On Thursday, Aug. 26, you should have received an email with a link to calendar entires to mark the significance of the upcoming Jewish holidays: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover.

These calendar entries are a reminder to not schedule co- and extracurricular events on these Jewish holidays as well as the evenings prior (each of these holidays begins at sunset the prior day).

Open the email sent Aug. 26 with the subject line “Jewish Holidays Calendar for Download” and follow the steps below to add the holidays directly to your Outlook calendar:

For PC computers:

1. Drag the .ICS file (attached in my email sent to campus Aug. 26) into your calendar tab. The dates should appear on your personal calendar.

For Mac computers: 

1. Double-click the file to open it. If it doesn’t open, you might need to save your file to your computer before you can open it. 
2. When you open the .ICS file, Outlook opens automatically. The event will open in a separate window with the subject: Rosh Hashanah.  
3. Click Save & Close on the event window to save the holidays to your calendar. 

The individual dates are also listed below if you need to add them manually.

There are several holidays in which Jewish law officially says Jewish people are not to work and there are parts of the country where, whether or not you are Jewish, your business or organization would be closed in observance of these holidays (New York City, for example!).

I want to urge the Drake campus community to avoid scheduling events on:

• Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish new year. (In 2021, beginning at sundown on Sept. 6 and concluding the night of Sept. 8).
• Yom Kippur, which is the Day of Atonement and considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. (In 2021, beginning at sundown on Sept. 15 and concluding the night of Sept. 16.)
• The first and second days of Passover mark a week of honoring the deliverance of the Hebrew people from enslavement in Egypt and through a seder—a ritualized meal, shared in community while remembering the Jewish story of liberation. (In 2022, beginning at sundown on April 15 and concluding the night of April 17.)

Many Jewish members of our community cannot participate in anything that we schedule on these dates.

I want to strongly encourage you to import these calendar holds, and especially as Rosh Hashanah is only a few weeks away. But also, the Office of Equity and Inclusion is working on creating a University-wide Outlook calendar that is inclusive of other major religious holidays. We plan to have this available for you sometime in the next several weeks.

Jewish Holidays

2021
Rosh Hashanah      
Evening (6:00) September 6 all the way through September 8, 2021

Yom Kippur
Evening (6:00) September 15 all the way through September 16, 2021

Passover
Evening (6:00) April 15 all the way through April 17, 2022

2022
Rosh Hashanah        
Evening (6:00) September 25 all the way through September 27, 2022

Yom Kippur
Evening (6:00) October 4 all the way through October 5, 2022

Passover
Evening (6:00) April 5 all the way through April 7, 2023

2023
Rosh Hashanah       
Evening (6:00) September 15 all the way through September 17, 2023

Yom Kippur
Evening (6:00) September 24 all the way through September 25, 2023

Passover
Evening (6:00) April 22 all the way through April 24, 2024

— Jen Harvey, Associate Provost of Campus Equity and Inclusion

As we start a new semester, here are a few changes, and reminders about all things tech at Drake.

ITS support: Due to campus COVID-19 protocols, the support center in Carnegie Hall is not open for walk-in assistance for faculty and staff. Visit our IT service portal at service.drake.edu/its (or click the ITS Support button in myDrake) to find answers or report any tech issues. You can also call 515-271-3001. Teaching on campus and have a classroom emergency? Call ext. 3002.

ITS staff are able to resolve many problems remotely. In-person appointments will only be scheduled if remote resolution doesn’t work.

eduroam wireless network: Connect to the eduroam network on campus and sign in using your Drake email address and password. Reminder: DUGuest is only for visitors and many campus resources are unavailable from this limited network.

Blackboard Learn Ultra: Within Blackboard Learn Ultra you’ll see a little purple question mark in the bottom corner of your screen where you can access help. If you run into technical issues, visit the Blackboard Learn Ultra category in the IT Service Portal to request assistance. Learn more about changes and key features at www.drake.edu/its/learnultra.

MyDUSIS/Self Service: Over the summer, we released updated screens and functions in MyDUSIS/Self Service. There are two new buttons in myDrake in the Human Resources section: My Information and Employee Dashboard. My Information takes you to an updated screen to access your personal information. You’ll go to the Employee Dashboard to submit or approve time or leave, view your tax information, review past jobs, and access your pay information. Learn how to use these updated features in the MyDUSIS/Self Service guides in the IT Service Portal.

Campus printing: New printers are being rolled out across campus, so if you don’t see a new device in your area, you will sometime this semester. Reminder: faculty/staff prints and copies now charge to your home organization in Banner- the department that pays your salary, instead of being able to select from multiple FOAPALs. Learn more by visiting the printing project FAQ at www.drake.edu/its/printing or Printing for Faculty and Staff (How-to)

Connect with ITS: Want to know about tech changes? Outages? Watch for more ITS information in upcoming issues of OnCampus, follow Drake ITS on Twitter @DrakeITServices, watch our news feed on drake.edu/its or service.drake.edu/its, or sign up for outage text messages by texting DrakeITS2021 to phone number 226787. NOTE: You must be already signed up to receive texts from Bulldog Alerts to add the ITS outage messages.

