The Times-Delphic (10.14.2015)

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Wednesday Oct. 14, 2015

timesdelphic.com

Meet Griff GRIFF, the new live mascot, made his first appearance of the year in Helmick Commons on Thursday. Students, staff and media gathered for the reveal. PHOTO BY VALARIE MEYER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

CAMPUS NEWS

New live mascot follows in the paws of Porterhouse

Lauren Velasco Staff Writer lauren.velasco@drake.edu

Drake students, faculty and staff gathered last Thursday morning in Helmick Commons for remarks from President Marty Martin and the highly-anticipated unveiling of Drake’s new live mascot, Griff.

Griff is a three-year-old retired champion show dog that now has the responsibility of attending Drake’s athletic events and representing the Bulldog family.

“This is such a tremendous day for our campus,” Student Body President Kevin Maisto said. “It’s a day that we welcome a canine that embodies everything it means to be a bulldog. It’s a furry face to the university and it’s an ambassador to Des Moines.”

Many still remember Drake’s

last live mascot, Porterhouse, as a friendly, vivacious dog. After serving as Drake’s live mascot for five years, Porterhouse passed away in January of 2014.

“Back in 2009, (Porterhouse) united us, and showed us that we are all one family. He had a really big impact on the university and the greater community, and it’s time for Griff to continue that,” said owner and live mascot director Erin Bell .

Athletic Director Sandy Hatfield Clubb spoke on the history of Griff’s name. In the early 1900s, John L. Griffith served as the athletic director, the head football coach and the track coach.

In the first 25 years of Drake’s history, there was many different mascots, but Griffith had two bulldogs that he would bring to practices. They inspired the change to our current mascot.

The live mascot program is

“You’d be happy to hear that this program is fully sponsored by donors and doesn’t come from our operating budget.”

Marty Martin President

funded by donors who support athletics and many events.

President Earl “Marty” Martin reassured students that none of their tuition money went towards finding Griff.

“You’d be happy to hear that this program is fully sponsored by donors and doesn’t come from our operating budget,” Martin said.

Along with donors, Bon-APatreat and the Oaks Veterinary Clinic tend to Griff’s every need

as well as keep him healthy and ready to represent Drake at athletic events and community activities.

“He’s a retired champion show dog, and his family graciously gave him to us because they were ready to find him a forever home.

And there’s no better life than this, with so many people loving him,” Bell said.

When Griff arrived and was escorted out of a car to the stage, the crowd of students and faculty who had been eagerly awaiting the reveal were far from disappointed.

“Griff was just so stately and regal. It seemed like that dog just hopped out of the car and knew,” first-year Jacob McKay said.

First-year-student Craig Nielsen, who has never been at Drake when there was a live mascot, had a positive reaction to Griff’s appearance, as well.

“I had high expectations

for the new live mascot, and Griff definitely exceeded those expectations,” Nielsen said.

Many people, including President Martin, feel that the bulldog embodies what every Drake student should be like.

“Bulldogs are tenacious, eager, exceedingly friendly, welcoming to all and they’re willing to go to the extra mile,” President Martin said.

A large crowd stayed after the ceremony to take pictures with Griff and some even had their pictures posted on Griff’s Twitter page.

“This bulldog is going to be called upon to bask in the lime light and most certainly be the subject of countless selfies,” President Martin said.

Griff has already made several appearances on campus, including the Homecoming football game.

STUDENT SENATE

‘72 students are not 25 percent of Drake’

Drake choir denied allocation for international tour Beth LeValley Staff Writer beth.levalley@drake.edu @bethlevalley Student Senate did not pass a motion to allocate $15,000 to Drake Choir for their international tour in Europe.

Senate as a whole could not agree as to whether the motion violated the student life handbook because students receive credit for Drake Choir during the school year.

The sheer sum of the money, which is 25 percent of Student Senate’s one-time funding budget for the year, also made senators hesitant.

Drake Choir fundraises money in order to take all 72 students on this trip. The $15,000 proposed to Senate is only 4 percent of the $350,000 total budget that will

be fundraised. Dustin Eubanks, a representative from Drake Choir, had several points as to why Senate should allocate this money. “(Drake’s Mission Statement) talks about meaningful personal lives. Well, we’re talking about encounters in a completely different country, with completely different people,” Eubanks said.

“I don’t see how that doesn’t individually affect people on this tour and enhance their ability to learn.”

Eubanks also spoke of the promotional effects that the tour will have for Drake University as a whole.

“This will put the Drake name on the world map in the best way possible — through music,” Eubanks said.

Sen. Sanders said that while she agrees this tour will enhance the experiences of 72 students

and stays true to Drake’s Mission Statement, senators are there to advocate for the student body, not for Drake as a whole.

Sen. Kane took a more pratical outlook: “This is 25 percent of our total budget for the entire year.

And frankly, 72 students are not 25 percent of Drake.”

After over an hour of discussion, the Senate decided to put the motion to a vote rather than amending any part of it. Two senators voted yes to the motion, and 16 voted no.

With about 20 Drake Choir members in attendance, the group left disheartened.

President Maisto encouraged the Drake Choir to continue working with Senate to find other sources of funding.

Senate, however, passed two one-time funding requests, one for the Drake Tennis Club to go to Iowa State Tennis Invitational

in Ames, Iowa, and the other for the Christian Pharmacist Fellowship International to cover transportation costs for a threeday trip in Louisville, Kentucky.

The conference is tailored

to Christians in health care and will provide networking and professional events to over 2,500 people.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

STUDENT SENATE denied choir their request for one-time funding for a European tour. The request was denied due to the fact that it did not apply to much of the student body. PHOTO BY ALICIA KANG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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02 | news

Oct. 14, 2015

NEWS STUDENT SENATE

KEVIN MAISTO sits at the front of Student Senate. This week, Senate approved six organizations, including Women in Mathematics and Computer Science. PHOTO BY ALICIA KANG| STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Senate approves growth to student organizations CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 With over 160 student organizations, Drake University is known for providing hands-on experiences, and Student Senate proved that this week.

Six more student organizations were approved, including an e-sports club and a club for women in the fields of math and science.

Women in Mathematics and Computer Science has been an unofficial club for the past couple of years on campus, and they have held events in the past as well.

The club has a great relationship with the community and faculty members and hopes to reach out to more students in the future. In the past, they have invited middle school students from the Des Moines community to experience the graphic design labs at Drake.

“We bring these kids in for an hour and a half and give them our pitch: this is why you should get into science, this is why it’s cool,” executive member Rachel Davis said. “I think we had about 20 to 25 kids the first time, and the second time we did it was even bigger, maybe around 30.”

Student Senate was impressed with the work the organization has done with the community already and the goals Women in Mathematics and Computer Science has for the future.

“I think this is by far the coolest organization I’ve ever seen come through Senate,” Sen. O’Hea said.

The organization is open to all students, including men and students in majors other than math and science. Currently, members’ majors range from actuarial science to biology to computer science.

Senate also approved Chi Alpha, a national Christian organization that focuses on selfdiscovery and God-discovery.

The main difference between this group and other Christian organizations on campus is that Chi Alpha is Pentecostal, which means they believe in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

“We do really informal weekly meetings—large group and small group—to grow as a person, grow as an individual, maturing your relationship with Christ,” said Thad Logan, Chi Alpha’s president.

Chi Alpha hopes to focus on

local events and chapter bonding to start out with, but will look into mission trips in the long-term.

Another national organization also got approved this week: Be the Match On Campus. This club will raise awareness about bone marrow transplants and will hold events to match students up with patients in need of bone marrow around the nation.

The organization will get cheek swabs from students, and if there is a match, send them to a hospital to have the procedure done.

“For those of you that don’t know much about bone marrow transplants, you should look up some stories — they’re pretty life changing,” said Treasurer Matusik. “Occasionally, there’s only one person in the world that matches your bone marrow, so it’s possible that there’s somebody in some European country, and it’s only you, here, that can help them.”

Treasurer Matusik went on about the benefits of this organization.

“It’s a simple cheek swab, and it can literally save a life.”

Love Your Melon, another national organization that spreads awareness and raises

money for children battling cancer, also became a student organization on campus.

Love Your Melon’s original mission was to put a hat on every head of a child battling cancer.

Now, they contribute part of their funds to cancer research.

This organization will be selling apparel on campus as well as put on events to raise awareness for their organization and cancer research in general.

Drake eSports will meet weekly to socialize and relieve stress while playing video games.

The games will include Super Smash Bros., League of Legends and other popular video games.

The club hopes to host friendly tournaments in the future with possible prizes for the winner.

While the group admits they may not be talented enough to go to tournaments around the area, the club will allow introverted students to socialize and meet new people.

“I don’t think our group is really big enough, and I know I’m at least not talented enough to go to a tournament,” said Taylor Gartshore, Drake eSports’ president. “Other people basically do this for a living, so I don’t think that we will actually compete

against those people.”

Two national organizations that will help the College of Arts and Sciences were also approved.

The Drake University American Institute of Graphic Arts Student Group plans to “provide workshops, informational events and networking events for members and non-members” and got the motion from Senate.

Sen. Freemon described this organization as “similar to the (American Marketing Association).” Senate agreed that this organization will help the college of arts and sciences grow and appeal to prospective students.

The other organization approved was Alpha Mu Gamma, which will recognize accomplishments of languagestudy students and promote language study at Drake.

Recently, Drake has expanded its language study program by adding a Spanish minor. Senate hopes that this organization will foster that desire for a more expansive language program at Drake.

CAMPUS NEWS

Language department advances new curriculum

Students given opportunity to add Spanish minor, teach in China Jessie Spangler Staff Writer jessica.spangler@drake.edu

Before this year, Drake only provided a Spanish certificate.

They now offer a Spanish minor that takes 18 hours to complete, along with the option of receiving a certificate in Latin American Studies.

According to Drake’s website, “The new minor builds on an already rigorous program in which graduates test at language proficiency levels equal to or better than students earning minors from other schools.”

But Marc Pinheiro-Cadd, the Director of World Languages, said that the Spanish minor looks better on paper for future employers and helps prospective students choose between schools.

The Spanish minor provides more opportunities in studying language and culture for students.

“Based on lots of conversations with current and prospective students and their parents, they’re looking for majors and minors.

The fact that Drake hasn’t had any language majors or minors in a number of years has proven to be a bit of an issue. I think that in some cases, having a Spanish

minor will help students decide to come to Drake,” Pinheiro-Cadd said.

The addition of a Spanish minor provides more opportunities for students, especially when it comes to studying abroad.

Spanish classes will have students go into Des Moines and interact with native Spanish speakers to help improve their speech and knowledge of the Latino culture.

Studying abroad isn’t required to achieve a Spanish minor, but is encouraged.

“Getting a major or minor in a language merely by sitting in a classroom for a number of hours is not as useful as actually going to a country where the language is spoken,” Pinheiro-Cadd said.

Along with the new minor comes a redesign of the program.

“The upper level classes in Spanish are being slightly redesigned so that they all have a component of community engagement,” Pinheiro-Cadd said. “Students will be able to go out into the greater Des Moines area and interact with native Spanish speakers in a variety of contexts.”

Students have been happy so far with the fact that a minor in Spanish can now be attained.

“When you learn another language, you learn more than a set of words that allow you to speak to somebody else. In almost every context, when you learn another language, you have to learn the culture that comes along with in order to use the language effectively.”

Marc Pinheiro-Cadd Director of World Language

“The program is great because it presents students with the opportunity to go above and beyond a concentration. We speak the language 24/7 in class and are able to learn about the culture as well, which is why I love the program so much,” said Ravyn Daniel, a first year.

A new Spanish course has also been added. It is aimed more towards pharmacy and pre-med students, called Spanish for Healthcare Providers.

A Spanish professor and a Pharmacy professor worked together to create the additional course.

The number of pharmacy

and pre-med students studying Spanish has started to increase, and the fact that Des Moines and many other places that are becoming more diverse, has proved that knowing Spanish is beneficial.

“A new trend in language teaching is something called ‘Spanish for specific purposes,’” Pinheiro-Cadd said. “It’s getting away from the idea that if you want to study a language everyone has to be super familiar with the literature of that language.

It’s getting away from that, and recognizing that students want to have a very specific application for their language skills.”

Learning a different language consists of more than just a new way of communication, but an expanded knowledge of culture.

According to Pinheiro-Cadd, learning about cultures improves the way one uses language.

“When you learn another language, you learn more than a set of words that allow you to speak to somebody else,” Pinheiro-Cadd said. “In almost every context, when you learn another language, you have to learn the culture that comes along with in order to use the language effectively.”

Daniel can relate to this as well.

“Spanish is so much more than just a language. It has character, culture, and history that I cannot wait to further explore through this program,” Daniel said.

