Category Archives: Archive

Campus Announcements Archive

From DTS: Blackboard migration

As of Sept. 19, the summer courses Blackboard system is offline, part of our final migration process into the new Blackboard Hosting Environment. This means that you will no longer have access to bb.drake.edu, and will be re-directed to drake.blackboard.com. All summer courses will be moved, with the final courses moved by Sept. 28.

Though we don’t anticipate any files being lost, we recommend that instructors save their files and/or course content on their personal hard drive as a backup. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you!

—Submitted by Chris Gill, Chief Technology Officer

Campus Announcements Archive

Updates to policy development and approval process

Policy development and approval processes are outlined in the recently approved Policy Development, Approval and Communication policy. One key change is the use of a comment period during the policy development process, giving the campus community an opportunity to comment on policies before they become final. A working group is also developing a new policy library that organizes University-wide policies by type for easier reference. Watch for more information regarding this resource later this fall.

The Food Service Exclusivity Policy has also been approved and is posted as part of the University-wide policy library. This policy outlines changes to Sodexo exclusivity for catering services and provides alternatives for on-campus catering.

—Submitted by Andrea McDonough, Senior Administrative Services Specialist

Campus Announcements Archive

Faculty & staff: Sign up for interactive workshop

Enhancing Global Experiences Through Critical Reflection and Scholarship

Friday, Oct. 23, 12–4:30 p.m.
Courtside Club Hospitality Suite
The Shivers Basketball Practice Facility

This half-day interactive workshop, led by Patti Clayton, senior scholar, Center for Service and Learning at Indiana University—Purdue University Indianapolis, will focus on critical reflection and partnership strategies to enhance student learning in a global context, as well as discuss how teaching can be an opportunity for research while adding to emerging scholarship in service-learning. Participants will leave with critical reflection activities and ideas for developing their own scholarship as it relates to service-learning. Lunch will be served at noon and the workshop will begin at 12:30 p.m. This event is free to Drake faculty and staff.

12:30–1 p.m.—Establish conceptual frameworks to work within for the day (for SLCE, for GSL/ISL, for integrated design, for scholarship)

Overview of example scholarship related to critical reflection and partnerships

1–2:45—Designing critical reflection

2:45–3—BREAK

3–4:15—Inquiring into learning and partnerships (scholarship)

4:15–4:30—Wrap-up

Register today!

—Submitted by Maria Rohach, Global Learning Program Coordinator

Campus Announcements Archive

Tuition Exchange program update

As you may be aware, Drake University participates in The Tuition Exchange, a program with members from 630+ public or non-profit institutions of higher education. The list of participating schools is available at www.tuitionexchange.org.

If you are the parent of a high school senior, have a college-aged dependent, or have a dependent currently receiving a Tuition Exchange benefit, it is time to begin planning for 2016–2017.

The Tuition Exchange benefit is limited to dependent children of Drake employees as defined by Drake University’s Tuition Rebate policy. Application for Tuition Exchange export benefits can be made for both undergraduate and graduate programs at participating institutions. At Drake University, undergraduate export applicants will be given priority over graduate export student applicants.

If you wish to apply for Tuition Exchange consideration, print and complete the application found on the Employee tab in blueView in the Human Resources channel. 2015–2016 Tuition Exchange recipients are required to submit an application to be considered for renewal in 2016–2017.

All applications must reach the Office of Student Financial Planning by Friday, Oct. 2, 2015. This deadline applies to both new applicants and 2015–2016 recipients who wish to be considered for 2016–2017 renewal. The applications will be verified for eligibility by Human Resources and ranked according to Drake guidelines. Applications received after the deadline will be placed on the waiting list.

Drake University’s Tuition Exchange Policy utilizes a point system to rank applicants according to their years of service and prior use of Tuition Exchange benefits. The point system is used to determine those approved for Tuition Exchange benefits when there are more applicants than available export spots.

Applicants will be notified of their status (approved/not approved) beginning Nov. 2.

