Historically, University Advancement has managed the recognition of alumni and their degrees. In the past, undergraduate degrees were the two letters for the college and then the class year (AS’09), all graduate degrees (except Law and Pharmacy) were changed to GR for graduate degree and then the class year (GR’09).

We have evolved as a University and have added degrees, and this recognition has not been updated for quite some time. We have heard from you throughout the years with questions. We also spoke with the Registrar’s Office who supports this update.

Recently we have updated this recognition that mirrors much of what is in Banner degree-wise.

 We will continue to recognize Liberal Arts (LA) and Fine Arts (FA) since we have living alumni from those schools (they merged in 1987 and became AS).

Undergraduate recognition will not change (but we have added some), graduate degrees will now be recognized by their degree. We believe this comprehensively gives us a better update of the current offerings at Drake and correctly identifies how these alumni should be recognition.

New rules:

• Undergraduates are recognized by their College and Year (this includes John Dee Bright College students with their associate degrees)
• Non-Degreed Alumni are recognized by their anticipated graduation year only
• Graduate and Honorary degrees are recognized by their specific degree abbreviation

New/changes to undergraduate degree recognition.

Undergraduate from former 4- or 5-year Pharmacy Programs	PH
Undergraduate from John Dee Bright College	JB
Undergraduate from Pharmacy & Health Sciences**	HS

** Note the change from the previous standard for the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. Since Pharmacy degrees are now graduate degrees only, they will be recognized according to the graduate degree table as PharmD. Those who graduated with a 4- or 5-year undergraduate Pharmacy degree in the past will be recognized with PH. Those with other undergraduate degrees (Health Sciences, Kinesiology, Nursing) from the College of Pharmacy & Health Science will be recognized with HS.

Also note, there is always a comma after the name, and then no spacing between degree and year.

Example	CY Salutation
Undergraduate with degree from single college or school	John Smith, AS’04 John Smith, BN’07
Undergraduate with degree(s) from two different colleges or schools	John Smith, AS’04, BN’04 John Smith, JO’07, HS’07
Undergraduate with associate degree only	John Smith, JB’23
Undergraduate with associate degree and bachelor’s degree	John Smith, JB’23, BN’25
Alum who received an undergraduate pharmacy degree through the 4- or 5-year program	John Smith, PH’92
Non-degree student who would have graduated with UG degree in 2007	John Smith, ‘07
Non-degreed student who would have graduated with a graduate degree in 2007	John Smith, ‘07
Alum with only a Juris Doctor	John Smith, JD’07
Alum with both a bachelor’s degree and Juris Doctor	John Smith, HS’05, JD’08 John Smith, ED’17, JD’20
Alum with degrees from two different undergraduate colleges or schools and a PharmD	John Smith, AS’00, BN’00, PharmD’07
Alum with several graduate degrees	John Smith, MBA’07, MPH’09, JD’11
Honorary Degree	John Smith, HLLD’14
Alum with degrees at all levels	John Smith, JB’23, AS’25, BN’25, MBA’28, MS’30, JD’33, OTD’36

We will share this with the alumni in the fall issue of Blue magazine. We encourage you to share this with alumni as well.

Update your name badge and email signature

Should these changes apply to you, we ask that you work to get an updated nametag and business card to reflect the change. These can be ordered by your department staff through Image Solutions (badges) or Woolverton, Mfg. (business cards). Your division’s Budget Manager can direct you to the appropriate person to place those orders.

This links to the Image Solutions e-store  –  https://www.promoplace.com/drake-university

And this to the Woolverton, Mfg. e-store –https://printshop.drake.edu/

Also, you need to update your email signature block with these changes.

— Pam Pepper, University Advancement

As election season approaches, a reminder that faculty and staff are free to engage in political advocacy as individuals but should never do so using any Drake University-affiliated resources or as a representative of Drake University. As a tax-exempt institution, it is vital that we maintain political neutrality to maintain our tax-exempt status with the IRS. Faculty and staff are encouraged to review and familiarize themselves with Drake’s Political Activity Policy.

This means that any Drake-affiliated social media channels are subject to scrutiny and cannot be used to like, post, share, or comment on any content that could be perceived as Drake showing support of (or opposition to) any political party or candidate. We ask that anyone responsible for a Drake-affiliated social media page carefully monitor your content/likes in the months ahead to ensure that it cannot be interpreted as showing support or opposition to any political candidates, positions, or viewpoints.

For questions, contact John Krantz, director of strategic communications, University Communications and Marketing.

