Drake’s All Staff Council Recognition Committee celebrated the Student Financial Planning team with a surprise cookie delivery (compliments of Drake Dining). Read the spotlight below to learn how the Office of Student Financial Planning makes Drake a better place.

Primary Function: The Office of Student Financial Planning  provides counseling and services designed to help students and their families meet the costs of financing an education at Drake University. Their office plays an integral role in the recruiting process. As part of the Office of Finance and Office of Student Financial Planning division, they continue to work toward their shared service standard goals:

Knowledgeable & Collaborative Spirit
Provide Solutions Not Excuses
Take Ownership
Foster an Innovative Environment

Professional & Ethical Behavior
Be Accountable as Team Members and Individuals
Value and Trust Others
Uphold Professional, Ethical, and Confidential Standards

Respectful & Responsive Interactions
Exceed Expectations
Be an Ambassador for Drake University
Recognize Contributions

Staff: There are 14 members of the Student Financial Planning team. Combined, these members total over 198 years of experience at Drake.

Longest serving team member: Denise Stowman, assistant director-grants, scholarships, and verification; 31 years at Drake.

Newest team member: Kayli Burnside, administrative assistant 1, is the information desk receptionist. Kayli started in February of 2016.

What are some recent challenges and accomplishments of note that others in the University might not know about?
Within the past two years, the financial aid processing timeline has changed drastically. The Free Application for Federal Student AID (FAFSA) is now available for families to complete beginning on Oct. 1 each year versus the prior date of Jan. 1. This has pushed our financial aid processing timeline up by three months, which requires earlier coordination of information with other offices on campus as well as software updates from Ellucian. Although this has been challenging, our office has been able to get financial aid packages to students in a very timely fashion. For 2018-2019, we already have close to 400 more financial aid award packages sent out to students than this time last year.

What else would you like to share with the Drake campus?
At the recent 50th Anniversary Celebration of our state professional organization, the Iowa Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (IASFAA), the Drake Office of Student Financial Planning was recognized in a very special way. While there are over 60 colleges and universities in our state, in the 50 years of IASFAA’s existence, three schools have provided 17 of IASFAA’s forty-six presidents. Drake was one of the recognized schools with five individuals serving as IASFAA president. Three of those five, Chris Ditter, Kristi Fuller, and Susan Ladd are members of the current Office of Student Financial Planning staff.

— Terri Howard, Drake Law School/All Staff Council

The City of Des Moines is planning on reconstructing 31^st Street between I-235 and Brattleboro Avenue this summer. The work is anticipated to start May 30 and be completed no later than Aug. 17. Detour signage will direct traffic off I-235 to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Parkway exit.  Additional local road traffic will be detoured around the road construction during this period.  More information about the project and schedule will be posted a couple weeks prior to the closure on the City of Des Moines Road and Trail Closures map.

— Kevin Moran, Facilities Planning and Management

Drake will host the Iowa State High School Track Meet, one of the largest state high school track events in the United States, from May 17-19. Please be mindful of the following information as we plan for the overlap of this event with other year-end activities on campus, including commencement and move-out time.

The safety and convenience of our students, faculty, and staff is our top priority, and we’ve taken additional steps to help ensure general safety and a smooth move-out process for students living in the residence halls.

Traffic and road closure information

Forest Avenue will be closed between 27th Street and 29th Street (east of Herriott Hall, in front of Drake Stadium) from Wednesday, May 16, at noon to Saturday, May 19, at 6 p.m. This is designed to increase public safety and to help parents to move-out of the residence halls in a timely manner.

Parents helping move their student out of their residence hall will have access to Forest Avenue from the west (30th Street), will be able to park along both sides of Forest Avenue (except between 27th and 29th Streets), and will have vehicle access to the entire driveway to Herriott Hall.

27th Street will be shut down for bus traffic from Forest Avenue to Clark Street from Thursday, May 17, to Saturday, May 19.

Planning your move out

The first-year residence halls (Herriott, Carpenter, Crawford, Stalnaker) and Morehouse Hall will close for the semester at 5 p.m. Friday, May 18.

Vehicular traffic in the Drake Neighborhood is likely to increase as the week progresses, so students may want to check out as soon as possible upon completion of their exams. Students can schedule a check-out time with any resident assistant (RA) in their residence hall. During this appointment the RA will verify all personal property has been removed from the room, complete a room check, and collect the student’s room key.

Plan for parking challenges

Plan for extra time to find parking as well as to travel to campus. Commuters, faculty, and staff can avoid parking challenges by using alternative forms of transportation or carpooling. Remember, Drake provides no cost DART rides to faculty, staff, and students. All you have to do is show your Drake ID upon boarding the bus.

