University Communications and Marketing, along with our partners at Woolverton, Mfg. have launched a project to consolidate the offerings on our stationery e-store, and refresh the design of remaining products as necessary to reflect our most current brand standards.

Currently, there are 142 active products available on the storefront, and 86 of them have not been ordered within the past two years. To simplify the shopping experience, our plan is to remove any item that has not been ordered within the past two years from the website. We anticipate removing these items by Dec. 1, 2020.

The art files for any products removed from the store will be archived within Woolverton’s database, and if you do need to place an order for one of these items in the future, you will still be able to contact Woolverton to begin that process. A determination will be made at that time whether or not the item needs to be updated to current brand standards.

If you have questions about this consolidation, or if you would like to see a list of the items planned for removal, please contact Sara Sommerlot at sara.sommerlot@drake.edu for further information.

— Sara Sommerlot, University Communications and Marketing

ITS is updating Virtual EMS (VEMS) in order to facilitate single sign on (SSO). VEMS is the system that faculty and staff and Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) use to request space on Drake’s campus.

In order to make this change, VEMS will be unavailable between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15. If you are unable to access this system after the planned maintenance window, please contact the support center at 515-271-3001 or visit service.drake.edu/its to report your issue.

VEMS can be found at ems.drake.edu/EmsWebApp/ or on the Employee Home page of myDrake under Administrative Tools >Request A Room.

After the upgrade you will no longer have to enter your credentials a second time when you access VEMS from the myDrake portal, or if you previously signed into another Drake system connected via SSO.

You can learn more about how SSO works at Single Sign On (SSO) and Drake applications (FAQ).

— Carla Herling, ITS

Dig Halloween or just plain competitive? Join Drake Recreational Services for our costume contest! To compete, tag @drakerec in your photos or email them to wellness@drake.edu.

Here’s how to participate:

Wear your costume to our facilities during the week of Halloween, and you might win a prize. The winners will be named in each of the following categories:

1. Best throwback photo of a childhood costume
2. Rec pro-staff favorite
3. Most original
4. Biggest LOL
5. Participating in Rec Services (wearing a costume during GroupX, Intramurals, or during your rec reservation, tag us in the picture!)

— Emily Madsen, Recreational Services

You are invited to participate in a research study about face-to-face courses at Drake University. This study is being conducted by a team of Drake University faculty on behalf of the Center for Teaching Excellence. The purpose of this study is to explore student and faculty perceptions and attitudes of face-to-face learning environments.

We are seeking your participation in an anonymous Qualtrics survey, which should take no more than 5-10 minutes to complete. You are eligible to participate if you are 1) enrolled as a student or faculty member at Drake University, 2) have taken or instructed face-to-face, in-person college courses, and 3) are 18 years of age or older. Participation in the study is completely voluntary, and no identifiable information will be tied to your survey responses.

If you choose to participate, you may complete the survey via the following link: http://drake.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5vEe3r1rZIdN99r.

At the end of the survey, you will be invited to enter a drawing for one of ten $20 Amazon gift cards, five for students and five for faculty members. All surveys must be completed by Monday, Oct. 19.

For questions regarding the survey or this research project, contact Eliza Dy-Boarman at eliza.dy@drake.edu.

Thank you,

Eliza Dy-Boarman
Rachel Allen-McHugh
Chinatsu Bachman
Kevin Carlson
Cris Wildermuth

Generally, Oct. 15 is our target date to transition campus buildings from cooling to heating season. However, with variable temperatures in the forecast, we are closely monitoring temperature predictions to determine the best date to initiate the switchover. Changing from air conditioning to heat takes about one week to complete with student housing starting first. Once the process is complete, air conditioning will no longer be available. If you have any specific questions or concerns, please email Brett Lovelady at brett.lovelady@drake.edu.

Cybersecurity starts with you and is everyone’s responsibility. There are currently an estimated 4.8 billion Internet users—over 62% of the world’s population! As this number continues to grow, protecting personal and institutional information and devices becomes even more important.

To bring focus to this important topic, and make sure Drake students, faculty, and staff know how to stay safe online and keep their devices safe, ITS is holding a cybersecurity awareness contest.

Follow @ITServices on Twitter and retweet a #DrakeCyberSmart tip between Oct. 12 and 23 to learn how to stay safe online and be entered in a prize drawing!

Open to all current Drake students, faculty, and staff members. Full contest rules can be found at drake.edu/its/cybersecure.

— Carla Herling, ITS