— John Krantz, University Communications and Marketing

As we begin the new academic year, you are encouraged to review Drake’s Continuous Improvement Plan. As a reminder, this is our strategic plan and lists out all of the objectives and major, University initiatives. Please take time to explore how each of those objectives are embodied in many ways across our campus life. You can do so by clicking on the  “Learn more” link or the “+” in each objective area to see more on student, faculty, and staff successes.

This site is continuously updated and can be also found any time by going to the drake.edu home page, clicking on ‘Campus Links’ at the top and selecting “Strategic Plan”.

— Nate Reagen, Office of the President

Drake faculty and staff are eligible to receive a discount on season tickets to Drake football and volleyball games. To purchase your tickets, visit the Knapp Center Monday–Friday from 12–4 p.m., call the ticket office at 515-271-3647, or email at tickets@drake.edu.

— Gregory Kay, Athletics

Get ready for the fall semester! We invite you to come to Ultra Hours, hosted by Drake Online & Continuing Education and the Center for Teaching & Learning, to update and copy the courses you need for fall.

Ultra Hours are from 11 am. .– 2 p.m. on the following days:

• Thursday, August 8 – Cowles Library “fishbowl” Room 201
• Monday August 12 – Aliber Hall 3rd floor faculty lounge
• Tuesday August 13 – Cline Atrium
• Wednesday August 14 – Meredith Hall room 124C
• Thursday August 15 – Collier-Scripps Room 120 (Kelley Conference Room)
• Friday August 16 – Howard Hall Room 131
• Thursday August 22 – Howard Hall Room 212 (Faculty Commons)

If possible, please complete this form to indicate when you plan to come and what you plan to work on. If a virtual appointment or another time works better for you, fill out a service request and one of our instructional design staff will be in contact shortly.

— Bret Sikkink, Faculty Development Specialist

On Friday, August 9, ITS will be transferring phone lines from our current provider, Lumen, to a new provider, Granite. Work will begin at 7 a.m., when all phone calling will be taken offline. Services will be restored for each phone as it’s ported to the new system. We expect the full migration to take less than 4 hours with all campus calling services restored by 11 a.m.

• During the transition, internal Teams calls will continue to work as usual.
• Teams meetings, both internal and external, will continue to work as usual.
• Calls from off campus to on-campus numbers and vice versa will be temporarily unavailable as numbers are ported to the new service.

This change is being made to ensure better telephone service for the Drake campus community.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding as we work to improve campus phone services.

If you have questions or need assistance, contact us by submitting a ticket though the ITS service portal (service.drake.edu/its) or by calling the Support Center at 515-271-3001.

— Becky Klein, ITS

Drake’s vendor partner Accruent will be migrating our event management system (EMS) to a new cloud platform on Sunday, Aug. 11 between 3–11 a.m. CT., and the system will be unavailable during this maintenance window. This transition will enhance the system for better long-term performance and reliability.

If you experience service issues outside this maintenance window, submit a Banner Third-Party Issue ticket, call the ITS Support Center at 515-271-3001, or visit the lower level of Carnegie Hall.

To see the full 2024 maintenance schedule, visit drake.edu/its/maintenanceschedule/.

— Becky Klein, ITS

We are pleased to announce that Drake now has an Institutional Membership to the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). As part of Drake’s continued commitment to your professional success, your membership gives you access to a wide range of development resources that you can access at a time and pace of your choosing. The membership began on Aug. 1, 2024.

The NCFDD is an independent professional development, training, and mentoring community of faculty, postdocs, and graduate students from over 450 colleges and universities. In addition to the resources available to you as an Institutional Member, the Center also offers professional development training and intensive mentoring programs.

To claim your free Institutional Membership, complete the following steps:

1. Go to http://www.ncfdd.org/join
2. Choose your institution from the drop-down menu.
3. Select “Activate my Membership”
4. Complete the registration form using your institutional email address (i.e., John.Smith@drake.edu)
5. Check your email to find a confirmation/welcome email. Click “Activate Account” in the email.

NCFDD provides a variety of virtual programs and resources, including:

• The weekly Monday Motivator email
• Monthly Core Curriculum webinars
• Guest Expert Webinars and Multi-Week Skill-Building Courses
• Hidden Handbook series
• Dissertation Success Curriculum for advanced graduate students
• 14-Day Writing Challenges
• Discussion Forum for peer-mentoring and problem-solving
• Monthly accountability buddy matches, by request
• Complete library of previous webinars and multi-week course recordings

You are encouraged to learn more about each of the resources and put any events that interest you on your calendar. If you have questions about the membership, please contact Bret Sikkink, the Faculty Development Specialist, at Bret.Sikkink@drake.edu or feel free to talk to a member of the AAAC. If you have any technical questions, please email NCFDD at membership@ncfdd.org.

— Jimmy Senteza, Deputy Provost