Bulldog Girls Basketball Camps are back and registration is now open.
Drake faculty and staff discounts are available with $25 off Big Dog, Little Dribbler, and Junior High Camps. Please email Sarah Hoffman using your Drake email address at sarah.hoffman@drake.edu.
More camp information is available, including dates and times, at www.bulldogbasketball.com.
Sarah Hoffman, Athletics
Last chance to sign up! Drake Faculty/Staff Golf League registration closes on Friday, May 17. Sign up now.
Ryan Parriott, Recreational Services
Are you on campus or in Des Moines over the summer and interested in working with political events on campus? CNN will be on campus for a Town Hall on Tuesday, May 21, and is seeking student interns. Other events are also possible throughout the summer. Drake does not determine who will be hired for any specific event, but will provide interested students’ names and contact information based on the needs of CNN or other organizations. To express interest in working for the CNN event or other events, please contact Rachel Paine Caufield at rachel.caufield@drake.edu with your (1) name, (2) summer email address, (3) cell or other contact number; and (4) availability, indicating specific availability for May 17 through May 21, and expected availability over the summer months.
Rachel Paine Caufield, Professor, Department of Political Science
It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Marie Fisher, retired administrative assistant for the Departments of Chemistry and Physics and Astronomy. Marie provided her dedicated service for 35 years until she retired in 2014. She was the first friendly face to meet when one entered the areas of physics or chemistry and the virtual mother of the two departments, keeping us all organized and well taken care of. We will always value all her contributions, remember her with great fondness, and honor her life.
A visitation is scheduled for Monday, May 13, from 11 a.m.–1 p.m. at Hamilton’s Funeral Home, 605 Lyon Street, Des Moines. A service will follow at 1 p.m.
Marie is survived by her husband John A. Fisher, her children: Stephanie (Kevin) Jones, Anthony (Jerriane) Fisher, Kaylianna, Marguerita and Mesha Fisher, Zemira Fisher, her step-children: Julie Jackson (Hatlas), Wanda (Mike) Carter, John Jr. Fisher, Terry Fisher, Clifford Fisher and Deanna Richardson. She is also survived by her father Allen (Ruth) Downey, Sr. and her siblings: Roberta Robinson, Robert (Lorreta) Lee, Cheri Downey, and Allen Downey. Read Marie’s full obituary.
Athanasios Petridis, Associate Professor/Department Chair, Physics and Astronomy
Your rental books are due back to the University Book Store by May 17. Don’t forget to sell your books back to the Book Store—it doesn’t matter where you bought them from.
May 13–19 extended hours:
Katie Wilz, University Book Store
As we have in previous years, Drake is pleased to once again host the Iowa State High School Track Meet, one of the largest state high school track events in the United States. Like last year, the meet will occur prior to the end of the academic year, beginning on Thursday, May 16, and concluding on Saturday, May 18.
We are taking extra steps to plan for the overlap of this event with other year-end activities on campus—including commencement and move out—and we ask that you do the same.
Because of the increase in activity and to help with general safety, we will be using several steps that we used for the Drake Relays, including a partial closing of Forest Avenue. Please note the following:
Street Closures
Plan ahead for parking challenges
Adhere to parking restrictions
Residential students plan your move out
Residential students who complete their exams by Wednesday, May 15, are strongly encouraged to move-out at that time to avoid the increased traffic and congestion that will occur from Thursday to Saturday. If you cannot move out by Wednesday, plan for plenty of extra time.
Contact us ahead of time with questions or concerns
If you have specific concerns or questions regarding parking from Thursday, May 16, to Saturday, May 18, please contact Scott Law as soon as possible at scott.law@drake.edu. While there is limited room for exceptions to these parking rules and restrictions, I am happy to listen and discuss any concerns. It is easier to be proactive, prior to events beginning, rather than reactive, once the meet has begun.
Thank you in advance for your patience and cooperation.
Scott Law, Executive Director Campus Public Safety & Operational Services
Final grades for non-Law School courses are due Wednesday, May 22. Final grades for the Law School are due Tuesday, May 28.
Generally, final grades are available to view by the first calendar day following the day the grade was entered. You may view your final grades by clicking the “My Grades” link under the Student Records area in MyDrake.
Have a wonderful and safe summer.
Kevin Moenkhaus, Associate Registrar
The philanthropic contributions of nearly 500 members of the faculty and staff were recognized during the first faculty and staff donor appreciation breakfast on May 8.
