All Staff Council is holding a Bulldog Connect Networking lunch on Wednesday, Nov.16, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Come join us for a $5 lunch at Hubbell Dining Hall. We encourage attendees to wear their Drake name tag. Anyone is welcome to come—bring a fellow Bulldog along with you. Look for the table with the Drake swag and a special Bulldogs Connect table tent in Hubbell.
Also a reminder that All Staff Council invites you to share any suggestions, concerns, or other feedback you’d like us to look into using this form. (If you’d like us to respond to your feedback directly, please include your name and contact information, otherwise let us know your thoughts anonymously.)
If you are interested in learning more about teaching for Bright College, please join us for an informal Q&A panel session where Megan Brown, Stacy Gnacinski, and Craig Owens will share their lived experiences teaching in the college as well as outline potential opportunities for future instructors. This is a prime opportunity to ask any/all questions you may have about teaching in the college. As these sessions are merely informational, please know that your attendance in no way implies commitment to involvement in the college.
Thank you in advance for your interest and attendance.
— Stacy Gnacinski and Megan Brown, John Dee Bright College Associate Deans
The Ray Center and the Drake Women’s Basketball team are excited to be bringing back the CHARACTER COUNTS! Drake Women’s Basketball Game for the first time since 2019! Thousands of K-8 students will join us on December 1 for a morning full of fun, character education, and basketball! The Ray Center is looking for volunteers from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. to help thousands of students on and off buses, find their assigned seats, carry in coolers with sack lunches, assist teachers, help with concessions, etc. If you are interested in volunteering for this fun event, please email Megan Wesselink at Megan.Wesselink@drake.edu by November 18. Go Bulldogs!
If you are interested in learning more about teaching for Bright College, please join us for an informal Q&A panel session where Megan Brown, Stacy Gnacinski, and Craig Owens will share their lived experiences teaching in the college as well as outline potential opportunities for future instructors. This is a prime opportunity to ask any/all questions you may have about teaching in the college. As these sessions are merely informational, please know that your attendance in no way implies commitment to involvement in the college. Refreshments will be provided.
Thank you in advance for your interest and attendance.
— Stacy Gnacinski and Megan Brown, Associate Deans, John Dee Bright College
Drake HR has received our results from the 2022 Survey of Administrative Services (SAS). We want to start by thanking those who took the time to provide us with feedback. In 2021, 108 people indicated on the survey that they regularly work with Drake HR and completed the HR section of the survey. This year, 234 people provided us with feedback. That is a huge increase and that means the feedback is more reliable and more representative of the thoughts and perspectives of our campus. Thank you.
To the question, “Overall, how satisfied are you with HR,” we saw an increase from 4.29 in 2021 to 4.55 in 2022. While we are thrilled with the improvement, we know we have a lot of work to do.
In 2021, 43 people took time to provide narrative comments. This year, 63 people made time to do this. We are thankful for detailed responses.
Your Comments
Your comments are both relevant and meaningful—even when offering constructive criticism. We want to receive such feedback (yes, we really do) out of this important annual survey. And, you don’ have to wait for the SAS to provide feedback. One of the enhancements we adopted last year was a short “how are we doing” survey that we all have included in our signature blocks. You can access that survey and offer feedback any time.
Based on your feedback, here are the areas that will receive extra attention over the next year:
Responsiveness: We’ve made strides in our responsiveness but have more work to do here. Our department designed and adopted customer service standards last year. We are going to take a fresh look at them and see if they need to be further revised. We know that to build and sustain trust we simply must be responsive. If you ever find yourself waiting on HR, please contact me (Maureen) directly. I really do want to know if you are experiencing a delay in assistance and can help determine what’s going on.
Staff Performance Evaluations: We need to spend some time with the staff performance evaluation process. While we offered manager training and updated/expended tools this year (all are posted in the manager toolkit), it’s clear both managers and staff want more out of this process.
Always Open to Suggestions for BUILD Topics & Wellness Programming: We welcome additional feedback on topics for BUILD and Wellness programing for 2023. We’ll look into providing at least some remote BUILD options and additional ways to make primarily live BUILD sessions available to those who cannot attend in person.
