It is with great sadness that we share the passing of three former professors who held long and distinguished careers at Drake.

Phyllis Kingsbury, associate professor emeritus of biology, passed away May 12. She was a cornerstone of the original environmental track in the biology department and taught at Drake until her retirement in 1996. See Professor Kingsbury’s obituary. 

Robert (Bob) Kodama, professor emeritus of biology, passed away May 30. For more than 30 years, Professor Kodama served on the Drake faculty. He was known fondly as “Dr. K” by his students. His legacy will live on in the many students he taught who went on to lead rewarding careers in medicine. See Professor Kodama’s obituary. 

Robert (Bob) Lutz, associate professor emeritus of physics, passed away June 12. Professor Lutz was not only a revered educator during his time at Drake, but he also served as Director of Computing and Telecommunications in the 80s and led Drake’s early adoption of technology solutions, including the University’s membership in the Apple Consortium, which made computers more accessible to faculty, staff, and students. See Professor Lutz’s obituary.

Professors Kingsbury, Kodama, and Lutz will be missed dearly. They had a profound impact on our University and on the lives of their students and colleagues.

As a reminder, you may ride the DART bus for free by showing the driver your Drake ID.  DART bus service is offering special transit options for upcoming events in Des Moines this summer.

• The DART’s D-Line will be extended to provide late-night transportation services to and from the 80/35 Music Festival on July 7–8. The D-Line is also extending its service on Saturdays through October for the Downtown Farmer’s Market, beginning at 8 a.m.
• RAGBRAI will be stopping in Des Moines on Wednesday, July 26 in Water Works Park. If you would like to join the festivities, DART is offering a park & ride service from the 4^th and Grand parking garage (parking fees do apply) to Water Works Park from 4 p.m. until after the free concert, which includes headliner Lynyrd Skynrd.
• Fair goers can park their cars and ride DART to the Iowa State Fair August 10–20. Park & Ride locations include Center Street Parking Garage (830 6^th), Iowa State Capitol east entrance near the Lucas Building, and Southeast Polk High School. Please note that unlimited access benefits (free rides with your Drake ID) are not valid for the Iowa State Fair shuttle, but the cost is minimal.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Our beloved live mascot, Griff II, is celebrating his fifth birthday with a party on Saturday, July 15, from 1–3 p.m. at Black Cat Ice Cream. The address is 2511 Cottage Grove Avenue, Des Moines. Join your Dog for some blue birthday cake ice cream and photos. Instead of birthday gifts, Griff II asks you to consider bringing non-perishable food and/or hygiene products to help him restock the Little Free Pantries in the Drake Neighborhood. Griff II can’t wait to see you!

—Erin Bell, University Communications and Marketing

Parking permit sales for the upcoming academic year will begin Monday, July 10.  Log into myDrake and select “Parking Tag Registration” to register for your pass. Please make sure to have your license plate number available at the time of registration, and please enter it without spaces or dashes.

Permits will be available on a first come, first serve basis, and we ask that all permit sales be done online. The payroll deduct process can also be completed online, and is available to full-time, benefit-eligible part-time, and adjunct employees. Credit/debit card is also accepted for any pass purchase. An email confirmation will be sent to you when your pass is ready to be picked up at the Student Services Desk in Olmsted, please bring an ID for verification.

Resident passes: $395 (blue, 24/7 parking)

Premium passes: $280 (yellow, Olmsted lot; red, Ray Promenade lots)

Perimeter passes: $125 (all orange and purple lots)

Evening/Weekend passes: $100 (valid from 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., Monday through Friday, and all day on weekends)

Passes are valid from August 2023 to August 2024, and will be available to pick up in the Student Services Center (Olmsted) in August.

Please visit drake.edu/map to see where the lots are located, and contact studentservices@drake.edu for questions.

— Sara Heijerman, Student Services

We are excited to bring back a long-held tradition, Move-In Crew! Prior to the pandemic, students, staff, and faculty would sign up to help first-year students move into the residence halls. We want to invite your organization to be part of this exciting tradition.

We are currently recruiting volunteers to assist with new student move-in day on Wednesday, Aug. 23. All volunteers will receive a Move-In Crew t-shirt. We will recognize student organizations that provide at least three volunteers on the back of the shirt.

Please use the link below to sign up for one of three shifts. Even if you can only come for part of a shift, we encourage you to sign up.

MOVE-IN CREW SIGN-UP.

Sign-up deadline is June 30.

Cowles Library is proud to share our June monthly collections: materials written and shared by and about the LGBTQ+ community and featured fiction and nonfiction books commemorating Juneteenth.

Pride Month featured collection

Juneteenth featured collection

— Erin Menardi, Cowles Library

The revitalization of Meredith Hall remains on track to be largely completed in August of 2023. For complete project information, visit drake.edu/build/meredithrevitalization2022-2023.

— Nate Reagen, Office of the President

July 3–4 will be a University holiday. Therefore, the student payroll approval deadline will be changed. The deadline for students to submit timesheets will not change. Students will still have until July 1 at 12 p.m. to submit, but approvals will need to be completed by 11:59 p.m. on July 5.  It is imperative that everyone meets the deadline as this student payroll will be completed in a shorter time frame. If you will be taking vacation over the summer, consider Adding a Proxy for your approvals.

— Heather Winslow, Finance and Administration

ITS will be applying mandatory security patches to our Oracle Databases on Sunday, June 25, from 7–10 a.m. During this time, Self Service, Admin Pages, ProcessMaker, Workflow, eTranscripts, TouchNet, and other connected systems will be unavailable. These updates are necessary to keep our University data secure.

If you experience issues outside of this window, please call the Support Center at 515–271–3001 or visit https://service.drake.edu to report your issue. Thank you for your patience as we continue to strive to provide superior service.

—Praveen Polu, ITS

June is Pride Month and our opportunity to celebrate our LGBTQIA+ community at Drake and their accomplishments, as well as the ongoing pursuit of equal justice for the community.

Come celebrate all these things and more, and walk with Drake University at the 2023 Capital City Pride Parade on Sunday, June 11, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. in the East Village. Afterwards, we invite you to join us for a post-parade social. All members of the Drake community are welcome, including students, staff, faculty, and alumni, and allies are encouraged to walk with us as well.

Also, did I mention that Griff II will be there! Our official parade vehicle is the Griffmobile, although it’s too hot for him to be walking in the Parade, he will be cruising down in the air conditioning.

If you would like to walk with us, please register at the website here. This lets us know how many people to expect and how many materials to bring. All attendees are encouraged to wear their Drake Blue!

— Gregory Lin, Alumni Relations