Category Archives: Archive

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Community service and employee excellence nominations now being accepted

Nominations are now being accepted for the Madelyn M. Levitt Distinguished Community Service Award and the Madelyn M. Levitt Employee Excellence Awards. These awards will be presented at the All Staff Council Sapphire Awards Event. Nominations are due Friday, April 14, at 4:30 p.m.  No late nominations will be accepted.

Madelyn M. Levitt Distinguished Community Service Award
Madelyn M. Levitt established the Distinguished Community Service Award to recognize outstanding contributions of Drake faculty and staff to the Drake community. Criteria for the award include:

  • A demonstrated personal commitment to volunteerism and community service
  • An outstanding record of leadership or substantial involvement in community projects, services and activities contributing to the quality of life in our region, state, and/or the nation
  • Professional and personal values and behavior that typify the ideals of giving back to others and making a difference in the lives of others.

The nominee must be a current faculty or staff member with at least five years of service at Drake.

Madelyn M. Levitt Employee Excellence Awards
The Employee Excellence Award is presented to up to two staff employees who demonstrate exceptional commitment to excellence in the performance of their duties. Criteria for the award include:

  • Exceptional performance as an employee of Drake
  • Outstanding dedication to providing courteous, prompt, and quality service
  • Demonstrated commitment to University programs, initiatives, and services
  • Professional values and behavior that demonstrate exceptional service to others and a commitment to Drake

Nominees must be a current staff member with at least one year of service at Drake.

NOMINATION PROCESS

Submit a letter of nomination to the Levitt Award Committee c/o Human Resources. Nomination letters may be sent via 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. Nominations must be received by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, April 14.

—Laura Schwarz, Human Resources

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive

Submit course material requests for fall

It’s time to submit your course material requests for Fall. The deadline for submitting your materials is April 15, 2017. Receiving your list of materials as soon as possible allows us to source the most affordable books for your students and provide top dollar for students selling books back at the end of this term. With our Online Adoption Tool, selecting your course materials is fast and easy.

Access the Online Adoption Tool:

  • Visit www.drake.bkstr.com
  • Go to Books in the top navigation and under the Information heading, click Online Adoptions.
  • If you need additional training to use the Online Adoption Tool, please contact me.

Are You a New User?

  1. Follow the steps listed above.
  2. Click on New? Register Here and complete the required fields.
  3. Enter 1623 in the Bookstore Supplied Password field.

Download 6 Ways to Help Students Save on Textbooks to learn about Follett’s different types of course material purchasing options. If you have any questions about the Online Adoption Tool or how to save students money, please contact me anytime.

—Donna Hallstrom, Drake Bookstore

Campus Announcements Archive

Fiscal year-end purchasing guidelines

With the University’s fiscal year-end (June 30, 2017) approaching, below are recommended guidelines for efficient and effective year-end processing of purchases.

Accounting for departmental expenses:

In accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, Drake is required to report transactions in the proper fiscal period. For that reason, expenses are recorded in the period when goods are received and/or services are rendered. In short, items expensed to a FY17 budget will need to be received before June 30, 2017.  Factors such as budget allocation, invoice receipt, or payment issuance would not have an impact on the application of expenses within a fiscal period.

Exceptions to this general rule apply when a benefit of service or receipt of item extends into multiple fiscal years. In such cases, the following guidelines will be applied.

  • Expenses less than $5,000: will be charged against the fiscal year in which the majority of the expense will be incurred. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $3,000 and covers the period of 7/1/16 through 12/31/17, the expense would be charged to FY17)
  • Expenses greater than or equal to $5,000: will be split into the fiscal years according to the percentage of benefit received during each fiscal period. (For example, if a subscription is purchased for $10,000 that covers a period of 7/1/16 through 6/30/18, $5,000 would be charged to FY17 and $5,000 charged to FY18)

The University’s guidelines for year-end purchases are subject to external audit. As you make purchases during this period leading up to and overlapping our fiscal year end, it is important to note when the goods or services were received so they are expensed according to reporting requirements. If the timing of receipt is not clearly noted on the invoice, it would be beneficial to help call the receipt date to accounting’s attention by clearly marking the appropriate fiscal year for the expense, based on the above guidelines, on the pay request.

