Drake University’s Black Faculty and Staff Affinity (BFSA) Group is gathering for lunch off campus at Rico’s at Drake on Feb. 18, 2022, at 12 p.m. Black faculty and staff are invited to join!

— Brandi Miller, Student Financial Planning

Scammers are using the recent Omicron surge as bait in phishing attacks. These new phishing campaigns often use official-looking emails about the Coronavirus to get people to provide their email addresses, personal information, and passwords.

In one example, the attackers promised to provide a list of the area’s active infections to trick potential victims into clicking a link in the message leading to a page designed to steal their credentials.

In another phishing email, the attackers tried to pass as an official alert message from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Coronavirus scams have taken many forms, including:

• Alerts from local or national health organizations about local Omicron cases.
• Updates from an employer about policies or procedures to address the risk.
• Emerging information about protecting yourself, your children, or your community.
• Charitable appeals to help Coronavirus victims.

Here are some tips to help you keep the scammers at bay:

• Don’t click on links from unknown sources. This could download harmful malware onto your computer or device.
• Go directly to the source for the most up-to-date information. Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) official websites.
• Do your homework before donating to a charity or a crowdfunding site. If someone wants donations in cash, by gift card or by wiring money, don’t do it.
• Beware of “investment opportunities” for emerging Coronavirus cures, tests, or treatments. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is seeing an increasing number of false online claims of Coronavirus-related stocks that are about to dramatically increase in value.
• Shop around. Scammers often overcharge for health-related products or their shipping costs, or send counterfeit items, so always comparison shop.

ITS will continue to simulate phishing and assign training to those most susceptible. If you believe you’ve been targeted by phishing, see Reporting a Phishing Message (How-to).

—Chris Mielke, ITS

The deadline has been extended to March 31 for Drake faculty and staff to submit a proposal for the FY23 Global Partnership Grants.

Drake University has established formal partnerships with multiple institutions abroad. Joint faculty and staff projects with our global partner institutions may be eligible for financial support through the Global Partnership Grants. Please contact Annique Kiel for more information or to get connected with a global partner institution.

Eligibility and criteria
Full-time faculty and staff are eligible to apply for Global Partnership Grants for activities taking place during FY23. Preference will be given to proposals that:

• identify a specific set of activities with distinct outcomes with one (or more) of our partner institutions
• demonstrate specific impact on Drake curriculum, students, and current global partnerships
• advance Drake’s global engagement with existing partners in new ways
• support involvement by individuals who have not previously been globally engaged
• are financially supported by the school, college, or department of the individual submitting the proposal
• align with internationally or globally focused unit objectives and/or the University’s Continuous Improvement Plan

Application process:

1. Discuss the proposed activity with your unit director or dean prior to submission to help determine its strategic value and if it aligns with the unit’s global engagement priorities. The discussion will help determine the unit’s interest and ability to support the proposal with financial resources.
2. Submit the online application via Qualtrics, which includes a description and budget (*see note) for the proposed activity. Deadline: March 31, 2022
3. Deans/directors will review all proposals for their unit with the Global Partnerships Coordinator and the Executive Director of Global Engagement for prioritization and to make collaborative funding decisions. Final award decisions are expected to be announced in April 2022.

*Note, Global Engagement grant funds are not typically awarded for stipends for Drake faculty and staff; however, stipend requests may be considered for funding by your unit’s Dean/Director on a case-by-case basis. The College of Arts & Sciences will not fund stipends.

Learn more about Drake’s global partner institutions and other opportunities for funding global projects at drake.edu/global.

— Bonnie Ehler, Global Engagement

Nominations are being accepted for the Principal Global Citizenship Award, recognizing outstanding contributions to global engagement and internationalization of the campus and curriculum on the part of faculty or staff. The selected awardee will receive a plaque, up to $3,000, and will be announced at the 2022 Global Citizen Forum in March. A screening committee will review all nominations and make recommendations to the Provost.  Nominations should be submitted to Bonnie Ehler at bonnie.ehler@drake.edu by Monday, Feb.14, 2022. 

A letter of nomination should be submitted recommending an individual for the award and explaining the context and manner in which the nominator has come to know the faculty or staff member. This letter should speak to the following qualifications:

Pursuant to the University’s mission to develop “responsible global citizens,” explain how the nominee has made outstanding contributions at Drake toward realizing the following:

1. Support Drake University as a global institution by creating linkages to global partners in local, national, and international settings;
2. Develop and/or actively support global and intercultural learning opportunities for Drake students;
3. Develop infrastructure, resources, and partnerships to support internationalization and global engagement.

The nominee must be a faculty or staff member with at least four years of service at the University. The nominee cannot have won this award within the past five years. Faculty and staff members who report directly to Global Engagement are ineligible.

Nominees who indicate a willingness to be considered will be invited to submit a resume or C.V. and a statement discussing their contributions to the above goals. Up to three letters of support from unit or institutional leadership, faculty, staff, or students will be accepted (this is optional).

