Early signs of progress are visible at the lots located south of University Avenue and on both sides of 26th Street that will soon be redeveloped into a mixed-use space. Proposed plans for the development call for a hotel, apartments, urban-style row houses, and retail space.

This week, the construction area will be fenced off, including five Drake-owned houses that occupy the site. Prior to the start of the project, Drake placed the houses on the market in hopes of finding qualified buyers. Two of the homes were sold and will be relocated to the Sherman Hill neighborhood in mid-August. Drake is allowing a portion of the demolition costs that were saved on these houses to be used to help with the relocation effort. The three homes that did not sell will be torn down July 31. Habitat for Humanity has salvaged all materials and items from the houses and will reuse or resell them in its ReStore prior to demolition.

Since Drake sent out a request for proposals to redevelop the site, the University has been closely working with area neighbors and business owners as well as the Neighborhood Development Corporation in hopes of designing a project that will not only spur economic growth but develop pride among students and the neighboring community. The original committee that selected Nelson Construction and Development as the developer included three neighborhood residents and a neighborhood business owner.

Currently, Nelson is in the final stages of the design process and will solicit further feedback from neighborhood partners before finalizing the design. Read more on the project and view conceptual renderings here.

— Nick Valdez, Neighborhood and Community Relations Manager

At the summer board meeting of the Iowa Board of Education, Drake’s School of Education received full accreditation for programs in undergraduate and graduate teacher education, school counseling, and school administration. The accreditation status, which is reviewed every seven years, runs through the 2023–2024 academic year.

The decision follows a comprehensive 18-month process that included a 400-page self-study, a review by an elected state panel, five meetings with state accreditation consultants, and a four-day onsite review that involved faculty, staff, students, and employers.
“The reaccreditation is an important validation of our licensure programs that enable teachers, counselors, principals, and superintendents to work in Iowa and throughout the U.S.,” said School of Education Dean Janet McMahill. “I’m extremely proud of all the faculty, staff, students, and employers who participated in the process. Associate Dean Catherine Gillespie earned the “True Blue” award for this one!”

McMahill noted that the accreditation standards were more rigorous than ever before due to revised statues in Chapter 79 – the Iowa law governing the accreditation of education programs. Drake was the first Iowa college subject to the new standards.

And while the accreditation affirms the high-level quality of Drake’s teaching programs, the School of Education strives for continued growth. Next month, the school will move into the new Collier-Scripps building in the heart of campus. The new facility will support faculty and staff as they strive to further grow and improve their programs.

As the STEM@DRAKE buildings near completion, work will begin on the Robert D. and Billie Ray Promenade (formerly 27th Street) and parking lot.

Phase 1: The parking lot south of Opperman Hall will be resurfaced and a new entrance off of Forest Avenue will be built beginning around July 15. Completion is scheduled for Aug. 24. Please use the fine arts parking lot during the construction period.

Phase 2: Construction will begin on the new parking lot and the Robert D. and Billie Ray Promenade around Aug. 1. Phase 2 includes a new water main; a new grading plan for the area; and new, improved walkways along the 27th Street corridor. This project should be wrapped up on Dec. 1. Please use the fine arts parking lot or the parking lot located at 25th Street and Forest Avenue during the construction period.

Phase 3: Construction of a new turnaround at the corner of 25th Street and Carpenter Avenue will begin Aug. 29, with completion scheduled for Dec. 1. Phase 3 was added to the construction project to allow incoming students to move into Jewett Residence Hall.

To see where construction is taking place, refer to the 27th Street Logistics Plan.

The following message will be sent to new students moving into Jewett Hall next week:

The Fall 2017 academic term is just around the corner and we are preparing for your return to campus. There are a few bits of information we want to share with you to help with your return to campus. There has been significant progress on the new STEM building this summer. This includes the closing and planned removal of the Jewett Residence Hall parking lot, as well as the closing of 27th Street.
 
Please note that due to the 27th Street and Jewett parking lot closure, we have made arrangements to allow 30-minute vehicle unloading to occur on Painted Street in front of Jewett Residence Hall on Friday, August 25, and Saturday, August 26, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.  Vehicles may enter from 25th Street onto Carpenter Avenue. Des Moines Police will be available to direct traffic. Cars may unload on the north side of painted street then circle and depart on the south side of painted street. 
 
If you are arriving at a time other than these designated times, you may park in the Olmsted parking lot to unload your vehicle. There will also be a small 15-minute unloading zone located at the corner of Carpenter Avenue and 27th Street.
 
Please note that the Olmsted parking lot is not an overnight parking lot. Students who need overnight parking will need to relocate their vehicles to lot 25A across University Avenue.

The new mailing address for Jewett Hall is 2700 Forest Avenue.

—Jolene Schmidt, Facilities Planning & Management

I’m so pleased to announce that Jenny Tran-Johnson has accepted our offer to serve as interim registrar from July 15 through Sept. 15, 2018.

The vision for the new registrar position is to support students with consistent processes that foster student retention and success. The registrar will work closely with faculty, deans, and other academic and administrative leaders to review academic policies and programs and serve as the official custodian of students’ records, among other duties.