Adding a Spanish minor to the curriculum helps students easier achieve the global citizenship status that Drake encourages. “(Part of) Drake’s mission statement, responsible global citizenship, I really think being bilingual contributes to that because you understand other people better, you can speak to them, and you have an idea of why they do the things they do,” Pinheiro-Cadd said.

Spanish is not the only language that has had new additions to the curriculum. More Chinese courses are now being provided as well. The program will allow students to learn from students from China.

“This is a really interesting program in that the Chinese students are trained specifically to teach Chinese to U.S. students,” Pinheiro-Cadd said. “And that’s important because they teach and learn differently in China.

Languages, in particular.”

The Chinese students will be coming from Minzu University in Beijing, China and will be around Drake students’ own ages.

03 | news

Oct. 14, 2015

NEWS CAMPUS NEWS

Distinctly Drake fund closes STEM builds campus, Campaign creates new priorities designs new majors

Jessica Lynk News Editor jessica.lynk@drake.edu @jessmlynk

What started in October 2010 as $73 million has now grown into over $216 million.

After five years, the Distinctly Drake campaign came to a close after surpassing its goal of $200 million.

“We always talked about how we want to be the best Drake we can be,” Vice President of Alumni and Development John Smith said. “We simply wanted to be the best Drake that we could be and from that we landed on Distinctly Drake to capture that sentiment.”

The comprehensive campaign was designed to have multiple buckets for donors to invest in.

“Institutions have lots of priorities, but you also want to have the flexible in those given options that your constituency can find their own personal connection to that area,” Smith said.

By the time the campaign ended, it crafted more than 208 scholarship funds with over $48 million.

“The number one priority was to create access to the Drake experience and access comes through scholarship support,” Smith said. “That felt

like a promise delivered to our current and future generations of students.”

The next step of the campaign was to deliver to faculty.

“It became clear that Drake needed to find multiple avenues to invest in our faculty,” Smith said.

One way the campaign achieved this was through endowed faculty positions, which give to programs that faculty are working with. Through Distinctly Drake, 11 endowed positions were created. More than $33 million was given to faculty through these positions.

The campaign also donated to the capital needs of Drake. These have evolved over the time of the campaign.

“The Distinctly Drake campaign is reflected of that evolution of time because opportunities emerged that we hadn’t even considered when the campaign started,” Smith said.

Examples of those opportunities are the basketball practice facility, the Patty and Fred Turner Jazz Center and the Cline atrium.

From the start, the campaign had intended to redesign classrooms and labs and creation of Cowles after-hours.

The last section of the campaign is the Drake fund, also referred to as an annual fund. The

fund comes from donors of $5 to $10 thousand.

“This advances the daily operation of the institution,” Smith said.

All of these divisions of funds were created not by the campaign managers, but through planning by administration.

“We also say in development that those of us in development do not set the fundraising priorities of the university,” Smith said.

“Those emerge through the leadership of the provost office, endorsed through the direction of the president and the board of trustees, but created by the academic deans in the colleges and school. They identify and define the highest priories of the institution.”

The Distinctly Drake campaign reached its goal well before the closing date of June 2015. Smith is happy with how the campaign went overall.

“Campaigns are as much about raising resources as they are about branding the institution and messaging to our alumni and friends,” Smith said. “Campaigns give an opportunity to identify the institution’s priorities, but have them really tell a story of who the institutions aspire to be.”

Margot Stevens Staff Writer margot.stevens@drake.edu

A new building for science, technology, education and mathematics (dubbed STEM) will soon be constructed between Medbury and Olin.

At the moment, Drake University administrators are in the process of pricing the project.

Chief Administration Officer Venessa Macro expects the budget will be approved when it is presented to the board in January.

If it is approved, they will break ground in February and significant construction will commence in the spring.

The construction is expected to conclude by August 2017 if everything proceeds according to plan.

Funding for the project is being provided through fundraising and debt services.

A fundraising goal of $20 million has been set and so far $13 million of that has been raised. Another $32 million will be attained through bonds.

The university’s revenues are expected to rise because of the building, which will help pay for the debt. Tuition will not be affected.

The addition of the new building also means an addition of seven new majors.

Drake will now be offering degrees in kinesiology, data analytics, physical education, athletic training, occupational therapy, doctorates in occupational therapy and masters in science for athletic training.

A lot of research went into the decision on which majors to add.

“It was born out of research from Drake’s admissions staff as well as national research about what employers need and student want,” Macro said.

But students are most excited about changes that are going to be made to existing buildings.

Renovations will be made to Olin and Harvey Ingham, and the greenhouse will be relocated to the roof of the connection building. Perhaps most important to students, skywalks will connect all the science buildings together.

“The connector buildings will be great for science students because they can literally go from one end of the science wing to the other and never have to go outside,” said Paul Grewe, a sophomore majoring in theater and BCMB.

CAMPUS NEWS

LEAD capstone initiates conference on sexual assualt Jenny DeVries Staff writer jennifer.devries@drake.edu

It all started five years ago, when Drake University students noticed the absence of plastic water bottles on campus. Then, the academic fair was introduced and, to this day, continues to help students make important academic decisions.

More recently, a new student organization, One Voice, was established to take an activist stance on LGBTQ issues on campus.

Now, a student-led conference about how campuses handle sexual assault cases is coming to Drake.

All of these changes to campus were implemented by LEAD 190: Leadership Capstone students, adopted by the university and

made into sustainable efforts to better the campus and the community surrounding the school.

These capstone students defy a common misconception that is quickly corrected in the first class of the leadership concentration, Foundations of Leadership: leadership is a quality that people are born with.

Concentration founder Thomas Westbrook best explains what it requires to become a true leader.

“You have to learn the skill sets around assessing need, developing a vision, getting alignment of people and resources around that vision and then executing,” Westbrook said.

Leadership capstone students take ownership of bringing value in some way to Drake and the Des Moines community, and Westbrook argues that they benefit students just as much.

“There’s an incredible amount of learning that comes

from capstones,” Westbrook said. “Most of it is around the collaboration and the teamwork that students have to do to create that type of change. We give you the tools, the confidence, the language of leadership to create positive social change.”

At the end of a student’s major, they must use the information, skills and ideas they have learned to complete a senior capstone.

What makes the Leadership Capstone unique is that the students are each other’s only resource.

“It’s interesting because you have one semester and no budget to do something wonderful,” Westbrook said.

This year’s capstone initiative is SOS, or Students Organizing Solutions, which planned a conference called Take Back the Campus.

Thought leaders across Iowa college campuses will come together on Drake’s campus for a day to have a conference about

how their respective schools handle sexual violence and other “hot button” issues.

The conference will include a keynote speaker with two breakout sessions about mental health, sexual assault, LGBTQ issues or race relations from which people can choose. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m Dec. 5 in buildings across campus.

“The point is to bring the Alyssa Mozaks and the Tony Tylers of each school, along with a group of very passionate students to discuss how each of their schools handles these types of things,” said Hope Waggoner, a student in the capstone. “Sometimes I think we all get so caught up in, so focused on how we handle an issue that we forget that there are other ways that might work better.”

Tony Tyler, director of Olmsted Center and student organizations, is not new to this type of activism on campus with leadership capstone students.

“They contacted me last year and they were interested in doing something that would bring issues related to LGBTQ inclusion on campus to the forefront of oncampus dialogues, and to be a sustainable effort,” Tyler said.

What students ended up doing was creating a student organization, One Voice, which turned into a sustainable effort targeting LGBTQ inclusion issues on campus. This year’s class intends to do the something similiar with their initiative. Even though Westbrook points out that this project is an ambitious undertaking, he remains optimistic.

“They’re on target,” Westbrook said. “If they pull it off, and I think they can, it’ll either be a regional or a statewide effort to raise awareness and create action plans around a very sensitive, very important topic.”

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE PHOTO BY JESSICA LYNK | NEWS EDITOR

ON FRIDAY, CNN came to campus soliciting questions from Drake University students for CNN’s upcoming debates.

Throughout the afternoon, the red, white and blue airstream trailer hauled by a CNN pickup truck asked for input from students and community members about issues that mattered to them.

A few selected questions wil be used in CNN debates. The next CNN debate is scheduled for October 13 in Las Vegas as a debate among Democratic candidates. CNN is also hosting a Republican debate on December 15.

The camper, which is cosponsored by Facebook, opened up on one side along the Olmsted parking lot to reveal a sectional couch along one wall, wallpaper of a nondescript political rally, a bench along the front and a television broadcasting CNN around the clock.

Moderating the station and talking to students was Topher Gauk-Roger, a CNN Entertainment producer who typically works covering red carpet events and press junkets for films.

Read the rest of this story on timesdelphic.com

04 | opinions

Oct. 14, 2015

OPINIONS NATIONAL EVENTS

NATIONAL EVENTS

Standing for Planned Parenthood

Michelle Obama #62 million girl campaign How the First Lady is making her mark

Hilary Padavan

Staff Writer hilary.padavan@drake.edu

Planned Parenthood has recently come under fire from many politicians who are deadset on defunding the program because they don’t agree that abortions should be legal.

They paint the company as a baby-killing, greedy, immoral organization that takes advantage of vulnerable young women.

Such stigma against Planned Parenthood frightens me because it just shows how uneducated the general population is on what Planned Parenthood really does. They use abortion as an excuse to attack women’s health organizations and are trying to push an agenda that would leave millions of men and women who can’t otherwise afford health care out of luck.

Abortion is only one small fraction of what Planned Parenthood does for men and women all across the nation.

The majority of what Planned Parenthood does is screen for STIs/STDs and cancers and give out contraceptives to keep sex safe for those who perhaps

don’t have access to these services elsewhere. Abortions only account for 3% of Planned Parenthood’s total provided services—in fact, Planned Parenthood is focused more on the education of young people to prevent unwanted pregnancies from ever happening rather than terminating current pregnancies.

They provide anonymous sex education in a country that seems to want to tip-toe around the subject and promote abstinence only sex “education” that has been shown to not keep teens from having sex.

This isn’t to say, however, that I think that people who believe abortion is wrong are uneducated and ignorant. Not at all, actually. These conversations are important to have to open up people to other perspectives on such issues, but taking these ideas a step further and trying to force them on everyone is where I draw the line. You can’t force people to believe and practice what you do just because you feel it’s “right” for them to do so.

Unless you need their services, you should have no say in their funding because you don’t rely on them—you don’t know the full, personal effects defunding this company would have on millions of people. Protest abortions all you want, bring up these topics and discuss them with others, but leave Planned Parenthood out of it.

Clare Hueg

Staff Writer clare.hueg@drake.edu

Let me preface this article with one statement: I’m a feminist.

Yes, I shave my armpits. No, I don’t light my bras on fire. (Note to the women who do: bras are expensive. If you don’t like them, just don’t buy them in the first place.)

When I say I’m a feminist, I mean that I think women deserve equal pay for equal work. I believe that we deserve leadership roles beyond one token woman in the conference room. I don’t think the fact that women CEOs are less common than CEOs named John is a coincidence. I definitely can’t justify why we are treated as a minority when we comprise half of the population.

I also realize that my complaining about these things does nothing. The only way for these problems to change is for girls around the world to be as educated as their male peers.

Currently, 62 million girls don’t have access to education, making

it nearly impossible for women to be represented equally in competitive jobs where education matters.

Enter Michelle Obama and her new hashtag #62milliongirls.

The video she used to introduce it calls for Instagram and Twitter users to post the hashtag along with what education has provided for them.

I don’t think she’s overstepping here. She has two daughters, and she is a woman who has benefited from scholastic opportunities.

Since she is in a public position, it is only fair and natural for her to use that publicity to speak out on issues she is passionate about.

Her prior initiatives, including exercise and healthy eating, have targeted American kids specifically. It’s exciting to see her new movement have a global reach. With her husband leaving office shortly, she can’t act as “America’s mom” anymore. This campaign is proof that she has always been genuinely pushing for a better community and not acting for political benefits or as part of her husband’s power trips. Her new campaign for girls’ education is the perfect way for her to branch out of her job as FLOTUS and into a new role as a global feminist advocate.

With Michelle Obama’s representation, this movement will go exactly where I believe it needs to go. She has the unique ability to reach and connect with every woman in our country, gaining the support 62 million girls need.

I hope she will give more support than just a hashtag. It would be unfair for her to claim

she is a supporter while denying uneducated girls any access to her financial resources or political clout.

I think awareness should be the first step. If you really see an issue, financially support the resolution of it. Put your money where your hashtag is. #62milliongirls alone will not create change, but it is a catalyst for the real changes we need. It doesn’t stop at awareness. We need to grow this movement into financial and political support for new legislation around the world and even for underprivledged women boarding schools.

The beautiful thing about this hashtag is you don’t have to be rich and powerful to provide support.

Broke college students can post using it. Financially burdened parents (the ones who can’t afford their children’s education) can speak out for their needs without burdening themselves further. It is an equalizer in support.

