Charity book drive begins today If you have novels or magazines collecting dust or if you have books at home that you'll never crack open again...don't let them go to waste! Drake's chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America is sponsoring a book drive that will begin Monday, Dec. 12, and continue after break through Friday, Feb. 3. Books will be distributed to Iowa prisons to provide inmates with educational literature. "These donations are much appreciated, as reading can assist in the rehabilitation process of prisoners," said Tiffany Shaheen of PRSSA. PRSSA will accept any new or used books, magazines or other appropriate reading materials. Collection boxes are available in the Student Life Center and the University Bookstore. In a pact between neighborhood schools announced on Friday, Roosevelt will play its home games at the newly renovated Drake Stadium starting next fall. The move gives the Roughriders a home stadium for the first time since 1966 and continues Drake University's commitment to giving back to its neighbors and advancing a lifelong partnership with Des Moines public schools. "Roosevelt is our neighborhood high school and Drake University values its neighbors," said Drake President David Maxwell. "This is an example of two great institutions working together to benefit their community. We couldn't be more pleased to have the Roosevelt football team return to its home at Drake Stadium." Roosevelt played its home football games at Drake Stadium in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, before Drake took down its stadium lights in 1967. As part of the ongoing renovation of the Stadium, lights have returned to the sports facility at 2719 Forest Ave. "When we started working on the stadium project more than five years ago, it was always our intent that the stadium will serve the community as well as Drake," said Drake Athletic Director Dave Blank. "We are excited to provide Roosevelt, our community neighbor, a great venue to host their football games." Of the five Des Moines city high schools, only Roosevelt does not have a neighborhood stadium at which to play home games. Roosevelt of late has been playing all "home" games at Hutchens Stadium, which is adjacent to Lincoln High School. Next fall, the Roughriders will play on a state-of-the-art FieldTurf artificial surface inside a Division I football stadium. "This will be a homecoming for Roosevelt," said Roosevelt Principal Anita Micich, who holds two degrees from Drake. "It will mean so much to our students and fans to have our home field at Drake Stadium again. We're very excited about this renewed partnership with Drake." The Des Moines School Board is scheduled to vote on the partnership agreement at its meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 13. Under the agreement, Drake will receive $5,000 a year for 10 years from the school district and from the Roosevelt Riders Club. Although the payments span 10 years, there is no limit on the number of years that Roosevelt will play football in Drake Stadium. The CALI Fellowships Project is a multi-year applied research effort to create computer-based learning materials in legal education. The resulting materials will be peer-reviewed by the CALI Editorial Board and published to law schools as part of the CALI Library of Materials. The goal of the project is to create a high-quality pool of electronic teaching materials for faculty to supplement their courses, locally customize for specific instructional goals and explore computer-mediated/distance learning in legal education. The idea for audit stemmed from a presentation made to both classes on the importance of crisis management by Susan Cooners, vice president of operations at Grinnell Regional Medical Center. "I have to admit that Suzanne got me thinking as to whether I could keep my students safe in the case of a fire, tornado, or armed intruder," said Kirk, professor of management. Kirk divided each class into groups and assigned teams to look at certain topics involving crisis management. They reviewed Drake's current crisis plan, interviewed benchmark schools, local businesses and Iowa colleges, examined the College of Business and Public Administration's crisis plan for its information technology system, surveyed the College of Business and Public Administration faculty and researched management Web sites on crisis management. Surveys conducted by both classes showed that more than 70 percent of faculty members feel unprepared in an event of an emergency and were not aware of where alarms and extinguishers are located in Aliber Hall. The surveys prompted some faculty members to add information on what to do in an emergency to their syllabi for spring semester courses. Even though both of Kirk's classes were assigned the same the tasks and found similar information, they both came up with different recommendations for Dean Edwards. The class that meets as 12:30 p.m. suggested equipping every classroom with a black box containing materials needed for an emergency situation, including flashlights, evacuation routes, Aliber Hall's floor plans, a first aid kit, emergency phone numbers and protective gloves. The box also featured color-coded stock cards to be put in the window that would indicate rooms with people in need. "Red means someone in the room was severely injured or dying, yellow indicated someone was injured, but not severely; green meant everyone was fine, blue meant someone was missing and no colored square meant an armed intruder was in the room," said Shannon Smith, a senior from Des Moines. The class that meets at 2 p.m. recommended that the entire University update its 10-year-old Emergency Reference Guide. The class presented