New Hurry ’Canes Shuttle Buses Hit the Road Today
When they return for classes today, students will have a new, flashy way of getting to class and around the Coral Gables campus. As an enhancement to the Hurry ‘Canes Shuttle System, six new, 30-plus passenger, coach-style buses are being added to the fleet. Built specifically for the University, the buses are school-spirited, embellished with Sebastian the Ibis, inside and out. They are easily accessible for the disabled, and are outfitted with a powered wheelchair ramp. They feature ergonomically designed seating, and promise better fuel economy and less pollution, noise, and wear and tear on the street.

This year, the Hurry ‘Canes Shuttle also takes students to even more places off campus, including service in the evenings to the neighboring University Centre and on weekends, to Crandon Park Beach, thanks to an idea championed by Student Government. That is in addition to existing rides to Coconut Grove on weekends and to Shops at Sunset Place and Publix.

The buses will be unveiled at an event at 10 a.m. this morning at the Palm Court Fountain on the Coral Gables campus.

Celebrate ten years of Wellness, then sign up to get in shape
Help the Wellness Center celebrate ten years of keeping the University of Miami community fit and healthy. A special celebration for the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Wellness Center takes place on Wednesday, January 18, at 4 p.m., and all faculty, staff, and students are invited. For information, call 305-284-8500.

With the New Year under way, the Wellness Center is continuing to help people stay in shape. It is now accepting registrations for spring semester instructional classes, which range from salsa dancing to Pilates. And the best part is you don’t have to be a Wellness Center member to sign up. For more information, call the Wellness Suite at 305-284-5433.

The Wellness Center is also offering a series of fitness, wellness, and nutrition classes during the spring semester. The classes are part of the new Sophisticated Living program, designed to educate the community in a variety of topics. The classes are open to everyone, so invite a friend, colleague, or neighbor to join you. Other than the Healthy Cooking Series, the classes are free, but registration is required. Call the Wellness Suite at 305-284-5433 to reserve a spot.

Cuban Heritage Collection launches Scholarly Lecture Series
AMIGOS of the University of Miami Libraries’ Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC) announces the establishment of the Cuban Heritage Lecture Series and welcomes guest speaker Enrico Mario Santí, William T. Bryan Professor of Hispanic Studies at the University of Kentucky, for its inaugural lecture. The event will be held at the Storer Auditorium, School of Business Administration, on Tuesday, January 24 at 6 p.m. The lecture will be in English. Santí, an authority on Latin American modern poetry, critical theory, and cultural studies, will speak about the importance of the CHC as history and depository of the memory of the Cuban exile experience in a presentation titled “Enduring Cuba.”

The lecture series, in the tradition of scholarly lectures hosted by top academic and research libraries, is sponsored by AMIGOS, a support organization founded to increase interest in and knowledge of the collection.

Major League All-Star to be guest speaker at Miami Baseball Banquet
New York Yankees first baseman Tino Martinez, a two-time Major League Baseball All-Star who has hit more than 300 home runs in his career, will be the featured speaker at the University of Miami Hurricanes’ 2006 First Pitch Baseball Banquet on Thursday, January 24, at 6 p.m. at the Biscayne Bay Marriott. The banquet will begin with a reception and silent auction at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner and program at 7 p.m. Tables of eight are available for $520 for UM baseball season ticket holders and/or Hurricane Club members, $640 for the general public. Individual tickets can be purchased for $65 by season ticket holders and Hurricane Club members and $80 per ticket by the general public. Reservations must be made by Friday, January 20. For more information and reservations, call the UM Hurricane Club at 305-284-6699.

Toppel Career Center seeks guest speakers
The Toppel Career Center is seeking guest speakers for its new speaker series and educational program, Alternative Options after Graduation. Did you volunteer for a U.S. senator or travel across Europe? Did you help build houses for the poor or conduct research in a rainforest? Faculty and staff who may have pursued such alternative choices after graduating from college are invited to sign up as guest speakers and help educate students and alumni about the options that are available to them. Three programs will be presented: Tuesday, February 28, at 12 p.m.; Monday, March 20, at 5 p.m.; and Friday, April 7, at 3 p.m. All are one hour long and will be held in the Toppel Career Center library. Guest speakers in the past have included representatives/alumni from Teach for America, the Peace Corps, Americorps, and STA Travel. If you are interested in participating as a guest speaker for the program, contact Jenna Stewart at 305-284-1816 or via e-mail at jenna@miami.edu.

