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November 8, 2002 Vol. 55, No. 21


Drake joins Lakeside Laboratory Consortium
Attending the signing ceremony are Thomas Rosburg, Iowa State Provost Benjamin Allen, Robert Barak of the Iowa Board of Regents, Arnold van der Valk, Ron Troyer and Daryl Smith of the University of Northern Iowa.

Drake University recently became the first private institution to join the
Iowa Lakeside Laboratory consortium, a 140-acre campus and nature preserve on the west shore of West Okoboji Lake. The consortium is run cooperatively by Iowa State University, the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Iowa through the Iowa Board of Regents.

By joining the consortium, Drake University gains opportunities for students to obtain hands-on experience working with Iowa's natural and human environments through field-oriented summer courses. The lab also provides research facilities and support for graduate students and faculty.

Two Drake faculty members will teach courses at the lab next summer. They are Thomas Rosburg, associate professor of biology and co-director of the environmental science and policy program; and Keith Summerville, assistant professor of environmental science and policy.

"All Lakeside courses are total immersion courses that run eight hours a day, five days a week for four weeks in a learning community setting," said Rosburg, Drake's coordinator for the consortium. "To me, it's an ideal place to learn. Having 35 courses open to Drake students at Lakeside is the equivalent of adding seven more faculty members. This will help us attract students and make our biology and environmental science and policy programs stronger, richer and deeper."

Officials from Drake, the Iowa State Board of Regents, Lakeside Laboratory, ISU and UNI gathered Oct. 31 at Drake for the signing of the consortium agreement. "I can't tell you how delighted we are to be the first private university to join the consortium," Drake Provost Ron Troyer said at the signing ceremony.

Arnold van der Valk, director of Lakeside Laboratory, noted that Lakeside was started in 1909 by University of Iowa professor Thomas Macbride as a private summer field station that served the state's public and private colleges and universities. In 1936 Lakeside became a state institution. Today it is run by the Regents institutions and the Iowa Board of Regents.

"We're going back to our roots and rededicating ourselves to the purposes set forth by Thomas Macbride," Van der Valk said. "It's certainly appropriate for Drake - the premier private school in the state - to be the first private institution to join the Lakeside consortium."

Gallery to be transformed into conceptual art playroom

Opening Friday, Nov. 15, and on view through Dec. 19 at the Anderson Gallery, "Lucio Pozzi INDOOR GAMES" presents a major site-specific installation by Italian-born artist Lucio Pozzi, a pioneer of performance art and installation who is based in New York City.

Engaged with an art that is democratic, collaborative and experimental in nature, Pozzi considers himself "a painter who pursues painterly concerns in other media as well." His exhibitions often include video, installation, photography and performance and are rooted historically in conceptual art and process art as well as traditional painting.

At the Anderson Gallery, Pozzi will create a site-specific installation, which is a main strand in his diverse artistic practice. The installation, called "INDOOR GAMES," is a single, multi-part work consisting of panels in four basic colors (red, blue, green, and yellow) as well as large-format photographs of infants and images of war that are juxtaposed on either side of the gallery. To create the complex work, the artist will join forces with student collaborators. The exhibition will be accompanied by a public lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in room 336 of the Harmon Fine Arts Center.

The opening reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, will feature a gallery talk at 6 p.m. and a performance of "Playrooms" at 6:30 p.m. Described by Pozzi as "a series of mysterious events and actions," the performance is a new semi-improvisational collaboration with student artists, musicians and actors.

Born in 1935 in Milan, Italy, Pozzi has had numerous solo and group exhibitions including one of the first "Projects" solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as installations at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Pozzi's work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

"We are extremely lucky to have Lucio Pozzi's work at the Anderson Gallery," said Cira Pascual Marquina, gallery director. "Pozzi is an artist of extraordinary merit, whose work, being collaborative, is especially fitting for an educational institution."

All events associated with "Lucio Pozzi INDOOR GAMES" are free and open to the public. The
Anderson Gallery is in the Harmon Fine Arts Center. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Charitable campaign ends Nov. 15

The 2002 Drake Charitable Giving Campaign for
United Way of Central Iowa and Iowa Shares will end on Friday, Nov. 15.

All faculty and staff members are encouraged to return pledge forms by then even if they decide not to contribute to either organization. Pledge forms may be returned to the designated person in your department or to Dolph Pulliam in institutional advancement.

