Marketing students from the CBPA and Creighton’s Heider College of Business joined forces for the third annual Murphy Cup, a marketing student case competition. Working to solve a real-world problem for client Yahoo!, students were joined by faculty and administrators from both schools as well as by representatives of Yahoo! who participated throughout the weekend in various capacities. Read more about the Murphy Cup on the CBPA website.
Category Archives: Archive
From the president
The Drake University Board of Trustees held its quarterly meeting during the Relays weekend. You will see in this week’s OnCampus that the board approved the promotion or tenure of several faculty members; awarded endowed professorships to Phillip Chen, Steve Scullen, and Gholam Mirafzal; and named Sally Beisser the Ronald Troyer Research Fellow—congratulations to all!
Several other items were discussed and approved during the meeting, including the approval of the Fiscal Year 2017 budget, with which you should all be familiar. Trustees also gave final approval to move forward with the Drake University Continuous Improvement Plan. This is as much a vote of confidence in the content of the scorecard as it is in the continuous improvement approach to strategic planning at Drake. I look forward to working with the entire campus to fully implement the plan and to foster our growing culture of continuous improvement.
I provided an update on the Information Technology Services re-organization and their progress on several deferred maintenance projects. A few examples of initiatives underway include updating the wireless network in the residence halls, piloting a digital signage solution for campus, standardizing computer renewal and replacement for faculty and staff, and improving technology in classrooms and Sheslow Auditorium. ITS continues to improve its ability to provide reliable, service-oriented, and responsive support to campus, and I’m very pleased with these positive steps forward.
I informed the Board that we have established a schedule for deferred maintenance and capital renewal projects. The $1.7 million the Board authorized in January for this work will be focused on vital infrastructure projects including, among others, end-of-life roof replacement, heating and cooling units, and electrical upgrades.
The Board continued its thoughtful and strategic discussion around tuition pricing—you’ll hear more about this topic in the coming months.
Ben Ullem, dean of the Law School, and Tom Delahunt, vice president for admission and student financial planning, provided updates on 2016–2017 enrollment efforts. The Law School has seen an increase in applications over last year—502 versus 475 received year to date. So far, 80 students have made their first deposit (as of May 3). This good news is a credit to the leadership, faculty, and staff of the Law School—and their partners across campus—for navigating through difficult times.
We continue to face challenges in undergraduate and graduate enrollment. As of May 3, Drake has received 755 tuition deposits from incoming students, down from 781 at this same time last year. While these are lower than anticipated, the Office of Admission along with others on campus are working hard on new strategies to more sharply distinguish Drake in the prospective undergraduate market. We know that a Drake education and the Bulldog experience cannot be found anywhere else, and will continue to share our story and recruit the best and brightest to our University. On the graduate front, many programs are continuing their efforts to best serve the professional market in the region. The redesigned MBA program, which now offers a mix of online and in-person courses, is a positive step forward and I’m confident we will see gains from these changes and each college and school’s dedication to improving the graduate student experience.
Best of luck with the end of the semester.
Marty
High school media summer camp
The Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication is running a summer camp for high school students, June 26–29.
The camp will boost your high school student’s communication skills. From learning InDesign, social media management, and yearbook to editorial leadership and photo storytelling, we will infuse digital media components into every aspect of the camp experience. Class sizes are kept small to give individualized attention.
Top advisers, professional journalists, and collegiate-level instructors will share their very best with your high school-aged children.
Registration is $300 with a $50 non-refundable deposit due at time of registration. You can register your student at MediaNowDrake.com/Registration
For further information please refer to MediaNow.Press or contact christopher.snider@drake.edu.
—Dorothy Pisarski, Associate Professor of Journalism
Scholarship for adult students now available
Executive Women International (EWI) Des Moines announces that their 2016 ASIST Scholarship is now accepting applications! This program, which aligns with their 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 online. There are two $3,000 scholarships being awarded this year.
Please direct any questions to Sarah Roeder, 2016 ASIST committee chair, scholarships@ewidsm.org.
—Stephanie Cardwell, Administrative Assistant 2
School of Education news
Derick Ludwiig, an elementary education major, received the Des Moines Area Retired School Personnel Association Scholarship, a $1,000 scholarship awarded to one junior or senior in the School of Education. His award was based on his involvement on campus, why he wanted to be a teacher, and his career goals. The committee specifically mentioned his reference letters as being strong—Shout out to Sally Beisser and Bill Orcutt!
Ben Chadwick was recently honored as a finalist for Iowa Teacher of the Year. Ben, who is a member of our on-campus Leadership ‘14 cohort (Master of Science in Education Leadership) and a veteran attending Drake on the GI Bill, is one of our strongest aspiring administrators and has had quite a year. He recently had an article, “The effect of computer-aided design instruction on the spatial ability of high school students,” accepted for publication in the International Journal of Modern Engineering Research, and was honored at the Technology Association of Iowa’s Prometheus Awards for an innovative coding event (called the CTE Code Jam, in partnership with Principal Financial Group) that he designed for his classes. Ben’s clearly a rising star in the Iowa educational firmament, one who we expect to continue to hear a great deal from in the future.
—Catherine Gillespie, the Mary Collier Baker Professor and Associate Dean
Free choir concert and ice cream social
The Drake Choir and Chamber Choir, Drake’s premiere choral ensembles, will tour Latvia, Estonia, and Finland May 19–June 1. Before departing, they’ll share their tour music with Des Moines listeners at a concert on Wednesday, May 18, 4 p.m., in Sheslow Auditorium. Audience members are invited to an ice cream social, hosted by Drake President Marty Martin, immediately following the performance. The concert and ice cream social are free.
