Final plans are being made for the 2018 Drake Learning Symposium, Building Trust: Leading the Conversation. There is still time to register by visiting the Eventbrite page. This year, the symposium is being held at the Olmsted Center and will feature Dr. Kathy Obear of the Center for Transformation and Change. For more details and a full description of the sessions, visit the symposium webpage.
Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost
Each month, ITS will offer various Tech Tuesday sessions designed to provide you with resources to use technology more efficiently in your job (and possibly your life). Some Tech Tuesday topics are being offered twice, please register by session. All sessions are 50 minutes, including time for Q&A.
Upcoming dates & topics:
Tuesday, Aug. 21: Getting Started with Blackboard
1 p.m., Olmsted Center, TMR 132
Taught by Karly Good & Clayton Mitchell, ITS
We will be providing basic tips and tricks for working with Blackboard. We will focus on course menus, navigation, grade center setup, and more.
Tuesday, Aug. 28: Setting up Your Blackboard Course to Match Your Syllabus
10 a.m. or 1 p.m., Olmsted Center, TMR 132
Taught by Karly Good, ITS
This practical, hands-on session will help you to take what is provided in your completed syllabus and build your Blackboard course to match what you have already developed.
Future Tech Tuesday topics include the IT Service Portal, Qualtrics, IT security, project management, and Office 365, as well as additional Blackboard training courses. Registration is open for all classes now.
Carla Herling, ITS
All faculty and staff are invited to the Provost’s first Drake Social of the 2018-2019 academic year on Monday, Aug. 20, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. in the Cline Atrium. The social will be held mid-afternoon, just after the Drake Learning Symposium.
President Marty Martin will welcome attendees, and talk about our next steps in actualizing the Core Values. In fact, the Drake Socials will become an exciting part of that implementation with recognition opportunities, prizes, and even use of some of our outdoor spaces to fully celebrate the Drake community.
We hope you will attend the Drake Learning Symposium, beginning at 8:30 a.m. on Aug. 20, and conclude the day at the social. To register for the Learning Symposium, visit the Eventbrite page. The social does not require registration.
Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost
On an average day, about 206,000 malicious emails are sent to Drake faculty, staff, and students, comprising nearly 80 percent of all the email sent to us. Most of these spam and phishing messages are blocked before they reach our mailboxes, but we cannot let down our guard on the content that does reach us.
Earlier this week, UnityPoint Health announced the potential breach of 1.4 million patients’ personal information. Attackers sent an email to employees disguised as an official communication from a senior executive that directed recipients to a fake website asking for their username and password. Once entered, the attackers accessed patient information stored in the email accounts.
Each of us stand between attackers and the information entrusted to us by students, alumni, community partners, donors, and each other. Fortunately, we have a set of tools available to combat this problem.
ITS will continue to provide training throughout the academic year through simulated emails and follow-up training, to help faculty and staff identify and respond to these attacks.
Peter Lundstedt, ITS
The All Staff Council Special Interest Committee has been crafting a new mentor program for Drake staff members. A survey link to sign up for the mentor program is now live. Staff members who are interested in being either a mentor or mentee are asked to fill out the survey. In addition, faculty members are invited to apply to be mentors.
The final deadline to sign up is Sept. 7. From there, placements will be made and the program will launch during the fall semester.
Visit drake.edu/asc/specialinterest to learn more about and apply for the new program.
For questions, contact Carla Herling, committee chair, at carla.herling@drake.edu or 515-271-2356.
— Niki Smith, University Communications/All Staff Council
ITS is excited to share that Banner 9 Admin Pages are now available in production and our campus launch has begun. A special thank you to the Registrar’s Office, Human Resources, Finance Office, and other members of the project team who have been working diligently for over a year and a half.
Here are a few highlights about the upcoming rollout:
Banner Training Timeline:
Human Resources Pages: Live now
Student Pages: July—September
Finance Pages: Early September (followed by budget office manager training in early November)
Financial Aid Pages: Mid to late September
It may be somewhat challenging through the end of December as some current users work in Banner 8 and others in Banner 9. We appreciate your patience and cooperation during this time of transition.
