All posts by Linda Feiden

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

BUILD-ing better services for you

The Bulldogs United in Learning Drake (BUILD) program is strong.  But, as is typically the case, there is always room for improvement. While we will continue many of the BUILD training and educational opportunities familiar to you this upcoming academic year, Human Resources is looking at short and long-term improvements to the BUILD program to better serve the needs and interests of our employees.

Some of the comments in the 2021 Great Colleges to Work For survey indicate a desire for additional professional development and growth opportunities. We hear you! Whether a technical training topic, brain-storming opportunity, team-building exercise, or substantive discussion—we want to hear what type of training and training topics would interest you for this coming fall. If you have suggestions for longer-term enhancements to BUILD—and those will take some time—we welcome those as well.

Please send your suggestions to drakehr@drake.edu with the subject line: BUILD Ideas. We would love to hear your suggestions and ideas.

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

New employee dashboard coming next month

This spring, Drake began a major project to update the MyDUSIS system to Banner Self Service. In the first week of August, we will release the next phase to campus—the Employee module.

As a result, screens used for entering and approving time and/or leave, and pay information will be upgraded. See an example of the new Employee Dashboard screen below:

As a reminder, with these new Self Service modules, you need to use Duo Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to view or change your information. For help with Duo, see the Duo guides in the IT service portal.

When the Employee Module is released, the Human Resources section of the myDrake Employee Home will be updated. A new link, My Employee Dashboard, will be added to replace the My Leave Balances, Pay Information, Pay and Benefit Deductions, Time Approval, Time Report, and Time Sheet links.

The Employee module is currently being tested by Human Resources and Information Technology Services staff and this test group will be expanding soon.

In addition to testing, project team members are creating documentation to help guide campus through these changes. Links to these instructions will be shared in the next issue of OnCampus, right before we roll out the Employee module.

— Kris Brewster, ITS 

Campus Announcements Archive

Sharing your pronouns in Zoom

You can now share your pronouns in your Zoom profile!

The most recent upgrade for Zoom makes it possible to add pronouns so they always show up in your profile. To make this change follow here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/4402698027533-Adding-and-sharing-your-pronouns#h_01F89H5NHYE4DAW02ERPZZAH52

Making it a habit of to share pronouns with one another when we gather allows us to create an environment in which we learn not to assume, based on how someone’s appearance, what a person’s gender is or how they want to be referred to in the third person (what pronouns they use). Whether or not any one of us might ourselves be worried we will be misgendered, sharing pronouns proactively regardless, is a meaningful practice for a cultivating and community of inclusion and belonging. Try it!

—Jennifer Harvey, Associate Provost of Campus Equity and Inclusion

Campus Announcements Archive

Drake Law welcomes two new faculty members

Drake Law School is pleased to announce the arrival of two new faculty members. Nickole Miller and Jeremy Kidd joined the full-time faculty on July 1. Assistant Professor of Law Nickole Miller is the new director of Drake’s Middleton Center for Children’s Rights. Professor of Law Jeremy Kidd joins the faculty to teach contracts and business law courses.

“Our new faculty are accomplished educators and scholars, and bring a wealth of professional experience to Drake Law,” said Jerry L. Anderson, dean of the law school. “They will nicely complement our outstanding faculty with new ideas and energy.”

Nickole Miller comes to Drake Law from the University of Baltimore School of Law where she was a visiting assistant professor and interim director of the Bronfein Family Law Clinic. During her time at the Baltimore School of Law, Miller served as a clinical teaching fellow at the Immigrant Rights Clinic as well as the Saul Ewing Advocacy Clinic. Prior to teaching, she was the Managing Attorney at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center in California, one of the largest U.S. immigrant children’s representation programs. Miller received her BA from Columbia University, and her JD, cum laude, from DePaul University College of Law, where she specialized in public interest law.  She will be taking over the leadership of the Joan and Lyle Middleton Center for Children’s Rights, which encompasses student representation of children in the Children’s Rights Clinic, as well as public information and advocacy to improve the rights and welfare of children in our judicial system. Professor Miller’s recent scholarship focuses on the rights of children in immigration proceedings.

Jeremy Kidd is a law and economics scholar whose teaching specialties include commercial and corporate law. He joins Drake Law from Mercer Law School in Macon, Ga., where he was a tenured professor. Prior to teaching, he practiced law with Ballard Spahr LLP in Washington, DC, and with Strong & Hanni, PC, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also clerked for both the federal district court in Utah and 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. Kidd received his JD from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and a PhD in Economics and BA from Utah State University. His recent scholarship includes articles on Fintech, workplace drug testing, insider trading, and social-media driven securities trading.  Professor Kidd will join a strong group of business/corporate law faculty at Drake Law.

— Theresa Howard, Drake Law School

Campus Announcements Archive

Drake welcomes Jazlin Coley as new director of equity and inclusion

The Office of Campus Equity and Inclusion is so pleased to welcome Jazlin Coley as our new director of equity and inclusion.

Jazlin Coley (she/her) will begin her role as the new director of equity and inclusion on July 15. Over the last two years, Jazlin served as the service coordinator of equity and inclusion in the Office of Community Engaged Learning. In that role, she spent most of her time researching and implementing common practices of diversity, equity, and inclusion in community engagement efforts. In her new position, Jazlin will oversee Drake University’s Crew Scholars and Flight program, while supporting other DEI initiatives happening on campus. Jazlin holds a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communications from Drake, along with a minor in Psychology and a concentration in Leadership.