—Aimee Beckmann-Collier, the Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of Conducting
Last chance to sign up for kickball
This is the LAST week to sign up for the kickball games at the All Staff Council Summer Kick-off Social! The games will take place on May 18 from 2 to 4 p.m. Please submit your team or sign up as an individual by May 13 online.
Even if you don’t want to play, we hope you’ll come cheer on your co-workers, and enjoy some time away from your desk—bring a lawn chair if convenient. We’ll have beverages and lawn games to enjoy, and, if desired, bring a few dollars to purchase a cupcake from SCRATCH CURBSIDE! As a reminder, we’ve been collecting entries for a FREE parking pass at ASC events all year, and this will be your LAST chance to enter the drawing. We’ll be selecting our winner at 3:30 at the event.
See you there!
—All Staff Council Communications Committee
May employee anniversaries
Congratulate the following full-time staff and faculty celebrating employment anniversaries this month:
Joy Bachmann, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
Jill Brimeyer, University Communications
Shaunarae Bury, Legal Clinic
William Cashmore, Athletics
Cheryl Clarke, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences
Larry Cox, ITS
Kerwin Dobbins, School of Education
Anthony Doss, Facility Services
Catherine Gillespie, School of Education
Victoria Haugen, Head Start
Marla Johnson, Facility Services
Venessa Macro, Finance & Administration
Shawn Madsen, ITS
Anne Murr, School of Education
Carolyn Nelson, Finance & Administration
Errond Powell, Facility Services
Linda Ryan, President’s Office
Tyler Spoon, ITS
Chrystal Stanley, Professional & Career Development Services
Thomas Stier, Athletics
Jolaine Sweiger, Student Financial Planning
Jennifer Tran-Johnson, College of Arts & Sciences
Elizabeth Walters, Head Start
Debra Wiley, Human Resources
Beth Wilson, University Communications
Jeanette Zika, Facility Services
—Human Resources
Update from the chief information technology officer
As we approach the end of my first year as CITO, I want to provide you with a status update on some of ITS’ accomplishments this year as well as a sense of our priorities and projects for the near future.
Since our reorganization in January, we have focused internally on building a culture of service excellence, becoming more collaborative, improving communication to campus, and ensuring that we provide a reliable and robust technology infrastructure. We have received positive feedback, both internally and across campus, on our reorganizations and redoubled efforts.
We are investing in project management to deliver results to campus. Keren Fiorenza, IT project manager, is coordinating several high-priority summer projects and designing and implementing a solid project management methodology for the future.
I am also pleased to share with you that Carla Herling is the new IT communications manager. Carla is developing communication plans for all our major summer projects and implementing an overall strategy to ensure that ITS communicates regularly and effectively with campus.
In January, the Drake University Board of Trustees approved a $2 million one-time allocation for a variety of information technology capital improvements. Following this funding, ITS has begun planning and implementing a number of deferred maintenance projects:
- Managed printing—Working with a committee that included broad representation from both faculty and administration, Drake selected Laser Resources Inc. (LRI) as our new managed print vendor. A project team is working with LRI to address many of the challenges identified by the committee and our students, and they will be integrating solutions to improve printing and print accounting as they install new devices across campus.
- Network renewal and updates—ITS is finalizing the plan for wireless network improvements to take place over the summer. Wireless network equipment will be replaced in all residence halls and administrative/academic buildings across campus. Several key components of the wired central campus network are also being replaced.
- Computer standards and renewal/replacement—ITS is working with Deans’ Council and President’s Council to develop consistent, standardized processes for renewal and replacement of campus-owned faculty, staff, lab, and classroom computers. The process includes developing comprehensive inventories and reducing the number of supported machine types by creating standard configurations.
- Classroom technology upgrades—Improvements are planned in Meredith, Olin, Fine Arts Center, and Medbury. Additionally, a substantial technology upgrade is scheduled this summer for Sheslow Auditorium.
- Anti-phishing protection—ITS is also implementing a new system to minimize the potential for ongoing phishing attacks on the University’s email systems. We anticipate this system will substantially reduce (although not completely eliminate) the number of future phishing attacks on the University.
Regular status updates on these and other upcoming projects will be provided in OnCampus and posted on the ITS major projects website page at http://its.drake.edu/major-projects/.
—Chris Gill, Chief Information Technology Officer
World Languages and Cultures launches new concentration
Drake is pleased to announce a new concentration in East Asian Studies.
This new concentration provides opportunities for students to develop in-depth knowledge about China and Japan from multiple disciplinary perspectives, and prepares students for future life and work in the region. Students will gain an understanding of the factors underlying Asia’s rising influence in the world and the possible consequences of this growing role.
Available courses stretch across the fields of history, politics, sociology, philosophy, religion, language, and fine arts. The concentration complements a major in any of these disciplines as well as others, e.g., international relations and international business. Students concentrating in East Asian studies are strongly encouraged to study abroad in Asia.
In addition, Drake announced earlier this year the establishment of a Spanish minor.
Drake also offers a Latin American Studies concentration, as well as a language interdisciplinary minor which requires study abroad.
If you have questions about any of these programs, contact Marc Pinheiro-Cadd at marc.pinheiro-cadd@drake.edu.
—Drake International