Category Archives: Archive

Campus Announcements Archive

Library space study

Cowles Library is undertaking a review and analysis of library space utilization. The outcome of the project will be a revised Master Facility Plan. This document will guide future functional arrangements and renovations and in the facility. The University and the library have retained the services of FEH Design for the planning project and the development of a concept layout for library. This project will have an initial report available during early 2017.

A Facility Steering Committee has been established for the project. Members of the committee include: Rod Henshaw (Chair), Bart Schmidt, John Edwards, Dennis Sharp (FEH), Jolene Schmidt, Maura Lyons (Faculty), Clayton Mitchell, and a student representative. Preparations are underway for an extensive set of inputs from the campus community.

—Claudia Frazer, Cowles Library

Campus Announcements Archive

Fire drill Oct. 12

Drake will hold a campus-wide building evacuation/fire drill on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 9:15 a.m. in compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act and in conjunction with National Fire Prevention month. Fire alarms will be activated in all campus buildings to signal the start of the drill. All buildings will be locked down during the fire alarms. During lock down, buildings can be evacuated, but cannot be re-entered. Members and guests of the campus community will need to evacuate all Drake buildings at this time. Please dress according to weather.

This drill will be coordinated through the Office of Public Safety (271-2222) working with the Office of Environmental Health and Safety (271-3804) and Facilities Planning and Management (271-3955). Please report any fire alarm malfunctions or evacuation problems to Facilities or Public Safety. Your cooperation in this very important campus safety exercise regarding the Drake Emergency Response Plan is appreciated and required by law.

As a reminder:

  • Please evacuate when the alarms sound.
  • If it is cold, please wear a coat.
  • Buildings will be locked down during alarms.
  • Buildings can be evacuated but cannot be re-entered until the drill ends.
     
     —Chris Nickell, Environmental Health & Safety
For Students Archive

Tuition Guarantee Announcement

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I hope your fall semester is going well. I’d like to share some news with you about the cost of tuition at Drake. In Drake’s ongoing efforts to control costs and deliver value to our students, the annual tuition increase will be lower than in past years. Returning students will pay $36,112 for tuition next academic year, an increase of 3 percent, compared to a six-year average annual increase of 4.5 percent. Costs for 2017–2018 room (for those living on campus) and board will be released in early 2017.

I am sharing this news with you now because we are changing our approach to tuition pricing with the entering Fall 2017 class, and I want to avoid any confusion for our current students in this transition. Starting with the undergraduate students entering Drake in the Fall of 2017, we will move to fixed tuition pricing—what we’re calling the Drake Tuition Guarantee. That is, the tuition rate those students pay upon entering Drake will remain fixed for the duration of their Drake experience. As a current student, you will not be paying the Tuition Guarantee rate that undergraduate students entering in Fall 2017 will be paying. I encourage you to learn more about the Drake Tuition Guarantee and find answers to questions you might have at www.drake.edu/accounts/tuitionfees/returningstudents/

This lowering of the annual tuition percentage increase reflects our continuing efforts to be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us by you and your families. We have spent the last year finding ways to cut our operating expenses and to move existing resources into more high-impact activities—and we remain committed to doing both going forward. We saved $1.35 million in operating expenses during the just completed fiscal year, and are working on adding another $1.5 million to those savings in the current year. Our goal is to keep your annual tuition increases as low as possible, while continuing to make investments in new programs, needed facilities, and upgrades to technology.

The lower annual increase in tuition strengthens the value of your degree. A few of the many external reviews and assessments that affirm the value of a Drake education include:

  • Drake is #1 in Iowa for median annual salary 10 years after entering college, and $20,000 above the national average.
  • 98.9 percent of the graduates in our Class of 2015 had a job or graduate school acceptance within six months of graduation.
  • The Economistmagazine ranked Drake 17th out of 1,275 institutions of higher education (98th percentile) for return on investment.
  • The Brookings Institution placed Drake in the 97th percentile nationwide among four-year colleges and universities regarding the mid-career earnings of graduates.
  • Drake University is ranked 36th nationally on Kiplinger’s list of the “Best Values in Private Higher Education.”

I hope this information is helpful in explaining both the annual tuition increase for 2017–2018 and the new Tuition Guarantee. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Have a wonderful fall semester.

—President Marty Martin

 

For Faculty Archive, For Staff Archive, Strategic Updates Archive

Tuition Guarantee announcement

After more than a year of research, discussion, and financial modeling, I’m excited today to share that Drake will be undertaking a new approach to pricing tuition for next year’s incoming undergraduate class—we’re calling it the Drake Tuition Guarantee.

