Cheer on the Bulldogs and take advantage of a special offer just for Drake faculty and staff. For select Faculty and Staff Appreciation Game Nights, Drake employees can claim one FREE ticket and purchase additional tickets for family and friends at a special discounted rate. Come out, show your Bulldog pride, and enjoy a great night of NCAA Division I athletics with the Drake community!
https://godrakebulldogs.evenue.net/promotions/STAFF
— Tim Tesar, Athletics
This past spring, the Faculty Senate created an ad hoc committee focused on a review of Drake’s ability to be a student-ready institution and ways the campus community can play a role in achieving this goal. If you are not familiar with the term, a student-ready institution provides holistic support to its students and restructures systems to support student needs.
Also, this past spring, the ad hoc committee met with campus stakeholders and assessed university systems and faculty and staff practices related to this area to understand where we are. While this helped us develop a picture of Drake’s current practices, WE NEED YOUR HELP. As staff play a key role in helping students succeed at Drake, we need to better understand what you are doing and what improvements you feel can be made to achieve the goal of being a student-ready institution.
This sessions will gather your insight into how we currently are and, in the future, can do better to support our students and effectively prepare them for both academic success and future careers.
Please note that for efficiency, artificial intelligence will be used during the meetings to record and transcribe the discussions. The findings from staff focus groups will be combined with data from corresponding student and faculty focus groups to generate a comprehensive report outlining ways actionable changes and best practices for faculty and suggestions for institutional system modifications to make Drake a more student-ready institution.
Meetings will be held on the following dates/times and you can sign up for these meetings via the links provided:
Tuesday, September 22nd, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Johansen Room 301: https://calendly.com/maria-valdovinos-drake/ad-hoc-student-ready-institution-focus-group-staff1
Monday, September 28th, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Library Room 201: https://calendly.com/maria-valdovinos-drake/ad-hoc-student-ready-institution-focus-group-staff2
— Maria Valdovinos, Professor of Psychology
The call for travel seminar proposals for J-Term 2028 is now open
If you are considering proposing a travel seminar, your first step is to set up a meeting with Chelsea Funk to discuss your ideas and intent to propose.
All seminars hoping to travel for J-Term 2028 must submit a proposal. There is only one proposal submission link, and all fields must be completed.
Want More Info? Travel Seminar resources are available on our Global Affairs internal site. The internal site replaces our previous PDF and has information on:
Dates & Deadlines:
Proposal Link & Instructions:
The proposal submission is now being collected through Via TRM (not Qualtrics).
Please contact Chelsea with any questions ahead of the deadline. The EAPIC committee looks forward to reviewing your proposals!
— Chelsea Funk, Global Affairs
— Inbal Mazar, Associate Professor of Spanish
As students, faculty, and staff return to campus, ITS is reminding the University community about a known issue related to a recent HP BIOS update that may affect some Drake-managed Windows computers.
Users may encounter a blank blue screen after restarting or be prompted for a BitLocker recovery key. Although the behavior can be alarming, no data has been lost and the device is not damaged.
If you experience either of these symptoms, please contact ITS for assistance by submitting a Computer/Peripheral/Software Issue ticket, calling 515-271-3001, or visiting the lower level of Carnegie Hall with your device. An ITS technician can help restore access to your computer.
Additional information from HP is available here: Learn more about the BIOS update issue.
To receive ITS news posts via email, opt in by completing this form.
To receive SMS outage notifications, opt in by texting DrakeITSALERTS to phone 226787. Make sure you’re signed up to receive text Bulldog Alerts; check your settings via myDrake.
— Becky Klein, ITS
Join colleagues from across campus for a $5 lunch at Hubbell on Wednesday, Sept. 2, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Bulldog Connect Lunch takes place on the first Wednesday of every month, September through May.
— Nicholas Kavanaugh, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
This past spring, the Faculty Senate created an ad hoc committee focused on a review of Drake’s ability to be a student-ready institution and ways the campus community can play a role in achieving this goal. If you are not familiar with the term, a student-ready institution provides holistic support to its students and restructures systems to support student needs.
Also, this past spring, the ad hoc committee met with campus stakeholders and assessed university systems and faculty and staff practices related to this area to understand where we are. While this helped us develop a picture of Drake’s current practices, WE NEED YOUR HELP. As staff play a key role in helping students succeed at Drake, we need to better understand what you are doing and what improvements you feel can be made to achieve the goal of being a student-ready institution.
This sessions will gather your insight into how we currently are and, in the future, can do better to support our students and effectively prepare them for both academic success and future careers.
Please note that for efficiency, artificial intelligence will be used during the meetings to record and transcribe the discussions. The findings from staff focus groups will be combined with data from corresponding student and faculty focus groups to generate a comprehensive report outlining ways actionable changes and best practices for faculty and suggestions for institutional system modifications to make Drake a more student-ready institution.
Meetings will be held on the following dates/times and you can sign up for these meetings via the links provided:
Tuesday, September 22nd, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Johansen Room 301: https://calendly.com/maria-valdovinos-drake/ad-hoc-student-ready-institution-focus-group-staff1
Monday, September 28th, 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., Library Room 201: https://calendly.com/maria-valdovinos-drake/ad-hoc-student-ready-institution-focus-group-staff2
— Maria Valdovinos, Professor of Psychology
Drake’s accreditation process with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is underway, and we invite all faculty and staff to share their perspectives.
As part of our preparation for our December 2027 accreditation submission and February 2028 site visit, we are gathering feedback on the four HLC Criteria for Accreditation: Mission; Integrity; Teaching and Learning for Student Success; and Sustainability.
Your input will help inform the work of the accreditation criterion committees and ensure the final assurance argument reflects the experiences and strengths of our campus community.
Please take a few minutes to submit your feedback using this form.
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to reach out to anyone on our HLC accreditation leadership team: Jenny Tran-Johnson, John Edwards, Nate Reagen, and Anne Marie Greenwood. Thank you for supporting this important institutional process.
— Anne Marie Greenwood, Office of the Provost
Take a break and get creative at our Cowles 2026 Crafternoon Kickoff! Join Cowles Library and Global Affairs on Friday, Sept. 11, from 3–5 p.m. to create your own Spanish-inspired mosaic tile coaster using colorful mosaic pieces. This event is free, and all supplies and instructions will be provided. Come get crafty!
— Joanna Stankiewicz, Cowles Library
This fall, all faculty and staff are invited to join Books for Breakfast, a non-fiction book club meeting once per month during Community Fridays. This fall, we are reading Zena Hitz’s book “Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life” (Princeton U. Press).
The first Books for Breakfast meeting will be Friday, Sept. 25, at 9:30 a.m. in the Howard Hall Faculty Lounge. Coffee, tea, and light items to nosh will be available. No prior reading needed; this meeting is to pick up our copies of the text and meet fellow readers.
To reserve a physical copy of “Lost in Thought”, message Bret Sikkink in the Center for Teaching & Learning.
Cowles Library has a digital copy of the text through JSTOR.
— Bret Sikkink, Faculty Development Specialist