Student Employment: We made some improvements to supporting student workers, but this was a learning curve year for us—thank you for your patience. We know we have some kinks to work out to assure we are responsive and paying attention to the details. A couple of recent improvements: Over the summer, Marli and I revamped the Bulldogs@Work presentation for new student orientation. Marli spent time in Olmsted during the first few weeks of the semester to make it more convenient for student workers to complete paperwork. Marli and I attended new student worker orientation with Rec Services to help their new student workers complete their employee paperwork (big thank you to Jerome in ITS who was able to find a desk top scanning solution for us so we can complete I-9s outside of our office!).
To everyone who took time to provide feedback through the SAS, thank you. We review the responses in great detail and will use the quantitative and qualitative feedback to set goals and priorities for the coming year. Your experiences, suggestions, and feedback really does make a difference. Thank you!
Nearly 40 Drake faculty and staff were celebrated at the Provost’s Drake Social in October for exemplifying the core value of joyful accountability, which is defined as:
We are creative and curious, brave and bold.
We strive each day to do our best.
Each was nominated by a colleague, and several were chosen at random to receive prizes:
Valori Bross, Admission, application operations facilitator: pie baked by the Provost
Rob Ebel, Facilities, project manager: baked good
Marlene Heuertz, Human Resources, benefits specialist: office breakfast
Diana Newman, CPHS, budget and office manager: office snack break
Christine Urish, CPHS, professor of occupational therapy: premier parking
The Survey of Administrative Services had a record number of responses this year—a robust 616 responses compared to 217 in 2021 and 414 in the survey’s inaugural year, 2017. A huge thank you to the campus community for taking the time to provide this important feedback. Individual units will now delve into the results—celebrating accomplishments and addressing areas for growth and improvement. This annual process is a critical part of our planning cycle. Examples of steps taken in response to survey results by administrative units in the past includes new customer service standards, improved monitoring of open ticket items, customer service training, and the use of technology to address inefficient or error-prone processes. The bottom line: the time our campus community takes to complete the survey is valuable and important—thank you! Watch for future OnCampus communications from individual units addressing this year’s results and priorities for improvement in the year ahead.
The 2022 United Way campaign is Nov. 7–11. This year’s goal is to raise $40,000 with a faculty and staff participation rate of 40%. With a commitment toward equity, United Way of Central Iowa focuses on the five elements of a thriving community. Watch a video to learn more.
Please note the following schedule for payment processing, through the Finance Self-Service portal, to accommodate winter break:
Friday, Dec. 16, 2022 – All payment requests (including wires) are due, with proper approvals, and received by AP by the end of the business day. Requests received by this deadline will be processed for payment before Winter Break.
Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023 – Normal payment processing will resume this week.
The accounts payable office will be closed during winter break.
Thank you for your help in coordinating to ensure we meet all needs during the upcoming season.
Do you have federal student loans? If so, Drake Human Resources encourages you to take advantage of the temporary changes made to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. A limited waiver is in effect until Oct. 31, 2022, making it easier for millions of public service workers to get credit for past periods of repayment that would otherwise not qualify under the traditional PSLF—reducing, or potentially eliminating, student loan debt.
For example, under the Temporary waiver:
Past periods of repayment are potentially eligible whether or not you made a payment, made that payment on time, for the total amount due, or on a qualifying repayment plan.
Borrowers with a FFEL Loan, Perkins Loan, or other previously excluded federal student loans can benefit by consolidating their loans into a Direct Consolidation Loan and receive credit for periods of repayment prior to the consolidation.
Months spent in deferment before 2013 will count under the Temporary PSLF waiver.
In short, the waiver will allow borrowers gain PSLF credit, even if you had been told previously that you had the wrong loan type or the wrong repayment plan.
To see whether you qualify, visit studentaid.gov/pslfwaiver. There, you will find the PSLF Help Tool and additional information to assist you with processing. Even if you do not yet fully qualify, the PSLF website recommends that you still submit the form annually, so it will be easier when you do fully qualify.
Drake HR is committed to helping all current and past employees complete the necessary forms. To ensure timely processing, send your employer portion to DrakeHR@Drake.eduprior tonoon on Oct. 31, 2022.
All information must be uploaded to your loan carrier prior to 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022 for full consideration. Mail-in submissions must have an employer signature date prior to Nov. 1, 2022 to qualify.
