Heard Around Campus — August 2026

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Heard Around Campus - August 2026

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• Heard Around Campus - July 2026

As summer vacation season winds down and the University prepares for another academic year, more opportunities for learning and professional development are becoming available for faculty and professional staff. Here's the latest offerings to add to your fall calendar:

Call for Nominations: Compliance Ambassadors Certificate Program

Compliance Program Services (CPS) is currently taking nominations for the Compliance Ambassador Certificate Program, a professional development opportunity that prepares Drexel faculty and professional staff to serve as liaisons to CPS and as proactive compliance and ethics partners for their colleges, schools or administrative units. The mission of the Compliance Ambassador Program is to spread awareness, communications and educational materials to advance compliance and ethics standards at the unit level. Please see the Nomination Information Announcement for full details. The next orientation workshop (virtual) is Oct. 6. Nominations must be received by Oct. 2. Email [email protected] with any questions.

Coming This October: Workshop Series on Finance and HR Processes

The Office of the Comptroller, in collaboration with Human Resources, Budget, HR Information Systems and Research Accounting Services, is launching a four-part Finance Employee Engagement Workforce Lifecycle Workshop Series this October. The series is open to faculty and professional staff members, regardless of role or department. Whether you work directly with finance and personnel processes or simply want to better understand how these functions intersect with your work, your perspective is valuable and welcomed. Participation in all four workshops is not required; you may choose the session(s) that best fit your needs. Those who do complete all four workshops will earn a professional development certificate.

Read the announcement on the Office of the Comptroller website for more details.

How to Have Productive Annual Performance Development Conversations

Drexel's annual performance development process for professional staff begins the week of Sept. 7, so this is a great time to think about accomplishments you want to highlight, learning and growth for next year, and ways for your manager to support you. This information will be in the performance development form, but the real recognition, support, feedback and relationship building happens in a conversation. To help you make those conversations meaningful, supportive and future-focused, the HR Talent Development team has curated the following resources:

• Performance Development website: links, examples, videos and tips for performance development conversations
• Manager Conversation Toolkit: Mastering One-on-One Meetings (online course)
• Getting the Most Out of One-on-One Meetings With Your Manager (online course)
• Receiving Feedback (online course)
• Manager Conversation Toolkit: The SBI Feedback Model (online course): about using the Situation, Behavior, Impact, Inquiry model to structure a feedback message to feel supportive and part of a conversation, rather than being received as an attack
• Driving Your Career (online course): providing recommendations for identifying your career path and using meetings with your manager to make progress toward your goals
• Manager Conversation Toolkit: Delivering Meaningful Recognition (online course)

Developmental Leadership: Sept. 24 from 10-11:30 a.m.

Developmental Leadership, an online professional development course, is intended to encourage leaders to engage in practices that support the development of their team members. Participants will identify approaches and practices for development conversations and create a plan for using these practices with their team members.

This session is open to benefits-eligible faculty and professional staff and is a core component of Drexel Leaders: The Art of Management.

Register in Career Pathway - you will need to enter your DrexelOne login credentials.

Explore Drexel's Team Building Activities Series

Great teams are built through shared experiences, meaningful conversations and opportunities to learn together. The Leadership at EveryLevel: Team Building Activities Series is a comprehensive collection of practical, facilitator-led activities designed to strengthen communication, collaboration, trust, creativity and leadership across teams of all sizes.

Rather than presenting team building as a collection of games, this series approaches each activity as a leadership development experience, intentionally designed to build workplace skills that participants can immediately apply in their daily interactions.

Each course focuses on a specific area of team development and includes multiple activities supported by detailed facilitator guides, participant worksheets, quick reference guides, and debrief questions that connect the experience to real workplace situations. Facilitators receive everything they need to confidently lead engaging activities while helping participants reflect on what they learned and how those lessons translate to stronger workplace performance.

Get Ready for Wellness: New Workshops Available

Benefits-eligible employees are encouraged to find details and register in Career Pathway for upcoming wellness webinar sessions. There are have brand new workshops, like Eating for Longevity, and a session on federal tax code changes. Plus: old favorites like Chair Yoga and Yoga for Anxiety. Review the wellness events page and keep coming back to discover new workshops as they are posted.

Market Street Bridge Closure; Dragon Route Shuttle Changes

Starting on Aug. 24, the Market Street bridge over the Schuylkill River will be closed to vehicular traffic for approximately 14 months. Due to the expected delays, the schedule for the Dragon Route shuttle that runs on a loop between University City and Center City has been adjusted, with shuttles departing approximately every hour instead of every half hour. In addition, the Dragon Route stop at 22nd and Market streets has been eliminated. Students, faculty and professional staff are encouraged to plan ahead for expected delays due to Market Street construction activity. For complete information on the PennDOT Market Street Bridges Project, including a construction schedule, go to marketstreetbridges.com.

University City Campus Clean-up

Drexel Real Estate and Facilities is coordinating a University City Campus Clean-up through Sept. 18. This event is an opportunity for departments and offices on the University City Campus to efficiently dispose of obsolete or broken equipment, furniture and other large, non-hazardous materials while improving the general appearance of Drexel facilities and reclaiming space occupied by excess items. To participate, please complete the following steps:

1. Submit a WebTMA work request noting "Campus Clean-up" and providing a description of the items to be removed in the action requested. (Some oversized pieces of equipment and sensitive items may not qualify for the Campus Clean-up and will require special handling for disposal.)
2. Clearly identify the items to be discarded for Campus Clean-up with a label or sign indicating the work order number (FM-XXXXX). Items that are not labeled will not be removed.

New Procedure for Non-Material Policy Updates

Policy Compliance Services has implemented a new process for requesting non-material changes to Official University Policies. Sponsoring Units should complete the Intake Form for Non-Material Changes to Official University Policies and submit the completed form to [email protected] for review and consideration.