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On Campus - Stories
March 30, 2001 - Vol. 53, No. 37



President David Maxwell, center, signs the proclamation in front of (from left) Susan Lerdal, Claudia Frazer, Donna Smidt, John Edwards, Rod Henshaw and Karen Wallace.
Drake to celebrate National Library Week

President David Maxwell has signed a proclamation declaring April 1-7 as National Library Week at Drake. To kick off National Library Week, Cowles Library and Opperman Law Library are joining other libraries across the country in a new national awareness campaign called "@ your library."

All Drake faculty and staff are invited to an open house at Opperman Law Library from 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, April 5, that will feature library tours, door prizes and demonstrations of the resources available on the libraries' Web sites. Opperman and Cowles Library resources and services also will be highlighted.

"Libraries are truly unique -- in person and online," said Mary Huff, a second-year Doctor of Pharmacy student from Des Moines. "Where else can you have access to nearly everything in print and on the Web, and have the personal assistance of a librarian to help find what you are looking for?"
Gov. Vilsack to speak at Drake

Iowa Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack will give a speech titled "Immigration and the Future of Iowa" on Tuesday, April 3, at Drake University.

The speech, which is free and open to the public, is part of the observance of Iowa International Students Day. The event will start at 11 a.m. in Bulldog Theater in Olmsted Center. Vilsack's speech is sponsored by Drake's International Programs and Services office, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, the Iowa District Export Council, Refugee Cooperative Services and the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services.
Meredith CEO to speak at lunch

William T. Kerr, chairman and chief executive officer of Meredith Corp., will be the keynote speaker at Let's DU Lunch on Wednesday, April 4, at the Younkers Tea Room in downtown Des Moines. His speech is titled "Better Homes and Gardens: The Power of a Brand."

The luncheon is the last one in a spring series sponsored by Drake's Central Iowa Alumni Chapter and the Greater Des Moines Partnership. The lunch will start at 11:30 a.m. The cost is $15 per person. For reservations, call x3152.

Stephen B. Bright		 Paul G. Cassell
Law School to host debate on death penalty April 5

As America prepares to execute the most notorious death row inmate in decades, two celebrated lawyers will debate the merits of the death penalty on Thursday, April 5, at Drake Law School. The debate, which is free and open to the public, will start at 3 p.m. in room 213 of Cartwright Hall.

Advocating the abolition of the death penalty will be Stephen B. Bright, a visiting lecturer at Harvard and Yale law schools and director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, which provides legal representation to persons facing the death penalty. Arguing in favor of the death penalty will be Paul G. Cassell, the Jerome I. Farr professor of law at the University of Utah College of Law. Drake law professor David McCord, who teaches and writes about the death penalty, will moderate the debate, which is sponsored by Drake Law School's Constitutional Law Center.

The debate is designed to improve public understanding of the controversy over capital punishment while the country braces for the execution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh scheduled for May 16.
Television crews are already building sets near the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., for the network anchors who will chronicle McVeigh's death watch. McVeigh's execution, which will mark the federal government's resumption of capital punishment after a 38-year hiatus, is generating extensive news coverage.

"There couldn't be a better time for Drake Law School's Constitutional Law Center to sponsor a debate on the death penalty," said law professor Thomas E. Baker, director of the center. "This debate will bring to campus two nationally known lawyers to engage students and faculty on one of the most fundamental issues facing the nation."

Baker said he expects "the McVeigh execution will once again focus public attention on this constitutional,
political and moral issue. It is sure to be part of the debate."
Drake grad to speak at Business Days Banquet
William Longfield
William H. Longfield, chairman and chief executive officer of C. R. Bard Inc., a business that develops, manufactures and supplies health-care products that focus on vascular, urology and oncology disease states, will be the keynote speaker at Drake University's annual Business Days Awards Banquet on Thursday, April 5.

Longfield, who received his bachelor's degree in business administration from Drake in 1960, will discuss the many challenges he's faced during his 40-year career. Members of the business community as well as Drake faculty, students, alumni and friends are invited to attend the banquet, which will start at 5 p.m. in Parents Hall at Olmsted Center.

Longfield joined C. R. Bard in Murray Hill, N.J., in 1989 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He became president in 1991 and CEO in 1994. He recently was elected chairman of the Board of Directors of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, the world's largest trade association for innovators and manufacturers of medical devices, diagnostic products and medical information systems.

