Lisa West, associate professor of English, recently participated on a panel for a WebEx seminar, “American Fiction: Exploring the American Experience Through Literature,” conducted by Gale-Cengage regarding one of their databases.

—Lisa West

Drake students won nine awards, including best website and magazine, in this year’s Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication magazine contest. The awards were:

• Best website: The senior capstone multimedia project, Urban Plains
• General excellence: Drake Magazine
• First place for editorial content: Drake Magazine
• Second place for design: Drake Magazine
• First and second place for new magazine prototypes
• Two second-place awards and a third-place honor for writing

The judge of the general excellence category, a Vanity Fair editor, said of Drake Magazine: “This entry is exceptional for many reasons—its design, its photography, its story selection and presentation. It is a well-edited magazine in every sense of the word … Every element feels considered and deliberate … This magazine hits on all cylinders.”

The awards will be presented at the AEJMC conference on Aug. 11

—Kathleen Richardson, Dean, School of Journalism & Mass Communication

The campaign that lured world-famous rapper Drake to campus in the wee hours of the morning won a CASE Circle of Excellence award. The #BringDraketoDrake campaign won a gold distinction for the international honor in category of Best Uses of Social Media, Public Relations. There were 39 entries from around the world in that category.

The judges left the following comments on the award submission:

“Capitalizing on an upcoming Des Moines concert by popular rap artist Drake, communications staffers conducted research and made a calculated bet that a persistent effort to bring the star to campus would result in a reputational boost. The social campaign generated copious media coverage, a late-night campus visit with inclusion on the star’s own Instagram feed, and record-breaking traffic to the University’s website, most notably the undergraduate application and programs pages. Hailed by journalist as ‘Best PR Move of the Week,’ it wouldn’t have been possible without an astute social media strategy.”

A list of award winners from the current year’s competition is available at www.case.org/circle. There were 107 Gold distinctions awarded this year across over 80 categories.

—Niki Smith, University Communications

Karen Wallace, professor of law librarianship, was recently cited by the Iowa Supreme Court. In a June 16 opinion, the court quoted her Drake Law Review article “Does the Past Predict the Future?: An Empirical Analysis of Recent Iowa Supreme Court Use of Legislative History as a Window into Statutory Construction in Iowa,” to support the premise “that members of this court frequently look beyond the text of the statute in the interpretation of statutes.” (p. 26)

Also, Karen was recently elected vice president/president elect of the Mid-America Association of Law Libraries (MAALL). MAALL is a chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries with almost 300 members in thirteen states.

Teri Koch, professor of librarianship and coordinator, serials, acquisitions, and electronic resources, and Andrew Welch, librarian for discovery services and technology, presented “Central Iowa Collaborative Collections Initiative Survey” at the American Library Association Annual meeting in Chicago on June 23 as part of the Print Archive Network Forum.

Public relations students’ 2016 senior capstone campaign to promote the community of Manning, Iowa, beat professional public relations entries to win the Community Relations category in the 2017 Clarion Awards.  The Manning work also won the Student Public Relations Campaign category. Additionally, work that a public relations writing class did for community client Easter Seals also won an award.

The Clarion Awards contest is presented by the Association for Women in Communications (AWC) and known as one of the most prestigious competitions in the marketing and communications field.

The 2017 contest attracted hundreds of submissions, including five Drake entries. Three of the five won awards. The awards will be presented at the national AWC conference in Dallas, Texas, in September.

—Kathleen Richardson, Dean, SJMC

University Communications welcomed three new staff members in June:

• Dani Edler, Senior Strategist, Digital Communications, Web Design & Development
• Ashton Hockman, Assistant Director of Campus Relations
• Jason Nunemaker, Assistant Director, Digital Communications, Content Management

As senior strategist for digital design and development, Dani will lead the creation of new templates, web designs, and interfaces as the department’s main front-end designer. She brings a deep understanding of user experience and user interface design, as well as experience with modern website accessibility standards.
Before starting at Drake, Dani was the digital marketing director for TRIO in Grimes. She received her bachelor’s in art and design and advertising from Iowa State.

