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On Campus
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April
24, 2003 Vol. 55, No. 40
Drake Relays Live Coverage from the Drake Broadcasting System is available this year via two methods. Coverage is available on: MediaCom Cable Channel 16 and DTC Streaming TV Web Site at http://www.DrakeTV.com/dtctv
The air times are 12:30 to 7 p.m. today (Friday, April 25) and 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Saturday, April 26.
Barbara Robinette
Moss, author of Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter, will give the 2003 Paul Morrison
Relays Lecture at 10 a.m. on April 26 in Bulldog Theater in Olmsted Center.
Moss received her Master of Fine Arts degree at Drake University. She won a Gold
Medal for Personal Essay in the 1996 William Faulkner Creative Writing Competition.
This essay serves as the first chapter in her book, Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter.
Change Me Into Zeus's Daughter is the story of Moss' poverty-stricken survival;
growing up in the hills of Alabama with an alcoholic father and heroic mother.
Pulitzer Prize winning screenwriter, Marsha Norman, is currently writing a screenplay
of the book that will be produced by Goldie Hawn.
The 2003 Paul Morrison Relays Lecture is sponsored by Drake University's English
Department Writers and Critics Series, Office of the Provost and Office of Alumni
and Parent Programs.
James Reynolds,
professor of pharmacology and interim dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health
Sciences, recently was named vice president for academic affairs and academic
dean of Midland Lutheran College in Fremont, Neb.
In announcing Reynolds' appointment, Midland President Steven Titus said, "Jim
will be an exceptional addition to our senior leadership team as well as to the
academic mission of the College. His experience, talent and enthusiasm will be
a great asset to us all, but most importantly, to our students."
Reynolds holds a master's degree in zoology from DePauw University and a Ph.D.
in physiology from Illinois State University. He joined the Drake faculty in 1989
and has served as chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences since 1994.
He has won numerous teaching awards, including the Thrivent Fellowship award for
2002-2003.
Reynolds official start date is set for July 1. He and his wife, Susan, have two
daughters, Amanda, 15, and Erin, 10. Reynolds says he looks forward to joining
the Midland family.
"I'm honored to be a part of the administration of Midland Lutheran College,"
Reynolds said. "I truly believe in the idea of vocation and calling and I
believe my family and I have been called to Midland."
Midland Lutheran College is a four-year, liberal arts and sciences college affiliated
with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Carl Staplin, professor
of organ and church music, will perform his fourth organ recital in the Art of
J.S. Bach series at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in the Performing Arts Hall, Harmon
Fine Arts Center. He will be assisted by Drake Choir members under the direction
of Aimee Beckmann-Collier, director of choral activities. Admission is free.
Drake Jazz Ensemble II, directed by Andrew Trachsel, will perform at 8 p.m. Tuesday,
April 29, in the Performing Arts Hall, Harmon Fine Arts Center. Admission is free.
The Drake choirs, directed by Beckmann-Collier, will give their final concert
of the academic year at 8 p.m. Thursday, May 1, on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow
Auditorium in Old Main. The Drake Cavalcade of Choirs concert will feature all
of Drake's choral ensembles, as well as a chamber orchestra, performing music
by Vivaldi, Persichetti, Dello Joio and Berkey, as well as folk music. Admission
is free.
"Viewing Childhood,"
Drake's Sunday Foreign Film Festival, features foreign films exploring representations
of childhood. "Oriane," the final film of the spring festival, will
be shown at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 27, in room 206 of the Morgan E. Cline Hall
of Pharmacy and Science. A discussion led by a Drake faculty member will follow.
Admission is free.
"Oriane" (Venezuela, 1991) won the Camera d'Or award at the Cannes Film
Festival in 1991, as well as five other film prizes in Latin America. The film
is a gothic Latin American romance in which the young heroine returns to the old,
neglected house in the Venezuelan jungle where she spent summers as a child. Her
return there prompts memories of a summer when her adolescent sexual curiosity
led to a surprising encounter. One critic describes the film as "woven together
with consummate grace" in an "eerily beautiful visual style."
The spring Drake Writers and Critics Series will conclude Thursday, May 1, with a celebration of the artwork and writing published in Periphery, Drake's annual art and literary journal. The event will start at 7 p.m. in Parents Hall South in Olmsted Center. The reading will begin at 8 p.m. Admission is free.
While viewers around
the country watch CBS's hit series "CSI," biochemistry students at Drake
are using forensic evidence to conduct their own "crime scene investigation."
A semester-long project in Advanced Biochemistry Laboratory, instructed by LaRhee
Henderson and Charm Russell, has Drake students working in small groups to solve
a hypothetical crime using forensic evidence.
The [hypothetical] scenario: An unidentified subject broke into professor Henderson's
office, took grades and tests off the computer hard drive and trashed the entire
office. Various forensic samples including hair, fingerprints, saliva and blood
were left behind.
The investigation: Each student is given the samples "found" in the
office and forensic samples from three suspects. All samples are carefully controlled
to ensure students are not exposed to anything harmful. The samples are analyzed
using biochemistry techniques to identify one of the suspects as the culprit.
Consultation with the State Crime Lab helped the faculty select appropriate analytical
techniques.
Henderson believes this approach gives students a way to find a connection with
the material. "I think the students are having a lot of fun while learning
basic biochemistry," she said. "When I walk into other classes I hear
them talking about their projects. They're showing a lot of initiative and you
can tell it's engaging their thinking."
"I like the fact that we have a purpose and at the end of the semester we'll
find the solution," said Denisa Bellani, a junior majoring in biochemistry,
cell and molecular biology. With the last week of spring semester classes beginning
Monday, April 28, the students will be finalizing and presenting their solutions
next week.
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