Are you or have you previously been part of 4-H?
The local Iowa State Extension 4-H Office is interested in connecting with Drake students who have been involved with 4-H to explore options for continued involvement while in college. The local 4-H organization is very active and there are exciting ways to partner with college students.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact Amanda Martin at amanda.martin@drake.edu.
— Amanda Martin, Community Engaged Learning
On Aug. 24, President Biden announced his administration’s Student Debt Relief Plan, which:
The Biden Administration expects to release an application for loan cancellation in October 2022, and borrowers will have until December 31, 2023 to apply. You can sign up to be notified when this occurs at the Department of Education’s subscription page.
Other student loan-related initiatives implemented by the Biden administration include Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness (TEPSLF) and “Fresh Start”. TEPSLF offered a temporary period (which ends Oct. 31, 2022!) during which borrowers may receive credit for payments that previously did not qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. The “Fresh Start” initiative helps borrowers who are in default on federal student loan(s) by restoring eligibility to federal student aid, stopping collections on defaulted loans, and providing an opportunity to restore loans to good standing.
The best place for accurate information about federal student loan policies is www.studentaid.gov. To be notified of updates please subscribe to “Federal Student Loan Borrower Updates” on the US Department of Education’s subscription page.
— Ryan Zantingh, Director of Financial Aid
As we kick off the school year, it’s important to stay aware of online security threats. Internet scammers often shift their focus to universities at the beginning of the school year as students are returning to their classrooms and residence halls.
One of the most common methods is phishing, which uses email, text messages, or phone calls to trick people into sharing sensitive information. These messages often look like they’re from a trusted source. Instead, they’re sent by scammers seeking to access bank accounts, credit cards, login credentials, or other confidential data.
Here are some common back-to-school scams to keep an eye out for:
Ways to avoid falling for back-to-school scams or other phishing attacks:
More information on how the scams work and how to help stop the scammers behind them is available on News & Alerts section of the ITS website: https://www.drake.edu/its/news/index.php?article=59928
Thank you for your help in keeping all our information and systems safe.
— Keren Fiorenza, ITS
Drake University’s Ambassador-in-Residence, Terry Branstad, will host the Ambassador’s Book Club on Thursday, Nov. 17, in coordination with the U.S.-China Symposium.
The Ambassador has chosen The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom by John Pomfret as the book to be discussed. All Drake students, faculty, staff, and alumni are welcome to participate. Books will be provided at no cost to the first 10 students who register!
Did you know Ambassador Branstad is available to meet with Drake students, faculty, staff and clubs? Visit drake.edu/branstad to learn more.
— Hannah Sappenfield, Global Engagement
Full time Drake faculty (continuous term, tenured, and tenure-track) are invited to apply to be the next Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at Drake University. The Director of the CTE will work closely with the office of the deputy provost to deliver essential pedagogical support to Drake faculty and staff.
Job description:
Drake’s Center for Teaching Excellence supports the ongoing work of providing an outstanding Drake education for all our students. Working closely with the deputy provost, as well as other campus partner, the Director of the CTE will develop, initiate, and assess programming to support the effective delivery of the Drake Curriculum – from FYS to the capstone experience – as well as excellence in teaching across the disciplines in every modality.
The CTE director will, in consultation with the Deputy Provost:
Define the scope of, reason for, and impact expected by the Center for Teaching Excellence. The Center was developed and launched just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, and much of the work in these early years centered on our move to online teaching and learning. The new CTE director has the opportunity to shape the vision of the Center and articulate a passionate and visionary purpose for its role on campus.
Collaborate with university partners to create, initiate, and assess pedagogical support programming around the Drake Curriculum; teaching across the disciplines; and serving our commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our curricular spaces.
Serve as a liaison with Instructional Technologists and Course Designers to develop robust use of our Learning Management System, as well as classroom technology, and to support the creation of online coursework in the undergraduate curriculum;
Reinvigorate and launch a peer-to-peer course observation program;
Support effective teaching in our First Year Seminars by facilitating the FYS Learning Community in collaboration with the Director of the Writing Center as well as library faculty teaching within the Informational Literacy AOI.
Champion student-ready instruction and partner on initiatives related to retention and persistence;
Revitalize the CTE website, and write articles to share pedagogical resources for placement in OnCampus and on that site;
Collaborate on developing New Faculty Orientation and Onboarding opportunities.
The Director of the CTE will serve a three-year appointment, beginning January 1, 2023, with a professional development obligation in late fall 2022. The Deputy Provost and CTE Director will engage in an annual review each fall, with the director eligible for two terms of appointment (6 years total) before a university-wide call is circulated, at which point the director is welcome to reapply.
