All posts by Ashton Hockman

Free basketball tickets for students

Drake undergraduate, graduate, and law students are admitted free to all home Drake basketball games. Tickets will be automatically added to students’ valid Drake Card. All students must present their Drake Card to receive admission. Below is the necessary information for attending basketball games at the The Knapp Center.

  • Enter The Knapp Center Southwest Student Entrance.
  • Present your Drake Card to the Drake Athletics staff person. Your ticket will be printed at the gate.
  • Student seating is available in sections J–K and S–T for men’s basketball games and sections J–K for women’s basketball games.

Students will receive their tickets directly to their valid Drake Card via Flash Seats. Your personal information remains confidential as Drake Athletics has partnered with Flash Seats to help give you the most convenient method to attend Bulldog athletic events.

You should have received a confirmation email from Flash Seats that your tickets arrived on Wednesday, Nov. 1. Now, all you need to do is head to the game and cheer on the Bulldogs! If you did not receive an email from Flash Seats, please visit or contact the Drake Athletics ticket office at 515-271-3647 or tickets@drake.edu. Additional student ticket information is available at DrakeTix.com/student.

—Tom Florian, Drake Athletics

Eaton contributes to international bird coloration database

Muir Eaton, associate professor of biology at Drake and longtime bird researcher with a PhD in ornithology, has contributed data on hundreds of bird species to BirdColourBase. An international consortium of 17 research labs in eight countries on three continents have provided information to the database, which holds data on more than 3,000 species of birds.

“Researchers have been accumulating bird coloration data for years, and the idea behind BirdColourBase is to unify that data, in the same way that (for example) the National Institutes of Health’s GenBank provides a database for genetic sequencing information,” Eaton said.

Bird coloration data provides a scientifically quantifiable method of describing the colors of birds. While two birds may appear similar to the human eye, the use of spectrophotometry helps scientists to record the specific color traits of each bird, including the presence of ultraviolet coloration that is invisible to the human eye—but visible to other birds.

“[Eaton’s] dataset is particularly important due to the range of species sampled,” said Than-Lan Gluckman, an evolutionary biologist who is co-organizing the BirdColourBase database along with John Endler, an ethologist and evolutionary at Deakin University in Australia.

Eaton teaches courses related to introductory biology, vertebrate biology, ornithology, winter avian ecology, museum curation, and evolution. He often recruits undergraduate students to assist with his avian research, and he leads a senior capstone experience for students pursuing a major in biology.

Read the full news release

Gallery exhibition: Mies/Weese at Drake

Curated by Professor Maura Lyons and curatorial students, “Mies/Weese at Drake: Where We Live and Work” will investigate buildings designed for Drake’s campus by the acclaimed architectural firms of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Harry Weese Associates in the 1960s and 1970s. The gallery exhibition will open Nov. 9 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Anderson Gallery with gallery talk by the curators starting at 6 p.m.

Several programs that are free and open to the public will take place in conjunction to the exhibition:

  • Panel discussion on current building projects at private colleges and universities in Iowa, with representatives from Drake, Cornell College, Grand View University, and Grinnell College; Nov. 11, 10 a.m.–12 p.m.,Turner Jazz Center
  • Lecture on Harry Weese and Associates by Robert Bruegmann, professor emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago; Nov. 16, 7 p.m., Harmon Fine Arts Center, Room 336
  • Lecture on Mies van der Rohe by Dirk Lohan, principal, Wight & Company, and grandson of Mies van der Rohe; Dec. 7, 7 p.m., Meredith Hall, Room 106

Josh Cox

Drake alumnus and neurosurgeon to share expertise

Dr. Holsapple, chief of neurosurgery at Boston University Medical Center, will present his lecture about the brain, neurosurgery, medicine, and consciousness on Wednesday, Nov. 8, at 6 p.m. in Sussman Theater. Dr. Holsapple is a Drake alumnus. Attendees will learn about neurosurgery and hear a neurosurgeon’s perspective on medicine. The lecture is open to the public and sponsored by Phi Delta Epsilon. For questions, contact Alec Wieker at alec.wieker@drake.edu.

Alec Wieker

Dietitian to share healthy eating tips

Do you know what the top 30 foods are for a better body? How much do you know about hidden sugars, anti-inflammatory foods, and losing belly fat? Join Hy-Vee registered dietitian Anne Cundiff on Tuesday, Nov. 14, at 10 a.m. in the Olmsted Center, Room 310/311, for this fun and informative session. This presentation also includes information on foods to incorporate into the holidays to start off the new year, and we will be giving away prizes.

Participants will earn BUILD (Bulldogs United in Learning Drake) credits and be entered into a drawing at the end of the semester.

An online registration form for this class is accessible through the blueView Employee tab, in the Learning and Development Channel under Human Resources.  You may also contact Linda Feiden at linda.feiden@drake.edu to register.

Linda Feiden, Human Resources

Show appreciation and recognition through Peerceive

Have you tried the Peerceive Employee Recognition Portal yet? It is a quick and simple way to show recognition to another Drake employee. You can access the Peerceive Employee Recognition Portal on blueView under the Employee tab. It is located in a channel on the right-hand side of the page. Your username is your Drake email address and your initial password is your employee number, including any leading zeroes.

The Peerceive dashboard includes easy-to-use tools to send electronic kudos or e-cards. Kudos are a way for co-workers to express gratitude for a unique contribution to the workplace. You can send them as often as you wish and to any employee (or group of employees) in any department. E-cards are an electronic version of a hand-written note. Use these to wish another employee a happy birthday, a general “congratulations,” or even a get well soon.

Recipients will receive an email letting them know they received a kudos or e-card. A link will take them to the site where they can view the message. If it is an e-card, they simply click on the icon to view the entire card and message. The portal is simple to use, but if you have questions, a Peerceive User Guide is available in the same blueView channel.

For additional information, contact Linda Feiden at linda.feiden@drake.edu. 

Linda Feiden, Human Resources