Cornerstone: the newsletter of the College of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 1, Fall 1993

              The Newsletter of the College of Arts and Sciences
Volume 2, Number 1	■ Fall 1993
Family Ties... Ross Murfin, Dean
hen we speak of a university, we often speak of “the university family.” When we refer to the university we attended, we use the Latin phrase alma mater, which means that the college we attended is our nourishing and indulgent mother.
In some ways, however, universities are odd families—and more like children than mothers. It often seems they only get in touch when they are running out of money!
Don’t get me wrong. As an alumnus, I’m always glad to hear from my alma mater, even if I do know what she wants before she pops the question.
And as a dean, I deeply appreciate the generous support of all the “children” of the College of Arts and Sciences.
But I know that our alumni have a great deal more to give back to the University than money. They also have invaluable information to impart. In my second year as dean, I’ve met them by the hundreds. On the road, I learned a little bit about the public relations business in the spacious Manhattan offices of John Softness (’55). Back home in Miami, I learned about modern graphic design from a young woman named Terry Hammes (76) and how Russell Etling (77) uses what he learned about theater management to head up Miami’s ever-growing and improving Museum of Science and Planetarium.
The question I put to each of these alumni was a version of the one I’d put to David Ausländer (’83) a few months earlier: Would you be willing to give of your time and talent to benefit the College and the University?
I’ve never asked this question and been turned down. Some alumni offer to evaluate a facility; others are willing to help us improve some aspect of our operation. Several have expressed an interest in meeting with faculty members and program directors, and almost all are eager to share their experiences with students.
As a university, we’re trying to stay more closely in touch with our family by helping foster local alumni clubs outside of Miami, via newsletters such as this one, through the newly formed President’s Council of alumni advisers, and by recognizing that, although we’re not a “dysfunctional” family (to use a modern buzzword), we are a wonderfully unusual one. Our sons and daughters help pay the bills, offer the kind of advice that keeps us from making mistakes, and—in their wisdom—tell us about the world. We’re also going to ask them to teach us about the world!
—Ross Murfin, Dean
Derek Walcott:
The 1992 Nobel Laureate at the University of Miami
“.. .Past the Gothic Windows of Sea Fans... ”* by Sandra Poucbel Paquel
aribbean Literary Studies at the University of Miami received a great boost on February 18 and 19,1993, with the visit of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott to the Coral Gables campus. Walcott came here on the invitation of Dean Ross C Murfin to give a public poetry reading and to meet informally with English department faculty members and graduate students studying Caribbean literature and creative writing.
By any standards,Walcott’s visit in February was a tremendous success. Although free and open to the public, seating for the reading was limited. The overwhelming public response deluged the Dean’s Office with requests for tickets to the occasion.
Finally, on the chilly evening of the 18th, an audience of 850 crowded into the Biltmore Hotel Ballroom to hear Walcott read his poetry. The proceedings evoked a celebratory air that evening. Dean Murfin introduced the event with prefatory remarks about the University of Miami’s highly successful initiatives in Caribbean literary studies under the direction of Professor Zack Bowen, chairperson of the Department
Continued on page 2