All posts by Linda Feiden

HR Information Archive

Take advantage of Drake’s Employee Assistance Program

You may have heard the phrase: “We are done with the Coronavirus but it isn’t done with us.” The ongoing pandemic has disrupted our work and home lives and it is difficult to know when it will get better.

If you are taking steps to manage your worry and anxiety but it doesn’t seem to be helping, Employee & Family Resources (EFR) offers an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for all full-time Drake employees and their family members. It includes counseling with a licensed mental health therapist as well as financial and legal consulting, eldercare and childcare resources. You can reach EAP by phone (800-327-4692) or visit their website at https://www.efr.org/login/. All EAP benefits are confidential and available 24/7/365.

Besides the Employee Assistance Program, EFR offers additional resources to help us navigate these stressful times.

Webinars. If you did not get a chance to view the EFR weekly webinar series this summer, they are still available for viewing online when your schedule allows.  They cover a variety of topics pertinent to our times.

Podcasts. EFR created a series of podcasts called Emotion Well Podcast.  The podcasts are available on their website, as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

COVID-19 Resources. EFR’s website has links to COVID-19 resources, including online groups, work from home tips, exercising from home, and mental health tips.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

For Staff Archive

Call for True Blue nominations

Do you know of a staff member or department that has gone above and beyond to exemplify True Blue spirit? Nominate them today for a True Blue award! A staff member or team that is True Blue epitomizes the values of excellence, integrity, leadership, teamwork, and commitment to the Drake community. 

— Amelia Klatt, Office of Alumni Relations/All Staff Council

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Construction affecting streets around campus

As faculty and staff return to campus this week, please be aware that construction is still affecting the streets surrounding the University.  University Avenue will have one lane open in both directions and some closure of the south parking lane as the Harking Center and Home2 Suites complete their streetscape. Access to parking lots off University Avenue will remain open. The intersection of 25th Street and Forest Avenue and 24th Street between Carpenter and Forest are currently closed for storm sewer installation and should reopen the week of Aug. 10 after street paving is completed. For those who park in the Fine Arts Lot east of 25th Street, please access the lot from the south off of University Avenue.

— Kevin Moran, Facilities Planning & Management

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Zoom Integration with Blackboard is complete 

ITS has completed the work to integrate Zoom with Blackboard and Zoom is now ready for academic use across campus. Zoom uses single sign-on (SSO), so once you’ve logged into Blackboard, you won’t also need to log into Zoom.    

There are instructions and links to Zoom training in the knowledge base area of the IT service portal at https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2025/Portal/KB/?CategoryID=18578 

Getting Started with Zoom (FAQ) is full of helpful links for both you and your students including links to videos tutorials, longer recorded presentations, and webinars hosted by Zoom.   

If you encounter issues with accessing or using Zoom, please submit a Zoom Issue online or contact the support center at 515–271–3001.  

–Jerome Hilscher, Information Technology Services 

For Students Archive

Now hiring: Residence hall front desk assistant

The Office of Residence Life is now accepting applications for Desk Assistant positions in the residence halls.

A Desk Assistant is a student who serves as the primary resource and customer service representative for a particular residence hall. Desk Assistants will assist residential students and guests at Drake University through carrying out the daily operations of the residence hall community desk, maintaining safety and security through guest procedures, aiding in the fostering of community among the residential students, and responding to requests by guests, residents, and hall staff.

Apply and find more information

For questions, contact Sara Schilling, area coordinator, at sara.schilling@drake.edu.

— Randy McMullin, Office of Residence Life

Campus Announcements Archive

Fall parking permit sales

Fall parking permit sales will open online for students, faculty, and staff through the Parking Registration link in myDrake starting Monday, Aug. 3. This is the first year that we will require ALL permit registrations be completed online, including payroll deduct payment methods. Please email studentservices@drake.edu if you have questions or need assistance with this process.

Permit pricing will not change for the 2020–2021 school year, and permits are sold on a first come, first serve basis.

Blue lots (resident passes) — $375

Yellow, Red, and Green lots (commuter passes) — $250

Orange and Purple lots (commuter passes) — $125

Evening/weekend passes (any commuter lot after 4:30 p.m. and on weekends) — $100

If you are unsure of which permit you need to buy, please review the parking lot colors on the campus map. If the pass type you prefer is sold out, please purchase your second choice and email studentservices@drake.edu to be put onto a wait list for your first choice.

Permits will be distributed in a variety of methods to assist with social distancing. Your confirmation email will give you further instruction on how your permit should be acquired.

— Sara Heijerman, Student Services Center

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Fall adoptions needed

As we all navigate through a new academic calendar and course offerings/formats together, it is more critical than ever to drive student success, preparedness, retention, and savings through timely course material decisions.  We are one month from classes starting and we are at about 87% of adoptions compared to last fall. If you have not provided information, please do so this week, if possible.

For specific methods on how to submit your Fall 2020 book order, email/phone/online order submission are all acceptable. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out myself or Donna Hallstrom by phone or email.

Three easy steps to access Follett Discover via Blackboard

  1. Log into myDrake.
  2. Click on the Bb icon on the main ‘mydrake’ screen.
  3. Find the Tools channel, scroll down and click the Follett Discover link OR find the Follett Discover channel and click the Launch Discover link.

— Katie Wilz, University Bookstore

HR Information Archive

Employee and Family Resources July webinars

To help us navigate these stressful times, Employee & Family Resources is offering a weekly webinar series. Join EFR for the following webinars:

July 22 at 2 p.m. — Connecting the Dots: The Mind-Body Experience
July 29 at 10 a.m. — Stress and Burnout    

Register here.  All webinars are live, but will be recorded and available for later viewing if these dates and times do not work with your schedule. 

If life is weighing you down, EFR offers a variety of Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) resources to help you now, or anytime.  You can reach EAP by phone (800-327-4692) or visit their website at https://www.efr.org/login/.  All EAP benefits are confidential and available 24/7/365.   

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Campus Announcements Archive

Racial Justice in the U.S. resources

The Drake Law Library research guide Racial Justice in the U.S. provides resources for learning about institutional racial injustice, racial identity, bias and prejudices, and protests and proposed policy changes. It also includes tools for engaging in meaningful dialogue about race and anti-racism resources for use both in and out of the classroom. The guide, created and maintained by Professor of Law Librarianship Karen Wallace, was featured in the June 2020 eNewsletter of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and recognized as the website of the month for July 2020 by the Online Bibliographic Services special interest group of AALL.

— Karen Wallace, Law Library

Campus Announcements Archive

General Catalog website migration

University Communications and Marketing and the Office of the Registrar have partnered to migrate the General Catalog for Undergraduates and Graduates to a new website.

There were several goals for this project that may not be entirely visible to users, but will significantly improve search and website optimization.

  • By moving to a new URL the search data can be separated between the two websites. Users in the catalog site will only see the catalog page in the search and users on the public-facing website will only see admission and department content.
  • Improvements to archiving and historical snapshots of catalogs will additionally improve external search helping users more quickly get to the content they are looking for.

Put simply, searching for department content and searching the catalog will be easier.

All previous links to the catalog are being directed to the top General Catalog page. Department pages that want to link directly to their catalog pages will need to manually update those links on their web pages.

— Jeremy Sievers, University Communications & Marketing