All Staff Council invites you to take part in Paul Morrison Spruce Up Day Saturday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Participants should meet in the Harkin parking lot at 28^th Street and University Avenue.

Sign up to participate.

Paul Morrison, a beloved member of the Drake family, had a tradition of picking up trash in the Drake neighborhood. Every day, throughout his life, when Paul walked to and from campus and through his neighborhood, he would stop and pick up any piece of trash he saw. This was a part of his commitment to making Drake a better place for everyone. Paul is also known for his love of the Drake Relays and his commitment to always making it better for those who came after him. To honor his legacy and share his story, Drake Student Alumni Association, the Drake National Alumni Scholars, and the Drake Neighborhood Association will host Paul Morrison Spruce-Up Day. This event combines Paul’s love for the Relays, and his tradition of picking up trash around campus and the neighborhood. At this event, neighbors and students will remember Paul’s Legacy while sprucing up our neighborhood. A snack and all supplies will be provided. Special guests may be present!

If you cannot join in person, you can participate virtually by using #paulmorrisonday to share images on social media of how you are continuing Paul’s legacy. You can still sign up to be entered in a drawing for prizes!  

— Drinda Williams, On behalf of All Staff Council

Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

When we gather together to share about our teaching and research work, we build community that improves our time in the classroom and strengthens students’ experiences. Plus, it’s fun. Consider these upcoming opportunities:

On April 15, Professor Sally Haack will present on the various Scholarship of Teaching and Learning projects she has accomplished in the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, with an emphasis on talking about lessons learned – and helping attendees generate ideas for SOTL projects across the disciplines.  Howard Hall 210, 12:30 – 1:30, lunch provided – please register by April 8.

The final Books for Breakfast of the academic year will be April 20 and 27, from 8:30 – 9:30, in Howard Hall 210, and we will be reading Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next.  Sign up, here, by April 8.  This book is perfect for heading into summer and for redefining what’s most important in our scholarly, creative, and personal lives.

On April 22, Professor Tim Urness (Math and Computer Science) will tell us all about (work) his trip to Italy … and what to do, in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, “When You Think You Have a Good Idea, but Just Need to Prove It.”  Howard Hall 210, 12:30 – 1:30, lunch provided; please register by April 15.

On Wednesday, May 4, at 7 pm, Cathy Davidson, the author of The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux, will address the campus community, virtually.   Sign up to receive the link to this event, here.   If you’d like to join us for a catered Watch Party and after-presentation discussion, please let us know, here. We will also have the opportunity to gather together on Monday, May 9^th  from 3:30 – 5:00 in Howard Hall 210, to discuss Dr. Davidson’s book, after her visit.  Please register here, so we know how many books to buy and can provide an appropriate amount of refreshments.

All Faculty Development Workshop: Meeting Our Students As We Find Them Post-Covid.  Please plan for an intensive two-and-a-half day workshop appropriate for all Drake faculty and staff who teach – but especially designed for First Year Seminar instructors, those engaged in the teaching of writing (across the curriculum and in your disciplines), those engaged in teaching math and science across the university, faculty who want to do community engaged learning, and those faculty who want to learn more about how to make their online and face-to-face courses truly accessible to their students.  We will meet as a whole group, and in cohorts, on May 18 and 19 from 8:30 to 4:00 each day, and from 8: 30 – noon on Friday May 20.  Faculty who attend and participate will receive $375 stipends, access to some terrific guest speakers, all materials, ample time in shared conversation and directed learning, and meals – as well as an invitation to be part of compensated faculty learning communities meeting through fall and summer.  To assist in our planning, please register at this link, as soon as you are able to commit.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

Drake faculty and staff have been gathering this spring to think about what we’ve gone through as a University in the past two years—with a focus on what all of those experiences mean for the academic experiences of our students, the scholarly and creative lives of our faculty, and the relationships we have to work and to each other. We’re ready to start broadening that conversation by sharing resources, informing development opportunities, and planning for the Drake University Learning Symposium (save the date: Aug. 18, the theme will be Returning).

Here are just a couple of resources we’ve found useful, in thinking through the past two years, with thanks especially to Dan Chibnall, Clayton Mitchell, and Carrie Dunham-Lagree for their work in annotating a giant bibliography of these offerings.

One of the first things many of the resources point out is the fact that we’ve all lived through trauma—and that collective trauma will show up in the way we work together as faculty and staff, and in the ways that our students enter our offices and classrooms.  I hope it is becoming clear that members of the Deputy Provost team are working from a trauma-informed perspective, trying to focus on steps 2, 3, and 5 from the University of Wisconsin’s helpful website: we’ve been working to build community by offering intellectually stimulating gatherings with lots of hospitality (read: pastries and good coffee/tea); by recognizing and amplifying the good work of our faculty and staff (more on that, soon – I’ve been gathering data about our internal grant awardees to share with the community); and by encouraging “small things” like stepping back for self care and connecting on the Bulldog Mile. I’d love to hear your thoughts about how to do more, and better, to achieve these aims.

We know the pandemic has had an impact on the scholarly and creative lives of all faculty—with a disproportionate negative impact on women-identifying professors.  But, do we know how the pandemic affected the worklife of our students? How has it changed employers’ needs for skills and mindsets of the undergraduate students we are sending to the workforce?  The Chronicle of Higher Education has a great on demand video series covering these kinds of questions.

As we move through the next six months, returning in various ways to a more familiar rhythm of academic life, let’s promise to continue to think about, learn from, and grow into using the lessons of exceptionally recent events.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost