The Drake Relays brings thousands of athletes, alumni, and guests to campus. As a reminder, parking and travel on and around campus will be impacted Saturday, April 22, through Saturday, April 29.

It is highly recommended that if you are coming to campus from off grounds, that you use public transportation, if possible.  If you do plan on driving, give yourself plenty of time to find parking.  Please remember that cars that are parked on the grass, illegally in handicap spaces, or blocking operations will be towed without notice.

All valid residential and commuter permits will be honored on Thursday and until 5 p.m. on Friday.  Only residential permits are valid in residential lots and commuter permits in commuter lots, unless posted otherwise.  Please note that the Olmsted and Ray Promenade lot still require the correct permit color to park in those lots before 4:30 pm.

Saturday, April 22 – Sunday, April 30 – Lot 17 (Facilities Lot) will be closed/no parking allowed

Wednesday, April 26 at 12 p.m. – Saturday, April 29 at 8 p.m. – Forest Avenue will be fully closed from 27^th Street to 29^th Street and will allow for only limited access from 24^th to 27^th Streets and from 29^th to 31^st Streets. No street parking is allowed along Forest Avenue.

Wednesday, April 26 – Saturday, April 29 – 27^th Street will be intermittently closed between Forest Avenue and Clarke Street.

Wednesday, April 26 – Saturday, April 29 – Lot 18 S (Studio Arts) will be closed/no parking allowed

Wednesday, April 26 – Monday, May 1 – Half of Lot 13 (Ray Promenade Lot) will be closed

— Scott Law, Public Safety & Operational Services

Faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend the 44th Annual Beautiful Bulldog Contest®, Presented by Ramsey Subaru. The contest will take place Monday, April 24 at 6 p.m. Doors will open to fans at 5 p.m. to enjoy the Rescue Dog Festival and Kids Zone before the pageant begins. The event is free and open to the public. There will be a giveaway for the first 50 students to show up with their Drake ID.

The Beautiful Bulldog Contest® at Drake University is a unique trademarked event with an over 40-year history. The event kicks off a week-long Drake Relays celebration. Thirty English Bulldogs walk the pup-way to impress judges in hopes of being crowned the Most Beautiful Bulldog. The winner of the contest will reign as the Most Beautiful Bulldog for the 2023 week-long Drake Relays. 

During the contest, each contestant will walk the pageant runway. This is prime time for the pups to show off their stuff or do tricks for our judges. This year’s judges include:

• WHO 13 Newscaster Jannay Towne 
• Paws & Pints founder and owner Megan Casey, BN’10
• Founding member and managing director of Pyramid Theatre Company, Alexis Davis, JO’13, GR’17

Questions? Please email beautifulbulldog@drake.edu. 

Select clothing and gifts are 50% off in-store and online at The Bulldog Shop. The sale is going on now through April 30 and excludes Drake Relays merchandise.

The 2023 Harkin on Wellness (HOW) Symposium will take place on Thursday, April 13, at the Olmsted Center.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems were overrun with patients and supply chain issues disrupted our access to healthy foods. Community leaders and organizations responded by creating new approaches to address the relationship between food and health. These new approaches include the growth of food systems coalitions and councils working to shape, advise, and implement food policy. These groups also worked to increase opportunities and reduce barriers to healthy outcomes at the regional level.

This year’s Symposium will showcase the work being done at state and local levels to improve people’s lives by reimagining the food system from farm to table and everywhere in between.

We are pleased to welcome Deputy Under Secretary for the USDA’s Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services, Stacy Dean and Dr. Walter Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and co-chair of the EAT-Lancet Commission as the keynote speakers for HOW 2023. Additional speakers will include experts on the environmental impacts of food production and on local approaches to improving health and wellness.

American Sign Language (ASL) and live captions in English will be available for all general session content for all attendees. ASL are available for breakout sessions upon request. (To request accommodations or ask accommodation questions email harkininstitute@drake.edu.)

Date: Thursday, April 13, 2023
Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:45 p.m.
In Person Location: Olmsted Center at Drake University (2875 University Ave., Des Moines, IA 50311)
Virtual Location: Livestream (access details and link will be sent to registered virtual attendees closer to the date of the event)
Registration: This event is free but registration is required.

More information: harkininstitute.drake.edu/2023/02/23/how-2023/

— Kathryn Kuckelman, Harkin Institute

Lifetime income strategies refer to the decisions we make about how to manage accumulated retirement assets in the defined-contribution system, where options such as annuities are not a default. Retirees must manage several risks when making these decisions, such as investment risk, longevity risk (the risk that they will outlive their assets), and even the need for long-term care. Good financial planning advice, which may not be available for everyone, is essential when making these decisions. This virtual webinar will discuss how to create a balanced lifetime income strategy, as well as currently available strategies and proposals such as longevity pooling.

What: Retiree Income Strategies: Current Options and Innovative Approaches Webinar

When: Thursday, April 20, at 1 p.m. CT

Where: Virtual

Registration: This event is free but registration is required. You can register through Eventbrite.

