Drake home page gets major makeover The work took longer than an episode of "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" and the crew from "Trading Spaces" probably won't show up, but on Monday, March 20, Drake's World Wide Web home page will unveil it's new look. The new home page is the first step in a major overhaul of the University's Web presence. Over the next few months, Drake pages will all begin changing to reflect the University-wide Web policy that brings a uniform look and feel to official pages. The ongoing upgrade will improve the use of data collection to better serve the needs of Drake's varied constituencies from prospective students to faculty, staff and alumni. Users who are directly responsible for managing content on the Jarnot has edited two small magazines - No Trees and Troubled Surfer - as well as The Poetry Project Newsletter and An Anthology of New American Poetry. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry: "Some Other Kind of Mission," "Ring of Fire" and "Black Dog Songs." Her biography of San Francisco poet Robert Duncan is forthcoming from University of California Press. She teaches at Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Long Island University and Brooklyn College. McMorris, a two-time winner of the Contemporary Poetry Series Award from the University of Georgia Press, is the author of four books of poetry: "The Café at Light," "The Blaze of the Poui," "The Black Reeds" and "Moth-Wings." His work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, such as Ancestral House: The Black Short Story in the Americas and Europe and An Anthology of New (American) Poets. He teaches at Georgetown University and coordinates the Georgetown Poetry and Seminar Series. The Drake Writers and Critics Series is sponsored by the Drake English Department and made possible by a grant from the Drake Center for the Humanities. For more information, contact Dina Smith at x3127 or Gannon, a senior from Ankeny majoring in international business and marketing, was hired by Principal Financial Group as an assistant communications consultant. Hendrix, a senior from Wray, Colo., majoring in management and marketing, was hired as a farm underwriting trainee by Allied Insurance - A Nationwide Company. The other winners were Tarek Fahmy, a senior majoring in business management at the University of Northern Iowa, who was hired by Wells Fargo Financial as an outbound sales specialist; and Amanda Morrow, a senior majoring in public relations and journalism at Grand View College, who was hired by the Des Moines Register as RAGBRAI merchandise coordinator. The Four Hire! Program is a new annual competition designed by the Greater Des Moines Partnership's Young Professionals Connection to retain Iowa college graduates for job opportunities in the Des Moines metro area. "This program has allowed me to meet and network with other dedicated young professionals," Gannon said. "I am very excited to accept a position with the Principal Financial Group, and look forward to beginning a career filled with wonderful opportunities at a great company." Hendrix described the Four Hire! competition as "a life-changing and exciting opportunity." He added that "Within months of coming to Des Moines from my hometown in Colorado, I knew I wanted to call Iowa home. Now, after the Four Hire! process I am even more confident that this is the ideal place to live, work and raise a family." The four winning candidates were selected from applications and three-minute videos submitted by students from around the state. Twelve candidates began the competition by participating in an interview process with each of the four companies on Jan. 13. The candidates were then narrowed to eight based on their performance in the first group challenge on Feb. 10, which involved developing a marketing plan to attract potential residents to the Des Moines area. The candidates then faced an individual challenge on Feb. 24 when they were asked to devise plans to address the potential needs of the new Des Moines Central Library. The four hiring companies chose the four winning candidates based on each candidate's performance completing these tasks. The first Four Hire! segment will air statewide on the Connections Channel on Wednesday, March 8 at 9 p.m.; Thursday, March 9, at 9:30 p.m. and Friday, March 10, at 6:30 p.m. Check local listings or www.connections22.com for additional show times. For more information about the Four Hire! competition, visit Owens will perform Samuel Beckett's "That Time," a play for three voices, breath and body, and discuss it in the context of Beckett's later plays, all of which challenge humanist notions of embodied and linguistic identity and demand an approach to performance and staging at odds with