The Office of Global Engagement is pleased to partner with The Harkin Institute to welcome visiting scholars to campus during International Education Week whose research focuses on topics related to disability rights and inclusive education. 

Zhou Xiaorong is a research scholar at St. Cloud State University. She holds a master’s degree in rehabilitation and languages. Xiaorong specializes in collaborating, cultivating, and utilizing her broad global network for the purpose of research and development of Deaf culture-based programs and sign languages for both Chinese and American Deaf academic communities. She also provided multicultural guidance regarding accessibility laws, cultural sensitivities, empowerment of Deaf identities, and facilitations & collaborations of American Sign Language/Chinese Sign Language/Korean Sign language for international Deaf communities.

Xiaorong will be joined by colleagues from the Center for International Disability Advocacy and Diplomacy at St. Cloud State University. While on Drake’s campus, they will visit an American Sign Language class with Professor Polly Brekke and share their expertise during the U.S.-China Symposium and International Education Week Forum.

Renci Xie is a Chinese woman with disabilities and a disability rights self-advocate. Her story about embracing her disability identity was broadly reported. In January 2022, Renci was featured in a National Public Radio All Things Considered interview, “China excels at the Paralympics, but its disabled citizens are fighting for access.” She is currently working on a Ph.D. in disability law at Syracuse University.

Meet these scholars and learn more about disability rights and inclusive education in China at the following events during International Education Week:

Interview with Zhou Xiaorong

• Moderated by Daniel Van Sant, Director of Disability Policy at the Harkin Institute
• Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 9:30-10:30 am
• Tom and Ruth Harkin Center
• ASL will be provided
• Register

U.S.-China Symposium Panel Discussion

• Thursday, Nov. 17, at 10:30-11:30 am
• Sussman Theater
• ASL will be provided
• Register

International Education Week Forum: China

• Collier Scripps Hall, 3^rd Floor Classrooms
• 8:00 am Research presentation by Dr. Amy Knopf, Harkin Fellow 2018-2019 and Director of the St. Cloud State University Center for International Disability Advocacy and Diplomacy (ASL will be provided)
• 8:00 am Research presentation by Renci Xie
• 9:15 am Research presentation by Zhou Xiaorong (ASL will be provided)
• Registration not required. Learn more

— Hannah Sappenfield, Global Engagement

Come to the Tom and Ruth Harkin Center on Friday, Nov. 18, at 11 a.m. for free refreshments and supportive conversations.  

The Harkin Institute is hosting a safe space for all Drake University students, faculty, and staff with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Registrations is not required but you can let us know you’re coming here.

Coffee Conversations is a chance for students, faculty, and staff to come together and discuss experiences, successes, and struggles, build relationships, and form support systems on Drake’s campus. American Sign Language (ASL) and real time captioning (CART) will be provided. Contact harkininstitute@drake.edu with any questions and to request other accommodations. 

— Lila Johnson, Harkin Institute

Did you know you can use your Bulldog Bucks at awesome local businesses and on the GrubHub app? To show our appreciation to our Drake community, we’re partnering with GrubHub this week to give out $50 gift cards to five lucky winners that use their Bulldog Bucks during the week of Nov. 14–20.

Simply load funds into your Bulldog Bucks account, and either spend funds at some of our local participating businesses or on the GrubHub app.  You can also enter in the GrubHub App to win using this mobile link (no purchase necessary to enter).  We’ll pick 5 winners on Nov. 21, and winners will receive an email from studentservices@drake.edu.

As a reminder, Bulldog Bucks are different than Dining Dollars (Dining Dollars are just used for on campus dining).  Bulldog Bucks are an optional account, loaded by any Drake cardholder, and they carry forward from semester to semester as long as your card is active.  Bulldog Bucks can also be used for on campus dining, but have a variety of other uses.  They can be used for food (both on and off campus and in the GrubHub app), at the bookstore, at the mailroom, and for campus printing.

If you have any questions about this giveaway, or our Bulldog Bucks program, please feel free to email studentservices@drake.edu. 

— Sara Heijerman, Campus Card Office

A lights display will bring cheer to University Avenue just east of campus all winter long. For the second year, Invest DSM and neighborhood partners will decorate storefronts with an immersive, state-of-the-art lighting system. This year’s installation adds more lights at street level and on new murals in the area and expands lights another block to the west towards campus.

Dogtown Lights begins with a lighting block party on University Avenue, organized by the Des Moines Music Coalition. Local businesses will provide specials for attendees, and there will be live entertainment and warm refreshments.

The lights display will be up and illuminated at sundown every evening now through the end of the winter. Follow @dogtownlights on Instagram to see photos and videos of the display.

Event Details
What: Dogtown Lights Lighting and Block Party
When: Saturday, Nov. 12

Program:
6:00pm Event begins
6:15pm Official unveiling of this year’s light display
6:25p.m. Remarks
Rob Pressman, Platinum Kutz /Dogtown Business Owner
Angela Connolly, Polk County Supervisor & Invest DSM Board Member Marta Codina, Wells Fargo
6:40 p.m. Performance from Leradee and the Positives
7:30 p.m. DJ Performance
9:00 p.m. Event ends

Note: In conjunction with the event, University Avenue between 23rd and 24th Streets will be closed from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12.

