Olson, Law Library Public Service Staff Turn Blue The Law Library Public Services Department was recognized for demonstrating their commitment to citizenship. When a co-worker was away from work due to a serious injury, the department’s staff assumed additional duties on top of their already full workloads in order to cover the their co-worker’s most vital functions. The nominator noted this was all done while maintaining outstanding service to their patrons. Gretchen will receive a blue phone with caller ID. The department winner will receive the True Blue mascot, a life-like bulldog named “Blue.” Each staff member in the department will also receive a small bulldog for their desk. Next quarter’s nominations are due to Human Resources by April 29. Nomination forms are available at What do the religions of the world teach about respect for, and responsibility toward, members of other religious faiths? The Drake University Department of Philosophy and Religion will explore these issues in a series of discussions during the spring semester. The first event, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. today (Monday, Feb. 21) in Bulldog Theater in Olmsted Center. There will be presentations from representatives from local Hindu, Buddhist and Jain communities, a moderated question-and-answer session and a reception. The presenters will be Ganesh Rajagopalan, professor of aeronautical engineering at Iowa State University who is an active member of Hindu Temple and Cultural Center of Iowa; Don Phommachakr, a member of Wat Lao Buddhavas of Iowa; and Dr. Vipin Bhavsar, a medical doctor and member of the Des Moines Jain community. Tim Knepper, visiting assistant professor of philosophy at Drake, will moderate the discussion. The series will continue with the following events: Poet Rae Armantrout, who teaches writing at the University of California, San Diego, will read from her work and discuss writing at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, in the Cowles Library Reading Room as part of the Drake Writers and Critics Series. The event is free and open to the public. Armantrout has published nine books of poetry, including “Up to Speed” and “Veil: New and Selected Poems.” A prose memoir, “True,” was published by Atelos in 1998. Her work has appeared in many anthologies, including “In The American Tree,” “Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology,” “The Best American Poetry” volumes from 1989, 2001 and 2002, and “American Women Poets of the 21st Century.” Drake’s College of Business and Public Administration will offer a Master of Financial Management program beginning with the fall 2005 semester. The master’s degree program is an effort by the University to meet the needs of the fast-growing financial services industry and help working professionals develop skills and gather knowledge that will be immediately useful in the workplace. “We have seen a tremendous growth in interest in advanced studies of financial management at both the national and local level,” said John Rozycki, Drake associate professor of finance. “We are responding to the needs of our community by adding a degree program that will be much more specialized than a traditional MBA.” Students with an academic or professional background related to financial management can complete the program in 33 credit hours, consisting of 24 hours of required courses and 9 hours of electives. Students without this background will complete an additional 6 hours of foundation courses. The required courses can be categorized in two broad classifications: general business core courses and financial management core courses. The electives provide students with the opportunity to increase knowledge in specialized areas of emphasis or develop a broad knowledge base. Students exempted from the foundation coursework will be able to complete the program in two years of part-time study. Courses will be offered in the evenings. The financial asset management area of emphasis will help interested students pursue the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. Passing a series of three exams and fulfilling the necessary professional experience achieve this designation. The program of study leading to the CFA designation is very rigorous. Consequently, the CFA designation is used by many financial services companies as a measure of an applicant’s dedication and mastery of the specialized knowledge in the field of investment management. Increasingly, however, earning the CFA designation by itself is not enough for would-be investment management professionals. “There are test preparation programs designed to help CFA candidates prepare for the CFA exams, but these programs are no substitute for a solid education on the material that makes up the CFA curriculum,” said Phil Nordhus, CFA, an analyst with Principal Global Investors in Des Moines. “A