Access to parking lots

Only Lot 2 (south side of 25^thStreet and Forest Avenue) & Lot 4 (Tennis Center) will be dedicated to the state track meet from May 17-19. All other commuter parking lots will be available for faculty, students, and staff to use.

Lot 13 (Wifvat Plaza) will be open on both Thursday, May 17, and Friday, May 18.

All residential parking lots will be under 24-hour residential permit-only restrictions throughout the state track meet. Any car parked in a residential lot from May 17-19, without a Drake permit will be towed. Additional signage will be posted at all residential lots as a reminder.

On Saturday, May 19, both Lot 13 (Wifvat Plaza) and Lot 10 (directly across from The Knapp Center) will be reserved for families attending the School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences graduation ceremony. The lots will open at 1 p.m. for these guests.

Contact us ahead of time with questions or concerns

If you have specific concerns or questions regarding parking from May 17-19, contact Scott Law at scott.law@drake.edu. While there is limited room for exceptions to these parking rules and restrictions, I am happy to listen and discuss any concerns. It is easier to be proactive, prior to events beginning, rather than reactive, once the meet has begun. Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation.

— Scott Law, Public Safety & Operational Services

I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about the relationship between technology and change. Perhaps you subscribe to the perspective of an anonymous pundit who said, “Technology does not drive change – it enables change.” Or, perhaps you resonate with Aldous Huxley’s view that “Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.” Either way, there is no denying that technology and change are inextricably linked in our global, digital world.

I recognize that I can choose to see changes as threats or opportunities, even though sometimes it’s difficult to tell one from the other. This recognition helps me try new things, admit when I’ve failed, and gives me strength to try again. Change is inevitable, but we can work together to ensure that we embrace its opportunities and try to avoid its threats.

ITS is constantly aware of the pace of change related to technology innovation. Already, this year has brought changes to our ERP system (Banner), our campus portal (blueView), our business intelligence capabilities (Drake BI), and to employee file storage (OneDrive). Additionally, we’ve replaced nearly 400 computers for faculty and staff across campus. Right now, we’re supporting campus partners as they work to launch a new student employment site, a new online benefits management system, and a new student success platform.

The summer promises even more changes. ITS staff will be updating the technology in Sussman Theater and classrooms across campus. We will be expanding wireless network capabilities in residence halls to enable students to more easily connect their electronic devices. Our team will continue to support employees as they transition to OneDrive cloud storage and will begin to make cloud-based departmental file storage available across campus. The new myDrake campus portal will launch in June and blueView will be fully retired in early September.

We are also continuing to improve our reliability, service, and support for the campus. We make our ITS scorecard available publicly to hold ourselves accountable. This year we are focusing on one important change to our scorecard – the Service Request Management Index (under Reflection). This index of five performance criteria measures how well we resolve issues on first contact, meet our time commitments, keep you informed of the status of your requests, and ensure your satisfaction. Improving this index is our highest performance priority for the next year.

Unfortunately, not all change focuses on opportunities; sometimes change must be made to address external threats. I continue to be highly concerned about threats to the security of our campus information. ITS is launching two-factor authentication for all users of the University’s remote access network (VPN) and the new Banner 9 system. Long-term, we will implement two-factor everywhere we store sensitive information. We will also be exploring ways to reduce administrative privileges on University-owned computers while still enabling users to install necessary applications.

I’m grateful to work with an outstanding team of professionals who act every day to ensure that the campus technology is meeting the needs of its faculty, staff, and students. If you see one of our ITS team members today, please let them know you appreciate their hard work, just as they appreciate yours.

As always, feel free to reach out to me or any member of our ITS staff if you have questions, concerns, or feedback.

Enjoy the (final) arrival of spring weather and have a safe, happy, and productive summer.

— Chris Gill, ITS

ITS is making updates to Banner/DUSIS. As a result, access to myDUSIS, Banner, eTranscripts, Banner INB, Job Submission, Workflow, and some blueView functions will be unavailable between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 5. Faculty, staff, and students will still be able to log into blueView, but some functions will be down.

We appreciate your patience while we perform this necessary work to keep the Banner system up to date with the latest patches and upgrades. If you continue to have any issues after the planned maintenance window, contact the Support Center at 515-271-3001 or visit service.drake.edu/its to report your issue.

— Carla Herling, ITS

The results are in. The name of Cowles Library’s bulldog statue is Virginia Woof. Congratulations to Angela Cornett, a first-year student majoring in Environmental Sustainability and Resilience, who submitted the winning name.

