Veritas, Vol. 44, No. 09, Summer 2002

              Veritas
Summer 2002
Volume 44 • Number 9
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
Commencement exercises usher in a new tradition
In what heralded the beginning of a new tradition at the University of Miami, some 1,977 students individually received their diplomas during a series of four commencement ceremonies on May 10 and 11 on UM’s Coral Gables campus.
“This is a new commencement for a new beginning for both you and the University,” President Donna E. Shalala said to some 563 students and about 4,000 spectators during the first commencement ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences, School of Continuing Studies, and School of International Studies.
This year’s commencement format, which replaced the annual University-wide ceremony, created a more personalized experience for students, who were called by name and walked across the stage to be congratulated by Shalala and their respective dean.
The new format proved to be overwhelmingly popular with graduates and spectators in attendance, evidenced by proud parents who cheered and took pictures of their sons and daughters as they walked across stage, and by the many graduates who raised their arms and waved to family and friends in the crowd.
Held on the University Green under a festive tent, the ceremonies also
included individual recognition of some of the University’s top graduates, such as former student government president José “Pepi” Diaz, who was Student
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Above, an ecstatic graduate is congratulated by President Shalala. Right, School of Architecture Professor Jan Hochstim serves as grand marshal for the third commencement ceremony on May 10.
Leader Magazine's Florida College Student of the Year, and Benjamin E. Young, who received the Edward T. Foote II Award for Excellence in Student Leadership.
Keeping with tradition, seven distinguished individuals received honorary degrees. Harvard sociologist William Julius Wilson urged graduates at the first commencement ceremony
to help end world poverty, calling its eradication one of the most important goals of the 21st century.
“We should work to enhance the economic security, education, and health of all extremely impoverished people. It is up to you, our future leaders, to play a major role in helping to
than you, people who are not blessed with your skill,” said Zedillo. “You have the potential to do immense good, not only for yourselves but also for others.” Pulitzer Prize and Academy Awardwinning composer John Paul Corigliano received an honorary degree and spoke at the ceremony for the
This is a new commencement for a
new
beginning for both you and the University.
achieve this noble objective,” Wilson told the graduates.
In the ceremony for the School of Business Administration and the College of Engineering, in which 528 students marched, former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon had a similar message.
“I encourage you never to forget those who have been dealt a worse hand
schools of architecture, communication, education, music, and nursing; 391 students marched in that ceremony. Mathematician and scientist I. M. Singer spoke at the graduate school ceremony, where 495 students marched.
The schools of medicine and law held separate ceremonies for their graduates at American Airlines Arena and the James L. Knight Center on May 11 and 19, respectively.
Honorary degree recipients at the School of Medicine ceremony included Ruth L. Kirschstein, former acting director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Alan S. Rabson, deputy director of the National Cancer Institute at the NIH. Stephen M. Schwebel, former president of the International Court of Justice, received an honorary degree at the School of Law ceremony.
School of Music breaks ground on library, technology center
Imagine a high-tech music
technology center where students can hone their piano skills using educational software, perform live electronic music scores, and receive hands-on training in the operation of sophisticated production equipment. Soon, such a place will become reality.
The School of Music has broken ground on the $10 million, state-of-the-art Marta and Austin Weeks Music Library and Technology Center. The two-story, 28,000-square-foot facility will include a 15,300-square-foot music library and a 5,200-square-foot advanced technology center with six computer-based laboratories. It is scheduled to open in spring 2004.
“This is quite a historic occasion in the life of the music school, and it bodes well for its continuing development as one of the most outstanding and influential schools of music in the country,” said Dean William Hipp at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new facility.
The new library will be three times the size of the existing one and will allow the school to house all of its
collections under one roof. It will include books, scores, recordings, special collections, and reference works, as well as computer facilities, audio-and video-playback equipment, study areas, and specialized spaces. The library’s lobby will be dedicated to Austin Weeks’ late mother, Una Austin Weeks, a professional concert singer who was instrumental in Austin developing his love of music.
The technology center will include a Music Engineering Lab featuring more than a dozen computers and other specialized equipment that will allow students to write software programs and use high-level applications that are essential to the production of recordings. Two Keyboard Computer Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) Labs will house hardware and software for personal productivity, MIDI recording, musical notation and educational software for learning to play the piano, ear training, music theory and music appreciation.
A Multimedia Instruction and Learning Lab will support ear training and theory classes in the core curriculum, as well as multimedia authoring
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classes. An Electronic and Computer Music Lab will provide student composers of electronic and computer music opportunities for studio applications, performance of live electronic pieces, research in areas of interest, and multimedia applications. And a Media Writing and Production Lab will be used by students pursuing careers in the fields of commercial music and film scoring.
At the groundbreaking ceremony,
Hipp thanked Marta and Austin Weeks, longtime UM benefactors, for their $8 million gift, which has made the new library and technology center possible.
In 1988, the couple’s first gift created the L. Austin Weeks Center for Recording and Performance Building, which is home to the 145-seat Clarke Recital Hall and a large recording studio for
music engineering students. The Weeks also have provided scholarships for about 40 music students a year.
“For me it’s going to be really exciting to watch this next phase of the music school define itself in bricks and mortar,” Marta Weeks said. “And I’m


From left, Board of Trustees Chairman Phillip Frost, trustee Marta Weeks, President Donna E. Shalala, Dean William Hipp, and Executive Vice President and Provost Luis Glaser perform a ceremonial groundbreaking for the School of Music's new library and technology center.
sure the hammering and the pounding and the mixing of cement will be music to Dean Hipp’s ears.”