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

Enjoy yoga on Tuesdays during the summer from 12:15– 1 p.m. at the Bell Center. The class will be a Hatha style yoga class, aimed to center the body and the mind.

— Gail Witte, Assistant Director of Recreation Service

Jen Rasmussen will serve as Drake’s next Director of Environmental Health & Safety. Jen comes to Drake from the Iowa-Illinois Safety Council were she was an Environmental Health & Safety consultant and trainer. She also served as an Environmental Compliance Specialist at EFCO Forms in Des Moines. Jennifer has a Certificate in Occupational Safety from Iowa State University where she also secured degrees in psychology and sociology. Jennifer has an extensive knowledge and background in developing and implementing health and safety programs and leading legal compliance efforts. We are excited to welcome Jen to Drake.

— Venessa Macro, Chief Administration Officer