Miami Hurricane, December 04, 1987

              Want to get a job?
As students prepare to enter “the real world,” some tips on job hunting are offered by Career Planning and Placement.
News — page 5
A lucky strike
A former UM baseball player whose injuries drove him out of the professional league manages a resort on Miami Beach.
Accent — page 10
Going, going, gone
After thinking about leaving last year, starting power forward Lemuel Howard has decided to transfer.
Sports — page 12
Volume 65, Number 24
University of Miami
Friday, Dec. 4, 1987
Service remembers administrator
ERIK COCKS/flurricanc Staff
Alumnus Jaene Garcia (right) is consoled by Eric Gcbaide (center). Jerry Houston, (left) assistant dean of students, was also among the many people who attended the memorial service yesterday.'
Brenda Lois Smith-Tucker, 27, dies suddenly of cardiac arrest
By DEBBIE MORGAN
Editor in chief
About 200 administrators, students and friends attended a service held yesterday in memory of Brenda Lois Smith-Tucker, a University of Miami administrator who died suddenly of respiratory cardiac arrest Monday. She was 27.
Jeff Zirulnick, director of the University Center, said in a eulogy at the service that Adalai Stevenson must have known Brenda when she said “It's not the years of your life but the life in your years."
"Brenda had the most positive attitude of anyone I ever encountered,” he said. “She would take an idea and make it special, not only with school but in every day life.”
Smith-Tucker was actively involved at UM for nine years, beginning as a student and eventually becoming the assistant director of student activities and the University Center.
She was graduated from UM with a bachelor’s degree in public relations in 1982 and received her masters of public administration from UM in 1986.
Bill Mullowney, ombudsman.
said that he and Brenda attended school together and their paths crossed often.
“We used to joke that if the administrators really knew what we used to be like as students, they wouldn't let us be administrators now,” he said.
“She was a real beacon for guidance, praise and scolding,” Mullowney said.
Zirulnick said the Miss UM pageant will be dedicated in Smith-Tucker's name, as well as the Student Involvement Center and an endowed scholarship.
While still in school, Smith-Tucker was a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, vice president of United Black Students, co-editor of Malaika (a black student handbook), a clarinet player in the UM Band of the Hour, Lecture Series member, parlimen-tarian of Undergraduate Student Body Government. Committee on Student Organizations member. Inspiration Gospel Choir member. Omicron Delta Kappa member and Student Activity Fee Allocation Committee secretary.
She was also honored the Pan-hellenic Outstanding Administrator in 1985.
Her responsibilities as assistant director of Student Activities in-
I
Smith-Tucker
eluded overseeing Homecoming, the Major Spring Event, Cinematic Arts Commission, Program Council, Election Commission. Student Legal Services, and the Committee on Student Organizations as well as staff development.
She is survived by her parents, Fred and Vivian; brothers Fred Jr. and Greg, and her husband. Frank Tucker.
Caren Burmeister, assistant news editor, contributed to this article.
UM to upgrade computer system this
month
IBM, VAX may be easier to use than Univac
By JENNIFER BOWLING
Staff Writer
The replacement of the University of Miami's Univac system with a new IBM 3081 and Vax 8650 will update the University’s computer system and make UM one of the leaders in college computer facilities in the nation, according to UM computer specialists.
The conversion should be completed by the end of December.
"We're going to have one of the better computer center facilities in American colleges and universities." said Director of Academic and Research Systems Dr. Jim Shelley. “It's already beneficial for my own academic computer needs. I can do a lot more on this system than I could on the Univac. It's easier to use, maintain and learn."
Shelley said the Univac mainframe system, the
brain of all the Individual terminals that are connected to the Ungar computer center's mainframe system, will be updated by the use of the new IBM/VAX programs instead of the Sperry/Univac.
“They're just better machines. It’s used a lot in industry and a lot in other universities and we feel it's necessary at UM to stay current," Shelly said.
Shelley said the total amount invested in the VAX system is about $1.2 million. He does not know the cost of the IBM system because it was purchased one piece at a time.
According to IBM system program analyst and computer professor. Bob Syren, the VAX system will be used for science and engineering. “Historically,
those machines have been used in those areas," he said.“As time goes by, each computer will be upgraded to serve the needs of the University."
"Sperry was lagging in terms of development and upkeep,” Syren explained. “Software was not being supported for the Univac as it is being supported for IBM and VAX.”
All users will have to convert their files, programs and data to one of the new systems. "There is a technical staff working with researchers to migrate files on the new machines," Shelley said. “Administration will not be affected by the new IBM/VAX system."
Faculty members and researchers who will use
either of the new systems will have to learn the new methods. “Some of the older students who've gone here two or three years will have to re-learn, which is part of being a student,” Shelley said.
"The benefits outweigh the problems of learning the new system because the new computers provide facilities that the Univac did not,” Shelley said. Full service editing and a wider variety of software are two of the services that will be available, he said
Douglas Houston, a VAX system program analyst, said. "The VAX is very similar to the personal computer DOS (disk operating system|; the IBM is different. If a person is very familiar with the personal computer, they would have no trouble using the VAX."
"Spending a few hours going through the tutorials available at the ISF (Institution Support Facility! in the Ungar computer center on the first floor, would help people understand the system better," Houston said.
