Celebrate 150 years of Drake Law School at a block party Friday, Oct. 2, 5-7 p.m., Cartwright Hall. All are invited to attend the free event, which will feature Des Moines food trucks, live music by Drake Law alumni, and more. RSVP today!
—Submitted by Kayla Choate, Alumni Affairs and Communications Coordinator
All Drake University faculty and staff are eligible to receive up to four complimentary tickets to the events listed below. Tickets may be picked up at the Drake Athletics Ticket Office Monday-Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. or at the ticket window on game day. Must show Drake Card (ID) at time of pick up.
Men’s Soccer
Drake vs. Missouri State
Oct. 3 @ 7 p.m.
Cownie Soccer Complex
More information is available at www.DrakeTix.com/promotions.
Questions? Call 515-271-3647 or email tickets@drake.edu.
—Submitted by Tom Florian
Enjoy this free, open to the public event in Fine Arts Center, Room 336 on Sept. 30 at 4:30 p.m. This lecture is being held in conjunction with events surrounding the upcoming exhibit, “Creating Public Space: The Art and Politics of The Here and Now (including the virtual),” which will open Nov. 13 at the Anderson Gallery.
—Submitted by Lenore Metrick-Chen, Associate Professor of Art History
The topic “Use and Abuse of U.S. Intelligence” will be presented by speakers Ray McGovern and Coleen Rowley on Wednesday, Sept. 30, at 7 p.m. in Olin Hall, Room 101. The event is sponsored by the Iowa Veterans for Peace, Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility, American Friends Service Committee, and the Principal Financial Group Center for Global Citizenship.
Ray McGovern is a retired CIA officer turned political activist. He was a CIA analyst 1963–1990, and in the 1980s, chaired National Intelligence Estimates and prepared the President’s Daily Brief.
Coleen Rowley, an Iowa native, is the retired FBI agent who blew the whistle on the FBI’s failures after 9/11. Rowley received the TIME “Person of the Year” award in 2002. She was also the first to receive the Sam Adams award in 2002, an award instituted by McGovern that annually recognizes an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics.
The event is free and open to the public.
—Submitted by Drake International
Religious Holidays
The release of the Climate Survey Report serves as a good occasion to remind the campus that in 1974, the University Senate adopted the following action:
“. . . that faculty members be urged to provide an opportunity for students to make up work missed as a result of legitimate absences, including observances of religious holidays.”
Consistent with the Senate action and our ambition to be a more welcoming and inclusive community, I urge all faculty members to provide students with an opportunity to make up work missed due to religious holidays. Since there are many cultures and faiths, University events cannot always be scheduled to avoid conflict with all holidays. Students should make their holiday needs known to faculty in advance, so professors can make arrangements for the appropriate accommodation. Further, I ask that when scheduling events, people check the calendar to avoid conflicts, if possible.
The list of religious holidays for the 2015–2016 academic year can be found at the Calendar link on the Provost’s Office web page.
Drake Social Club
Thanks to everyone who attended—more than 150 of you—the Drake Social on Thursday, making it, so I am being told, a big (and welcome) success. A shout out of thanks goes to Cherie Moen for managing it and making all the arrangements. Given the response, we are already looking for two more dates for this semester—stay tuned for future announcements.
Open Office Hours
If you are looking for me, this week you will find me on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 3–4:30 p.m. at Cowles Cafe.
—Submitted by Joe Lenz, Provost
Fall 2015 Enrollment
Last week we took the official enrollment census for the Fall 2015 semester. This fall, we welcomed 803 first-year students and 117 transfer students to Drake. They are among the 3,338 full- and part-time undergraduate students at Drake (compared to 3,364 in 2014). In addition, we have 1,653 full- and part-time graduate students distributed across various programs: graduate (887), law (330), and Pharm.D. (436). Overall, our student population is 4,991, compared to 5,062 last year, continuing a downward trend in total headcount over the past few years. This trend can be attributed to the dip in first-year students (which we knew about last spring) and continued lower enrollments in law and graduate programs. However, law appears to be stabilizing, and has seen an increase in part-time enrollment due in part to the new Master of Jurisprudence. Our first- to second-year retention rate continues to be strong. For the second year in a row we are above 88 percent—88.4 percent to be exact. This is good news, and it shows the impact of special efforts we are making, such as proactive advising and working with open-enrolled students.
Drake Social Club—Reminder
I am pleased to invite you to the inaugural Drake Social Club, sponsored jointly by the Offices of the Provost and the Chief Financial Officer. The event will be held this Thursday, Sept. 24, 4–6 p.m. in Shivers Hospitality Suite, adjacent to The Knapp Center. Attendees will receive two complimentary tickets for beer or wine. Water, soda, etc., are also on the house. Nearby parking is available in Lot 2 east of Shivers at the NE corner of Forest and 25th Street.
There will be no speeches, no presentations, no power points, no need to register or RSVP, and no agenda other than casual conversation and better acquaintance. Please feel most welcome, even if you can only come for a short while. Depending upon the response, this is an event we hope to repeat periodically throughout the year.
Open Office Hours
This week appearing at the Cowles Café, 2–3:30 p.m., Friday, Sept. 25
—Submitted by Joe Lenz, Interim Provost
Cowles Library is pleased to announce that the Reading Room will be the site of a CNN focus group following the Republican debate on Wednesday, Sept. 16. Portions of the building (including the Reading Room and Atrium) will be closed to public access from Tuesday, Sept. 15, through the morning of Thursday, Sept. 17. All library services and study facilities will continue as normal throughout the event window.
You can learn more about CNN’s visit to campus here.
—Submitted by Marc Davis, Coordinator, Program Staff Services, Planning & Projects
Tuesday Sept. 15, 7:30 p.m.
Sussman Theater
Sponsored by: Office for Sexual Violence Response and Healthy Relationship Promotion
About the documentary:
This alternately hilarious and infuriating film adaptation of pioneering feminist blogger Jessica Valenti’s bestselling book makes a powerful case that conservative activists have been using irrational fears around young women’s sexuality to undermine women’s autonomy and roll back women’s rights. It depicts a wide-ranging analysis that moves from ‘purity balls’ and the abstinence movement, to attacks on women’s reproductive health care, while targeting the persistent patriarchal assumption that a woman’s worth depends on what she does, or does not do, sexually.
—Submitted by Alysa Mozak, Coordinator for Sexual Violence Response and Healthy Relationship Promotion
Please join us for the inaugural event of the Comparison Project’s 2015–2016 series on death and dying. Dr. Allen Zagoren, associate professor of public administration in the College of Business and Public Administration at Drake, will give a lecture on the physiology of death and our medical attempts to forestall it. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will be held at on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. in Sussman Theater.
For more information visit our website.
—Submitted by Tim Knepper, Professor of Philosophy, Department Chair
Enjoy an athletic event this week with men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball at home.
Volleyball
Drake vs. Western Illinois
Sept. 15, p.m.
Knapp Center
Men’s Soccer
Drake vs. UMKC
Sept. 15, 7 p.m.
Cownie Soccer Complex
Men’s Soccer
Drake vs. DePaul
Sept. 19, 7 p.m.
Cownie Soccer Complex
Women’s Soccer
Drake vs. Iowa State
Sept. 20, 1 p.m.
Cownie Soccer Complex
—Submitted by Tom Florian, Assistant Director, Ticket Operations and Donor Management
