Veritas, Vol. 13, No. 09, January 15, 1973

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volume 13, number 9
January 15, 1973
University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida
Assistant Dean Named In Research Coordination
Laurette R. Plunkett has been named assistant dean of the Office of Research Coordination effective January 1.
A UM employee since 1961, she has been assistant to Dean Eugene H. Man for the past two years.
Dean Plunkett will be responsible for managing the office functions of the Office of Research Coordination including liaison with 11 research coordinators in other divisions throughout the University.
In addition to her responsibilities for editing and publishing “Research Notes,” she will be responsible for special reports and data analyses, for co-authoring research proposals for university-wide programs and for assistance in developing policy and procedure recommendations for the administration of sponsored programs in the University. Dean Plunkett also serves as secretary of the University Patent and Copyright Committee.
She earlier served as secretary to the vice president for research and to the coordinator of research, as research grants specialist and administrative assistant. She has edited “Research Notes” for 10 years.
Dean Plunkett received her bachelor of arts degree at Duke University in 1940.
Trustees Pass Fair Housing Resolution
In a move to combat discrimination in housing, the University Board of Trustees has issued a Resolution on Housing declaring its “affirmative commitment to overcome the obstacles faced by University-employed Blacks and members of other minority groups seeking housing in Coral Gables and the surrounding communities.”
Board Chairman Harry Hood Bassett also appointed a five-member trustee committee, with Bill Colson as chairman, charged with addressing itself to the specific problems of ending discrimination in housing. Serving with Mr. Colson are trustees Walter Etling, Edward C. Fogg III, R. B. Gautier, Jr.,
Neil Schiff and Edward F. Swenson, Jr.
In its resolution, the Board also noted it “will strongly remind legal, governmental and community organizational sources of their responsibilities to insure fair practices and non-discrimination in matters of housing.”
President Henry King Stanford said the resolution was recommended to the Board by the University’s Minority Affairs Council because of several instances involving refusal of housing to black faculty members, either to purchase or rent in Coral Gables and surrounding communities.
Ted Nichols, assistant to the president and director of the University’s affirmative action programs, is chairman of the Council.
Named SACS President
President Henry King Stanford was named president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools at the annual meeting in New Orleans December 13.
Dr. Stanford has held several committee posts with the Association over the years, including that of chairman of its Commission on Colleges and of its Commission on Admission to Membership.
Dean Laurette Plunkett
President Stanford Speaks to Senate
President Stanford addressed the Faculty Senate on the following topics during their December 18 meeting:
1.	Appropriations have been made to several divisions of the University .These allocations will enable the University to effectuate for the 1973-1974 year a two percent across-the-board increase for all employees on the first $20,000. Three percent will be discretionary (merit) for use by University officials.
2.	He is enthusiastic about the spirit which has been shown by the faculty toward the residence halls academic programs and feels it will greatly reduce attrition of freshmen and upperclassmen.
3.	He will have recommendations to the Board of Trustees regarding University governance within the first week in January.
Dr. Carl E. B. McKenry, vice president for academic affairs, pointed out that only 16 termination notices were sent out-seven involved with tenure-producing contracts and the balance to visiting professors or people on a one-year term appointment.
These notices are pro forma, and some of those given notice may be retained next year if financial adjustments can be made. Some reduction in administrative and staff personnel may be required.
In regular business, the Senate approved the proposal for the establishment of a Doctor of Arts degree. The proposal was then forwarded to President Stanford for his approval.
The Senate approved a motion to adopt a revised 1973-1974 academic calendar as presented at the meeting. The revised calendar allows 75 class days during spring semester 1974, instead of the 70 originally called for. Spring recess will be from 1 p.m. March 9 until 7 a.m. March 25. Classes will end 1 p.m. May 11.
A motion was approved that the Faculty Senators, on an individual basis, make recommendations to their department chairmen concerning participation in Carni Gras.
Families Share Yule Spirit
“Operation Santa Claus” was a success, according to its promulgator, Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs Donald Kubit.
“Operation Santa Claus” was designed to help make Christmas away from home a little brighter for the UM students remaining on campus during the holidays.
About 30 students spent Christmas eve or Christmas day with faculty and staff members and their families, including Dr. Stanford and his wife.
Already Mr. Kubit is planning ahead for an “Operation Plymouth Rock” next Thanksgiving.