Not sure what other tech Drake ITS offers? Visit drake.edu/its/facstaff to learn about tech resources and tools available to you.

— Carla Herling, ITS

Did a student miss an assignment? Was there an absence that requires follow-up? You have a few communication options, depending on what you’re comfortable with: 

Messages via Blackboard Learn Ultra 

Pros: Maintains a centralized location for all class-based communications. In case of emergency, another faculty member could start where you leave off.  

Cons: You must communicate that faculty and students should use messages rather than email for communications. One vehicle for this would be a statement in the syllabus about expected usage for a class. 

Drake email  

Pros: It’s been used for years and is easy.  

Cons: No one else can access your academic communications with students. If another faculty member needed to pick up where you left off, students email communications would be inaccessible.  

Starfish Student Success

Starfish Student Success is the tool to use when working with students about conversations on academic well-being.

A link to the Starfish Student Success tool can be added from your Blackboard Learn Ultra course. Use the (+) menu in the content, choose Content Market, and then click the (+) on the Starfish Student Success tool.

Pros: Using Starfish to raise concerns about issues such as poor attendance or a pattern of missing/late assignments helps contribute to a complete picture of a student’s academic portfolio across multiple courses.   

Cons: If you do not communicate where the portfolio is gathered (e.g. choosing to email even though the issues continue or escalate), it is much more difficult to plan any needed intervention processes.  

What other communication tools are available? 

• Announcements via Blackboard allow you to post time sensitive information as a pop-up inside the course. Upon entering a course, announcements will pop up in a window that prevents students from being able to access course materials without first dismissing the window. Announcements can also be set to send immediately via email. If students have the Blackboard App, announcements will also send a push notification (dependent upon the student’s personal notification settings). 
• Messages via Blackboard are an alternative to email, and help keep communications centralized within a given course: 
• Course Messages provide multiple notifications to students based on individual preferences. 
• Notifications can be received by email or push notifications in the Blackboard Mobile App. 
• New Messages are identified with a count badge on the Blackboard homepage. 
• Messages can be sent on an individual basis or to some or all class participants.  
• Enable Class Conversations to allow students to discuss course materials and/or assignments directly in context. This promotes a community of support and helps identify student understanding. Though this tool is available system-wide, it is up to instructors  to apply the Conversations feature to each gradable item throughout the course. 

— Melissa Sturm-Smith, Academic Excellence and Student Success, and Karly Good, ITS

As we head into the 2021–2022 academic year, Drake University remains committed to the health and well-being of our faculty, staff, students, as well as the larger community. We understand that additional disruptions due to COVID could impact our employees and their families. Consequently, Drake University will be offering supplemental paid leave (“COVID Supplemental Leave”) through December 31, 2021, as detailed below.

Eligibility: To qualify for the COVID-19 Supplemental Leave program, you must be a benefits-eligible employee, which means a minimum of 32 hours a week and a 9-month appointment.

Exhaustion of Accrued Leave: All available sick leave and personal time must be exhausted prior to accessing COVID Supplemental Leave. Consistent with Drake’s FMLA practices, an employee may hold back 40 hours of vacation time. However, employees must exhaust all vacation time in excess of 40 hours.

Bank of Leave: Full-time employees will be eligible for up to 80 hours from Aug. 30 through Dec. 31, or a later date as established by the University. The amount of leave will be pro-rated for those on less than 100% appointments (e.g., an 80% employee would be eligible for 64 hours of COVID Supplemental Leave).

Qualifying Events: For eligible employees meeting the circumstances described above, COVID Supplemental Leave may be requested under these situations:

• Personal or Family COVID-19 Illness: An employee becomes ill with COVID-19 or they are providing care for an immediate family member who is ill with COVID-19. Immediate family includes: the employee’s spouse/partner, child, mother, father, brother, or sister (or the same relatives of your spouse/partner).
• COVID-Related Self-Isolation Directive: The employee, or their minor child, has been advised to self-isolate by Drake or a health care professional and the employee is unable to work remotely.
• COVID-Related Childcare or Eldercare Obligations: The employee’s child’s school or daycare or an immediate family member’s eldercare facility has closed due to a COVID-19 outbreak, and the employee is unable to work remotely.