graduate program such as Drake’s allows students to gain this knowledge and to demonstrate to an employer that they are committed to improving their skills.” Drake is now accepting applications for the fall 2005 semester. For more information on the program, contact the Graduate Programs office x2188 or visit Drake University’s College of Business and Public Administration website at Sandy Dirks, assistant professor of pharmacy practice, has been selected to receive the Annual Pharmacy Practice Award by the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists. Dirks was selected for the award when her case study “Lamotrigine-Induced Lupus: A Case Report,” was recognized as one of the best in the nation by the CPNP Awards and Nominations committee. “CPNP is the national organization for pharmacists practicing psychiatric pharmacy and I am very excited and proud that I was selected for this award by a group of my peers,” said Dirks. The award will be presented at the CPNP annual meeting on March 11 in San Diego. Dirks is a member of the CPNP, Iowa Pharmacy Association, Iowa Pharmacists Recovery Network, Iowa Board of Psychology Examiners and the Mental Health Advisory Council for Iowa. She also plans to sit for the Board Certification Exam for Psychiatric Pharmacy. “I applaud Sandy’s initiative in submitting her case study to the committee,” said Raylene Rospond, professor and dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. “Her selection from the national pool supports that which we have always known about the quality of our faculty and their work.” Michael Josephson, founder and president of the Josephson Institute of Ethics and founder of the national CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, will address a joint session of the Iowa House and Senate at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the House Chambers at the Iowa State Capitol. Josephson, who was invited by Gov. Tom Vilsack, Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson and legislative leaders, will talk about civility in the public arena — how to move past contentious elections to govern effectively; how to work together with sometimes opposing viewpoints on policy and budget issues; how to put aside past political disputes and resulting perceptions to work together; how to overcome politics above policy; and how to set expectations of attitude and behavior related to civility, decency and respect. “This is a perfect time for Mr. Josephson’s ideas to be heard by myself, the lieutenant governor and lawmakers,” said Gov. Vilsack. “The people of Iowa have provided all of us with a historic opportunity to move our state forward in a bipartisan, cooperative way. Our state is leading the way in overcoming partisan bickering and I am proud to be a part of this progress toward finding common ground.” “People can be on opposing sides of issues and opinions, however it’s still incumbent upon them to conduct themselves with civility, decency and respect,” said J. Scott Raecker (R-Urbandale), a member of the House of Representatives and executive director of the Institute for Character Development at Drake University. “Our responsibility to uphold the public trust requires us as leaders to model the Six Pillars of Character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship.” The Institute for Character Development at Drake University, a statewide partner of the CHARACTER COUNTS! Coalition, has spearheaded an effort to promote CHARACTER COUNTS! initiatives across Iowa, from pre-school to the work place to the playing fields. The results are eye-opening to even the most hardened cynics. The most significant changes are in the school system, where the initiative has been in place the longest. Today, CHARACTER COUNTS! initiatives are in practice in more than 600 schools, representing 221 of 360 school districts. One school, Cornell Elementary School in Saydel, Iowa, has seen its disciplinary write-ups or trips to the Principal Deb Child’s office, decline from 400 per year five years ago to fewer than five last year. “Character, civility, decency and respect knows no political boundaries,” Raecker said. “In fact, if you ask people around the state where this is needed the most, they would say in the political arena.” Drake University will host a day-long conference on “Interdisciplinary Topics in Child Welfare: What Lawyers, Educators and Social Workers Should Know” on Wednesday, March 2, at the Neal and Bea Smith Law Center. Continuing legal education (CLE) credit has been applied for. “Lawyers, educators and social workers are key providers of services to children involved in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems,” said Karnale Manuel, director of the Middleton Center for Children’s Rights Clinic. “Members of each profession will share their expertise and provide practical information that can