THE TIMES-DELPHIC THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER FOR DRAKE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884
DES MOINES, IOWA • Monday, February 15, 2009 • VOL. 128, NO. 29 • www.timesdelphic.com
HOOPS 4
“
HOPE
The Drake women’s basketball team beat Southern Illinois 74-56 Saturday at the Hoops 4 Hope game. PAGE 7 SPORTS
This might be the springboard that will propel us forward and it will spread across the country.
”
– REP. LEONARD BOSWELL
Shintaku the A-Bomb survivor Atomic bomb witness speaks at Cowles Library exhibit by MATT NELSON
Staff Writer matthew.nelson@drake.edu
“All of a sudden, there was a strong light and a roar. In that instant, everything around me turned pitch black, my eyes hurt, and I found it hard to breathe. I thought I had died. Recalling my mother, who had passed away one year before, I called out for her.” On Aug. 6, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. On Feb. 9 Katsufumi Shintaku, a survivor of the event, told a portion of his story via a Web conference at Drake University. The event was part of the “Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Exhibit” being displayed at Cowles Library through March 31. The exhibit contains both real-life photographs and artist renditions of the aftermath of the explosions, which serve as illustrations for Shintaku’s wrenching tale. At the age of 19, Shintaku had just returned home from a midnight shift at work and was looking forward to a relaxing slumber. As he crawled into bed, he heard the light drone of planes in the distance. He fell asleep unconcerned; the planes had been circling for days with no consequences.
In Hiroshima, he lived less than a mile from the hypocenter of the bomb, the area directly beneath where the explosion took place. By chance he found himself relatively unharmed after the explosion and wandered a devastated landscape, spending hours providing comfort to the wounded. His experiences were so deeply moving that he never spoke of the event for more than 60 years. “I couldn’t bear to talk about it,” Shintaku said. “But the ‘hibakusha’ (atomic bomb survivors) are dying and soon they’ll all be gone. I’m one of the oldest ones remaining who can do it. I’ve got to step up to the plate and tell my story. It is painful for me to tell it.” Over the course of the twohour Web conference, Shintaku described in vivid detail his grueling ordeal to Drake and University of Iowa students. After the bombing, he evacuated along with other survivors to Hiroshima University. “There were many bomb victims who had taken refuge there and were waiting for aid,” Shintaku said. “They lay in a pitiful state on the ground, receiving no treatment, with the hot midsummer sun beating down. It was truly a living hell.” He estimated that more than 50 victims of the bomb died in his arms when he tried to carry them to safety. He finally collapsed from utter exhaustion. “Even though it was summer, sleeping on the ground was cold and when I opened my eyes I could see the area of the hypocenter still burning,” Shintaku said. “I could also see scores of blue lights; this was the phosphorous that was emit-
SEE A-BOMB, PAGE 2
photos by SARAH ANDREWS | Photo/Design Editor
REP. LEONARD BOSWELL (D-IOWA) presented Drake with the federal grant toward its language program on Friday at a press conference where first-year writing major Mariah Marconi (below) also spoke.
Drake’s language learning program receives $1.58 million federal grant Rep. Leonard Boswell presented the grant with President Maxwell by TYLER O’NEIL
Relays Editor tyler.oneil@drake.edu
Drake University’s language learning program has received $1.58 million in federal funds to help further develop the program’s virtual approach to language instruction. The funds come from an $800,000 appropriation signed into law in December 2009 and a $788,177 grant from the Department of Defense’s National Security Education Program. The money will be used to pay instructors, collect research and upgrade equipment, specifically for the students learning Chinese and Russian. Drake President David Maxwell said in a press conference Friday that the university language program addresses a serious problem for American businesses and national security agencies. “We are in a state of crisis,” Max-
well said. “The United States has significant needs for competence in languages other than English. We are not coming close to meeting those needs.” Maxwell said only 8.6 percent of undergraduate course enrollments in the fall of 2006 were in foreign languages. Of those, less than 30 percent were in “less-commonly-taught languages,” or those other than Spanish, German and French, and less than 2 percent were in Arabic or Russian. Ultimately, Maxwell said, “fewer than 1 percent of all undergraduates currently enrolled in higher education will ever reach a usable level of competence in a language critical to the national interest outside of Spanish.” Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa) was instrumental in securing the federal funding for Drake’s program. He said he has been concerned about the state of language competency in the
photos by MATT NELSON | Staff Photographer
“HIROSHIMA-NAGASAKI A-BOMB EXHIBIT” is currently in display in Cowles Library. To mark the opening of the exhibit, Hiroshima survivor Katsufumi Shintaku spoke on the horrific event.
SEE BOSWELL, PAGE 2
Senate passes election reform bylaws by HOLLY WORTHY
Copy Editor holly.worthy@drake.edu
Student Senate passed the remaining bylaws proposed by the Election Commission Thursday night. The six original bylaws, which dealt with issues ranging from candidates posters, filing complaints against other candidates, social media usage and the grounds for write-in candidacy, were struck from the list
given to senators at the Feb. 4 meeting and revised by Election Commission Co-chairs Xian Zhang and Alex Bergman. The grounds for using Facebook and other social media, one of the most hotly contested points of the motion at last week’s meeting, were revised. Originally banning candidate’s use for a period around the election, the bylaw now aligns itself with the rest of election laws that those running for a position should
familiarize themselves with. “The definition of campaigning already includes electronic postings, so these fall under the jurisdiction of Election Commission,” Zhang said. The “suspension” versus “disqualification” clarifier was also removed from the election rules, another bylaw proposed last week. Although the cochairs’ idea of merely suspending a candidate for certain infractions did not pass, candidates have another protection against “inadvertent er-
ror.” The mandatory publicity meeting, for example, which is traditionally scheduled for early Monday morning, will likely be rescheduled for Sunday afternoon. Failure to attend the publicity meeting, however, will continue to result in disqualification from the election. The bylaws passed unanimously and go into effect immediately. Starting Monday, students wishing to run for an executive office position—Stu-
dent Body President, Vice President of Student Life, Vice President of Student Activities—will be able to access a petition to run for office in the Student Life Center. “At 8 a.m. on Monday, anybody can access an election packet, which will include all of the certified election rules with all the changes passed (Thursday),” Zhang said.
SEE SENATE, PAGE 2