Nominations for the Drake Teacher of the Year and Drake Mentor of the Year will be due in early February. Faculty, staff, or students wishing to nominate an individual for one of these awards will find directions at www.drake.edu/acad/honors/
—Art Sanders, Associate Provost
The holiday season is fast approaching, and inquiries on where donations are needed have come to the All Staff Council. Due to some changes in the needs of our community partner, ASC will not be organizing an official holiday food drive this year.
However, should you have the desire to donate, we encourage faculty and staff to contribute to the Drake Area Food Pantry coordinated by Cross Ministries and IMPACT. It’s located in the IMPACT building on University Avenue. More information can be found here: http://crossministriesdm.org/foodpantry.html
United Way of Central Iowa also publishes a Holiday Helping Hand Guide with a list of volunteer and donation opportunities across the Greater Des Moines metro. View or download the guide here: www.unitedwaydm.org/holiday-helping-hand
As always, thank you all for the great work that you do at Drake; we appreciate you all, and wish you a happy holiday season.
—All Staff Council, Special Events and Community Service Committee
A reminder: We will have two sessions for those new to teaching J-Term classes or considering teaching J-Term classes in the future to have conversations with experienced J-Term instructors. The session for on-campus J-Term classes is Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 3:30 p.m. The session for J-Term travel seminars is Monday, Dec. 5, at 3:30 p.m. Both sessions are in CR 310, on the second floor in Olmsted.
It is time to consider offering a J-Term 2018 on-campus class. Schools and colleges will be assembling the J-Term 2018 schedule early in the spring semester. You should use whatever process your school/college uses to schedule classes. If it is a new class that needs AOI approval, once it has been approved by the appropriate department/school/college you should submit the appropriate AOI request form to the University Curriculum Committee. The only difference in the process for J-Term—compared to a normal semester—is that once the class is scheduled, we ask that you provide that information to Associate Provost Arthur Sanders so that we can put the information on the J-Term website.
—Art Sanders, Associate Provost
The Faculty/Staff $5 Appreciation Lunch hosted by Sodexo was held on Wednesday, Nov. 9. The All Staff Council Recognition Committee held a raffle in connection with the event to help encourage staff to attend and to let them know that they are appreciated for all of their work on campus. More than 80 staff members participated in the raffle, and five were drawn to win various Drake items: Tom Heger, Facilities; Joseph Bedwell, ITS; Susan Dittmer, Law; Craig Blaker, ITS; and Linda Judd, Ray Society. Prizes were donated by the Drake University Bookstore.
A big thank you to everyone! We love the staff at Drake and recognize that, without you, things would not run as smoothly as they do.
Keep an eye out for next semester’s Faculty/Staff Appreciation Lunches in Hubbell, and we’ll see you there.
—Submitted by All Staff Council Recognition Committee
Visit its.drake.edu/phish to go phishing with ITS until Dec. 1. Faculty, staff, and students are invited to take a quiz to learn more about how to identify phishing emails and fraudulent websites. Taking the quiz enters you for a chance to win a Bluetooth speaker or headphones.
Learn even more about how to secure your digital life by visiting our security blog at its.drake.edu/category/security-blog/
—Carla Herling, ITS
This week, the Office of Community Engaged Learning will be holding two Poverty Simulations for 110 pharmacy students. We are looking for volunteers to fill roles during the both simulations.
The simulations will be held:
Thursday, Nov. 17, 1*–4 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 18, 1*–4 p.m.
*We ask that volunteers come 30 minutes before the simulation starts in order to complete training for the experience. The simulation will conclude by 3 p.m., but you are welcome to stay for the debriefing and reflection from 3 to 4 p.m.
The poverty simulation is meant to help sensitize participants to the struggles people in poverty face on a daily basis. During the simulation, participants role-play the lives of low-income families, from single parents trying to care for their children to senior citizens trying to maintain their self-sufficiency on Social Security. Time is represented by four 15-minute periods, each representing one week. The task of each family is to provide food, shelter, and other basic necessities during the simulation while interacting with various community resources (e.g., bank, pawnshop, childcare center, school, employer, grocery store, etc.) that are staffed by volunteers. Afterward, participants and staffers conduct a debriefing.
Click here to see a list of the Community Resource Volunteer roles.
If you are able to help with the Thursday poverty simulation please sign-up by Nov. 15 using our Volunteer Sign-Up Form.
—Renee Sedlacek, Community Engagement and Service-Learning
We will have two sessions for those new to teaching J-Term classes or considering teaching J-Term classes in the future to have conversations with experienced J-Term instructors. The session for On-campus J-Term classes is Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 3:30 p.m. The session for J-Term travel seminars is Monday, Dec. 5, at 3:30 p.m. Both sessions are in CR 310, on the second floor in Olmsted.
—Art Sanders, Associate Provost
A reminder: Helping to Create Inclusive Learning Environments: A panel featuring students with disabilities will be on Tuesday, Nov. 15 from 3:20 to 4:30 p.m. in CR 310 on the second floor in Olmsted.
—Art Sanders, Associate Provost
The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is hosting a flu shot clinic on Nov. 16, or individual appointments can be accommodated. Please sign up for a flu shot appointment online.
This year, the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences student pharmacists and faculty will be holding the flu shot clinics on campus in Fitch Pharmacy Lab, Room 102. You will receive an email the day before your scheduled appointment with details.
If you have any questions regarding the flu shots, please contact CPHS.wellness@drake.edu.
—Wendy Mobley Buckstein, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Drake All Staff Council is proud to announce the first 2016–2017 recipient of the Called to be True Blue Award, which recognizes staff members who go above and beyond to make a difference in the Drake community. The award was presented to Joyce Sharp, who served as administrative assistant for budget and finance for the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for the past 16 years and retired at the end of October. The following is a small excerpt of Joyce’s nomination, submitted by Melissa Rice:
“Joyce goes above and beyond to be helpful to faculty, staff, and students. While at Drake for the last 16 years, Joyce has epitomized the values of leadership, teamwork, integrity, and commitment to the Drake community … She is a mentor and friend to her student workers—attending their pinning, hooding, and graduation ceremonies; meeting their parents; taking them out to lunch for their birthdays; staying in touch with them after graduation; attending their weddings, in some cases; and even taking one student worker to the emergency room … Joyce is one of the ‘greats.’”
Do you know someone who’s Called to be True Blue?
Called to be True Blue recognizes a staff member who:
If this sounds like anyone you know, please nominate them by filling out the online form at www.drake.edu/asc/recognition. Please be specific when nominating, and provide detail on how the nominee meets each value.
At the conclusion of the academic year, each “Called to be True Blue” recipient will be in the running to receive a Sapphire Award, the highest recognition of a staff member at Drake.
—All Staff Council Recognition Committee