Judy Gorman to perform at Drake

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Judy Gorman will give a lecture titled "The History of Women and Music" at 9 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in Sheslow Auditorium. She also will give a performance of songs by, about, against and for women at 9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, at Cool Beans. Both events are free and open to the public.

The New York City resident is a high-intensity performer whose songs get their wings from her imagination and their roots from folk, blues, jazz and gospel music.

Drake students make a real difference in Des Moines

More than 200 students pitched in to help revitalize the Drake and Mondamin Presidential neighborhoods in Des Moines on Oct. 26: national "Make a Difference Day." Twice as many students volunteered this year as last year.

Approximately 160 students donated their time and efforts to make a difference for 80-year-old Rosetta Mills, a neighbor of Drake University for 38 years. They raked and mowed her lawn, repaired her porch and scraped and painted the exterior of her house at 1128 27th St.

Mills was in the hospital that day but saw a local TV newscast that showed a large group of people painting her house. "I just can't thank everyone enough," she said after returning home. "A friend came to pick me up for a doctor's appointment the other day and she drove right by my house. It looks so much better now, that she didn't recognize it."

Some of the 160 students working in the Drake area pose for a photo in front of Rosetta Mills' home. Two students paint and rake leaves at the home of Iona Freeman in the Mondamin Presidential area.

Larry Molenburg, real estate manager, coordinated the work at Mills' house. Dolph Pulliam, director of community outreach and development, led the students' efforts to improve the Mondamin Presidential Neighborhood east of the campus.

Approximatley 65 students representing nine student organizations pitched in to rake leaves, mow lawns, clean up vacant lots and paint the home of Iona Freeman, a blind woman who lives at 1931 Allison St.

"Even though she couldn't see the results of the students efforts, she said that she was warmed by their cheerful voices while they worked on her home," Pulliam said. "She has lived at this location for eight years and because of her financial position, she has been unable to afford to paint the house or pay someone to do her yard work. That is why what the Drake students did that day was so special on 'Make A Difference Day.' These kids made a difference in the entire neighborhood."


Drake students research haunted houses near and far
Lee Jolliffe and members of her class pose with an actor at The Beast.

Even if you're in the Halloween scare-em-silly business, you don't stand a ghost of a chance if you don't know your victims, er, customers. To get this information, who you gonna call? Drake students!

Twenty-seven Drake journalism students are earning credit in Lee Jolliffe's Public Relations Research class by prowling through haunted houses across the Midwest and interviewing customers as they exit. They're scaring up the research for their client - Full Moon Productions Inc., which owns and operates The Beast and The Edge of Hell haunted houses in Kansas City, Mo.

Jolliffe said Full Moon Productions became the class client through her contacts with Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, a former Des Moines resident who is finishing her master's degree at Drake while serving as vice president of Full Moon Productions, her family's business. To help familiarize her students with the client's operations, Jolliffe organized an optional field trip last week where 17 students toured both The Beast and The Edge of Hell, which features 23 scenes, a cast of 45 "live" performers and numerous snakes, including the largest Anaconda in North American captivity.

"I'm very excited that Drake decided to take us on as a client," Arnett-Bequeaith said. "I think the students enjoyed exploring our haunted houses and seeing what goes on behind the scenes."

"We all held hands as we walked across a swinging rope bridge, chatted with Jack the Ripper and dodged surprises at every turn - snapping alligators, hissing snakes and leaping mummies," Jolliffe said.

"It was an interesting experience for me and I'm terrified of haunted houses because of a traumatic experience I had when I was younger," said Kira Wade, a senior from Ames. "I was worried, but it was just a momentary scare."

The students conducted their research at haunted houses in Des Moines, Ames and the Quad Cities as well as in Omaha and Milwaukee. "We've been doing intercept interviews to try to find out what's the most fun scary thing for various age groups," Jolliffe said. "We're also assessing what other haunted houses are offering. We look at the number of animatronics - computerized scares, the number of actors and how the actors interact with the audience. We also ask people how far they've driven to get there and whether they'd come back again."

Market research is becoming increasingly important now that Halloween is the second largest retail holiday after Christmas, said Arnett-Bequeaith. "When we started The Edge of Hell in 1975 there weren't very many haunted houses. Now there's an entire industry, complete with trade publications and a convention in Chicago every year."

The Drake class will present its findings to Arnett-Bequeaith on Nov. 19.

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