Category Archives: Archive

Campus Announcements Archive

Drake Student Survey results

Thank you to all who participated in this year’s Drake Student Survey. 1,419 students completed the survey out of 4523 contacts (31 percent response rate). We appreciate the engagement and want to give an update on our plans to respond to this information.

While we need additional time to fully analyze the data, here is a quick rundown of some findings.

  • 91% of undergraduates and 92% of graduate students rate their experience at Drake as “good” or “excellent.”
  • 86% of graduate students and 83% of undergraduates responded positively they would come to Drake again, if they were starting all over again.
  • 89% of undergraduates and 91% of graduate students are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their experiences with faculty.
  • 92% of graduate and 84% of undergraduate students are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the quality of their classes.

These represent positive findings regarding students’ overall experiences at Drake.

This month, the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment will be sharing unit-specific results, compiling a summary of longitudinal results, and analyzing survey comments to identify areas of success and challenge. In the fall, we will pursue specific strategies to promote the use of this data across the University. We look forward to turning this important feedback into action.

—Kevin Saunders, Office of Institutional Research and Assessment

Strategic Updates Archive

Update from the CITO

On March 23, ITS held a town hall meeting to provide an update on what we accomplished last year, and what we’re focusing on for the year to come. It was a well-attended event, but for those of you who were unable to attend, I’m going to recap some of the highlights from that presentation.

ITS Organization
The realigned ITS organization comprises four primary areas.

Campus Relations—Led by Jerome Hilscher, Campus Relations is the face of ITS. The campus community is most likely to interact directly with their staff with personal computing issues, academic technology support, video production, and classroom support.

Infrastructure—Chris Mielke’s team manages and supports the University’s large-scale physical technology including more than 250 servers, 4,500 wired network ports, 500 wireless access points, 800 telephones, 2 data centers, and more than 340 terabytes of storage.

Professional Services—This team, managed by Keren Fiorenza, provides coordinated service and support for the University’s complex enterprise applications like Banner, business intelligence, and blueView, among others. It also ensures that ITS’ complex projects are well-executed.

Administration—The Administration team includes staff who manage the University’s IT budget (Alicia Mann), coordinate centralized technology purchasing (Monita Jackson), ensure effective campus communication (Carla Herling), and protect the University’s electronic information (Peter Lundstedt).

The goal of our reorganization efforts has been to maximize the value that ITS provides to the University.

This past year
Over the past year, we have been able to demonstrate ITS’ value in several ways:

  • Nearly 1/3 of all ITS staff are now 100 percent dedicated to academic support.
  • The campus wireless network now functions at the highest capacity available today.
  • Approximately 80 percent of all malicious email sent to campus is blocked before reaching our inboxes.
  • ITS invested $350,000 this year in replacement of faculty and staff computers.
  • Over $30,000 has been saved due to print jobs that were sent to print queues but never released at printers.

This summer and beyond
ITS is working on projects that we think will continue to improve campus technology and further maximize the value that ITS provides to students, faculty, and staff.

  • In the STEM buildings:
    —New telephones and network infrastructure
    —Instructional technology installation in 37 classrooms, labs, and other spaces
    —Electronic access to building doors
  • Personal cloud file storage for everyone on campus
  • An additional $100,000 in classroom improvements
  • A pilot laptop checkout kiosk program
  • Two large, multi-year projects:
    —Upgrading from Banner 8 to Banner 9 (a complete redesign along with significant changes to the user interface)
    —Replacing blueView with a new online communication and collaboration system

Finally, I want to reiterate ITS’ commitments to you. We will:

  1. Reduce our backlog of service requests and maintain overall lower levels of open issues.
  2. Focus on providing reliable enterprise technology services.
  3. Ensure that we meet our promised response and resolution timeframes.
  4. Partner with you to find reasonable and supportable long-term solutions.
  5. Strive to understand issues and requests before we begin work.
  6. Confirm that we have completed your request to your satisfaction.
  7. Improve our communication related to support requests and technology changes.
  8. Work as a team to provide technology-related services on behalf of Drake.

Regular status updates on these and other upcoming projects will be provided in future issues of OnCampus.

I hope you have a safe, happy, and productive summer.

—Chris Gill, Chief Information Technology Officer

For Students Archive

EWI ASIST Scholarship available

The 2017 Executive Women International (EWI) ASIST Scholarship is open for applications! This program, which aligns with EWI’s core tenets—connections, careers, and community—awards scholarships to adult students in scholastic transition. It is open to adults 18 and over who reside within the boundaries of our chapter: Polk, Dallas, Story, and Warren counties.

The application can be downloaded on the EWI Des Moines Chapter’s website.  Applications are due May 12.

Please direct any questions to Sarah Roeder, 2017 ASIST committee chair, scholarships@ewidsm.org.

—Stephanie Cardwell, Entrepreneurship Centers

HR Information Archive

FREE National Diabetes Prevention Program

During your last physical or wellness screening was your blood sugar level between 100 and 125 mg/dL? Is your Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 24?

Hy-Vee is offering Drake 15 FREE scholarships to cover the cost of attending a National Diabetes Prevention Program (a value of $499) for those who may be at risk for diabetes. This is a yearlong program to help you prevent developing diabetes. This program is split into two parts. During the first 16 weeks you will meet weekly with a Hy-Vee dietitian. During the next eight months you will meet once a month. Classes begin in September and will be held on campus during the day.

