Colleagues: On April 15, you received an email from the Provost’s office with a link to a survey on internationalization at Drake. If you have not already completed it, we ask for your consideration in doing so.

The deadline for submission is May 1.

— Mary McCarthy, Professor of Political Science

This group will focus on writing instruction, activities, assignments, and assessments for First-Year Seminar. Instructors who participate in this project will have a one-semester commitment that will include:

• Working with the Director of Writing, Megan Brown, on the development of a writing assignment, writing activities, or a writing project for their FYS.
• Attending an individual meeting at the start of the semester (or during the summer if preferred) to work on writing assignment ideas.
• Attending meetings of all participants in the program in August/September, at approximately midterm, and at end of Fall 2024 semester.  These meetings may be structured as two sessions each time, with half of the participants at each session, in order to facilitate more in-depth discussion.
• Requiring all students enrolled in their FYS to attend tutoring sessions at the Writing Center at least twice during the semester.
• Submitting samples of student writing and a brief critical reflection at the end of the semester.

At the end of the semester, participants will receive a stipend of $500.

Participation is limited to 10 individuals. Instructors who have not taught FYS in the past will be prioritized.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Madison Bemus (madison.bemus@drake.edu) by June 30. (Note: if you miss this deadline and you want to participate, please check anyway—summer is not necessarily the best time for getting people signed up.)

If you have questions, contact Megan Brown (megan.brown@drake.edu).

— Megan Brown, Professor of English

On Saturday, April 27, SJMC faculty and alumni celebrated the retirement of Professor Jill Van Wyke at the alumni party in Meredith Hall. Many on-campus colleagues were not able to make it to party to sign her going-away gift, a beautiful print of Meredith Hall. The print will be displayed in the SJMC Dean’s Office, Meredith Hall, Room 118, for the next two weeks, for anyone who would like to stop by and sign the print with their well-wishes.

— Kate Busch, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

ITS will push the Windows 11 upgrade out to all Windows computers beginning the evening of Thursday, May 2. Here is some important advance information to ensure the process goes as smoothly as possible. 

First, back up any data saved on your computer’s hard drive (C:) or it may be lost. Complete your data backup before you initiate the upgrade process. ITS strongly recommends saving your files in your OneDrive; files saved there will be accessible anywhere you login to your Drake account. If you choose to use a personally-owned external hard drive, ITS will not be able to assist with retrieving your files in the event something goes wrong.  

When the update becomes available starting on Thursday, you will receive a Windows Update notification on your computer and will be able to choose when to begin. 

• If you’re ready to begin immediately, select the “Restart now” option.
• If you’re not ready, select either “Pick a time” (which allows you to delay initiating the upgrade up to 28 days maximum) or “Restart tonight” (to install overnight).

You must upgrade by May 30; after that point, it will be forced. On average, the upgrade should take around 30 minutes, during which your computer will be unavailable for any other tasks. Make sure you have reliable connections to power and the Internet for the duration of the process. 

Once the upgrade is complete, you’ll be able to log back in. The primary change you should notice is that the start menu and application icons on the taskbar will be centered at the bottom of your desktop. 

If you notice any issues or have questions, contact us by submitting a “Software Issue” ticket through our service portal (service.drake.edu/its) or by calling the Support Center at 515-271-3001. 

— Jerome Hilscher, ITS