STORY BY BETH LEVALLEY
Dogtown After Hours received funding from Student Senate with hopes of breaking a Guinness World Record.
The event plans to break the Guinness Book of World Records for largest Nerf gun battle.
The current record holder is Washington University with 468 students. This event hopes to have 600 students in attendance.
Two representatives of the committee for Dogtown After Hours, a newly approved annual event, requested $9,360 from senate.
The event, on Friday, Mar. 27, will also include bubble soccer, a massage room, caricaturists, a street magician and other activities hosted by Drake University organizations.
To create a lasting impression on Drake, the event also plans to collaborate with students to create a mural in lower Olmsted.
With the help of Ted Hatten, an adjunct professor at Drake and a local artist, the mural will honor Drake’s late live mascot Porterhouse.
La Fuerza Latina, an organization that hopes to connect Drake’s Latino culture with Des Moines’ influence, was recognized as a official organization.
The group hopes to address the lack of Latino voices on campus and is encouraging Drake to recruit a new Latino counselor.
La Fuerza Latina will include Latino and non-Latino students alike.
They recently traveled to Dowling High School to translate Spanish conversations during parent-teacher conferences.
“I think this group can really foster dialogue with the election coming up,” Sen. Olivia O’Hea said.
After a tense debate, the Student Senate also allocated $706.75 to the TEDx Drake Club for their upcoming event that is open to the public.
While the TEDx license gives them the rights to use the branding name, they do not allocate any money in order to put on a personalized event.
The TEDx event will allow students and faculty to speak openly about interesting or controversial topics that might not normally be discussed.
The senate gifted this money for mostly craft supplies to create a TEDx Talk atmosphere in Sussman Theater.
Student Body President Joey Gale also clarified some recent issues that have come up in conversation around Drake’s campus.
Sodexo, Drake’s meal provider, has recently been confronted with different social issues concerning animal rights.
A petition from the Humane League surfaced on the website Change.org criticizing Drake University for employing a company like Sodexo who “uses liquid eggs from cruel, filthy and unsustainable battery cage-farms.”
“I wanted to remind you that Sodexo as well as Drake are actively aware of these social issues,” Gale said.
Sodexo announced on Feb. 19 that they are currently working toward eliminating all battery cages by 2017 and their meat and dairy products will now have no artificial growth hormones.
Gale also discussed the recent circulation of an inaccurate online article published by FindTheBest.com .
Drake was listed as number three on a list of the “Top 25 Most Dangerous Schools in America.”
“The website’s algorithm for this list was completely off,” Gale said. “We are nowhere near the top 25 most dangerous schools.”
WQAD8 of the Quad Cities has reported that the report was redacted due to “errors in the analysis” with data from 2005-2012 . Drake is no longer on the list.
Associate Dean of Students Jerry Parker was also in attendance Thursday night.
He spoke highly of the senate’s ability to address different issues on campus, and reminded them that he, as well as other administrators are open to conversation at all times.
“I wanted to clarify that my role is as an advisor,” Parker said. “In regards to what the Senate looks like, that is up to you. I hope to be a reference to you in the future when you need help collaborating or supporting each other, but the infrastructure of the Senate is in your hands.”