Preemptive Measures? "The state should stay out of the business of saying who can have children and who cannot. The closest they can come is in restricting the right to abortion." Kenneth Goodman, co-director of the University’s Ethics Programs, comments on whether the state should control a woman’s reproductive rights if she has a history of inflicting child abuse. The Miami Herald (January 11) Gaining Clarity "Never before were we able to tell our patients that you could actually see better after therapy." Philip Rosenfeld, an ophthalmologist at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, on the use of Avastin, a cancer drug, to treat wet macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in people 50 and older. Rosenfeld pioneered the ophthalmic use of the drug, which is now being used by physicians around the world. News 14 Carolina (January 11) Fin Black Market "This changes our perception about the pressures being placed on great whites. Some people didn't think great whites were being hunted, other than very large ones for their jaws or fins for trophies." Ellen Pikitch, executive director of the Pew Institute for Ocean Science at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, on illegal shark-finning of great whites, a protected shark species. The fins, the key ingredient in shark-fin soup, are being sold on the black market. Belleville News-Democrat (January 9)

Last chance for Hurricanes Basketball Employee Day tickets
Hurricanes Basketball Employee Day will be tomorrow, Wednesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m., when the men’s team faces off against the Clemson Tigers at the BankUnited Center. All employees may receive one complimentary ticket to the game and may purchase up to five additional tickets for family members for $1 each. Forms for tickets must be filled out in advance; click here for the 2006 Employee Day Form. Remember to bring your ‘Cane Card; no photocopies of employee ID cards will be accepted as a substitute for the original.

Please call 305-284-2263 for further information about Employee Day tickets, or stop by the sales tables at the Coral Gables and Medical campuses, or the Hecht Athletic Center Box Office for your tickets. Representatives will be on hand today, Tuesday, January 17, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., outside the Whitten University Center breezeway on the Coral Gables campus, and outside Au Bon Pain on the medical campus.

Exchange those unused, expired parking passes
University of Miami departments that have unused and expired temporary one-day and/or seven-day parking passes with a last possible validation date of December 31, 2005, are eligible to transact an even exchange of those temporary passes for passes with extended longevity. To qualify, the parking passes must be returned to the Parking and Transportation Services offices in the Flipse Building by Friday, January 27. After that date, exchanges are not allowed. Parking and Transportation Services’ offices are open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and the telephone number is 305-284-3096, option #1.

Volunteers sought for SART
Mature, caring individuals are sought to serve as advocates for the University’s Sexual Assault Response Team. SART is a telephone response line for University of Miami students administered by the Counseling Center. Any faculty, administrators, staff, or graduate students who are interested should contact Andrea Gonzalez at the Counseling Center at 305-284-5511.

Perfect Attendance Award program deadline nears
It is time again for another drawing for the University of Miami’s Perfect Attendance Award. Submissions of eligible administrative/professional staff for the period June 1, 2005 to November 30, 2005 are due by Tuesday, January 17. Non-exempt staff are automatically entered into the drawing. For submission guidelines and more information, please visit the Perfect Attendance Award Program Web site, or contact Margarita Diaz at 305-284-4190.

Lunch, learn, and win with Travel Management
Learn how to maximize your University travel dollars and be appraised of current industry trends at Travel Management’s brown-bag session on Thursday, January 19, from 12 to 1:30 p.m. in the Lois Pope LIFE Center, 7th-floor breakout room.

Participants will have the chance to win raffle prizes, such as lunch at the Marriott Café, Airport Fast Park vouchers, and Continental Airlines President’s club passes. For further information, contact Travel Management at 305-284-1087 or travel@miami.edu.

Wednesday, January 18 Tribal Arts Society lectures. This lecture is presented in conjunction with Imaging and Identity: African Art from the Lowe Art Museum and Other South Florida Collections and Engaging the Camera: African Women, Portraits and the Photographs of Hector Acebes. On Wednesday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m. Frederick Lamp will speak on How the Young Men Stole the Old Men's Dream: the Origin of the Tiyambo Headdress of the Baga. Free for Tribal Arts Society members; $10 for non-members. The Lowe Art Museum is located at 1301 Stanford Drive on the Coral Gables campus. For more information, call 305-284-3535 or visit www.miami.edu/lowe.

