President David Maxwell was the keynote speaker at the opening session of a national
conference on foreign language education that began Thursday night at the Drake Legal
Clinic.
Dr. Maxwell's speech focused on the national crisis in foreign language education
and how higher education is failing to meet the nation's needs. He noted that only
7.9 percent of all undergraduates enrolled in fall 1998 were taking any foreign language
class at all and that less than 1 percent of all undergraduates currently enrolled
in higher education will ever reach a usable level of competence in a language critical
to U.S. interests outside of Spanish.
The conference, titled "Rethinking the Purposes and Practices of Foreign Language
Education," is sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Approximately 90 educators from across the country are attending the conference,
which continues today and Saturday at the Hotel Savery in downtown Des Moines.
Other speakers at the conference include Nina Garrett, director of language studies
at Yale University; Joseph S. Johnston Jr., vice president for education and global
initiatives of the Association of American Colleges and Universities; David McAlpine,
director of the Division of International and Second Language Studies at the University
of Arkansas - Little Rock; and Rosanne Wille, provost and vice president for academic
affairs at City University of New York, Herbert H. Lehman College.
The annual fall TIAA-CREF Satellite Teleconference will be televised from noon to
1:30 p.m. today (Oct. 22) in room 101 of Meredith Hall. The teleconference is titled
"Financial Strategies for a New Century: Tips from America's Experts."
There will be a panel discussion designed to help individuals make informed decisions.
Panel members will include Martin Leibowitz, TIAA-CREF's vice chairman and chief
investment officer; Stanford University professor William F. Sharpe, 1990 Nobel Laureate
in Economics; Teresa Tritch, senior editor of Money magazine; and Chris Farrell,
co-host and economics editor of NPR's "Sound Money."
No reservations are needed. Additional information is available at http://www.tiaa-cref.org DRAKE ALUM
TO GIVE POETRY READING MONDAY
Des Moines native Donald Morrill, LA'77, GR'79, will read from his new collection
of poetry titled At the Bottom of the Sky from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25,
in room 309 of Howard Hall. He has published widely and is the author of Stranger's
Neighborhood, which won the Duquesne University Press' Emerging Writers in Creative
Nonfiction Award. Morrill lives in Tampa, Fla., where he is associate professor of
English and chair of the English Department at the University of Tampa and poetry
editor of the Tampa Review. The reading is part of Drake's Writers and Critics Series.
Admission is free. PANEL TO
DISCUSS HOW TO MAKE A LIVING WITH WORDS
The English Department's Writers and Critics Series has organized a panel discussion
for interested student writers on the subject of "Writing in the Real World:
Making a Living with Words." The event will take place from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 26, in room 336 of the Harmon Fine Arts Center.
The panelists will be:
Kathleen Gleeson, medical
editor at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and co-author of the memoir
Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulad, which was published to wide acclaim in 1998
by the University of California Press in the United States and by Simon and Schuster
in Great Britain. She also teaches in the University of Iowa's Summer Writing Festival.
Winifred Moranville, a
native of Des Moines who writes fiction and works as a writer and editor specializing
in the areas of food and travel. Her collection of short fiction, The Record Player
and Other Stories, will be published by New Rivers Press in February 2000.
Donald Morrill, LA'77,
GR'79, author of Stranger's Neighborhood and associate professor of English at the
University of Tampa.
Kathleen Perry, AS'97,
who is in her third year of the MFA program in creative writing at George Mason University.
She is also the fiction editor of So to Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language and
Arts.
Liz Vasiliades, a senior
majoring in sociology and English at Drake. Last spring she received the Ethel T.
Morehos Scholarship for her short works concentrating on personal discovery through
ethnicity.
DRAKE
BASKETBALL TIP OFF BREAKFAST SET FOR OCT. 28
The annual Drake University Basketball Tip Off Breakfast will be held Thursday, Oct.
28, at the Inn at University, 11101 University Ave., Clive.
Bulldog basketball coaches Kurt Kanaskie and Lisa Bluder will preview the respective
men's and women's seasons. Members of the Drake teams also will be on hand. Activities
start at 7 a.m.
Tickets are $10 and cover a breakfast buffet. For reservations, call x2424. CELEBRATE
HALLOWEEN WITH GHOULISH MUSIC, DANCING
Ghoulish swing music will be performed by the Drake Jazz Ensemble I and II at 7:30
p.m. Saturday, Oct. 30, in Parents Hall at Olmsted Center. Table seating will be
provided. Snacks and drinks will be available for purchase. Tickets, available at
the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for students.