to Dean Edwards their own updated version called the Emergency Action Plan that they felt should be put up in each classroom. In this new guide it still included information from the original guide, but they updated it with information the class thought was pertinent. They included a bioterrorism or terrorist threat page since this has become a problem over the years. Also, they replaced the number for campus security from 811 to 271-2222 because many individuals on campus carry cell phones and if an emergency was to occur on campus they would need the full number to contact security. In addition, Kane Hanson talked on behalf of the class about fire evacuation route they developed for rooms in Aliber Hall. She demonstrated this by showing the evacuation route for their classroom. The 2 p.m. class invited Kristine Rossmiller, environmental health and safety specialist, and Hans Hanson, director of security, to listen to their presentation. "They did a very professional presentation and it was evident that they performed the required research. I thought the class brought up some very good points and I found the comments about making arrangement for persons with mobility problems especially eye opening," said Rossmiller. Dean Edwards said he was pleased with the presentations and recommendations of both classes. "I was impressed with the quality and depth of their reports, with their presentation skills, with their professional appearance and with their overall enthusiasm for their course and their instructor," he added. Kirk said she, too, is delighted with the results of the project. "The students took ownership of this project and I am very pleased with the research they have done. Each class set up a Command Center team of students that set deadlines, coordinated the tasks, and put together the final paper from information sent to them by the individual teams. I was very impressed with the students' final product and hope the CBPA implements some of their recommendations." While most of the students slumbered, the joint was jumping in the three-man room on the second floor of Carpenter. Van Harden, a 1973 Drake journalism alumnus, and Bonnie Lucas broadcast their popular WHO-AM radio show "Van and Bonnie" live from the residence hall room of Luke Donia, Jason Rude and Marc Wright. Several weeks earlier, Harden mused on air about how much fun living in a college dorm room was. While a Drake student, Harden lived in Goodwin-Kirk and Morehouse residence hall rooms. He noted that of all the places the show had broadcast, it had never done one from a college dormitory. Deb Bishop, assistant professor of information systems, heard Harden's reminiscing and posed to her first-year seminar students that they invite the duo to Drake for a live broadcast. A few phone calls and a quick visit later, Harden and crew set up for an early-morning broadcast inside of Carpenter - where the members of Bishops' first-year seminar live. A half-dozen of the students looked on throughout the four-hour show. Most of them had stayed up all night - rather than rise early for the show. Harden interviewed the students, the RA and Bishop on air. At Harden's request, the students played a few Xbox video games while the program was on the air. Harden and Lucas also dined on omelets from Hubbell Dining Hall - which received rave reviews. One marketing-minded student brought in goodies from a local bakery at which she worked to get both herself and her employer mentioned on the radio. "This was so much fun," Harden told his listeners at the end of his broadcast. "There are a lot of great things going on at Drake." Timothy Bostwick, baritone, and a junior vocal performance major from Waterloo, Iowa, will be a featured soloist alongside internationally recognized opera singer Simon Estes in a concert of Christmas music at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 18, at First Christian Church, 25th Street and University Avenue. Tickets, which are $12, may be purchased at the church prior to the concert or at the door. Bostwick studies voice with Leanne Freeman-Miller, associate professor of voice. The institute was selected for the honor because of its outstanding work promoting character development among youth statewide. Past honorees include Drake alumnus and former Congressman Neal Smith, Variety - the Children's Charity of Iowa, Drake alumni Robert and Billie Ray and Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack. The institute's focus on character development through CHARACTER COUNTS! has reached more than 800 Iowa schools. The institute has been recognized nationally for its work through the CHARACTER COUNTS! National Coalition as a model program. The institute also received a Commendation for Outstanding Service to the Community by the United Way of Central Iowa, as well as the 2004 Iowa Governor's Youth Leadership Award. The institute has partnered with Youth and Shelter Services in the past two years as a major sponsor for the Annual Risky Business Conference. Through support of the institute, 100 scholarships each year have been made possible for youth throughout Iowa to attend the conference, which has featured several CHARACTER COUNTS! workshops and keynote speakers. The institute will again be a major co-sponsor of the upcoming Risky Business Conference on May 2, 2006. The Institute for Character Development is a non-profit organization housed at Drake University. The mission of the ICD is "to recognize, enhance, and sustain the positive qualities of Iowans in order to promote civility through character development. The ICD is entirely supported by grants, private donations and fee-based trainings. |
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