Thursday, January 12 through Wednesday, February 15 El Paìs Posible: Railroads and Cuba’s Visions of Itself This exhibit, presented by the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies, features rare documents, photos, and scale models of historic railroad equipment. It tells the story of key protagonists and their behind-the-scenes struggle for the future of Cuba. From January 12 through February 1, the exhibit will focus on the 1835-1924 era, and from February 2 to 15, it will focus on the 1925-1958 era. Luis V. Dominguez, professor of management and international business at FAU, will present two lectures in Spanish in conjunction with the exhibit, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, January 12, and Thursday, February 2. The exhibit and lectures will be at Casa Bacardi/Olga-Carlos Saladrigas Hall, 1531 Brescia Avenue. For more information, call 305-284-2822.

Various dates School of Architecture exhibitions and lectures. An exhibition of the work of the school’s Center for Urban and Community Design and the Knight Program in Community Building will be held January 23 through February 25 in the Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center. “Landmarks of New York,” featuring 80 photographs with accompanying texts that describe the cultural, historical, and architectural significance of each site, will be on display from January 25 through February 21 at the Jorge M. Perez Architecture Center Gallery. An accompany lecture on this exhibit will be given by Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel on January 26 at 6 p.m. at the Episcopal Church Center, located at Levante and Stanford on the Coral Gables campus. All events are free and open to the public. The Perez Architecture Center Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Carolyn White at 305-284-5002 or via email at cwhite@miami.edu, or visit www.arc.miami.edu.

Saturday, February 4 UM Equestrian Team annual horse show. The University of Miami equestrian team will host its annual horse show at the Tropical Park Equestrian Center. The show will begin at 8 a.m. and will run until approximately 3 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. For more information about the show and the team, visit www.miami.edu/studorgs/umet, or call Maria Angeles Linares at 305-284-5130 or via email mlinares@miami.edu.

Friday, February 10 Championship Boxing. Get ready to rumble! The BankUnited Center will host its first live championship boxing event starting at 8 p.m. Eight bouts will be featured, with two of the contenders including Stacey Reile and Danny "The Bronx Bomber" Santiago. Tickets are on sale now, ranging in price from $25 to $125 for ringside seats. Tickets may be purchased at the BankUnited Center box office or Ticketmaster outlets, charge by phone at 305-358-5885, or online at www.ticketmaster.com. For additional event information, visit www.BankUnitedCenter.com.

Saturday, February 25 Casting Crowns. The contemporary Christian group, Casting Crowns, will perform at the BankUnited Center at 7:30 p.m. The group was nominated for a 2006 Grammy in the Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album category for their album Lifesong. Tickets are on sale now, priced at $15 to $39, and are available at the BankUnited Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, charge by phone at 305-358-5885, or online at www.ticketmaster.com. Group discounts are available for purchasing ten-plus tickets. Call 305-284-8165 for group sales information. For additional event information, visit www.BankUnitedCenter.com.

Tuesday, January 17 and Friday, January 20 Human Subjects Research Town Hall Meetings. The University’s Human Subjects Research Office and the Institutional Review Boards of the University of Miami and affiliated institutions are being restructured to ensure regulatory compliance while improving service and facilitating research for investigators. Town Hall meetings on these changes will be held Tuesday, January 17 at 9 a.m. on the medical campus in the seventh-floor auditorium of the Lois Pope LIFE Center, and on Friday, January 20 at 9:30 a.m. on the Coral Gables campus in Room LC 120 of the Whitten Learning Center.

Wednesday, January 18 Teambuilding Skills for Supervisors. This interactive training session will help frontline supervisors increase their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of their teams in achieving top levels of performance through collaboration and mutual respect. It will be held at 9 a.m. in the PDTO Training Room, 155 Dominion Garage, on the medical campus. Go to http://netlearning.miami.edu to register. Call PDTO at 305-243-3090 or 305-284-5110 if you have questions about this course.