Please contact accounting at x2125 or accounting@drake.edu with any questions you might have.

Year-end timeline:

In order to facilitate efficient and effective year-end processing, the following timeline is recommended for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017.

Deadline Action Additional Information
June 1 Initiate final FY17 purchase orders Please contact Caron Findlay at x2424 or caron.findlay@drake.edu with any questions you have regarding purchase orders.

 

Please contact Monita Jackson at x3918 or itspurchasing@drake.edu for computer order requests.

 
June 15 Complete FY17 purchases with vendor All purchases should be completed by this date in order to allow for settlement of the transaction and receipt of the goods or services by June 30.  

 
Clear outstanding FY17 Travel Advances Please contact accounting at x2125 or accounting@drake.edu with any questions you have regarding outstanding travel advances.

 
June 23 Review FY17 account activity through May All accounts should be reviewed in Banner on a timely basis throughout the fiscal year. Any corrections for July through May activity should be submitted to accounting by this date.

 
Submit all FY17 payment requests All payment requests for FY17 should be submitted to Accounting.

 
June 30 Review and submit all FY17 purchasing card statements All FY17 purchasing card statements should be reviewed and submitted to Accounting with required documentation.

 
July 14 Submit requests for FY17 restricted or endowed spending transfers.

 

 All requests for restricted or endowed spending should be submitted to Kathy Veach at kathy.veach@drake.edu.

 
Final review of FY17 account activity At this point, only June transactions should need to be reviewed. It is highly recommended that prior months’ activity be reviewed as stated above in the timeline. Any corrections should be submitted to accounting by this date.

—Heather Travis, Finance and Administration

Campus Announcements Archive

Improvements coming to self-service password change tool

ITS has been developing a new and improved password change tool for the last few months. Set to launch on April 10, this new tool will make it easier for students, faculty, staff, and all campus constituents to reset their passwords or recover forgotten passwords.

Instead of having to call the Support Center to reset a forgotten password, everyone will be able to reset their own password. The first time anyone uses the new password change tool, they will be asked to answer security questions, provide a personal email address, or enter a personal mobile phone number. If you later forget your password, this information allows you to recover it without Support Center assistance.

The password tool will still be located at password.drake.edu, just with improved functionality and usability. Passwords will continue to expire annually, with email notifications from ITS to inform users of the need to change their passwords.

Strong passwords are the first line of defense to keeping personal and institutional data safe. Want to learn more about how to create them? Try this password game from Carnegie Mellon University.

—Carla Herling, ITS

Campus Announcements Archive

Upcoming ITS maintenance planned for April 2

ITS is making updates to network infrastructure. As a result, internet access and access to Drake online resources will be unavailable between 5 and 6 a.m. on Sunday, April 2. This upgrade is being made to ensure that our back up services are automated from our data center in Shakopee, Minn.

We appreciate your patience while we perform this necessary work. If you continue to have any issues after the planned maintenance window, please contact the Support Center at 515-271-3001 or supportcenter@drake.edu.

—Carla Herling, ITS

HR Information Archive

$10 chair massages

Step away from your worries and take a 10-minute vacation with a relaxing chair massage. On April 12 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Olmsted Center Drake Room, and April 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. in Cowles Library Collier Heritage Room, licensed massage therapist Anne Boal will be giving chair massages.

Cost is $10 for a 10-minute chair massage paid directly to Anne Boal at the time of your appointment—correct change cash or check only. One name will be drawn after the event and that person will receive a gift certificate for a free 10-minute chair massage!
Click the link below to register for the day and time of your choice.mYou may register for one or two time slots per online registration form.

April 12 (Olmsted Center Drake Room)

April 13 (Cowles Library Collier Heritage Room)

For additional information or questions, please contact Linda Feiden at linda.feiden@drake.edu.

—Linda Feiden, Human Resources