Ashton will oversee internal communications for the University, including the weekly e-newsletter OnCampus. Ashton previously worked as a media relations representative at MidAmerican Energy, and also worked at Kemin Industries. She received a BA in journalism and mass communications, and in communication studies, from the University of Iowa.

Jason joins Drake from Wells Fargo, where he worked for more than 10 years in a variety of positions, most recently as a business applications analyst. He received his bachelor’s from the University of Iowa and his MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University. Jason will focus on support for the content systems and the site architecture for the main University website and provide recommendations for the use and implementation of internal and external digital communications tools. He brings a wealth of knowledge managing enterprise content.

Please join University Communications and the entire University Advancement team in welcoming Dani, Ashton, and Jason.

—Dave Remund, Executive Director, University Communications

Drake has recently become a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to further campus efforts toward building a healthy and sustainable campus. Through membership in AASHE, Drake will receive support in advancing its sustainability initiatives throughout the institution and in the community.

“AASHE counts on the support of progressive institutions like Drake University to fulfill its mission of facilitating leadership to transform our planet,” said AASHE Executive Director Meghan Fay Zahniser. “As the gateways to knowledge, higher education institutions have a unique opportunity to make sustainability part of everyone’s agenda. I welcome Drake University to our family of colleges, universities, associations and businesses driving the transformation to a sustainable world.”

AASHE enables higher education institutions to meet their sustainability goals by providing specialized resources, professional development, and a network of peer support.  Membership covers every individual at an institution, so the entire campus community can take advantage of member benefits by using their Drake email to create an account under the membership tab at www.aashe.org.

“We are happy to have Drake University join AASHE and take an active role within this community as we all work to advance sustainability,” shared Zahniser. “We invite students, faculty and staff at the institution to visit our site and create an AASHE account. This will allow everyone to take advantage of the member-only resources, free webinars and discounts to our annual conference. AASHE also offers extensive online resources and discussion forums for professional development and sharing knowledge.”

AASHE hosts the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS), a comprehensive campus sustainability rating system that enables institutions to measure their progress and learn from others, www.aashe.org/stars. With STARS as a roadmap, institutions can select meaningful and appropriate pathways to sustainability while conserving valuable resources, combating global warming, and building healthier communities.  Drake will be assessing the campus this fall to determine the STARS rating and sharing that information in a future OnCampus article.

– Kevin Moran, Facilities Planning and Management

Lisa West, associate professor of English, co-organized the 20th anniversary symposium of the Catharine Maria Sedgwick Society, one of the first literary author societies to focus on the recovery of early American writings by prominent women writers of the 19th century. Read more in the Drake Newsroom.

Sally Haack, associate professor of pharmacy practice, was selected as an Iowa Campus Compact Engaged Scholars Research Fellow. The program builds on previous faculty fellowships with an added emphasis on the production of scholarship that moves the higher education community engagement and service-learning field forward. Sally’s interest lies in helping students see the numerous connections between the University and community partners with common goals of increasing social responsibility and offering support to those living in poverty. Her research will focus on the outcomes of service-learning experiences for pharmacy students in Mexico.

Erin Lain, associate provost for campus equity and inclusion and associate professor of law, has received the 2017 Gertrude Rush Award from the Iowa Organization of Women Attorneys (IOWA) and the Iowa Chapter of the National Bar Association. Read more on Erin’s honor in the Drake Newsroom.

Eric Saylor, professor of music history, has published a new book that seeks to redeem a style of music that he says is gravely misunderstood and sorely underrated. English Pastoral Music: From Arcadia to Utopia, 1900-1955 was published June 26 by the University of Illinois Press. Read more about Eric’s work in the Drake Newsroom.

Edward Kelley, a 3D design instructor and studio assistant in Drake’s Department of Art and Design, has been selected for an exhibition at Art League Houston in Houston, TX. Kelley’s installation, titled “Speak of the Devil,” features an interactive installation of more than 250 surveillance cameras placed throughout the gallery, “playfully addressing the invasive qualities of CCTV surveillance, as well as its acceptance in our everyday lives.” Read more in the Drake Newsroom.