Please plan to attend a town hall meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 18, at Shivers Hospitality Suite. President Martin will share an update on the budget. The town hall will begin at 3:30 p.m. and be followed by the Provost’s Drake Social.
The Drake Social is family friendly, and faculty or staff may include children and/or partners. Snacks will be provided, as well as soda, water, beer, and wine.
— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost
Drake students interested in a career in mathematics, the physical sciences, natural sciences, or engineering are invited to apply for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program.
Established by Congress in 1986, the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation operates an educational scholarship program designed to provide opportunities for outstanding U.S. students with excellent academic records and demonstrated interest in, and potential for, careers in mathematics, the natural sciences, the physical sciences, and engineering.
In April 2020, the Foundation will award scholarships to students who will be college juniors or seniors during the 2020-2021 academic year. In order to be considered for an award, students must be nominated by their institution. The national DEADLINE for RECEIPT of all nominations is January 31, 2020. There are earlier on-campus deadlines however. Please note them below.
The scholarship award covers eligible expenses up to a maximum of $7,500 per year. Sophomore scholarship recipients can expect to receive a maximum of two years of support. Junior scholarship recipients are eligible for a maximum of one year of support.
Who is eligible to apply?
1) Any Drake University student pursuing a career in mathematics, the natural sciences, or engineering is eligible if he or she majors in mathematics, physical sciences, or natural sciences.
2) Students must currently be full-time sophomores or juniors pursuing a baccalaureate degree.
3) Students must have a cumulative Drake G.P.A. of 3.75 or better.
4) Students must be a U.S. citizen, resident alien, or U.S. national.
5) Students who plan to study medicine are eligible only if they plan a research career rather than a career as a medical doctor in a private practice.
6) Strong candidates may have had the opportunity to participate in research or held internships in research facilities, either industrial or academic.
The application consists of 2 to 3 pages student essay on a research problem in science, three letters of recommendation, most likely from Drake University faculty, transcripts, and a nomination from the Goldwater Scholarship Faculty Representative (Dr. Gholam Mirafzal). In the case of students with research experience, one of the three letters of recommendation must come from the research advisor.
Application materials are available on the web at: https://goldwater.scholarsapply.org/.
Drake University can nominate up to four individuals. Qualified individuals will submit their essay to Dr. Mirafzal. They will then be read by the Drake Goldwater Scholarship Committee. From this pool of essays, four will be chosen and will be forwarded to the national scholarship committee. The internal review of essays will begin on January 13, 2020.
To be considered, interested sophomores and juniors should contact: Professor Mirafzal, (Department of Chemistry, 213 Morgan E. Cline Hall of Pharmacy and Science, x4811) no later than Dec. 6. I would encourage you to speak to me earlier than that, however, to get a start on the essay and on the other application material.
— Gholam A. Mirafzal, Professor of Chemistry
Want to help welcome new students to Drake University? Want to get involved? Want an on-campus job this summer? Consider becoming an orientation leader!
Orientation leaders are dedicated to providing incoming students and their families with all of the information and resources necessary to ensure their transition to Drake is a smooth and enjoyable one.
We need you to help make this happen. Each year we recruit current Drake students to become part of the orientation leader staff. Orientation leaders play a vital role in this exciting process, working closely with new students and their families on a wide variety of topics including academics, student involvement, housing options, and more.
We highly encourage you to attend one of two information sessions:
You will be compensated for your time and effort and gain valuable skills in this position.
Please visit http://www.drake.edu/orientation/orientationleaders/ to learn more about the position, but if you have any questions, feel free to contact Marina Verlengia at marina.verlengia@drake.edu.
— Marina Verlengia, New Student Programs
Give someone the gift of a meal during a time of donation drought. Reception boxes are located outside the C-Store, inside the Student Life Center, and in the Student Inclusion, Involvement and Leadership Center. Anyone is welcome to donate. For questions, email hannah.cohen@drake.edu.
— Hannah Cohen, AS, JO
The University Bookstore is having a cyber sale now through Dec. 4. Save on various Drake gear. You can save even more by choosing in-store pickup. Visit drake.bkstr.com to learn more.
