Category Archives: For Faculty Archive

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

United Way campaign: Help Drake reach its goal

The 2018 United Way Campaign will come to a close this Friday, Nov. 16. As of this morning, we have raised $42,680.55 from 276 participants. If you haven’t yet, please consider making a donation. Even $5 per month makes an impact for community partners providing education, income, and health related services, and remember if we reach out goal of 350 participants and/or 3% across the board increase, President Martin will close campus for a full-day paid holiday the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. To be counted among the participants, please be sure to make your contribution by 4:30 p.m., Friday, Nov. 16. Visit the website to learn more and donate. 

Ryan Arnold, University Advancement

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Bulldog Applause: Spotlight on the Controller’s Office

Last week, Drake’s All Staff Council Recognition Committee celebrated the Controller’s Office with a surprise treat delivery, compliments of Drake Dining. This spotlight provides a few fast fact about the Controller’s Office. Thank you to the team for everything they do to make Drake a great place!

How many staff members are in the department? 13

What is the primary function of the team? Do you have a mission/vision/motto?

The Controller’s Office consists of the following functions: Student Accounts and Cashiering Services, Accounting and Accounts Payable, Payroll Services, and Financial Reporting and Compliance. Each of these offices have very unique functions that serve our community in different ways.

  • The Office of Student Accounts and Cashiering Services consists of five staff members: Jana Brem, Director of Student Account Services; Donna Knight-Donovan, Cashier; Sheila Govoni, Student Accounts Consultant; Terri Smith, Student Accounts Consultant; and Anthony Leto, Student Accounts Collection and Loan Specialist. This office is committed to assisting our students, families, and community as they transact business with the University and assume financial responsibility for their education. Primary responsibilities of this office include the billing and collecting of tuition, fees, and other related charges and servicing of student accounts.
  • The Accounting and Accounts Payable Office consists of six staff members: Erica McGowan, Associate Controller; Stacy Bauer, Senior Accountant; Jill Burkle, Staff Accountant; Jeni Baugher, Accounts Payable Supervisor; Shelly Biondi, Accounting Clerk; and Suzanne Stewart, Accounts Payable Clerk. The Accounting Department is responsible for the integrity of the University’s financial records and for assuring that transactions entered into the University’s general ledger are recorded in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the accounting policies of the University. This office also processes payment requests related to vendor invoices and employee travel and expense reimbursements.
  • Payroll Services works directly with Human Resources and University departments to prepares and distribute all University payrolls. Kathy Jefferson, Payroll Coordinator, manages the Payroll Services department.
  • The Controller’s Office is also responsible for financial reporting and compliance. This includes the management of the University’s debt portfolio, tax compliance and reporting, annual financial audits, and other financial reporting.

Who has been with the team the longest, and what is their job title and length of employment?

Kathy Jefferson, our Payroll Coordinator, is the longest standing employee. She has served the Drake Community for over 40 years! Incredible!

Who is the newest team member, and what is their job title and month/year of start?

Our newest member is Stacy Bauer. Stacy is the Senior Accountant in the Accounting Office. She started in her new role in September 2018. We are excited to have her join our Bulldog family!

What campus buildings do your team members “live” in? Old Main

Anything else noteworthy/interesting/special about your department that bears mentioning?

The Accounting Office adopted a 50-pound fiberglass Bulldog in January 2016, which they have named Templeton. Templeton was one of seven bulldogs unveiled during a 2007 Bulldog Parade. The Bulldog was created by Maddy Maxwell, former President Maxwell’s wife. This article gives further information about the unveiling of the seven bulldogs entered into the parade.

For every season or major holiday, including Drake Relays, Templeton is dressed in appropriate attire. As you can see from a few of our photos, Templeton proudly shows off his spirit for the Relays, enjoys connecting with the Irish for St. Patrick’s Day, loves to go for Easter egg hunts on Easter, and is ready to strut his stuff for summer.

Templeton is definitely a conversation piece as we have visitors in the office. Everyone enjoys seeing his new looks and students/children who visit our office like to stop in and pet him. Stop by Old Main to meet Templeton – we love to share him with our Drake community.

Cathy Williams, University Advancement

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Bulldog Bites: New date for third lunch and learn session for faculty, staff discussing sexual harassment

Through a collaboration between the Public Safety, Title IX and Violence Prevention, and Equity and Inclusion departments, Human Resources is excited to offer a new series of programming focused on safety and inclusion called Bulldog Bites. The program will make our own campus experts accessible to faculty and staff to talk about how we can all make our community feel safe and inclusive. The next session is Friday, Nov. 16, in Turner Jazz Center. Note: this is a new date.

Mark your calendar for the brown-bag lunch series, which includes five sessions throughout the year.  Remaining sessions are:
Nov. 16: Title IX/Prevention part 1
Feb. 13: Equity and Inclusion part 2
March 13: Title IX/Prevention part 2

All programs will start at noon. Those who attend will enter a drawing for Hubbell Dining Hall and annual parking passes.