Computer engineering program seeks accreditation
Approval would make program the only one in the Southeast
By ALBERT XIQUES
Staff Writer
The College of Engineering is seeking accreditation for its computer engineering program. If the accreditation is approved, the University of Miami will have the only such program in the Southeast.
Currently, students Interested in computer engineering may get a degree in electrical engineering with a computer option or elect to major in computer engineering in the non-accredited program.
The computer engineering major involves designing computer discs and internal circuiting for computers. With accreditation, the program will be more specialized and intense.
The University has contacted the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology and requested a review of the computer engineering program.
"When an [engineering] department wants accreditation, and thinks they meet all the criteria, they approach the accrediting organization and request a review," said Dr. Joseph Urban, chairman of the department of
Hang onto your hang-tags. In the spring semester hang-tags will not be replaced but a bright yellow validator sticker will be issued. The validator will be attached to the back and front of the current hang-tag.
Parking Coordinator Jane Gailey said the price of the validators has not yet been determined.
She said this process will eliminate long lines and the tedious process of filling out forms.
“We thought people sit in enough lines," Gailey said.
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electrical and computer engineering. "The whole process is the equivalent of auditing in the accounting world.”
According to Dr. James L. Ash, associate provost, the accreditation teams are concerned with examining faculty credentials and the facilities available to students. Their main concern is to insure that the students are receiving a good engineering education and that the University is providing them with everything it promises.
The entire accreditation process is taken very seriously by University administrators.
Armando de Leon, director of academic sevices for the college of engineering, said there are two basic reasons why it is important to have an accredited degree program: the University stands behind the program, and a national group from outside the program has made a site-visit and found the program meets certain criteria.
Several steps are involved in the lengthly process of accreditation. The University must first hire
Gailey said the validators are used at other universities and seem to be quite successful.
She also said the stickers cost less than buying new tags and eliminates the nerd to change the colors of the present tags.
Students may purchase a validator at Memorial Building 116 Jan. 11-15 during registration. They will also be available at the Law School lounge Jan. 25-27. Staff and employees may obtain them at the cashiers window in the Ashe Administration Building beginning Jan. 4.
— MARA DONAHOE
qualified faculty to teach the program, then it must expand its facilities to accomodate the new program and lastly it needs to have a group of graduates from the program.
"One of the things our teams |of professional engineers! look at closely Is a group of anonymous transcripts," said David Kaufman, director of the Engineering Accreditation Commission of
ABEDT. "This scrutiny of transcripts is done to insure that what the University is offering the students are actually getting."
The next step, which the University has already taken, is to contact ABET in New York and request they send a team to examine the program.
According to Dr. Norman Ein-spruch, dean of the College of
Engineering, the process up to this point nas already taken two years. He said the accreditation team made its visit Monday and Tuesday of last week.
Tuesday afternoon the accreditation team held an "exit meeting," with UM President Edward T. Foote II and Provost Luis Glaser, where they explained what they had seen, without
By KATRINKA LIGON
sta/i Writer
Sometime over the weekend, a statue in front of the Schiff Tennis Center was removed from its base and stolen.
Joe Frechette, director of Public Safety, said the bust dedicated to Neil Schiff was taken Friday night or early Saturday, probably as a prank. “It could just be a joke, maybe part of an initiation,1’ he said. “The first thing that comes to people's minds is the frats."
A $250 reward has been offered for any information leading to the whereabouts of the statue.
Schiff, a University of Miami alumnus and long-time member of the UM Board of Trustees was responsible for soliciting funds for the tennis center, just dedicated to him in November. He was also involved in UM athletics and the mid-century $135 million fundraising campaign.
Frechette said the theft is not a typical prank. "Nothing like this has been taken before,” he said. He is appealing to the people responsible to bring the statue back. "There will be no questions asked," he said. "All they have to )
making any comments or recommendations.
The University can do nothing until July when Einspruch expects to receive a preliminary report from ABET with recommendations of changes that they feel should be made. In early August there will be a general meeting of ABET, at which time the accreda-tion will be granted or denied.
Later that same month Einspruch said he expects to receive the Commission's final report along with ABET's decision.
do is drop it off somewhere and we'll come pick it up.”
He said the four foot high. 150 pound bronze bust has little monetary value. "It would bring only about 28 cents a pound, so we're not talking about a lot of money. It has no value as scrap," he said.
Frechette said no police action had been taken other than the distribution of flyers with a picture of the statue to other police stations. "We've canvassed the frats and dorms and talked to the students. Maintenance men have been told to be on the lookout," he said. “It's an easily identifiable thing."
Frechette said Barbara Schiff, Schiff's widow, was very upset. "It was a memorial to her husband.” The statue was dedicated Nov. 8, in memory of Schiff, and was paid for with public donations.
Schiff's son Robert attends UM School of Law. The family said the statue has much sentimental value and stressed thatno questions will be asked if it is returned.
If you have any information about the statue call Public Safety at 284-6666.
(
FILE
This statue of Neil Schiff was taken from the tennis complex over the weekend.
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Hang on to hang-tags
Sticker price still not decided
By .MARA DONAHOE
News Editor
$250 offered for return of Neil Schiff’s statue
Family upset over disappearance
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