Resources for the work:
Compensation for the Director of the CTE will include:
Dedicated and directed professional development funding, to attend the POD Network annual fall meeting (mid-November) twice per three-year term, and to attend the New Educator Development Institute (summer) once per three-year term;
A $5,000 stipend paid each summer (this stipend applies for both 12- and 9-month faculty);
Up to two funded course reassignments per academic year.
The Director of the CTE will work with the office of the deputy provost to determine a budget that facilitates appropriate funding support for faculty pedagogical development opportunities; the Deputy Provost will support CTE workshops with funding for hospitality, stipends for participants, and material costs.
Application Process and Timeline:
The Deputy Provost will convene a hiring committee in early fall, 2022. The committee will seek applicants who: have a record of excellent teaching; demonstrate an understanding of the Drake curriculum and its intersections with our majors and minors; evidence good relationships with faculty and staff across the institution; are committed to interdisciplinary work as well as the work of equity and inclusion; and are well-organized, innovative, and ethical leaders.
Please submit a cover letter indicating interest in the position, qualifications for it, evidence of teaching effectiveness, and a vision for the CTE, along with a cv, to renee.cramer@drake.edu (cc:ing nicki.kimm@drake.edu) by Wednesday, September 14. Please use the subject line: CTE Director Application, on your email.
The hiring committee will meet to review files during the weeks of September 19 and 26, and will make a recommendation for interviews by September 30. The committee will complete interviews by October 15 and deliver to the deputy provost an evaluation of the interviewed candidates in time for an offer to be communicated by October 19.
— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost
Full-time Drake faculty (continuous term, tenured, and tenure-track) are invited to apply to be Director of the Drake University Honors Program.
The Director of the Honors Program delivers on the Program’s mission to “ to create an environment, in and out of the classroom, that continually pushes, primarily, members of the Honors program and, then, secondarily, all University members to develop the skills necessary to engage complex problems with patience, depth and creativity.”
Drake’s Honors Program offers undergraduate and Pharmacy students discussion-based, reading- and writing-intensive courses on interdisciplinary and ever-changing topical issues. The program provides a unique opportunity for intellectual enrichment both in and out of the classroom, and the Director is vital to creating, delivering, and sustaining those opportunities.
Job description:
Working with the faculty advisory board and the honors student council, as well as the deputy provost and other campus partner, the Director of Drake’s Honors Program will develop, initiate, and assess coursework and programming to support the Mission of Honors at Drake University.
Duties and responsibilities include:
meeting regularly with the student board and the faculty advisory board, and setting the agenda for those meetings;
serving as a supplemental advisor for all Honors students;
working with all seniors writing an honors thesis;
attending all thesis and study abroad presentations;
overseeing the May Honors Ceremony and the Senior Poster presentation;
coordinating the Honors Practicum;
staffing the Paths to Knowledge course;
soliciting honors course proposals;
developing faculty training and workshop opportunities to increase faculty
participation in the program.
The Director of the Drake University Honors Program is responsible for articulating a consistent vision for the program and utilizing the faculty and student advisory boards to achieve that vision. They will be equity-minded, and interested in furthering racial and ethnic, socioeconomic, and disciplinary diversity among the student body earning the Honors designation. The director serves a spokesperson for the program with campus partners, including Admissions and Advancement, and acts as an advocate for the Honors Program in all relevant university forums. The Director is encouraged to work with the Office of Sponsored Projects to develop grant proposals that increase capacity for the program.
The director will serve a three-year appointment, beginning August 1, 2023. The Director of Drake University Honors reports to, and consults with the Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs, and has full-time dedicated administrative and budgetary support. The Deputy Provost and Honors Director will engage in an annual review each fall, with the director eligible for two terms of appointment (6 years total) at the close of which a university-wide call will be circulated; the sitting director is welcome to reapply.
Resources for the work:
Compensation for the Director of Drake University Honors will include:
A $7,400 stipend paid annually over the course of the 12-month appointment (this stipend applies for both 12- and 9-month faculty);
Up to two funded course reassignments per academic year.
Application Process and Timeline:
The Deputy Provost will convene a hiring committee in fall 2022. The committee will be comprised of a member of the faculty advisory board, a member of the student advisory board, a recent alumni who graduated with honors, a staff member in a unit focused on student success, and a faculty member who has taught in the honors program but is not on the advisory council.
Successful applicants will: have a record of excellent teaching, and a record of engagement with Drake University Honors program and students – through course work and/or thesis advising; demonstrate an understanding of the Mission of the Honors Program, and their role in achieving it; articulate a vision for Honors and a plan for manifesting that vision; demonstrate commitment to interdisciplinary work; be a well-organized, innovative, and ethical leader.
