All posts by Renee Cramer

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Deputy Provost 2:10: Bright College presentation, mid-term grading party this Friday

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

On Friday, Oct. 22, my office is sponsoring two events.

First, we’ve invited Craig Owens, dean of John Dee Bright College, to be (virtually) present to talk about the semester-long John Dee Bright College Faculty Fellowship. Bright College, Drake’s newest academic division, is currently recruiting faculty who might wish to take part in co-teaching an interdisciplinary seminar or leading a practicum for a semester in the next two years. Compensation includes a combination of course release, stipend, and faculty development funding. Faculty at any rank from any college, school, or division are welcome to join Craig for a virtual lunch-adjacent conversation about these opportunities on Friday, Oct. 22, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Email nicki.kimm@drake.edu to register/get the Zoom link. More information about Bright College is available at www.drake.edu/bright.

Second, we’ll be hanging out in Mars Cafe from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22, having a MID-TERM GRADING PARTY. Stop by, drink some coffee, do some grading or other mid-term work, see colleagues you’ve not seen in a while, or meet those you’ve never met, talk pedagogy and assessment and mid-term evaluation practices.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Deputy Provost 2:10: Two resources if you’re feeling stressed

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

We heard at Faculty Senate this week that our students are feeling under pressure as we “return to normal.” They find themselves questioning the way that normal felt/feels, and they ask specifically for more “grace” from us, their faculty. I’ve been hearing a similar thing from faculty friends and colleagues—a sense of already feeling exhausted (and it’s barely mid-term!), stressed, and overwhelmed.

I’m not going to ask that we pretend that we’re not living through exceptional times, and I’m certainly not going to ask that we pretend we’re not stressed and exhausted and occasionally frayed.  But, I will suggest that we will better serve our students (and ourselves) if we take some time to recenter and ground, to breathe and relax, to remember our purpose as faculty and staff committed to higher education.

To those ends, I’ve found these two resources helpful and share them in the hopes that you’ll find a bit of time to engage with one or both, and feel a bit more settled, and less stressed.

First, this article from FacultyFocus, offers some great suggestions.

Second, this video of an address by Joshua Eyler made the rounds at the beginning of summer. Revisiting it now offers a powerful and poignant reminder not to lose track of ourselves, or our students, during the transition back to “normal times.”

In November, I’m setting aside development time to talk together about the lessons we’ve learned in the past 18 months (both the practical/pragmatic/pedagogical, and the more ephemeral), as well as finding ways to extend grace to our students when we are feeling decidedly …. clumsy (not graceful).  Please consider joining, as well, for the book group on BurnOut in November, and The Slow Professor in December (details to follow, next week).

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

For Students Archive

Mean, green recycling machines: Undergraduate scholarship competition

The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is hosting a research-based challenge for undergraduate students. The challenge is for students to develop a website on plastic recycling. Students will research their school’s current process for recycling plastic and then design/create a strategy to make the process more efficient. Thorough submissions will include further research on the plastic recycling process, benefits of current recycling methods, and process improvement ideas. Your website could win you a $5,000 scholarship!

The deadline for this competition is Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, and winners will be announced in late December.

Prizes:

  • 1st place: $5,000 scholarship
  • 2nd place: $3,000 scholarship
  • 3rd place: $1,000 scholarship

For more information on the competition, visit orise.orau.gov/resources/stem/scholarships.html. For questions, contact STEMEd@orau.org.

— Kayla Jenkins, Dean’s Office, College of Arts & Sciences

HR Information Archive

Last chance to join the Eat Right for Life challenge

There is a vast amount of information on nutrition, but healthy eating doesn’t have to be complicated.  To help sort it all out, we have brought back the Eat Right for Life challenge.

This five-week program began Monday, Oct. 11, but you can still join. It works well as both a starter program for our first timers and a refresher program for those tackling it again.

During the challenge you will read a chapter a week from the book Eat Right for Life by Ann G. Kulze, M.D., assess your current eating habits, select a weekly nutrition goal from a list provided, and track your progress. Along the way you will receive additional resources and tips.

To register for this challenge, email linda.feiden@drake.edu.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Campus Announcements Archive

October is DU Good Month

During DU Good Month, we encourage students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of Drake to give back to their community and DU Good throughout the month of October. Visit the DU Good Month website to see how you can get involved—share your volunteering/community service story, submit volunteer hours, volunteer in your community, join us for the DU Good Mile, and more. Share how you are DUing good this month on social media with #DUGoodMonth and by tagging @DrakeAlumni. 

For questions, contact Courtney Conrad, assistant director of Alumni Relations, at courtney.conrad@drake.edu or 515–271–3378. 

— Courtney Conrad, Alumni Relations

For Students Archive

There is still time to enter the Student Phishing Quiz

ITS is holding a phishing quiz, a contest where students can test their knowledge on phishing emails and fraudulent websites through Oct. 18.

Everyone who takes the 10-question quiz will be entered to win one of six prizes, no matter how many answers they get right. Visit drake.edu/its/quiz for full contest rules and quiz link.

The goal of the phishing quiz is to empower students to keep their personal data secure. Learn more about cybersecurity and keep up with Drake ITS by following @DrakeITServices on Twitter.

— Carla Herling, ITS

For Students Archive

Survey request: Counseling Center support groups

The Counseling Center is working to adjust and evaluate support groups for the fall and spring semester, and in order to ensure we are meeting your needs, please complete the following survey: Student Counseling Groups . The survey is confidential, unless you choose to provide your information.

The survey will remain open until Oct. 15. For questions, contact amber.wilkins@drake.edu or tyler.lewis@drake.edu.

—Kayla Bell-Consolver, Director of the Student Counseling Center

For Students Archive

Prevention Ambassador training

Join the Prevention Education and Program team in this dynamic three day training. These sessions will equip you with the skills to help make Drake a more inclusive and safer place. Training topics include bystander interventions, how to facilitate tough conversations, prevention programming, and how to help others.

All sessions will be from 1 to 4 p.m. on the following Fridays: Oct, 22, Oct. 29, and Nov. 5. Participants must commit to attending all three sessions. Register.

For questions, contact Lynne Cornelius, director of Prevention Education and Programs, at Lynne.cornelius@drake.edu.

— Lynne Cornelius, Violence Prevention & Programming

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

New, internal Continuous Improvement site

A new, internal Continuous Improvement website has been created as a reference for all unit-level Continuous Improvement Plans (CIPs) and Continuous Improvement Planning in general.  It’s a great reference to see the objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives for each unit on campus, including the University as a whole.  This also replaces the prior “conversations” site.

It also has supporting information on Continuous Improvement Planning along with many resources, white-papers, templates, and more.

Please use this as a resource to see how other areas around campus achieve these four main goals:

  1. Align activities to strategic priorities
  2. Improve communications
  3. Monitor performance
  4. Drive purposeful action

As always, please reach out with any questions.

— Nate Reagen, President’s Office