People are excited about this cause. Beyoncé is tweeting about it, for crying out loud. It’s a topic that needs attention. I’m so glad that someone as poised and caring as Michelle Obama is becoming the face of it.

STAFF OPINION

Presidential candidates and the effectiveness of visiting colleges Student weighs in on why Presidential candidate visits make an impact on young voters

Clare Vanchute

Staff Writer clare.vanchute@drake.edu

‘Tis the season to be bombarded with presidential nominee hopefuls.

The primaries do not get nearly the same amount of hype as the general elections, but the primaries are called the primaries for a reason: this is the time that candidates get to grease the wheels of the public mind before the Big Leagues.

For those of us who are monitoring the primaries closely, we have already begun to finetune our personal picks. It’s like fantasy football for political nerds like me.

But with that said, I truly only know the candidates based on their performances on large debate stages, CNN coverage of some rally or event taking place in other states, articles written about their campaign trails and social media.

In an age saturated by social media, the assumption would be that social media would be the best tool for candidates running for office could use. With social media, you can reach a great deal more people than you can on the ground, particularly those who aren’t inclined to go to any events or follow the coverage of the primaries closely.

However, I think that events held on college campuses and rallies are the most effective way to make an impact on potential voters.

THE TIMES-DELPHIC The student newspaper for Drake University since 1884

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CHAMINDI WIJESINGHE, Business Manager wachamindi.wijesinghe@drake.edu

For instance, let’s examine our recent visit by presidential hopeful Rick Santorum.

Unfortunately, I was not even aware that he was on campus at the time. Surprising, but also disappointing. I bet that the students, faculty, staff and community members who got to be face-to-face with him walked away with a clearer picture and understanding of who Santorum is as a person and a candidate.

Why? Because they actually saw him.

Social media is great and can breach barriers, but it lacks a personal feel to it. My profile picture is a picture of what I look like; my statuses are reflective of what I am thinking about or doing currently; my tweets are revealing of interests I have and my sense of humor.

Sure, the picture is of me, and my status and tweets were created or retweeted by me but would you feel like you really knew me?

Wouldn’t you have questions or want to actually see if my humor

and beliefs I tote around on social media are actually the way I am?

Social media is a lens we see people through. Every individual’s account is managed by themselves, so we only see what that specific person wants us to see. They can manage their own image.

Politicians are constantly managing their image, but even more importantly, they have teams of people managing it, too. There are people whose job it is to tweet out a candidate’s tweets, comb their toupee and pick out their outfits, write their speeches and coach them on how to handle unexpected questions or situations.

The only time you can slice through all the masks and layers is when you see a candidate in the flesh.

Presidential visits to campus are incredibly important. I don’t care if you are a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. You should go see everyone you can!

Let me put it this way: If social

media and access to things on our smart phones were enough, no one would go to live concerts to see music. I think the same concept applies to political candidates.

We are lucky in that we have unique opportunity going to a university in Iowa and in the capital city. The Iowa Caucuses are a big deal and they can be a make-or-break for politicians running for president.

I encourage you take advantage of this and don’t let any opportunity pass you by.

There will be visits on our campus and in the greater Des Moines community.

So go to as many as you can become as informed as you can, and use your vote to influence the future of this country. Don’t let the social media, controlled by political actors, be the only way you get to know them and their agendas. Meet them, talk to them and see if they measure up.

The Times-Delphic is a student newspaper published weekly during the regular academic year and is produced by undergraduate students at Drake University. The opinions of staff editorials reflect the institutional opinion of the newspaper based on current staff opinions and the newspaper’s traditions. These opinions do not necessarily reflect those of individual employees of the paper, Drake University or members of the student body. All other opinions appearing throughout the paper are those of the author or artist named within the column or cartoon. The newsroom and business office of The Times-Delphic are located in Meredith Hall, Room 124. The Times-Delphic is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press. The editor-in-chief sits on the Board of Student Communications.

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05 | opinions

Oct. 14, 2015

OPINIONS STAFF OPINION

Fall clothing essentials: How to add a chic twist to your wardrobe

Ashley Kirkland

Staff Writer ashley.kirkland@drake.edu

The leaves are falling, and so is the temperature. Fall is my favorite season for many reasons.

One reason is the excitement that stems from tucking away my gladiator sandals for my favorite Steve Madden leather boots.

While most assume fall fashion only means the typical layering of chunky sweaters and scarves, there are many ways to add a chic twist to your fall debut.

Beanies are the unconditional solution for a bad hair day. Too often I have woken up with fifteen minutes to spare before class and grabbed my favorite beanie.

Wearing a beanie is also a great way to stay warm on your walk across campus.

The “Drake Lakes” are real and

they should not be trifled with.

While wearing your rain boots every day may sound appealing, it is not exactly practical. Think about grabbing a pair of booties— ankle boots—with a shortened heel for your next venture. Side note: heels are a great way to add some height and self-confidence to your day, regardless of what side of the bed you woke up on.

Neckerchiefs are back and they are essential to adding the perfect amount of edge to any minimalist’s closet. Coach’s fall line was a pleasant mix of edgy and chic, from leather backpacks to the black neckties. We all have a handkerchief hanging around our room somewhere, but instead of tying it around your wrist, substitute it for your favorite scarf for a more edgy appeal.

Black jeans are a godsend.

While everyone loves their favorite little black dress, it is getting cold and time to cover up (whether we like it or not). Pair your favorite staple pair of black jeans with an oversized sweater and combat boots for an effortless look on your way to the pumpkin patch this weekend.

For men, grab a flannel shirt to bundle up and add some comfort to your on the go outfit.

Layering a flannel with a vintage jean jacket will do the trick when the temperatures drop. As a final touch, grab your favorite pair of

leather boots.

While fall is great for seasoned drinks and warm fuzzy fabrics, it is also a great time to experiment with your style. Be bold and don’t hold back this fall. If you are tight on a budget, hit up local thrift shops. They have a great selection of sweaters and miscellaneous vintage accessories.

AUTUMN is upon us and it seems to be the favorite time of year for many students due to the cooler weather. Fall also requires some essential accessories such as beanies, boots of all sizes and colors and neckerchiefs, which are making a surprising comeback. PHOTO BY ASHLEY KIRKLAND | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

NATIONAL EVENT

Oregon community college shooting brings concern about mental health policies

Natalie Larimer

Staff Writer natalie.larimer@drake.edu

There’s been a lot of fuss lately over the most recent college shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. I think this is a huge problem, but I think there’s a larger problem here— multiple

ones, actually.

For one thing, the articles I’ve read about it all mention that the shooter (Chris Harper-Mercer) is autistic. Yet, in a CNN article, they interviewed his father, who would not comment on whether or not he had emotional or mental instabilities.

Now, I’m not saying he wasn’t autistic, but if he would have been Muslim, his mental state wouldn’t have been mentioned at all. He would be called a terrorist, which he is. No articles mention terrorism.

Another radical opinion I’m going to dip into here is gun control. He should definitely not have had any access to firearms.

According to CNN, police found 14 guns linked to the shooter.

Now that’s a problem.

I know a veteran with PTSD who is often found in his garage cleaning his gun collection that is

nothing short of an arsenal. That cannot be allowed.

I don’t mean to associate mental health problems with violence because the majority of people with mental health issues are non-violent, but if you’re equipping unstable people with guns, it might come back and bite you.

In case you missed Friday’s issue of “The Wall Street Journal,” Tim Murphy wrote an opinion called “Mass Shootings and a Mental-Health Disgrace.”

He talks about how he wrote a bill advocating for reform in many aspects of America’s mental health policies. That’s great. I support that wholeheartedly.

However, he mentioned in his article that he led a congressional investigation into the mental health system after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. My question for

Murphy is this: Why does it take a shooting to explore our failed system?

I looked at www.propublica. org, which is a journalism and public interest site, and it stated that 75 percent of 34 adolescent mass murderers between 1958 and 1999 were not diagnosed with any mental disorders. So why do we readily assume that all shooters are mentally ill?

The fact that Harper-Mercer’s father refused to comment on the mental state of his son implies that he did not see this coming. In the same CNN article I mentioned earlier, it even says that his father repeatedly taught him to never own or use a gun.

The fact is that we have many problems involved here. One of them is that our mental health system in America is obviously not working, considering that, according to Murphy, “a person

with a serious mental illness is 10 times more likely to be in a prison cell than a psychiatric hospital bed.”

Another issue at hand is the simple access to guns that many Americans have. Again, HarperMercer had 14 guns. That’s 14 too many.

We need to have a discussion about mental health, and it should not require a mass shooting to bring up the subject. We also need to look at our gun control laws. We absolutely should have background checks for people we are giving gun licenses to because if we don’t, then we could be giving guns to people with PTSD, or worse.

STAFF OPINION

DEAR BRANDI

Budget-friendly costumes that won’t break your bank

Dear Brandi: Why won’t he leave me alone?

Marissa DePino

Staff Writer marissa.depino@drake.edu @MarissaDePino

With Halloween only three weeks away, we are all beginning to wonder what costume we should wear. It should be a memorable costume. We have to decide if we want a costume that is sweet and sassy, scary and gory ,or something more comical.

But while we want to find the best costume, we do not want to stretch out our pockets too far to do so. You can easily create the perfect Halloween costume without even leaving the house.

For a sweet and sassy costume idea, go with the “scaredy cat” approach. For this costume, all you need is black—liquid or gel— eyeliner, bobby pins and all black clothes. Use the eyeliner to create a black nose starting up from your Cupid’s bow to just over the top of your nose. Then, add a few freckles on both sides and three whiskers on each side of your face.

Next, create a winged look on the top of your eye extending the wing across your eye in a thin line. Add a second wing in order to make your eyes look longer.

Do the same on the bottom of your eye to form what is almost a reverse wing. With your makeup completed, take a small section of your hair from one side of your head. Twist the section of your hair into a small bun and secure it with bobby pins. Repeat on the other side of your head. This creates an illusion of ears. Now throw on the all black attire and your look is simply purrrrrrfect.

Now if you’re not a cat person, then this next look may be just for you. This is the scarecrow costume. To make this look, you should acquire jeans, a flannel, a straw hat and face paint.

First, put on your jeans and flannel shirt, making sure to tuck in the flannel. A big leather belt

would be a great accessory as well for this costume. Loose straw (or fake hay from a craft store) is very important for this costume to work. Place the hay so that it sticks out of your pant legs, sleeves, hat and some behind your ear for that extra touch. Lastly, use face paint to rosy cheeks and a colored nose.

A red or orange color work best for this step.

If neither cats nor scarecrow costumes seem appealing, then be a mummy. This is by far the easiest costume of the three.

All that is needed is gauze and white clothes. Using the gauze, wrap it around your entire body over your white clothes. Tear off pieces of the gauze and add them randomly to the already wrapped gauze to create a spookier effect.

Wearing any of these costumes on Halloween will surely make you the center of attention of any Halloween party.

your urge to date me because it’s not going to happen.” Or something along those lines. You need to be 100 percent clear that nothing exists between you two.

And none of that “He should be able to tell.” You have to use your words, some guys don’t get the obvious hints unless you tell him face-to-face and tell him you are not interested.

Brandi Dye

Advice Columnist brandi.dye@drake.edu @14bad01

How do I get a guy to leave me alone if he doesn’t get the hint after I have made it clear I have no interest in him?

I’ve always had this problem in my life. What do I do? –N. There is only one solution: get ugly. Get a bowl cut, stop wearing bras, wear skorts and rock socks with Crocs. It’s the only way.

Just kidding.

If he keeps asking you out, and you keep declining, he is not the type to understand subtlety.

He sees your attractiveness and can’t help himself so you must tell him, “I know I’m so sexy and irresistible, but you need to curb

If you would like your question included in future Dear Brandi columns, email her or DM her on Twitter.

06 | opinions

Oct. 14, 2015

OPINIONS FILM REVIEW

‘The Martian’: Best this world has to offer in film

Eric Deutz

Film Critic eric.deutz@drake.edu

Ladies and gentlemen, Oscar season is officially upon us. And about once a year (if that), a movie comes out that manages to walk that impossible line between being both a crowd and critical favorite—a film that can grab a

nomination for Best Picture while also being one of the top ten highest grossing films of the year.

Since 2010, members of this exclusive club number to just four films: “American Sniper,” “Gravity,” “Inception” and “Toy Story 3.”

I realize it’s early, but if there’s one film this year that has any chance of joining that group, I believe it’s Sir Ridley Scott’s beautifully-crafted return to form, “The Martian,” an exhilarating and sometimes hysterical journey about a man faced with an impossible circumstance, and the helplessness of the world that can do little but root him on.

