All posts by Nate Reagen

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Annual faculty and staff survey: Your participation is needed

Each spring, we have partnered with ModernThink to administer the Great Colleges to Work For survey. New this year, we are providing an internally developed survey to focus on growth areas from prior ‘Great Colleges’ surveys and to save on survey costs. Earlier today (March 19), all full-time faculty and staff received an email from President Martin to participate.

How was the survey developed this year?
Our spring survey is the primary employee survey used by the University to gather feedback on our workplace culture. By controlling our costs we also have the opportunity to hone-in on specific areas of our culture. Many, many stakeholders across campus have been involved in crafting this new survey. The survey has been structured around three areas: 1) the University, 2) unit & department, and 3) you. There are only 19 questions and it is estimated to take about 5–15 minutes to complete the survey depending on the amount of feedback you provide.

Why should I participate?
Your voice matters and your responses help the University identify opportunities to improve workplace satisfaction and engagement. Your responses provide valuable insight into employee opinions and needs. This especially applicable given the challenges and opportunities we collectively face.

Overall responses are reviewed to identify actionable areas for improvement over the next year. Last year, 67% percent of all full-time faculty and staff responded to the survey. This year, our goal is to achieve at or about that same response rate. The higher the response rate, the more accurate and complete the results.

Is participation mandatory?
Participation is voluntary, although we do hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to share your feedback and make sure your voice is heard.

Are my responses confidential?
Yes, your participation and the feedback you provide will be completely anonymous. No one at Drake will be able to trace results back to individuals. The survey is being administered in Qualtrics and the only two questions asked of respondents are ‘unit’ and ‘faculty or staff’ (with the later optional). The Qualtrics survey has been set to not record IP address or location data.

How is the data used and will the results be shared?
Consistent with past practice, a summary of the University survey results will be shared with employees and will be used to identify our strengths and opportunities for improvement. Unit-level reports summarizing the survey results for each unit will be distributed to the applicable unit leader. This information helps senior leaders and individual units can make informed, strategic decisions about improving our culture.

Can I complete the survey during work hours?
Yes. Faculty and staff are encouraged to complete the survey during working hours. Completing the survey is an important contribution that you can make to strengthen our campus community.

For further questions, contact Nate Reagen or Maureen De Armond.

Thanks for your support in advance.

— Nate Reagen, Office the President

Campus Announcements Archive

DART bus routes: Potential frequency change

The Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority (DART) is the largest public transit agency in Iowa. Their services connect thousands of people every day to jobs, school, medical appointments, and more. Drake has been a long-time supporter of public transportation.

With your Drake ID, you can ride DART for free—whether you are traveling to campus during the weekday or running errands on the weekend. Last fall (September – November) Drake students and employees averaged 3,300 individual trips per month.

However, as stated from DART: “Like many public entities, DART is experiencing a funding shortfall due to local revenue not keeping pace with the cost of providing services.”

Due to budget pressures, DART route impacts with a proposed 20-25% service cut are:

  1. Route 3 would go from running every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes during peak times
  2. Route 5 would go from running every 50 minutes to every 60 minutes during peak times
  3. Route 60 would go from running every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes during peak times.
  4. DART would end service one hour earlier on weekdays and make all weekend service hourly frequency.

DART plans to present this scenario for public input in late April and May with more details and then changes could be implemented in November 2024, unless alternative funding is approved.

You are encouraged to participate in these public sessions and learn more about the specifics on DART’s website: https://www.ridedart.com/funding-our-future.

— Nate Reagen, Office of the President

Campus Announcements Archive

2024 Harkin on Wellness Symposium: Wellbeing in Schools

Join The Harkin Institute and U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy for the 2024 Harkin on Wellness Symposium on Wednesday, April 3, 2024. The theme of this year’s Symposium is “Wellbeing in Schools”. The prevalence of mental health issues has increased dramatically in recent years, particularly in the wake of massive social disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This led the nation’s leading child health organizations and the U.S. Surgeon General to declare a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. As the location where children spend the largest portion of their time outside of the home, we believe the K–12 school system can be a key vehicle for changes that can positively impact children’s wellbeing across the United States.

U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy will be one of the event’s keynote speakers and will discuss the youth mental health crisis and how his office is addressing this challenge. The event will also bring together policymakers, education leaders, teachers, pediatricians, and practice innovators from around the country to address whole child wellbeing approaches, to review the scientifically supported best practices, and to consider the case for placing health and wellbeing squarely at the heart of our education system’s mission to prepare students for successful lives.

Click here to register!

— Kathryn Kuckelman, Harkin Institute

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Upcoming cybersecurity training

On Monday, March 25, ITS and our partner KnowBe4 will release a mandatory cybersecurity training module to all Drake employees. KnowBe4 will email instructions to access the training module that day, which should take approximately 15 minutes to complete. You’ll have four weeks to finish this mandatory training, but we encourage you to complete it right away.

Topics include phishing awareness, password hygiene, data protection, and safe online practices through reading, videos, and a brief assessment. This training is required to maintain compliance with security laws applicable to the University and help reduce cyber insurance premiums. It also helps our Drake community be safer online and more effectively protect both institutional and personal data.

Thank you for investing your time to better safeguard Drake University against cyber threats.