— Kathryn Kuckelman, Harkin Institute

Higher education is particularly vulnerable to a range of potentially damaging cyberattacks. From large catalogs of sensitive student information to research data, institutions of higher education have plenty of tempting targets for cybercriminals. Consequently, cyberattacks on colleges and universities have been on the rise. According to the 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations (DBIR) report, education and research institutions were targeted by an average of 1,065 cyberattacks per week last year—a 75% increase from 2020. Over 30% of these breaches are attributable to ransomware.

Despite the increased potential for risk, higher education tends to lag compared to other sectors when it comes to cyber-preparedness. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security examined the state of cybersecurity by industry and found the education category ranked at the bottom. Despite the emerging awareness of the cyberthreats colleges and universities face, higher education is struggling to keep up. This has created an extremely dangerous situation for colleges, universities, and affiliated institutions. The consequences of a successful data breach can be devastating for universities: huge ransom payments, stolen student information, and significant reputational harm.

The most effective cybersecurity resource higher education institutions have at their disposal, aptly enough, is education. This year’s Verizon DBIR reports that 82% of breaches involved a human element—a powerful reminder that cybersecurity is not a technology issue; it is a user issue. Security awareness is the best way to protect any organization from a wide range of cyberthreats. Mitigating cybersecurity attacks begins with a culture of security awareness at every level of an institution, and cybersecurity education is essential for every member of an institution, including students, faculty, and staff.

Please review the following cybersecurity education resources that have been made available by Drake ITS:

Drake University Information Security Awareness course available in Blackboard

Cybersecurity Awareness Month (October 2022)

In addition, ITS will continue to simulate phishing and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).

— Christopher Mielke, ITS

Civic Action Week is in full swing and there are still ways to celebrate and get involved. All are welcome to join in the activities.

Tuesday, April 11
Careers in Social Change Virtual Panel, 4–5 p.m. on Zoom. Hear from local professionals on how they have used their careers to create change. Contact amanda.martin@drake.edu for the zoom link.

Wednesday, April 12
Food Security: What do you know? 4–5 p.m. in Olmsted, Room 310. Join Next Course Food Recovery for a conversation with Aubrey Alvarez, executive director of Eat Greater Des Moines, on topics of food recovery and food systems. Refreshments will be provided.

Thursday, April 13
Harkin on Wellness Symposium, 9 a.m.–4:45 p.m. in Parents Hall or virtual. Registration required. 

Lunch and Learn – Developing Your Impact Plan. 12–1 p.m., Olmsted TMR 133. Pizza provided.

Friday, April 14
Findley Elementary School 1st grade visit. Join a welcome tunnel at the south entrance of Cowles Library at 9:30 a.m. 

Sprout Garden Volunteer Day, 1–3 p.m. Help prepare the garden for Spring planting.

Saturday, April 15
2023 Constitutional Law Symposium, 8:30 a.m.–1 p.m. Cartwright Hall, Room 213 or zoom. Register in advance. 

More information on these events can be found here. Follow @drakeservice on Instagram for daily updates!

— Amanda Martin, Community Engaged Learning

Drake University is in search of a new leader for Drake Online. The position has been refashioned as an Associate Provost over Online Programming. We hope the title update will both attract curious and talented candidates while also better describing the academic and institutional significance of this critical role.

The search committee chairs are Jenny Jones, director, Graduate Programs in the Zimpleman College of Business, and Chris Snider, associate professor of in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. They will support the full committee, which also includes:

• Maggie Fiala, who will wear two hats on the committee—both employee, as the director of Experiential External Affairs, and student—as a current online graduate student.
• Keren Fiorenza, chief information & technology officer
• Jenny Trans-Johnson, registrar
• Ryan Wise, dean, School of Education
• Ryan Zantingh, director of Student Financial Aid

The search committee is excited to get the search underway. Earlier this week, the search chairs met with the deans to hear their ideas and thoughts on qualities to seek out during the search.

“One of the phrases that stuck with me in listening to the deans,” shared Chris Snider, “was that the new hire will be in the position to create a vision to move Drake University to the next phase in online learning. This will be a great way to frame the role as we talk to candidates.”

In reflecting upon Drake Online’s journey, the Provost shared, “five years ago, bringing fully online program pedagogy to Drake was a huge turning point in Drake’s history. Christina Trombley led us through that change, put a strong and stable organizational foundation in place, supported program growth and financial stewardship, and achieved enrollment goals. We are taking the opportunity now to consider what the next five years of online programming look like. I expect the next leader to bring expertise to facilitate having that discussion and building consensus around a vision.”

The posting is now live on Drake’s job board, Jobs@Drake, and the search chairs are working with Drake Human Resources to get the job posted on external sites to assure it gets appropriate visibility to attract a large, diverse, and exciting pool of applicants. University Marketing & Communications is getting in on the collaborative spirit as well and will help finalize a detailed position profile, similar to what we used in the recent Dean of Admission search.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources