Drake will be participating in this summer’s Des Moines Corporate Games.  This annual company-based competition runs June 1 through July 31, promoting company pride and corporate wellbeing through healthy competition.

Events range from team-based to individual and competitive to recreational. There are both in-person and virtual opportunities.  All in-person activities will be held in the evenings and on weekends and are free (except for golf cart rental).  You may participate in as many events as you wish.  These games are open to all employees, interns, and retirees.  Please email linda.feiden@drake.edu for more information.

— Linda Feiden, Human Resources

With the All Staff Council and Human Resources virtual townhall taking place on May 19, many of the submitted questions have centered on salary increases. Here is a brief overview to help address some of the key components of the work underway for faculty and staff salaries in the coming fiscal year.

As the President shared in his May 3 email, a merit pool of 2.5% was approved for both faculty and staff for fiscal year 2023. While the pool will total 2.5%, deans and managers will have discretionary authority in determining an individual’s actual merit increase. Deans and managers will be provided a budget allocation equal to 2.5% of the base salaries of all full-time employees hired before May 1 and expected to be on payroll for fiscal year 2023. From that pool, individual salary awards will be made on the basis of merit (i.e., it is possible that some salary awards will be less than 2.5%, and some may be more).

In addition to merit increases, there are some funds available for limited market adjustments. For faculty, the Provost’s Office analyzes relevant benchmarking data. Market adjustments are then determined by the Provost’s Office, working in consultation with Institutional Research, deans, the Faculty Compensation Committee, and Human Resources.

For staff, HR is finalizing a methodology to apply to this year’s market pool, which is slightly larger than last year’s. It is likely that we will rely on our core benchmarks, where we strive to have staff at the 25^th percentile of their pay grade by year four in the position and by the 50^th percentile by year seven in the position. Maintaining this approach, helps ensure those who have remained in their position at Drake through the years we have not been able to provide increases are progressing through the applicable salary range.

Human Resources, the Budget Office, the Provost’s Office, and managers are dedicating time and effort to assuring the data are accurate and decisions are sound. This is great work to have—we remain thrilled that we are in the position to assess merit increases and market adjustments. We know people are anxious to know what these increases may mean to them efforts remain on track to communicate before the July 1, 2022 effective date.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources

The 2022 Sapphire Awards were hosted online by the All Staff Council Recognition Committee and Human Resources on Thursday, May 12. You can watch a recording here.

Every individual and group nominated for a Called to be True Blue award this year was eligible to win the Sapphire Award. There were 25 True Blue awards given, 17 individuals and 8 group awards. One individual and two groups were chosen as this year’s winners.

Winners of 2022 Sapphire awards were:

• Erica Hartschen, assistant to the vice president, nominated by Andy Verlengia.
• Office of Student Financial Planning, nominated by Chris Ditter.
• Assistant Athletic Trainers, nominated by Angie Dahl.

Two other awards were presented.

• SOE Dean Ryan Wise presented the Employee Excellence Award to Lisa Proctor, director, Head Start.
• University Communications and Marketing Director Leslie Maynes presented the Levitt Community Service Award to Erin Bell, associate director of marketing, and live mascot manager.

Andy Verlengia recognized and thanked the out-going All Staff Council members.

• Past Chair: Sara Heijerman
• Recognition Committee: Dianna Gray, Drinda Williams
• Special Events/Community Service: Kim Jones, Tyler Spoon
• Special Interest: Laura Bjurstrom

The winner of the free parking pass for next year is Alicia Mann, office manager, IT Services.

— Drinda Williams, On behalf of All Staff Council

I am sharing this message on behalf of ITS and Drake Online and Continuing Education.  They write:

We understand that it has been challenging to manage the upgrades to Blackboard as you develop and deliver your classes.  To provide you with the best support, we have some exciting news coming for summer.

Blackboard will continue to provide monthly updates that have new settings and abilities added to current features.  The two most affected areas will be assessments and grading. Tips and Tricks emails from Dr. Good will continue to provide a full listing of the updates when they are released. For more detailed information from Blackboard, visit https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/SaaS/Release_Notes.

Before Fall 2022, ITS and Drake Online and Continuing Education will be partnering to provide a more user-friendly system to get Blackboard updates and provide useful information around best practices. We are hopeful and determined to build a tool that will provide this information in a way that can be better utilized when you need it.