I encourage you to watch this video to learn more about the Tuition Guarantee, which fixes tuition for full-time, undergraduate students’ four years at Drake. This has several benefits to prospective students and their families—chief among them enhanced financial clarity—and enables us to stabilize tuition and financial aid distribution. This new tuition price still keeps us lower priced than a majority of our out-of-state peer institutions and five Iowa private colleges and universities. You’ll  find more about how we compare to our peers and other answers to common questions in the FAQ.

I wish to extend my gratitude to our colleagues who have been hard at work to make this new approach a reality. Paired with the great value of a Drake education—outlined in The Drake Commitment—the Tuition Guarantee positions us strongly in the marketplace and reflects our ongoing dedication to delivering an exceptional experience to our students.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions after reviewing the video and FAQ document.

 —President Marty Martin

 

Regards,

 

 

Marty

Featured Events Archive

Drake Writers’ Night

Drake English Department will host the first Drake Writers’ Night for the 2016–2017 school year on Sept. 29, 7 p.m., in Medbury Lounge. Writers are invited to share their work or come to see what their classmates and colleagues are up to. This event is free and open to the public.

—Yasmina Madden, Visiting Instructor of English

For Students Archive

Join leaders for lunch at The Harkin Institute

Every semester, The Harkin Institute for Public Policy & Citizen Engagement offers a small, intimate group of Drake students the opportunity to meet with local, state, and national leaders for food and conversation.

Next month, we will bring Dennis Groenenboom, executive director of Iowa Legal Aid, to the institute for lunch on Wednesday, Oct. 5. The following day, the chairs of the Republican Party of Iowa and the Iowa Democratic Party will come together for a special lunch with a few lucky Drake students.

The Harkin Institute’s student lunch and reception series provides Drake undergraduate, graduate, pharmacy, and law students with networking opportunities by hosting small groups of students to meet informally with leaders in policy, government, business, and nonprofit industries. The first two of our four lunch receptions this semester are:

Dennis Groenenboom, Executive Director, Iowa Legal Aid
Wednesday, Oct. 5
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

Iowa Legal Aid provides legal assistance and education to low-income Iowans, envisioning a state where all residents understand their legal rights and are treated fairly in the justice system. Mr. Groenenboom has worked with Iowa Legal Aid his entire legal career and has served as its executive director for more than 20 years. Since 2012, he has served as the chair of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association’s civil policy group.

Apply here by 5 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 28, for the opportunity to have lunch with Dennis Groenenboom.

Jeff Kaufmann, Chair, Republican Party of Iowa and Andy McGuire, Chair, Iowa Democratic Party
Thursday, Oct. 6
11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

Jeff Kaufmann is the chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. He served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2005 to 2013 and was appointed to various leadership positions in the GOP caucus. Mr. Kaufmann is a seventh-generation livestock farmer, as well as a professor at Muscatine Community College, where he teaches history and government. Mr. Kaufmann is a member of the Cedar County Board of Supervisors.

Dr. Andy McGuire, chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, has worked in politics since 2014, when she helped organize her sister-in-law’s campaign. Dr. McGuire served as the president of Meridian Health and currently serves as the chair of the University of Iowa College of Public Health Board of Advisors. In her spare time, Dr. McGuire serves as a board member of the Des Moines Partnership and was a founding member of the Women’s Leadership Connection for United Way of Central Iowa.

To be considered for this lunch opportunity with Mr. Kaufmann and Dr. McGuire, please apply here by 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29.

Preference for the Harkin Institute’s student lunch and reception series is given to students based on strength of application, taking event interest and questions for the guest of honor into particular consideration. Except in rare cases, students will only be selected for one event in this series per semester. Do not let this discourage you from applying to multiple luncheons, but consider noting your event preference.

—Erin Austin, Communications Strategist

News & Achievements Archive

Drake news: Sept. 26

Ray Center endorses Debate Standards
The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center joined the National Institute for Civil Discourse this week in calling on the presidential debate moderators to adopt a set of Debate Standards designed to ensure that the 2016 Presidential Debates are fair, informative, and civil. More than 60 organizations signed on to the debate standards, which include guidelines for moderators, the audience, and the candidates themselves.

Show Some Respect—a civility initiative led by The Ray Center, the Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines, Interfaith Alliance of Iowa, and the Greater Des Moines Partnership—also signed onto the debate standards, released nationally on Sept. 15. Learn more about the standards and the work of The Ray Center in The Drake Newsroom.

