Students learn community service as first lesson at Drake Students learn community service as first lesson at Drake Approximately 450 new students performed community service at various sites on and near the Drake campus Saturday morning as part of Welcome Weekend activities. "This proved to be a great way of acquainting new students with Des Moines as well as giving them an opportunity to contribute to the community during their first days at Drake," said Dolph Pulliam, FA'69, director of community outreach and development. "The students worked marvelously with neighborhood leaders on the projects," Pulliam added. "They worked hard, showed great enthusiasm and were good representatives of the University." The projects ranged from picking up litter in Drake Park to pulling weeds in Michael Garden to assembling boxes of educational materials for elementary school teachers to interacting with residents of the Brookdale Ramsey Village Retirement Center. The students were especially thorough in their clean-up efforts, Pulliam noted. "Drake Park looks the best that I've ever seen it and the neighborhood streets look great, too. The students really made a difference in this community Saturday morning." Kickoff is scheduled for 7:08 p.m. at the first football game to be played in the newly renovated Drake Stadium, under permanent lighting for the first time since 1962. The stadium also sports new seats, a new digital scoreboard, a new Field Turf playing surface, new concession stands and restrooms. For $20, fans can get tickets to the tailgate and game. Game tickets alone are $13. Youth (18 and under) pay only $12 for tailgate and game admission. Tickets are available at the Drake Knapp Center ticket office, x3791. "It should be a great atmosphere," said new Drake Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb. "This is an all Iowa matchup to open the football season. We encourage fans to be the 12th player on the field by wearing Drake blue and cheering loudly for the Bulldogs." Roosevelt High School will also be holding its home football games at Drake Stadium this season for the first time since the 1960s. For more information contact Roosevelt High School. Other football firsts at Drake: Drake University has been selected by the NCAA Track and Field Committee to host the 2008 NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships June 11-14. The announcement came during a teleconference Thursday hosted by Mark Bockelman, assistant director of championships for the NCAA, and DeTrease Harrison, chairperson of the NCAA Division I Track and Field Committee. "We are absolutely delighted that Drake University has been awarded the 2008 NCAA National Track and Field Outdoor Championships," Drake President David Maxwell said. "With the Drake Relays, the 2007 NCAA Midwest Regionals and now the National Championships, Drake and Des Moines have become the track and field capital of the Midwest. It is a tremendous infusion of energy, resources and visibility into the community. We are very, very grateful to everyone who helped make this happen." It will mark the first time Drake has hosted the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships since 1970, when Drake senior Rick Wanamaker won the NCAA decathlon title. "Drake University is thrilled to have the opportunity to partner with the city of Des Moines to bring this nationally prestigious event to the state of Iowa," said Drake Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb. "The vision of many has been realized by naming our newly renovated Drake Stadium the home of the 2008 NCAA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. A lot of hard work has gone into making this opportunity a reality. This announcement shows the country that Drake University can compete with the best in the nation and it is a powerful momentum builder for our community and school." Approximately 1,100 athletes are expected to compete in the four-day event, which is estimated to have an economic impact of $25 million on the Greater Des Moines area. "This is awesome news!" said Greg Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau. "This community has worked hard to land the NCAA National Track and Field Championship and we did it. We are thankful that we have the expertise, leadership, vision and outstanding reputation of Drake University." Drake Assistant Athletic Director Mark Kostek will serve as the local tournament director for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Kostek was Drake Relays director from 2001-05 and has served as referee for the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships since 2001. The 81-year-old Drake Stadium underwent a $15 million renovation that began in May of 2005 and finished just hours before the first starter's pistol fired during the 97th running of the Drake Relays on April 26. The award honors the memory of Sam Skinner, a longtime San Francisco-based journalist, and is presented to an individual who has shown exemplary cooperation with the media in track and field. Mahon becomes the first college sports information director to ever receive the award. He has served as the sports information director at Drake since October of 1988 and is media coordinator for the Drake Relays. He has served as a U.S. Olympic Committee press officer for U.S. track and field teams at the 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympics as well as the 1991, 1999 and 2003 Pan American Games. Past recipients of the Sam Skinner award include Mel Rosen head coach of 1992 U.S. Olympic men's team; Butch Reynolds (1993), former world record holder in 400; Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1994), Olympic gold medalist in heptathlon; Roger Kingdom (1998), two-time Olympic 110 hurdles gold medalist; Stacy Dragila (2001), Olympic women's pole vault medalist; and John McDonnell (2003), Arkansas head men's track and field coach. Skinner integrated Northern California press boxes as one of the first African American sportscasters, became confidant for many of the most recognized names in sports and broke the biggest Olympic stories of his generation. All ABA-accredited schools were eligible for the national award; 25 schools applied. George Washington University placed first. "It's a huge honor for us since only 2 schools were recognized," said Brooke Timmer, president of Drake's SBA in 2005-06. Timmer said the group's members were especially enthusiastic and effective last year. She said one of their greatest accomplishments was to increase communication with Drake President David Maxwell and other members of the administration. "Problems were taken care of more quickly, and I think students saw that," said Timmer, who graduated from Drake Law School in May. The officers of Drake's SBA fill many roles in the representation of the law school's student body. SBA members also serve on committees organized for the purpose of making the law school a better place for the students, faculty, alumni and supporters. "We do a lot of philanthropy," Timmer said, "And we touch every single part of the student experience at Drake, from making sure the fridges in the Law School work to helping hire a new Career Services director." "I reached into the trap for the turtle and right away I saw it was a Blanding's. It had a bright yellow neck with a lot of yellow spots on its