be evaluated and updated.

What if you know a student who would like to update their preferred name?
Check out this FAQ.

Tony Tyler, Student Engagement, Equity, and Inclusion