Please submit a cover letter indicating interest in the position, qualifications for it, and a vision for Honors, along with a cv, to renee.cramer@drake.edu (cc:ing nicki.kimm@drake.edu) by Friday, October 14. Please use the subject line Honors Director Application, on your email.
The hiring committee will meet to review files during the weeks of October 17 and 24, and will make a recommendation for interviews by October 30. The committee will complete interviews by November 15 and deliver to the deputy provost an evaluation of the interviewed candidates in time for an offer to be communicated by November 18.
— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost
This fall, we’ll be reading two books as part of the Deputy Provost’s Books for Breakfast series:
The New College Classroom, by Cathy Davidson, Thursdays, Sept. 22 and Oct. 6, 8:30–9:30 a.m. Please email nicki.kimm@drake.edu to sign up and get your book.
AND
Teaching to Transgress, by bell hooks, Tuesdays, Nov. 15, and Nov. 22, 8:30–9:30 a.m. We’ll have an eventbrite to sign up up, coming to you in October, but wanted to get it on your schedule now.
We hope you can join us in Howard Hall, Room 210 for breakfast and good conversation about some excellent books.
— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost
I’m going to be ‘working in public,’ and hoping for impromptu conversation, in several different locations this fall. I’d love the chance to catch up with faculty colleagues I don’t often see as in my day-to-day deputy-provosting. Please come find me. Here is where I’ll be:
Thursday, Sept. 8, 1–2 p.m., Cowles Coffee Shop
Thursday, Sept. 15, 1:30–2:30 p.m., Olin, 1st floor
Tuesday, Sept. 20, 1:30–3 p.m., Olmsted Starbucks
Wednesday, Oct. 5, 9–10 a.m., Cowles Reading Room
Thursday, Oct. 13, 2–3 p.m., Collier Scripps, 1st floor
Thursday, Nov. 22, 10–11:30 a.m., Olmsted Starbucks
Friday, Dec. 2, 1–2 p.m., Cartwright Atrium
And, I’ll be hosting light breakfasts (pastries from La Mie, hot tea/instant coffee) in Howard Hall’s Academic Affairs suite, on the following dates. No agenda—just conversation about teaching, professor-ing, curriculum, and Drake:
Tuesday, Oct. 4, 8:30–9:30 a.m.
Thursday, Oct. 20, 8:30–9:30 a.m.
Friday, Nov 4, 8:30–9:30 a.m.
Friday, Dec. 2, 8:30–9:30 a.m.
— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost
The Writing Center (formerly called the Writing Workshop) opens Monday, Sept. 12.
WHAT WE DO: The Writing Center’s trained peer tutors advise and assist students at any stage of the writing process:
We are a free service for all Drake students, including graduate students and those in professional programs.
HOW TO SIGN UP TO VISIT: Please go to https://library.drake.edu/writing-center/ to book an appointment with a tutor—instructions for booking and visiting are available on the site as well. Appointments are approximately 30 minutes, and students can sign up for more than one session if they wish. They may also request that a tutor keep a regular time slot available for them if they would like to come in each week.
WHERE WE ARE: The Writing Center has moved! We are still on the lower level of Cowles Library—please follow signs to find our new, larger, more comfortable space. We offer hours daily, from mornings to late afternoon/evening (including weekends). Students with health concerns can request an appointment on Zoom.
FOR FACULTY AND STAFF: If you refer a student to the workshop or require all students to visit, please let us know via email (megan.brown@drake.edu). Ask students to bring their assignment prompt/instructions to the Writing Center, as well as any writing they have done so far. When students are referred, or required, to visit, the tutor will email you to let you know that your student has attended and briefly describe what work was done. When students attend on their own, we do not inform professors unless they specifically ask us to do so.
IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS please contact Prof. Megan Brown, Director of Writing (megan.brown@drake.edu).
— Megan Brown, Director of Writing
Join us for Drake Law School’s Constitution Day Lecture, “Saving the Constitution” presented by Professor Jamal Greene. The lecture will take place Thursday, Sept. 15, from 3–4 p.m. in Cartwright Hall, Room 213. The event is free. Register on Eventbrite.
Professor Greene is a Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School, where he is a constitutional law expert whose scholarship focuses on the structure of legal ad constitutional argument.
He is the author of the book How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession with Rights is Tearing America Apart (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021). He is also author of numerous law review articles and has written in-depth about the Supreme Court, constitutional rights adjudication, and the constitutional theory of originalism.
He has been visiting professor at Harvard Law School and has served as co-chair of the Oversight Board, an independent body set up to review content moderation decisions on Facebook and Instagram (“The Facebook Supreme Court”).
— Megan Leto, Law School