Veritas, Vol. 50, No. 04, December 2007

              3	An enduring legacy: Alumni, fans,
and former UM players reflect on their favorite Orange Bowl moments.

4	The chemistry department’s newly renovated labs have enhanced the learning process for students.
5	With a focus on the 21st-century
world, the MAIA program prepares students for international careers.
Volume 50 ■ Number 4 - December 2007
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
www.miami.edu/veritas
UM, PANAMA SIGN COLLABORATIVE PACT
Thirty years after President Carter and General Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty, which gave the Central American nation control over its international sea lane, the University of Miami has signed its own unique pact with the country that could lead to collaboration on a world-class education and research facility to benefit the region.
UM President Donna E. Shalala and Panamanian President Martin Torrijos Espino signed on October 27 a “memorandum of understanding” in support of a proposed engineering research facility that would be based at Panama’s City of Knowledge. Campus Veintidós Verde would
Acquisition of Cedars is expected to improve health care, education, and research
New era begins with University of Miami Hospital
Panama pact: UM President Donna E. Shalala and Panamanian President Martin Torrijos Espino sign a memorandum of understanding.
address present and 22nd-century challenges of an interdependent global society focusing on technologies that are sustainable and regionally relevant. With Panama undergoing an expansion of its canal, the proposed campus would also include a water-tunnel testing facility that would make use of the water mass moved for the operation of the canal locks.
Using scale models, the water tunnel would test the strength of buildings and other structures when they are subjected to extreme pressures caused by hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural and manmade acts, according to Antonio Nanni, professor and chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering.
Other UM officials present at the signing included Executive Vice President and Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc, College of Engineering Dean James M. Tien, Vice President for Information Technology M. Lewis Temares, and Director of International and Corporate Affairs for IT Alejandra Collarte. Panamanian First Lady Vivian Fernández de Torrijos and several other Panamanian officials also attended the signing.
In a major move that promises to change the hospital industry in South Florida, the University of Miami has purchased Cedars Medical Center, a 560-bed facility located in the Miami Health District just across Northwest 12th Avenue from the Miller School of Medicine. The facility is now known as the University of Miami Hospital.
The purchase from Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) comes after the Board of Trustees voted in late October to give UM senior officers the authority to complete the deal.
The acquisition will help accelerate the Miller School’s transformation into a first-class destination medical center—a place where people from all over the United States and the world come for care and treatment, much like the renowned Mayo and Cleveland clinics.
Calling the acquisition a “great opportunity” for the University to own its own hospital, Miller School Senior Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt says the purchase will help UM “develop services that are totally unique in the region and serve patients in Miami, South Florida, and beyond in a way that no other hospital could.”
Ever since he became dean of the Miller School in the spring of 2006, Goldschmidt has reeled off a series of accomplishments to improve the school, luring physicians, researchers, and administrators who are leaders in their fields and overseeing the completion of the campus’s Clinical Research Building and forthcoming Biomedical

Research Building.
“The
creation of a university hospital environment enables us to provide the very best academic medical care to the people of South Florida and beyond,”
Goldschmidt says. “With this new flagship hospital, our top-ranked physicians will forge a new era in University of Miami-delivered care. This academic medical center will become a true medical destination.”
Patients are expected to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the deal, as the Miller School will continue to expand already strong programs in areas such as pediatrics, organ transplantation, and neurosurgery at Jackson Memorial Hospital, while concentrating on clinical areas such as cardiology, urology, orthopaedics, and internal medicine at the University of Miami Hospital.
“The type of very sophisticated, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art care that we are planning to develop...can only be developed if we entirely control the delivery of care from the time a patient makes an appointment to the
UNIVERSITY-
OIF. MIAMI j
C tcjJTPa
New look: Workers hang temporary signage for the new University of Miami Hospital. The facility exemplifies UM’s commitment to bring more university-based health care to Floridians and the international patients who seek the care of UM physicians.
time the patient leaves the hospital,” Goldschmidt says.
By owning its own hospital, UM is expected to strengthen its ability to recruit top-notch physicians and researchers, and the acquisition will also benefit Miller School medical students, who will now be able to train in the three major inpatient clinical settings: private hospitals, Veterans Affairs medical centers, and public hospitals such as Jackson Memorial. “And that’s very important,” Goldschmidt says. “Providing them with the full spectrum of medical experience is a major plus.”
Cedars Medical Center and the University of Miami have a strong, long-standing relationship, with Miller School students and trainees rotating at Continued on page 3
UM Libraries turns a major page in history
Many of the books in the University of Miami Libraries’ vast collection were produced using modern methods of typesetting. They have copyright dates printed on their spines, and they sit on neatly stacked shelves, waiting to be checked out by students and scholars.
But none of those books is quite like the Libraries’ latest acquisition: a manuscript with 24 calfskin pages bound in leather and written some four centuries before the University would even be founded.
Dialogues et Chants Royaux is the UM Libraries’ three millionth volume. Created in northern France in the first quarter of the 16th century, it is a col-
lection of religious poems written in French by several authors in honor of the Virgin Mary. It has been added to the UM Libraries’ collection in recognition of Professor of English and Classics John Paul Russo’s enduring contributions to library programming.
“It’s a true landmark for us,” says University Librarian Bill Walker, who, when he first saw the book, knew “that it was truly exceptional.”
The handmade book, considered a luxury item by collectors, is decorated with illuminated
Continued on page 3
Milestone manuscript: Dialogues et Chants Royaux is the UM Libraries’ three millionth volume.