Drake students, faculty, and staff can activate free online access to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal through subscriptions available from Cowles Library.

For instructions and information on setting up your accounts, visit our New York Times or Wall Street Journal guide, and start reading today!

Erin Menardi, Cowles Library

Drake will hold fire drills on Oct. 18, 19, 20, and 23 in compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act and in conjunction with National Fire Prevention month. All drills will be conducted at 10:45 a.m. with the exception of the residence halls, which will be conducted from 6 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 23. We have planned this to minimize disruption to classes, and the majority of academic buildings will be completed the week of fall break. This also allows us to have a more efficient utilization of our staff for these drills. The residence halls will be done from 6-9pm to increase participation in the residence hall evacuation.

Fire alarms will be activated in all campus buildings to signal the start of the drill. When the alarm sounds:

•        Evacuate the building.

•        Buildings will be locked down and cannot be re-entered until the drill ends.

•        Remember to dress accordingly.

The fire drills will be coordinated through the Office of Public Safety (271-2222) working with the Office of Environmental Health and Safety (271-3804) and Facilities Services (271-2706). Please report any fire alarm malfunctions or evacuation problems to Facilities or Public Safety. Your cooperation in this very important campus safety exercise regarding the Drake Emergency Response Plan is appreciated.

Fire drill schedule:

Oct. 18
Meredith 
Aliber   
Cowles    
Opperman
Cartwright
Harmon Fine Arts Center
Howard
Carnegie
Medbury
Collier-Scripps

Oct. 19
Olin
Science Connector Building
Harvey-Ingham
Cline
Fitch
STAH
Occupational Therapy

Oct. 20
Olmsted Center
Hubbell
Student Health
Alumni House
ROTC
Bell Center
Knapp Center
Fieldhouse
Tennis Center

Oct. 23
Cole
Old Main
Public Safety
University Communications
Kinne Center
Vote Smart
Legal Clinic
Dial Center

All residence halls (6–9 p.m.)

Former U.S. Ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, hosts a book club during the academic year to engage the Drake community on topics related to China and U.S.-China relations. This activity is part of the Ambassador-in-Residence initiative at Drake. Learn more at drake.edu/branstad.

The Ambassador’s book selection for the Fall 2023 semester is Party of One: The Rise of Xi Jinping and China’s Superpower Future by Chun Han Wong. The book was published in May 2023. A limited number of free copies are available for current students, faculty and staff who wish to participate in the book club. Sign up by emailing ambassador@drake.edu stating your intent to read the book and attend the discussion event on November 13th, as well as to your request your free copy of the book (distributed on a first-come-first-serve basis.)

A description of the book from Amazon.com is below:

“From one of the most admired reporters covering China today, a vital new account of the life and political vision of Xi Jinping, the authoritarian leader of the People’s Republic whose hard-edged tactics have set the rising superpower on a collision with Western liberal democracies.

Party of One shatters the many myths and caricatures that shroud one of the world’s most secretive political organizations and its leader. Many observers misread Xi during his early years in power, projecting their own hopes that he would steer China toward more political openness, rule of law, and pro-market economics. Having masked his beliefs while climbing the party hierarchy, Xi has centralized decision-making powers, encouraged a cult of personality around himself, and moved toward indefinite rule by scrapping presidential term limits—stirring fears of a return to a Mao-style dictatorship. Today, the party of Xi favors political zeal over technical expertise, trumpets its faith in Marxism, and proclaims its reach into every corner of Chinese society with Xi portraits and hammer-and-sickle logos. Under Xi, China has challenged Western preeminence in global affairs and cast its authoritarian system as a model of governance worthy of international emulation.

As a China reporter for the Wall Street Journal, Chun Han Wong has chronicled Xi Jinping’s hard-line strategy for crushing dissent against his strongman rule, his political repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, and his increasingly coercive efforts to reel in the island democracy of Taiwan, as well as the domestic and diplomatic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. When the Chinese government refused to renew Wong’s press credentials and forced him to leave mainland China in 2019, he moved to Hong Kong to continue covering Chinese politics and its autocratic turn under Xi. Now, Wong has drawn on his years of firsthand reporting across China—including conversations with party insiders, insights from scholars and diplomats, and analyses of official speeches and documents—to create a lucid and historically rooted account of China’s leader and how he inspires fear and fervor in his party, his nation, and beyond.

Timely, revelatory, and important, Party of One explains how the future Xi imagines for China will reshape the future of the entire world.”

