View Drake Postal Operations’ new website to learn how the team can save your department time and money. Here are just a few of the ways:

• Mail: Drake Postal Operations can meter your department mail to save time, print addresses directly on your mail pieces for a professional look, or use our automated inserter/folder to free up your staff.
• Parcel Shipping: The team’s extensive knowledge of carriers and the latest postal regulations can help you make the best and most cost-effective choice for your outgoing packages.
• Campus Delivery: Drake Postal Operations takes pride in making sure you have your mail and packages when you need them.

The department’s cutting-edge equipment makes mass mailing easy, whether you need metering, addressing, or automated folding and inserting.

Contact Drake Postal Operations to learn more about its services.

— Tim Reger, Drake Postal Operations

The Department of World Languages and Cultures invites the campus community to chat in Spanish with a native speaker during Conversation Hours. Spanish Conversation Hours are scheduled four times a week this semester: Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., and Fridays from 10 to 11 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Conversation Hours are held in Meredith, Room 207.

All levels of Spanish speakers from all areas of the Drake community are welcome. The group warmly supports all participants with opportunities for practicing Spanish; no long-term commitment is required to attend. Don’t worry if you haven’t spoken Spanish for a decade, or ever; all participants are on the language-learning journey.

For additional information, contact Assistant Professor of Spanish Inbal Mazar at inbal.mazar@drake.edu.

— Dorothy Pisarski, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Join ITS for the next session of Tech Tuesday on Feb. 13 from 2 to 2:50 p.m. in the Dial Center Large Conference Room.

The session will focus on tech troubleshooting. ITS staff will help you learn what steps to take when your tech acts up, where to go for troubleshooting information, and how and when to bring in help.

Sign up for this session and other upcoming sessions.

— Carla Herling, ITS

Numerous injuries result from slips and falls on icy sidewalks, parking lots, roads, and other outdoor locations. Here are 10 tips to reduce injuries from wet and icy surfaces.

1. Snow removal and salting of slick areas can help. However, many times, total elimination of the hazard is impossible.
2. Be aware of your surroundings. Anticipate the fact that you are apt to fall at any moment when walking on ice. Often ice will appear in the morning, in shady spots, or where the sun shines during the day and melted snow refreezes at night.
3. Wear appropriate footwear. Footwear should have low heels with soles constructed of a slip-resistant material. Don’t wear footwear that is not able to grip the surface on which you are walking.
4. Be careful when shifting your weight. When stepping off a curb or getting into a car, shifting your weight may cause an imbalance and result in a fall.
5. Adjust your stride. Take shorter steps and walk with your feet spread further apart laterally so that your center of gravity is maintained directly above your feet at all times.
6. Plan ahead. While walking on snow or ice, walk consciously. Instead of looking down, look up to see where your feet will move next to anticipate ice or an uneven surface. Occasionally scan from left to right to ensure you are not in the way of vehicles or other hazards. Be careful about what you walk under. Injuries can result from falling snow/ice as it blows, melts, or breaks away from buildings.
7. While seeing the environment is important, you also want to listen for approaching traffic and other noises. Avoid listening to music or engaging in conversation that may prevent you from hearing oncoming traffic or snow removal equipment.
8. Take steps slowly. When walking down steps, be sure to grip handrails firmly and plant your feet securely on each step.
9. Don’t take shortcuts. A shortcut path may be treacherous if it is located where snow and ice removal is not possible.
10. Watch out for wet entryways. When you get to your destination, be sure to look at the floor as you enter the building. The floor may be wet with melted snow and ice. Try not to track snow into buildings. Wipe your feet off at the entrance so others won’t slip and fall on melted snow.

— Chris Nickell, Environmental Health & Safety

Faculty Senate approved March 18–22, 2019, for next year’s Spring Break.

— Nancy Geiger, Faculty Senate Secretary

Facilities Planning and Management would like to invite you to “opt in” to a text message service to stay informed regarding incidents affecting Drake facilities. By subscribing, you can stay updated on snow removal work, water main breaks that impact your building, custodial projects, or any facilities-related issues that affect buildings on campus.

This new notification system is a voluntary service to help keep you in the know. You can participate by texting Facilities Notification 2018 to 67283. Messages will be sent starting in February as needed. When an event happens, you will be notified of which buildings are involved, areas to avoid, or entrances to use. If you have any questions regarding this service, contact Aaron Edwards, buildings and grounds manager, at extension 2959.

— Aaron Edwards, Facilities Planning and Management

Last fall, two student groups approached Facilities Planning and Management with a common goal to create a central trash and recycle pilot program. Students from the LEAD Capstone as well as Drake Environmental Action League (DEAL) joined forces to audit our recycle program throughout campus and developed a proposal to benefit the environment and address the student body’s request for a more consistent recycle program throughout campus. This proposal was recently implemented as a pilot program in select academic and administration buildings.