As always, please remember that the Academic and Emerging Technologies team provide support and Drake Online have instructional designers and technologists who can help with troubleshooting both technical and pedagogical issues that involve educational technology use.  If you need additional help, please use this link to request assistance.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Beginning July 1, 2022 (Start of FY23), Drake University will implement a revised meal reimbursement policy. Instead of the historical per diem payment, the University will be reimbursing based on actual expenses incurred.  The new language is as follows:

Revised Meals Reimbursement Language:

Drake University will pay the reasonable costs for meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and other incidental expenses for Drake employees and students traveling on Drake business. Meal costs may include alcohol beverages for staff and faculty, if appropriate; however, excessive alcohol purchases are not permitted.  If the trip is being funded with grant dollars, no alcohol purchases will be reimbursed due to grant restrictions.  The cost of meals includes taxes and tips. Drake will pay market-appropriate gratuities and suggests 15-20% for meals.

This change was based on researching fifteen universities from the Drake benchmark institutions list and CUSP institutions regarding meal reimbursements.  While some schools are still reimbursing based on a per diem, most schools are reimbursing based on actual costs.  In addition, some of the schools reimbursing actual costs also incorporate a daily limit.

Given our core values, employees and students should continue to be good stewards of Drake funds while traveling.  Due to budget constraints, daily limits may be given by each department.  Please work with your budget manager or similar department representative to understand these limits if applicable.

— Erica McGowan, Finance and Administration

According to a recent industry study, phishing attacks grew by 29% in 2021. A phishing attack occurs when an email, text message, or other type of communication appears to come from a reputable source when it’s actually from a cybercriminal. The message may ask for an account’s username and/or password, wire transfer information, or it may simply instruct the recipient to click on a link, or open an attachment.

Cybercriminals often target students, faculty, and staff. This is especially true in the wake of the global coronavirus pandemic, when those in higher education may be distracted, stressed, and/or exhausted, making them more likely to click on phishing emails.

When phishing attacks succeed, the wider campus community is at risk. The average University employee handles a tremendous amount of data; whether that’s behavioral information, financial information, or attendance records. In addition, the average employee likely deals with more than 10,000 emails per year.

The most important thing you can do to protect yourself and Drake against phishing attacks is to think before clicking. 

• Is the greeting strange?
• Does the URL look phony?
• Is someone asking for access that seems out of the ordinary?
• Is there anything else that looks off?

Listen to your gut. If anything seems strange, call the sender to make sure it’s legitimate.

The best means of combating phishing fraud is by raising awareness about phishing. ITS continues to simulate phishing and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).

— Chris Mielke, ITS

As you may have read, May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Making time for self-care is an important component to maintaining mental health. There is a wealth of knowledge on this topic.  This article touches on just a few ideas and includes links if you wish to explore the topic further.

Stockpile coping tactics: Try collecting different coping skills and self-care strategies to keep in your back pocket. By adding tools, tactics, and strategies to your self-care toolbelt, you become less reliant on unhealthy practices (say, stress eating) and don’t wear out your tried-and-true healthy practices (you can’t always go for an hour long walk to clear your mind).

Explore the Self-Care Wheel to identify such tools, tactics, and strategies in these six different areas:

1. Physical
2. Psychological
3. Emotional
4. Professional
5. Personal
6. Spiritual

 Make a little time to work through the exercise of completing your very own Self-Care Wheel here.

Cut yourself some slack: The way we speak to ourselves can affect us much more than we realize. It’s easy to beat ourselves up over mistakes, sticking our foot in our mouth, or falling short against unreasonable self-expectations. Self-compassion means being inwardly understanding, encouraging, and kind in the face of setbacks—a reaction we commonly extend to friends, colleagues, and family members but sometimes forget when it comes to ourselves. Try talking to yourself as you would a best friend or someone you are mentoring. When we are our own #1 fans, we increase our confidence and boost our mood. It’s important to give everyone—friends, family, colleagues, and ourselves—room to be human. It is still important to learn and grow from mistakes, but dwelling on them doesn’t do you any good.

Move more. Physical activity can help the brain cope better with stress, making it beneficial in the treatment of depression and anxiety symptoms. Regular physical activity has also been demonstrated to strengthen the immune system. And you can turn your exercise routine into a way to spend more time outdoors. Studies have shown that spending time outdoors can help reduce fatigue, making it a great way to manage symptoms of depression or burnout. We are so fortunate to have miles and miles of trails in the Des Moines area and loads of state and city parks nearby, too.

Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Sometimes it is hard to accept that we need help (eliminating stigma about seeking mental health support is part of the purpose of Mental Health Awareness Month!). If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stressed, depressed, or anxious, remember to speak up and lean on those around you–family, friends, colleagues. If asking for help is a source of discomfort and you’re not sure how to get the help you need, Drake offers benefits for this. See last week’s OnCampus piece on mental health services available through Broadlawns and Drake’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which offers free and confidential counseling options.

Keep reading!