Cowles Library is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card to the person who takes the most creative photo of Virginia Woof. To be in the running, take a picture that includes Virginia Woof. Post it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 13. Use #VirginiaWoofBulldog in your post and tag Cowles Library (facebook.com/CowlesLibrary, twitter.com/cowleslib, and instagram.com/cowleslib). Be creative! The winning photo will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram on Monday, May 14. By entering the contest, you give Cowles Library permission to share your photo.

— Carrie Dunham-LaGree, Cowles Library

As spring (finally) arrives, more people are heading outdoors to take advantage of the sunshine and higher temperatures, including motorcyclists. Motorcyclists are one of the most vulnerable groups when it comes to safety. Despite accounting for only 3 percent of vehicle registrations and 0.7 percent of miles travelled, motorcyclists accounted for 14 percent of total traffic fatalities. Over half of those fatal accidents involved another vehicle. Interaction with other vehicles puts motorcyclists at great risk. Unfortunately, accident and fatality rates for motorcycle drivers have continued to increase over the past decade. Here are some tips to keep yourself and motorcyclists safe.

• Share the road. Make a conscious effort to remember that more motorcycles will be on the road during warmer months.
• Double check blind spots. Motorcycles are smaller and much harder to see in blind spots.
• Look carefully in all directions before pulling onto the street. Motorcycles can be difficult to spot and their small size may make them seem like they are further away than they actually are.
• Look twice before making left turns. Look once for cars and once for motorcycles.
• Give motorcycles space. Often times motorcyclists will downshift to slow down rather than apply the break, this means they may slow down without activating brake lights.
• Let them swerve. Hitting potholes or other items in the road can be very dangerous for motorcyclists, so it is important that they have space to maneuver.
• Make your intentions known. Use turn signals when turning or changing lanes.
• Watch for turning motorcycles. A number of older motorcycles do not have self-cancelling turn signals that many people are accustomed to, therefore some drivers may forget to turn off their signals.

Tips for motorcyclists:

• Work on your driving skills. Make sure you are properly licensed and have had plenty of practice operating your motorcycle.
• Wear protective equipment such as helmets and long sleeve shirts and pants.
• Wear reflective apparel to be more easily seen.
• Exercise extreme caution when driving at night. Always use lights when driving at night.
• Follow the rules of the road. Follow speed limits, stop at stop signs and red lights, etc.
• Keep your motorcycle in road ready condition. Make sure your vehicle is safe to drive, especially if it has been stored away all winter.

It is important to remember that there are no small accidents or “fender benders” for motorcycle drivers. They are completely exposed on the roadways and keeping them and other drivers safe takes effort from everyone. If all drivers learn to share the road, accidents and fatalities can be reduced significantly, and it all starts with awareness. May is officially recognized as ‘Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month’ with the goal of increasing driver awareness of motorcycles on the road.

In addition to motorcyclists, warm weather draws more runners, bicyclists, and pedestrians outside. It’s important for drivers to take extra caution when driving around these groups as they are extremely vulnerable around traffic.

If you are interested in learning more about motorcycle awareness or are looking for a motorcycle safety course, you can find more information by visiting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website or the Motorcycle Safety Foundation website.

— Chris Nickell, Environmental Health and Safety

As Sexual Assault Awareness Month ends, remember that there are a number of resources on campus to assist you or someone you know. Drake’s resources and policies are available on the Title IX webpage and include the Sexual and Interpersonal Misconduct policy, resources for support, and other types of campus assistance with safety, housing, or classes. Both the web page and the policy identify reporting options for individuals who have experienced or witnessed sexual violence or assault, sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, dating/domestic violence, or stalking.

If you have questions about sexual and interpersonal misconduct or Drake’s policies and procedures, please contact Title IX Coordinator Katie Overberg at 271-2982 or titleix@drake.edu. If you would like to get involved with other individuals working to prevent sexual violence or to support those who experience violence, please contact Violence Prevention Coordinator Lynne Cornelius at 271-4141 or prevention@drake.edu.

Define the Line. Respect the Line. is a Drake initiative to raise awareness of prevention efforts as well as resources and support the University provides as it pertains to sexual and interpersonal misconduct. Define the Line. Respect the Line. emphasizes that while everybody has the right to determine their own line when it comes to sexual behavior, there is one clear line at Drake: sexual or interpersonal misconduct is not tolerated, accepted, or ignored. Think, talk, learn, listen, and act in a way that respects this line—we are all part of Drake.

— Katie Overberg, Title IX coordinator