Miami Hurricane, September 22, 1998

              Miss Florida second runner-up
By VICTORIA BALLARD
News Editor
Miss Florida Lissette Gonzalez went to Atlantic City hoping to return to Miami as the 1999 Miss America. Instead, she was the second runner-up, following Miss Virginia and Miss North Carolina.
Gonzalez is the first Miss Miami to be crowned Miss Florida and advance to the national pageant.
Gonzalez also	1 the preliminary
swimsuit compet.	a on Thursday night.
As the second runner-up, Gonzalez
received a $20,000 scholarship from the Miss America Pageant Competition Awards.
Pageant contestants are judged in the categories of private interview, swimsuit, evening wear and talent. The top five contestants also complete a special interview on stage.
In the interview portion of the contest, interviewer Meredith Viera said, “In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of discussion about honesty in this country and we all have our own standards about
what we will lie about and what we won’t."
“I wouldn’t lie about anything,” said Gonzalez.
In the talent competition, Gonzalez sang “All that )azz” from the musical Chicago. In the Miss Florida Pageant, Gonzalez sang “Don’t Rain on My Parade.” She switched songs because Kate Shindle.the 1998 Miss America, had sung the same song last year.
Gonzalez, however, did wear the same white strapless dress in both competi-
tions. She also wore a one-piece turquoise swimsuit bought in Orlando.
Gonzalez’s platform was “Celebrating Cultural Diversity,” which concentrated on the American melting pot.
Gonzalez began competing in beauty pageants as a high school student in G. Holmes Braddock High. She was the first runner-up in the Cuba en el Exilio competition.
She graduated in the top one percent of her high school class. She earned enough scholarships to cover UM tuition.
8
'S
I
THE
WINNER:
Senior Ussette Gonzalez finished first in the swimsuit portion of the Miss America Pageant
Toppel offers Career Expo
JAMES BURON/Humcane Staff Photographer JOB HUNT: The Toppel Center is sponsoring the 1998-99 Career Expo on Thursday afternoon in the Wellness Center.
By DAVID H. GARCIA
Hurricane Staff Writer
The most anticipated career event of the year has arrived at the University of Miami. Students should lock and load their briefcase and prepare their rlsuinls because it will be for one day only.
The cause: Career Expo 1998-99, and one man wants to bring students to experience the largest event of this kind in UM’s history.
“Our expo is going to be the largest one ever,” said Michael J. Gage, director of the Toppel Career Planning and Placement Center. “We are up to 190 companies attending, and still coming.”
The Career Expo will take place on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Wellness Center. The event targets all students who are ready to find a career opportunity within their field of study, but who may not have succeeded in getting an interview with representatives of major international corporations. Now, the companies are coming here.
“What most students don’t understand is that companies do not look at the degree that they graduate with, but rather the skills
that they can bring to the company to make it better,” said Gage.
because oi this misconception,
students wait to the last minute during their final year to start looking for a job, in hopes of being called and interviewed when they graduate.
“It doesn’t work that way,” Gage said. “That’s why we put together this event once early in the school year, so that students are prepared and have the opportunity to meet corporations that otherwise would be very hard to get interviewed by.”
There are also opportunities for students who want to acquire internships and begin working in their fields.
“Too many that otherwise would make the process of getting a job very difficult” said John Sullivan, office manager at Toppel.
The Center offers programs to enhance interviewing skills, professional résumé critics and workshops, along with unlimited access to the library—one of the largest in Miami-Dade County. Students also can log on for the center’s information via the Internet at www.miami.edu/toppel.
Career Expo 1998-1999
Hofo 1« a partial
list of some companies attending this year's career expo:
AT&T, Burdines, Citibank, Dell Computer Corporation, Delta Air Lines, Disney Worldwide Services, Inc., Hersbey's Chocolate, IBM, KraftFoods,
Macy's, Merrill Lynch, Miami New Times, Motorola Inc., Nationsbank, Nissan Motor Corp. U.S.A., Pfizer Inc., Proctor and Gamble, The Miami Herald Publishing Co., United Airlines, United Parcel Service, United States Airforce, WSW-TV ChEmel 7.
Dining halls test extended evening hours
Vigil
helps
conquer
cancer
By ERIC BLAIR
Hurricane Staff Writer
The University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is sponsoring the “Coming Together to Conquer Cancer” candlelight vigil tomorrow in Bayfront Park.
