Earlier this year, Facilities Planning and Management staff walked the campus with a registered arborist from Perficut Companies to develop a maintenance plan for trees on Drake’s campus.  The work includes crowning, pruning away from buildings, and removal.  The trees being removed have begun to decay and have become safety hazards. Removing them helps to preserve the health of remaining trees and maintains the safety of everyone who visits campus from falling limbs that have died. Perficut will be on campus over the next 2–3 weeks completing the tree work depending on weather and accessibility to the trees with equipment.  View a map to see the areas and trees in this year’s plan.  If you have questions, please contact Patrick Williams, grounds supervisor, or Aaron Edwards, building and grounds manager.

Aaron Edwards, Facilities Planning and Management

As we look to the spring semester and all the visitors we’ll welcome to campus, please remember our neighborhood businesses such as the Holiday Inn Express.

The Holiday Inn Express is located at 1140 24th Street, just blocks away from campus. To reserve a room call 515-255-4000 or visit the Holiday Inn Express website.

Ryan Arnold, Community Relations

University Communications and Marketing holds open portrait sessions during the fall and spring semesters. The sessions rotate around campus making it more convenient for the campus community. These sessions are free to all faculty, staff, and students. High-resolutions portraits are made available for download through SmugMug.

Spring headshot sessions:

• Jan. 18, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., University Communications & Marketing (1229 25th St.)
• Feb. 15, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., SOE, Collier-Scripps Hall, 2nd Floor (Dean’s Conference Room)
• April 12, 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., location TBD

No appointment necessary.

Jeremy Sievers, University Communications and Marketing

Doors to most buildings will be locked for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (Monday, Jan. 21). Card access will still allow you to access your authorized buildings, but they will be locked to the general public due to decreased staffing and foot traffic. Regular door schedules will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 22.

Cowles Library open hours/after-hours are listed on their website library.drake.edu.

Please contact Public Safety at 515-271-2222 if you have a door access emergency during this time. Feel free to email Student Services Center at studentservices@drake.edu if you have a general (non-emergency) card access question or concern.

Sara Heijerman, Student Services Manager

As a step toward process improvement, and to assist you in a speedy delivery of your requested keys, the Student Services Center is planning to discontinue the use of the paper key forms starting Jan. 28. Submitting your key requests through the online Team Dynamix work order system is the preferred method of key requesting.

As has been done in the past, key requests will continue to be done by a designated building key approver. Key approvers can use the links below to request keys. If you are unsure of who is a key approver for your building/department, please contact Steven Blaylock at steven.blaylock@drake.edu.

New Key Request
Lost Key Request
Card Access Issue

Keys will be available for pickup at the Student Services Center (located in Lower Hubbell Hall through the spring semester). Keyholders are alerted via email when their key is ready, and Team Dynamix work orders are closed once keys are picked up by their owners. Please feel free to reach out to studentservices@drake.edu or steven.blaylock@drake.edu with questions about this process.

Sara Heijerman, Student Services Manager

Drake University has exclusively contracted with Office Depot/Max for the purchase of all office supplies. They provide next day desktop delivery, unless an item is on backorder. This is the same contract that the Iowa Regent Universities are using so we have discounted pricing due to our consortium volume.

Please refrain from using Amazon, Walmart, Target, Staples etc. for office supplies. As one of the largest office supply companies in the U.S., they can typically find the item you need at the lowest price.

If you find that an item is higher with Office Depot, you can contact Bryan Bellis at bryan.bellis@officedepot.com and he will work with you to find an equivalent item or obtain bulk pricing if needed. If you need to shop in an actual store, there is a card you can print out from the purchasing website to take with you to use with your Drake P-Card so you will receive the same discounting.

Caron Findlay, Director of Purchasing & Business Services

Beginning Tuesday, Jan. 15, you will notice a few changes to OnCampus, and for those who submit news and announcements, a slightly new submission process.

OnCampus serves as a key internal communication resource, distributing 30 to 40 news items each week. Submission have often pertained to events, which are now promoted via the University’s online events calendar, which was launched earlier this fall and announced in OnCampus. Starting next month, OnCampus will no longer include event submissions as they belong instead on the online calendar; this should greatly improve the readability of OnCampus and ensure the content is relevant and easily consumable.

The “featured events” section of OnCampus will include three events each week that will be chosen at the discretion of University Communications and Marketing. All other events (meetings, lectures, athletic events, fine arts performances, discussions, faculty and staff development sessions, town halls, etc.) should be submitted to the University calendar. In every edition of OnCampus, there will be a button that drives readers to the calendar for a comprehensive list of events. For information and how-to guides on how to use the calendar, see the OnCampus article published earlier this fall.

If you’re worried about missing events, consider adding relevant event categories to your personal calendar. Within the calendar, select the category you want on the right-hand side of the page, such as “Arts & Entertainment.” A new page will open listing the events within this category. Click on the appropriate calendar icon at the top of the page (Google, Outlook, iCal), and all future events in this category will automatically be added to your calendar.

The second change coming to the newsletter pertains to the submission process. Historically, there have been multiple ways to submit news to OnCampus. In order to make the process simple and more efficient, we are asking faculty, staff, and students to submit all OnCampus stories using the online submission form on the OnCampus website. Please review the submission guidelines before submitting your news item.

For questions, contact Ashton Hockman at ashton.hockman@drake.edu.

—Ashton Hockman, University Communications and Marketing

Drake reimburses mileage for use of personal automobiles by employees for actual miles driven during business travel. The reimbursement rate is based on the current standard mileage rate issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

Effective Jan. 1, 2019, the standard mileage rate issued by the IRS for the use of a car will be: 58 cents per business mile driven, up from 54.5 cents in 2018.

The standard mileage rate is evaluated annually by the IRS and is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile.

If you have any questions regarding the reimbursable mileage rate, please visit the IRS website, or contact Accounting at accounting@drake.edu.

Jenifer Baugher, Accounting

Clarification regarding Southwest and Allegiant internet only fares: Some airlines, such as Southwest and Allegiant, may not share all of their inventory to display through the Short’s online booking tool. These fares can typically be booked through an agent. If you do not see the flight or airline you are looking for on the booking tool, please contact a Short’s agent at 877-263-2550. As a reminder, the agent fee will not apply (during regular business hours) until a trip is booked.

Caron Findlay, Director of Purchasing and Business Services

Due to the end of the semester, OnCampus will not be distributed Dec. 18, Dec. 25, and Jan. 1. The newsletter will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 8.

—Ashton Hockman, University Communications and Marketing