Participant eligibility is based on the following requirements:

  • Be at least 18 years old and
  • Be overweight (Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥ 24; ≥ 22 if Asian) and
  • Have a blood test result in the prediabetes range within the past year:
    • Hemoglobin A1C: 5.7—6.4% or
    • Fasting plasma glucose: 100—125 mg/dL or
    • Two-hour plasma glucose (after a 75 gm glucose load): 140—199 mg/dL

    OR

  • Be previously diagnosed with gestational diabetes (with no previous diagnosis of diabetes)

Read this Diabetes Prevention Program Scholarships Letter to learn more about the program. Registration is open now and ends June 19 to be considered for the class.

Please contact Anne Cundiff (Hy-Vee dietitian) by email at acundiff@hy-vee.com or call 515-285-7266 if you have any questions or would like to register for this program. Individuals will be considered on a first come, first served basis.

—Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Featured Events Archive

Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee schedule

Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee

Grand Blue Mile
April 25 at 6 p.m.
Downtown Des Moines

Vault at Capital Square
April 26 at 5:45 p.m.
Capital Square – Downtown Des Moines

Thursday Session
April 27 at 4 p.m.
Drake Stadium

Friday (Day) Session
Powered by MidAmerican Energy
April 28 at 8 a.m.
Drake Stadium

Friday (Night) Session
Hy-Vee Night at the Drake Relays
April 28 at 5 p.m.
Drake Stadium

Saturday Session
April 29 at 8 a.m.
Drake Stadium

For Staff Archive

Last week in True Blue Awards

There have been a flurry of True Blue award presentations over the past week: staff members Ellen Lowe and Amanda Martin and teams Jessie Neal and Heather Storms (Law Library) and the athletics communication, marketing and promotion teams. Kudos to these individuals and teams, who will be considered for overall awards at the Sapphire Awards Show, held May 4, 2–3 p.m., in Levitt Hall.

True Blue: Individuals

Ellen Lowe
Ellen Lowe, assistant director, Rec Services, received a True Blue Award for her positive attitude, passion for her job, and work in implementing new tools and strategies for wellness engagement. Her nominator, Sara Heijerman, student services center manager, began working under Lowe when she started teaching fitness classes this fall:

“She helped me transition into the “wellness world” seamlessly this fall, and seriously oozes positive energy. She is a great addition to the Wellness staff and Drake University.”

Amanda Martin
Also in April, Programs Coordinator for Community Engaged Learning Amanda Martin was recognized with a True Blue Award, nominated by Director, Community Engaged Learning Renee Sedlacek. In her nomination, Sedlacek lauded Martin for her tireless work in coordinating logistics for service-learning programs, managing the team of six student service-learning ambassadors, and advising the Community Action Board:

“Amanda treats our student workers as paraprofessionals and empowers them to take on significant leadership responsibilities. She is often asked to jump in on projects at the last minute, and always does so with a positive, can-do attitude.”

True Blue: Teams

Athletics Communications and Marketing Promotions team
The athletics communications, marketing, and promotions team was awarded a group True Blue Award for their dedication, enthusiasm, and work on projects such as personalized player emoji magnets and successful promotion of the attendance record-breaking UNI game, as well as for creating an upbeat, exciting atmosphere at games. Wrote nominator Niki Smith, assistant director, public relations, on behalf of the University Communications public relations team:

“The spirit of the team has brought an aura of positivity to the Knapp Center. Whether the Bulldogs win or lose, the staff remains positive and full of Drake spirit. (They) are demonstrating by example of what living the Bulldog Way means.”

Jessie Neal and Heather Storms (Law Library)
Law Library staff members Jessie Neal, public services associate, and Heather Storms, access services associate, were recognized in April with a True Blue Award from All Staff Council. Their nominator, Circulation/Reference Librarian and Professor of Law Librarianship Karen Wallace, highlighted an instance this year in which both took the initiative to tackle a problem to benefit both students and the University’s bottom line:

“They took personal responsibility for ensuring the complete review and repair of the collection of CD study aids, comprising approximately 400 disks. Law students use this collection heavily, and will benefit from the completion of this project before finals.”

—All Staff Council Recognition Committee

For Students Archive

Drake Relays graduate and law student tickets

Drake graduate and law students have the opportunity to take advantage of a special ticket offer to the 2017 Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee. Starting Monday, April 24, at 9 a.m. and ending Thursday, April 27, at 11:59 p.m., the first 50 graduate/law students of each college or school can reserve one complimentary ticket to the Friday (day or night) sessions of the Drake Relays presented by Hy-Vee.

Students will have the opportunity to purchase discounted tickets once all complimentary tickets have been claimed or the deadline to request complimentary tickets has passed. Please note that students may only receive one complimentary ticket OR purchase one discounted ticket. Additionally, students must reserve tickets using their Drake email address to confirm status as a Drake graduate/law student.

To claim complimentary tickets, please use the promo codes below at  www.DrakeTix.com/promo.

Promo Codes
EDSTUDENT (School of Education)
CBPASTUDENT (College of Business and Public Administration)
JMCSTUDENT (School of Journalism and Mass Communication)
LAWSTUDENT (Law School)

Additional ticket and pricing information for graduate and law students is also available at www.DrakeTix.com/graduate or by contacting the Drake Athletics Ticket Office at 515-271-3647 or tickets@drake.edu.

—Tom Florian, Drake Athletics