• 22 Self-Care Tips for 2022
• Self-Care Tips for May: Mental Health Month (see “Tools to help”)
• How and Why to Practice Self-care
• The Calming Room: Self-Care Tips For 2022: 15 Tips
• The 6 Ways Young People Can Incorporate Self-Care At Work In 2022 (this seems like good advice for all of us, really)

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources

We are not ending the semester as we had hoped, and it is worthwhile to pause and acknowledge what, to many, is a sense of disappointment.  I know I always loved the time I spent with students during finals week—getting to see them one last time in person before sending them toward summer (and their futures).

It is also important to note that, given the shift to online class meetings during finals week, many faculty are engaged in rethinking how they will assess student learning at the close of the semester.  It is also true that many of your students may be experiencing illness related to being COVID-19 positive, and may be asking for extensions on that work.  This message provides some critical information, suggestions, and guidance.  It can be found on the website of the Center for Teaching Excellence along with additional resources on virtual teaching and learning.

 Final grades are due to be submitted on Wednesday, May 18, at 10 a.m. If a student or group of students in your class needs an extension for turning work in, it would be appropriate to use an Incomplete.  When you enter an Incomplete, you will be required to enter a deadline for the extension and a default grade if the work is not completed.  I recommend not choosing the “default” extension deadline, but rather choosing a deadline that is appropriate to the situation (yours and the students’) and the amount of work to be accomplished in service of a grade.  I acknowledge this—entering an Incomplete—requires an extra step for faculty as you are entering grades, and it requires follow-up on your part; this, though, the most accurate representation of the grade-in-progress, and a humane and compassionate way to deal with student needs.  Entering an Incomplete gives faculty the ability to update the grade via Self Service once the work is complete.   

Faculty may also want to rethink the way that we assess student achievement of learning outcomes in the course.  Faculty could consider offering open book/note/resources essay exams rather than a traditional in-class, resource blind format, for instance; faculty could consider presentations over Zoom in place of in class finals and presentations, or alternative assignments to group projects where groups are impacted by Covid.  Faculty may also want to engage in online assessment, and I’m happy to provide here some guidance from our Instructional Technologists, to accomplish that.

Recommendations for creation and use of online assessments  

• If you will be creating an assessment for your final, please author that assessment in your Blackboard course. This will save you the effort of having to cut and paste to create questions if you author in a separate document.
• If you already have a document prepared, cutting and pasting the questions into the course is the most expedient way to get questions built online.
• If you will have a written exam or part of your exam will be written, be clear on the format you expect students to submit for grading. (i.e. “upload a Word document to the assignment” OR “in the answer space provided, please answer this question…. uploaded documents will not be accepted or graded.”)
• Be aware that matching, multiple choice, and true false questions are automatically graded. Essay questions will need to be graded manually. Assessment scores will not show to students until all questions are graded and the scores are posted.
• If you have previous exams in your course, consider reusing questions from those assessments. This can be done selecting the Reuse questions option when creating a question.
• Consider randomizing test questions and answers if possible. This will effectively create a unique exam for each student.
• If you have not previously used LockDown browser during the semester, we strongly encourage you not to consider its use for the final. The successful deployment of an exam with LockDown browser requires a series of steps which must be done in the proper order. This includes students being able to download, install, and run the client on their own computers or devices and having a reliable network connection throughout the entire exam.

Creating Assessments

For directions on how to create assessments please see the Blackboard support page. 

Please use these resources which provide the best practices in online testing preparation for instructors.   

Please provide these resources to students, re: best practices in online testing. And, please share these resources for students prior to your testing period so that they may be prepared ahead of time as well.

Requesting Assistance

As always, please remember that the Academic and Emerging Technologies team provide support and Drake Online have instructional designers and technologists who can help with troubleshooting both technical and pedagogical issues that involve educational technology use.

To request help from Academic and Emerging Technologies, please use: https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2025/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=51078

To request help from Drake Online, please use: https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2025/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=47962

To request help in designing or rethinking end-of-term assessments, conversation about meeting students’ needs in reasonable ways, or moral support and gratitude in general from the Deputy Provost, please email: renee.cramer@drake.edu.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

The kickball tournament scheduled for May 18 is postponed, but stay tuned—ASC still hopes to make this event happen this summer!

— Sydni Jennings, On behalf of All Staff Council

You are invited to the next Provost’s Drake Social Wednesday, May 18, in the Cowles Library Reading Room beginning at 4 p.m.

During this event, faculty and staff who celebrated (or will be celebrating) a milestone anniversary or retirement between July 1, 2021, and June 30, 2022, will be highlighted. Their names will be scrolled on video screens around the room.

Those who celebrated a milestone service anniversary between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2021, are also encouraged to attend. We were unable to hold this event in May 2020 or 2021 due to COVID restrictions.

There will be soft drinks, wine, beer, and light snacks. Take a moment to stop by and congratulate your co-workers!

— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost