Band of the Hour marches on with million-dollar check presentation		Sport research center garners grant to teach at-risk students
Let the Lowe take a load off with special holiday season discount offer		University honors major donors at Lowe Art Museum ceremony
Mangrove fish habitat studied for vital resource management		Viewers waking up to award-winning UMTV This Morning
City of Coral Gables honors Festival Miami		A Site to See

Band of the Hour marches on with million-dollar check presentation It was the perfect prelude to a heart-stopping victory. Only minutes before the kickoff of the Hurricane football team’s 27-24 win over Florida State University, University of Miami Board of Trustees Vice Chairman Phillip Frost, chairman and CEO of IVAX Corporation, and his wife, Patricia Frost, presented an oversized check for $1 million to President Edward T. Foote II and School of Music Dean William Hipp. The special pre-game presentation in front of 80,000 Orange Bowl fans was made in recognition of the Frosts’ $1 million gift announced earlier this year benefiting the University’s marching band, the Band of the Hour. Formerly housed in the Department of Athletics, the marching band is now under the administration of the School of Music. Hipp says the donation from the Frosts will create an endowment that will be used to fund general operating costs for the marching band. "This magnificent gift by Dr. and Mrs. Frost has generated a great deal of excitement within the School of Music, as well as across the University at-large," says Hipp. "The gift will establish an endowment that will provide important support to the band in perpetuity." Says Frost: "UM’s School of Music is a tremendous asset to our community. Its new responsibility of managing the marching band is very much deserving of our support." The Band of the Hour has been a longstanding tradition at Hurricane football games since 1933.

Sport research center garners grant to teach at-risk students The Center for Research on Sport in Society (CRSS), part of the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded a three-year grant to implement the South Florida Annenberg Challenge/United Way Partnership to Improve School Achievement. The $748,088 grant will allow the center to create TEAMS (Teaching Excellence, Achievement, and Motivation through Sport), an extended school-day program with a sport-based curriculum that will target the academic areas of math, reading, and writing. Starting in January 2001, the program will be implemented in four Miami-Dade County public elementary schools that have been given a D or F rating and that have a high concentration of students who are considered at-risk for future school failure or dropout. "We will be reaching approximately 400 students, 100 per school," says Jan Sokol-Katz, senior research associate for CRSS and TEAMS’ principle investigator. "This is a totally innovative program that is not in place anywhere else." CRSS will be restructuring the schools’ current after-school programs by hiring and training qualified YMCA staff to implement the TEAMS curriculum. The University program is structured and designed to meet FCAT (Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test) standards, and is based on the philosophy that when children are taught educational concepts in a manner that is meaningful and important to them, they will more fully learn and retain these concepts. "The same skills taught in traditional ways can be translated to the context of sport," says Sokol-Katz. "For example, teaching percentages through the use of the batting averages of a child’s favorite players is more engaging and effective than simply adding numbers on a page and dividing by the total." In addition to Sokol-Katz, TEAMS primary personnel include coprincipal investigator Marjorie Montague, and project coordinator Lorrine Fleischman. After their three-year research is complete with the intended results of improving FCAT scores, grade point averages, and other measures, the UM researchers hope to expand this program to other schools. "We’ll also be developing our own instruments to see if there are changes in self-esteem and other behaviors," says Sokol-Katz.

Let the Lowe take a load off with special holiday season discount offer With the holiday season already upon us, surely you have completed all of your gift shopping by now. No? Don’t fret–the Lowe Art Museum Store has just what you’re looking for–and at the right price. University faculty and staff members can receive a 10 percent discount off their next purchase at the store as part of its season special. Employees need only mention this article to receive this one-time savings offer. There’s no better time to peruse their selection of unique jewelry, one-of-a-kind Christmas ornaments, and a wide assortment of rare gifts. "We have just received the 2000 Patricia Breen Christmas ornaments," says Carol Strongin, store manager. "They are beautiful, and supplies are limited, so last-minute shoppers should hurry in." A new jewelry line, the work of Israeli artist Ayala Bar, also has been added to the store. Tiny chips of glass and assorted metals create a rich mosaic in her limited edition pieces, which include necklaces, earrings, and pins. The Lowe Art Museum Store offers free gift boxes, and shipping is available. For more information, call the store at 284-6988.

University honors major donors at Lowe Art Museum ceremony More than 40 leading benefactors were honored as new inductees into one of the University’s most prestigious donor societies at a special ceremony held recently at the Lowe Art Museum on the Coral Gables campus. During the ceremony, 21 donors were inducted into the Society of University Founders. Founded in 1967, the society was established by the UM Board of Trustees to recognize the generous support and commitment of University benefactors. Donors who have committed $50,000 or more are named Founders, and those who have committed $100,000 or more are designated Grand Founders. "The University of Miami is truly grateful for the thoughtful support of these major donors," says Michael Rierson, vice president for University Advancement. "The building of a great university is a daily task, and we are lucky to have so many friends who believe in our teaching and research mission." During the past 33 years, members of these donor societies have provided approximately $1 billion in support of the University’s programs and facilities. Last year, UM received more than $100 million in philanthropic support—the highest amount in the history of the University.

