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

There is a group of Young African Leaders (www.drake.edu/yali) on campus for a six-week Leadership experience through Drake International and the Zimpleman College of Business. These Fellows have been busy touring area businesses, doing community service, learning about leadership, and working with mentors as they’ve spent their time here in Iowa. It’s been an amazing five weeks so far!

As the final week of the Fellowship approaches, we invite you to our Farewell Celebration on Wednesday, July 24, at 4 p.m. at the Turner Jazz Center.  This will be an excellent event for final connections and to send off the Fellows before they travel to Washington D.C. We hope to see you there.

— Sara Heijerman, Student Services Center