— Chris Mielke, ITS

Campus Announcements Archive

Bulldogs Belong: A Drake DEI Week, March 18–23

The Office of Campus Equity and Inclusion would like to invite you all to celebrate National Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Week (March 18-22) with a dynamic series of events designed to foster understanding, dialogue, and engagement. From enlightening panel discussions to cultural showcases and workshops, our campus will be abuzz with opportunities to explore the rich tapestry of human experience and advance our commitment to creating a more inclusive Drake community. Please join us as we celebrate our differences, embrace our shared humanity, and champion the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Drake University and beyond.

Please use this link to see a description of the event sessions for the week. We hope to see you at some of these events.

— Terrance Pendleton, Associate Provost for Campus Equity and Inclusion

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Seeking a Faculty/Staff Champion for First Generation College Students Affinity Group

Colleagues: In conjunction with the First Gen Student Organization, the Office of Campus Equity and Inclusion is seeking a faculty or staff member to assist in the creation of a faculty/staff first generation college student group. If you have any interest in being part of this group, please contact me at terrance.pendleton@drake.edu.

— Terrance Pendleton, Associate Provost for Campus Equity and Inclusion

HR Information Archive

Reminder: Wellness Premium Incentive

As a reminder, employees on Drake’s health plan who wish to continue receiving the wellness health insurance premium discount in 2025 need to complete a physical exam with an in-network provider between Dec. 1, 2023, and Nov. 30, 2024, and submit a Premium Discount-Annual Physical Form by Nov. 30, 2024.  This is an annual event.

If you already had your physical since last December, please fill out the form and turn it in now.  If you have not scheduled your annual physical yet, you are encouraged to do so as soon as possible.  Some physician’s offices require a long lead time for appointments. Also note that our Wellmark health plan allows for one physical per calendar year, so you should not need to wait a year and a day between physicals.

Besides receiving a premium discount, an annual physical is a great way to receive important health information through age and gender specific examinations, schedule recommended preventative screenings, and create a doctor-patient relationship.

Please contact linda.feiden@drake.edu with questions on the wellness premium discount physical form and marlene.heuertz@drake.edu with additional benefits questions.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Need help with contracts?

If you are involved with contracting on campus, we want to make sure you have the support and resources you need to perform this important function. Plan to attend the following virtual meeting where we will discuss contracting at Drake. We will answer questions and provide an overview of where to find resources and advice.

WHEN: Thursday, March 21, 11–11:45 a.m.
WHERE: Remote via TEAMS

Please send an e-mail to ducontracts@drake.edu to register.

— Venessa Macro, Chief Administration Officer

News & Achievements Archive

Professor Susan Pritchett receives 2024 Principal Global Citizenship Award

The Principal Global Citizenship Award was presented during the 2024 Global Citizen Forum. The award recognizes Drake faculty or staff who have made outstanding contributions to global engagement and internationalization of the campus and curriculum.

The 2023 recipient of the Principal Global Citizenship Award is Professor Susan Pritchett, director of clinical and experiential education at the Law School.

Professor Pritchett arrived at Drake University in 2018, and from the beginning she has contributed to a multitude of programs at Drake that have shaped the global mindset of students and built their intercultural capacity. She is a teacher, a mentor, and an advocate. Her work is centered on international human rights in action and creating experiences for her students that will not only be transformative for them, but that have tremendous community impact as well.

When Professor Pritchett arrived here, Drake Law did not have any kind of immigration clinic or services and no faculty expertise in the area. In this absence, Prof. Pritchett pioneered opportunities for Drake law students to gain meaningful global experiences. In 2019, she co-created an Applied Immigration Law Course that is still being offered to this day. This course traces the history of the Burmese conflict, allowing student to more deeply understand war and ethnic violence that perpetuates refugee flows. She invites members of the local Burmese community to class to share their experiences fleeing persecution in Burma and starting over in the US through refugee resettlement programs. The capstone experience involves partnering with a local NGO that serves Burmese refugees. As an outcome of that capstone, Drake law students have assisted 45 of the non-profit’s clients in applying for immigration benefits including green cards and citizenship.

In 2020, Professor Pritchett worked to secure a half a million dollar grant to launch Drake’s Refugee Clinic. This Clinic now provides 2nd and 3rd year law students the opportunity to represent non-citizens for asylum and other forms of humanitarian relief. The clinic and Prof. Pritchett’s work has provided meaningful experiences for nearly 50 law students and served over 60 clients, some of whom have been Drake international students and employees. Because of the tremendous impact the clinic has had, it was recently awarded a $1M grant by the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services to provide representation and legal service to the nearly 1K Afghan refugees who live in Iowa.

Her work and passion go beyond the classroom and the clinic. Professor Pritchett has created volunteer experiences for students to work with green car holders to apply for naturalization. As the director of our externship program, she trains all students taking internships for credit in multicultural lawyering. She is also currently helping explore a collaboration with Drake’s partner university in Uganda, Makerere University Business School, to train faculty in experiential pedagogy and to help them develop a Business Clinic as part of their curriculum.

In the words of her nominator: “Talking about global human rights in the classroom is one thing. But when a student is sitting across from someone who has escaped persecution in their country and is desperately trying not to be sent back, they will never forget it and their perspective is forever altered. Those transformative experiences happen every day in our clinic and in other settings because Suzie Pritchett has created them. She believes so strongly both in the power of this type of education and in the public service we provide to those in need, who truly have no other place to turn. She is the quintessential global citizen and is helping to create dozens more of them every year.”

— Kaiya Kielb Young, Senior, Arts & Sciences