— Katie Wilz, University Bookstore
Campus building hours will be adjusted for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Most of campus will be closed starting Wednesday, Nov. 27, and will remain closed to the general public through the end of the week. Card access will still allow you to enter your authorized buildings, and most regular door schedules will resume on Sunday, Dec. 1.
Please contact Public Safety (515-271-2222) if you have a door access emergency during this time. Feel free to email studentservices@drake.edu if you have a general (non-emergent) card access question or concern.
Cowles Library open hours/after-hours are listed on their website.
— Sara Heijerman, Student Services Center
ITS is making updates to Banner. As a result, access to Banner 9, Banner/DUSIS INB, MyDUSIS, Workflow, ODBC, eTranscripts, Online Balloting, and DSAP will be completely unavailable between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 7. This upgrade is being made to apply security and functionality upgrades and patches.
We appreciate your patience while we perform this necessary work. If you continue to have any issues after the planned maintenance window, please contact the Support Center at 515-271-3001 or visit service.drake.edu/its to report your issue.
— Carla Herling, ITS
Single sign-on (SSO) for Blackboard is coming Dec. 19. After the change, you will sign in using the standard Drake login page rather than the current Blackboard login screen.
SSO is an authentication process that allows a user to access multiple applications with one set of credentials and a single login instance. Once a user logs in once, they gain access to different Drake applications, without the need to re-enter login credentials for each application.
Example: You log into myDrake first thing in the morning to check your email. While reading your email, you see that you need to check your Blackboard courses for upcoming assignments. Since you already logged into myDrake from checking your email, you can access Blackboard without being prompted to re-enter your Drake credentials.
Learn more about SSO and the additional systems Drake ITS is working on integrating with it by reading Single Sign On (SSO) and Drake applications (FAQ).
— Carla Herling, ITS
Robert Craig, professor of art, installed his sculpture Holdfast at the Blanden Art Museum on Nov. 6. This project began nearly two years ago when he was commissioned by the Blanden Charitable Foundation to create an outdoor sculpture for the Blanden Art Museum’s grounds in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The Blanden is the oldest art museum in Iowa and it is located in the historic Oak Hill District: a neighborhood founded by the early industrialists of Fort Dodge.
The sculpture is 12’ 6” tall and fabricated out of aluminum with a kinetic top element that turns in the wind. The abstract form and colors of Holdfast offer a range of associations to known things referring simultaneously to the many ingredients that were part of the formation of Fort Dodge, the current neighborhood culture, and the Blanden Art Museum as a mainstay. The colors and patterns complement the existing architectural and natural palette and were chosen to be as suggestive as the form itself.
Additionally, the museum acquired the preliminary studies for Holdfast (a scale model, drawing, and a color rendering) that will be used for educational purposes.
Through both municipal sponsorship and private commissions, Robert’s large-scale sculptures have been exhibited in museums, universities, and sculpture parks nationally. Commissions include the City of Cedar Falls and Grinnell College. His work is in public and private collections such as Spring House Farms, Maurertown, VA, HarborArts, Boston, MA, Central Iowa Shelter and Services, Des Moines, IA, the Village of Ponderosa, West Des Moines, the Hearst Center for the Arts, Cedar Falls, IA, Dordt College, and the Sioux City Public Art Collection. Additional sculptures can be seen at https://robertcraig1.com/home.html.
WHAT A CROCK—All Staff Council hosted a Crock Pot Cook Off. Over 90 campus members sampled eight delicious crock-pot dishes and votes were tallied. The dishes included: Carmel Apple Dump Cake; Sausage Dip; Moroccan Chicken; Grandpa Frankie’s Chicken & Noodles; Tex-Mex Chili; Randi’s Sweet & Spicy Chili; Pork and Tamale Soup; Chicken Jalapeno Corn Dip.
Each dish received votes with three top finishers:
3rd Place—Kodee Wood’s Sausage Dip
2nd Place —Sara Heijerman—Randi’s Sweet & Spicy Chili
1st Place —Tammy Eltayb—Tex-Mex Chili
Congratulations to all who participated and attended!
The next Book Club book “Resistance Women” is available at the front desk of Cowles Library. Plan to join for a casual book discussion on Jan. 15 at 4:45 p.m. at the Ingersoll Cheese Shop. Reach out to sara.heijerman@drake.edu for more information.
— Amelia Klatt, On behalf of All Staff Council
