Veritas, Vol. 45, No. 08, May 2003

              With law students listening on, Juan »TiMJ/Ol	Melendez describes his 18-year night-
roo-973i|B mare of living on Florida’s Death Row.
4 A new GRME course is teaching first
responders how to deal with the consequences of a terrorist attack.
A poet and painter on a piano, the School of Music’s Tian Ying creates art and expression through music.
Volume 45 ■ Number 8 ■ May 2003
For the Faculty and Staff of the University of Miami
www.miami.edu/veritas
$17.5 million renovation project comes to an end
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RAISING THE BAR: UM GRADUATE SCHOOLS CITED AMONG BEST IN THE NATION
Several programs at the University of Miami are listed in the recent 2004 edition of U.S. News & World Reports “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”
The School of Medicine’s graduate program in physical therapy program again ranked third, while the graduate school of the School of Education ranked 35th, up 13 spots from last year. The School of Law’s taxation program remains ranked ny seventh and was again cited among “the most
diverse schools” of law. Additionally, the College of Arts and Sciences ranked number 25 among clinical psychology programs.
The U.S. News rankings spotlight the country’s academically excellent graduate programs and serve as a consumer guide for students making a decision about graduate studies.
A SITE FOR SORE EYES: BASCOM PALMER LAUNCHES NEW WEB SITE
A sight for sore eyes now has a new meaning. Bascom Palmer Eye Institute has launched a new Web site, www.bascompalmer.org, that offers Internet users throughout the world unprecedented access to its patient services. The ______
site features user-friendly, patient-friendly health information, as well as comprehensive scientific and referral data for physicians.
The majority of the site was written by Bascom Palmer faculty, who are practicing clinicians and researchers. They will continually review and update the information to ensure accuracy and timeliness.
“Our global reputation has made it vital for us to share our wealth of information not only with current patients able to come to our campuses, but to patients and families worldwide who need helpful, complete answers to their questions about vision care and vision correction,” says Carmen A. Puliafito, chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology and director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
Otto G. Richter Library celebrates a renaissance
the University of Miami’s Otto G. Richter Library is celebrating a rebirth as a $17.5 million renovation project, which included everything from a new clock tower to digital media lab, has finally come to an end.
Guests, who included donors as well as current and former University administrators, gathered recently in the library’s breezeway to help rededicate the facility, the University’s academic nerve center where scholars and students have studied and conducted research for almost half a century.
Second in size only to the University’s new $48-million Convocation Center, the Richter Library has stood through the administrations of four University presidents, been the backdrop for countless outdoor commencement ceremonies, and weathered the 150-mile-per-hour winds of Hurricane Andrew.
Its multimillion-dollar renovation project began in 1999 and presented a logistical and planning challenge because the building remained open for use even as students used the facility sometimes amid the sounds of electric saws, drills, and jackhammers.
“Libraries are in many ways the center of what a university is all about,” said Luis Glaser, executive vice president and provost. “This project was one of the most complex that we’ve ever done because we kept the library functioning, and that was not an easy task.”
“For much of our faculty, this is their laboratory,” said President Donna E. Shalala, who, on her first day in office, made the Richter Library one of the first buildings she toured.
The renovation has literally transformed the Richter, whose 1.8 million volumes account for more than half of the University’s total library holdings.
Among the new features: the Dr. Maxwell and Reva B. Dauer Clock Tower, which opened in April 2000 and includes a seven-foot-square,
1,400-pound clock and interior stairway for the three-story south entrance of the Richter Library; the Nathan and Sophia Gumenick Family Lobby; the Roberto C. Goizueta Pavilion, new home of the Cuban Heritage Collection; and the Digital Media Lab, which provides media equipment, software,


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As part of the Otto G. Richter Library’s multimillion-dollar renovation project, the Information Commons and user assistants’ desks were relocated to a newly refurbished area.
computers, and assistance in Web design, DVD production, animation, and video editing.
Also new: a main interior staircase, signage, computer worktables, shelving units, and 128 computers on the first and second floors for research. Meanwhile, the library’s three main floors have gone wireless, allowing faculty, staff, and students who have registered their laptops with the Department of Telecommunications to surf the University’s high-speed network without plugging into a phone line.
Along with the improvements, library usage has increased, according
to Steven Ullmann, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School and acting University librarian.
“There was a film that was quite popular a number of years ago which had a recurring theme throughout the movie. It was: build it, and they will come,” Ullmann said, referring to the motion picture Field of Dreams. “If you look through those windows,” he said, pointing toward the exterior of the library’s new lobby, “you will see that we were extremely successful in creating that situation. It is a reflection of this library being a place to be and not just a place to study.”
Wanner named Distinguished Faculty Scholar
School of Medicine physician Adam Wanner, one of the nation’s top pulmonary specialists whose research has led to the development of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of asthma, is this year’s Distinguished Faculty Scholar.
The award, established by the Faculty Senate in
1987, acknowledges either a single outstanding achievement or sustained contributions throughout an individual’s career to an area of research or creative activity.
The School of Medicine’s Adam Wanner is one of the nation’s top pulmonary specialists.
The Joseph Weintraub Professor of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Pediatrics at the medical school and chief of the Pulmonary/Critical Care Division, Wanner is an internationally recognized expert on asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He has maintained federal grant support in asthma research for the past 25 years and throughout his career has balanced research with teaching and patient care.
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