Category Archives: For Staff Archive

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Singing Valentines from the Drake Choir

Surprise your sweetheart, co-worker, or relative with a singing valentine presented by the Drake Choir. Each singing valentine is a special delivery and can be presented at work, a restaurant, a retirement center, or wherever you designate. (We’ve sung at construction sites, schools, offices, hospitals, and many more venues, so be creative.)

We deliver to the entire Des Moines metro, including West Des Moines, Clive, Johnston, Windsor Heights, and Urbandale all day on Tuesday, Feb. 14, (9 a.m.–3 p.m., 5:30–8 p.m.) and 5:30–8 p.m. in Ankeny, Altoona, Waukee, and Norwalk.

Choose from one of our three great packages:

  • True Romance—one rose and a song: $30
  • Cupid’s Favorite—six roses and a song: $45
  • Hopeless Romantic—a dozen roses and a song: $65

Why a singing valentine? In addition to winning brownie points with your valentine, you’ll be supporting the Drake Choir’s upcoming international tours. No University funds are used for these tours, so your support is important and greatly appreciated.

Two easy ways to order:

Order deadline is Feb. 8, so order now.

—Aimee Beckmann-Collier, Department of Music

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Spring break book club meeting

The next book club selection is available for checkout at Cowles!  We will be reading the 2017 All Iowa Reads book, Bottomland, by Michelle Hoover. Cowles Library has books available for checkout on a weekly basis (hint: ask for the book on reserve at the circulation desk).

Please see the attached flyer for additional information. Contact Sara Heijerman at ascspecialevents@drake.edu if you have any questions, would like to receive future book club info directly to your email, or would like to RSVP for the discussion. Our spring break discussion will be Tuesday, March 14, at 4:45 p.m. (Mars Cafe); we’ve had a lot of fun at these, please feel free to join us!

We hope you’ll enjoy the book recommendation—we’ve also pre-selected our summer book, if you want to get a jump start on the next great read. We’ll be reading Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Have a great Spring semester, and happy reading.

Drake Book Club – previous selections:

  • The Kind Worth Killing – Peter Swanson
  • Thirteen Ways of Looking – Colum McCann
  • The Boys in the Boat – Daniel James Brown
  • The Nest – Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
  • Hidden Figures – Margo Lee Shetterly
  • Bottomland – Michelle Hoover (current selection)
  • Lab Girl – Hope Jahren (summer break selection)

—Sara Heijerman & Dan Chinball, current book club contacts

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Drake Faculty/Staff Days

All Drake faculty and staff are eligible to receive up to four complimentary tickets to the events listed below. Tickets may be picked up at the Drake Athletics Ticket Office Monday–Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. or at the ticket window on game day. Must show valid Drake Card at time of pick up.

Women’s Basketball
Drake vs. Illinois State
Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.
Knapp Center

More information is available at www.DrakeTix.com/promotions.

Questions? Call 515-271-3647 or email tickets@drake.edu.

—Tom Florian, Drake Athletics

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Bulldog Applause: Spotlight on Office of Admission

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In December, Drake’s All Staff Council Recognition Committee celebrated staff in Drake’s Office of Admission with a cookie delivery. Here, we learn more about this team of 23 staff members, 39 students, and one very special canine.

Mission: “Our mission is to recruit diverse learners from domestic and international markets for both undergraduate and graduate programs”—Keith Summerville, Deputy Provost, the Windsor Professor of Environmental Science

Staff members: 23, with two more yet to be hired

Student employees: 39 (29 Student Ambassadors who give tours, 10 with administrative duties)

Longest-time employee: A tie between Jo Arbuckle, associate director of admission (32 years) and Leslie Mamoorian, associate director, international and graduate admission, who has been at Drake for 38 years, 32 of them with admission

Newest team member: Another tie! Admission counselors Maggie Coleman and Adriana Slaughter started in September 2016.

Where they travel:
In U.S.: Recruitment is heavily concentrated in the Midwest—Iowa, Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Omaha, and St. Louis—but counselors also regularly travel to Indiana, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Colorado, with some recent trips to California, Arkansas, New York, Connecticut, and Michigan.
Internationally: Two international counselors (Leslie Mamoorian and Carrie Lewis) travel all over the world, including Malaysia, China, Mongolia, Chile, Israel, Jordan, Honduras, Panama, and Zimbabwe.

News/initiatives/accomplishments

  • Recently welcomed new leadership: Anne Kremer (dean of admission) and Keith Summerville (deputy provost).
  • Griff, Drake’s live mascot, “works” in Cole Hall every Friday between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., greeting and doing photo ops with visitors. He has a dog bed for naps underneath the visitor check-in desk, and a trained student “Griff handler” attends to his every need.
  • Began offering targeted campus visit days customized to specific majors or college/schools, including Politics Day, Project Teach, Business BlueChip Expo, STEM@Drake Day, Health Professionals Day, Journalism and Mass Communications Day, and more.
  • They went mobile—campus visitors can now register or view confirmation details about campus visit programs through the Guidebook App.
  • Moved/centralized graduate admission from colleges/schools to the Admission office.
  • Launched the Tuition Guarantee and Drake Commitment.
  • Implementing Slate, a content management system to help with recruitment management.

Let’s hear it for Drake’s admission team, who works tirelessly days, nights, and weekends—from Arizona to Zimbabwe—to share the Drake story with new Bulldogs.

—Jill Brimeyer, University Communications, All Staff Council

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive, For Students Archive

Vote Smart to provide many student internship opportunities

Vote Smart is coming to Drake. Vote Smart, a nationally recognized organization that provides non-partisan information about national and state campaigns and elections and legislative activities is moving its operations to Drake. Their offices here will be up and running early in the spring semester. There are numerous opportunities for internships, both credit and non-credit, beginning in the spring semester. For more information contact Professor Jennifer Konfrst (jennifer.gloverkonfrst@drake.edu ), or intern@votesmart.org.

—Art Sanders, Associate Provost

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Winter Book Club

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Did you have a chance to read our Winter Book Club book?  We’ve been reading Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. If you’ve read the book, we would love to have you participate in our group discussion at Gateway Market on Jan. 12 at 4:45 p.m. We will also be seeing the movie as a group at Jordan Creek theater on Monday, Jan. 9 (TONIGHT! 7 p.m. showtime). Feel free to join for either or both of these events.

Contact Sara Heijerman if you have any questions, would like to receive future book club info directly to your email, or would like to RSVP for either the discussion or the movie.

If you can’t make the discussion, we hope you’ve enjoyed the book recommendation. We’ve pre-selected our Spring Break book, so if you want to get a jump start on the next great read, check out The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan.  Have a great week, and happy reading.

Drake Book Club previous selections:

  • The Kind Worth Killing—Peter Swanson
  • Thirteen Ways of Looking—Colum McCann
  • The Boys in the Boat—Daniel James Brown
  • The Nest—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
  • Hidden Figures—Margo Lee Shetterly (current selection)
  • The Association of Small Bombs—Karan Mahajan (Spring Break selection)

—Sara Heijerman, Campus Card Office