Prior to joining C. R. Bard, Longfield was president and CEO of the Cambridge Group of Dallas, a company he founded to provide long-term health care services. He began his career in 1961 with American Hospital Supply Inc., where he held numerous positions during his 23-year career there, including president of its Convertors Division.

Drake's Business Days is made possible by Arthur Andersen LLP. Tickets for the banquet are available through the Dean's Office in the College of Business and Public Administration. For reservations, call x3749 by 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 2.
Author to discuss nonfiction

Author Lee Gutkind, a pioneer in the teaching of creative nonfiction and editor of the Creative Nonfiction journal, will read from his work and give a talk titled "Difficult Decisions" when he visits Drake University on Thursday, April 5.

Gutkind's presentation, which is free and open to the public as part of Drake's Writers and Critics Series, will start at 2 p.m. in room 309 of Howard Hall.

For more than 25 years, Gutkind has been publishing creative nonfiction, writing theory on the genre and editing anthologies of creative nonfiction writing. He is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh as well as an author of many books, including The Veterinarian's Touch: Profiles of Life Among the Animals, Stuck in Time: The Tragedy of Childhood Mental Illness and Many Sleepless Nights: The World of Organ Transplantation.
Juan Williams to speak at Drake

Juan Williams, one of the best-known journalists in America, will be the featured speaker at the University-wide Leadership Convocation on Saturday, April 7. The convocation will be the capstone event in the Donald V. Adams Leadership Institute, which begins Friday, April 6.

The institute was established by Drake alumni and friends to reinforce Adams' values and ideals and to help students develop new abilities and a strong commitment to community service. Adams, executive assistant to President Maxwell, has motivated countless students to take on leadership roles, try new endeavors and achieve more than they thought possible.

"Leadership: Where Do We Go from Here?" is the title of Williams' speech, which is free and open to the public. The speech will start at 7 p.m. April 7 in Parents Hall at Olmsted Center.

Williams is the author of Thurgood Marshall -- American Revolutionary and Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965. After a 23-year career with The Washington Post, he is now host of National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation."
Discussion set for April 10

A moderated roundtable discussion, titled "Economic Development and Land Use: Growth and the New Urbanism," will be conducted Tuesday, April 10, by Drake Law School's Center for Legislative Practice and Environmental Law Society. The discussion, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. in room 213 of Cartwright Hall.

Drake law professor Jerry Anderson, an expert on environmental law, will moderate the discussion, which is likely to cover proposed developments such as a golf course community in Polk City and the Jordan Creek Town Center in West Des Moines.

Participating in the discussion will be Mary Burton, mayor of Polk City; LaVon Griffieon, president of 1,000 Friends, a group opposed to urban sprawl; Gerald Neugent, president and chief operating officer of Knapp Properties; attorney Neil Proto, an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law School; and Kent Sovern, senior vice president for government relations of the Greater Des Moines Partnership.
Art expert to give lecture April 12

Barbara F. Freed, author of Artists and Their Museums on the Riviera, will give a lecture for Drake students, faculty and staff at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 12, in room 336 of the Harmon Fine Arts Center. She will repeat the lecture at 7 p.m. that day at the Des Moines Art Center.

The lecture, titled "In the Footsteps of Artists on La Cote d'Azur," will focus on artists such as Chagall, Matisse, Picasso and Renoir who made the Riviera their home for important periods of their lives. Freed will conduct a richly illustrated and carefully documented chronological journey through the region as the artists discovered it, and often each other.

Freed has spent extensive periods of time in France and Italy. She was founding head of the Department of Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where she is now professor of French.
30th Annual Juried Student Exhibition to open Sunday

The 30th Annual Juried Student Exhibition featuring more than 100 works of art will open at the Anderson Gallery on Sunday, April 1, and run through May 2. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 1 to 3 p.m., with the awards ceremony at 1:30 p.m.

The exhibition features paintings, prints, drawings, photographs, jewelry, sculpture, graphic design and interior design. These works, ranging in style from the figurative to the abstract, were selected from 170 submissions.

Charles P. Helsell, director of the Blanden Memorial Art Museum in Fort Dodge, Iowa, served as juror for the exhibition. He also selected the prize-winning works. Six students received a "best" award in a specific category, and 13 students were awarded honorable mention for their work.

Helsell said that his first reaction upon surveying the entered work was one of "exhilaration"; he was impressed with the wide range of new creations.

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