Drake International is now accepting proposals from faculty and staff who are interested in collaborating with one of Drake’s international strategic partner institutions. International partnerships have proven to be an important way for faculty and staff to engage globally in meaningful ways.

Interested individuals should complete the application through Qualtrics by Nov. 30.

Please direct questions to Annique Kiel, executive director of global engagement and international programs, at annique.kiel@drake.edu.

––Annique Kiel, Drake International

Winter break check processing schedule:

Winter break:

• All check requests are due to Accounts Payable by the end of the business day on Friday, Dec. 15.
• For requests received by Dec. 15, checks will be processed and available after 12 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 19. This will be the last check run before winter break.
• The accounting office will be closed during winter break. Normal check processing will resume on Wednesday, Jan. 3.

Thank you for your help in coordinating to ensure we meet all needs during the upcoming season. Please contact Accounting at ext. 2125 with any questions.

Jeni Baugher, Accounting

Thanks to those who participated in and attended the first annual All Staff Council Chili Cook-Off event last month.

Attendees were invited to sample chili by making a donation to Drake’s Free Little Food Pantries. The Olmsted pantry was filled with non-perishable food and other items thanks to many generous donations.

Congratulations to the chili cook-off’s People’s Choice Award winners:

• First place: Sonja Brightwell, office of residence life
• Second place: Sara Heijerman, student services center
• Third place: Christine Marchand, institutional research, and Mikayla Olson, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

View the winning chili recipes here. Thanks to Sodexo as well for providing a chili and corn bread buffet lunch. Read about more upcoming events and opportunities on the All Staff Council web page.

Jill Batten, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences/All Staff Council

Applications are now being accepted for 2018-2019 Drake Research Grants and the Undergraduate Assistantship Program. Apply today.

Art Sanders, Associate Provost

The final Friday FYS lunch/discussion is Dec. 1 at 12 p.m. in Olmsted Center, TMR 133. The event is open to both current and prospective FYS instructors. If you have an interest in possibly teaching FYS in the future, or are curious to learn more about teaching FYS sections, you are welcome to attend. Register online to attend and select your lunch preference.

Art Sanders, Associate Provost

The Ray Center invites faculty and staff to visit its new offices located in the lower level of Collier-Scripps Hall for complimentary doughnuts on Nov. 29 from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m.  The Starbucks machine will be up and running for $1.50.

Amy Smit, The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center

Today is the last day for the University Bookstore’s faculty and staff appreciation sale. Drake merchandise is 30 percent off for faculty and staff only. As a reminder, faculty and staff can wear jeans with their Drake apparel on Fridays, given manager approval. ––Nate Reagen, President’s Office

Blackboard will be unavailable Dec. 23–27 for planned migration to SaaS (Software as a Service). Rest assured, during this migration, we are not heading south for the winter. Blackboard will be migrating to a different kind of environment without much change to our users.

Please be sure to plan accordingly for this migration timeline. After the system is available, faculty may once again generate course materials and finish their preparations for J-Term and spring courses.

Our move to Blackboard’s SaaS (Software as a Service) will make new tools available and position Drake to provide better online offerings for years to come. The planned migration from managed hosting, which is housed on Blackboard’s servers, to SaaS, hosted on Amazon Web Services data centers, will occur during winter break to have the least amount of impact.

Once the migration takes place, we will continue running the current experience on Blackboard known as version 9.1. By moving to SaaS, we gain some major benefits from the new environment, which will allow us to make future upgrades and patches to our environment with little to no downtime.

Karly Good, ITS