The March 24th Provost’s Social will serve as a celebration of faculty research and scholarship, showcasing the incredible contributions made by the Drake academic community. This event will provide an opportunity for us to recognize and honor the achievements of our faculty in advancing knowledge across a variety of fields.

Please help us to prepare by submitting this form with information about books you have authored, co-authored, or edited within the past two years, as well as peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, and notable papers.

Your contributions are an essential part of our academic success, and we look forward to sharing them with our colleagues!

– Madison Bemus, Academic Affairs Operations Specialist

The Sponsored Program Administration and Research Compliance (SPARC) office would like to extend our thanks to everyone who completed the Survey of Administrative Services this year. The SPARC team has taken the time to review the responses and commit to enhancing our support for the Drake Community.

The assessment of the SPARC office is difficult to compare to previous years due to the number of transitions that took place over the last few years. However, the survey was able to provide helpful feedback for the current SPARC staff.

The mean overall satisfaction score for services provided by the SPARC office was 4.38 on a five-point scale. Areas of highest satisfaction include professionalism and courteous nature of the interactions with staff (4.79 and 4.77, respectfully) and the provision of valuable grant administration services (4.38). Room for improvement was indicated in funding opportunity identification (3.67) and budget development and up-to-date information (4.08, 4.13, respectfully). Respondents did comment about the significant staff transitions but expressed optimism about moving forward.

Since I started at Drake in May, I’ve also taken the opportunity to meet with Deans, Directors, and Faculty individually and in groups to discuss the experiences, concerns, and hopes for the services we provide. With all this input, we are updating processes (i.e. online proposal routing form, indirect cost waiver request form) and educating the faculty about the services the SPARC office provides.

The SPARC staff are committed to helping you identify grant opportunities, assisting in writing and submitting grant applications, and managing grants once they are funded. We aim to guide you through the entire grant process from start to finish.

Our website offers a wealth of information on grant applications, as well as IRB and IACUC applications. We’ve recently added a News & Updates section to keep you informed about the latest grant-related information, and we’ve launched a new podcast, SPARC’ing a Conversation, featuring interviews with Drake grantees.

In November, we hosted our first grant networking event, providing faculty with the opportunity to discuss project ideas and potentially identify collaborators. We plan to continue hosting these networking events, along with educational workshops and webinars, in the new year. Keep an eye out for future announcements. We can also provide individualized education to colleges and other units upon request.

The SPARC team looks forward to strengthening our relationships with the Drake Community and fostering a supportive, service-oriented grant-seeking environment.

—Lori Byrd, Sponsored Program Administration and Research Compliance

Writing in Your Academic Field: Spring 2025

Written communication is important in almost any academic field, but the genres and accepted conventions of writing vary from discipline to discipline. In this project, we will discuss ways to integrate writing instruction into courses for which written communication is not necessarily the primary learning outcome, as well as courses that require students to communicate in field-specific ways (for instance, lab reports or business memos).

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 one of their spring classes.
• Attending hour-long meetings of all participants in the program in February, March, and April (or early May) 2025.  These meetings may be structured as two sessions each month, with half of the group at each session, to facilitate more in-depth discussion.
• Requiring all students enrolled in their class to attend tutoring sessions at the Writing Center at least twice during the semester.

After completing the project and attending the final meeting, participants will receive a $500 stipend.

Participation is limited to 10 individuals.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Madison Bemus (madison.bemus@drake.edu) by Monday, January 6.

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

—Megan Brown, College of Arts & Sciences