Please feel free to contact Brandy Eganhouse at X2906 with Tuition Exchange questions or for assistance in completing the application process.

—Submitted by Brandy Eganhouse, Administrative Assistant 1

Strategic Updates Archive

Drake community safety updates

Des Moines Police Patrol
In response to recent incidents in the Drake community, Drake has contracted for a uniformed Des Moines Police Department officer to be dedicated to the Drake campus in the evenings. The officer will patrol primarily from 25th Street to 34th Street on both Forest and University. The officer will primarily be here from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., seven days a week, for the next few weeks to help serve as a visible deterrent and expedite response time.

Safe Ride
As many of you know, Drake recently introduced the new Safe-Ride program, a Drake-owned bus that provides late-night transportation service in the immediate Drake neighborhood. The service has been very successful and demand in the evenings has exceeded capacity on some weekend nights. In order to increase visibility and provide additional capacity, a second bus will operate Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings. It is our hope that students will choose to use the Safe-Ride service for travel around the Drake neighborhood at night. The location of the Safe-Ride bus can be found by visiting www.drake.edu/bus. The bus runs 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday–Wednesday and 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. Thursday–Saturday. The two buses will travel opposite circuits around campus to maximize response time.

Drake Guardian App
Drake Public Safety would also like to remind students, faculty, and staff to download the “Drake Guardian” App. This app is available as a free download and enhances safety on campus through real-time, interactive features that create a virtual safety network of friends, family, and Drake’s Department of Public Safety. Features include a panic button that connects you immediately to Drake Public Safety and anonymous texting for crime tip reporting. The app also allows your network to monitor your location when you set a safety timer. For more information, visit the Drake Public Safety site. The app is also available in the App Store and through the Android App by searching for Rave Guardian. Once the Rave Guardian is downloaded and you enter your drake.edu email, the app becomes the “Drake Guardian.”

Timely warnings vs. Bulldog Alerts
The Director of Public Safety or a designee will develop Timely Warning Notices for the University community to notify campus about serious crimes against people that have already occurred on or near campus, where it is determined that the incident may pose an ongoing threat to members of the University community. Timely Warning Notices may be distributed for other crimes as determined necessary by the Director or his or her designee in his or her absence.

Bulldog Alerts are issued for an emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees that is currently occurring on or may imminently affect the campus.

As always, if you see something, say something. If you see something you feel is out of ordinary, no matter how trivial it may seem, contact Drake Public Safety at 811 (emergency) or 515-271-2222 (non-emergency). DPS has 21 sets of eyes, but with the campus community, we have more than 5,000.

—Submitted by Scott Law, Director, Drake Public Safety

Strategic Updates Archive

From the Provost: Sept. 21

Fall 2015 Enrollment
Last week we took the official enrollment census for the Fall 2015 semester. This fall, we welcomed 803 first-year students and 117 transfer students to Drake. They are among the 3,338 full- and part-time undergraduate students at Drake (compared to 3,364 in 2014). In addition, we have 1,653 full- and part-time graduate students distributed across various programs: graduate (887), law (330), and Pharm.D. (436). Overall, our student population is 4,991, compared to 5,062 last year, continuing a downward trend in total headcount over the past few years. This trend can be attributed to the dip in first-year students (which we knew about last spring) and continued lower enrollments in law and graduate programs. However, law appears to be stabilizing, and has seen an increase in part-time enrollment due in part to the new Master of Jurisprudence. Our first- to second-year retention rate continues to be strong. For the second year in a row we are above 88 percent—88.4 percent to be exact. This is good news, and it shows the impact of special efforts we are making, such as proactive advising and working with open-enrolled students.

Drake Social Club—Reminder
I am pleased to invite you to the inaugural Drake Social Club, sponsored jointly by the Offices of the Provost and the Chief Financial Officer. The event will be held this Thursday, Sept. 24, 4–6 p.m. in Shivers Hospitality Suite, adjacent to The Knapp Center. Attendees will receive two complimentary tickets for beer or wine. Water, soda, etc., are also on the house. Nearby parking is available in Lot 2 east of Shivers at the NE corner of Forest and 25th Street.

