Veritas, Vol. 36, No. 07, April 1994

              For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami	April 1994 Volume 36 Number 7
University events celebrate new beginnings during April
With spring in full bloom, April traditionally signifies new beginnings. This month the University celebrates its growth and expansion through a facility renaming, a building inauguration, and a much anticipated groundbreaking.
Jerry Herman Theatre and the Alvin Sherman Black Box Series
The Ring Theatre will be renamed The Jerry Herman Theatre on April 20 in honor of UM alumnus and benefactor Jerry Herman, who wrote the music and lyrics for such blockbuster Broadway hits as La Cage aux Folles, Mame, and Hello Dolly! A new alternative theatre series within The Jerry Herman Theatre will also be dedicated during the same ceremony. It will be named the Alvin Sherman Black Box Series in honor of a generous donation by Alvin Sherman and his family.
“The Ring Theatre has been an integral part of the cultural life of Dade County for the past 43 years,” says Robert Ankrom, chairman of UM’s Department of Theatre Arts. “And through generous gifts by Alvin Sherman, Jerry Herman, and many others, we will be able to bring the theatre back to its original design.”
The theatre renovation, expected to take place in 1995, will create a flexible space with moveable seating risers that will allow for the current thrust seating, proscenium seating, theatre-in-the-round seating, or even several simultaneous stages for theatre festivals.
“We’ll be able to perform in a wide variety of configurations,” says Steve Martin, the theatre’s technical director. “Our only limits will be our imaginations. ”
L. Austin Weeks Center for Recording and Performance
The School of Music is preparing for the inauguration of its anxiously awaited Weeks Center, a state-of-the-art recording studio and recital hall. An inaugural recital is scheduled for April 22 and a private dedication ceremony will be held on April 24.
Referred to by Ken Pohlmann, director of the music engineering program, as “one of the nodes on the information superhighway,” the recording studio’s facilities will enable students and faculty to record audio, video, and multimedia materials, author them into finished presentations, and in the future send that digital information across a global network. It will contain a 56-input automated Sony mixing console, two 24-track digital audio tape recorders, Macintosh and IBM multimedia authoring systems networked through fiber optics, compact disc recorders, video recorders, and digital signal processing workstations.
The 150-seat recital hall, recently named the Victor E. Clarke Recital Hall in honor of Mr. Clarke’s generous gift, is designed for intimate performances by small jazz groups, solo jazz and
classical artists, string quartets, and chamber music ensembles.
“The Clarke Recital Hall is a beautifully configured space with excellent acoustics. It will offer a marvelous environment for student and faculty recitals,” says William Hipp, dean of the School of Music. “We are also immensely proud of our new recording studio. Few educational institutions can boast a recording facility of this quality.”
George A. Smathers Student Wellness Center
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held on April 29 at 4:30 p.m. on the Intramural Field for the new George A. Smathers Student Wellness Center, a
110.000-	square-foot facility expected to open by summer of 1995. A reception will follow the ceremony. Both events are open to the University community. Call 284-2872 to make a reservation.
The center boasts a 75-foot atrium with palm trees and facilities offering all members of the University community the latest in fitness training and wellness activities. It will contain a
10.000-	square-foot weight training and cardiovascular fitness room; a 10,000-square-foot wellness center with a human performance lab, classrooms, instructional kitchen, and computerized resource center; gymnasiums to accommodate a variety of sports; an indoor track and racquetball/badmin-ton/squash courts; a 25-yard indoor
The new Weeks Center holds a state-of-the-art recording studio and a 150-seat recital hall.
swimming pool, spa and saunas; lockers and shower rooms; a 4,000-square-foot aerobics room; a health food/juice bar and adjacent outdoor courtyard; multi-purpose rooms; a state-of-the-art conference room; and campus sports and recreation department offices.
“This facility will help UM in the recruitment and retention of students, faculty, and staff, as all the major institutions with whom we compete have similar facilities in place or are planning to build one in the future,” says Norm Parsons, director of campus sports and recreation. “It also sends a message to our University community that we care about them by providing wholesome, lifestyle enhancement opportunities. ”
—Susan G. Lichtman
Educating the Hispanic community about organ donation
The scene is chillingly familiar: a family huddles together in the hospital’s emergency room lobby, waiting for the attending physician to provide details on their loved one’s condition. Already on life support following a traumatic automobile injury, the individual has been declared brain dead. After providing a medical update, the doctor approaches the family for permission to donate their loved one’s healthy organs and tissues to needy patients for transplantation.
Overwhelmed with grief and confusion, the family members must now decide what to do.
A decision like this is hard enough for any family to make, but for Hispanics, cultural biases against organ and tissue donation make the process even more difficult. Historically, Hispanics have not donated as much as they’ve received, says Maria Pizzicari, the newly hired education coordinator for the School of Medicine’s Division of Transplantation.
“Hispanics receive 37 percent of all organ and tissue transplants in South Florida,” says Pizzicari, “yet they typically donate only 13 percent of the organs and tissues that are transplanted.”
The reasons for this, she says, are a lack of information, fears of premature death, religious superstitions, and a lack of trust in doctors and the medical community.
Hoping to increase the number of Hispanics who choose to become donors, and the number of families who consent to donate organs and tissues from their loved ones, Pizzicari has secured or created Spanish language donor cards, posters, brochures, videos, flyers, and promotional
Be aware
April 17 to 23 is nationally recognized as Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week. The inadequate supply of suitable organ donors continues to be the overriding deterrent to successful transplantation. Every day seven people die while waiting and every 20 minutes someone with end stage organ failure is added to the list. In the last five years alone, the number of persons waiting for vital organs has almost tripled— from about 12,000 to more than 34,000. For more information on organ and tissue donation, call 548-7588.
Maria Pizzicari, education coordinator for the Division of Transplantation, distributes brochures about organ donation from her booth at the recent Carnaval Miami.
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