stage realism. In short, Beckett's late plays ask performers and audiences alike to question their perception of interiority - deep identity - by staging radically split, exteriorized characters. This split, however, is not merely a psychological phenomenon; in relocating character in technologies of visual and sound reproduction, these plays identify rapid technological expansion as a material and ideological agent of that exteriorization and split. Owens also is an active performer. Most recently, as a founding member of Steinsemble, a performance ensemble devoted to staging modernist drama, he has acted in Gertrude Stein's "Counting Her Dresses" and Samuel Beckett's "Not I." He also has directed a number of plays and writes them as well. His current work includes a series of short satirical plays on modern love and a book-length study of 20th century English and Continental drama titled "Absurdisms." For more information about the Colloquium Series, contact Joseph Schneider at x2158 or Justin Montigne, a 1999 Drake graduate, is in his third season with the 12-member group. An alto, Montigne went on to graduate studies at the University of Minnesota after Drake. He has had lead roles and made concert appearances in dozens of shows including "Albert Herring," "The Dialogues of the Carmelites" and "Dangerous Liaisons." Thomas McCargar, a tenor and 2004 alumnus, is in his first season with Chanticleer. McCargar graduated summa cum laude with a vocal performance degree. While at Drake, he was involved in the choral and opera programs, played principal trumpet in the Wind Symphony, assistant directed the pep band and had his first experience with men's a cappella music: a student-initiated sextet called the FACrats. McCargar and Montigne have played in venues all over the world from Osaka, Japan, to Vienna, Austria, but the pair is looking forward to singing to their home crowd. "We've had some wonderful audiences in some beautiful concert halls around the world, but when you look out in the audience and see people you know and love, it's very special," McCargar said. "You see your parents, friends, colleagues and teachers. It's very special." Added Montigne, "It's a hometown crowd this time. It's a very Chanticleer thing to do. In a year we're playing two of the greatest concert halls in Western Europe and a few weeks later we're playing my alma mater in Des Moines." Chanticleer, based in San Francisco, is the only independent, full-time classical vocal ensemble in the United States. The group performs nearly 100 concerts per season worldwide with vivid interpretations of vocal literature, from Renaissance to jazz and from gospel to venturesome new music. Praised by the New York Times for its "precise, pure, and deeply felt singing," and by the Los Angeles Times for its "luxurious perfection," the Grammy Award-winning group has toured the United States, Asia and Europe. The concert will also feature a third Des Moines native, Matthew Oltman, a gradate of Des Moines East High School and Simpson College. He serves as assistant music director for Chanticleer and sings tenor. The Civic Music Association and Drake University co-sponsor the event. The concert costs $28.50 for adults and $12.50 with a valid student ID. Tickets are available at Krause, one of Iowa's most successful businessmen, will share his insights into entrepreneurship from a variety of angles. Krause is president of more than 430 Kum & Go convenience stores in 13 states. He is owner and president of Solar Transport, the largest Iowa-based refined fuel transporter. He is also majority owner of the Des Moines Menace soccer team. Krause's talk will be the capstone to a day filled with entrepreneurial advice. Morning session presenters include: Joe Yamen, a Drake alumnus, who has owned a variety of different companies in his career, ranging from a computer learning center to a lost luggage delivery service. Yamen will discuss how he got started in entrepreneurship, the funding of new ventures and the importance of a good business plan. Michael Wagner, president of the consulting company The White Rabbit Group, will put a unique spin on entrepreneurial ethics. The "Ups and Downs of Entrepreneurship" Panel will consist of Des Moines entrepreneurs from multiple industries and stages of the entrepreneurial process. They will describe their experiences and also interact with the students in attendance. The conference is free and open to the public, however registration was required for the luncheon. For more information, contact x3071 or The Drake University Journal of Agricultural Law and the Agricultural Law Center will hold a "2007 Farm Bill Discussion" event featuring speakers from Iowa's Congressional delegation. It will be held 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, March 