On Thursday, Nov. 3, at 8:30 p.m., members of the campus community partnered together to conduct a campus safety walk.  Members of Student Affairs, Residence Life, Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety, and Public Safety were joined by over a dozen student representatives from the Student Senate and Residence Hall Association.

Split into two teams, the group covered the campus to look at safety issues that may present themselves at night to members of the community walking on campus.  The two groups located various safety concerns, and took the steps to document them so that corrective actions can be taken.  All of the concerns were directed to either Public Safety, Facilities, or Environmental Health and Safety to work on resolving.

As we all know campus safety is a shared responsibility.  The campus looks and feels a lot different after-hours and a safety walk with various members of the campus community allows for items that might not be seen during the day to standout.  Although Public Safety and Facilities conduct regular monthly lighting surveys, this walk looked not only at lighting, but several other issues.

Special thank you to Douglass Robinett, assistant director of Residence Life, for proposing this idea and working with RHA to join the effort and to Connor Oetzmann, student body president, for getting the Student Senate involved.

In order to continue this effort, there will be a Spring Campus Safety Walk held in early April.  If you have any questions about the fall walk or would like to participate in the spring walk, please send an email to scott.law@drake.edu.

— Scott Law, Public Safety & Operational Services

Megan Brown, professor of English, and Stacy Gnacisnki, assistant professor of health sciences, have joined the John Dee Bright College staff as associate deans. Their experience as teachers, researchers, and citizens of Bright College and University will help us advance our mission in crucial ways, including recruiting excellent faculty to lead the College’s seminars and attracting future cohorts of amazing students to our program.

Professor Brown is a member of the Bright College founding faculty and has co-led two JDBC courses. She also serves as Drake’s director of writing and as faculty athletics representative. She is the author of two books and many peer-reviewed journal articles. 

Professor Gnacinski came to Drake in 2017. In addition to teaching various courses in the health sciences program, she co-taught a Bright College seminar in Spring 2022. She also serves as a mental performance consultant for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia’s ski and snowboard teams.

Beyond their professional accomplishments, Professors Brown and Gnacinski bring optimism, energy, and a deep and shared commitment to the College’s mission: Affordable access to innovative excellence.

— Craig Owens, Dean, John Dee Bright College

Nov. 8 is National First Generation Student Day. Drake defines a first-generation student is a college student whose parents/legal guardians have not received a bachelor’s degree from a four-year university. At Drake, about 20% of our incoming students are first generation students. The Office of New Student and Family Programs and Drake First Gen Student Organization are partnering to celebrate Drake first generation students, staff, and faculty.

We are looking for first-generation students, staff, and faculty to fill out a short questionnaire to capture your experiences as a first gen student. The survey results will be used to generate profiles to showcase the first-generation college experience on social media leading up to Nov. 8.

On Nov. 8, we will be tabling on Helmick Commons or Olmsted Breezeway (depending on weather) from 1–4 p.m. passing out snacks and First Gen Bulldog stickers. We hope you can stop by for a sticker and some snacks!

We will cap off the week with a Brunch and Learn on Friday, Nov. 10, from 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m. in Shivers Hospitality Suite. The Brunch and Learn will feature a session on “From Community to Career.” Renee Sedlacek Lee, director of Community Engaged Learning, will share her story as a first-generation college student and how students too can use community engagement opportunities to prepare for life after college.  Click here to rsvp for the Brunch and Learn!

We encourage First Generation students, staff and faculty to join our Facebook group and follow on Instagram.

We look forward to seeing you at some of the First-Generation Student Day events!

— Marina Verlengia, New Student and Parent Programs

Due to the holidays, several payroll deadlines will be moved up.

Instructions to set up a proxy to approve time sheets in your absence are at drake.edu/hr-internal/managerstoolkit/ under Online Time reporting.

The deadline for monthly direct pays for payroll will be changed to:

Dec. 12, 2022, for payroll direct pays for the December monthly payroll

The deadlines for the biweekly time sheets and direct pays will be:

12/5–12/18/22 hours paid 12/22, 9:00 AM Friday, 12/16, for employees and 10:00 AM that day for approvers. Employees will need to estimate hours for 12/16-12/18.