Numerous trash and recycle stations have been placed throughout the common areas in response to the students’ request for consistent recycling locations. Trash and recycle containers have been removed from classrooms as well as office areas. The pilot programs ask everyone to dispose of their trash and recycling at centralized locations, with the goal of:

• Eliminating over 50,000 trash liners from entering landfills each year.
• Having a convenient and consistent outlet for recyclable materials.
• Directing budget funding and labor hours to other campus needs.
• Enhancing the health and well-being of staff members by decreasing the number of times they need to repetitively bend, emptying thousands of trash and recycle containers around campus each day.

We will be seeking feedback on the pilot program over the next couple of months. The overall goal is to implement the program campus wide. Facilities Planning and Management would like to thank all members of DEAL and the LEAD Capstone group for their time and energy to help make Drake a better place.

— Mitch Wieczorek, Facilities Planning and Management

Have you checked out the Policy Library? This is a great place to start if you are looking for University policies, which are now all centrally located in the Policy Library, so you are sure to find the most current versions. The categories help to organize the policies into logical groupings, but you can use the library search tool as well.

To get started with the development or revision of a policy, you will want to reference the Policy Development and Review web page. In addition, the Policy Development, Approval and Communication policy includes tools for the development or revision process.

—Andrea McDonough, Finance & Administration

The pruning and removal of trees around campus will begin this Wednesday, Jan. 31, and continue for the next couple of weeks, depending on weather. The tree work comes as a result of an assessment completed by Facilities Planning and Management with the expertise of Mindy Charron, ISA Board Certified Master Arborist with Perficut Companies.

A detailed visual inspection of the trees and surrounding conditions identified several trees with health concerns or hazardous issues that are a priority for pruning or removal. Pruning improves the aesthetics, safety, and overall health of the tree’s canopy. Tree removals are necessary for a number of reasons: Structural problems, disease or insect infestation, storm damage, overall health condition, and the proximity of the tree to walkways or buildings, which could pose a safety concern for students, faculty, staff, and visitors.

Trees that will be pruned or removed are listed below and shown on the attached map:

Signage and detours around work areas will be in place during these operations. Due to the defects in the trunks or the particular species of trees, the wood from the removals are not worth keeping for other projects around campus. Facilities Planning and Management will be planting trees on campus this spring to continue improving the aesthetics of the campus and increase tree canopy.  An Arbor Day event is being planned for April; stay tuned to OnCampus for more information.

—Kevin Moran, Facilities Planning and Management

Last Sunday was Data Privacy Day, an opportunity to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data, and enabling trust. As we are reminded on the Data Privacy Day website, “all companies are data companies today,” and we all must remain committed to safeguarding our own personal information and that of our fellow students and employees.

I urge you to show great caution when clicking on links within email messages. Account phishing is the most likely way for the University to be attacked by identity and information thieves. The University and all of our private data is at ever-increasing risk, and we need to be vigilant.

Please always keep in mind the following tips:

• Slow down and look carefully
• Check the message source
• Think before you click
• Be wary of attachments
• Don’t give anyone your password

When in doubt, report it. Learn how here.

If you’ve been watching OnCampus, you’ve likely seen regular updates and information from ITS. One of our primary goals over the past year has been to improve our communication with campus, and we are using OnCampus as one of our primary methods.

In general, this is how we communicate with campus. For each type of message, we may use one or all methods depending on the audience:

• For community-wide informational messages – OnCampus, ITS website
• For professional development and learning opportunities – OnCampus, ITS website
• For planned maintenance outages – ITS website/blueView login screen/IT Service Portal, Twitter (follow us at @DrakeITServices), and Facebook Student Central
• For campus-wide outages – email, ITS website/blueView/IT Service Portal, Twitter, and Facebook Student Central
• For targeted information – targeted email (e.g. Banner Users group, Print Superusers group, etc.)

If you want to know more about ITS or get help with an issue:

• For basic information about ITS, visit the ITS website.
• For help with technology issues, call ext. 3001, visit the IT Service Portal, or email helpdesk@drake.edu.

ITS has recently made some significant changes to the IT service portal to help our users find what they are looking for. In particular, we have added a My Open Requests button to the page. You can use this link to review all of the service requests you have made to ITS. Open requests appear by default after you log into the site, but all current and previous requests can be viewed. Detailed information about each request can be found by clicking on the title of the request.

We have also redesigned the service catalog list, accessible from the Request Assistance button, and the list of self-help (knowledge base) articles on the Find Answers button. Please let us know what you think. We hope you’ll find this new layout more friendly and helpful.

Finally, please take a look at the upcoming topics for Tech Tuesdays and EdTech Workshops. Tech Tuesdays are lively and entertaining one-hour sessions on different IT topics; they have been a hit with those who have attended. If you take a look, you’ll find something to attract your interest and we’re sure you’ll find them informative and useful.

Our own resident Blackboard expert, Dr. Karly Good, is also hosting regular EdTech Workshops specifically designed to help faculty advance the use of technology in their pedagogy. Karly has a great list of upcoming sessions for the spring semester.

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any member of my team if you have questions, comments, concerns, or ideas for improvement.

— Chris Gill, ITS