“The purpose of vigil is to raise awareness of the need for more cancer research,” said Lenay Berry, the marketing communications manager at UM/Sylvester.
The candlelight vigil is the major event sponsored by UM/Sylvester as the Southeast regional representative of The March, which represents a ..ational campaign to conquer cancer through increased funding, said Berry. This year’s vigil is the first such event hosted by UM/Sylvester.
As The March’s regional representative, UM/Sylvester will take the lead in publicizing the need for increased cancer funding in South Florida.
“We’re a big cancer center,” said Danielle Beck, media relations at UM/Sylvester.
One of UM/Sylvester’s main goals for the vigil is to raise community involvement in South Florida.
The other goal is “to make the government aware we need more money” for cancer research, said Beck.
Berry said the vigil will send “a message to our elected officials” about the need for access to better care.
“Cancer has to be a research priority,” said Beck.
The candlelight vigil will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 23, at 6 p.m. It is at Bayfront Park, 301 Biscayne Boulevard, in downtown Miami.
Beck said she hopes that the loca-
See VIGIL • Page 2
By SCOTT HOMA
Hurricane Staff Writer
From now until Thanksgiving break, the Hecht/Stanford and Mahoney/Pearson dining halls will test extended hours of operation.
The dining halls will remain open for an additional hour Monday through Thursday evenings. Closing time has been shifted from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The change, which is currently a
test program, is in response to increasing student concerns and frustration with long lines and congestion during the dinner rush hours.
The test program was developed as a joint effort by the dining halls’ management and Student Affairs. When students expressed their concerns over the long dinner lines, Student Government and the Office of Student Affairs worked with the dining halls to identify possible solutions.
Mel Tenen, director of Dining and Vending Services, said Vice President for Student Affairs Patricia Whitely was particularly instrumental in developing the test plan.
“The revised schedule is an attempt to alleviate the long dinner lines that are parity due to the one hundred and fifty additional students, on the board plan,” said Tenen.
The large numbers pushed the dining halls to the limits of their capaci-
ty, especially during dinner when congestion and long lines are common.
By extending the operating hours, Tenen said he hoped the flow of student diners will be spread more evenly over a longer time period, lessening the severity of the peak during the dinner rush.
During the additional time that the dining halls are open, they will offer most of the same food options that
were previously available in the tune period between 7:30 and 8 p.m. The hot entrée section will be closed, but the grill, deli, pizza stand and salad bar will remain open.
Student reactions to the longer hours are generally favorable. They credit the administration for acting quickly to try to resolve the issue.
Because the hot entrée section will
See DINING • Page 2
■ MEDICAL SCHOOL GETS GRANT
The School of Medicine 's
Health Services Research Center has received a $163.368 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study how workplace druQ-testmg programs Impact employees'
behavior and attitudes about drug use.
Researchers involved in the two-year project wilt examine five drug testing programs, such as random and pre-employment tests, to measure the impact of these programs have on the number of times employees uae drugs and whether or not these programs detar employees from using drugs
■ PROFESSOR JOINS NURSING STAFF
Ellen D. Baer has been appointed to the Wallace Gilroy Visiting Professorship Baer * professor emertta of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a founding member of the Center for the Study of the
History of Nursing. She also served as the director of the nursing doctoral program at New totfr University Baer was a Futortght Senior Scholar at the University of Athens last year Baer has published and spoken on a variety of nursing subjects She has worked In the arse where women's studies and nursing overlap
■ MICROSCOPE DONATED TO UM
Funded through a National Science Foundation grant and private gifts, the University of Miami is dedicating the Joanna C and Edward A Dauer, M.D. FMd Emission Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope Laboratory.
The new $1 million lab features one of the most advanced scanning electron microscopes available today. K »the first of its type In the state of Florida.
The new microscope and lab are part of the Center for Advanced Microscopy, a collaboration ot facilities on the three university campuses.
■ PROFESSOR LECTURES ABOUT EGYPTOLOGY
Lanny Be«, professor emeritus of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and a waiting profeaaor at Brown University, wttl apeak on "Recent Discoveries in Luxor-on Thuraday at Ihe Lowe Art
Museum
The lecture touches on the history of the temple and Its use throughout the ages from the time of the pharaohs to the Roman period, Including details of the architectural h*tory of the Luxor temple complex, its procession routes and other matters related to the New Kingdom Pharomc period