All posts by Bret Sikkink

Ultra hours for Fall 2024

Get ready for the fall semester! We invite you to come to Ultra Hours, hosted by Drake Online & Continuing Education and the Center for Teaching & Learning, to update and copy the courses you need for fall.

Ultra Hours are from 11 am. .– 2 p.m. on the following days:

  • Thursday, August 8 – Cowles Library “fishbowl” Room 201
  • Monday August 12 – Aliber Hall 3rd floor faculty lounge
  • Tuesday August 13 – Cline Atrium
  • Wednesday August 14 – Meredith Hall room 124C
  • Thursday August 15 – Collier-Scripps Room 120 (Kelley Conference Room)
  • Friday August 16 – Howard Hall Room 131
  • Thursday August 22 – Howard Hall Room 212 (Faculty Commons)

If possible, please complete this form to indicate when you plan to come and what you plan to work on. If a virtual appointment or another time works better for you, fill out a service request and one of our instructional design staff will be in contact shortly.

— Bret Sikkink, Faculty Development Specialist

Iowa Character Awards recipients honored in Aug. 7 prime-time special

The Iowa Character Awards, hosted by The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center at Drake University, highlight Iowa’s role models by recognizing what makes Iowa great—our people! Twelve Iowa individuals and groups are annually recognized for their exceptional character. The 2024 Iowa Character Award recipients are:

  • Alan Steckman, Mason City – Citizen of Character
  • Carter Hammer, Sioux City – Citizen of Character
  • Shelby Griebat, Tipton – Aaron Eilerts Community Service Award
  • Katie Hoover, West Des Moines – Educator of Character
  • Dan Marburger (posthumously), Perry – Character Champion
  • Iowa League of Heroes, Cumming – Organization of Character
  • Dallas Center-Grimes Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Grimes – Student Organization of Character
  • Clear Creek Elementary, Clear Lake – School of Character
  • Dubuque – Community of Character
  • Elite Casino Resorts, Riverside – Partner of the Year
  • Jean Berger, Dexter – Jim Hallihan Pursuing Victory with Honor Award
  • Marta Codina, West Des Moines – The Robert D. and Billie Ray Pillar of Character Award

 The 2024 Iowa Character Award recipients will be recognized during a one-hour prime-time TV special on Wednesday, Aug. 7, at 8 p.m. on FOX 17 (Des Moines) and FOX 28 (Cedar Rapids). Join us in celebrating this year’s recipients! Learn more at IowaCharacterAwards.org.

Special thanks to our 2024 partners: FOX 17 Des Moines, Prairie Meadows, Hy-Vee, and Murphy Enterprizes.

— Megan Wesselink, Robert D. & Billie Ray Center

Check out the BUILD fall schedule

Bulldogs United in Learning & Development (BUILD) provides faculty and staff learning opportunities throughout the academic year to enhance professional skills, improve wellbeing, and much more.  BUILD is a great platform for learning new ideas as well as an opportunity to collaborate with others from across campus.

The Fall 2024 schedule is now available for viewing and registration is open.  Please take a moment to check out the classes on the Drake HR website under Learning & Development.  Click on BUILD – Upcoming Sessions for the full list, including detailed descriptions.  There is an online registration link to a Qualtrics survey that makes signing up easy.

Most classes are only an hour in length, and many are facilitated by our own faculty and staff.  This is a great way to invest in yourself, support your colleagues, and take in the culture that Drake has to offer.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Bulldog Back to Campus BIPOC Mixer

Join us for the Bulldog Back to Campus BIPOC Mixer on Thursday, Aug. 22, from 5–6 p.m. in the Olmsted Upper Level Conference Room.

This event is a perfect opportunity for incoming BIPOC-identifying students to connect with BIPOC faculty and staff at Drake University. Let’s link leaders and build bonds in a supportive environment where you can network, find mentorship, and foster connections that will positively impact your academic and professional journey.

Drinks and snacks will be provided, so come by, meet new faces, and kickstart your semester with the strength of community. Don’t miss out! Free food will be provided.

— Jazlin Coley, Director, Equity & Inclusion

Exclusive bike share discount

Drake has partnered with the Street Collective to provide students, faculty, and staff with the opportunity to purchase a $20 annual bike share membership. This means unlimited 30-minute rides on a classic or e-bike.

Unlock access to 30 stations throughout Des Moines, Clive, Windsor Heights, and West Des Moines, four of which are located on Drake’s campus. The bikes can be checked out using the BCycle app and returned at any of the 30 stations.