Mangrove fish habitat studied for vital resource management Mangrove trees are conspicuous sights along the shorelines of many tropical and subtropical islands, bays, and rivers, including those that grace Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Collier Counties. Sitting at the interface between aquatic and land ecosystems, mangroves fulfill many important natural functions, both above and below the waterline. Their obvious purpose above the waterline is that the trees buffer against heavy wave action, filter sediment- and pollutant-laden water, prevent shoreline erosion, and serve as rookeries for a variety of wading birds. Less obvious is what goes on underwater. It is amongst the submerged, entangled mangrove prop roots that Joseph Serafy, research assistant professor in the Division of Marine Biology and Fisheries at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, and his graduate students are conducting the first mangrove fish study in Biscayne Bay and adjacent inshore waters. Because mangrove-lined shoreline habitats are the first and most significant marine areas to be affected by changes in water management policies, Serafy’s findings could play a key role in evaluating the downstream effects of the multibillion-dollar Everglades Restoration Project, especially as they relate to Biscayne Bay and northeastern Florida Bay. Following the initial study, Serafy hopes to establish an ongoing monitoring program for these often-neglected aquatic habitats. "Compared to coral reefs and sea grasses, the value of mangrove trees as a fish habitat has received the least scientific attention," says Serafy. "The reality is that many valuable fish species require all three habitats in sequence to complete their respective life cycles." But until Serafy and graduate students Craig Faunce and John Barimo began their work, there were no accurate estimates of the diversity, density, and sizes of these fish in either Biscayne Bay or Florida Bay mangroves, nor of another important mangrove-dwelling game fish, the common snook. Without this type of data, it is difficult for resource managers to make informed decisions regarding habitat protection, fisheries conservation, and wetlands restoration. Funded by the Perry Institute for Marine Science (PIMS) and the Audubon Society of Florida, Serafy, Faunce, and Barimo have been conducting visual fish censuses of Biscayne Bay, northeastern Florida Bay, and the sounds connecting them since 1998. The mangrove fish censuses Serafy’s team conduct involve snorkeling along 30-meter-long stretches of shoreline and recording the numbers and sizes of fishes observed on waterproof paper–much as it is done on the adjacent Florida Keys reef tract. They also record a suite of water quality and habitat measurements to understand when and why fish congregate among the roots. "Sea grass, mangrove, and reef habitats are all links in a long ecological chain that we as humans are continually straining. We can’t expect results by protecting one link and not considering the other," Serafy says.

Viewers waking up to award-winning UMTV This Morning Their set is an outdoor patio. Instead of the soundproof walls of a modern studio, they work amid the palms. And for an audience, they attract throngs of curious backpack-toting students. The production crew and anchors of UMTV This Morning, the School of Communication’s first student-produced television show broadcast live from an outdoor location, have redefined the television morning since the show’s debut last spring. "It’s a morning show with a format similar to NBC’s Today, but with a college campus angle," says Susan Roumelis, director of UMTV. Broadcast live every Friday at 11 a.m. from the Whitten Learning Center, UMTV This Morning offers news, entertainment, sports, and weather in a 30-minute format featuring issues that are important to the University community. The show airs live on the campus cable station Channel 24 and MediaOne’s Channel 96 in Coral Gables. The show is also rebroadcast on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. on Cable-Tap’s Channel 36. Roumelis, who is also associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Modern Media, says UMTV This Morning’s live format provides School of Communication students an unparalleled learning experience. "I used to produce live morning talk shows professionally before I got into academia, so I know that it takes a lot," she says. "It’s not only just bringing the equipment outside. The students have to get used to working in an environment outside the studio. You have all kinds of elements to deal with, like what happens if it rains or if it’s windy." Just how good is the show? It won a prestigious Telly Award, which recognizes exceptional non-network and cable programming. "And we weren’t competing against colleges, but professional cable stations," says Roumelis. Created by sophomore broadcast major Al Garcia, UMTV This Morning is not the only UMTV program garnering attention. Storm Front, which features in-depth previews of the week’s major college football games as well as interviews with Hurricane players and coaches, is the first college-produced, weekly football show in the country. "Shows such as these provide great exposure for us because UMTV reaches the University and the surrounding Coral Gables community," says Roumelis. "And with some of our programming on Cable-Tap, we’re talking about a potential viewing audience of 450,000 people." Look for more creative UMTV programming in the months ahead, says Roumelis. Coming up soon: broadcasting of the College Television Network, a broadcast company that partners with CNN and CNN Headline News to air local, national, and global programming geared toward colleges and universities.

City of Coral Gables honors Festival Miami Coral Gables Commissioner Jim Barker (left) presents School of Music Dean William Hipp with a City of Coral Gables proclamation honoring the school for its 17th season of Festival Miami. The festival was the most successful in its history, enjoying record-breaking attendance that included 12 sold-out performances.

A Site to See This month’s featured site is the University’s courses Web site. With over 300 courses in subjects ranging from architecture to arts and sciences, education to engineering, and music to medicine, this robust service provides information on course descriptions, instructors, and more. See it at http://courses.miami.edu.

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