FINDING FRIENDS
Cellphone app foursquare allows users to “unlock their cities.” PAGE 4 FEATURES
THE TIMES-DELPHIC THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER FOR DRAKE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1884
DES MOINES, IOWA • Thursday, March 11, 2010 • VOL. 128, NO. 36 • www.timesdelphic.com
UP IN THE AIR Pharmacy school admissions, communications under review illustration by SARAH ANDREWS | Photo/Design Editor
by MARY BESS BOLLING Sports Editor tdsports@drake.edu
He was in his dorm room going through his e-mail when he saw the word “congratulations.” “At first, I thought it was just another weekly update because it said CPHS in the subject,” said sophomore pre-pharmacy major David Gardner. “Then I saw my name and I figured out what it was and just got really excited.” The e-mail read: “Dear David Gardner, Congratulations on meeting the requirements for conditional admission into the professional program.” The first person he called was his sister, then his parents, then fellow pre-pharmacy students. “I didn’t even know the seriousness of getting in until I wanted to call all my friends because I was so excited, but I kept hearing of more people wait-listed and denied than accepted,” he said. “That’s when I started to really understand how lucky I was.”
college’s admissions process from considered the student’s cumulative Mandated cap to the program Under pressure from an accredit- guaranteed progression, in which GPA, math and science GPA, intering body, admission criteria changed students who meet the minimum view, writing assessment and complethis year for Drake’s Doctor of Phar- requirements automatically have a tion of required hours and courses. spot, to a guaranteed consideration, “When you have had a program in macy graduate program. place for 26 years, it’s probNew to Gardner’s class lematic in making this big were a written assessment, of a shift,” Rospond said. a PharmCAS application, an interview requirement Clarity of and a cap to the program. communications The Accreditation Council Though the ACPE for Pharmacy Education mandated the changes in (ACPE) mandated two of 2007, it wasn’t until an afthese changes. ternoon Career, Academic The interview requireand Professional Success ment was part of a change (CAPS) course in the fall to all accredited pharmacy of 2009 that Gardner said programs in the U.S. in orhe understood that the proder to align with revamped – RAYLENE ROSPOND, Dean of the College gram had a cap. ACPE standards in 2007, “I remember exactly: according to the ACPE of Pharmacy and Health Sciences One guy raised his hand Web site. and asked, ‘How many “There was a cap this year because the ACPE told us that in which a student automatically has people will be accepted?’” Gardner we are set up to take around 110 to an opportunity to interview for a spot. said. Also, the admissions committee He said the answer was a maxi115 students,” said Raylene Rospond, dean of the College of Pharmacy and chose whom it would grant admis- mum number of 120. There were at sion based on different criteria than least 150 applicants from Drake’s preHealth Sciences (CPHS). These changes transformed the past years. The admissions committee pharmacy program and 200 outside
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You can blame me all you want and you can say that I should have, and I will agree—I should have known that.
BID FOR BLUE
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applicants this fall. “You could look at everyone’s face in the room and see that we were all stunned—you could feel it.” Gardner said. “We’re competing for these spots and we could be packing our bags next year.” Sophomore Erin August, a representative for her class on the Drake Student Advisory Council, said that students were told of the changes but didn’t fully understand them. “We were the guinea pig class for this, so we did get walked through a lot of the changes,” August said. “They told us everything we needed to know; it’s just what people chose to pay attention to.” Rospond said that some students said the communication was sufficient to understand the changes. “We’ve had people come into the office that have said it was very clear that it was guaranteed consideration,” Rospond said. Some students, however, turned to
SEE PHARMACY, PAGE 2
The buzz on late-night Spike’s by CORI CLARK
Staff Writer corinne.clark@drake.edu
Satisfying your hunger with convenience is now a reality—and it doesn’t involve a packet of ramen in your dorm room. From 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., students can order from a new late-night menu developed by Hot Stuff Foods. Spike’s has adopted the menu to attract more business and to expand the variety of foods offered to students. The late-night menu consists of chicken taquito rolls, spinach and artichoke dip, mozzarella sticks and jalapeño poppers. There will also be four different flavors of chicken wings: sweet chili, garlic chili, bourbon and honey pepper, to go along with the classic Spike’s pizza and sandwich deli. General Manager of Sodexo, Dannie Crozier, developed the idea for using a buzzer system to alert students when their food is ready. This process will allow students to walk around Terrace Court and Olmsted while their food is being prepared. The customer approaches the cashier in Terrace Court to place their order. Food can be paid with using flex dollars, cash or credit. The cashier will then give the customer a restaurant-style pager to hold onto while he or she waits for their food. When the student’s order is ready, the cashier will
ring the student’s pager from a transmitter at the checkout. The buzzer will flash blue lights and vibrate. The students can then turn the pager in and pick up their food. Crozier hopes this new late-night menu will provide students with even more options to eat on campus and enjoy the Drake dining experience. n
Linking students to the business world Professors promote social Networking site LinkedIn by JACKIE WALLENTIN News Editor tdnews@drake.edu
photo by KEVIN MORRISON | Staff Photographer
THE ADVERTISING CAPSTONE held a silent auction on Tuesday to raise money toward a trip to the 2010 AAF National Student Advertising Competition in St. Louis, Mo. Items included a basketball and soccer ball signed by this year’s teams.
Social networking has become a phenomenon, with the majority of the population constantly connected to the Web. Interacting with news feeds, tweets and blog posts has become a daily necessity for most of the tech savvy. Now, this virtual networking universe has infiltrated the
business world. Connecting over 60 million professionals worldwide, online networking site LinkedIn provides a place for the exchanging of information, ideas and opportunities. According to the site, experienced professionals representing over 150 industries and 200 countries have created profiles and are ready to collaborate. “I’ve been on LinkedIn for three years,” said Kelly Everling, an assistant professor of public relations. “It’s been good to collect contacts in one area and then to see the contacts of my colleagues expand onto that. I’ve been able to strike business deals because of those.” Everling strongly encourages her students to link with her to join special interest groups and create rela-
tionships with professionals around the world. “One of my former students is abroad in Europe right now, and I told her to go through my contact list to look for people to meet with,” Everling said. “She was able to job shadow with someone in Italy and London, which I consider a success story.” Adjunct instructor of management and international business Timothy Johnson collaborated with a former student to create a group for Drake business graduate students on LinkedIn, which has grown steadily since its creation 18 months ago. Johnson has been able to gain
SEE LINKEDIN, PAGE 2