“The Martian,” misleadingly, does not tell the coming-ofage story of one of our young, green-skinned neighbors just trying to find his place in the world. Rather, it follows a group of human astronauts and their

mission to study the possibility of life on Mars.

But when a massive storm hits, the crew has no choice but to evacuate, leaving crew member and plant biologist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) behind after he was killed by a large piece of flying debris in the storm. …Or was he?

Soon enough, Watney awakes, barely alive, but completely aware of his situation: isolated on a desolate planet millions of miles away from Earth, with no way to get back and no chance of any manned mission reaching him for years.

Any fan of director Scott’s work (“Alien,” “Gladiator”) knows that beautiful scenic design and cinematography are simply a part of his trade, and “The Martian” never disappoints in that aspect.

As desolate as Mars is, it sure is beautiful, as are the visual effects throughout.

For his part, Matt Damon – who is becoming quite the expert on being left behind on desolate planets, thanks to “Interstellar” – gives what is probably his most intriguing performance in almost ten years. He nails the emotional moments and continues his reputation as one of the best criers on the big screen, but it’s so much more than that. The real genius in this film comes in the genrebending tone set throughout – Scott’s sure-handed direction and Damon’s misleadingly casual and sometimes hilarious performance turns the scariest situation imaginable into one of the best times you’ll have at the theater all year.

Of course, making it that much fun may have its negative side effects – the Academy Awards generally like their favorites a little deeper and a little more thought provoking. In the box

office, this movie will have no problem – with $54.3 million, it had the 15 biggest opening weekend of the year, and I expect it should climb that list pretty quickly thanks to the press and highly positive word of mouth it’s receiving. But in a fair world, this movie also deserves to be right up there with the critically and technically best of the year, deserving nominations for its cinematography, visual effects, sound editing, director and certainly its lead actor. It seems quite likely that the Academy will go for their usual biopics and experimental favorites, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But between this film and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” if they choose to overlook the action/adventure genre as they usually do, they’ll be missing out.

Grade: A

STAFF OPINION

Adjusting to the American life after transferring from Malaysia

Yee Hoi Mun

Staff Writer hoimun.yee@drake.edu

Upon my arrival at Morehouse Hall, the first person I met was my roommate, who is, coincidentally, Malaysian, and an acquaintance of mine. We transferred to Drake from the same university back in Malaysia, Taylor’s University, and somehow got paired together.

The fact that my roommate would be Malaysian and someone I know caused mixed reactions from myself.

On one hand, settling in would be easier as establishing

connections would be less problematic when you can meet people through yourself AND through another person.

However, I was secretly hoping to get an American roommate because I wanted the full American experience.

My wish was granted to my Malaysian neighbor in room 229, Ming, though. I only met Ming Tong Ang, otherwise known as Ming, here at Drake but we became fast friends, mostly because we are both immature young adults if not because of our nationality.

I went over to his room to ask him some questions regarding his background and his American roommate from Minnesota.

Despite us both being from Malaysia, our backgrounds couldn’t be more different. Ming had lived in Jenjarom, a small town in Selangor state, all his life prior to coming here.

“I had never traveled outside Malaysia before this and had never really been out of Jenjarom much, so in comparison, Des Moines is a metropolis,” Ming said.

However, when you come from

a country so famed for its cuisine, adjusting to meals in another country can be a challenge.

“I am not used to the food here at all, particularly the vegetables and rice,” Ming said. “In Malaysia, we always cook our vegetables but they seem to like their greens raw here. The rice they cook here is also different. Most Malaysians eat white rice exclusively but that’s not the case here.”

When asked about his adjustments to dorm and college life, Ming was much more positive and had only good things to say about his roommate, Brad, and most locals he has met here.

“Brad is really friendly; we get along really well and chat frequently,” Ming said. “He has also taught me a lot of new things.

Actually, I think most Americans I have met are like that, they love greeting and smiling to people, we don’t see that back in Malaysia.”

“The people here are generally more sociable and pay a lot of attention to details when communicating. They don’t tell you half of a story and leave the other half ambiguous,” Ming said.

Having gotten Ming’s words down, I turned to his roommate

Brad for his opinion on having a foreign roommate and his views of Malaysians.

“It’s fun. I do have friends from France and Germany, but none from outside the western world,” Sandeen said.

“I only had a vague image about Malaysia before I found

out my roommate was going to be Malaysian, so I looked the country up on Wikipedia,” Sandeen said.

“I feel like the Malaysian students here fit in pretty well,” Sandeen said. “Not just in residence halls, but throughout campus because most of you guys speak good English.”

HE SAID SHE SAID

He said vs. She said Halloween costumes

Ahhhh, the time of year when the weather is turning cold enough for sweatshirt weather, yet people still walk around in shorts because they refuse to believe that summer is over.

I love fall, and I think a lot people can agree that it is the best time of the year, with the smell of pumpkin spice and the oranges and reds. Everything is so pretty!

Then there comes that fateful week before Halloween where everything starts to become even more orange, and the weather becomes colder. This is also the time when people are out in whatever creative clothing they can come up with.

The usual stigma is that girls are out there wearing whatever “sexy” character or job they can relate to women. I think last year I saw a “sexy” bumblebee. I honestly can’t tell you the last time I saw a bumblebee and thought to myself, “You know what, all other bumblebees are kind of bland, but this one, this bumblebee is sexy!”

No. Never. Buying costumes, it seems, is never really a great option for women, so usually they get pretty creative.

I saw a slew of different and very creative costumes last year, and my favorite murmur of this year’s costumes has to be bridesmaids and one bride.

That’s right, people are going to be walking around like it’s a wedding, and it will be awesome.

For men, we have a little more leniency, but we still have our stereotypical “sexy” firefighter or policeman. I feel as if men like to get a little more creative, just due to the fact that they don’t have that standard that they must show up in something sexy and revealing.

My favorite Halloween costumes have to be couples costumes, because those seem to be the most creative! I have heard of everything from Sia and a chandelier to something as outrageous as a pair of breasts.

Halloween is a time to dress up as anything that makes you happy. There is really only one time a year when dressing up in something absolutely outrageous is socially acceptable, and that time is Halloween. (I mean, you could definitely still dress up in something crazy just for fun.)

If you need help, there are dragon suits at Wal-Mart for $30 and a left shark costume for $45.

What a bargain!

But dress up in whatever you want to dress up in, and if that outfit is a sexy bumblebee, then go be the sexiest bumblebee the world has ever seen!

Halloween is a very diverse holiday, with the number of the people celebrating it dwindling as they get older. In elementary school, there were Halloween parties.

Thankfully, at Drake University, most people respect the necessity of these childhood traditions in Halloween cheer by wearing costumes. Some Drake students even advance their support and admiration for the holiday by wearing their costume the entire day on October 31. Last year, Halloween was wild with registered Greek events as well as people dressing up with costumes to be Duck Dynasty, princesses or a bunch of bananas. Halloween 2015 has a high standard to live up to, so here are some ideas for kickass costumes.

A likely contender this year for single costumes is Caitlyn Jenner.

The controversy on this costume will be overwhelming. The people dressing up as her may be supportive and classy about the costume, or they may be dressing up as her to show mockery and disgust.

As the “Hunger Games” series keeps growing in popularity with each movie, I have an increasing suspicion that heterosexual couples will be dressing up as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. Hopefully, this couple will not be attending social events while wearing flammable outfits

that could catch fire when the subjects turn around. And just like every year, there will be the couple from Grease: Sandra Dee and Danny Zuko.

Predicted costumes for best friends could be a team of superheroes; each person may represent one of the Avengers.

Cartoons may be making an appearance this Halloween in packs as well. Perhaps Scooby Doo and his team of hooligans from Generation Y’s childhood?

With all these tasteful costume ideas and opportunities, there are wrong ways to wear them. Dress for the weather: If it’s below 60 degrees, do not wear booty shorts and a low cut top. Halloween really is not an excuse to wear less clothing than any other day.

What kind of cat shows as much cleavage as possible? (None.)

Instead, maybe wear leggings under your booty shorts; your health and comfort is more important than looking sexy—I promise.

Drake University will have another rockin’ time this year with events, costumes, and candy commemorating the spirit of the holiday. Costumes, being the most important of all, deserve a good effort. But, no matter what you dress up as, make a conscious effort to wear weatherappropriate clothing.

Joe Herba

Staff Writer joseph.herba@drake.edu

Victoria Tramp

Staff Writer victoria.tramp@drake.edu @TrampsFTW

07 | features

Oct. 14, 2015

FEATURES ARTS

Theater students discuss roles in fall show “Blood Wedding” Molly Adamson Staff Writer molly.adamson@drake.edu

This past weekend, the Drake Theater program put on “Blood Wedding,” a Spanish play written

by Federico Garcia Lorca.

The play is about a bride and groom and the events before and after their wedding.

It is revealed in the first act that the bride had a previous lover, whom she almost married.

It turns out that this man is part of the family who killed the groom’s father, which only angers the groom’s mother. After the wedding, the bride ends up running away with her former lover and tragedy ensues.

The actors faced a challenge in putting on this play, because it is a play that does not rely on realism.

Director John Graham, a theater professor at Drake, translated and adapted it.

“The style of the show is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

Our director was telling us we’re not real people up there, we’re not acting as real people would, that’s not the type of show this is. This isn’t realism, it’s a different kind of style,” said Eric Deutz, a senior majoring in Musical Theatre, who played the role of the Groom.

“Getting used to that has been a lot of fun, because as an actor it is often just ‘Get up there and be yourself.’ But with this, I don’t know how many times he said, ‘Stuff you’ve learned about how to be a good actor needs to be thrown out the window. That’s not what we’re doing here.’”

Isabella Taylor, a junior Musical Theatre major, agreed with her fellow actor about the different style.

“I’ve never done anything that would be considered dramatic or tragedy before,” Taylor said.

“I’m used to comedy or improv or musicals. So this is completely out of my comfort zone.”

Despite it being out of their comfort zone, the actors still gave it their all.

“I will not look at my phone the entire show or do anything else besides pay attention to what

they’re doing on stage, or be on stage or be looking at my script, so that I can stay constantly engaged in the world that we’re creating,” Taylor said. “In a show like this, it’s too hard to leave and then come back into it because then you’ll lose the momentum.”

“The show is exhausting,” Deutz said. “I get done with the show, and every time, it’s hard.

I can’t just zone out during the show, like a lot of shows you get into where you can do that. I see it as a real job that I have to put a lot of work into.”

The hard work paid off as audience members enjoyed the play a lot.

“They had so much great energy, and they never let that go, even during the scenes where you couldn’t quite tell what was going on,” said Tali Eisenstadt.

The show is partly in Spanish, which may have led to some audience confusion. But the cast members understood this and tried to compensate for it.

“Our director stressed from the beginning that the number one thing for the audience with this show is that they walk out and realize that they’re feeling like they’ve seen a thing of beauty,” Deutz explained. “The storytelling and what’s being said, that all comes with it, but the

most important part, even if they don’t get everything, is that they just saw something beautiful.“ Despite the challenges, both actors appreciated the chance they were getting.

“I was lucky, and I’m very excited to be in the show,” Taylor said. “(The play) reminded me why I’m in this program, and it reminded me that acting isn’t just something that a person can do in their free time and not put any work or time into it,” Deutz said.

“There is a craft here that people train and work for. With this show, because it isn’t that realism style, and there is a specific style

that we’re holding to, it takes work. It’s my first time working with this director. He always says ‘realism is for suckers.’ Even for him this play is a different direction. It’s completely new to most of us.“ Even though the actors may have faced a challenge in putting on this show, they tackled it head on and managed to come out on top, with a show that left the audience with the understanding of its beauty.

LAST WEEKEND, the Drake theater program held a production of “Blood Wedding” performed by students. Surrounding the experiences of a bride and groom before and after their wedding, the play challenged the actors to sway from realism in their performances. PHOTO BY ALICIA KANG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

LANGUAGE

ALUMNA

Slang and linguistic evolution Drake alumna shares international successes Sydney Schulte Copy Editor sydney.schulte@drake.edu

“Wanna Netflix and chill, bae?”

“Nah, I think I’m going to get turnt up with the squad.”

For anyone unsure of what these two sentences mean, here’s a rough translation: “Want to have sex tonight, babe?”

“No, I think I’m going out to party with my friends.”

Hopefully that cleared things up for any readers unversed in slang — slang is more or less an informal type of speech, often used to shorten or hide words or phrases.

“There’s a view of language as an organic, alive language,” said Drake English professor Carol Spaulding-Kruse.

“Language will change because it is used, and people will always give abbreviations and say things more quickly. That kind of change that happens is just language evolution.”

With the Internet and social media, language evolves at a much faster rate than ever before.

Words and images spread faster than wildfire. Like other evolving organisms, language faces aspects of what is called “survival of the fittest.”

