The Iowa State Daily
MOVE is urging students to be the change
As Monday night grew dark, a string of yellow Christmas lights lit up the Campanile. About 50 students were gathered in the grass, some with blankets, to hear the speakers of the second ever MOVE Night.
The night began with words from Joseph Capehart, a national spoken word artist. Capehart spoke to the students in a series of poems that covered both serious and uplifting topics, like domestic violence or the responsibility that comes with being a brother.
The main speaker was Caleb Ellingson, a senior in philosophy at the University of Northwestern in St. Paul, Minn. He made a case from the perspective of evolutionary biology that human beings should care for each other.
Ellingson believes college students have a unique opportunity to be in a community with one another. He came to Iowa State because he believes in MOVE and ideas that are worth spreading.
Research Park company gets Ebola contract
An ISU Research Park company is in the unique position to manufacture a vaccine for a deadly virus.
The Ebola virus was first recognized almost 40 years ago and came to the attention of the general public in spring 2014 when an epidemic struck West Africa. The hype has since died down amidst common conversation, but the virus lives on.
NewLink Genetics, a biopharmaceutical company in Ames, was awarded $18 million from the federal government at the beginning of October to scale-up the manufacturing process relating to the investigational Ebola vaccine candidate rVSV-ZEBOV, according to Dr. Charles Link, CEO and chief scientific officer at NewLink.
He defined NewLink as a commercial entity that does basic science work, with an ultimate goal of getting drugs approved for patients in need.
“[At NewLink] when you wake up in the morning, you know you’re going to be working on stuff that really matters for people,” Link said.
NewLink originally licensed the vaccine from the Public Health Agency of Canada in 2008. NewLink was already five years into research and development of the vaccine when the outbreak struck in 2014.
Lincoln Way’s newest bar features old songs, cheap drinks
Between the blocks of Welch Avenue and Hayward Avenue, a passerby’s attention may be diverted to a small, red building with a 9-foot Christmas tree punctually displayed in its window. A rustic sign above the door reads, “The District,” and inside is home to a relatively new bar in Campustown.
The District opened for business Jan. 15 for its first-ever mug night. Brandon Fick bought the bar last October, and the construction process lasted three or four months. The District replaced what used to be Charlie Yoke’s.
The District recently started featuring mugs of their own. The mug costs $5 to purchase and comes with a permanent discount: $4 Long Islands on Thursdays, as long as the mug isn’t lost or stolen.
Inside, the atmosphere is quite unlike what some bargoers have come to expect. The familiar aspects of the bar scene are unaccompanied by the unwelcoming stench of yesterday’s beer, something The District lacks. In fact, the bar is surprisingly clean.
That’s exactly what Brandon Fick, bar owner, expects.
“It sounds like such a small thing, but realistically, when you walk inside [a bar] and it’s dirty, or beat-up, or poorly planned, it takes away from the experience,” he said.
Iowa State’s crisis response receives update
An important tool to keep ISU students, faculty and visitors safe is the Student Affairs Crisis Response Manual.
The manual goes through a comprehensive revision process every five years, and was due to be updated this summer. The manual is currently in the final stages of editing and will be finalized in the coming weeks.
Keith Robinder, associate dean of students, has been in charge of guiding the revision process.
“We need a crisis response manual because it provides structure to the university, so that we’re not making things up during the midst of a crisis,” he said.