Miami Hurricane, August 23, 1991

              SUMMER 1991
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI. CORAL GABLES. FLA.
SECTION A
DAVE BERGMAN/Stafl photographer
CELEBRATION SPLASH: Taking pari in a not-so-old UM tradition, 1991 graduates frolic in the McLamore Plaza fountain after commencement,
1991 graduates set for success
Grad: ‘Spirit of the moment shared by all'
By TOM B. HIGGINS
News Editor
In a ceremony filled with cheers and excitement, the University of Miami graduated 2,191 students during a May 10 ceremony on the University Green at the Coral gables campus.
Commencement speaker Louis Sullivan, U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, spoke to the graduates about creating a "new culture of character in America.”
He said the graduates of today must “be willing to put service above self and the good of our communities and of humnanity above the lure of lucrative careers and materialistic lifestyles.”
“The needs of at-risk populations are a clarion call to each of us,” Sullivan continued.
Students cheered throughout Sullivan’s speech, but the real celebration began as University President Edward T. Foote II began to confer degrees upon the ocean of black robes clustered on the Green.
As each college and school received its degrees, anticipation grew among the graduates.
“I felt really excited,” said School of Music graduate Allison
Gillespie. "The humor and enthusiasm of the graduateswas well received by the administration.”
"The spirit of the moment was shared by everyone,” Gillespie continued.
Streams of orange and green ”silly-string”shot up among the students as confetti floated through the air.
Howie Hauser, a new graduate of the School of Business, said the event was a part of the biggest day of his life.
"I felt a feeling of accomplishment as I moved my tassle from right to left,” he said. "My long-awaited goal had been achieved."
Before he assumed his post in the Bush administration in 1989, Sullivan was a founding dean and president of Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, one of three principally black medical schools in America. He received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University at the ceremony.
Other honory degree recipients included John Michael Bishop, 1989 Nobel laureate for medicine; William J. Brennan, retired justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; and U.S. Rep. William Lehman, D-Biscayne Park, Fla.
Personalized classes to challenge freshmen
By tom b. higgins	Top professors will teach seminars
Npwç Friitnr	*	4
Beginning this fall, University of Miami freshmen will be able to enroll in "personal, innovative classes unavailable at most universities in this country,” Dr. Ross Murfin, the newly-appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences said.
The classes are callejJJlffeshmen seminars,” and!tEey’were instituted to combat the "lost feeling” that some entering students have when they first come to college, Murfin said.
Before the instituion of this program, "not all of our freshmen had
the chance to sit down in a small room with a distinguished faculty person, to hear them speak, and to write papers on their discussions,” Murfin said.
“In freshmen seminars, the students can argue points and get feedback,” he continued.
The Freshmen Seminar Program began when Murfin circulated a letter suggesting that professors propose courses for the program. Twenty-two came forward, creating courses like The Images of Women in American Society, in which professors Rita Deutsch and
Lindsey Tucker will explore the beliefs and attitudes towards women in the 20th century.
Other seminar topics include:
•	Visions of Home and Despair: The Spanish Civil War — Professor Jane Connolly will examine the war though the eyes of its observers and participants.
•	Creation Mythologies in the World’s Religions — Professor Marvin Sweeney introduces students to the varieties of cosmologie mythologies as well as the common patterns of such myths.
•	Cowboys and Indians: Image,
Myth, and the American West — Professor Michael Carlebach will investigate the nature and meaning of myth and its peculiar and complicated relation to historical reality in the American West.
Freshmen seminar programs are also offered at the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Duke University.
The seminars will be available only to frshmen, and will count toward their general education or distribution requirements. Registration for the courses will continue until they are filled, and a cross section of incoming freshmen are expected to register.
FINANCIAL MATTERS
The total amount of the University's endowment since President Foote’s inauguration in 1981-In 1981 -$40.68 million
SOURCE: UM
Excitement planned for orientation
Activity fills week
By FRANK RECIO
Assistant News Editor
As the fall 1991 semester begins, it will bring with it 1,800 new faces to the University of Miami campus.
To help them with the transition to college life, Orientation '91 will offer students a week of exciting activities to help them find their way around the campus, make new friends, get set for their academic challenges and help them get involved in the activities of their choice, Karen Melino, director of Student Development and Orientation Services, said.
A staff of over 200 trained student orientation assistants (OAs) will be available to help students with any problems or questions they might have, Melino said.
“They [the OAs) are the University’s official welcoming commitee; they are the first contact the students have when they arrive on campus.”
Students will be divided into four categories: resident, commuter, international and transfer. Groups of 10-15 students will be meeting with an OA, who will involve students in activities specially designed to help them get acclimated to UM.
“We want to give incoming students an upperclassman whom they can talk to and ask questions they might have. Our OAs are as diverse as our student population and will relate to them very well.” Melino said.