“I think (slang) presents an interesting challenge for dictionaries,” Spaulding-Kruse said. “The dictionary entry may be

risky if by the time it’s approved as a word, it’s on its way out. It’s funny how some words come back into existence after having died out.”

For example, the Oxford Dictionaries editors select a Word of the Year. The Word of the Year doesn’t have to be a new word discovered over the past 12 months. In 2010, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year in the United States was the verb “unfriend.”

“I thought that was really cool because ‘to unfriend’ is a centuries-old word, and it came back into use because of Facebook,” said SpauldingKruse. She shared an example of vanishing words: “It’s unfortunate that the word ‘befriend’ disappeared because now we use ‘to friend’ someone as a verb, but there was a perfectly good verb to describe ‘friending’ someone that already existed…

I think it’s kind of sad that that disappeared.”

If a word as old and common as “befriend” can vanish, what does that say about slang?

Depending on the word or phrase, it could be around for a few weeks or several years—maybe even centuries. Maybe they’ll pop up again decades later. Who knows?

One thing is for certain: change is here to stay.

Natalie Larimer Staff Writer natalie.larimer@drake.edu @larimerslogic

Studying abroad is a common feature of an education at Drake, but much of Drake’s foreign exchange program is about welcoming students from other countries.

One of those students, Rita Alvarez Tudela, was an exchange student from the Universidad de Nebrija in Madrid, Spain and studied at Drake’s school of journalism from 2006-07.

Since spending time at Drake, she has become a world-traveling photojournalist working for many different news agencies.

She returned to campus last Friday to say hello to old professors and friends of hers, taking breaks to explore campus with an old Pentax film camera.

She was in town as the official photographer for a wedding of two of her Drake friends.

“I was here for a year, and it was very important for me as a journalist because of how different it was from Spain in terms of the classes,” Tudela said.

“There were a lot of technology inputs I was not used to, like direct contact with computers that you have here but we don’t have in our classes in Spain.”

She made note of how helpful the staff was, especially at the beginning of her stay, due to the fact that her English was not perfect.

Tudela made the most of her year at Drake, including studying abroad during a May-term trip in China and working for the TimesDelphic.

“I met Rita immediately after she arrived at Drake because her luggage was lost and I don’t think it was ever found,” Director of International Services Gretchen Beckley said. “But from that low point her story gets better and better. Before I knew it, I was seeing her byline on articles in the Times-Delphic, and by the time she left, she was studying abroad in China.”

“I was here for a year, and it was very important for me as a journalist because of how different it was from Spain in terms of the classes. There was a lot of technology inputs I was not used to.”

Rita Tudela Drake Alumna

She went on a May-term trip for six weeks and fell in love with the country.

“It made me understand the world better and I ended up working in China for six years after that,” Tudela said.

After leaving Drake, Tudela got a scholarship from a journalism news agency that gave her the

opportunity to work as a political journalist in Madrid for a year, followed by a year in China as a correspondent.

“After that, I decided to stay longer in China because I think that one year is too little to cover a whole country that is so different,” Tudela said. “Politics, religion, environment, there were many issues that I was not aware of.”

While in Asia, she traveled to many countries, including North Korea and Japan, covering the news for different agencies.

After her six-year stay in China, she moved to London and continued in photojournalism.

She will graduate next month.

“It’s always a thrill to have international students like Rita come back for a visit and to hear the impact their time at Drake is having on them and on the world,” Beckley said.

08 | features

Oct. 14, 2015

FEATURES POLITICS

Iowa caucus website shares candidate events, information Website leads students to opportunities irrespective of major or field Anna Jensen Staff Writer anna.jensen@drake.edu

The plug for the Iowa Caucuses — one of which Drake will assist in hosting on February 1 — is already beginning. Twelve Drake students, along with Professor Rachel Paine Caufield, have launched a website with insider information on the caucuses.

“Caucuses, at their core, are just small party meetings,” Caufield said. “They are intensely located, like neighborhood party meetings. Both Democratic and Republican parties hold caucuses, and everyone can attend, and everyone should attend.”

Though Democratic and Republican caucuses differ in the processes used to select a winner, the two parties have several similarities.

“Anyone can go and submit a proposal for the party platform at the caucus and the people who are there will discuss it and vote on it,” Caufield said. “If it passes, it is given to the higher party platforms that happen later in the spring and it has the potential to be part of the party platform.”

Iowacaucusproject.org has blogs written by students, a number of scholars and journalists and an events page

where you can find out where the presidential candidates are all over the state of Iowa. You can also search events by party, date, candidate name or county.

“Candidates have meet-and -greets and a variety of other events all over Iowa,” said senior Austin Cannon. “Many of them even like going to places such as the Pizza Ranch.”

The purpose of the website is to get students and Iowans involved in the caucuses because they are a special and very interactive political event.

“The website is intended to be an opportunity to showcase the Iowa Caucus from the perspective of Iowa,” Caufield said. “Many national journalists come in and point a camera at a candidate, and then they go back to Washington or New York or Atlanta, and they fit that footage of the candidate in Iowa into some national story about the candidate. The story of Iowa is less often told.”

The students’ blogs focus on telling the story of Iowa and of first-time caucus goers rather than on the stories of the election that they know are going to be covered by the national news.

Four committees were formed in the class: the events team, the outreach team, the social media staff and the website staff.

They all work together during their class, or “staff meetings,” but they also have specific jobs

pertaining to their committees.

“At the beginning of the year, I asked all the students in the class to express an interest in one of the four committees, and strangely they naturally divided up completely equally,” Caufield said. “It was the best thing ever.”

“I am a part of the events team for the class, and we brainstorm with the whole class how we are going to get students involved (with political events on campus), what kind of students are we looking for if we have available internships,” junior Haley Barbour said. “We helped develop the campus-wide survey that asks if they are willing to volunteer or want to intern.”

The survey gives students the chance to get involved with political events by working them.

“We have a bunch of events across campus, and anyone, no matter what your major is, should fill out the survey (sent over email) with your information if you are interested,” Caufield said.

“Sometimes politics majors are well suited for the job, other times we are looking for people who have specific interests that might not even be politically based.”

The website, though expanding, is aimed at Drake’s campus, hoping to get many students involved whether politics is their major or not.

“A lot of students, politicalaffiliated majors or not, have

things they care about,” Barbour said. “We want people to understand that any major, any field of study, any future career is impacted by politics. For example, pharmacy has parallels to politics. Prescription drug laws are a huge political concern, but people often don’t see that connection.”

The Drake community and surrounding state of Iowa offer so many political opportunities and the chance to get involved. It is something that many professors urge their students to get involved in, no matter what their major is.

“College students should get involved because our age group is

so underrepresented. We are the least likely age group to vote, so the elected officials don’t pay as much attention to us as they do to other people. College kids need to get involved in (political decisions) otherwise the things that affect our lives, that are important to us and to our futures, aren’t going to be important to the people that we elect,” Barbour said.

THE IOWA CAUCUS PROJECT consists of 12 students, led by professor Rachel Paine Caufield, who provide content for a website that provides caucus information and opportunities. PHOTO BY SARAH LEBLANC | FEATURES EDITOR

POP CULTURE

Hillary Clinton takes pop culture spotlight, appeals to voters Clare Vanechaute Staff Writer clare.vanechaute@drake.edu

“Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”

Shows like Saturday Night Live and popular TV hosts such as Jimmy Fallon and Steven Colbert have a history of bringing to light the political climate and happenings, as well as hosting those politicians who are in the limelight.

As the primaries continue to heat up in the race to get party nominations, candidates are relying on these platforms to connect to the public.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, specifically, are using shows of this nature to meet their targetted agendas. Both have years of being in the public eye and subsequent public opinion to combat as they attempt to create a fresh image to win their party’s nomination.

Most recently, Clinton, playing an everyday bartender named Val, appeared in a light-hearted

SNL skit alongside actress Kate McKinnon, who played Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“I enjoyed it,” said Aaron Menick, a junior Environmental Science major. “But, I was wondering the whole time who wrote it and how much influence Clinton’s team had on the script.”

Strategic Political Communication professor Jennifer Glover Konfrst has a sharp, analytical view of the recent trend for candidates to appear on sit-down talk shows like Jimmy Fallon and on SNL. “It can hurt. And it can help,” she paused. “Ish,” she added. “I don’t think it’s going to be a game changer.”

Trump has been all over the news for his brash comments and the major waves he is making in the political world.

“I still don’t really know what to make of Trump as a celebrity trying to be a politician,” said Amy Sands, a senior BCMB major. “I can’t believe he’s actually running and that he’s still polling as high as he is.”

His high polls may be a result of his appearances on Colbert

and Fallon, where a different side of Trump comes out. These two versions of Trump may not seem to add up, but according to Konfrst, they are a strategic part of his campaign.

“Debate stages by design are confrontation, while a Colbert interview is conversational,” Konfrst said.

She argues that if Trump were to approach an intimate sit-down interview with the same tactic as he would a debate setting, he would not get the desired reaction.

“He’s introducing himself to a whole new audience,” Konfrst said.

While Trump is a celebrity who is battling to distinguish himself as a legitimate politician, Hillary holds a much different set of established public opinion to overcome.

“She is trying to appear as human as possible, as celebrity as possible,” Konfrst said.

SNL has parodied Clinton for years, notably including the 2008 opener with Tiny Fey as Sarah Palin and Amy Poehler as Hillary. Comparing the two

reveals a major shift from this recent portrayal on SNL and her accompanying appearance.

“They skirted around the issues that people tease her about but they didn’t hit them,” Konfrst said.

In the Poehler/Fey parody, Poehler’s Clinton is all but frothing at the mouth with desire for the presidency and rage against all those who stand in her way. While in the recent one, McKinnon’s Clinton is much more toned down, stating that she is first and foremost a grandmother and entrusted to protect the Earth.

Views on why Clinton appeared on SNL are split.

“I think that (Clinton) is doing things to appeal to a younger demographic,” said Sands.

Menick, however, believed her primary goal was to “use the platform to get some of her ideas out, to show where she stands on some issues.”

Konfrst believes that this move is significant for Clinton’s attempt to rework the public’s opinion of her.

“Its definitely a big part of

America’s political socialization about her. Who is she? It adds to her story. Because it’s people who might not pay a lot of attention to anything else but are watching Saturday night,” Konfrst said.

If this was Clinton’s goal, it was achieved as far as Aaron Menick is concerned.

“It does remind me that she is a human being,” Menick said.

Whether it is appearing on Jimmy Fallon or on SNL, it seems this season’s political candidates are using these shows to gain traction in their campaigns, and in Trump and Clinton’s case, to rework their public image.

“Any publicity for them is good,” Menick said. “But I think it helps to see them in different environments.”

Jim Foster, la’55, has been one of the most generous single contributors to the distinctlyDrake campaign, pledging $7 million to establish the James Foster Chair of International Business, the James Foster Global Scholars Program, the James Foster Opera Theatre Endowment, the James Foster Endowed Professorship of Music, and the James Foster Global Music Scholars Program.

09 | features

Oct. 14, 2015

FEATURES COMMUNITY EVENTS

Food trucks take over Des Moines for one-day showdown Sarah LeBlanc Features Editor sarah.leblanc@drake.edu @sarahleblanc201

There are few restaurants in Des Moines that offer the flexibility, efficiency and satisfaction that food trucks offer residents.

On Friday, the Legion of Food hosted a Food Truck Showdown around the Pappajohn Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines from noon to 9 p.m.

Since the city council passed a six-month pilot program allowing food trucks to operate on public property, the Legion of Food has hosted several events, with last Friday’s being the most successful in terms of space and the amount of vendors. “(The Legion) did (an event) in May - great turnout, but it was kind of a disaster,” said Nick Kuhn, president of the Legion of Food. “It was a very small venue with 10,000 people and not enough food.”

Compared to the 22 trucks

that gathered for the Food Truck Showdown, the event in May had just 10 trucks and inspired the Legion to host more events. “(The event) showed us how popular the trucks could be,” Kuhn said. “Right now we’re looking to do this a couple times a year, but if I had my way we’d be doing this once a month.”

Friday’s gathering of vendors also surprised Kuhn in the amount of people who arrived for the trucks.

“We were estimating 5,000,” Kuhn said. “I think we might have had 5,000 at lunch.”

Kuhn adjusted his estimate to be over 10,000 people who came to the sculpture park during the nine hours that the event was held.

Several members of the Legion of Food hope to see legislation passed allowing the food trucks to operate on a long-term basis due to popular demand.

“Our immediate goal (is that) the city council is going to vote in November about whether to make this a permanent program or not,” Kuhn said. “We need for them to make this a permanent

program.”

The Legion of Food is an association of around 25 food trucks in Des Moines that works to coordinate the trucks.

“Every food truck that’s a member pays dues and there’s a monthly meeting where the trucks mostly get together to talk about how not to compete with each other but how to collaborate,” said Zachary Mannheimer, executive director of the Des Moines Social Club.

