On Campus - Stories January 11 , 2002 - Vol. 54, No. 28 DRAKE BASKETBALL PLAYER CARRIES OLYMPIC TORCH KEEFER TO SPEND THREE YEARS IN THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES DRAKE CHAMBER CHOIR ENJOYS SUCCESSFUL TOUR OF ENGLAND UNIVERSITY TO HOST KING HOLIDAY FORUM JAN. 21 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED BY THE DRAKE LITERACY CENTER RENOWNED FLUTIST TO GIVE RECITAL AT DRAKE JAN. 24 ASH ELECTED TO AFCA BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Describing it as an opportunity of a lifetime, Martha Chaput, a sophomore forward on the Drake women's basketball team, carried the U.S. Olympic torch in her hometown of Council Bluffs, Iowa, Thursday afternoon.

"I can't put the moment into words," said Chaput, who was one of 23 runners who carried the Olympic torch along a five-mile route in Council Bluffs. "If I could hold time in a bottle, I would hold this in there."

Chaput carried the torch from Sixth Street to First Street in downtown Council Bluffs, which was one of only 100 host cities and the only Iowa city to host the relay.

She was one of 11,5000 torch bearers who were selected from across the United States, not for their athletic abilities, but for their success at overcoming challenges in life.

Chaput is in remission from Hodgkin's disease, which forced her to miss the last 24 games of the 2000-01 basketball season.

Thursday's stop in Council Bluffs marked the 36th day of a 65-day, 13,500-mile route across the United States with the torch arriving in Salt Lake City Feb. 8 for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

"It went really fast. There were a lot of people cheering me on," added Chaput, who immediately departed by plane to Normal, Ill., where she joined her Bulldog teammates for a Missouri Valley Conference game against Illinois State Thursday night. The Bulldogs won the game 70-58.

Janet Keefer, professor and former dean of the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication, will spend the next three years in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Keefer was recruited by Zayed University, an all-women school, to head its College of Communication and Media Sciences. As dean, Keefer plans to focus on recruiting new faculty, building internship opportunities for students and creating a student-run magazine.

Keefer will be accompanied by her husband, Joe, who will join the faculty in Zayed University's College of Arts and Sciences, where he will direct the development of a center for social science research. The Keefers plan to leave for Dubai in early February.

"We're very pleased to be taking on this challenge," Janet Keefer said. "I think bringing higher education to people who have been disenfranchised for so long is important work."

Keefer was dean at Drake from 1994 to 2001 before returning to the faculty. She will retain her faculty position while on leave to serve at Zayed University.

The Drake Chamber Choir, the University's most select choral ensemble, returned to Des Moines Thursday after a nine-day tour of England. The choir, directed by Aimee Beckmann-Collier, sang in the cathedrals of Salisbury, Winchester and Ely as well as at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London.

"It was fabulous. There's never been a more wonderful tour," Beckmann-Collier said. "The students sang like gods. People loved them. It was all good, good, good."

To view photos and daily accounts of the tour, visit the Drake Web site at www.drake.edu/events/choirtour/JAN2002.

On Monday, Jan. 21, Drake will host the National Conference on Community and Justice's 17th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Forum. The forum, to be held in Olmsted Center, is titled "From Dreams to Action: Planting the Seeds for Change." It will focus on Native American issues in Iowa.

The forum will begin with registration at 10:30 a.m. followed by a Native American prayer and welcome address. Next, lunch will be served and Native American music will be performed. Then a documentary by Jay Rosenstein titled "In Whose Honor?" will be shown.

The keynote address by Native American activist Charlene Teters will begin at 12:35 p.m. Teters is a founding board member of the National Coalition on Racism in Sports and the Media as well as an artist, activist and lecturer. She challenges the inappropriate use of American Indian images, culture and spiritual life ways by schools, scholars, museums, corporations and the mass media.

Following the keynote address, concurrent workshop sessions will be held on a variety of topics. C. Richard King, assistant professor of anthropology at Drake, will lead a workshop at 3 p.m. on "Playing Indian: Thoughts on Mascots and Whiteness."

There is no registration fee for the forum, thanks to support from Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Pre-registration is required, however. For more information and pre-registration, call the NCCJ at 274-5571 or send an e-mail message to jmccullo@nccj.org.

There also will be an evening program at 6 p.m. in Bulldog Theater that is open to the general public. The program will focus on Native American stereotypes and how they affect all institutions and individuals. Teters will speak and participate in a panel discussion that will include King as well as Erwin Marquit, professor of Native American studies at the University of Minnesota; Ralph Moisa, an author and activist; and Tom Anderson, equity coordinator for the Iowa Department of Education.

Faculty, staff and students are invited to give the gift of literacy in the New Year by volunteering to tutor in the Drake Literacy Center.

"The ability to read is essential in today's information society. Reading is key to personal independence, " said Anne Murr, supervisor of the Literacy Center. "As a volunteer, you can help adults improve the quality of their lives as they improve their reading skills. Or you can help a child of one of these adults acquire the literacy skills he or she needs to be more successful in school."

Volunteers receive training and materials. They meet twice a week for an hour one-to-one with an adult or child.
For more information and a tutor application, call Murr at x3982 or send an e-mail message to anne.murr@drake.edu.

Flutist Stephanie Jutt, who has performed with the Boston Pops, the New York Philharmonic and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, will conduct a master class for Drake students and perform a recital at Drake University on Thursday, Jan. 24. She will be accompanied by pianist Jeffrey Sykes.

As a member of Gunther Schuller's New England Ragtime Ensemble, Jutt has toured throughout Europe, the United States and the former Soviet Union, and has recorded for the Angel and Golden Crest labels. As an affiliate artist, she has been in residence at University of Pennsylvania, University of Dayton and numerous other universities.

Both the master class and recital are free and open to the public. The master class will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Monroe Recital Hall in the Harmon Fine Arts Center. The recital will take place at 8 p.m. on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main.

Drake head football coach Rob Ash, along with head coaches Tony Samuel of New Mexico State and Chuck Amato of North Carolina State, recently were elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Football Coaches Association.

The three were elected by members attending the 2002 AFCA Convention in San Antonio, Texas. They join a group of distinguished head coaches who guide the organization. The board formulates policy and provides direction for the AFCA, which was founded in 1922 by Amos Alonzo Stagg, John Heisman and others. The AFCA has more than 8,000 members from all levels of the profession.

Ash completed his 13th year at Drake in 2001, leading the Bulldogs to a 5-5 record. He has a collegiate career coaching record of 133-75-5 (.636) in 22 years, including an 89-43-2 mark in 13 years with the Bulldogs.

A native of Ottumwa, Iowa, Ash has guided Drake to Pioneer Football League titles in 1995, 1998 and 2000. During his tenure at Drake, four players have earned Academic All-American honors by the College Sports Information Directors of America. They are Dave Doeren in 1993; Nate Schneider, 1996; Eric Brezina, 1998, 1999; and Tait Johnson, 1998 and 1999.