The University Book Store is continuously trying to improve. Please take a short survey to provide feedback and insights on the Book Store’s services. The survey is open until Nov. 26.

Katie Wilz, University Book Store

This Friday, Nov. 17, is the last day to take the ITS Phishing Quiz. Take the short quiz to learn how to identify email phishing and keep yourself safe online. Thanks to some local businesses and campus partners, ITS is giving away six great prize packages. Everyone who completes the quiz will be entered into the prize drawing. Take the quiz today.

Carla Herling, ITS

Nov. 13–17 marks International Education Week, an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.

During the week, Drake students, faculty, and staff can try international foods at Hubbell Dining Hall or Quad Creek Cafe, talk to a resident assistant about internationalization programs in the residence halls, and network with campus contacts who have been abroad or are from another country.

Stop by the Olmsted breezeway this Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to learn about international education, passports, and more. Tables may include food, passport applications, study abroad and other information, and prize drawing(s).

As a culmination to the week, Drake International will host an open house on Friday, Nov. 17, from 3 to 5 p.m. in their new home at 1213 25th St. (former Ray Center). The campus community is invited to come and see their newly renovated space, meet the International team, and enjoy snacks and beverages.

–Annique Kiel, Drake International

Campus building hours will be adjusted for the Thanksgiving holiday. Most of campus will close at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 22, and will remain closed to the general public through the end of the week.  Students, faculty, and staff can still enter their authorized buildings with their Drake Card. For the majority of buildings, regular access will resume on Sunday, Nov. 26.

Contact Public Safety at 515-271-2222 for door access emergencies during this time. For non-emergency related questions, please email studentservices@drake.edu.

Cowles Library open hours/after-hours can be found on its website.

—Sara Heijerman, Student Services

Do you know someone who should earn an alumni award? Drake and the National Alumni Association Board are proud to honor exceptional graduates each year during the Drake Relays at the Alumni Awards Reception. These awards recognize the significant contributions of our alumni to their alma mater, their profession, and their community. Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2018 Alumni Awards. Submissions must be completed by Monday, Dec. 11. Please direct questions to Nicki Kimm in Alumni Relations at nicki.kimm@drake.edu or 515-271-2463.

Meredith Ponder, University Communications

On Saturday, Nov. 18, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., all Banner (DUSIS) services will be unavailable. Access to blueView, MyDUSIS, DUSIS (INB) Forms, Workflow, eTranscripts, Job Submission, and ODBC (Microsoft Access) will be unavailable. This outage will allow ITS to install necessary software upgrades for the Banner/DUSIS system.

If you continue experiencing issues after the outage has ended, please call the Support Center at 515-271-3001, or report your issue using our Service Portal at service.drake.edu/its.

–Carla Herling, ITS

Last month, more than 350 faculty and staff shared feedback about University Communications via the Survey of Administrative Services. Thanks to all respondents, nearly half of whom work with University Communications regularly (i.e. at least every few months). The positive feedback provides affirmation and encouragement, while the constructive feedback will help the team improve processes and further strengthen the University’s communication and marketing efforts.

Nearly three of every four respondents who said they regularly work with University Communications reported that they are satisfied with the department’s services. The highest scoring areas, and the mean in a five-point aggregate scale, were:

• Staff are courteous––4.53
• Staff complete their work within budget—4.42
• Staff are professional–4.38

There were also three clear areas that need improvement:

• Staff respond to my inquiries in a timely manner—3.65
• Staff help identify solutions that I otherwise wouldn’t have considered—3.66
• Communication from my area is better as a result of having worked with University Communications—3.68

In terms of specific services, all survey respondents—whether they work regularly with University Communications or not—are most satisfied with campus communications (4.19) including OnCampus and leadership messages, and with alumni communications (3.84) such as Blue magazine and eBlue digital newsletter.

Strategic communications planning (3.43) and student recruitment communications (3.32) are the areas perceived as needing the most improvement. The University Communications team has already begun putting more focus on these two areas, and they will remain priorities going forward.

All other services provided by University Communications scored above 3.50; that suggests fairly solid performance all-around.

