The campus parking rules and regulations are changing for the 2019–2020 school year.

Faculty and staff members can go to the Student Services Center in the lower level of Hubbell Dining to purchase parking passes for the 2019–2020 school year. Passes will be on sale Monday–Friday from 8 a.m.–4:30 p.m. in the month of July, with the exception of July 4 and 5, when the office will be closed. Staff members who prefer to pay using the payroll deduction method may do so at the office with the attached form. Starting on August 1, online and student sales will open up.

A few things to remember as you look to make your decision on where to park; the changes are designed to accomplish four key goals:

o   to provide a more predictable parking experience

o   to ensure adequate parking, evenly distributed across campus

o   to advance the pedestrian friendly nature of campus

o   to enhance the visitor parking experience.

The primary change is that when purchasing a parking tag, you will have the option to select a designated zone. A commuter hang tag will be issued for each zone. When parking, you are restricted to your designated zone.

Faculty and staff zone choices are:

o   Tier I Commuter Zones ($250 per year)

§  Zone 1 – Yellow – Lot 16, Olmsted *

§  Zone 2 – Green – Lots 18 N&S Stadium Lot

§  Zone 3 – Red – Lot 13 & 14, Wifvat Plaza

o   Tier II Commuter Zones ($125 per year)

§  Zone 4 – Orange – Commuter Lots East of 27th St.

§  Zone 5 – Purple – Commuter Lots West of 27^th St.

It is important to remember that the Tier 1 Commuter Zones will be strictly enforced Monday–Friday from 6 a.m.–4:30 p.m. After 4:30 p.m. the Tier 1 zones will open up to anyone with a University Commuter Permit. Any cars parked in Tier I lots without the appropriate permit may be towed. It is also important to remember that unless specified, a parking permit is always required to park in a Drake owned lot, regardless of time of day.

Attached for your convenience is the Parking Registration form PDF as well as the Payroll Deduct Authorization form so you can fill it out prior to coming to the Student Services Center.

Finally, please note the following dates when the Olmsted Parking lot will be closed for University events in the fall semester. On the dates listed Olmsted parking permits will be honored in all commuter lots with the exception of Lot 13 (Red) and Lots 18N&S (Green).

·         Tuesday, 9/13 from 6 a.m.–noon

·         Thursday, 9/19 from 6 a.m.–noon

·         Monday, 10/7 All Day

·         Thursday, 10/17 6 a.m.–noon   

·         Friday, 10/18 6 a.m.–noon

·         Monday, 11/11 All Day

–Scott Law, Public Safety

Construction on a new, fully-licensed Starbucks in Olmsted will take place this summer with plans for a grand opening at the beginning of the fall 2019 semester. 

The new Starbucks is expected to offer a full range of Starbucks items, including Starbucks-branded food, drinks, and merchandise. This means an expanded drink and food menu from the current Olmsted Coffee Shop offerings. In addition, the new Starbucks will honor Starbucks gift cards, and customers can earn Starbucks Rewards on purchases. Another benefit is that it will be open on the weekends. 

Starbucks will take the place of the Olmsted Coffee Shop, which currently sells Starbucks brand coffee and is licensed to make some official Starbucks drinks. The new coffee shop will no longer offer Oasis smoothies, and the current selection of bakery items will change to Starbucks menu items. The new Starbucks is part of an ongoing plan by Drake Dining (operated by Sodexo) to enhance the on-campus retail dining options. The decision to offer a fully-licensed Starbucks was informed by student surveys and in-person focus groups. More details on the project will be shared over the coming months.

Venessa Macro,Chief Administration Officer

As we reach the end of another successful academic year, I want to share with you some reflections on the past year from an ITS perspective.

The end of this spring semester coincides with the successful completion of one of the most complex and extensive IT infrastructure projects undertaken during my tenure as Chief Information Technology Officer. The infrastructure team successfully moved Drake’s Internet service from a single provider to two separate Internet connections provided by two different companies. Additionally, they moved the disaster recovery data center from its previous location in Shakopee, Minnesota to Kansas City, Kansas. By doing so, the University has increased reliability, doubled Internet bandwidth, and reduced annual costs by 40%. Unless you were paying close attention to OnCampus, you were likely unaware of any changes because it happened with zero interruptions to service. It was carefully planned and well executed, and I hope if you see members of this team, you will take a few minutes to congratulate them on a job well done.

We have completed a number of other successful projects over the past year, both large and small. These include the transition from Banner 8 to Banner 9, integration between HireTouch and Banner, the launch of the myDrake portal, improvements to student address collection, the deployment of the Starfish student success platform, the launch of online benefits management, and the ongoing rollout of Microsoft Teams to departments across campus. The success of these initiatives demonstrates the impact that effective project management and collaborative teamwork across campus can have on empowering Drake University to deliver on its mission. Our project teams, made up of ITS staff and campus partners, ensured that these projects met their budgets and schedules, and delivered on their promised outcomes.

It has also been a year of challenges and opportunities around information security. 2018 began with multiple successful phishing attacks on the University that reminded us of the sophistication of information thieves and the necessity of working together to protect our community’s confidential information. I’m pleased to report that, through our collective action, our data is dramatically better protected today than it was a year ago. Two-factor authentication is now being used by all faculty and staff across campus—a major accomplishment for all of us.

We continue to look for ways to improve protection of critical data. This year we are conducting disaster recovery tests on Banner and other critical systems as part of our routine maintenance.  By regularly assessing our recovery processes we become better prepared to move quickly to restore critical services in the event of a major event affecting our main data center.

Finally, I want to return to the results of last fall’s Survey of Administrative Services. The results from the past three years show steadily increasing overall satisfaction with ITS services. I’m grateful that you recognize the hard work the ITS team is putting in toward improving service and I commit that we will not slow down. In the spirit of continuous improvement, we are dedicated to identifying areas of weakness and working to improve them. I welcome your ongoing input and constructive feedback on how we might more effectively serve the University, our students, and you.

Chris Gill, Chief Information Technology Officer

Thank you to everyone who completed the Great Colleges To Work For survey. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. The survey closed yesterday, and I am pleased to announce that we had 62% participation. A summary of the results will be shared with the campus in early summer. 

Mary Alice Hill, Director, Human Resources

Due to challenging winter conditions through the month of February and into early March, the Nelson Construction & Development project across from Old Main, which will include a new hotel, retail space, and restaurant will not break ground until April.

Parking lots 5 and 8 located south of University Avenue across from Old Main and Cole Hall and between 26^th and 27^th Streets will now be available through the month of March.

Venessa Macro, Chief Administration Officer

Thank you to everyone who has already completed the Great Colleges To Work For survey. We have not yet reached our participation goal of 63%. Currently, 42% of faculty and staff have participated, but there is still time. The survey period ends Monday, March 11, so if you have not completed the survey, please consider taking this opportunity to make your voice heard.

Full-time faculty and staff received an email Feb. 25 from The Chronicle of Higher Education  and Modern Think inviting them to participate in this year’s Great Colleges To Work For survey.

Instructions on how to access the survey are included in the email. If you did not receive the email, please check your clutter and junk mail folders. If you still can’t locate it, contact Mary Alice Hill, director of Human Resources, at maryalice.hill@drake.edu or 271-3676.

The survey results will be shared with the campus later this year and will identify opportunities for improvement and reinforce areas of strength. Drake has been recognized as a Great College to Work For by The Chronicle for the last two years, something we can all take great pride in. For more information on the survey, view a FAQ.

 For questions, contact Mary Alice Hill, director of Human Resources, at maryalice.hill@drake.edu or 271-3676.

Mary Alice Hill, director, Human Resources