Mary Alice Hill, Human Resources

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Grant Writing and Research session

The next session in our series on Grant Writing and Research is on Monday, Nov. 19, at 3:30 p.m. in the Drake Room. The topic of this session is: Program Evaluation, Ensuring the Fidelity of Implementation and Overall Project Outcomes.  Anyone is welcome to attend.  Participation in previous sessions is not required. There is no need to register.

Art Sanders, Associate Provost

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Travel seminar session tomorrow

The session where experienced J-Term instructors will share their experiences and advice with those who are teaching J-Term for the first time in 2019 and those who are thinking about teaching J-Term in 2020 or beyond focused on travel seminars will be held tomorrow, Wednesday, Nov. 14, from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m. in the Drake International Conference Room, 1215 25th Street.

Art Sanders, Associate Provost

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

International Partners Breakfast and Fair

Drake International’s “Engage with Drake’s International Partners” Breakfast & Fair,” is on Thursday, Nov. 15, from 8–9:30 a.m. in Levitt Hall. This is an opportunity for faculty and staff to stop by and learn about Drake’s international partnerships directly from our international colleagues and Drake faculty who are engaged with those partners.

Art Sanders, Associate Provost

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Email phishing is constantly evolving

On an average day, about 206,000 malicious emails are sent to drake.edu addresses, comprising nearly 80% of all the email sent to campus. Today’s attacks are also more sophisticated than ever. That’s why we continuously work to educate faculty, staff, and students how to avoid these attacks designed to convince us to give away our information.

We’ll be distributing another phishing education scenario soon. These phishing email look-alikes provide information about how to spot malicious emails and allow us to introduce you to the ever-changing types of attacks in a risk-free environment.

When you encounter email you don’t recognize, always slow down and look carefully for red flags that give away its intent before acting. Suspicious emails can be reported by going to https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=17310

Peter Lundstedt, ITS

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

FPM shares results of Survey of Administrative Services

An objective of Drake’s Continuous Improvement Plan is to ”Elevate Service Excellence”. The Survey of Administrative Services directly supports our continuous improvement in this area.

This fall, the survey was issued to all faculty and staff with the focus on Finance, Public Safety, Human Resources (HR), Facilities Planning and Management (FPM), Information Technology Services (ITS), and University Communications and Marketing.

This feedback helps all of us understand where service gaps may exist and how to improve our services to the University.

Survey respondents provided largely positive feedback about FPM services. Responses were provided on a five-point scale, with five being the highest.

Satisfaction with FPM staff – Total Average 4.30 (4.41 last year)

Respondents assessed their satisfaction with FPM staff including their courtesy, professionalism, knowledge, timeliness, resolution of issues and communication regarding work orders and projects. Satisfaction with FPM staff was generally high.

Satisfaction with FPM support and services – Total Average 4.26 (4.40 last year)

Respondents assessed their satisfaction with FPM support and services including custodial, grounds maintenance, snow removal, moving, cooling and heating, painting, construction, carpentry, trash/recycle, keys/locks, and plumbing. Satisfaction with FPM support and services was generally high for keys/locks (4.67), ground maintenance (4.49)), painting (4.41)), and plumbing (4.38). However, lowest for trash/recycle (3.72) and cooling and heating (3.87).

The preservation of historic buildings can be demanding when upgrading the mechanical systems. It is our goal to heat and cool to establish a comfortable environment, but understand the capacity of the system along with individual preferences. The same holds true maintaining sustainable practices with regards to our impact on landfills. Moving forward we promise to service all needs on campus through collaboration and communication.

Overall satisfaction—Total Average 4.09 (4.27 last year)

Overall satisfaction is above average, but FPM still has room for improvement.

In reviewing the data and reflecting on the comments provided by the respondents, FPM has concluded that:

It is our goal to remain consistent over time with the above benchmarks. While strong ratings were seen in FPM, we are actively developing strategies to improve our services and overall quality.

Over the coming year, FPM makes the following commitments.

FPM will:

1. Ensure that FPM meet the promised response and resolution timeframes.

2. Collaborate to find reasonable and supportable long-term solutions.

3. Strive to understand issues and requests before beginning work.

4. Confirm the request was completed to satisfaction.

5. Improve communication related to work order requests and projects.

6. Work as a team to provide facility-related services on behalf of Drake.

In the following months, FPM will being working on updating our website to better deliver communications. This, coupled with more direct reporting, we anticipate that we can booster our lower administrative service areas. Watch OnCampus and the FP website for more information.

Kevin Moran, Executive Director Facilities Planning and Management

For Faculty Archive

Final grades due Dec. 19

Faculty, the deadline for final grade entry for the fall semester is 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19. Exception: final grades for the Law School are due on Tuesday, Jan. 15.

Those of you who want to send your final grades from Blackboard to MyDUSIS can find instructions here.

Those of you who want to submit grades directly into MyDUSIS should begin by clicking the Grading button in the “Faculty & Advising” menu in MyDrake and then finding the “Final Grades – Submittal Link”.

The final evaluation schedule includes a listing of when and where courses are scheduled to meet for their final evaluations.

Kevin Moenkhaus, Associate Registrar