Veritas, Vol. 50, No. 03, November 2007

              3UM enters a critical stage in the reaccreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
4 A new wind tunnel testing facility will
help the College of Engineering conduct cutting-edge research.
5 A major design project by a team of UM architecture students could lead to a remake of Miami’s waterfront.
Volume 50 ■ Number 3 ■ November 2007	For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
www.miami.edu/veritas
UNIVERSITY SETS ITS SIGHTS ON A SUCCESSFUL 2007 UNITED WAY CAMPAIGN
N ot long from now, University of Miami employees Celia Pacheco and Judy Mallon will take a trip to their local grocery store, grab a couple of carts, and fill them with 75 pounds of ground beef, chicken, and hot dogs. They’ll buy enough Italian sausage to make 50 subs and enough hamburger and sandwich buns to feed a crowd of 300 people.
Pacheco and Mallon aren’t planning to open a restaurant. They are stocking up on goods to prepare for the Office of the Controller’s annual picnic-style barbecue. Held outside the Max Orovitz Building on November 16, the barbecue is just one of the many ways faculty and staff are raising money this year for UM’s United Way campaign.
Last year, UM raised $1 million and has set a goal of $1.1 million for 2007. Employee participation is critical for the success of this year’s drive, says Senior Vice President for Business and Finance and Chief Financial Officer Joe Natoli, chair of this year’s campaign.
“I have long believed that if the United Way didn’t exist, some very good people would get together and invent it,” Natoli says. “Its business model—a small staff teaming with thousands of volunteers to raise money that is targeted to efficiently address a community’s greatest needs—simply makes sense.”
Individual pledges can be made online through myUM. Donation options include payroll deduction, credit cards, and electronic checks. Several giving levels are available, including the University’s United Way Leadership level—the growing group of faculty and staff who donate at least 1 percent of their salary via payroll deduction. And employees can always support the many creative fundraising efforts of UM departments—such as the Controller’s Office barbecue. “Judy makes an Italian sausage sandwich that is to die for,” says Ana Paneda, associate controller and United Way ambassador for the Office of the Controller.
For more information, visit www.miami.edu/unitedway.

ti'“.,ip


El Centro is backed by a $7 million grant from the National Center for Minority Health Disparities
UM targets health disparities among U.S. Hispanics
o
pending coundess m hours in laboratories
and conducting groundbreaking clinical trials, medical researchers over the years have developed powerful new classes of drugs that are helping people with HIV/AIDS and other serious health problems live longer and more productive lives.
But while such research, which is aimed at attacking the biomedical aspects of disease, is plentiful, few scientific studies have created culturally tailored interventions to help prevent certain diseases before they affect specific groups of people.
Now a new federally funded center at the University of Miami’s School of Nursing and Health Studies promises to be one of the few of its kind to take this approach.
The new University of Miami Center of Excellence for Hispanic Health Disparities Research, or El Centro, will develop behavioral interventions customized specifically for Hispanics and examine the cultural and ethnic factors that place this group at a higher risk for HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, family and intimate partner violence, and co-occurring mental conditions.
Funded by a $7 million, five-year grant from the National Center for Minority Health Disparities, it is one of only 16 such centers nationwide and the only one based at a school of nursing.
School of Nursing and Health Studies Dean Nilda Peragallo, principal investigator of El Centro and an internationally recognized expert on health disparities, says the center “will improve the health and lifespan of all U.S. Hispanics, especially as their numbers continue to increase.”
With more than 40 million people of Hispanic origin now living in the United States, the group represents the largest and fastest growing minority segment in the country. Sadly, a disproportionate number of U.S. Hispanics are at risk for developing serious health conditions that may be exacerbated, in part, by cultural factors such as barriers to health care due to language or economic circumstances and stress related to adapting to a foreign culture.
Team approach: The El Centro team of investigators, which includes (from left) Director of the Administrative Core Maria Alvarez, Professor Victoria Mitrani, Associate Professor Elias Vasquez, Dean Nilda Peragallo, Research Professor Daniel Santisteban, Associate Professor Rosina Cianelli, and Professor and Associate Dean for Research Denise Korniewicz, is studying health disparities among U.S. Hispanics.
In addition, “many recent immigrants give up strong social and family networks when they leave their home
country to come to the U.S.,” says Victoria Mitrani, professor of nursing and health studies and coprincipal investigator of El Centro. “This disruption can leave people feeling alienated, disconnected, stressed, and bereft of emotional and instrumental support, putting them at risk for poor health.”
El Centro has embarked on a series of multiyear clinical trials and pilot studies.
Associate Professor Elias Vasquez, for example, is the lead investigator of a one-year El Centro study that will develop an intervention program for Hispanic heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men who are disproportionately affected by substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and intimate partner violence. Vasquez says the intervention protocol he and his team of investigators develop will be similar to the one Peragallo created for an HIV risk-reduction investigation of Latina women in Chicago.
Other El Centro studies: With the HIV/AIDS rate among Hispanic women four times higher than that of non-Hispanic white females, Dean Peragallo will lead a three-year investigation aimed at increasing HIV risk-reduction Continued on page 3
UM unveils ‘classrooms of tomorrow’
T
he lesson was on music’s powerful influence on Caribbean culture. Assistant Professor of English Patricia Saunders powered up the classroom’s audio system, and her students eased back into their seats, readying their ears for the chutney music and classical calypso of the 1950s that would soon fill the air. The acoustics were of such clarity that students were able to identify different instruments and variations in the steel band.
Next, with the aid of a projection system, they watched video footage of artists’ performances, interpreting cultural elements in movement, dance, and dress.
Smart classroom: High-definition projection devices, LCD displays, tiered seating, ceiling- and wall-mounted speakers, and new “sympodiums” have improved the teaching and learning experience for faculty and students in classrooms at the Memorial Building and Learning Center.
Only a short while ago such cutting-edge technology could not be found in the University of Miami’s Memorial Classroom Building and Whitten Learning Center. But a $ 13 million-plus upgrade of those facilities has dramati-Continued on page 3