“We talk about the best zones, the best places for the trucks to go how we can partner up on events - it’s more of an information session for all the trucks.”

Originally from Philadelphia, Mannheimer has been branching into the food truck industry through the temporary legalization of the mobile vendors and his own food truck, Powered

by Fries.

“I led the charge to change the law to allow food trucks to come back downtown,” Mannheimer said. “Food trucks are a perception issue that we need to have solved.

Plus, (food trucks are) delicious.”

Since the Legion of Food

was launched in February, and the city council passed the pilot program to allow the vendors to operate on public property, the number of trucks in Des Moines has more than doubled.

“Prior to this law, there were only about eight trucks that actually came into downtown,” Mannheimer said. “It’s just a six month pilot period that ends in two weeks so its still risky for food truck owners to do it and make the investment. I think that sends a clear signal to city council that they better make this law permanent.”

If the law is passed, Mannheimer hopes to fulfill the Legion’s more long-term concerns.

“Number one is nailing down an annual permit fee that’s reasonable and in line with the rest of the country,” Mannheimer said. “Number two would be opening up more zones in downtown for the trucks to be at and number three would be a larger variety. It’s a pretty decent variety right now but it’s still dominated by tacos and pizza.”

Shon Bruellman from Polk

City, owner and operator of The Little Red Food Truck, works with his wife to serve what he terms “comfort street food” to the people of Des Moines. The menu includes Navajo fried bread tacos, fried fish tacos, homemade tenderloins and chili dogs on fries.

Previously a restaurant owner, Bruellman took his truck to the streets in June after the pilot program was launched.

“I saw an opportunity to do something that I love to do and saw a niche for the type of food that I like to cook,” Bruellman said. “I like serving people - I actually enjoy the stress of having a line 20 people deep and being buried.”

The trucks currently operate in four sanctioned zones around Des Moines. The zones are located around the sculpture park, Locust Bridge and East Village and around the courthouse and Iowa Events Center.

The app “Klickle” can be used to show both where food trucks are located in an area and the vendor’s menu.

DES MOINES residents line up for food at food trucks surrounding the sculpture park on Friday afternoon. Several bands provided entertainment throughout the evening, and around 22 food trucks gathered around the park providing ice cream, tacos, pizza and a spacious location for people to gather and enjoy the atmosphere. PHOTO BY ALICIA KANG | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

MUSIC

Fortunate Youth brings good vibes with reggae tunes Anna Zavell Opinions Editor giovanna.zavell@drake.edu

It’s not everyday you get warmly invited into a band’s van and told to make yourself at home.

Fortunate Youth lives off of good vibes and spreads their love through reggae music throughout the country. Members include lead singer Dan Kelly, percussionist Travi Walpoole, keys and bass by Jered Draskovich bass and guitar

by Greg Gelb, guitar, bass and keys by Corey Draskovich and drummer Jordan Rosenthal.

The six-piece band hails from Los Angeles, where members joined after playing with various bands.

“Most of us grew up together,” Draskovich said. “It was our manager’s birthday when we formed the band. It was a backyard party and we started playing some jams and went from there. Jordan played for another band and joined us during our first tour after our original drummer dislocated his shoulder and wasn’t able to play.”

The band had never played with Rosenthal before, but it seems he became part of the team at just the right time. Not wanting to cancel their first tour, Rosenthal was invited to practice with the rest of the band and they haven’t looked back since — as Draskovich said, “We have been cruisin’ ever since!”

On October 7, Fortunate Youth

played at Vaudeville Mews in downtown Des Moines along with opening acts Sensamotion and Stranger Band.

One could tell how passionate the guys of Fortunate Youth are about their music and their fan base.

During their tours it seems they always meet interesting people who make a mark on their lives and are added to their “big book” of great stories.

“Every city, we find, has its own special gems,” Rosenthal said. “We don’t like to stick to ourselves and we like to meet people in the town or at our shows. These people end up showing us some fabulous spots.

There’s beauty everywhere and we appreciate that.”

Fortunate Youth got the chance to walk around the city of Des Moines and were amazed by its architecture and the history it holds.

“We learned that Al Capone had a secret underground place here in Des Moines in the 20s during the prohibition, which is something you wouldn’t really expect,” Rosenthal said.

A name is probably the most important aspect of first creating a band, and a lot of thought has to be put into it because the name becomes the face of the band.

When asked how Fortunate Youth came up with their name, Kelly immediately chimed in with “Easy!”

“We named our band after the people who are going to be listening from way after we are gone, “ Kelly said. “They are the

fortunate youth, after all, and we are getting a good message out there: peace, love and unity, and you can’t really go too wrong. The best thing to give is a positive mind.”

Gelb continued to talk about how music goes from young to old and how it transcends through age. Music lives on and Fortunate Youth strives to keep that alive.

In a small venue, it’s easy to spot the musicians from all three bands hanging out with each other and interacting with others

in the crowd. If you walked into the dimly lit venue and didn’t know anyone, a band member would instantly greet you.

The message of peace, love and unity truly filled the air as audience members swayed and danced to the strong sounds of the bass, drums and rustic voice that echoed throughout the building.

“It’s cool that when we get to travel we also get to interact with people, and that is a blessing,” Draskovich said.

“People are a blessing,” Kelly

added. “Whenever you do this job, you think this and that are going to be awesome, but you soon see that glamour isn’t awesome. It’s the people that you see and the people you shake hands with or have a drink with and tell a story are awesome. These are our riches—all these great people.”

The band’s latest album “It’s All a Jam” was on the Grammy shortlist and the band continues to tour the country spreading good vibes to everyone they meet.

FORTUNATE YOUTH emphasizes values of peace and love in their performances. Showcasing their talents at Des Moines’ Vaudeville Mews on October 7, the band will continue to tour the country. PHOTO COURTESY OF CORKILL PHOTO

10 | sports

Oct. 14, 2015

SPORTS CROSS-COUNTRY

Transitions and triumphs: The cross-country season so far Adam Rogan Sports Editor adam.rogan@drake.edu @Adam_Rogan

Training Cross-country is one of the simplest sports from an outsider’s perspective. It is predicated simply on running along a path as fast as possible.

But it is also one of the most difficult to succeed in.

Athletes can’t rely on mistakes of opponents or a lucky bounce of a ball, but solely on their own ability and training.

This counts doubly for collegiate cross-country when compared to high school.

Competition is heightened, races are lengthened and mental preparation becomes paramount.

“When you come to college… the intensity increases,” freshman Josh Yeager said. “It’s not just running, it’s the psychological effect of school and everything all coming together.”

Junior Reed Fischer has the experience to look back and reflect on his three years of Drake cross-country, but still came to the same conclusions as his freshman teammate.

“I think the big thing that separates the mindset from high

school to college … is just the amount of commitment and dedication,” Fischer said. “In high school it’s easy to kind of go through the motions and be a good runner, but in college you have to do every little thing you can to separate yourself from the competitors.”

Drake’s schedule is conducive to this shift. It is structured in a way to help the runners transition into increasingly competitive meets so that they can be in top form once the season is in full swing.

“The freshmen are doing a good job so far. It’s a big adjustment for the guys because they’re moving up the level of competition. They’re used to winning everything in high school and all of a sudden you’re going up against all these ranked, division one teams,” head coach Dan Hostager said. “The women, same deal.”

One of the main motivations for the runners are their teammates. The whole team helps pushes one another to do their best.

“Everyone is progressing awesomely,” Yeager said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who are really close to each other, pushing each other everyday. … We’re like a family.”

Performance Fischer has been a leader of the men’s team. He was the fastest Bulldog at every meet he has competed in and posted a new personal best on Oct. 3 at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas with a time of 23:43.61 in the 8K race.

He has also finished in the top 11 in all four meets he has run in this year, and won the Bulldog 4K Classic, a dual with Southwestern Community College.

“A big thing that myself and coach Hostager have been working on is having more intentionality in my training,” Fischer said, “not just going through the motions, (but) making sure that when I go out on a run I’m focusing on what I’m doing during that specific run to make myself better and then mental focus during the harder workouts and the racing.”

The Chile Pepper Festival wasn’t only a success for Fischer.

Huston and Krista Maguire posted 5K PRs of their own on the way to a sixth place team finish for the women out of 50 schools.

Senior Taylor Scholl also ran exceptionally well, placing 55th overall in a meet that featured over 400 runners with a time of 17:48.47.

“I definitely think (our performance at the Chile Pepper

MEN’S SOCCER

Festival) is a huge confidence booster because, going into conference, it’s nice knowing that we have this improvement and that we can only grow upon it more,” Scholl said. “It helps us aspire to work for even more PRs.” That aspiration has been well placed already, it seems. The team has consistently improved as the season has gone on, with times dropping as the levels of competition and training escalate.

“I think, definitely, training everyday together has been huge,” Scholl said. “That’s been a progression for us as just kind of coming together as a team with a common goal has been a really big change over the past month.”

Still, the seniors don’t dominate the Bulldogs’ leaderboard.

Yeager paced the men at the Viking Invitational in Des Moines on Sept. 18.

Sophomore Bailee Coferalso cracked the top 100 in Fayetteville, an improvement over her 144th place finish in Minnesota the week before amidst a field of over 250.

Preparation Even if more than half of their meets are already completed, the

Bulldogs still have a tough trail ahead of them.

Competition has only stiffened and deepened with each passing week. The Drake teams have only participated in two meets with over 50 runners and have only one more meet before the MVC Championship on Oct. 31.

Drake finished in sixth place in conference last season for the men and eighth for the women.

Both teams will need to step their games up if they want to do better in 2015.

“A lot of us want to place at conference, or at least improve from last year and we definitely want to be top three,” Huston said. “We definitely have enough talent and we’ve worked hard enough to do that.”

Meeting this goal may prove to be a challenge. The women only have two returning runners who placed in the top 25 last year.

Reed Fischer is the only active runner of that caliber on the male side.

Still, the team has confidence as the end of the season approaches.

They believe that they have the potential to be one of the best teams in the region and in the Missouri Valley Conference.

“We’re racing very well,” Yeager said. “The exciting thing is that we’re not done yet.”

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Drake nearly upsets top-of-the-nation Rodgers’s return elevates Creighton, shuts out Central Arkansas Drake to 3-0 in conference Adam Rogan Sports Editor adam.rogan@drake.edu @Adam_Rogan

The Bulldogs remained undefeated in the MVC with a victory over the Central Arkansas Bears on Saturday night. The win came after Drake nearly shocked the no. 1 Creighton Bluejays on Tuesday night in a nonconference match.

Creighton has surprised many with their play this season as they now sit at an undefeated 12-00, the only perfect team in the NCAA’s top 25.

Still, the Bluejays were put on upset alert when Drake got out ahead.

Junior midfielder Mueng Sunday’s 45th minute goal put Drake on top 1-0, but two goals in the final 15 minutes gave Creighton the win.

As time wound down near the end of the first half, Drake senior Alex Troester took a corner kick that was almost cleared by Creighton’s defense. Sunday corralled the ball and sent a perfectly executed chip shot over the Bluejays’ goalie and into the net to put Drake on top 1-0.

Sunday has been hot for the Bulldogs over the past month. His five assists are tied for the lead in the Missouri Valley Conference, all of which came in the last five games, and he now has a goal as well. His goal gave him a point total of seven, tying him with

midfielder James Wypych for most on the Bulldogs at the time.

The Bluejays managed to tie the match up in the 79th minute thanks to an effort play delivered by midfielder Timor Pitter. He fired a shot on goal, only to have it blocked by Drake goalie Darrin MacLeod — one of his six saves in the half — but Pitter collected the rebound and put it into the back of the net.

Just over five minutes later, the Bluejays took the lead, again off of a rebound.

After MacLeod deflected a shot from Bluejay midfielder Fernando Castellanos. Creighton’s Vincent Keller took control of the loose ball and passed it to teammate Ricky Lopez-Espin who proceeded to score the deciding goal of the match.

Credit must be given to the Bluejays’ defense for only allowing one shot on goal throughout the match. Creighton’s offense, on the other hand, recorded 10 shots on goal and an additional 18 shots not on target.

On paper it looked as though Drake had been dominated by the best team in the country, except for one category. Drake held the advantage for total time in the lead, on top for 34 minutes as compared to Creighton’s 11.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, Creighton held the lead at the end of the match, the only time when it really matters.

MacLeod made eight saves in the match, a season-high for the redshirt junior.

The loss snapped a four game win streak for the Bulldogs, but the team was able to turn that around against Central Arkansas four days later.

It was a game defined by defense. There were a combined 12 saves in the match, nine of which came in the second half, and just a single goal.

Good news for the Bulldogs – the goal was theirs.

The Bulldogs opened the scoring in the 65th minute.

Sophomore Steven Enna found Wypych open in the middle of the box. Wypych then took his only shot of the match and fired the ball goalwards. It careened off the post, but still rolled across the goal line to put Drake on top.

The goal was Wypych’s fourth of the season, putting him tied for second most in the MVC behind Wes Carson of Central Arkansas with five.

Central Arkansas still displayed clutch defense, keeping Drake to just one goal despite its 22 shots in total. The Bears only managed seven shots in total.

The Bulldogs improved to 3-0 in the MVC with the win and looked to stay undefeated at Western Illinois last night.

They will return home next week for matches against Omaha and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville at Cownie Soccer Complex on Tuesday and Saturday, respectively.

DRAKE’S NEXT HOME MATCH will be on Oct. 20 against Omaha. The Bulldogs are an undefeated 4-0 at home this season, outscoring opponents 11-4 at Cownie Field. (Photo) A Drake player heads the ball goalwards against Missouri State on Oct. 3. Drake won that match 2-1. PHOTO BY LIBBY SOLEM | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Adam Rogan Sports Editor adam.rogan@drake.edu @Adam_Rogan

Drake continued to struggle against nonconference opponents as the Oklahoma State Cowgirls picked up a shutout. However, the Bulldogs turned it around against the Evansville Purple Aces on Saturday to remain undefeated in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Before that win however, Drake was simply dismantled

by Oklahoma State from start to finish on Wednesday night in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Cowgirl Courtney Dike scored in the tenth minute to put her team on top. The Bulldogs offense was unable to respond with much.

They managed to fire off a measly three shots in the first half, only one of which was on goal.

“We just need to take a lot of shots, make sure that they’re on target and (be) more dynamic in the final third,” said junior Rebecca Rodgers, who did not play against Oklahoma State.

The Cowgirls struck twice more early in the second half.

Dike picked up an assist in the 47th minute and then followed up with her second goal of the match just over 11 minutes later.

Drake was able to take three more shots than the previous period, but still only managed to put two of them on goal.

Oklahoma State’s goalkeeper would save both of them and the game ended 3-0.

One of the main hurdles for the Bulldogs in the match was the absence of Rodgers who has been a leader of the Drake offense.

Returning for a conference match against Evansville three days later, Rodgers made her presence felt.

A 37th minute free kick from Kylie DeHaven found Rodgers in the box for a header that she put into the back of the net. This put the Bulldogs on top quickly, but the lead wouldn’t last long.

The Purple Aces moved the ball up the field quickly after the ensuing kickoff. An attempted Bulldog clearance led to a miscue and the ball found itself in the Drake net for an own goal.

With the match tied, Rodgers took it upon herself to get the Bulldogs back in the lead. Her best chance came in the 67th minute and she did not disappoint.

From 20 yards out and with a wall of defenders in front of her, Rodgers curled a free kick past the Purple Aces’ defense and goalkeeper for a goal.

Drake 2. Evansville 1.

Not only did Rodgers shine for the Bulldogs on offense, but their defense was impeccable as well.

Save for the own goal, the Purple Aces were unable to score throughout the match despite putting nine shots on goal.

“I’m glad I could help out the defense,” goalkeeper Brooke Dennis said. “We all really came together. It was nice to almost get a shutout ... The defense really needed it.”

Drake only managed four shots on goal, three of which came from Rodgers and one from freshman Alyssa Brand.

Now with seven goals on the season, Rodgers is tied for second-most goals in the MVC. Four of those goals came against MVC opponents, the most in the conference.

Surprising to no one, Rodgers was named as the MVC Offensive Player of the Week for the second week in a row.

Her second goal against Evansville was also the 24th of Rodgers’s career, the third most of any Bulldog. The overall record of 31 career goals is within reach for Rodgers, who only needs eight more goals to become the top goal scorer in Drake history.

The MVC also took notice Dennis’s 18 saves in the past two games. She was named MVC Goalkeeper of the Week for the first time this season.

The recognition isn’t enough for the junior, however. She wants the team to be dominant on both halves of the pitch.

“I think we really need to get a shutout as a defensive part,” Dennis said. “And then we need to score some goals.”

The Bulldogs will return home for their final home matches of the season in the coming week.

They will face off with Loyola on Oct. 17 followed by a match versus the University of Northern Iowa on Oct. 21.

The match against Northern Iowa will be the final match in Des Moines this season and the final home match of Drake’s seniors’ collegiate careers — Senior Night.

Five Bulldogs will be honored on the field in one of the most emotional nights of the season.

11 | sports

Oct. 14, 2015

SPORTS VOLLEYBALL

Bulldogs struggle at home against strong opponents Losses to Missouri State and Wichita State hurt Drake’s playoff chances Adam Rogan Sports Editor adam.rogan@drake.edu @Adam_Rogan

In what is assuredly one of the toughest weekends the Bulldogs could face in terms of quality of opponent, Drake couldn’t manage to win a single set against either the Missouri State Bears or the Wichita State Shockers at home.

Missouri State came into the Knapp Center on “Dig Pink” breast cancer awareness night with the Bulldogs sporting pink uniforms and the court lines colored to match.

Missouri State sat in second place in the Missouri Valley Conference and ranked 22nd in the nation with an overall record of 12-5 entering the match.

The Bears were dominant allaround. They displayed strong hitting from the match’s outset, matched by similarly strong blocking. MSU’s hit percentage was more than .150 better than Drake’s throughout the match.

The Bears also recorded six blocks in the match, one more than the Bulldogs.

Drake’s serve-receive was strong in game one, but they weren’t always able to give their hitters chances above the net.

This resulted in a handful of freeballs being played into the Bears’ court, allowing All-American sophomore hitter Lily Johnson to pick up seven kills in the set.

Still, Drake persisted. Strong hitting on Missouri State’s side led to tough defense from the Bulldogs. Down 14-21, Drake began to show signs of coming back.

A kill from senior Katie Allen started the Bulldogs’ run and Drake crawled back to within five. This forced Missouri State to call a timeout, something that head coach Darrin MacLeod considered a success.

The crowd got more and more rowdy in support of the Bulldogs

as the first game grew increasingly heated and competitive — a theme that would continue throughout the match.

Drake kept firing coming out of the timeout and pulled to within three. They finished the set on a 6-2 run, but were in too deep of a hole to escape from. Missouri State won the set 25-21.

“If we each gave one percent more we totally could’ve pulled that out,” Allen said. “If each of us just did our job just a little bit better.”

It looked as though the Bears might walk away with an easy win in set two. They got out to an early 10-4 lead, but that’s when Drake turned it around.

The Bulldogs pulled the match to within three on a 4-1 run. Soon they were down two: 11-13. Then the score was tied 17-17.

Four of their last 13 points were a result of blocks, Katie Dulek having a hand in each of them.

Going back and forth over the next four points, the score was tied again at 19. A serve from Katie Dulek led to a kill from Grace Schofield to give the Bulldogs the lead, their first of the set and second of the match.

Back-to-back attack errors

by Schofield, one of which was forced by Missouri State’s only block of the set, returned the lead to MSU. Down 22-24, Drake was in need of a sideout and a point on their serve to stay alive in game two.

They got the sideout on sophomore Kyla Inderski’s fifth kill of the set, but that would be the last point for the Bulldogs. A questionable net call on redshirt sophomore Taylor Zant ended the set.

Even if the game ended in a loss, the competitiveness of the match proved that the Bulldogs are a much stronger team than they have been in the recent past in all aspects of the game. The

last time Drake defeated Missouri State was in 2010.

“I think serve-receive was really, really good in the first two sets,” setter Chandelle Davidson said. “To the hitters’ credit, I think they did a really nice job putting the ball away.”

Drake’s back was now against the wall and in need of three straight set wins to take the upset.

The last three kills of the set before Zant’s error came from Johnson. She would finish the match with the 22 kills on 52 attempts, game-highs in both categories.

Last year, as a freshman, Johnson was named as an AllAmerican. This season she leads the MVC in kills and is seventh in aces.

Johnson wasn’t the only Bear who wore the Bulldogs down.

MSU’s libero, freshman Emily Butters, had a game-high 18 digs, including several key pointsaving dive that she made look easy.

The heartbreaking loss in game two seemed to have killed the Bulldogs’ spirit in game three. That, and Missouri State freshman MacKenzie Irwin’s serving.

McKenzie served an impressive 13 times in game three on two runs. Three of those serves were aces.

“That was very detrimental to us,” Davidson said. “What we did well in the first two sets really fell apart in the last set.”

McBroom tried switching up lineups in game three, putting in Ashley Dina and Odessa Cody, two players who haven’t seen much action this year, but it didn’t appear to have much of a positive impact in the end.

“We had the opportunities there, (but) we just couldn’t put the ball away,” Allen said.

The Bulldogs were unable to get anything going and were blown out 25-12.

“We were slow to get started early on,” McBroom said. “We

were playing a little bit reactive, waiting to see what Missouri State is going to do ... instead of just playing our game.”

The match may have ended in a loss, but it showed that the Bulldogs could play with the MVC powerhouse.

“That’s huge for us… in the big picture (to see) where our program has been and now to be able to go into a match against one of the top teams in the conference and not get slapped around and hold our own and be in the game,” McBroom said.

But even if the Bulldogs had proven their ability to stay competitive with the MVC’s best teams, beating them seemed to be another question entirely.

“Wichita is a great team,” Davidson said after the Missouri State match. “I think if we have the same numbers hitting-wise against Wichita then we’ll be successful.”

Unfortunately, the Bulldogs did not hit well against the Shockers the following night, the second best team in the MVC. In set one the Bulldogs had a hit percentage of zero and finished the match with a cumulative .061.

Wichita State, playing in much better form, hit over .500 in sets one and three and finished the match with a hit percentage of .393.

Drake took the lead in game one came after the first point, but would relinquish it soon after.

Up 5-4, Drake allowed a 7-1 run to give Wichita State the advantage. It only got worse from there.

The Shockers ended the game on an impressive 13-5 run, capped by three consecutive kills from sophomore Mikaela Raudsepp.

Raudsepp tied for the gamehigh with 10 kills. Shimen Fayad also recorded 10 kills on 20 attempts with just three errors for the Shocker.

Wichita State setter Emily Hiebert also had her way with the Bulldogs, going five-for-five on

attack attempts while also picking up a pair of aces and a block assist in the match.

Despite another dismal hitting performance in game two – Drake’s hit percentage of .105 was less than half of Wichita State’s – the Bulldogs kept the score close.

Neither team ever led by more than two points in the set and the lead changed hands a total of seven times.

Drake was ahead 21-20 late and it looked as though they might manage to come away with a win, but the Shockers went on a 4-2 run to reclaim the lead. A heartbreaking setting error from Drake libero Michelle Thommi gave Wichita State the set point and a 2-0 match lead.

The third set was even worse than the first for the Bulldogs.

After taking the first point, Drake never led or even tied the score and Wichita State walked away with the victory.

The loss dropped Drake to 1212 on the season, the first time the team has been at .500 all year. Placing in the top six teams in the conference and clinching a conference playoff seed seems pretty unlikely as well. Drake now sits in the bottom half in the MVC with a conference record of 3-4.

But the season is still far from over. The Bulldogs will get a chance at revenge over the Bears and the Shockers on their own courts in the first weekend of November. If the Bulldogs can stay in the hunt that late into the season, how those two matches play out could make or break their playoff hopes.

Despite the losses, the Bulldogs are still confident that they will be a contender in the MVC this season.

“We’re focused now and we know what it takes to play with the big dogs,” Allen said.

Before that, Drake has four road matches over the next two weeks before coming back to the Knapp Center on Halloween weekend.

DRAKE FANDOM

Spike: More than just a costume “He’s not a person in a suit. He’s our mascot.”

Haley Hodges Staff Writer haley.hodges@drake.edu @hhodges15

A PIECE OF HISTORY: In 1936 a contest attempted to change Spike’s name, a one dollar prize going to whoever submitted the best name. “Butch” was chosen, but his name was changed back 20 years later. (Top) SAY CHEESE! Spike waves to the camera alongside President Marty Martin and Director of Athletics Sandy Hatfield Clubb. (Bottom) Spike trying to be fierce Cownie Field. PHOTOS BY VALARIE MEYER AND CASSANDRA BAUER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS

Even at a small school with an undergraduate enrollment under 3,500 students, you can expect to see new faces at every event. Still, there is one staple of the Drake community that has remained unchanged and can be expected to make an appearance at almost every big event.

Distinctively garbed in Drake paraphernalia over his furry exterior, Spike the Bulldog attends sporting events, pep rallies and plenty of other festivities at Drake, endlessly supporting his school and acting as the face of the Drake Bulldogs.

“I think (he’s) really important and (is) a representation of what the school is,” first-year and football manager Hannah Alerecht said. “Mascots are just always what you know the school for.”

Although Spike must be brought to life with outside help, he is his own character and is treated as such by the community.

In line with that, Drake Athletics prefers to keep the identity of the face behind the mask a secret. By doing this, the mascot cannot be viewed as anyone but Spike.

Still, one of the individuals who portrays him agreed to an interview to provide insight about Spike’s role at Drake while still remaining anonymous.

“Spike is Spike. He’s not a person in a suit. He’s our mascot.

He’s our bulldog,” the individual

explained. “People treat him as a person, as a Bulldog, as what he needs to be in that moment and I think that’s the beauty of having a mascot is that he’s the mascot.

He is Spike: that’s his identity. It’s not the person behind the mask, it’s Spike and that’s the really unique thing.”

As the mascot, Spike is responsible for filling a number of functions and providing fans with excitement and enthusiasm for Drake.

“Spike’s main role is to bring a sense of pride and spirit to the hearts of those that love Drake or are from the community,” the individual said. “He’s the go-getter, the comedian, the cheerleader; he’s what you need him to be at that moment in time.”

So far, Spike has appeared at the Welcome Weekend activities for first-years, sporting events and, recently, all of the homecoming week activities around campus.

His most prominent appearances are at football games where he is always present to support the team and pump up the crowd.

“He definitely increases the attitude of the audience. He gets them more riled up,” said Anthony Mooney, an offensive guard for the football team. “I don’t know if he does it so much for the team on the sideline but definitely (for) the crowd. … The crowd helps the rest of team.

When the crowd is pumped up, we’re pumped up.”

Although fans come to the games to watch and support the

team, the atmosphere would be far different without support led on by the cheer team, the pep band and Spike.

“I know the team has said the louder the crowd is the more they feel like they’re representing something and it helps them want to win more,” Alerecht said.

Spike may not be responsible for adding points to the scoreboard but instead helps to keep the fans invested and serves as the embodiment of school spirit.

Wherever Spike goes, fans and smiles follow because he is so much more than just another figure in the Drake community.

He is recognizable beyond Des Moines and Iowa, known worldwide by Bulldog fans everywhere.

“The Drake fanbase spreads nations and wherever you go you see that bulldog, you see Spike, and you know who it is and that loyalty behind Spike is definitely strong,” the individual behind the mascot said. “Spike definitely feels the love, that’s for sure. He is always greeted with smiles and hugs and high fives and he will go up to fans and alumni and anyone as well doing the same thing. I definitely think whether you’re alumni or from the community or you’ve even just heard of Drake there are warm welcomes and excitement when people see him.”

12 | sports

Oct. 14, 2015

SPORTS FOOTBALL

Bulldogs cruise over Crusaders to even record at .500

DRAKE’S OFFENSE was able to light up the scoreboard at Drake Stadium on Saturday afternoon. They got the ball into the end zone four times behind a balanced rushing attack. Four different Bulldogs had six or more rushing attempts in the game. (Left) Keegan Gallery battles for yardage. (Right) A scrambling Cody Thibault evades a defender. PHOTO BY VALARIE MEYER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Austin Cannon Beat Writer austin.cannon@drake.edu @NotAustinCannon

If the Drake Bulldogs can run the ball well in every game of the rest of the 2015 season, they might win out. Playing every game at Drake Stadium could also help, but that’s unlikely.

The Bulldogs (3-3) rushed for 205 yards and three touchdowns, John Hugunin made big plays on defense and Drake won 34-7 over the Valparaiso Crusaders Saturday to stay undefeated at Drake Stadium in 2015. Drake has now beaten the Crusaders 12 straight times, a streak that started in 2004.

Conley Wilkins returned after missing last week’s game with an injury to score three touchdowns, playing his role as a vital ingredient to the recipe that has so far led Drake to victory: finding success running the ball.

In Drake’s three wins this season, the offense has averaged 222 yards rushing. In their three losses, the Bulldogs have managed an average of fewer than 65 yards on the ground.

There are too many factors in the game of football to make that a purely causal relationship, but a steady ground attack obviously does wonders for an offense.

“When you’re running the ball well, then you’re in good downand-distance situations, and that gives you opportunities to throw the ball,” head coach Rick Fox said. “When you’re not running the ball well, you’re going to be in bad down-and-distance situations and then it puts ton of pressure not just on the receivers or the quarterback but especially on the offensive line in terms of pass protection.”

Wilkins led a quite balanced rushing offense with 59 yards and two rushing touchdowns. He had a 3-yard run into in the end zone on his first play, and he ran over a Crusader defender on his way to his second touchdown. He also caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from a scrambling Andy Rice in the third quarter.

“He’s a slippery running back,” Fox said. “People don’t get straight-up tackles on him. Down on the goal line, he’s as good a running back as I’ve ever been around.”

Along with Wilkins’s 59, Gary Scott Jr. had 50 yards on the ground. Brock Reichardt added 49, and Tyler Updecraft ran for 29 in his first appearance of the season.

“I feel like our running game really controls our offense,” Wilkins said. “If we do well in the run game, we have a pretty good chance of winning the game.”

On the other side of the ball, the Bulldogs bit down on the Crusaders, holding them to only 208 total yards, 43 on the ground.

“That’s kind of our home play right there, stopping the run,” Hugunin said. “Anytime we can do that, it makes them onedimensional and then we know

what they’re going to do, which kind of opens up our playbook a little bit.”

Hugunin was all over the field in a performance that will almost surely earn him Pioneer Football League defensive player of the week honors: blocking a punt, grabbing an interception, recording seven tackles and performing his weekly ritual of forcing a fumble. Call it a response to a tough loss to Campbell last week.

“Losing a conference game in this conference is always tough, but it’s about how you respond,” Hugunin said. “That’s why you play 11 games.”

Hugunin put Drake in a position to get on the board in the first quarter. With Valpo punting on fourth down, he came around the edge and got a hand on Alex Ng’s punt and Drake recovered at the Valpo 36. Three plays later, Wilkins was in the end zone and Drake had a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter.

Hugunin, a fifth-year senior, got his first career interception in the third quarter when he picked off Ryan Clarke at the Valpo 38.

The linebacker from Oswego, Illinois, also stripped Valpo running back Frank Catrine in the fourth quarter, but the fumble bounced out-of-bounds. Still, it was Hugunin’s sixth forced fumble in as many games.

Wilkins’ second touchdown came as a result of great field position. Kicking into the wind, Ng’s punt only got to the Crusaders’ 34. The second quarter began mid-drive, and Wilkins was in with the 4-yard score before 45 seconds had ticked off the game clock.

After Wilkins’ receiving touchdown, Reichardt made the final end-zone trip of the day with 4:05 left in the third quarter, giving Drake a 28-0 lead. It was Reichardt’s first touchdown as a Bulldog, not that he thought much about it.

“It’s just a touchdown. It’s just a memory,” Reichardt said. “It’s pretty cool, though.”

After the game, eyes turned west toward San Diego, where Drake will play the Toreros next Saturday. The Bulldogs have taken care of business at home, but they must improve their 0-3 road record to have a shot at the PFL championship.

“We have to win out. There’s no other option if we want to go to the playoffs and do what we want to do,” Hugunin said. “There’s no more room for error.”

But for now, Drake remains in the title hunt with a 2-1 league record after a victory that was never really in doubt — a confidence boost.

“The biggest thing in the PFL is winning on the road,” linebacker Michael Roane said, “but these home wins really help build on for the next game and give the team a moral high so we can go out there and build on it.”

Halftime recap: Bulldogs midway through season Austin Cannon Beat Writer austin.cannon@drake.edu @NotAustinCannon

on the road separates the top teams in the conference from the middling teams, and this was a missed opportunity for Drake to steal a valuable road win.

The 2015 Drake football season is half over, and the Bulldogs sit at 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the Pioneer Football League, tied for third place. Let’s take a look at how they got here and what to expect in the final six weeks of the season.

Offensive MVP: Wilkins There’s really no other option here. Even missing one game, Wilkins still leads the conference in scoring with eight touchdowns.

On the ground, he’s averaging a healthy 5.5 yards per carry for an offense that struggles to pass.

When the Bulldogs can run the ball well, they — so far this season — win.

Looking at it this way: It’s no coincidence the offense put up its lowest yardage of the season against Campbell when Wilkins didn’t play.

Wilkins’ most valuable asset might be his dependability around the goal line. Fox said he’s the best he’s ever coached in that regard, and he demonstrated that against Valpo, scoring twice from within five yards.

Honorable Mention: No one.

Maybe Rice if he hadn’t missed two games.

Biggest win: 34-7 over Valparaiso on Saturday.

Granted, this was only the third conference game of the season, but it was basically a must-win if Drake wanted to stay in the title race. It was a home game against a lower-tier PFL team that Drake had beaten 11 times in a row. With a tough second-half schedule, the Bulldogs simply couldn’t afford to lose.

And they didn’t. Conley Wilkins had three touchdowns, John Hugunin was all over the place on defense and they did what good teams are supposed to do: beat lesser opponents at home.

Biggest loss: 24-14 at Campbell on Oct. 3.

Yes, Drake lost 52-0 at South Dakota, but this was bigger because it was a conference game. Campbell had lost a heartbreaker the week before and had something to prove at home against a Drake team it had never beaten.

Also, the Camels’ defensive line was monstrous, especially against an injury-depleted Drake offensive line. Andy Rice was sacked nine times. Wilkins was out with an injury and Drake was forced into passing situations late, so the Campbell defenders pinned their ears back and spent most of the fourth quarter invading the Drake backfield.

Campbell was good, but Drake could have won this game.

Talking to coach Rick Fox after the game, you could hear the disappointment in his voice. He’s said multiple times how winning

Defensive MVP: Hugunin This one was a little tougher to decide because Mack Marrin is having a great season so far, but Hugunin plays such a big part for the defense that it can’t be ignored. The Valpo game was a perfect example: He had seven tackles, caught his first career interception and forced a fumble.

Oh, and he blocked a punt on special teams.

He has forced six fumbles in six games, leading the FCS. The most important one being when he jarred the ball lose from North Dakota running back John Santiago at the goal line on Sept. 12. He’s also averaging 8.3 tackles per game for a defense that only allows 99 rushing yards per game. That’s unquestioned high-level production.

Honorable Mention: Marrin.

He leads the PFL with five sacks and is second in the conference with seven tackles for a loss. He’ll make the All-PFL first team.

Reasons for Optimism: Early-season adversity and experience The first half of the season was not kind to Drake. Injuries put offensive linemen Al Hern and Aaron Melton on the shelf for the season. Rice missed two games and was rusty in his return against Campbell. Wilkins missed the Campbell game as well.

Considering those injuries and the teams they’ve played, 3-3 for Drake isn’t bad at all. North Dakota and South Dakota were both better than the Bulldogs’ PFL competition, so those losses count for valuable experience.

Drake took care of business against William Jewell, Stetson and Valpo. The only game that really stings is the Campbell loss.

This team is full of juniors and older. The seniors and fifth-year guys were on PFL championship teams in 2011 and 2012, so, while they probably didn’t play that much, they know what it will take to win.

Reasons for Pessimism: Tough schedule, road struggles Two undefeated teams remain on Drake’s schedule: Jacksonville, who’s ineligible to win the PFL title this year, and Dayton. The Dayton game is potentially big since it’s the season finale and the title could be on the line.

Morehead State is 2-1 in the PFL and so is the Bulldogs’ next opponent, defending champion San Diego. The Toreros lost 13-12 to Dayton on Saturday in a critical matchup. San Diego beat Drake 17-14 at Drake Stadium last year.

The other problem for Drake is that three of the last five games are on the road. The Bulldogs have yet to win away from Des Moines this season. Hugunin said Saturday that Drake needed to win out. That’s a huge challenge, but Fox said Saturday that the team that wins the PFL will probably have two league losses, so the Bulldogs can maybe lose one more game. Otherwise, they need to be perfect.

Bulldog Football Week Seven Preview vs. San Diego Toreros 2 p.m. PT (Noon CT) Saturday, Oct. 17 in San Diego, CA

San Diego Record: 3-2 (2-1 PFL)

Conference: Pioneer Football League

Offensive Player to Watch — Wide receiver Brian Riley may not be leading the Toreros in yardage or receptions, but he’s caught half of their passing touchdowns with five.

Defensive Player to Watch — San Diego’s run defense has given up just 428 yards on the ground this season. Much of their success in stopping the run is thanks to defensive lineman Jonathon Peterson’s PFL-leading 7.5 tackles for a loss.

Fast Facts • RB Conley Wilkins has been a leader on the Bulldog offense, leading the team with six touchdowns in 2015, but he will be going up against the best run-defense in the PFL. • The Toreros’ pass defense is less than stellar and QB Andy Rice may be able take advantage of that and run up the scoreboard.