Category Archives: For Faculty Archive

For Faculty Archive

Important: Changes to merging courses in Blackboard

In an effort to better serve you, DTS is making some changes to how we merge courses in Blackboard. I am excited to report that instructors will no longer have to worry about merging their own courses. I am currently working with our Banner-Blackboard integration to automatically merge courses.

While we work on finalizing this process, I will be merging your courses so you can concentrate on what matters to you the most, teaching your courses. Please email me at maryjane.blystone@drake.edu and include the following information:

  •  Course CRN to be merged (e.g., COUNT-123-4567)
  • Name of the course to be merged (e.g., Accounting Spring 2016)
  • Which content to copy to the new course if any already exists.

Let me reassure you, this is a temporary solution until we are set to have the system merge courses automatically. We will notify you once this process is complete.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me.

—Submitted by Mary Jane Blystone, LMS Technology Specialist

Campus Announcements Archive, For Faculty Archive

Deadline to submit final grades

Instructors, your ability to submit final grades will end at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 23. (Online grade entry for the Law School will remain open until Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016.) This deadline was set by the faculty and appears in Section 2.135 of the faculty manual.

I greatly appreciate your efforts to submit your grades by the 10 a.m. deadline.

From that point, staff from your dean’s office and the Student Records Office will work together—expeditiously—to reconcile grades for courses that students have repeated (for a better grade) and to calculate students’ GPAs. This work must be done quickly yet carefully so that, among other reasons, informed decisions can be made with regard to students’ academic probation/suspension.

We will begin this process promptly at 10 a.m. on Dec. 23, as we must complete it by close of business, before the University adjourns for winter break.

If you have any questions about how to submit your final grades, please contact your dean’s office or Kevin Moenkhaus (kevin.moenkhaus@drake.edu or 271-3902) in the Student Records Office.

Thank you, and best wishes as your semester draws to a close.

—Submitted by Kevin Moenkhaus, Director, Student Records and Academic Information

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

From the Associate Provost

J-Term 2017 on-campus schedule
It will soon be time to construct the J-Term 2017 on-campus schedule. Each school/college assembles the schedule of their classes, and they will have deadlines sometime very early in the spring semester. If you have questions about J-Term classes (such as how to develop an intensive three-week learning experience, which faculty or staff have successfully organized on-campus J-Term classes and are willing to discuss with others, or what compensation rules are), feel free to contact Associate Provost Art Sanders (arthur.sanders@drake.edu).

Interested in teaching an FYS next fall?
It is time to start considering teaching a First Year Seminar in Fall 2016. If you are interested, visit the FYS Resource page, where you will find sample syllabi and other information about the program. And at the bottom of the page you will find the FYS Course Proposal form. (Please note: If you are a full-time faculty member and you are planning on building FYS into your schedule, you still need to fill out this form.) If you have questions, or want additional information about the FYS program, contact arthur.sanders@drake.edu .

—Submitted by Art Sanders

Campus Announcements Archive, For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

From the Associate Provost

J-Term 2017 on-campus schedule
It will soon be time to construct the J-Term 2017 on-campus schedule. Each school/college assembles the schedule of their classes, and they will have deadlines sometime very early in the spring semester. If you have questions about J-Term classes (such as how to develop an intensive three-week learning experience, which faculty or staff have successfully organized on-campus J-Term classes and are willing to discuss with others, or what compensation rules are), feel free to contact Associate Provost Art Sanders (arthur.sanders@drake.edu).

Interested in teaching an FYS next fall?
It is time to start considering teaching a First Year Seminar in Fall 2016. If you are interested, visit the FYS Resource page, where you will find sample syllabi and other information about the program. And at the bottom of the page you will find the FYS Course Proposal form. (Please note: If you are a full-time faculty member and you are planning on building FYS into your schedule, you still need to fill out this form.) If you have questions, or want additional information about the FYS program, contact arthur.sanders@drake.edu.

Final FYS discussion
This coming Friday, Dec. 4, will be our final lunch/discussion for FYS instructors and those who are considering teaching an FYS in the future. For information about the event and to RSVP, go to http://tinyurl.com/fyslunch-dec

—Submitted by Art Sanders

For Faculty Archive

Faculty Senate recap

The November 2015 meeting of the Faculty Senate included:

  • Updates regarding the provost search process and the upcoming campus visits in early December
  • Endorsement of six statements, which will inform discussions concerning learning outcomes for the general education curriculum
  • Acceptance of the reports from the University Curriculum Committee and the Drake Curriculum Analysis Committee (available here)

Faculty Senate’s next meeting will be held on Dec. 9.

—Submitted by Nancy Geiger, Student Information Analyst

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

2017 J-Term course schedule

It will soon be time to construct the J-Term 2017 on-campus schedule. Each school/college assembles the schedule of their classes, and they will have deadlines sometime very early in the spring semester. If you have questions about J-Term classes (anything from how to develop an intensive three-week learning experience to the names of faculty or staff who have successfully organized on-campus J-Term classes who are willing to discuss this with others to compensation rules), feel free to contact Associate Provost Art Sanders (arthur.sanders@drake.edu).

—Submitted by Art Sanders

For Faculty Archive

Nelson Institute Grant proposals due Dec. 1

The Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs invites proposals for a two-year grant commencing Jan. 1, 2016, for interdisciplinary faculty-student research projects addressing a global issue of broad public importance. The submission deadline for proposals is Dec. 1.

The purpose of this initiative is to enhance Drake’s involvement in addressing pressing global issues, thereby helping position Drake University as a global knowledge hub in service to local, national, and international communities.

Through a series of focus groups held in the spring of 2015, Vice Provost for International Programs Christa Olson identified two clusters of global pressing issues that Drake, together with its local and international partners, has the expertise and institutional capacity to address with depth and breadth:

  1. Food and water security and environmental sustainability
  2. Global public health and access to quality healthcare

Several other issues were identified in which Drake has depth but not breadth: poverty and access to quality education, bridging cultures, immigration and refugees, and freedom of information and expression.

We especially encourage research proposals that relate to these issue clusters, although proposals on other topics are welcome and no priority will be given based upon topical area. See the full Call for Proposals at Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs website. The submission deadline for proposals is Dec. 1. Proposals should be sent to Denise Ganpat (denise.ganpat@drake.edu).

—Submitted by Drake International