The Offices of the Provost and Human Resources are excited to initiate a collaborative project re-envisioning faculty recruitment at Drake. The project team consists of Jennifer Harvey, Ann Guddall, and Drinda Williams in Academic Affairs; Maureen De Armond and Marli Jefferson in Human Resources; and with Renée Cramer and Sue Mattison as the project’s executive sponsors.

We will be seeking cutting edge best practices to help Drake attract and hire faculty who will help us meet our institutional goals, serve our students, and live Drake’s Core Values.

At present, the key deliverables have been identified as: (1) creating a strategic faculty recruitment guide with recommendations, templates, sample language, dos & don’ts, and other related resources designed to help solicit large, diverse pools of viable faculty applicants, adopt best practices in recruitment and hiring, and embedding consistent and legally compliant practices; (2) developing a technical guide for search chairs, hiring authorities, search committees, business office managers, HR, and the Provost Office (this will be designed to go with the new applicant tracking system that replaces Hire Touch, which will be sunset at the end of the calendar year); and (3) adopting comprehensive communication and training materials for stakeholders involved in future faculty searches.

The project team will work closely with the academic leaders to strike an appropriate balance between what aspects of faculty recruitment process and strategy should be consistent across the institution and what aspects are more appropriately tailored by the academic units.

The project team will be thoughtful in reaching out to recently hired faculty, recent search committee chairs, deans, academic chairs, business office managers of academic units, and other important stakeholders for feedback.

Since the project team will be working over the summer, it is important to capture ideas and suggestions from faculty prior to the close of the semester. The project team welcomes feedback on current strengths and weaknesses in the existing faculty recruitment processes, suggestions for new and innovative practices, or anything else that comes to mind. You are invited to email such messages to drakehr@drake.edu. Please use “Faculty Recruitment” as the email subject line and the message will be shared with the project team.

— Jennifer Harvey, Associate Provost, Campus Equity and Inclusion & Maureen De Armond, Executive Director of Human Resources

All Staff Council is bringing back its kickball tournament on Wednesday, May 18, to celebrate the start of summer!

Register your team or as a free agent today and view the attached flyer for details.

Spectators welcome and encouraged! Yard games and refreshments will be provided and you may enter the All Staff Council drawing for a chance to win an awesome prize. We look forward to seeing you there.

— Sydni Jennings, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences

With the University’s fiscal year-end (June 30, 2022) approaching, below are recommended guidelines for efficient and effective year-end processing of financial transactions.

Accounting for departmental expenses:
In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, Drake is required to report transactions in the proper fiscal period. For that reason, expenses are recorded in the period when goods are received and/or services are rendered.

In short, items expensed to the FY22 budget will need to be received before ‘end of day’ on June 30, 2022.  Factors such as budget allocation, invoice receipt, or payment issuance would not have an impact on the application of expenses within a fiscal period.

Exceptions to this general rule apply when a benefit of service or receipt of item extends into multiple fiscal years. In such cases, the following guidelines will be applied.

• Expenses less than $5,000: will be charged against the fiscal year in which the majority of the expense will be incurred. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $3,000 and covers the period of 7/1/21 through 12/31/22, the expense would be charged to FY22)
• Expenses greater than or equal to $5,000: will be split into the fiscal years according to the percentage of benefit received during each fiscal period. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $10,000 that covers a period of 7/1/21 through 6/30/23, $5,000 would be charged to FY22 and $5,000 charged to FY23)

The University’s guidelines for year-end purchases are subject to external audit. As you make purchases during this period leading up to and overlapping our fiscal year end, it is important to note when the goods or services were received so they are expensed according to reporting requirements. If the timing of receipt is not clearly noted on the invoice, it would be beneficial to help call the receipt date to accounting’s attention by clearly noting the appropriate fiscal, based on the above guidelines, in the business description in Finance Self Service.

Please review the notice for processing year-end transactions through the new Finance Self Service tool as well as a timeline for processing year-end transactions.

For questions, contact Jeni Baugher at extension 4509 or jenifer.baugher@drake.edu.

— Jeni Baugher, Accounting

The Provost’s Drake Social scheduled for today (Tuesday, May 3) and the Thelma’s Ice Cream giveaway scheduled for Thursday, May 5, have been canceled due to the increase in COVID-19 cases on campus. For more information, read the latest COVID-19 update sent from President Martin to the campus community Tuesday, May 3.

The Office of Finance invites faculty and staff to a retirement open house in honor of Nancy Crittenden on Monday, May 16, from 2–4 p.m. in Levitt Hall, Old Main.

Please bring a copy of your favorite, easy recipe to go in a collection for Nancy.

— Heather Winslow, Administrative Services Specialist

ITS is pleased to announce that we have completed the final steps in the campus phone system upgrade. On Friday, April 8, ITS and our service provider, Lumen/CenturyLink completed moving the remaining campus telephone numbers to Voice over IP (VOIP) service. Though there may be some additional minor configuration changes, this was the last major milestone in migrating away from Drake’s outdated phone system to Microsoft Teams Calling.

This has been an extensive project, and we thank you for your patience throughout the process. It was of the utmost importance that we updated our phone system, which was comprised of multiple systems connected through an unsupported 30-year-old main phone switch. Microsoft Teams Calling is built on cloud technology that provides the campus community a convenient and secure way to communicate wherever they are.

We hope that you are enjoying all the features that are included in Teams Calling, and Microsoft Teams in general. Not only does this provide a new way for us to receive and make calls, but it is a great way to collaborate and stay connected.

Learn more about the project and the resources available by visiting the Teams Calling System FAQ page which includes links to knowledge base articles, video resources, and quick reference guides to help you make calls, set up your voicemail, and learn about advanced calling features.

— Chris Mielke, ITS

Students utilizing Drake’s Tuition Waiver benefit for undergraduate degree programs in the Fall 2022 or Spring 2023 semesters are required to complete the 2022–2023 FAFSA before July 1, 2022. See Drake’s Tuition Waiver Policy for more details.

Employees should complete the Tuition Waiver Application for each semester that the employee or eligible dependent wishes to utilize this benefit.

— Ryan Zantingh, Director of Financial Aid