Want to ensure access to your Drake online resources while you’re traveling abroad this summer? Make sure to notify ITS before you go. Submit an Account/Security Request before you leave and you’ll be set.
Don’t forget that the eduroam wireless network is also available at over 33,000 locations worldwide. Check to see if your destination is on the list at https://eduroam.org/where/.
— Carla Herling, ITS
Work continues on the Self Service upgrade. The team has rolled out the General, Employee, Student/Faculty, and Finance modules. The project team is still working to upgrade the last Self Service module, Registration. Watch OnCampus for announcements about timing for rolling out the updated registration tools.
In the coming months, a new feature showing action items will be released. This will change the process for entering updated address or emergency contact information. More details to come. Finally, there are some custom processes that still use the older version of Self Service. The team is working on the plan for transitioning these into the current version.
Stay tuned for more news on timing for these changes.
— Kris Brewster, ITS
Drake University is excited to announce our new study abroad program in Seville, Spain for the Spring 2023 semester. Students with or without a background in Spanish are invited to apply and join a group of students and a Drake faculty member while studying abroad in Spain during the 2023 term. The first 10 students to commit to the Drake in Spain program will be given a $500 grant to attend the program. The deadline to apply will be September 1, 2022.
Read more and apply to the program: drake-sa.terradotta.com/?go=Seville
Additionally, students are invited to email studyabroad@drake.edu with questions or to setup an appointment with the study abroad advisor.
— Karen Williams, Global Engagement
According to a recent industry study, phishing attacks grew by 29% in 2021. A phishing attack occurs when an email, text message, or other type of communication appears to come from a reputable source when it’s actually from a cybercriminal. The message may ask for an account’s username and/or password, wire transfer information, or it may simply instruct the recipient to click on a link, or open an attachment.
Cybercriminals often target students, faculty, and staff. This is especially true in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, when those in higher education may be distracted, stressed, and/or exhausted, making them more likely to click on phishing emails.
When phishing attacks succeed, the wider campus community is at risk. The average University employee handles a tremendous amount of data; whether that’s behavioral information, financial information, or attendance records. In addition, the average employee likely deals with more than 10,000 emails per year.
The most important thing you can do to protect yourself and Drake against phishing attacks is to think before clicking.
Listen to your gut. If anything seems strange, call the sender to make sure it’s legitimate.
The best means of combating phishing fraud is by raising awareness about phishing. ITS continues to simulate phishing and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).
— Chris Mielke, ITS
As you may have read, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Making time for self-care is an important component to maintaining mental health. There is a wealth of knowledge on this topic. This article touches on just a few ideas and includes links if you wish to explore the topic further.
Stockpile coping tactics: Try collecting different coping skills and self-care strategies to keep in your back pocket. By adding tools, tactics, and strategies to your self-care toolbelt, you become less reliant on unhealthy practices (say, stress eating) and don’t wear out your tried-and-true healthy practices (you can’t always go for an hour long walk to clear your mind).
Explore the Self-Care Wheel to identify such tools, tactics, and strategies in these six different areas:
Make a little time to work through the exercise of completing your very own Self-Care Wheel here.
Cut yourself some slack: The way we speak to ourselves can affect us much more than we realize. It’s easy to beat ourselves up over mistakes, sticking our foot in our mouth, or falling short against unreasonable self-expectations. Self-compassion means being inwardly understanding, encouraging, and kind in the face of setbacks—a reaction we commonly extend to friends, colleagues, and family members but sometimes forget when it comes to ourselves. Try talking to yourself as you would a best friend or someone you are mentoring. When we are our own #1 fans, we increase our confidence and boost our mood. It’s important to give everyone—friends, family, colleagues, and ourselves—room to be human. It is still important to learn and grow from mistakes, but dwelling on them doesn’t do you any good.
Move more. Physical activity can help the brain cope better with stress, making it beneficial in the treatment of depression and anxiety symptoms. Regular physical activity has also been demonstrated to strengthen the immune system. And you can turn your exercise routine into a way to spend more time outdoors. Studies have shown that spending time outdoors can help reduce fatigue, making it a great way to manage symptoms of depression or burnout. We are so fortunate to have miles and miles of trails in the Des Moines area and loads of state and city parks nearby, too.
Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Sometimes it is hard to accept that we need help (eliminating stigma about seeking mental health support is part of the purpose of Mental Health Awareness Month!). If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, depressed, or anxious, remember to speak up and lean on those around you–family, friends, colleagues. If asking for help is a source of discomfort and you’re not sure how to get the help you need, Drake offers benefits for this. See last week’s OnCampus piece on mental health services available through Broadlawns and Drake’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which offers free and confidential counseling options.
Keep reading!
— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources
Looking for summer work? The Fine Arts Coordinator is hiring multiple candidates for the following summer position:
Fine Arts Events Staff
This summer position is to help assist the Fine Arts Coordinator run and manage various events on campus in the fine arts spaces (Harmon Fine Arts Center, Sheslow Auditorium, and the Turner Jazz Center). Various tasks include setting up the Performing Arts Hall for shows along with the Technical Director, helping events with sound set up, lights, recording, set up, building management, opening and closing the buildings for events, etc., as applicable. Other duties could include preparing for or cleaning up after events, supervision of building during events, documenting event issues/concerns to the Fine Arts Coordinator, etc. Students who are good communicators, want to represent Drake in a professional and positive light, and have good customer service skills are encouraged. Training will be provided.
— Jacob Lemmons, Fine Arts Coordinator
As announced in President Martin’s May 3 email, the Board approved a 2.5% compensation pool effective July 1, 2022. For staff, the compensation pool will be awarded on the basis of merit, excluding those in the bargaining unit and those employed with Drake Head Start (we will work separately with the bargaining unit and Head Start leaders on matters relating to the compensation of those staff members).
We are thrilled that the Board was able to authorize this pool and we hope you are happy as well.
Human Resources and Finance are working together to verify the pool allocations by department and will soon send to department leaders and budget managers more information about next steps in the process. Note that this is a pool and it is designed to be allotted for merit. This means managers will have some discretionary authority to determine the actual merit increases. That is, we are not making an automatic across-the-board merit increases of 2.5% for all staff.
Human Resources will provide guidance and support to managers in the coming weeks to help guide these decisions. This process will take time, so please hold your questions (for HR and your manager) about your specific merit increase—none of those decisions have been made yet. We pledge to share information as soon as decisions are made. We do need to exercise proper diligence to assure we put these funds to appropriate use.
Again, we are delighted to have this additional work appear on our plates and are grateful that the Board was able to approve the funds to make these much-deserved increases.
— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources
Facilities Planning and Management has continued to keep sustainability a priority with the addition of five Ford e-transit vans to our fleet. These vans are 100% electric and will help Drake reduce our carbon footprint.
Facts about the new e-vans:
— Kevin Moran, Facilities Planning & Management
The Underground will be closed and there will be no more Group X classes for the rest of the semester. Thanks for a great semester!
— Emily Madsen, Rec Services
We are not ending the semester as we had hoped, and it is worthwhile to pause and acknowledge what, to many, is a sense of disappointment. I know I always loved the time I spent with students during finals week—getting to see them one last time in person before sending them toward summer (and their futures).
It is also important to note that, given the shift to online class meetings during finals week, many faculty are engaged in rethinking how they will assess student learning at the close of the semester. It is also true that many of your students may be experiencing illness related to being COVID-19 positive, and may be asking for extensions on that work. This message provides some critical information, suggestions, and guidance. It can be found on the website of the Center for Teaching Excellence along with additional resources on virtual teaching and learning.
Final grades are due to be submitted on Wednesday, May 18, at 10 a.m. If a student or group of students in your class needs an extension for turning work in, it would be appropriate to use an Incomplete. When you enter an Incomplete, you will be required to enter a deadline for the extension and a default grade if the work is not completed. I recommend not choosing the “default” extension deadline, but rather choosing a deadline that is appropriate to the situation (yours and the students’) and the amount of work to be accomplished in service of a grade. I acknowledge this—entering an Incomplete—requires an extra step for faculty as you are entering grades, and it requires follow-up on your part; this, though, the most accurate representation of the grade-in-progress, and a humane and compassionate way to deal with student needs. Entering an Incomplete gives faculty the ability to update the grade via Self Service once the work is complete.
Faculty may also want to rethink the way that we assess student achievement of learning outcomes in the course. Faculty could consider offering open book/note/resources essay exams rather than a traditional in-class, resource blind format, for instance; faculty could consider presentations over Zoom in place of in class finals and presentations, or alternative assignments to group projects where groups are impacted by Covid. Faculty may also want to engage in online assessment, and I’m happy to provide here some guidance from our Instructional Technologists, to accomplish that.
Recommendations for creation and use of online assessments
For directions on how to create assessments please see the Blackboard support page.
Please use these resources which provide the best practices in online testing preparation for instructors.
Please provide these resources to students, re: best practices in online testing. And, please share these resources for students prior to your testing period so that they may be prepared ahead of time as well.
As always, please remember that the Academic and Emerging Technologies team provide support and Drake Online have instructional designers and technologists who can help with troubleshooting both technical and pedagogical issues that involve educational technology use.
To request help from Academic and Emerging Technologies, please use: https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2025/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=51078
To request help from Drake Online, please use: https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2025/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=47962
To request help in designing or rethinking end-of-term assessments, conversation about meeting students’ needs in reasonable ways, or moral support and gratitude in general from the Deputy Provost, please email: renee.cramer@drake.edu.
— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost