Cornerstone: the newsletter of the College of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 1, Fall 1995

              Featuring the Best
our years ago, during the first month of my first year as Dean, I decided that the College of Arts and Sciences needed an alumni newsletter. Cornerstone seemed an appropriate name, since the College is, after all, the cornerstone of the University and the Cornerstone Campaign for the College and the Otto G.
Richter Library was about to be announced.
Something else happened during that same month of September 1991, something that went almost unnoticed by me at that time. A shy young freshman from the Chicago area named Supryia Ray started to work in the Dean’s Office under the auspices of the Miami Commitment Program.
It didn’t take us long to discover that Supryia was smart—and that she could write. Finding it difficult to meet both my scholarly commitments and my responsibilities as Dean, I asked Supryia to be my research assistant. When plans for the first edition of Cornerstone took shape, I suggested that she interview an outstanding psychology professor—Neil Schneiderman—and write an article about his many accomplishments.
Supryia’s article was so well-received that her by-line has appeared in each subse-
quent edition of Cornerstone. In 1993 Supryia wrote a feature article on Howard Gordon of the Physics Department; last year her focus was on Shari Benstock, the English professor best known for her biography of Edith Wharton. This year, as you will see when you turn the page, Supryia has written her fourth feature on a professor I know that many of you will remember fondly: John Knoblock of Philosophy.
That, as they say, is the good news.
The bad news is that John will be the last faculty member she will profile in Cornerstone. She recently graduated number one in her class and won the awards given out on Honors Day to the best Arts and Sciences student and the top political science major. (Supryia was a double major in political science and French; she won the award given the best French major last year, as a junior!) Given the choice of going home to the University of Chicago Law School, of staying in Miami and attending UM’s law school, or of going to Harvard, she has decided to opt for a change of scenery.
During her time with us, Supryia has accomplished great things. She has devoted countless hours as a volunteer to College
Supryia Ray and Dean Ross Murfin
Democrats, EarthAlert!, and the local chapter of the ACLU. In addition to working ten hours a week in the Dean’s Office, she has held part-time positions working for the renowned Miami law firm of Steel Hector & Davis and, during the summer, for Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press. Based on Supryia’s achievements outside as well as inside the classroom, the Board of Directors of the College of Arts and Sciences Alumni Association last year picked her as one of the four CASAA Merit Scholarship winners.
I’m not going to try to tell you that the college you graduated from enrolls dozens of students like this one. (The esteemed university at which Supryia will study law doesn’t enroll many undergraduates of her caliber, either.) But we do enroll some extraordinary young women and men, and I decided to use my column this year to tell you about one, an academic superstar who is and will remain a credit to your alma mater.
By the way, the shy young freshman didn’t end up being the shy scholarly senior. During her time at the University, Supryia matured into a poised, self-confident—and,
I might add, supremely well-educated adult. My wish for the freshmen entering in fall 1995 is that they take advantage, as Supryia did, of the wealth of learning and extracurricular experiences available—and that they grow intellectually and personally as she has done. My wish for myself and all of you reading this article is that we don’t find ourselves sitting on the other side of the courtroom from Supryia Ray, Esquire!
—Ross Murfin, Dean