be applied to the attendees’ work with children.” Topics to be covered include “The Effect of Public Policy on Education Policy and Juvenile Justice” and “Medication, Children’s Behaviors and Diagnosis Needs.” Among the speakers will be W. Dean Eastman, a high school teacher who was named the 2004 Massachusetts History Teacher of the Year; Paul Cahill, administrative consultant for the Iowa Department of Education; Robert Hunter, professor of law at Drake Law School; Kathy Fejes, professor of education at Drake; Eric Johnson, assistant professor of education at Drake; and Lynda O’Meara, the Des Monies Public School liaison for the Iowa Department of Human Services. The conference is sponsored by the Joan and Lyle Middleton Center for Children’s Rights at the Drake Legal Clinic and co-sponsored by the Drake School of Education and the Iowa Department of Human Services. The Middleton center is a Fostering Results/Pew Charitable Trust partner. The registration fee is $125. For registration and more information, visit Vicki Jackson, associate dean for research and academic programs at Georgetown University Law Center, will deliver a speech titled “What Does Proportionality Have to do with Constitutional Law? Or, What Do Hate Speech Bans and National Security Laws Have in Common?” on Wednesday, March 2 at the Drake Law School. Jackson earned her law degree from Yale Law School, clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court and practiced law before joining the Georgetown faculty. She teaches courses in constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, federal courts, the Supreme Court and on gender-related subjects. Jackson’s speech is the last in the 2004-2005 Distinguished Lecture Series Presented by the Constitutional Law Center at Drake Law School. For more information, contact the Law School at x2988. Therese M. Wielage, vice president and chief operating officer of Spindustry Systems and chair of the board of Spindustry Technical Training, will speak at the “Let’s DU Lunch” event on Wednesday, March 2. Her speech is titled “If Your Web Site Were an Employee, Would You Fire Him?” The luncheon series is open to the public and is sponsored by the Drake University Central Iowa Alumni Chapter and the Greater Des Moines Partnership. The spring series will conclude on Wednesday, April 6, with “It’s a Zoo Out There and We’re Not Lion!” by Terry Rich, chief executive officer of Blank Park Zoo. All of the luncheons will start at 11:30 a.m. in the Younkers Tea Room in downtown Des Moines. The cost is $15 per luncheon. Due to limited seating, reservations are recommended. Contact the Drake Office of Alumni and Parent Programs at x2769 or send an e-mail to On Thursday, March 3, John Krueger, a scientist-investigator for the Division of Investigative Oversight in Rockville, Md., will speak to Drake students on digital image manipulation and scientific misconduct. The presentation will take place at 12:30 p.m. during LaRhee Henderson’s Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology class in Cline Hall, Room 206. Henderson has opened the class to the public for people wishing to hear Krueger’s presentation. “I’d like to show the undergraduates what constitutes a falsification that would rise to a Federal Level,” Krueger said. “I want to show them how the same software used to fabricate images also enables one to detect digital forgeries more easily.” Krueger will also be presenting to faculty at an Institutional Review Board Seminar on Friday, March 4. He will speak on responsible conduct of research. For more information on the presentation, call Jayne Smith at x3788. For the eight year in a row, Drake Law School cancelled classes so that first-year students could observe an actual trial held at the Drake Law Clinic last week. The students observed “Brad Morgan v. Hairy Mary’s Inc. et al.” Brad Morgan sued Hairy Mary’s, the popular heavy metal bar at 23rd Street and University Avenue, after he broke his wrist in a mosh pit during a 2002 concert. Two of Des Moines’ finest attorneys tried the case: Alfredo Parrish, who represented Morgan, and George Appleby, who represented Hairy Mary’s Inc. Appleby wished there had been similar experience in his law school days. “When I was a law student, we didn’t have anything like this. Back then, it was basically here’s your trial go try it,” the attorney told the students in a post-trial debriefing. “I got to my first trial and couldn’t even face the jury. I wanted to walk out. I was so nervous that at one point the judge said, ‘OK, Mr. Prosecutor, at this time wouldn’t you like to introduce a motion?’ I said, ‘Oh, yes. Thank you judge.’” The jury found both parties equally at fault, awarding $23,822 in damages. Morgan will receive $11,911 for medical expenses and lost wages, and $1 for pain and suffering. |
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