U.S. News & World Report rankings
U.S. News & World Report has ranked Drake University third for overall quality among universities in the Midwest.

The organization’s Best Colleges 2017 rankings, released today, placed Drake among the top colleges for excellence for military veterans. Nationwide, only four of the 653 universities in Drake’s rankings category had a higher peer-generated ranking for academic quality; five universities have an equivalent peer ranking.

Drake falls into U.S. News’ largest category of regional universities, which the publication subcategorizes by universities in the North, South, Midwest, and West. The category includes universities which award at least 50 percent of degrees in the liberal arts disciplines and which award both undergraduate degrees and master’s degrees. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.

Students present award-winning research
Two Drake students won first place at an Iowa State University neuroscience competition for research aimed at slowing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

Hayley LeBlanc, a senior neuroscience and psychology major from Leawood, Kan., and Alyson Williamson, a P3 pharmacy student from Colfax, Iowa, won first place in a poster presentation competition at Iowa State’s Neuroscience Research Day on Sept. 17.

Their research, titled “Study of Daily Genistein Ingestion on Spatial Memory and Olfaction in Triple Transgenic Alzheimer’s Mice,” earned top marks over 27 other posters displayed at the research conference. Read more about their research in the Drake Newsroom.

For Faculty Archive

Call for nominations

The executive director for global engagement and international programs is accepting nominations (including self-nominations) of individuals to serve as acting director of both the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship (PFGCGC) and the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs. The successful candidate will initially serve as assistant director (for both programs) with one course reassignment during the Spring 2017 semester, and then as acting director from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, filling in as a sabbatical replacement for the permanent director. For the 2017–2018 academic year, the position carries three course reassignments and a summer stipend. The acting director will report to the executive director for global engagement and international programs.

Responsibilities include:

  • Serving on Global/International Programs Academic Council (GIPAC), International Advisory Council, and International Grants committees
  • Implementing PFGCGC projects, including campus events, directing global and comparative public health concentration, assisting with recruitment of Global Practitioners, oversight of Global Ambassador program, and supervision of Global Citizenship Award selection process
  • Chairing Nelson Institute Advisory Group and implementing Nelson Institute projects, including simulation funding, Global Pressing Issues Grants, Visiting Diplomats, Student Travel Grants, and Nelson Undergraduate Conference on Global Affairs
  • Supervising administrative assistant
  • Assisting executive director of global engagement and international programs on related initiatives as needed

Nominees should be full-time faculty members with five or more years of experience at Drake at the start of the 2017–2018 academic year, demonstrated leadership capacity, and engagement with global/international initiatives at Drake.

Nominations should include a statement summarizing the qualifications of the nominee, the nominee’s letter of acceptance, and the nominee’s CV. Self-nominations should include a statement of interest and qualifications and a CV. Nominations and self-nominations also should include a letter of support from the nominee’s dean. The deadline for nominations and self-nominations is Oct. 21. Please send materials to Hannah Bildstein (hannah.bildstein@drake.edu).

—Denise Ganpat, Administrative Assistant 2

Featured Events Archive

Tap into your creativity at the Creator Fair

The first Creator Fair is being held Wednesday, Sept. 28, 6–8 p.m., in the new Innovation Center in Meredith Hall, Room 124C. We’ll have a VR headset, a 360° camera, Legos, clay, a button maker, and more! Also FOOD! Bring a friend and come make stuff.

This event is sponsored by the Entrepreneurship Centers, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and Cowles Library.

Questions? Email innovation@drake.edu.

—Stephanie Cardwell, Administrative Assistant 2

News & Achievements Archive

Cowles Library and Room to Read

Cowles Library donates its outdated books to Better World Books, a third party bookseller, to sell them online. In addition to getting these books in the hands of people who want them, we, and a charity of our choice, each receive a percentage of the sale price (which we use to purchase new books). Cowles Library has designated “Room to Read” as the organization that will benefit from sales of our outdated books. In addition to a monetary donation, Better World Book donates a book for each book sold. In this year alone, both Cowles and Room to Read have each received approximately $2,779 from these sales.

Room to Read is a nonprofit organization whose focus is on literacy and gender equality in education. This organization works with communities and local governments across Asia and Africa to develop literacy skills, to support girls to complete secondary school. More information about Room to Read is available at www.roomtoread.org/

—Claudia Frazer, Professor of Librarianship and Coordinator of Digital Initiatives Library