National Geographic President To Speak at Commencement
by Sanford Schnier News Bureau
Dr. Melvin M. Payne, president of the National Geographic Society, Washington,
D. C., will be UM’s commencement speaker Thursday, January 25.
Twelfth in a distinguished line of National Geographic presidents, Dr. Payne will give the address for approximately 1,025 degree candidates at ceremonies beginning at 10:30 a.m. at Dade County Auditorium.
President Stanford will confer the degrees, ranging from the baccalaureate through the doctorate. For the first time a mid-term commencement will include awarding of medical degrees. Fourteen will receive them under the UM School of Medicine’s “Ph.D. to M.D.” program.
The President’s Commencement Reception for the degree candidates, their families and friends will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, January 24, at the Lowe Art Museum.
The annual Trustees Luncheon will be held at the Whitten Memorial Student Union following commencement ceremonies.
Dr. Payne received his education at the former National University Law School (now part of George Washington University) and Southeastern University and is a member of the District Bar. He was honored in 1962
by a doctorate in science from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. In 1970, Iowa Wesleyan College awarded him a doctor of science degree.
A native of Washington, D. C., he joined the National Geographic staff in 1932 at the age of 21. Since then, he has seen the Society’s membership grow from 930,000 to 7,500,000 member-families living in every part of the world. In 1958 he was elected to a newly created vice presidency and to the Society’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Payne was named executive vice president and secretary in 1962, taking responsibility for the Society’s membership, corporate and legal affairs.
He became president and chief executive officer of the National Geographic Society in 1967, succeeding Melville Bell Grosvenor (a member of the UM Board of Trustees).
As secretary of the Committee for Research and Exploration for more than 10 years, Dr. Payne was a prime force in the support of projects such as oceanographic research by UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (with total grants to date: $677,926); Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s underwater explorations; the first American ascent of Mount Everest; and other studies and expeditions.
World’s Top Scientists Gather at UM For Conference on Fundamental Interactions
The first decade of the Coral Gables Conference on Fundamental Interactions will be marked with the 1973 conference scheduled for January 22—26 at UM.
Two evening programs by renowned scientists attending the conference will be open to the UM faculty, said Dr. Behram T. Kursunoglu, director of UM’s Center for Theoretical Studies (CTS) which sponsors the conference:
•	The awarding of the J. Robert Oppenheimer Memorial Prize to Dr. Steven Weinberg, professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
8:30 p.m., January 24, in the auditorium of the Cox Science Building.
Dr. Weinberg, 39, is being honored for his significant contributions to electromagnetic and weak interactions, general relativity and cosmology, and symmetries of elementary particles.
The award, named in memory of the late J. Robert Oppenheimer, a leading figure in the development of theoretical physics in the U.S., consists of a gold medal, a citation and a $1,000 honorarium. It is given to recognize scientists who have made “outstanding contributions to the theoretical sciences and to the philosophy of science.”
•	“Basic Beliefs and Fundamental Research.” Speech by Dr. P. A. M. Dirac, Nobel laureate, whose theories marked the beginning of investigations of antimatter, 8:30 p.m., January 22, in the auditorium of the Cox Science Building.
Dr. Dirac is a permanent member of the Center for Theoretical Studies.
The 10th conference will include many Nobel laureates as well as a group of other international scientific luminaries.
Nobel winners participating in the convocation will be (in theoretical physics) P. A. M. Dirac, Willis Lamb, Robert Hofstadter,
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Dr. Dirac	Dr. Crick
Murray Gell-Mann and Charles Townes; (theoretical chemistry) Lars Onsager, a permanent CTS member, and Robert Milliken; (biology) Francis Crick and Donald Glaser.
Broadening its “think tank” format, the 1973 Conference will be transdisciplinary in that it will cover a variety of scientific fields, including not only high energy physics, but atomic and molecular physics, and ion diffusion in biological membranes.
“We hope not only to bring forth more understanding of the respective fields,” said Dr. Kursunoglu, “but to help discover the real unity of science in light of latest developments in these fields.”
The two evening programs will be designed to give listeners a glimpse of recent progress in science as related by the masters of the field, he noted.
Dr. Crick To Speak Today
Dr. Francis H. C. Crick, Nobel laureate and one of the co-discoverers of the nature of the DNA molecule, will present a speech, “Positional Information,” on January 15 in 226 Whitten Union.
Open to UM faculty, the speech will be at 4 p.m., preceded by a tea at 3 p.m.
On January 16 Dr. Crick will confer with interested faculty in 339 Computing Building.
Dr. Crick’s visit to UM is sponsored by the Center for Theoretical Studies.