Join ITS staff for the next session of Tech Tuesday on March 6 from 2 to 2:50 p.m. in the Dial Center Large Conference Room.
The session will focus on keeping your identity safe six months after the Equifax breach. Led by Peter Lundstedt, director, information security and compliance.
Sign up for the March 6 session and other upcoming sessions.
— Carla Herling, ITS
Nominations are now being accepted for the Madelyn M. Levitt Distinguished Community Service Award and the Madelyn M. Levitt Employee Excellence Award. Nominations are due to Human Resources by Friday, March 30, at 4:30 p.m. Late nominations will not be accepted.
Madelyn M. Levitt Distinguished Community Service Award
Madelyn M. Levitt established the Distinguished Community Service Award to recognize the outstanding contributions of Drake faculty and staff. Recipients are chosen on the following criteria:
Madelyn M. Levitt Employee Excellence Award
The Employee Excellence Award is presented to a staff member who demonstrates exceptional commitment to excellence in the performance of their duties. Criteria for the award include:
To nominate a colleague, submit a letter of nomination to the Levitt Award Committee, care of (c/o) Human Resources. Nomination letters may be sent through campus mail or electronically to drakehr@drake.edu.
A nomination letter detailing specific examples of how the nominee exemplifies each of the applicable criteria is desirable. Additional letters of support are not necessary. A review committee will make award recommendations to the President’s Council.
— Linda Feiden, Human Resources
The 2018 Myron Marty Lectureship in the Arts + Humanities is Wednesday, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater; a reception will follow.
The Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman is the recipient of the Myron Marty Lectureship for 2018 and will present, “Uncomposed Artfulness: A Black Womanist Theological Aesthetic.”
This lecture will explore the similitude between the aesthetic resistances of black church women and black feminist contemporary protest forms, with the goal of disrupting the false binary of the sacred and the secular that dares to limit divine activity to an either/or hierarchy.
An examination of black women’s ecclesial performance of “descent and recovery” as resistance and cathartic response to afro-misogynistic regulative practices in the church will be placed in conversation with the protest posture of “dying-in” that responds to anti-black state sanctioned regulative practices. The lecture will conclude with preliminary remarks on the work of the spirit (pneuma/axé) in black movement [dance] and protest, and point to the ethico-pneumatological implications of uncomposed artfulness in black church and society.
Dr. Turman is assistant professor of theology and African American religion at Yale University Divinity School. A first-career concert dancer and ordained National Baptist preacher, Dr. Turman holds degrees in philosophy, theology, and Christian ethics from Fordham University-Lincoln Center and Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. She is the author of Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation: Black Bodies, the Black Church, and the Council of Chalcedon.
The Myron Marty Lectureship in the Arts + Humanities honors Myron “Mike” Marty, Drake’s dean of liberal arts from 1984 to 1986 who oversaw the integration of the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Fine Arts, continuing to serve as dean of the newly formed College of Arts and Sciences until 1994. The lectureship is made possible by a gift from the Ralph and Sylvia G. Green Charitable Foundation in honor of Marty’s dedication to arts and humanities scholarship and programming at the University.
— Jennifer Harvey, Professor of Religion
Join The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement for the inaugural Harkin on Wellness Symposium on March 21 in Parents Hall, Olmsted Center. This year, we are welcoming a host of health care experts for a discussion on preventive care and policy.
Learn about the latest trends in preventive care and population health and discuss how they can influence health policy, clinical, and community care. Topics to be covered include:
Renowned Doctor Andrew Weil, founder and program director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, will deliver the keynote speech.
This is a free public event and includes lunch and a networking reception. Spots are going quickly. Register and learn more here.
—Emily Schettler, Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement
The next documentary film in the Engaged Citizen Experience will be Wednesday, March 7, at 6 p.m. in Sussman Theater, Olmsted Center. Professor Deb DeLaet will lead a post-film discussion. Pizza will be served.
— Art Sanders, Associate Provost
The J-Term Fair is Monday, April 5, from 4:30 to 6:15 p.m. in Parents Hall, Olmsted Center. There will be information about travel seminars, on-campus classes, registration, finance, housing, and all other J-Term issues.
— Art Sanders, Associate Provost
The Drake Choir and Chamber Choir will perform on Tuesday, March 6, at 7:30 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium. The concert, on the eve of the choir’s tour of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, will feature music by contemporary American, Korean, and Lithuanian composers, as well as works by Rheinberger, Handel, and Finzi. There is no admission charge.
— Aimee Beckmann-Collier, College of Arts & Sciences
Visit the Community Engaged Learning Blog to read how this year’s cohort of Engaged Citizen Corps members have been engaging with and serving in the community. The Engaged Citizen Corps is an academic plus service year experience for first year students at Drake. Recent blog posts include “Meet the Engaged Citizen Corps members,” which highlights the work of Service Learning Ambassadors, and “Just Sustainabilities J-Term Course,” which demonstrates how students explored advocacy for alternative transportation in downtown Des Moines. Engaged Citizen Corps is currently accepting applications for the 2018-2019 academic year. If you know of a high school senior who would be a good fit for the program, please encourage them to apply. The application deadline is March 1.
If you would like to be a guest blogger and share your community engagement work, email amanda.martin@drake.edu. Follow Community Engaged Learning and Service on Facebook and Twitter.
— Amanda Martin, Community Engaged Learning and Service
The Bell Center has a Wellness Library that contains books and DVDs to help you learn more about health and wellness. Resources are available over spring break, so check out a book if you are planning on relaxing and reading.
— Drake Wellness
February’s digital faculty member of the month: Jill Van Wyke, associate professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Each month, a faculty member, nominated by their dean, is recognized for their efforts to integrate an innovative technology into their classroom. Read an interview between ITS and Jill below.
What type of technology (hardware/software) do you use?
Slack, a messaging app that streamlines workflow by centralizing communication and document sharing.
In what context do you use this technology?
We use Slack as our sole communication channel in the capstone. It replaces email, texting, and private messaging. Before we switched to Slack, our communication was splintered and fractious. Slack puts it all in one place. It syncs nicely with Google Drive, and it also archives all communication.
What course(s) do you use this technology?
Our journalism senior capstone joins students from three majors (news, digital media production, and magazine media) to publish the nationally recognized online publication Urban Plains. The class is run as a professional publishing staff. Students are responsible for the entire publication: writing, producing, photography and videography, editing, art, marketing, promotion, web design and analytics, social media, and so on.
How does this type of technology align with your teaching pedagogy?
Our capstone attempts to simulate a real-world professional media company. It runs at a breakneck pace, with a sense of urgency and immediacy. Students often need us at odd hours, and we often need instant answers from them. With Slack, everybody is easily accessible at all times, wherever we are. The basic version of Slack, which allows 5G of storage, is free. Depending on the size of the class, we exchange 15,000 to 25,000 messages in a semester.
Where did you get the inspiration to make a change?
Our students and alumni reported a few years ago that they were using Slack in their internships and jobs. We decided it would be another way to prepare our students professionally.
How long did it take you to implement this technology?
No time at all. At least not any longer than it takes to set up an app. Students take to it quickly. The learning curve isn’t steep.
Are you interested in trying out new technology in your classroom? Want help from ITS staff? Schedule a technology adoption consultation.
—Erin Ulrich, CPHS, and Carla Herling, ITS