Some of the initiatives already underway to improve performance within University Communications include:

• Developing and implementing strategic communications plans to better serve key audiences, including faculty/staff, alumni/donors, prospective students and families, and the general public.
• Asking campus partners to collect and share data that will help University Communications better understand audience needs, develop impactful strategies, and define measurable outcomes.
• Developing and deploying digital solutions whenever possible and appropriate to better serve key audiences, generate valuable data, and drive down printing costs.
• Continuing the transformation of the University website to the new look-and-feel, with redesigned webpages for two academic units going live yet this semester and other units and departments to follow.
• Facilitating a first-ever, newly-formed marketing advisory council with representatives from each academic unit, to identify and share best practices across colleges and schools.
• Providing self-serve tools to help campus partners meet more of their day-to-day needs and allow University Communications more time to focus on strategic work.
• Working with national branding firm 160over90 to analyze market research and elevate the Drake brand, with implementation of the new brand platform to be in full swing this spring.

The survey feedback will serve as a blueprint heading into 2018, as University Communications works to better support the University’s mission and continuous improvement initiatives. In the meantime, you can learn more about University Communication’s expertise and explore the department’s online toolkit.

–Dave Remund, University Communications

ITS would like to thank everyone for their patience as we continue working with our vendors to find a permanent solution for the issues we’ve been having with printing to Lexmark printers. We understand this issue is causing significant frustration, and we are doing all we can to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. Our vendor is still trying to identify the cause of the issue and is working diligently to develop a fix. Unfortunately, there is still no firm estimate for when a permanent fix will be delivered.

In the meantime, ITS has developed a short-term solution that allows faculty and staff to print directly to any printer using FollowMe print queues for each type of device. This solution also works for any students who have downloaded printer drivers to their computers to print specialized document types.

• In order to release print jobs to Konica-Minolta multi-function devices, please use the standard BW_FollowMe or Color_FollowMe print queues that are installed on all Drake-owned computers by default.
• For releasing print jobs to Lexmark devices, use the NEW BW_Lexmark_FollowMe or Color_Lexmark_FollowMe print queues. The Lexmark print queues must be manually downloaded and installed on Drake-owned computers by following one of the sets of instructions below.

Please note that print jobs sent to the Lexmark print queues will only be able to be released at Lexmark printers. You should not install the Lexmark-specific drivers unless you regularly print to Lexmark printers. You can also still print to Lexmark printers via web printing.

Step by step instructions on downloading the Lexmark print drivers:

• How -to: Installing Lexmark-Specific FollowMe print drivers on Windows
• How-to: Installing Lexmark-Specific FollowMe print drivers on Mac

For assistance with determining the type of printer in your area and the correct printer driver to use, please see Printer Locations (FAQ).

For information on using Web Printing, please see Using Web Printing (How-to).

—Carla Herling, ITS

The photography protocol and procedures section of the University Communications toolkit has been updated. Visit the toolkit for information on:

• SmugMug
• Drop-in headshot sessions (the next drop-in session is Nov. 13 from 8–10 a.m.)
• Event photography and training resources
• Independent contractors
• Freelance student photographer pool (outside of the University Communication office)
• Key photo and video priorities for 2017–2018

Justice Simpson, University Communications

Email phishing is one of the most prevalent attacks directed at Drake––over 100 million fraudulent emails are sent each year. That’s why ITS works to educate faculty, staff, and students about avoiding these attacks designed to convince us to give away our information.

October was National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and ITS shared tips all month on how to remain safe online. Until Nov. 17, ITS is holding its second annual Phishing Quiz, where faculty, staff, and students take a short quiz to learn how to identify these dangerous attacks. Thanks to some local businesses and campus partners, we’re giving away six great prize packages. Enter by going to drake.edu/its/phish. And, look for ITS staff at a table in the Olmsted breezeway on Thursday, Nov. 9, between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Spin the prize wheel and answer an IT security question for another chance to win.

In mid-November, we’ll be re-launching phishing simulation training for faculty and staff using a new tool called Knowbe4. This training creates emails that look like actual phishing attacks as an effective way to teach us how to identify and report them, all in a risk-free environment. It also has short videos that we will be using to help reinforce this training.

Our goal with these initiatives is to empower campus to keep personal and University data secure. Together we can be good stewards of the important information that has been entrusted to us.

—Peter Lundstedt, ITS