The Drake Social on Thursday, Nov. 21, will be preceded by a Town Hall at 3:30 p.m. in celebration of International Education Week. The event will be held in the Cowles Library Reading Room.

Drake faculty and staff who exemplify the Core Value of Generosity of Spirit will also be honored at the social.

To nominate a colleague, please use this Qualtrics form. You can nominate up to five colleagues on each form. Feel free to fill out multiple forms. All those nominated will be recognized on a rolling display. Generosity of Spirit is defined as colleagues who trust, empower, and presume the best of each other; who practice civility, caring, and respect; and who commit to equity and inclusion.

When you nominate colleagues, be prepared to describe how each colleague meets these descriptions. From among those nominated, several will be chosen at random for prizes.

Refreshments will include wine, beer, soft drinks, and light snacks. This is a family friendly event.

— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost

In a September OnCampus article, I introduced an upcoming change designed to improve the security of Drake-owned computers. This change will remove always-on administrator access to help prevent web, email, and file-based attacks. When changes that require administrator access are needed, the Make Me Admin tool can be used to receive temporary administrator access for 30 minutes. If you prefer, you can also submit a request for ITS assistance with installing programs or making configuration changes. 

Beginning Nov. 19, and continuing gradually throughout that week, ITS will be removing the always-on administrator access.  

As a reminder, there are guides available in the IT service portal on how to use the Make Me Admin tool: 

How-to guide for Macs
How-to guide for Windows 

For questions about these changes, please contact Peter Lundstedt, director, information security & compliance, at peter.lundstedt@drake.edu.  

— Peter Lundstedt, ITS  

Drake University’s Learning Management System (LMS) review task force has held six out of their proposed eight meetings during the fall semester and has hosted vendor demonstrations of Blackboard Learn Ultra and Instructure’s Canvas solutions.

The demonstrations were conducted to inform the task force about what a modern LMS can do in support of our institution. During the demonstrations and pilot experiences, data was collected based on previously defined criteria that the task force will review in the upcoming weeks. Additional information about institutional impact, including costs, student success rates, and technological integrations, will be considered while drafting our final recommendation.

For further information, please visit www.drake.edu/its/lmsreview and/or reach out to your area’s representative on the task force.

— Karly Good, ITS

The next Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) lunch is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 22, at noon in TMR 133. These discussions are opportunities for those engaged in SoTL projects at any level—from those just thinking about starting one, to almost complete, or simply curious about SoTL—to share ideas, seek advice, or ask questions of colleagues engaged in this process. If you would like to order a lunch, please go to: https://sotl-lunch-learn-nov2019.eventbrite.com by Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 10 a.m.

— Art Sanders, Associate Provost