(New) Thursday, January 19 Sea Secrets Lecture. The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and the Ocean Research and Education Foundation will begin the 2006 season of Sea Secrets lectures with “Explorations Undersea: The Search for New Drugs” at 6:15 p.m. in the Rosenstiel School Auditorium. David H. Sherman, the Searle professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan, will present this lecture, which is free to the public and includes a reception at 5:30 p.m. For further information, please call 305-421-4061.

(New) Friday, January 20 Neuroscience Center Seminar Series. David Van Essen, Ph.D., Edison Professor of Neurobiology and head of the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine, will present “Mapping the Cerebral Cortex in Humans and Monkeys and in Health and Disease” at 1 p.m. in the Lois Pope LIFE Center’s seventh-floor auditorium. This lecture series is sponsored by the Neuroscience Center, the Miller School of Medicine, and the Office of the Provost. For more information, call 305-243-6793 or click here.

January 20 and 21 Introduction to Real Estate Law, Negotiations, and Approvals. This course, which combines real estate development with the School of Architecture’s expertise in New Urbanism, is an intensive introduction to the subject and part of a series of executive education courses offered by the Knight Program in Community Building. For information, go to www.arc.miami.edu/knight or contact Julia Pizarro at jpizarro@miami.edu or 305-284-3731.

(New) Tuesday, January 24 Sponsored Programs Education Workshop. The next session will be from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Lois Pope LIFE Center’s seventh-floor auditorium. The workshop is required for individuals wishing to be listed as key personnel on sponsored programs. The goal is to have all key personnel attend an educational session by June 30, 2006. A listing of other available dates and locations can be found in the Research Tools Web page. Registration is through NetLearning. For information or questions, please contact mvalero@med.miami.edu.

Tuesday, January 24 The European Union Today: Consequences of the Constitutional Impasse and Relations with the United States. The Miami-Florida European Union Center of Excellence, in cooperation with the University of Miami School of Law and the Jean Monnet Chair, present John Bruton, European Union ambassador to the United States, who will speak on this subject from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m in the fourth-floor faculty room at the Law School Library. Lunch will be provided. For reservations, call 305-284-3266.

(New) January 25-28 Neurological Update 2006. This course, aimed at adult and pediatric neurologists, neurosurgeons, and psychiatrists, is designed to provide clinicians with the most recent developments in the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. Internists and general practitioners will also find the topics timely and useful. It will be held at The Alexander Hotel in Miami Beach. For more information, contact the Division of Continuing Medical Education at 305-243-6716 or via email at umcme@med.miami.edu.

(New) Thursday, January 26 Bader Lecture. The lecture, featuring W. Kendall Melville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego, will be held at 3 p.m. in the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science’s auditorium. He will discuss “Upper Ocean Processes: Implications for Weather and Climate” at this free lecture, geared toward academics or oceanography enthusiasts.

(New) Thursday, January 26 Classics Lecture. The Department of Classics presents John F. Miller, chair of the Department of Classics, University of Virginia, who will speak on "Octavian, Apollo, and Self-imaging during the Second Triumvirate" at 4 p.m. in Memorial Building, room 207. A reception will follow.

(New) February 4 to 8 Miami Nature Biotechnology Winter Symposium. This year’s event will be on “Angiogenesis in Cancer and Vascular Disease” and will be held at the Wyndham Miami Beach Resort. Faculty and staff interested in attending can register using tuition remission by sending an e-mail to sblack@miami.edu with your full contact details and your UM identification number.

(New) Various dates Miami Lite. The Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) invites participants to join this exciting weight loss program. It is offered every Thursday from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the DRI, 1450 NW 10th Avenue, first-floor Education Center. The cost is $20 per class or $150 for ten sessions. For more information, contact Anna M. Fraker at aperez4@med.miami.edu or 305-243-3455.

Various dates Performance Improvement Management (PIM) training series. This series is designed to set the expectations for leaders at the University and to develop the knowledge and skills required to effectively manage employees' performance. The series of five sessions will be held at the Rosenstiel campus on January 24, 26, and 31, and February 2 and 17 in the library, map, and chart room. Because the activities presented during this training are campus specific, Gables/Rosenstiel employees should attend Gables/Rosenstiel sessions and medical campus employees should attend medical sessions. To register, please visit http://netlearning.miami.edu. For questions on content or for registration help, contact the Professional Development and Training Office at 305-284-5110 or 305-243-3090.