Orientation begins on Saturday, Aug. 24, 1991, with a program for international students. "International Orientation is geared to help students overcome the ‘shell shock’ of the American society and customs,” Melino said.
Melino hopes that Orientation will “get students off to a great year.”
“We want to introduce students to college academics, and other curricular opportunities available at UM.”
This year’s Orientation will be heavily charged with much of what UM is all about. "Miami history, traditions, and customs will all be part of the program,” Melino said.
Orientation for all other students begins on Sunday, with check-in for
Please see page 7A/ORIENT
TEN YEARS OF SERVICE
DAVE BERGMAN /Special to the First Impression
‘SANDBAGGED’: University of Miami President Edward T. Foote II, center, receives the first Vice President’s Award for Service. Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. William Butler, right, and Student Government President Irwin Raij look on.
Foote celebrates 10 years
‘Still a lot to do here,’ president says; no plans to leave
By ROBERT MILLER
Editor In Chief
... And so we gather at a University of astonishing accomplishment, in a city of boundless opportunity, astride a fulcrum of continents and peoples — perhaps of eras. There are times when cities take off. There are times when universities take off. When those times coincide, there is the stuff of combustible excitement. We here are at the threshold of such times.
President Edward T. Foote II Inaugural Address, Dec. 4, 1981
Watching himself on the big screen television in the comer of the banquet hall, and seeing himself as a man 10 years younger give
the most important speech of his life, he seemd to sink into his chair. During the testimonials his wife put her arm around his shoulders and whispered in his ear. And finally, when the chairman of the Board of Trustees gave him his pin for 10 years of service to the University, and the entire room signalled its approval with a standing ovation, President Edward T. Foote II was at a loss for words.
After several minutes at the podium, "thanks” was all he could say.
The occasion was the Board of Trustee’s retreat, held at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, Fla., April 12. They were celebrating Foote’s 10th anniversary as the University of Miami’s fourth president.
The board had decided to sur-
Please see page 2A/FOOTE
NEWLY APPOINTED: Ross Murfin will take over as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences August 1.
Freshmen show promise
By FRANK RECIO
Assistant News Editor
Dr. Ross Murfin, former vice provost of the University of Miami, will soon take over as the new dean of the College of Arts and Sciences — the largest of the 14 schools and colleges at UM, administration officials announced recently. Murfin is replacing Dr. David Wilson, who is stepping down as dean after six years to return to teaching and research in the Department of Biology.
"Dr. Murfin is a distinguished scholar and a real leader,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Luis Glaser. “He has served the University with distinction in a
variety of roles and will be a charismatic leader for the College of Arts and Sciences. I am delighted that he has accepted the position. We will miss him in the Provost’s Office.”
Murfin, who joined the English Department as an associate professor in 1981, is currently vice provost for undergraduate affairs. He has served as served as associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and director of the Programs in Honors and Privileged Studies. When the University’s residential college system was established in 1984, Murfin was appointed as the first head master Hecht Residential College.
UM President Edward T. Foote
II said the search for a new dean earlier this year had been thorough and exhaustive and that a large number of qualified candidates were considered.
“When I made my decision ... I was confident I had chosen the best,” Foote said. “Professor Murfin is one of the most respected members of our talented faculty.
“The search for a dean drew much interest nationally. That professor Murfin emerged as our choice is a tribute to him as a scholar, teacher and leader. He is very well qualified to guide this important college, with the second-largest faculty at the University of Miami and the traditional ‘heart’ of any university.”
This fall, a diverse and overachieving group of freshmen will be arriving on campus to begin their academic and social challenges at the University of Miami.
According to Mary Conway, director of Admissions, 40 percent of this year’s freshman ranked in the top 10 percent of their graduating class.
The class of 1994, Conway said, is similar to last year’s group of 1,800 freshman, who had combined Scholastic Aptitude Test scores within a “mid-range of 940 to 1,220.”
Conway said that this year’s class is probably going to be slightly smaller than last year’s.
"The main difference this year, is that students tend to be staying
closer to home,” she said. "Last year, 38 percent of our freshman were from in state, this year it is up to 41 percent. That means that our out-of-state numbers are down, because we have roughly the same number of international students.”
Conway said 54 percent of the incoming freshman class is enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, 17 percent in the School of Business and 9 percent each in the College of Engineering and the School of Communication. The remaining students have enrolled in a program in architecture, music or nursing.
— FRANK RECIO
Murfin appointed new A&S dean
Former vice provost/English professor to replace Wilson
INSIDE
A GLOBAL CITY
•	Club listings: Your guide to the many activities and organizations on campus, 9A.
•	Open house: A day in the llfe ol.a residential college master, Editorial — 15A.
CANE CONCERNS
Miami is not your average ‘college town.’ The city, and surrounding communities, offers many diversions for UM students.
A young and inexperienced Hurricane football team will try to storm their way into the Big East Conference this fall.
• Sports — page 1C
• Lifestyles — page 1B