Veritas, Vol. 38, No. 06, March 1996

              Smathers Center encourages healthy lifestyle for all
The scissors, please: (left to right) Norman Parsons, Jr.; William R. Butler; Monica Aquino; Caryn Vogel; Bruce Smathers; Edward T. Foote II; Rebecca Hoffman; and Luis Glaser gather at the Smathers Center.
Moments after the doors
opened to the George A. Smathers Student Wellness Center, 1241 Dickinson Drive, students were shooting hoops in the three-court gymnasium, a racquetball game had commenced in court number four, and long lines were forming to sign up for membership.
“I’m pleased to see some with their gym bags ready to get involved with the facility,” observed Norman Parsons, Jr., director of Campus Sports and Recreation, in his introductory comments at the ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by an eager throng of students, faculty, and staff. “This facility celebrates the opportunity to enjoy sports and recreation, wellness, and to make new friends and enjoy old ones.” The $13.8 million, 149,000-square-foot facility sets the standard for campus wellness centers, noted a jubiliant President Edward T. Foote II. “There is none to surpass the George A.
Smathers Student Wellness Center in our country in our time.”
Though the paint was still a little tacky in spots, everybody was ready, as they say, to hit the ground running.
“My first class is going to be ski conditioning,” announced Kristina Napoles, a telecommunications software specialist who was part of the team that designed the center’s tele-
phone software. “I’ve been so involved with this building, I have a kinship with it,” she explained, adding, “I hope that will motivate me to work out!”
Her colleague, Fran Sprowls, shrieked in delight.”They have a walking class! That’s me!”
The center, featuring everything from aerobic and weight rooms to a lap pool, indoor track, and computer resource laboratory—was funded by a joint partnership of student Wellness Center funds and a $10 million endowment from George A. Smathers, a Florida U.S. senator from 1951 to 1968. The facility was designed for the needs of all members of the University community—students, staff, faculty members, and alumni.
“You can come in during your lunch hour,” says Joanna Eskreis, senior staff assistant in University Advancement. “You become more affiliated with those you work with.”
Standing room only: Hausier endowed-chalr gala celebrates a legend
They figured they were in for it when they saw the blue books.
Course title: Contracts.
Instructor: Professor Richard A. Hausler.
Date: January 19, 1996.
But instead of panicking, guests at the grand celebration to honor Richard A.
Hausler, the School of Law’s “man for all seasons,” reached for their dinner rolls and began their hearts of palm salad. The heart-stopping blue books were just a creatively designed program for the evening’s event to cap off a $1.5 million fundraising campaign that endowed the law school’s first named chair.
The Richard A. Hausler Chair will be held by renowned legal scholar John Hart Ely starting this fall.
But first, a quiz. “Anybody who received an 'A’ from the professor, please stand up," began Joseph P. Klock, Jr., chairman of the endowed
chair committee and chairman and managing partner of the law firm Steel Hector & Davis.
The ballroom full of jurists remained in their seats.
A capacity crowd of 600 filled the Biltmore Country Club Ballroom to offer personal tributes and respectful parody—including a theatrical presentation by Hausler’s students—for the 47-year veteran of the law school faculty. And the distinguished members of the bar weren't bashful about admitting their past fears, either. “The word Hausler' still sends tremors through my body,” confessed the Honorable Lenore C. Nesbitt, of the U.S. District Court.
Samuel S. Smith, secretary of the American Bar Association, recalled the paranoia he felt as a student. “He knew my handwriting, he knew my ty pewriter ribbon. Tortured? May be.
But we were stimulated always.” Marshall Shapo, the Frederic P.
Vose Professor of Law at Northwestern University, agreed with the rigorous approach. “If we could contend with him, we could do battle with the world.”
University of Miami President Emeritus Henry King Stanford, President Edward T. Foote H, law school Dean Samuel C. Thompson, Jr., and former law school Dean Mary Doyle also paid tribute to the professor.
Adding the domestic perspective was daughter Jennie Hausler Hall. “What was it like growing up in that house? Did he use the Socratic Method?” she asked. “We haven’t had it any easier than the rest of you.” Professor Hausler’s rebuttal? “I agree with Barbra Streisand when she said, ‘People who need people are the luckiest people in the world.’”
—Leslie Stemlieb
LOOKING BACK
Celebrating seven decades of achievement
When ground was broken for the University of Miami, it symbolized the highest hopes and dreams of an emerging community. “Help build the University of Miami and the University of Miami will help build your future, ” exhorted the period’s advertising, “ft will put the stamp of permanence and culture upon all of South Florida, ” editorialized the Miami Tribune. Assembled at the January 14, 1926 groundbreaking ceremony were (left to right): principal architects of Cora! Gables Phineas Paist and Denman Fink; Secretary of the Board of Regents and Managing Regent Frederic Zeigen; Mrs. Zeigen; and the Miami Conservatory’s Bertha M. Foster; who would eventually become the first dean of the School of Music. Looking forward to the University’s 70th anniversary in October,; Veritas will continue to uncover special moments in this institution’s history.