During the event, John Smith, vice president for University Advancement, presented the inaugural Philanthropy Bug Award. The Philanthropy Bug Award recognizes faculty and staff members who embody Maddie Levitt’s spirit of philanthropy and service to Drake University.
Maddie Levitt was a longtime volunteer, friend, and tireless advocate for Drake University. Throughout her years of service to Drake, her beloved yellow Volkswagen Bug was a constant presence outside Old Main, and it became a symbol of her enduring commitment to bettering Drake University for future generations of students.
This year, Dan Alexander, Deb DeLaet, and Jen Harvey received the Philanthropy Bug Award for their efforts to create and rally significant faculty and staff support for The Catalyst Fund.
The Catalyst Fund helps address the financial needs of low to moderate income students from historically or currently underrepresented groups. The Catalyst Fund is designed to help students who are at risk of dropping out due to financial difficulties by providing scholarships and emergency funds. So far, two students have received $15,000 in scholarship support that have helped them complete their degrees and $6,000 in emergency funds have been distributed.
Are you spring cleaning, tidying up at the end of this semester, or perhaps retiring? Consider donating your Drake memorabilia and treasures to the Office of University Communications and Marketing to auction off for their scholarship fund. Their unique fundraising efforts caught the attention of The Chronicle of Philanthropy in this article.
The office has collected pieces of Drake memorabilia over the years and auctioned them off on their scholarship Facebook page. Many Bulldogs on campus have expressed a generosity of spirit in donating items they have once found joy in, but are now ready to let go after binging the Marie Kondo series. Some past items have included a piece of the blue oval, Bulldog bookends, flags, bobble heads, Drake basketball sketches, signed Bucksbaum posters, and a mixed CD personally curated by Vice President for Advancement John Smith.
If you have any items to donate, or want to make a financial contribution, please email us at socialmedia@drake.edu.
Niki Smith, University Communications and Marketing
As we reach the end of another successful academic year, I want to share with you some reflections on the past year from an ITS perspective.
The end of this spring semester coincides with the successful completion of one of the most complex and extensive IT infrastructure projects undertaken during my tenure as Chief Information Technology Officer. The infrastructure team successfully moved Drake’s Internet service from a single provider to two separate Internet connections provided by two different companies. Additionally, they moved the disaster recovery data center from its previous location in Shakopee, Minnesota to Kansas City, Kansas. By doing so, the University has increased reliability, doubled Internet bandwidth, and reduced annual costs by 40%. Unless you were paying close attention to OnCampus, you were likely unaware of any changes because it happened with zero interruptions to service. It was carefully planned and well executed, and I hope if you see members of this team, you will take a few minutes to congratulate them on a job well done.
We have completed a number of other successful projects over the past year, both large and small. These include the transition from Banner 8 to Banner 9, integration between HireTouch and Banner, the launch of the myDrake portal, improvements to student address collection, the deployment of the Starfish student success platform, the launch of online benefits management, and the ongoing rollout of Microsoft Teams to departments across campus. The success of these initiatives demonstrates the impact that effective project management and collaborative teamwork across campus can have on empowering Drake University to deliver on its mission. Our project teams, made up of ITS staff and campus partners, ensured that these projects met their budgets and schedules, and delivered on their promised outcomes.
It has also been a year of challenges and opportunities around information security. 2018 began with multiple successful phishing attacks on the University that reminded us of the sophistication of information thieves and the necessity of working together to protect our community’s confidential information. I’m pleased to report that, through our collective action, our data is dramatically better protected today than it was a year ago. Two-factor authentication is now being used by all faculty and staff across campus—a major accomplishment for all of us.
We continue to look for ways to improve protection of critical data. This year we are conducting disaster recovery tests on Banner and other critical systems as part of our routine maintenance. By regularly assessing our recovery processes we become better prepared to move quickly to restore critical services in the event of a major event affecting our main data center.
Finally, I want to return to the results of last fall’s Survey of Administrative Services. The results from the past three years show steadily increasing overall satisfaction with ITS services. I’m grateful that you recognize the hard work the ITS team is putting in toward improving service and I commit that we will not slow down. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we are dedicated to identifying areas of weakness and working to improve them. I welcome your ongoing input and constructive feedback on how we might more effectively serve the University, our students, and you.
Chris Gill, Chief Information Technology Officer
