Beckmann-Collier receives Levitt Award

Aimee Beckmann-Collier, associate professor of conducting and director of choral activities, received the 1999 Madelyn M. Levitt Distinguished Community Service Award at the Fall Faculty and Staff Convocation.

In presenting the award to Beckmann-Collier, President David Maxwell said, "She's the sort of person we think Maddie Levitt was thinking about when she established the award for community service."

He added that "Dr. ABC, as she is known to her students and those many people who know and appreciate her work, is a person who has given of herself to the community in so many ways that it's not possible to fully articulate her services." He noted that she has been a choir director not only of Drake groups but of various churches, universities and numerous professional ensembles. She frequently serves as a clinician, adjudicator and festival conductor, having most recently conducted the Colorado and Utah All-State Choruses, the Iowa Collegiate Honor Choir and the New England Music Festival.

In accepting the award, Beckmann-Collier thanked Maddie Levitt for her support of music and the arts at Drake.

She added, "Unlike past recipients of this award, who have made huge contributions to community life in the realms of sociology and law, my response has been made in the arts. Through collaborative music-making I have discovered the difficulties and joys of creating and re-creating artistic expressions that exist only by the virtue of the collective efforts of many diverse individuals."

From left: Jack Rehm, Betty Kasten, President David Maxwell and Robert Ray gather before the presentation of the Drake Medals of Service. The medals were awarded to Rehm, Ray, and the late Carl Kasten, former vice president for business and finance. Kasten's wife accepted his award.

• Successfully advance the capital campaign
• Develop and implement plans for increasing enrollment
• Continue and expand deficit reduction plans
• Build an effective operations team
• Formulate a written strategic plan that has the consensus of the Drake campus community and the Board of Governors
• Improve communication and a sense of community throughout the campus
• Continue to develop the Drake Curriculum
• Improve the quality of the student experience at Drake
• Update technology
• Review the administrative structure
• Review the academic structure
• Explore new types of learning opportunities and programs
• Address human resources issues such as salaries, benefits, faculty workload, payroll classifications, performance review, etc.
• Strengthen relationships with the Drake Neighborhood and the city of Des Moines
• Develop more community partnerships

"Our efforts to meet these objectives, though, must be informed by a cohesive and clearly articulated vision of where and what we want Drake University to be in the next decade," President Maxwell said. "Thus, our most immediate task is assembling the pieces of that vision, and developing a plan for its implementation."

Dr. Maxwell said he is preparing a strategic vision for the University and that he hopes to share the document with the Drake community in the near future. He said he plans to solicit feedback on the document at town meetings across campus.

The next step, he said, will be the appointment of a strategic planning committee composed of faculty, staff, students, administrators, board members and community members. "This group," he said, "will be charged to develop - by the end of this academic year - a sensible, aggressive, creative and feasible plan for achieving our collective aspirations for Drake University.

"As we spend this year talking about the future of Drake University," President Maxwell added, " it is critical that we keep in mind that every single one of us has the responsibility for getting us there, and that any one of us can push us off track."