Sign up on the app using a drake.edu email, select annual membership, and enter promo code: bulldogsbike24.

This is a $150 value that will provide an easy way to commute, make a quick trip, and promote a sustainable, healthy lifestyle.

Follow along on the @drakeu.sustainability Instagram to see how you can maximize this benefit!

— Hannah Remke, Sustainability Coordinator

Temporary phone service disruption Aug. 9

On Friday, August 9, ITS will be transferring phone lines from our current provider, Lumen, to a new provider, Granite. Work will begin at 7 a.m., when all phone calling will be taken offline. Services will be restored for each phone as it’s ported to the new system. We expect the full migration to take less than 4 hours with all campus calling services restored by 11 a.m.

  • During the transition, internal Teams calls will continue to work as usual.
  • Teams meetings, both internal and external, will continue to work as usual.
  • Calls from off campus to on-campus numbers and vice versa will be temporarily unavailable as numbers are ported to the new service.

This change is being made to ensure better telephone service for the Drake campus community.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we work to improve campus phone services.

If you have questions or need assistance, contact us by submitting a ticket though the ITS service portal (service.drake.edu/its) or by calling the Support Center at 515-271-3001.

— Becky Klein, ITS

Planned EMS maintenance Aug. 11

Drake’s vendor partner Accruent will be migrating our event management system (EMS) to a new cloud platform on Sunday, Aug. 11 between 3–11 a.m. CT., and the system will be unavailable during this maintenance window. This transition will enhance the system for better long-term performance and reliability.

If you experience service issues outside this maintenance window, submit a Banner Third-Party Issue ticket, call the ITS Support Center at 515-271-3001, or visit the lower level of Carnegie Hall.

To see the full 2024 maintenance schedule, visit drake.edu/its/maintenanceschedule/.

— Becky Klein, ITS

Coming soon: Cowles Library website is getting a new look

The Cowles Library website (https://library.drake.edu/) is getting a new look! Our excellent services and high-quality resources will be wrapped in a fresh, user-friendly site that matches Drake University’s branding and layout.

The new site will be available after Aug. 6. Look for orientation videos to appear on the site later this month. In the meantime, reach out to Cowles Library at cowles-systems@drake.edu if you need help finding something.

— Andrew Welch, Cowles Library

Claim your free National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity membership

We are pleased to announce that Drake now has an Institutional Membership to the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). As part of Drake’s continued commitment to your professional success, your membership gives you access to a wide range of development resources that you can access at a time and pace of your choosing. The membership began on Aug. 1, 2024.

The NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students from over 450 colleges and universities. In addition to the resources available to you as an Institutional Member, the Center also offers professional development training and intensive mentoring programs.

To claim your free Institutional Membership, complete the following steps:

  1. Go to http://www.ncfdd.org/join
  2. Choose your institution from the drop-down menu.
  3. Select “Activate my Membership”
  4. Complete the registration form using your institutional email address (i.e., John.Smith@drake.edu)
  5. Check your email to find a confirmation/welcome email. Click “Activate Account” in the email.

NCFDD provides a variety of virtual programs and resources, including:

  • The weekly Monday Motivator email
  • Monthly Core Curriculum webinars
  • Guest Expert Webinars and Multi-Week Skill-Building Courses
  • Hidden Handbook series
  • Dissertation Success Curriculum for advanced graduate students
  • 14-Day Writing Challenges
  • Discussion Forum for peer-mentoring and problem-solving
  • Monthly accountability buddy matches, by request
  • Complete library of previous webinars and multi-week course recordings

You are encouraged to learn more about each of the resources and put any events that interest you on your calendar. If you have questions about the membership, please contact Bret Sikkink, the Faculty Development Specialist, at Bret.Sikkink@drake.edu or feel free to talk to a member of the AAAC. If you have any technical questions, please email NCFDD at membership@ncfdd.org.

— Jimmy Senteza, Deputy Provost

Mandela Washington Fellows farewell celebration

There is a group of Young African Leaders (www.drake.edu/yali) on campus for a six-week Leadership experience through Drake International and the Zimpleman College of Business. These Fellows have been busy touring area businesses, doing community service, learning about leadership, and working with mentors as they’ve spent their time here in Iowa. It’s been an amazing five weeks so far!

As the final week of the Fellowship approaches, we invite you to our Farewell Celebration on Wednesday, July 24, at 4 p.m. at the Turner Jazz Center.  This will be an excellent event for final connections and to send off the Fellows before they travel to Washington D.C. We hope to see you there.

— Sara Heijerman, Student Services Center