As the end of the Fall 2024 semester is nearly here, preparations for ‘final exams’ of a different sort continue at the Johansen Student Center (Morehouse). Flooring, wall finishes, mechanical systems start-up, and building inspections are all scheduled for the coming weeks ahead of furniture installations and thorough cleaning.

When the campus community returns from winter break at the end of January 2025, the entire project team is excited for students and staff to begin using their newly revitalized building.

Go check out the Johansen Student Center website for more information.

—Heather Winslow, Facilities Planning & Management

There has been some great progress at the Sammons Plaza. The pavers are installed, and contractors are working hard on the landscaping, which will withstand the winter elements. This outdoor plaza is an extension of the Sammons Intercultural Commons and Fisher-Stelter Hall. This outdoor space will be in the heart of campus and will be a great place to hang out or host an event.

—Heather Winslow, Facilities Planning & Management

Dear colleagues, 

On Monday, Nov. 11, we launched two new full-tuition coverage offers for qualifying Iowa students—the Bulldog Promise and the Bright College Pathway. These programs advance our commitment to expanding access to a Drake education at a time when we’ve seen year-over-year increases in the percentage of entering first-year students from Iowa and a historic number of Pell-eligible students. 

• The Bulldog Promise will offer full tuition coverage to qualifying first-time college students. Students must be Pell-eligible, an Iowa resident, and have a 3.8 high school GPA at time of admission in order to qualify.  
• The Bright College Pathway offers full-tuition coverage at Bright College for Pell-eligible Iowa residents. This offer does not require a minimum GPA. 

As part of Monday’s launch, we created materials for the admission team, a new landing page, a press release, social media advertising, a message to all Iowa alumni (those who graduated 5 or more years ago), and targeted email outreach to Iowa prospects and high school guidance counselors. We will continue to build upon this with local advertising. This launch coincides with a broader effort to enhance the way we talk about the cost and value of a Drake education to ensure we’re meeting prospective families’ top-level questions as they evaluate their college choices. This coinciding effort includes an overhaul of website content, including a new tuition and costs page, updated Tuition Guarantee page, and an updated Bright tuition and costs page.  

We sincerely appreciate any work you or your team members do to help ensure prospective families in Iowa know these options are available as we work to recruit the next class of Bulldogs.  

The Financial Aid, Admission, and University Communications & Marketing teams can help answer any questions you may have. 

—John Krantz, University Communications & Marketing

The Johansen Student Center project continues to progress well and remains on budget and on schedule for students and staff to occupy the newly renovated building for the Spring 2025 semester. Construction of new interior finishes continues while retaining many of the original historic architectural features of the building. There are also significant tasks being completed on the exterior of the building, such as a new solar panel system, an exterior courtyard, accessible entries, and a host of other amenities being completed now to further enhance the campus experience for all.

—Heather Winslow, Facilities Planning & Management

Join the Student Alumni Association on Tuesday, October 22, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Olmsted Breezeway for a campus-wide celebration of The Ones: Drake’s Campaign for the Brave and Bold. Stop by to grab a free Cinnaholic cinnamon roll treat while they last, take photos with Griff II, and connect with fellow students, faculty, and staff as we celebrate the tremendous impact of The Ones campaign. 

The conclusion of The Ones marks a historic chapter in Drake’s history. The campaign exceeded its ambitious fundraising goal, supporting seven key priorities that strengthen our campus and our community. Donations to The Ones support all seven of Drake’s colleges and schools, Drake Athletics, and hundreds of new or expanded scholarships. It has also enabled numerous projects, including Mediacom Stadium, the revitalization of Morehouse Hall into the Johansen Student Center, the Gregory & Suzie Glazer Burt Boys & Girls Club, and many more. 

This celebration is for The Ones who made it possible. Join us in recognizing the support of each and every one of our students, faculty, and staff members on campus who helped lead this momentous charge. 

Learn more about The Ones.