— Ryan Arnold, Community Engagement

Nov. 8 is National First Generation Student Day. Drake defines a first-generation student is a college student whose parents/legal guardians have not received a bachelor’s degree from a four-year university. At Drake, about 20% of our incoming students are first generation students. The Office of New Student and Family Programs and Drake First Gen Student Organization are partnering to celebrate Drake first generation students, staff, and faculty.

On Nov. 8, we will be tabling on Helmick Commons or Olmsted Breezeway (depending on weather) from 1–4 p.m. passing out snacks and First Gen Bulldog stickers. We hope you can stop by for a sticker and some snacks!

We will cap off the week with a Brunch and Learn on Friday, Nov. 10, from 10 a.m.–11:30 a.m. in the Courtside Club at the Shivers Basketball Practice Facility. The Brunch and Learn will feature a session on “From Community to Career.” Renee Sedlacek Lee, director of Community Engaged Learning, will share her story as a first-generation college student and how students too can use community engagement opportunities to prepare for life after college.  Click here to rsvp for the Brunch and Learn!

We encourage First Generation students, staff and faculty to join our Facebook group and follow on Instagram.

We look forward to seeing you at some of the First-Generation Student Day events!

— Marina Verlengia, New Student and Parent Programs

On Friday, Nov. 25, Facilities Planning and Management will conduct annual cleaning, maintenance, and testing on a series of high voltage electrical vaults on campus.  In addition to our annual work, contractors will work on high voltage electrical improvements as part of the Meredith Hall Renovation project.  Below is a tentative schedule of the expected outages on Nov. 25.

6 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Morehouse
Cowles Library
Meredith Hall

6 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Jewett
Opperman
Old Main
Carnegie
Cole
Cartwright

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Stadium
Studio Arts
Carpenter
Crawford
Hubbell Dinning
Goodwin Kirk

11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Harmon Fine Arts North

1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Knapp – NE corner

If your office is in one of the buildings being impacted, please turn off your computers, electronic devices, and clean out anything that you have in a refrigerator before leaving for the Thanksgiving Holiday. 

— Aaron Edwards, Facilities Planning and Management

Join The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. in Sheslow Auditorium or virtually, for our event An Evening with Charlie Cook. Click here to register.

This event is open to Drake University undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff, as well as the larger Des Moines community. This event is free, but registration is required. American sign language (ASL) and real time captioning (CART) will be provided, please contact harkininstitute@drake.edu to request other accommodations.

An Evening with Charlie Cook is an opportunity to hear insight and analysis on the state of American politics by one of the leading authorities on the U.S. political scene. This year Cook will also share important insights about the midterm election. Cook is a political analyst for National Journal magazine, editor and publisher of the Cook Political Report, co-author of the 2020 and 2022 editions of the Almanac of American Politics and a National Advisory Council member for The Harkin Institute.

More information about this event can be found on The Harkin Institute website.

— Lila Johnson, The Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement

On Thursday, Nov. 3, at 8:30 p.m., members of the campus community partnered together to conduct a campus safety walk.  Members of Student Affairs, Residence Life, Facilities, Environmental Health and Safety, and Public Safety were joined by over a dozen student representatives from the Student Senate and Residence Hall Association.

Split into two teams, the group covered the campus to look at safety issues that may present themselves at night to members of the community walking on campus.  The two groups located various safety concerns, and took the steps to document them so that corrective actions can be taken.  All of the concerns were directed to either Public Safety, Facilities, or Environmental Health and Safety to work on resolving.

As we all know campus safety is a shared responsibility.  The campus looks and feels a lot different after-hours and a safety walk with various members of the campus community allows for items that might not be seen during the day to standout.  Although Public Safety and Facilities conduct regular monthly lighting surveys, this walk looked not only at lighting, but several other issues.

Special thank you to Douglass Robinett, assistant director of Residence Life, for proposing this idea and working with RHA to join the effort and to Connor Oetzmann, student body president, for getting the Student Senate involved.

In order to continue this effort, there will be a Spring Campus Safety Walk held in early April.  If you have any questions about the fall walk or would like to participate in the spring walk, please send an email to scott.law@drake.edu.

— Scott Law, Public Safety & Operational Services

Megan Brown, professor of English, and Stacy Gnacisnki, assistant professor of health sciences, have joined the John Dee Bright College staff as associate deans. Their experience as teachers, researchers, and citizens of Bright College and University will help us advance our mission in crucial ways, including recruiting excellent faculty to lead the College’s seminars and attracting future cohorts of amazing students to our program.

Professor Brown is a member of the Bright College founding faculty and has co-led two JDBC courses. She also serves as Drake’s director of writing and as faculty athletics representative. She is the author of two books and many peer-reviewed journal articles. 

Professor Gnacinski came to Drake in 2017. In addition to teaching various courses in the health sciences program, she co-taught a Bright College seminar in Spring 2022. She also serves as a mental performance consultant for the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia’s ski and snowboard teams.

Beyond their professional accomplishments, Professors Brown and Gnacinski bring optimism, energy, and a deep and shared commitment to the College’s mission: Affordable access to innovative excellence.

— Craig Owens, Dean, John Dee Bright College