— Hannah Sappenfield, Global Engagement

Did you know that one pint of whole blood can save up to three lives? The Drake Law School chapter of Delta Theta Phi will hold a lifesaving Blood Drive on Friday, Oct. 20, from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Cartwright Hall, Kern Commons. Healthy adults who are 16 years old and weigh at least 120 pounds are eligible to donate. The blood drive is planned in honor of Cady Day of Service.

— Terri Howard, Law School

WEllcon23 is an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to learn about the resources that Drake has to offer in terms of support through the dimensions of wellness—intellectual, physical, social, spiritual, vocational, emotional, and environmental. WEllcon23 will also serve as an opportunity for learning tools that will be helpful in achieving success throughout the semester and beyond.   

Join us on Oct. 25 from 3–6 p.m. for a variety of educational and experiential workshops (i.e. yoga, body image and nutrition, mental health, and more), pet therapy, massage therapy, and resources from a variety of community and Drake organizations.

— Kayla Bell-Consolver, Student Health Center

The Broadlawns Drake Counseling Center offers a variety of Counseling Support Groups. Visit our website to learn more.

— Kayla Bell-Consolver, Student Health Center

Do you struggle with sleeping too much, or too little? Trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? Or simply unsure of ways to improve your sleep? Join this workshop to learn about the common sleep concerns and how you can begin to improve your sleep.

Nov. 9 at 4 p.m. in the Drake Room (Upper Olmsted)

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sleep-hygiene-workshop-tickets-676015519617?aff=oddtdtcreator

— Kayla Bell-Consolver, Student Health Center

Drake University Department of Theatre Arts students present the world premiere of WINGS, a new musical, written by Danny K. Bernstein and orchestrated by Nick Wilders. Bernstein spent a week with Drake musical students last spring directing a reading of the show in preparation for this fall’s performance. Now, for the first time, WINGS is being brought to life on stage in Drake’s own William S.E. Coleman Studio Theatre in the Harmon Fine Arts Center. 

Loosely adapted from the 1906 Russian novella, WINGS tells the story of 4th year university student Vanya, through his eyes, as he navigates his final year of study in St. Petersburg. With no money, and no status beyond the university, Vanya is desperate to win a prestigious fellowship that will allow him to stay at the university. However, matters complicate when he begins working privately on his application with the Fellowship’s current recipient, and the two begin a relationship that neither are quite prepared for.

A word from the cast: 

Being in a new show is awesome, it allows me to be creative and free. There is no reference to anyone else bringing your character to life other than you and the playwright. So you get to create something new.
— Harrison Stull, Vanya 

Danny has written a beautiful new piece of theatre. He writes melodic pieces with intention behind every note and word which pushes me as an actress to dive further into my character and her journey.
— Jude Thurman, Anna Nikolayevna

The most rewarding aspect of being in a Drake Theatre show is the variety of theater that we’re exposed to. WINGS is such a unique show in the way that it is unlike most other pieces of theater that are on Broadway right now.
— Griffin Snow, Larion Stroop

The full company includes: Drake faculty members, Erin T. Degner (director/choreographer) and Tristan Miedema (music director), Note Aguilar, Ben Ankarlo, Carly Arguelles, Rhyan Busch, Laura Breyen, Reece Dickerson, Emma Fishman, Chloe Fox, Miclo Gonzalez, Eliana Mascareñas, Griffin Snow, Harrison Stull, and Jude Thurman. 

Danny K Bernstein is an award-winning composer-lyricist, writer, pianist and music director based in New York City. He holds a BA in Music from Cornell University, where he was awarded the Ellen Gussman Adelson prize in music, and was named the 2014 Undergraduate Artist of the Year. 

Nick Wilders is an NYC-based orchestrator, pianist, and music director.  His theatrical credits as orchestrator include orchestrations and arrangements for Notes From Now, Crave (both Off-Broadway), Beauty & the Beast, Once On This Island (both Summer Theatre of New Canaan), and the upcoming national tour of In My Own Little Corner, starring Chryssie Whitehead.

Ticket prices are $8 for students and seniors and $10 for adults. For complete ticket prices and ticket orders, call 515-271-3841 or visit Drake Fine Arts Box Office.

— Jude Thurman, Senior, A&S

Please join the College of Arts and Sciences for the 39th annual Stalnaker Lecture on Thursday, Oct. 12, at 6 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium. A reception will follow in the lobby. The lecture is free to attend. It will also be streamed live at https://live.drake.edu.

The lecture is titled “The Wreck of The Sparrowhawk: What Is the Fate of Human Storytelling?” by Dr. Carol Spaulding-Kruse, Professor of English.

— Karla Rincon, College of Arts & Sciences