Any individual who was nominated for the award in 2021 may be re-nominated if the nominator resubmits a letter offering the individual for consideration this year. Files of previous nominees are maintained for one year. If a faculty/staff member is re-nominated, the nominator will be invited to review the file from the previous year to ensure that the nomination is as current as possible.

Past recipients include:

2021 – Sally Haack, Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Clinical Sciences
2020 – Jody Swilky, Ellis and Nelle Levitt Professor of English/Writing Workshop
2019 – Pramod Mahajan, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences
2018 – Tim Knepper, Professor of Philosophy/Comparison Project Director
2017 – John Rovers, Professor of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
2016 – Ellen Yee, Professor of Law/Director of International Programs

Nomination letters are due by Feb. 14, 2022 and should be sent as an attachment to bonnie.ehler@drake.edu. Questions may be directed to Annique Kiel, executive director of Global Engagement and International Programs, at annique.kiel@drake.edu.

— Bonnie Ehler, Global Engagement

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

Drake faculty engage our students in learning in ways that serve our own growth and development—it’s one of my favorite things about teaching, and one of my favorite things about our commitment to our students.  We do this by hiring undergraduate research assistants, by mentoring students as they move through Honors theses and internships, and by developing projects around the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning—where our pedagogy becomes a focus of our own self-reflection and study.

The Center for Teaching Excellence invites you to join us for lunch with Adam Case, assistant professor of Computer Science, to hear about his scholarship of teaching and learning project. Lunch will be held in Howard Hall, Room 210, from 12:30–1:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 18.

And, the Office of the Deputy Provost is partnering with student financial aid to offer awards to faculty in order that they can hire student assistants for their research, in the coming academic year.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

The next phase in the Self Service project replacing MyDUSIS functions is coming on March 1—Finance Self Service.

Finance Self Service provides a safe and secure portal to electronically submit and approve payment requests, journal vouchers, and budget changes. It is also a more user-friendly and modern platform for budget and financial queries and year-to-year analysis.

A pilot group has been busy testing Finance Self Service and we are using their feedback to finalize resources and training. Pilot testing will conclude on Feb. 11.

Beginning March 1, users will be required to use Finance Self Service to submit and approve payment requests, journal entries, and budget changes.

Direct emails have been sent to users who may be impacted by this change. If you are someone who will need to use Finance Self Service and haven’t been receiving direct emails, please reach out to Heather Travis. This will ensure you get information about upcoming training sessions taking place the week of Feb. 21.

Additionally, several resources have been created in the IT service portal at https://drake.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/2025/Portal/KB/?CategoryID=22690.

For questions, contact payments@drake.edu or Heather Travis at heather.travis@drake.edu.

—Heather Travis, Finance

In November 2021, we had a cybersecurity company, Grey Castle Security, perform a campus-wide review. One of the issues they identified was the sending of confidential information using insecure methods. As a response, we are beginning to send automated email messages to anyone who emails unencrypted confidential information.

This type of information can be emailed as long as it’s properly protected. See instructions linked below:

Sending and Receiving Encrypted Email Messages (How-to)

For now, anyone who sends an email with unprotected information will receive an automated response, but the email will still be sent. Starting May 1, any outgoing unencrypted emails including confidential information will need to be re-sent with appropriate security precautions.

Questions about this upcoming change? Please contact informationsecurity@drake.edu

— Carla Herling, ITS

Actual comments I’ve received on course evaluations, over two decades of teaching: “Professor Cramer can be so random; adhd much? And I don’t even know why she bothers writing on the board—no one can read it.”  “So.Much.Work for this class.”  “If you’re going to assign all of that reading, we should at least discuss it.”  “Keep her forever, Drake!” “This was my favorite class!” “Hawt.” “U dress so cute!” “Women with young children should be in the home.”

Yep – from the honest but hurtful, to the helpful critique – from the lovely (but vague) kudos to the inappropriate comments on my physical appearance and life choices – my end-of-semester evaluations from students have run the gamut.  And, yep: I’ve obsessed over the mean ones, the pointless ones, and the ones that boost my ego when it flags.

We know, from the ample literature on student evaluations of teaching, that they are absolutely flawed instruments.  We also know that we use them for developmental conversations with our chairs and colleagues, as evidence of teaching effectiveness in our tenure and promotion materials, and as a way to think about how we approach the same course, the second-third-fifteenth time around.

What should we do, then, with teaching evaluations?  How can we read them in a way that helps our pedagogy?  And, what other forms of evidence could we use to establish a record of excellent teaching?

Please join Deputy Provost Renée Cramer in a Center for Teaching Excellence conversation: What Do We Do With Student Evaluations? Our conversation on Friday, Feb. 25, from 11 a.m.–12 p.m. (lunch provided) in Howard Hall will explore how faculty can read, understand, and integrate what we learn from student evaluations of our teaching. We will also discuss the problems of relying on these kinds of evaluation, and talk about how we can, perhaps, better understand if we are meeting our goals and objectives in the courses we teach, than through sole reliance on a potentially problematic instrument.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost