Standing up for the First Amendment

Visiting instructor Jonathan Groves recently had an Ozarks Voices published in the Springfield News-Leader about the newspaper's role as a watchdog of our public institutions.

Shipman rocks!

Brian Shipman, visiting instructor in the Communication Department, recently won first place in the Video Viewbook category for schools with enrollments between 10,000 and 20,000 in the annual competition sponsored by HMR Publications for the National Newspaper of Admissions Marketing.

The video produced for Regis University is currently being used as a recruiting tool to increase enrollment in its adult evening-school program. Brian beat out two New York agencies to win first place.

For those of you who don’t know Brian, he spent 15 years as a TV journalist and videographer, winning two Emmys, and was twice awarded first-place honors by the Arkansas Press Association for his investigative reporting. He operates his own video production company, which this past year won a Silver Addy Award for a Drury commercial produced last year. His company does marketing videos for national companies, organizations and institutions such as Regis University and SIFE World Headquarters.

Con-GRAD-ulations

Sunday, we applauded 35 new Communication Department graduates as they walked the podium in honor of their degrees.

Some will continue their studies in grad school. Others are venturing on to advertising and PR firms, to businesses, to charitable organizations. Whatever the future holds, we wish them well.

We know they'll succeed, whatever their endeavor.

The gang at the Comm Department

New DUTV show

The student producers of DU27 & DU Sports announce the release of a new show. The show airs from midnight to 5 p.m. every day on Mediacom cable channel 27. This is a great show with lots of stories including:

• 2 Drury Music majors
• The Mirror
• The Health Center
• The Theater Department's One Acts
• Greek Week Dodgeball
• College Bound
• And a brand new baby
  

The sports show features:

• Men's & women's tennis
• On the road with Lady Panthers basketball
• Women's golf
• Tonya Choate
• How to shoot a jump shot
  

Check out these stories as soon as you can, and remember, if you’ve been interviewed for a story, get ready for the local celebrity spotlight.

Ad Team places second

The Drury University Advertising Team placed second in the District 9 National Student Advertising Competition Friday, April 21, in St. Louis.

Webster University placed first, St. Louis University placed third, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
placed fourth. Also competing were Creighton University, Drake University, Missouri State University and Washington University. The district winner moves on to the finals which will be held in San
Francisco in June.

The National Student Advertising Competition provides undergraduate advertising/PR students a realistic problem that can be solved through team effort, knowledge and creativity. This year's sponsor,
Postal Vault Systems, Inc. manufactures a secure mailbox that helps to prevent identity theft. In this generic category where no company has yet to emerge as industry leader, it was necessary to first establish a consumer need and second product value for the brand. It was a challenging project, and the Drury Team successfully met the challenge.

Drury Ad Team presenters are: Audrey Campbell, Vikki Crawford, Rachel Ellis, Amanda Littlefield, and Sarah Partridge.

Other team members are: Ashley Baureis, Sarah Campbell, Tara Davis, Emily Donnell, James Gough, Mary Mann, Lindsey Marshall, Lori Beeman Monroe, Jill Spence, Sarah Trigg and Christy Wichlinski. Brianne Ott served as grad student advisor; Regina Waters and Ron Schie are faculty advisors.

The judges for the competition were: Jethro Ferguson, Partner, Account Director for OgilvyOne Worldwide, New York; Candy Freund, Creative Director, Tom, Dick & Harry Advertising, Chicago; Matt Goodson, Creative Director, Thunder Factory, San Francisco; and Tami Weitkunat, President/CEO, Mediacomp Inc., Houston.

The Drury University Ad Team will have the opportunity to present their campaign one final time at the Springfield Advertising Club luncheon on May 10, 2006, at the Oasis Hotel and Conference Center in
Springfield.

Live from Wisconsin...it's Curt!

Monday afternoon...

Drury sophomores Brandy Enver and Jeff Davis represented the university well. Enver ranked in the top 24 in the national speech and debate tournament by making it to the quarterfinal bracket of Varsity Poetry Interpretation. Davis ranked in the top 8 in the Lincoln Douglas Debate portion of the national tournament by winning double-octofinal and octofinal rounds over competitors from Creighton University. Davis lost a close 2-1 decision in the quarterfinal round against Annaleigh Curtis from Washburn University. Curtis was a quarterfinalist in the 2005 tournament.

While we are still in Eau Claire for closing ceremonies and more speaker awards, I thought this would make for great reading given the very young team we have developed at Drury University.

With the (secular) blessings of the university, we hope to continue our growth and successes for the coming years.

From Eau Claire, Wisconsin...and eating cheese...

Dr. Curt Gilstrap

Pick your Oscar winners!

The latest edition of The Mirror has entries for the always popular Oscar contest.

Grab your ballot, pick your winner, and deposit the entry in the box in the Shewmaker Hall lobby. Remember, you can't win if you don't play...

Another strong outing for debate and speech

Drury's competitive debate and speech teams returned this weekend after an excellent weekend at Webster University's 2006 Tournament (sporting a partial roster of students).

Drury placed 2nd overall out of the top 20 speech teams ranking only behind Lafayette College (PA) who made an unexpected foray into the Midwest. Drury also placed 4th overall out of 35 schools in combined debate and speech sweepstakes.

Drury placed ahead of teams such as Arkansas State, William Jewell, Washington University, Truman State, Central Missouri State, Missouri Southern, Purdue University, Creighton, Mizzou, Loyola (chicago) and Notre Dame. Drury ranked above all other Missouri colleges/universities this weekend!

Notables include:

• The Varsity Debate team of freshman Mark Dapp & sophomore Spencer Harris were the #4 seed coming out of preliminary rounds. Dapp/Harris won a double octofinal round against a Western Kentucky team, an octofinal round against a Mizzou team, a quarterfinal round against a Western Kentucky team before finally losing a close round to Mizzou's Dudly/Shaw (a team ranked in the top 3 of 600 last year). Harris was also the top Varsity Lincoln Douglas speaker and the 6th best Varsity Pairs Speaker of the weekend. Both Dapp and Harris lost close octofinal debates to exit the Varsity Lincoln Douglas Tournament.

• Sophomore Brandy Enver was the 2nd best overall competitor in varsity speaking events. Enver was the weekend champion on Varsity Programmed Oral Interpretation, 2nd best Varsity Poetry Interpretation & 2nd best Varsity After Dinner Speaker.

• Junior Jessica Redmond tied for 6th overall competitor in varsity speaking events. Redmond placed 5th in Varstiy Informative Speaking and 3rd in Varsity Poetry Interpretation.

• Sophomore Jeff Davis was the 5th (of 64) best Varsity Lincoln Douglas debater coming out of preliminary rounds. Davis lost a close elimination round to Central Missouri's McCambridge.

• Sophomore Carly Crocker placed 4th in Varsity Communication Analysis and 4th in Varsity After Dinner Speaking.

• Freshman Jordanna McLeod placed 5th in Varsity After Dinner Speaking.

Check out the Mirror's special edition

Reflections has hit the newsstands.

The Mirror staff sifted through more than 100 photos submitted by students, staff and faculty to produce a special photo edition capturing the mood of fall 2005. Enjoy!