There will be no speeches, no presentations, no power points, no need to register or RSVP, and no agenda other than casual conversation and better acquaintance. Please feel most welcome, even if you can only come for a short while. Depending upon the response, this is an event we hope to repeat periodically throughout the year.

Open Office Hours
This week appearing at the Cowles Café, 2–3:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 25

—Submitted by Joe Lenz, Interim Provost

Strategic Updates Archive

From President Martin: Sept. 10

Good morning,

Since the last time Drake’s accreditation was renewed through the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) a good deal has changed—both at Drake and with accreditation standards. One of the more significant changes at Drake is the effort to start the process of accreditation much earlier. Nearly two years ago, members of the Drake community began addressing the new accreditation standards by analyzing the alignment of the University’s academic activities, operations, and priorities with these criteria.

Thanks to the hard work of many, led by Craig Owens and Kevin Saunders, several opportunities for improvement have been identified as we move toward reaccreditation by the HLC in 2017–2018. You can learn more about these priorities and the steps being taken to address them in the forthcoming BlueLine newsletter. Thanks to the proactive approach we have taken to accreditation, Drake is well positioned to meet, if not exceed, HLC criteria.

In conjunction with the reaccreditation effort, I, along with the President’s Council and the Dean’s Council, am striving to create a planning culture that supports continuous improvement at Drake. While this culture shift goes hand-in-hand with accreditation, it is not simply a project that is undertaken every 5 or 10 years—it is a constant, flexible improvement framework driven by our desire to provide the very best education to our students and fulfill our mission promise. This continuous improvement approach is a fusion of traditional strategic planning and accreditation efforts, and offers an innovative strategy to drive the University forward.

You’ll have the opportunity to learn more about accreditation and continuous improvement initiatives at Drake as we continue through the fall term. Every member of the campus community has a role to play in these efforts. By being more flexible and responsive, we will not just survive this time of tumult in higher education—we will thrive.

Best regards,

Marty

Campus Announcements Archive

CNN coming to campus

Cowles Library is pleased to announce that the Reading Room will be the site of a CNN focus group following the Republican debate on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Portions of the building (including the Reading Room and Atrium) will be closed to public access from Tuesday, Sept. 15, through the morning of Thursday, Sept. 17. All library services and study facilities will continue as normal throughout the event window.

You can learn more about CNN’s visit to campus here.

—Submitted by Marc Davis, Coordinator, Program Staff Services, Planning & Projects

News & Achievements Archive

Drake news: Week of Sept. 14

Last week in the news …. For the seventh consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Drake University third for overall quality among Midwest master’s institutions. Two of Drake’s professional pharmacy fraternity chapters have been named among the best in the nation by their national organizations. Drake’s Phi Delta Chi and Kappa Psi chapters both earned third-place chapter awards—a reflection of members’ commitment to service, philanthropy and scholarship. Also of note, Drake was named among the top 50 colleges in the nation for Greek Life.

News & Achievements Archive

Suicide Prevention Week at Drake

Suicide Prevention Week is Sept. 14–18, and the Counseling Center has planned a variety of activities to promote suicide prevention:

Wall of Remembrance—Post a photo or other tribute to your loved one lost to suicide. The wall will be up Monday through Friday in the walkway of Olmsted.

Chalking—Use sidewalk chalk to write messages of hope and encouragement to your classmates on Friday, 10 a.m.–noon.

“Help a Friend, Save a Life ”—View The Truth About Suicide Video, learn to recognize the warning signs of depression, and how you can help a friend, family member, or even a stranger when they are in need—Friday, 10 a.m.–noon., Olmsted Center

Out of the Darkness Walk—Sept. 20, DMACC Ankeny Campus

—Submitted by Diane Eischeid, Therapist, Drake University Counseling Center