Mitigating Steps: Employees who have the type of job duties where remote work or a flexible schedule would allow the employee to work part of the time, despite experiencing a qualifying event, should discuss options with their managers.  In some situations, a temporary remote work and/or a temporary adjusted schedule will help mitigate the need to use COVID Supplemental Leave on a full-time basis. For example, for eligible employees who have exhausted leave, as described above:

• If an employee is caring for a sick family member but the care does not require full-time attention, such employees should explore options for working part-time. COVID Supplemental Leave should only be requested for the time they are unable to work.
• If an employee is healthy but has been directed to self-isolate and can perform their work remotely, they should work remotely. Under such circumstances, they should not request COVID Supplemental Leave.
• If an employee has a child whose daycare is temporarily closed but the employee can flex their schedule to continue working, while using COVID Supplemental Leave when caring for their child part-time, that possibility should be explored.

Exploring mitigating steps benefit the employee. If such options are feasible, this will help the employee stretch out the available bank of COVID Supplemental Leave, while also supporting their colleagues and departments. We understand that mitigating steps will not always be possible, but Managers should include them as part of the conversation when such situations arise. Managers are encouraged to work with their employees to mitigate absences and effectively manage workload distribution.

Application Process: An employee can apply for COVID supplemental leave by completing this form. The employee and their manager will receive an email response following submission of the request to use the leave. Upon approval non-exempt employees will record the time off in the Supplemental Leave area of the timesheet, and exempt employees will submit the Supplemental Leave on the monthly leave report.

Leave under the FMLA/ADA: If an employee believes that their leave may be covered by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), including COVID resulting in them having a serious health condition or an immediate family member suffering a serious health condition, Drake Human Resources can assist with the FMLA process. Note that FMLA is protected leave, not paid leave. FMLA may run concurrently with COVID supplemental leave.

Alternatively, if a temporary disability caused by COVID-19 may lead to the need to consider a workplace accommodation, HR can also facilitate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) interactive process. If you think either the FMLA or ADA process may apply to your situation, please contact drakehr@drake.edu.

This COVID supplemental leave program remains a temporary measure. However, as the pandemic continues to evolve, we will assess whether additional changes or expansions to this policy may be needed after Dec. 31.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources

Update your Profile with a professional headshot 
Your profile picture appears on the opening page of a Course (if you are listed as the only instructor). In addition to being a nice aesthetic feature, it’s also a great introduction for your students.  

Adding PDFs that open in the browser 
From the Content area of the course, select the add (+) button and choose Upload. All other methods of adding documents from your computer require students to download them. Blackboard Learn Ultra has announced that other file types and methods of adding files will eventually also be able to open in the browser. 

About Assignments 
You can now add questions to Assignments. Be aware though that adding questions restricts the use of some of the available settings such as rubrics and SafeAssign (an originality checker tool). 

Peer review for qualitative assignments are now available in an updated version. Not all features are available, but more features are expected. In the future, this feature will allow students to use an instructor-built rubric for peer review. 

About Student Preview 
NOTE: If you test your assignments and tests using the Student Preview feature of Learn Ultra, any student-based submission will prevent instructors from editing the assignment or test. You will need to Reset the Student Preview to clear submissions to allow editing. The system blocks editing of an assignment or test after any student submissions have begun. You may adjust using the regrade feature after student submissions are complete. This will ensure that all students have the same experience.  

About Grading 
Due dates are not restrictive. Students can submit after a due date, but based on your course policy (typically in your syllabus), you don’t have to grade late assignments. If your policy is not to grade late assignments, please read the information below on setting automatic zeros. 

Add accommodations (e.g., time-and-a-half for assessments) for a student at the course level. You can also still add one-time individual exceptions. 

Set gradebooks to automatic zero. If your course policy is to not grade late assignments, using this setting will automatically add a zero while continuing to provide students with late notices. Remember to update your syllabi to include your course policies around these Blackboard settings, if applicable.  

 Learn more about Overall Grades, the name of the Total column in Ultra courses.  

—Karly Good, ITS

New printers have started to arrive on campus. As these new machines arrive, our partners at LRI are coordinating installation and training with department contacts. Our project team is thrilled to get this initial shipment, but we still anticipate we’ll encounter supply chain issues. We will continue to adjust our rollout schedule as the machines continue to arrive. 

Just a reminder, faculty/staff prints, and copies will be charged to their home organization in Banner—the department that pays their salary. Individuals can no longer use multiple FOAPALs within their organization or across organizations. Budget and Office managers are currently reviewing any exceptions to ensure there’s accurate information as the new devices and pricing roll out. 

There are Knowledge Base articles available for your reference covering common features of the new machines. However, as we are currently working in a hybrid state with some areas using new devices and others still using old ones, it will be few weeks before these articles align completely. Watch the Printing category in our IT service portal for additional information to come.  

Additional information is also available on our FAQ page at drake.edu/its/printing/.

—Kris Brewster, ITS