— Jennifer Harvey, Associate Provost of Campus Equity and Inclusion

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Provost’s Office hosting Ice Cream Week, Aug. 3–6

Nothing says summertime like a cool treat in the middle of the day. You are invited to gather some colleagues, take a walk down to Black Cat Ice Cream on Cottage Grove, and get a cup or cone of one of their amazing ice cream or sorbet flavors. Stop by the Provost’s Office in Old Main to pick up your ticket anytime between Tuesday, Aug. 3, through Friday, Aug. 6. Note: Black Cat is closed on Mondays. One ticket per person, and please consider taking along a little cash to tip the staff.

As our community begins to come back to campus, Provost Mattison urges you to take some time to reconnect with your colleagues. Kick back, sit in the shade outside of the Black Cat shop, and have a relaxed conversation. You never know who else you might run into there!

— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost

Campus Announcements Archive

Stay connected with Drake ITS

Want to keep informed about ITS updates and know when there’s maintenance, or be alerted when services are unavailable? There are a few ways to stay in the know.

ITS updates
ITS posts project updates on the ITS website and IT service portal, as well in the OnCampus email. We also place some notifications of planned service outages on the systems themselves (especially myDrake and Blackboard Learn).

Maintenance schedule
Our scheduled maintenance nights and our change freezes (times that ITS avoids making any changes to our systems, except for emergencies), can be found at drake.edu/its/maintenanceschedule.

Text notifications
Opt in to receive ITS outage notifications by texting DrakeITS2021 to phone number 226787. You first need to be signed up to receive Bulldog Alerts by text. Check your Bulldog Alerts Settings in myDrake.

Twitter
Follow us @DrakeITServices

— Carla Herling, ITS

HR Information Archive

Blue Cross Blue Shield legal settlement information

Employees who participated in Drake’s Health Plan between Sept. 1, 2015, through Oct. 16, 2020, may be eligible to receive payment from a Blue Cross Blue Shield class action settlement.  If you are an eligible class member, you will be contacted by JND Legal Administration.

If you think you may be an eligible class member or have questions regarding this class action settlement, please contact JND Legal Administration:

Website: www.BCBSsettlement.com
Email: info@BCBSsettlement.com
Phone: (888) 681-1142
Address: Blue Cross Blue Shield Settlement
c/o JND Legal Administration
P.O. Box 91390
Seattle, WA 98111

— Marlene Heuertz, Human Resources

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Creating and reusing content in Blackboard Learn courses 

Creating content 
Creating a course starts on the Course Content page. You’ll find it’s easy to discover features and complete actions. Create new content, upload something you already have, or add content from external sources or from another course. Select the plus (+) sign wherever you want to add content, create a folder or learning module. Clicking on titles allows you to either edit the title or opens the item. You can also expand folders and learning modules by clicking the chevron.  Learn more about Adding Content, Assessment, and Communications Tools in Blackboard (How-to). 

Reusing content
You can copy all the content from Original courses or select individual items from the other Ultra courses you have built. If you’re copying from Original courses, please be sure to copy from Original courses rather than trying to start in the Ultra courses to import content.  

NOTE: Cleanup is expected as a part of a course conversion if you copy your content from Original courses. To learn more, please review Copying Courses in Blackboard Learn (How-to). 

Time Saving Tips 
Batch Edit: In the Ultra Course View, you can use Batch Edit to update common settings across all content, such as visibility and due dates. You can also delete a group of selected course content.  

Two options for getting PDFs to open in the browser:  

  1. Use the (+) and Upload. Adding PDFs within a Document will require that the students must download the file before opening.   
  2. Find the resource using the Cowles Library Research Guides and use a Permalink. Permalinks are the preferred method of sharing library resources. Their use ensures that the library is aware when resources are being used so they continue to maintain them. 

Use Panopto for Instructor or Student created Video: Our Blackboard data storage costs have increased since October 2020. To keep our storage sustainable and affordable, please store all locally created video content on Panopto. See the many Panopto how-to articles related to Blackboard courses. 

Connecting Courses to Textbook Resources: If your course requires textbook resources that can be connected to Blackboard, please reach out to your textbook representative and ask if they have an LTI-based tool. Once they provide you with further information, please submit a Blackboard Consultation to get assistance from ITS staff.  

Blackboard and Continuous Delivery: Blackboard is a cloud service that continuously improves over time. New tools and features will be added over the coming months and years. ITS will try to keep you informed, but if you want more details, feel free to read the Release Notes. 

— Karly Good, ITS

Campus Announcements Archive

Parking passes for sale starting today

Fall parking permit sales for the upcoming academic year begin July 6.  Log into myDrake and select “Parking Tag Registration” to register for your pass. Please make sure to have your license plate number handy, as it will be needed for registration.

Permit prices have not changed from last year, and are listed below.  Permits will be available on a first come, first serve basis, and we ask that all permit sales be done online. The payroll deduct process can also be completed online (full-time employees only). Credit/debit card is also accepted for any pass purchase.

Resident passes: $375 (24/7 parking)

Premium passes: $250 (Yellow Olmsted lot, Red Ray Promenade lots, and Green Stadium lot)

Perimeter passes: $125 (all Orange and Purple lots)

Evening/Weekend passes: $100 (valid from 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Friday, and all day on weekends)

Passes are valid from August to August, and will be available to pick up in the Student Services Center (Olmsted) in August.

Please visit drake.edu/map to see where the lots are located, and contact studentservices@drake.edu for questions.

— Sara Heijerman, Student Services Center