For the coming year, Jenny will focus her efforts on two main projects:

• Developing consistency and cohesiveness in campus-wide policies and processes for student records, with technology solutions as appropriate
• Support advising and retention efforts

Jenny is a Drake alumna, receiving her BA in biology, and she is currently working to complete her PhD in education. She has worked at Drake since 2008, when she began as director of student programs. In 2013, she became the assistant dean, student support, in the College of Arts and Sciences. As assistant dean, she served as an academic adviser, helped create academic plans to support students’ goals and on-time graduation, oversaw orientation and retention programs for the college, and worked closely with Student Records to provide graduation clearance and manage degree audits.

Jenny has also been an active member of the Drake community beyond her day-to-day responsibilities, including serving on a variety of campus-wide committees, as a CREW Scholars faculty mentor, and most recently as chair of All Staff Council. She has also instructed several courses in the LEAD program, for which she also served as the interim director this past spring.

Clearly, Jenny is the right person for this interim position, having earned the respect of colleagues across campus for her intelligent, thoughtful, and reasoned approach to improving processes. I look forward to working with her to establish this new position on campus.

In addition, Kevin Moenkhaus’ title will change to associate registrar, and he will continue to focus on internal operations, including the catalog, implementation of Drake Online, and Banner XE installation.

—Sue Mattison, Provost

The next step in advancing the development between 25th and 27th Street along the south side of University Avenue is removal of the five Drake-owned rental homes. Since the beginning of this process, Drake neighborhood representatives, faculty, and staff prioritized the concept of moving one or more of these homes. The ideal outcome would be to transition some of the homes to another site, transforming them from rental units to affordable, single-family homes in or near the Drake Neighborhood. Interested buyers are working closely with moving experts and the City of Des Moines to finalize plans and their commitments to this project.

From a structural and safety standpoint, not all of the homes are good candidates for relocation and will instead be taken down. We are working with Habitat for Humanity to ensure as much repurposing of materials as possible is accomplished. The adjacent parking lots will continue to be available for Drake’s use—we don’t anticipate that changing until 2018. Watch OnCampus for updates and information, including project schedule.

—Venessa Macro, Chief Administration Officer

Drake is excited to announce its new master’s program in applied behavior analysis. This program will deliver a curriculum, including practicum experience, that prepares its graduates to sit for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s® (BACB®) exam so that they may become Board Certified Behavior Analysts® (BCBAs®). In addition to its master’s program, Drake will also have a certificate program for individuals who currently possess at least a master’s degree in psychology or education to complete in preparation for a career as a certified behavior analyst.

The master’s program will launch Fall 2017 and is a five-semester or two-year program (nine credit hours per semester or 45 hours total). Coursework will be offered nights to accommodate various work schedules. The certificate program is three semesters (nine credit hours per semester or 27 hours total).

The program’s vision and mission is to grow the number of behavior analysts within Iowa to meet the increasing demands for professionals within schools and clinical settings who can:

• Work with children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities
• Treat challenging behavior in various populations
• Work with others to increase compliance with treatment strategies and recommendations
• Teach target audiences new skills and promote positive behavior

For more information, please see http://www.drake.edu/aba/ or contact Maria Valdovinos (maria.valdovinos@drake.edu).

—Maria Valdovinos, Department of Psychology

Earlier this year, an opening in Human Resources and a subsequent unsuccessful search for an associate director prompted us to carefully evaluate HR structure and operations. Three key strategies for advancing a more impactful HR organization emerged as a result of this review: (1) automation and streamlining of major processes; (2) building proactive collaborative partnerships between HR professionals and the campus community; and (3) greater focus on learning and development.

A new HR structure will support these strategies by focusing effort and expertise within two functional teams: HR Operations and HR Partners.

HR Operations Team—Compensation, Benefits, Technology
The HR Operations Team will be responsible for compensation, benefits, onboarding processes, and all HR technology systems. Gary Johnson will lead the HR Operations team as the director, HR operations, continuing his significant efforts in these areas. This team will advance the strategy of automating and streamlining major processes, such as benefits administration. The group will also be working to support efforts around compensation analysis, benefits design, and onboarding.

HR Partners Team—Recruitment, Engagement, Development & Employee Relations
The HR Partners team will be dedicated to issues of recruitment, employee engagement, professional development, performance management, employee relations, wellness/work-life programs, and employee recognition. This team will counsel managers and leaders on workplace trends and best people practices—with a focus on professional development and employee engagement. The team will also be responsible for policies and programs aimed at sustaining a positive, inclusive, fair, and supportive working environment.
The HR Partners team will be led by a director, HR partner services. This position was reconfigured from the prior associate director position and is currently posted. This position, as well as the director, HR operations, will report directly to the chief administration officer.

In the coming weeks, we will share more about these initiatives and the structure within Human Resources. The proposed HR organizational chart can be found on the Employee tab of blueView on the Human Resources channel. Watch for more details about the HR team roles in the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Venessa Macro at 271-3962 or venessa.macro@drake.edu.

—Venessa Macro, Chief Administration Officer