—John Krantz, University Communications and Marketing

The University Communications and Marketing team is excited to share that we are launching a blog called College Kickstart with dozens of articles aimed at reaching prospective students and parents with helpful content that will answer common questions and guide them through their college decision-making journey. 

Those articles fall into several categories, which you’ll find in the site’s navigation:  

• College Search
• Aid & Affordability 
• Application Process 
• College Readiness 
• Student Success 

By creating helpful content that addresses commonly asked questions throughout this journey, we will not only position Drake University as a trusted partner, but our SEO-driven approach will make Drake University more discoverable to Google searchers (both prospective students and parents), putting Drake on the radar of prospects that might not have otherwise been looking for us online. 

While we have a number of new articles already in the development queue, we welcome ideas for any article that may help answer common questions and hot topics during a prospective student’s or parent’s college decision-making journey. 

Contact John Krantz, Strategic Communications Director (john.krantz@drake.edu) with questions or ideas.  

— John Krantz, University Communications and Marketing

This past spring, faculty and staff were invited to participate in an internally developed survey on our campus workplace culture. This was in place of the annual Great Colleges to Work For survey. This internally developed survey focused on growth areas from prior ‘Great Colleges’ surveys while also saving the university money on external survey costs. Thank you to the 351 people who participated.

We collectively use survey results to define focus areas for improvement that will advance creating a stronger workplace culture. Survey results for each major unit on campus were shared with the respective unit leaders earlier this summer. Throughout the summer, each leader worked with their teams to develop specific focus areas for continuous improvement in their unit. In turn, these focus areas helped inform university focus areas overall.

As prioritized by university leadership, our prioritized areas of collective improvement are:

• Robust and transparent communication
• Positive relationships and connection, across departments and within
• Supporting faculty and staff well-being and support
• Cultivating a culture of resiliency

In reviewing the results across the university, the units with the most positive responses were: The Ray Center, Advancement, Administration, the Provost’s Office, Global Engagement, and ITS.

Many areas of strengths and improvement were shared in the survey results. As an example, suggestions to improve on cross-department collaboration on campus included:

• Intentional interactions
• Breaking down silos through communication and understanding
• Creating cross-departmental teams
• Hosting workshops
• Rewarding collaboration
• Setting clear expectations for common goals

Thank you for your commitment to creating a great workplace culture. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions regarding the survey, please reach out to Nate Reagen.

— Nate Reagen, Office of the President

Please join us for this month’s Provost’s Social on Friday, Sept. 20, in the Cowles Library Reading Room beginning at 4 p.m.

Refreshments will include an assortment of beverages and light snacks. This is a family friendly event, please feel free to bring your children or partner.

–Madison Bemus, Provost’s Office

Faculty, on Thursday, Sept. 19, University Communications and Marketing is holding five separate meet-and-greet sessions in Meredith Hall, Room 207, with representatives from The Conversation—an independent news organization that relies exclusively on academic contributors to provide explanatory analysis and insights on topics spanning law and policy, science, health, economics, education, history, ethics, and many other topics that are well-aligned with the expertise of Drake faculty.

Published articles in The Conversation are widely syndicated across national media outlets—providing visibility to Drake and our faculty expertise to millions of readers all over the world.

Please add your name to the time slot you plan to attend.

Who should attend: The Conversation welcomes contributions from Drake faculty members, as well as any current Drake doctoral candidates. If you have an interest in learning more about The Conversation and how you can become a contributor, we encourage you to attend a session.

Why you should attend: Here are just a few stats on the impact being a contributing author to The Conversation can have. In a recent author impact analysis, The Conversation reported:

• 26% of faculty contributors saw an increase in citations of their scholarly articles
• 18% have used articles or metrics to aid in soliciting grants or funding
• 45% received additional media interview requests after their article was published
• 14% were invited to speak or present at a conference
• 43% had opportunities arise for new academic collaboration
• 93% said they had a very positive experience working with the editorial staff

You can learn more about The Conversation here.

— John Krantz, University Communications and Marketing