— Kris Brewster, ITS
Mark your calendars for the employee picnic on Tuesday, July 24, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Hubbell Dining. The location is different from years past, so that the event can take place rain or shine. The lunch is free, and is a chance to socialize with coworkers across campus. Faculty and staff can enjoy a luau themed menu, including Kalua pulled pork, macaroni salad, luau beef stew, Hawaiian pizza, fresh pineapple, and more. Then, after lunch, head outdoors for some yard games, and to conclude the event, a prize drawing will be held. To be eligible for the drawing, bring at least one non-perishable item that will go to the Drake Little Food Pantries on campus. We look forward to seeing everyone there!
— Linda Feiden, Human Resources
Registration is now open on Eventbrite for the 2018 Drake Learning Symposium Building Trust: Leading the Conversation. Be sure to review the Learning Symposium program before registering. This year’s Learning Symposium will be Monday, Aug. 20, and will be held at the Olmsted Center.
The 2018 Drake University Learning Symposium will feature Dr. Kathy Obear, Center for Transformation and Change, who will open the symposium with her workshop, Facilitating Difficult Dialogues. She will follow up with a breakout session for faculty that focuses specifically on facilitating difficult conversations in the classroom. In the afternoon, Dr. Obear will offer a session for staff focusing on difficult conversations in the workplace. Dr. Obear has spent over thirty years as an organizational change consultant helping organizations create inclusive, equitable environments where all people feel valued and respected.
This year’s Learning Symposium will conclude with the year’s first Drake Social, from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., at the atrium in Cline Hall.
For more information, please see the Learning Symposium web page.
— Drinda Williams, Provost’s Office
The All Staff Council Special Interest Committee has been crafting a new mentor program for Drake University staff members. A survey link to sign up for the mentor program will go live July 24 and will be linked in OnCampus. Staff members who are interested in being either a mentor or mentee are asked to complete the survey. In addition, faculty members are invited to apply to be mentors.
The final deadline to sign up will be August 21. From there, placements will be made and the program will launch during the fall semester.
Visit www.drake.edu/asc/specialinterest/ to learn more about the new program. The survey link to apply will go live on this webpage July 24. If you have any questions, please reach out to Committee Chair Carla Herling at carla.herling@drake.edu or 515-271-2356.
As a reminder, the Special Interest Committee explores initiatives, questions, and/or concerns presented to All Staff Council through research, planning, and collaboration with appropriate offices on campus. If you have questions or topics of interest for the committee, please contact Carla Herling.
— Niki Smith, University Communications/All Staff Council
Nominations are open to faculty and staff for the Principal Financial Global Citizenship Award, recognizing outstanding contributions to global engagement and internationalization of the campus and curriculum. The selected awardee will receive a plaque, up to $3,000, and will be announced at the August 2018 Learning Symposium. A screening committee, appointed by the provost, will review all nominations and make recommendations to the provost. Nominations should be submitted to Bonnie Ehler at bonnie.ehler@drake.edu by June 30, 2018.
Nomination details:
A letter of nomination should be submitted recommending an individual for the award and explaining the context and manner in which the nominator has come to know the faculty or staff member. This letter should speak to the following qualifications:
Pursuant to the University’s mission to develop “responsible global citizens,” explain how the nominee has made outstanding contributions toward realizing the three main goals of the Internationalization and Global Engagement Strategic Plan, 2015-2020:
Goal 1: Serve as a global knowledge hub that brings value to external partners in local, national, and international settings.
Goal 2: Infuse global and multicultural perspectives across the campus and curriculum.
Goal 3: Develop infrastructure, resources, and communication systems to support internationalization and global engagement.
The nominee must be a faculty or staff member in at least her/his fourth year of service at the University. The nominee cannot have won this award within the past five years. Faculty and staff members who report directly to Drake International are ineligible.
Nominees who indicate a willingness to be considered will be invited to submit a c.v. and a statement discussing their contributions to the above goals. One or two letters of support from faculty, staff, or students will be accepted (this is optional). The deadline for submitting supporting materials is July 15.
Any individual who was nominated for the award in 2016 or 2017 may be re-nominated if the nominator resubmits a letter offering the individual for consideration this year. Files of previous nominees are maintained for two years. If a faculty member is re-nominated, the nominator will be invited to review the file from the previous year to ensure that the nomination is as current as possible.
Nomination letters are due by June 30, 2018, and should be sent as an attachment to bonnie.ehler@drake.edu. Questions may be directed to Jeff Kappen, acting director of the Principal Center for Global Citizenship, at jeffrey.kappen@drake.edu.
— Bonnie Ehler, Center for International Programs and Services
