Drake’s TEDx Club is hosting its annual live event Friday, Feb. 16. Guest speakers will present personal TED talks relating to the topic, “Beginnings.” The event is open to the public. Tickets will go on sale the week of Feb. 12. For questions, contact tedxdrakeu@gmail.com.
—Julie Uram
At Drake, we recognize how important it is for our employees to keep healthy. We also realize the importance of offering opportunities to make a difference in your well-being.
Therefore, we are conducting a faculty and staff interest survey to determine your interest in participating in worksite wellness programs. We want to hear your thoughts and ideas on how to provide programs, presentations, and activities that meet your needs.
Please help us improve our offerings by taking a few minutes to complete this brief survey. Thank you in advance for your participation.
—Linda Feiden, Human Resources
Today through Thursday, Dec. 21, most campus buildings are open during administrative hours: 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Beginning Friday, Dec. 22, doors will lock for the winter break. Faculty and staff will still be able to utilize their authorized access plans and enter their office buildings 24/7. Student plans will shut off during this time. Regular building hours will resume on Jan. 3.
Cowles Library open hours/after-hours are listed on its website.
Contact Public Safety at 515-271-2222 if you have a door access emergency during this time, or contact Student Services Center at 515-271-2000 or studentservices@drake.edu if you have a general card access question.
—Sara Heijerman, Student Services Center
Faculty are invited to attend the ITS workshop “Getting Started with Blackboard” on Monday, Jan. 22, from 10 to 11 a.m. in Olmsted Center, TMR 132. Learn basic tips and tricks for working with Blackboard with a focus on course menus, navigation, grade center setup, and more. Please bring your own laptop or another internet capable device. Laptops can be checked out from the kiosk located in the lobby of Meredith Hall. The course will be taught by Karly Good.
Register for the course, and view other upcoming workshops.
—Carla Herling, ITS
En Li, professor of history, and Nate Holdren, professor of law, politics, and society, are convening a faculty writing productivity group in the spring semester, with a monthly meeting and weekly check-in. Faculty members interested in participating are welcome to contact Li at en.li@drake.edu or Holdren at nate.holdren@drake.edu for more information.
—Nate Holdren, Law, Politics & Society
Due to the upcoming winter break, ITS routine maintenance is moving from Thursday, Dec. 21, to tomorrow, Dec. 20. Systems supported by ITS may be unavailable from approximately 10 p.m. tomorrow to 2 a.m. Thursday.
—Carla Herling, ITS
Water shutdown
Drake will experience a water shutdown tomorrow, Dec. 20. The shutdown will last approximately seven hours. The shutdown will begin at 10 p.m. tomorrow, and the water will be back on at approximately 5 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 21. The buildings included in the water shutdown are Howard Hall, Old Main, Sheslow Auditorium, Carnegie Hall, Harmon Fine Arts Center, Turner Jazz Center, Opperman Law Library, The Knapp Center, Cartwright Hall, Jewett Residence Hall, Collier-Scripps Hall, Olin Hall, Fieldhouse, Bell Center, and Facilities Planning and Management .
Power outage
Facilities Planning and Management needs to make minor repair to an electrical switch located near Aliber Hall. Electricity will be shut off to Aliber Hall and Olmsted Center on Friday, Dec. 22, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.
—Jolene Schmidt, Facilities Planning and Management
Blackboard will be migrating to a different kind of environment without much change to its users. In order to complete the migration, Blackboard will be unavailable from Dec. 23 to 27. Please be sure to plan accordingly for this migration timeline. After the system is available, faculty may generate course materials and finish their preparations for J-Term and spring courses.
Our move to Blackboard’s SaaS (Software as a Service) will make new tools available and position Drake to provide better online offerings for years to come. The planned migration from managed hosting, which is housed on Blackboards servers, to SaaS, hosted on Amazon Web Services data centers, will occur during winter break to have the least amount of impact.
Once the migration takes place, we will continue running the current experience on Blackboard known as version 9.1. By moving to SaaS, we gain some major benefits from the new environment, which will also allow us to make future upgrades and patches to our environment with little to no downtime.
—Karly Good, ITS
Drake reimburses mileage for use of personal automobiles by employees for actual miles driven during business travel. The reimbursement rate is based on the current standard mileage rate issued by the Internal Revenue Service.
Effective Jan. 1, 2018, the standard mileage rate issued by the IRS is 54.5 cents per business mile driven, which is up from 53.5 cents in 2017.
The standard mileage rate is evaluated annually by the IRS and is based on an annual study of the fixed and variable costs of operating an automobile.
If you have any questions regarding the reimbursable mileage rate, please visit the IRS website or contact Accounting at accounting@drake.edu.
—Jenifer Baugher, Accounting
The new parking lot north of Opperman Hall is now open. The south end of 27th Street will remain fenced off due to construction until spring. View a map of the construction area and review your future walking paths.
—Jolene Schmidt, Facilities Planning and Management