12/19-1/1/23 hours paid 1/6/23, 9:00 AM Tuesday, 1/3/23, for employees and 10:00 AM that day for approvers.

The deadline for student time sheets and direct pays will be unchanged:

12/1-12/31/22 hours paid 1/12/23, noon on Sunday, 1/01, for students and 11:59 PM 01/04 for approvers.

— Korrine Jackson, Payroll Coordinator

The application for one-time federal student loan debt relief has been made available here. Borrowers are encouraged to complete the application as soon as possible.

The debt relief plan offers up to $10,000 of loan cancellation for borrowers meeting income requirements, and up to $20,000 for eligible borrowers who received a Pell Grant. More information about the Biden-Harris Administration’s student debt relief plan is available here.

— Ryan Zantingh, Director of Financial Aid

Drake’s Principal Center for Global Citizenship is delighted to highlight upcoming events for the fall portion of its 2022–2023 speaker series. Experts invited to speak on campus cover a wide variety of topic areas, connecting attendees to diverse practical perspectives on important global issues. Speakers will typically be scheduled once per month. To view the time and location of our scheduled events, and to register, visit the University Calendar. For any questions about current or future events, reach out to our office at global@drake.edu .

OCTOBER 28, 2022: Professor Sunday Adebisi, Ph.D., from the University of Lagos, Nigeria, will present an open lecture titled “The Russia/Ukraine War: Examining Africa in the Eye of the Storm.” This presentation discusses the implications of the war in Ukraine on African economic and politics, alongside what policymakers can do to support the needs of the African continent in the context of current events.

NOVEMBER 15, 2022: Professor Robert Pichler, M.B.A., director of Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt, Austria’s International Business Consultancy programs, will deliver a lecture titled “Current Challenges in Europe: War in Ukraine, Brexit, Inflation.” This event takes place as part of Drake’s 2022 International Education Week slate of activities.

NOVEMBER 29–30, 2022: Former U.S. Diplomat Elizabeth Shackelford, Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, will present two lectures related to her ongoing work in international issues. The first of these lectures, “Human Rights Advocacy,” will take place on Nov. 29, and the second of these lectures, “U.S. Foreign Affairs,” will be held on Nov. 30.

All events are free and open to Drake University faculty, staff, and students. Registration for events is strongly encouraged, but not required. For more information, please visit the CGC’s Speaker Series page.

— Dawson Urquidez, AS’24

Drake Public Safety is attempting to identify the owner of this white minivan, as well as the name of the individual in this photo.

The white minivan was in the area of the occupational therapy building (30^th and Forest) on Friday, Oct. 7, between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. The person in the photo is believed to have been in Drake parking lots between Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 wandering around.  

We believe the operator of the white minivan, as well as the individual in the picture, may have information to help us resolve several vehicle-related crimes on campus.  

Please note we are only looking to identify these individuals; we are not stating that they are responsible for any recent incidents on campus at this time.

If you recognize the vehicle or see the individual in the picture on campus, please contact Drake Public Safety immediately at 515-271-2222.

— Scott Law, Executive Director, Public Safety & Operational Services

University Communications and Marketing is sponsoring a Professional Headshot Day Tuesday, Nov. 8, from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Old Main, Room 115. The sessions are free to all faculty, staff, students. High-resolution portraits are made available for download through SmugMug. 

Please sign up for a time slot. Click the Register button on the University calendar page. Space is limited.

Due to the cold overnight temperatures, HVAC staff began the process of switching campus buildings from cooling to heating mode.  By the end of the day (Oct. 18), residence halls will be switched over to heating. 

HVAC staff will continue working to transition the rest of campus buildings to heat, which should be completed by the end of the week.

Due to the unique piping infrastructure of our buildings, bringing our heating systems online is much more complicated than simply flipping a switch. The University’s heating and cooling system consists of miles of underground pipes which are filled with steam to heat and chilled water to cool, but not both at the same time. For this reason, the process to change buildings from cooling to heating, is a manual and labor-intensive process due to the need to drain and refill the pipes.

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

— Aaron Edwards, Facility Planning and Management