9, at Sheslow Auditorium, Old Main. The event is free and open to the public. The discussion will include representatives from the offices of U.S. Senators Tom Harkin and Charles Grassley and U.S. Representatives Leonard Boswell, Jim Nussle and Steve King. The talk will focus on the future policy of the 2007 farm bill relating to agriculture and rural development; including the possibility of extending the 2002 farm bill through the end of 2006. The Journal of Agricultural Law was the first journal in the nation dedicated to agricultural law at an accredited law institution and is celebrating its 10th anniversary of publication. The Agricultural Law Center is an internationally recognized center that provides opportunities to study how the legal system shapes our food system and influences the ability of the agricultural sector to produce, market and utilize agricultural products. Speakers include John Moreland, staff of Sen. Harkin; Kevin Studer, staff of Sen. Grassley; Joe Huber, staff of Rep. Nussle; Tammy McAthey, staff of Rep. Boswell; and Wayne Brincks, staff of Rep. King. Mark Reisinger, state director of USDA Rural Development, will moderate. For details, contact the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law office at x4969, or visit the Web site at Carole Baumgarten, the all-time winningest women's basketball coach in Drake history, was inducted into the Missouri Valley Conference Athletics Hall of Fame as an Institutional Great last Thursday during the Rawlings Coach of the Year/Athletics Hall of Fame luncheon in St. Louis. Baumgarten becomes the third former Drake head coach inducted into the MVC Hall of Fame, joining men's basketball coach Maury John (2000 inductee) and men's track and field head coach Bob Ehrhart (2004 inductee). "This honor is for Drake University and all of the people at Drake," said Baumgarten in her acceptance speech. "I'm not deserving of this award alone. Bruce Mason (long time assistant coach, Drake administrators Bob Karnes and Betty Miles, my tremendous staff and the wonderful list of players were all instrumental in our success." The catalyst in the Bulldogs' drive for national recognition in women's basketball in the mid 1970s through the mid 1980s, Baumgarten posted a 257-94 record from 1974-86. She guided the Bulldogs to 10 straight 20-plus winning seasons from 1976-86. She led Drake to three NCAA Tournament appearances (1982 Elite Eight, 1984 and 1986), which was a record at the time for any member of the Gateway Conference. She also guided Drake to five appearances in the WNIT (1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1985), finishing second in 1979. Before setting off on a tour of eastern Iowa, Illinois and Indiana, the Drake Choir and Chamber Choir will perform a free concert at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 14, on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium. The program includes works by Bach, Bruckner, Sweelinck and Orban, as well as folk music and spirituals. The choirs, conducted by Aimee Beckmann-Collier, director of choral studies, will give evening concerts March 15 in Dyersville, Iowa; March 16 in Chicago; and March 17 in Notre Dame, Ind., as part of their annual Midwest tour. In addition, the ensembles will sing daytime concerts at Ankeny and Grinnell high schools in Iowa and Maine West High School in Des Plaines, Ill. Svensson's talk, titled "Are Adverse Drug Reactions Unavoidable Therapeutic Misadventures?", is part of the Drake University Science Colloquium Series. The speech is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The talk is $5 per person and includes morning beverages and parking. To register, call John Brown at x3378. The Drake University Business Link will help employers discover the hidden skills of their workers with the workshop "Getting the Most Out of Your No. 1 Asset: Uncovering and Developing Your Employees' Talents" set for Friday, March 10. The session, moderated by Jim Goodman, founder of the Creative Entrepreneur Organization Center in Des Moines' East Village, will focus on how managers can be reactive to employees' successes and shortfalls while being proactive in encouraging development and growth. Goodman works with for-profit, non-profit and governmental organizations on strategic planning, marketing and management issues. He has been called Dr. metrics by some of his clients because of his measurements he designed for outcome-based assessment. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Drake College of Business and Public Administration. The course will run from 9 a.m. to noon in room 112 of Aliber Hall. The cost is $50 and includes a continental breakfast. To register, visit |
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