Faculty Senate will meet in regular session on Wednesday, Feb. 21, at 3:30 p.m. in Cowles Library, Room 201. View the agenda and meeting materials.

— Nancy Geiger, Office of the Registrar

Last April, Drake and Des Moines were selected as hosts for the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament first and second rounds. As a Drake faculty/staff member, you will have access to an exclusive ticket pre-sale prior to the general public sale. On March 20, you will receive an email from Drake Athletics with a link to your exclusive ticket offer. The offer is non-transferable and only valid with your drake email address. The ticket offer will be sent to Drake students as well.

Learn more about the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

— Dave Haskin, Athletics

The first Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) lunch of the semester is Friday, March 2, at 12 p.m. in Medbury Hall, Room 201. The lunch discussion is an opportunity for those engaged in SoTL projects at any level—from just thinking about starting one, to almost complete, or those simply curious about SoTL—to share ideas, seek advice, or ask questions of colleagues engaged in the process. To receive a lunch, register by Monday, Feb. 26, at 4 p.m.

— Art Sanders, Associate Provost

Drake faculty are invited to submit nominations to the Deans’ Council for University Marshal and Assistant Marshal. The marshals oversee and participate in Drake commencement and other ceremonies. Submit nominations by Friday, March 9, prior to Spring Break.

University Marshal: To be eligible for consideration, nominees for University Marshal must 1) hold the rank of professor, 2) be actively engaged in the life of the University through all-university leadership and service, and 3) have regularly attended Drake University commencements.

Assistant Marshal: To be eligible for consideration, nominees for Assistant Marshal must 1) have been recognized by their academic unit or by the University for excellence in teaching, scholarship or service, and 2) have regularly attended Drake University commencements.

The University and Assistant Marshals are appointed by the President, upon the recommendation of the Deans’ Council. The term is for five years, renewable at the discretion of the President. Nominations can be directed to Drinda Williams, administrative assistant to the provost, at drinda.williams@drake.edu.

University Marshal Joseph Schneider, Ellis and Nelle Levitt distinguished professor of sociology and department chair, and Assistant Marshal David Wright, professor of journalism and mass communication, are stepping down as Drake’s Marshals following the 2018 commencement.

—Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost

Faculty and staff are invited to attend the Drake Social this Thursday, Feb. 15, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Shivers Hospitality Suite.

— Drinda Williams, Provost’s Office

The Provost’s Council is now accepting break-out session proposals for the 2018 Learning Symposium, “Building Trust: Leading the Conversation.” This year’s Learning Symposium will be Monday, Aug. 20, at the Olmsted Center, and will feature Dr. Kathy Obear as keynote speaker. Please visit the Learning Symposium web page for more details and to download the Call for Proposals document.

— Drinda Williams, Provost’s Office

In January, an email simulating a phishing attack was sent to just over 400 staff; 96 percent of those who received the email either didn’t open the email, or didn’t click the suspicious link inside it. These results show that Drake employees are continuing to improve their identification and avoidance of these potential threats.

Indications that an email may be dangerous:

• A strange sender, or one that you don’t expect
• A request that you take ‘urgent’ or ‘immediate’ action
• Links or attachments that don’t match the message content or that you don’t recognize.

Slow down and take a second look before taking action.

ITS will continue to send out simulated attacks to faculty and staff. If you receive an email that you suspect is phishing, don’t click any links, download any attachments, or reply. Instead, forward the email as an attachment to informationsecurity@drake.edu.

Additional training will be assigned to faculty and staff members who repeatedly click links or open attachments in phishing emails, simulated or not.

For more information on how to report phishing emails, see the IT Service Portal guide, Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).

— Peter Lundstedt, ITS

Faculty, midterm grades for spring classes are due by 10 a.m. on Monday, March 26. You may enter midterm grades anytime between now and the deadline through blueView, MyDUSIS, or Blackboard.

— Kevin Moenkhaus, Office of Registrar

A reminder: Nominations for the Levitt Teacher of the Year Award and Mentor of the Year Award are due Feb. 12.

— Art Sanders, Associate Provost