head," Vogel said. "It was a real surprise; I would never have guessed it would have been there." Blanding's are classified as threatened in the state of Iowa, meaning they are at risk of becoming extinct. It is illegal to collect or kill them. "There was just the one, but because it was a yearling and Blanding's turtles are pretty sedentary you can bet that there's an older male and female and perhaps other nestlings nearby," said Keith Summerville, assistant professor of environmental science at Drake, soon after the find. He was right - the next week, Vogel found another young Blanding's. The turtles are "usually found in shallow ponds or wetlands with lots of emergent plants such as reeds, duckweed and sandy soils," according to Summerville. "Finding a population of Blanding's at Chichaqua Bottoms tells us that the large restored landscape is really working to provide habitat for declining species," Summerville said. The Chichaqua Bottoms Greenbelt spans more than 10 miles of land in northeast Polk County and includes more than 500 acres of restored wetland area along the Skunk River. While Blanding's are certainly rare, estimating their total population is difficult, said Daryl Howell, zoologist for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Prior scientific surveys in Iowa had turned up the turtles, but never evidence of their reproduction. That's disconcerting, especially with a threatened species like Blanding's. "This is a very significant find, because the yearling is proof of reproduction," Howell said. Iowa has lost approximately 98 percent of its wetlands in the past 200 years, according to a study by the Center for Agricultural Development at Iowa State University. In 2000, the center estimated that Iowa had about 35,000 acres of wetlands - as compared to an estimated 2.3 million acres in 1750. Vogel measured the age and size each turtle (yearlings, the first 6 inches and the second 4.5 inches) and quickly released it. He said he'd been keeping his eye out for Blanding's, as well as two endangered species of snake - the Smooth Green and Grahams Crayfish - all summer. Retired Drake biology professor James Christiansen once tracked the three endangered species. Vogel says he probably won't see the snakes, but he's confident that the team will find more Blanding's. "We're going to set up more traps over at a pond close by, and I'd say the chances are pretty good that we catch an adult pair. At least I hope so," Vogel said. Now in its final stages, the DUSCI summer research program enabled 30 Drake students and a high school student from Ames to conduct research projects alongside Drake faculty. Vogel said he's enjoyed his work with the program. "It's been a real relaxing summer - sometimes it's really hot, and you're in these waders that aren't very cool, and there's lots of bugs, but we've done a lot of good work and had a lot of fun." Led by John Burney, dean of the Drake College of Arts and Sciences, the group of ambitious thespians will modernize, summarize and abridge the Bard's scripts while bringing life to "The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)." "Othello" is presented in the form of a rap song. A number of comedies are packed into a game of American football. As for "Titus Andronicus," Burney says, "It's a bloodbath. We play it as a cooking show." The play, written and first performed by the Reduced Shakespeare Company in 1987, has received critical acclaim since its debut. A critic for "The Tonight Show" once wrote, "If you like Shakespeare, you'll like this show. If you hate Shakespeare, you'll love this show." Burney, who has acted in the play twice before, recruited a duo of Drake alumni to help him execute the fast-paced and sometimes slapstick performance. Tom Geraty, who serves on the executive committee of Friends of Drake Arts, has acted in numerous plays in Chicago and Des Moines. Joseph Leonardi, a Des Moines native who acted for many years in San Francisco, founded the Central Iowa Repertory Theater in Des Moines. Performances, sponsored by Friends of Drake Arts, will start at 8 p.m. Sept. 8 and 9 in Sheslow Auditorium. Tickets are $20 and all student tickets are $5. Proceeds go to support fine arts programming at Drake. For tickets, call the Fine Arts Box Office at x3841. Burney will discuss Shakespeare's plays during a TalkAbout dinner at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, in Levitt Hall, Old Main. Tickets to the TalkAbout, including the night's performance, are $35. Call x2500 for reservations or more information. He attaches the spreads - dozens and dozens of them - and hangs them like giant curtains from the walls of Drake University's Anderson Gallery, where they'll be displayed in an installation titled "Lost and Found" Sept. 8 - Oct. 13. He's renewing expired words and images, he says. The world's old news becomes his new art. The effect is surreal. The gallery walls become an ocean of dissociated images and words. I'm not interested in making a statement," Matsumura said. "The segments are not connected in a logical way; my decisions are intuitive. But sometimes they come together to create some sort of larger image, almost like a movie image - a story. I'm trying to spark memories, my own and those of the viewer, and the feelings of events." Matsumura grew up in Tokyo, Japan, and came to the United States to study sculpture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., where he earned his undergraduate degree. He went on to receive his master's degree at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. For the Anderson Gallery installation, Matsumura bought an inflatable globe at a garage sale. It's inscribed in silver pen with best wishes from several unknown people. Matsumura paid 10 cents for it. The installation will include more items from Des Moines, but Matsumura is still searching for them at local thrift shops and garage sales. Matsumura's previous one-person exhibitions include: 2006 - Kwanhoon Gallery: "Lost and Found, Seoul," Seoul, South Korea Matsumura will reveal his latest work at the installation's opening, 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 8, at the Anderson Gallery in the Harmon Fine Arts. The installation continues through Oct. 13. Gallery hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free. The funds will be used to provide door-to-door transportation to seniors to attend evening music and theatre events during the 2006-07 school year. West Des Moines Human Services will provide van service and Polk County Senior Services will coordinate the program for Drake. As many as 48 individuals can be transported to each event. For more information about this program or to request transportation services, call 515-286-3536. "I've never experienced anything like this and I've had a number of honors over the years, including being honored as a member of an NCAA Final Four team," Pulliam said. "It was an evening I will never forget." Nine members of Pulliam's family were able to attend the ceremony, many of them visiting Iowa for the first time. "They were truly amazed at this community," Pulliam said. "My older brother, Roger, who is vice chancellor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, said, 'Now I see why you like Iowa so much. It's because Iowans like you." |
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