Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day at Men’s Soccer will take place Saturday, Oct. 23, when the Bulldogs host Loyola at 7 p.m. at the Cownie Soccer Complex. Admission is free so come out to Cownie to cheer on your Bulldogs!

— Aimee Lane, Athletics

Drake Latinx faculty and staff are invited to get together for lunch on Wednesday, Oct. 27, in Hubbell Dining Hall. We will have meal tickets available for pick up at the Student Life Center in Olmsted starting Tuesday, Oct. 19. We will also have someone to welcome and hand out tickets at Hubbell on Oct. 27 from 11 to 11:30 a.m.

We look forward to this time together to get to know other Latinx faculty and staff on campus. We hope you will join us!

— Marina Verlengia, New Student Programs

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

On Friday, Oct. 22, my office is sponsoring two events.

First, we’ve invited Craig Owens, dean of John Dee Bright College, to be (virtually) present to talk about the semester-long John Dee Bright College Faculty Fellowship. Bright College, Drake’s newest academic division, is currently recruiting faculty who might wish to take part in co-teaching an interdisciplinary seminar or leading a practicum for a semester in the next two years. Compensation includes a combination of course release, stipend, and faculty development funding. Faculty at any rank from any college, school, or division are welcome to join Craig for a virtual lunch-adjacent conversation about these opportunities on Friday, Oct. 22, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Email nicki.kimm@drake.edu to register/get the Zoom link. More information about Bright College is available at www.drake.edu/bright.

Second, we’ll be hanging out in Mars Cafe from 2 to 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22, having a MID-TERM GRADING PARTY. Stop by, drink some coffee, do some grading or other mid-term work, see colleagues you’ve not seen in a while, or meet those you’ve never met, talk pedagogy and assessment and mid-term evaluation practices.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

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

We heard at Faculty Senate this week that our students are feeling under pressure as we “return to normal.” They find themselves questioning the way that normal felt/feels, and they ask specifically for more “grace” from us, their faculty. I’ve been hearing a similar thing from faculty friends and colleagues—a sense of already feeling exhausted (and it’s barely mid-term!), stressed, and overwhelmed.

I’m not going to ask that we pretend that we’re not living through exceptional times, and I’m certainly not going to ask that we pretend we’re not stressed and exhausted and occasionally frayed.  But, I will suggest that we will better serve our students (and ourselves) if we take some time to recenter and ground, to breathe and relax, to remember our purpose as faculty and staff committed to higher education.

To those ends, I’ve found these two resources helpful and share them in the hopes that you’ll find a bit of time to engage with one or both, and feel a bit more settled, and less stressed.

First, this article from FacultyFocus, offers some great suggestions.

Second, this video of an address by Joshua Eyler made the rounds at the beginning of summer. Revisiting it now offers a powerful and poignant reminder not to lose track of ourselves, or our students, during the transition back to “normal times.”

In November, I’m setting aside development time to talk together about the lessons we’ve learned in the past 18 months (both the practical/pragmatic/pedagogical, and the more ephemeral), as well as finding ways to extend grace to our students when we are feeling decidedly …. clumsy (not graceful).  Please consider joining, as well, for the book group on BurnOut in November, and The Slow Professor in December (details to follow, next week).

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost

A new, internal Continuous Improvement website has been created as a reference for all unit-level Continuous Improvement Plans (CIPs) and Continuous Improvement Planning in general.  It’s a great reference to see the objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives for each unit on campus, including the University as a whole.  This also replaces the prior “conversations” site.

It also has supporting information on Continuous Improvement Planning along with many resources, white-papers, templates, and more.

Please use this as a resource to see how other areas around campus achieve these four main goals:

1. Align activities to strategic priorities
2. Improve communications
3. Monitor performance
4. Drive purposeful action

As always, please reach out with any questions.

— Nate Reagen, President’s Office

Back in January, ITS began the extensive project of upgrading the campus phone system. The first phase, now complete, involved moving faculty and staff extensions to Microsoft Teams. For the next phase, ITS staff is transitioning department extensions and conference room phones to Teams calling, and determining if any extensions are no longer required.

All indoor red security phones and outdoor blue emergency phones across campus will remain in place. Other public area phones will be removed, unless identified as essential.

In addition to the campus security phones, students, faculty, and staff can use the free Rave Guardian mobile phone app. The app includes a panic button with a direct connection to Public Safety. Learn more.

You can learn more about the Teams calling project by visiting the FAQ page. For questions, contact Jeff Regan at jeffrey.regan@drake.edu.

— Carla Herling, ITS

Financial Aid and Human Resources have teamed up to enhance and clarify Drake’s policies and resources relating to Tuition Exchange Eligibility and Drake’s Tuition Waiver. The updated policies are posted now.  If you have any questions to pose or comments to share, you can click here to provide such feedback on either or both policies.

Tuition exchange eligibility
The big change is a great one: Drake has removed the one-year of service requirement to make it easier for new employees to access this benefit. This change results in tuition exchange eligibility more closely mirroring the Tuition Rebate Waiver policy. We hope this new standard will mean more Drake employees, and their dependents, will be able to take advantage of this great benefit without delay.

Additional edits to the Tuition exchange eligibility policy update language to reflect the application processes currently used by our two exchange partners: Tuition Exchange, Inc. (TE) and Council of Independent Colleges and Universities Tuition Exchange Program (CIC-TEP). Of particular note is the elimination of the “points system” that was used to determine which employees are approved by Drake for “export” through tuition exchange. Because Tuition Exchange, Inc. eliminated its Balance Sheet requirement (which required approximately equal imports/exports), schools are no longer limited in the quantity of students they can approve for export. Accordingly, Drake will approve for export all applications from eligible employees.

Tuition waiver
This policy has been renamed and will be referred to as the Tuition Waiver Policy, as the word rebate created confusion. Name change aside, most of the edits are minor, but the policy does now place greater emphasis on the need to submit applications for the Tuition Rebate prior to class registration. Although late applications have historically been approved, delayed submissions create administrative hardships and can impact employees’ payroll deductions. These problems can easily be avoided if applications are submitted in a timely manner.

One important change to note: the limitation on the number of dependents that can use the Tuition Waiver at one time (two dependents) no longer includes dependents who are utilizing tuition exchange. We hope that this change will also allow more Drake employees and their families to take advantage of this wonderful benefit.

A new resource page has been developed for Drake Tuition Benefits. Questions related to tuition waiver policy can be directed to maureen.dearmond@drake.edu. Questions related to the application process for Drake’s tuition benefits can be directed to ryan.zantingh@drake.edu.

— Ryan Zantingh, Student Financial Planning/Maureen De Armond, Human Resources

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

Using generous support from donors who have created restricted and endowed accounts, Academic Affairs is able to offer financial support for faculty development in pedagogy, research, and creative activities.  This year we are focusing on supporting projects that facilitate direct student engagement with scholarly and creative endeavors; enable our faculty to reimagine pedagogy as we enter a post-pandemic teaching environment; and permit faculty to remain connected to their disciplines and fields of study through conferences and workshops.

Find more details at: drake.edu/fsdo/grants/ and reach out to renee.cramer@drake.edu with questions.

— Renée Cramer, Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs