You may recall that three focus areas were identified from the 2021 Great Colleges to Work For (GCTWF) survey results. One of the focus areas seeks to facilitate re-connection and attending to our culture. One of the many wonderful suggestions that came from our focus group discussions was the need to bring back new employee orientation. As we hire new people, we should be setting standards and sharing values. New employees benefit from opportunities to ask questions and meet other new employees. New employee orientation simply needs to be brought back and not just resurrected but rebuilt to be better than before.

Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?

We are working on the agenda and organizing it around Drake’s Core Values. We are thrilled to share that every member of the President’s Council has committed to taking turns being a speaker at the orientation sessions. Human Resources is working with key departments across the institution to assure the new employee orientation experience is robust, informative and, well, fun. It should not just be a learning event, but one that builds community–and culture. As a new employee, part of the benefit of attending orientation is to meet people outside of their work areas and, hopefully, make some new work friends.

Every new program benefits from a pilot or two, so we are planning on scheduling pilot sessions in early 2022 where we will invite newer employees to attend. These will be folks who never got to attend new employee orientation. This will be a great opportunity to make up for that missed opportunity, while also getting valuable feedback on the material and format. If you are not a newer employee but you would like the opportunity to attend a pilot and provide feedback, let Maureen know.

We’ll be looking to have a pilot in late January and another in early to mid-February. We’ll “go live” in early March. Our hope is that we’ll be in a place with COVID-19 where we can have the pilots be in-person, but we will plan for virtual orientation if that’s the safer route to go at that time.

If you have ideas or suggestions on how to help cultivate Drake’s culture, we would still love to hear from you. Please reach out to Nate or Maureen.

— Maureen De Armond, Human Resources; Nate Reagen, Office of the President

Faculty and staff can get a reserved seat for a general admission price for Drake men’s and women’s basketball games happening Dec. 19–Jan. 19.

Tickets must be purchased online in advance of game day. To purchase discounted tickets visit DrakeTix.com/promo and use promo code GRIFF. Email tickets@drake.edu with any questions.

Games available to purchase are as follows:
Dec. 19 – MBB vs. Chicago State at 2 PM
Dec. 23 – WBB vs. Minnesota at 2 PM
Dec. 28 – MBB vs. Mount Marty at 7 PM
Dec. 30 – WBB vs. Indiana State at 6 PM
Jan. 1 – WBB vs. Evansville at 2 PM
Jan. 8 – MBB vs. Indiana State at 5 PM
Jan. 12 – MBB vs. Illinois State at 7 PM
Jan. 13 – WBB vs. SIU at 6 PM
Jan. 15 – WBB vs. Missouri State at 2 PM
Jan. 19 – MBB vs. Bradley at 7 PM

— Aimee Lane, Athletics

When I first became faculty, my mom used to love to say to me, “it’s almost finals!” She’d say this as though being this close to finals felt … good—when in reality, as faculty, it usually meant for me the beginning of massive amounts of work, under time constraints, right before a whole bunch of holidays (and, for me, my son’s mid-December birthday). In my experience, the marathon-length semester becomes, in these next 10 days, a super-duper breathless sprint.

It’s a tricky paradox to navigate—just as our students’ lives are about to become easier, ours are, temporarily, becoming more difficult.

As much as I don’t want to offer bromides about self-care for faculty and staff who are teaching this semester, I do want to acknowledge the mad rush you’re entering—and say that I hope you’re also able to enjoy seeing the proof of your good work in the assignments and exams and final projects that students complete; that you’re able to build in rewards for grading (chocolate or carrot sticks or an expensive coffee for every class entered on time into DUSIS); and that you’ll have time for regeneration during the season ahead.

I also want to remind us all that our students’ collective mental health challenges this fall may very well amplify at the close of the semester.  Many of us will need to breathe deeply, and offer them appropriate assistance. To that end, and as we look toward spring (yes, already), I want to offer a greeting from Kayla Bell-Consolver, the new director of the Student Counseling Center. Kayla and I, along with Dean of Students Hannah Clayborne, have had some promising preliminary conversations about how to support faculty and staff in supporting our students. We have some plans shaking for spring … until then, please read this message, and feel introduced to a new colleague poised to help. Kayla writes:

Greetings,

My name is Kayla Bell-Consolver (she/her/hers) and I am the new Director of the Student Counseling Center. I received both my B.S in Psychology in 2016 and M.S in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2019 from Drake University. It brings me great joy to return to Drake in a role I am very passionate about. As a student and professional, I am aware that there may be hesitancy in sending students to the counseling center due to historical experiences and concerns on if their needs would be met. I am very devoted to exploring strategies and implementing programming with our counselors to enhance the quality and quantity of services we provide.

My current focuses are to enhance the quality and access to equitable mental health services for our students of color, suicide prevention and postvention for at risk students, and continue to systemically target mental health concerns in collaboration with the university. To learn more about our counseling center staff, please navigate to Meet Our Staff | Drake University. If you are interested in learning more about the resources that we provide, please navigate to Counseling & Services | Drake University. Through our efforts, I look forward to collaborating with you and learning more from you to best support the mental health needs prevalent on campus.

Kayla Bell-Consolver, LMHC, MS
Director, Drake University Student Counseling Center 
(She, Her, Hers)

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

As we begin to enter final grades, think about course copy and migration, and plan spring syllabi and class time, I want to amplify some of the messages the campus community has received from folks within Drake’s Information Technology Services.  (Needed footnote alert: some of this is original text, some of it is brazenly plagiarized from ITS!)

Final grades are due by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 22. This is the last day that the University is open, before break begins. To enter final grades, log into myDrake/MyDUSIS, click on the “Grading” icon under the Faculty & Advising section, and then click on the “Final Grades – Submittal Link” link.  Or, enter grades via Blackboard, using the instructions available here.

Don’t forget: Gradebook filtering can help streamline grading.

• Go to Gradebook > click on the grid view (left) > click on Filter (right)
• filter by student name to show only grades for one student
• filter by groups
• filter by child courses of a merged or cross-listed course

As you prepare to copy or originate new courses for spring, please be aware that there will be variations for instructors.

• If you are copying from Original (not Ultra) course view, please use the correct instructions and start in the course from the past that currently contains the content.
• If you are copying from Ultra course view, the process starts from the future/empty course and pulls content in from past courses. You have more granularity about what you copy with the new process. (Don’t copy items that are broken – this will help clean up courses with transition errors.)
• Copy Courses for Efficiency: Instructions for copying courses.
• NOTE: Please remove any repeated links referring to the Support Center after you copy content.

To request Course Merges or Course Sharing: Please submit a request through the Blackboard Learn Ultra Request and choose the appropriate option for either merge courses or share/copy course content. Your course can be copied forward while completing a merge. Make sure you include the course that currently contains the content as a part of the request.

If you are new to the look and feel of Blackboard Learn Ultra, and setting up original/new courses, here are some tutorials to help you get started:

• Blackboard Learn Ultra has a limit of two folder levels. Please keep your content organized within these limitations. By not being able to bury content in folders, students are more likely to find what they need to succeed.
• If you have a “Content” folder, you can gain back another level of folders by moving items out of the Content folder and up to the main content page.
• Build content in a chronological order if possible. This helps the students immensely!
• For Instructors: Where can I get training?
• FAQs on the Blackboard Learn Ultra update

Finally, please be aware of our institutional storage limitations. This resource on the End of the Semester with BlackBoard Ultra is really helpful for thinking through archiving and storing course material. And, one of my upcoming January OnCampus messages will offer much more specific instructions and ideas for maintaining an efficient set of courses that don’t tax storage bandwidth. As you think about planning and recording lectures for virtual learning content in your spring courses, Panopto is our preferred video content managing system. You can learn about its capacities and how it interacts with BlackBoard Ultra, at this helpful link.  Also, in a January OnCampus, I’ll offer some tips for thinking through the use of Respondus technology for OnLine testing. But, if you’re either finally figuring it out here at finals time (no shame!), OR, thinking about using this technology for the first (or fifth) time this spring, please read these important tips and best practices for that technology!

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Last week, new printers were installed in Meredith, Fitch, and Harvey-Ingham Halls. Our staff is working hard to match up the number and type of machines that are delivered with the machines needed in a given area. We are trying to replace all department/building machines simultaneously to avoid the confusion from using both old and new printers, but this continues to be challenging due to ongoing supply chain issues.

Our partners at LRI are coordinating installation and training with department contacts as machines arrive. Our project team will continue to adjust our schedule as machines arrive and update the list at Printer Locations (FAQ).

See guides on using the features of the new printers in the Printing category of the IT service portal. Learn more about the overall printing project at drake.edu/its/printing/.

— Kris Brewster, ITS

Drake LGBTQ+ faculty and staff are invited to an affinity group happy hour on Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 5 p.m. This Drake LGBTQ+ affinity group is still in its early stages, but join us for a casual gathering where you can meet colleagues and discuss ideas for the future of this group.

Please contact Evan Favreau at evan.favreau@drake.edu for more details about the happy hour, or if you would like to be included in messages about future events.

— Jen Harvey, Associate Provost, Campus Equity and Inclusion

Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

Reminder: Faculty and staff are encouraged to participate in the Spring Writing Project. The project consists of a one-semester commitment that will include: working with Director of Writing Jody Swilky on the development of a writing assignment, writing activities, or a writing project for one of his/her spring classes; meeting no later than the first or second week of the semester with the coordinator to discuss the assignment and project as well as issues related to instruction such as responses to writing; and attending 60-minute meetings of all participants in the program in February and March 2022. These meetings may be structured as two sessions each month, half of the participants at each session, in order to facilitate more in-depth discussion. There will be required meetings of all participating instructors held in late April or early May 2022. An additional aspect of the project is that faculty will require all students enrolled in their class to attend The Writing Workshop at least twice during the semester as the student works on the writing assignment/activities/project.

After the initial meeting(s) with the coordinator of writing instruction to develop a writing assignment or writing project, participants will receive a stipend of $500. After completing the project and attending the final meeting, participants will receive an additional $500.

Participation is limited to 10 individuals, and the deadline to respond to this call is Dec. 12.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Nicki Kimm (nicki.kimm@drake.edu). If you have questions, contact Director of Writing Jody Swilky (jody.swilky@drake.edu).

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

Every Tuesday in OnCampus the Deputy Provost shares two articles with a read time of 10 minutes.

If you have engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, please consider joining our new faculty at the final luncheon of the semester, Friday, Dec. 10, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., in Howard Hall, Room 210. We will discuss the way that SOTL helps inform our teaching and our research, and this will be a great way to meet some of the folks who are newer to campus.

Please email nicki.kimm@drake.edu to register.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost