Martha Bodley (45)
C, 6-3, Senior, St. Croix Educational Complex
Last Year: Bodley saw spot duty off the bench, averaging two points and 1.3 rebounds in 18 games.
This Year: As the only true center on Miami’s roster, Bodley should see a significant block of time early on. She will have to show results in order to keep earning minutes.

Kathryn Fowler (33)
F, 6-0, Senior, Christ the King
Last Year: Fowler continued to see time off the bench, playing in 23 games. However, her numbers decreased to 2.9 points and 2.5 rebounds.
This Year: As one of the more experienced players, Fowler will give the Hurricane bench some help and will likely see at least a similar role as last year.

Melissa Knight (3)
F, 5-11, Freshman, William Penn Charter
Last Year: According to the All-Star Girls Report, Knight was ranked the 111th best player in the class of 2001.
This Year: Knight brings an ability to add several things to this ball club. She will likely be one of the first players off Ferne Labati’s bench.

Yalonda McCormick (10)
G, 5-8, Freshman, Monsignor Pace
Last Year: Leading Pace to a 26-2 record, McCormick averaged 21.5 points, 10.5 assists, and an unheard of 10.1 steals per game.
This Year: The wildcard of the Hurricanes, McCormick’s potential is endless and if she doesn’t start the season at point guard, she will likely receive significant time at the position.

Amanda Papuga (21)
G, 5-10, Junior, Lyons Township
Last Year: One of the most improved players on the team, Papuga saw some starts at the point and overall, averaged 5.5 points and 2.8 assists.
This Year: Papuga is recovering from a hamstring injury and hopefully will be available for the start of the season. When healthy, she will give Miami some much needed depth at guard.

Fallon Phanord (22)
G, 5-9, Freshman, Michael M. Krop
Last Year: After a promising junior campaign, Phanord missed all of last season due to injury.
This Year: Phanord has worked extremely hard in recovering from injuries and has earned herself a spot on the team. Now her goal is to earn some significant playing time off the bench.

Yolanda Whigham (14)
G, 5-8, Freshman, Plant City
Last Year: Ranked No. 24 in the nation by Blue Star Index, Whigham also saw action with the Big East summer team.
This Year: Unfortunately, the summer also brought a torn ACL to Whigham, and she is expected to be out of action until December. When she returns, Whigham will look to give Miami an immediate boost.

Shaqu ana Wilkins (23)
F, 6-2, Sophomore, Winter Park
Last Year: As a freshman, Wilkins saw minutes off the bench, averaging 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 53.6 percent from the field
This Year: Wilkins may be Miami’s first forward off the bench and will definitely be looked upon to continue improving in her play.

parking garage closed for maintenance
To facilitate required annual maintenance while minimizing inconvenience to the University community, the Ponce Garage (5665 Ponce de Leon Boulevard) will be closed during the Thanksgiving break, Nov. 22-25. The garage will re-open at 6 a.m. on Nov. 26. To accomplish the necessary work, the garage must be cleared of all vehicles. Vehicle owners and/or responsible parties must remove their vehicles from the garage no later than 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 21. Failure to comply with this request will result in vehicles being towed at the owner’s expense. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. For more information, call 305-284-3096, option 1.

um pr students offer skills to YMca
Students enrolled in the University of Miami’s Public Relations Campaigns course are gaining valuable work experience by conducting a public relations campaign for the YMCA of Greater Miami’s annual Youth and Government Pre-Legislative Workshop.
The workshop, to be held tomorrow at the UM School of Law, will prepare Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe high School students for the YMCA’s 45th annual Youth and Government Conference in Tallahassee next January. There, students will learn the value of democracy by overtaking the Florida Government as State legislators, Executives and Supreme Court Justices.
This is the forth year students will be handling the campaign for the YMCA. This gives the public relations students a great opportunity to gain work experience. The skills obtained through this course will help the students in their pursuit of a career in public relations.

resource guide available at msa
The Department of Multicultural Student Affairs has a terrific resource guide for and about African/Black-Americans and Hispanic-Americans titled: Anuario Hispano – Hispanic Yearbook African American Yearbook These publications focus on reference materials and issues concerning the African/Black and Hispanic American communities. In addition, these books contain valuable information on scholarships for African and Hispanic-American students. For more information regarding these wonderful resources, please contact MSA, Building 21-P or call 305-284-2855.

reminders
TIS’ THE SEASON FOR FLU VACCINE
Flu season is upon us and the flu vaccine is available free of charge at the Student Health Center.

Calendar Events 16th November

National Hunger and Homelessness Week Ends

today
Ford Focus sponsors a Road Rally today on the University Green from 9am-3pm. All participants receive great prices and even tickets to see LIVE in concert.

Focus Forum. Informal roundtable discussion about smart choices, careers and dreams hosted by Jay Mohr including Ed Kowalczk from LIVE and Pieer Perabo from Coyote Ugly.

UM Surfrider presents The Surf Party at the Rathskeller tonight at 8pm-1am.

The newly established University of Miami Young Democrats will be holding their latest meeting today at 4pm in the UC ballrooms. Special guest Jimmy Morales will attend and discuss his bid for Miami-Dade County Mayor. Pizza and drinks will be given out. Come and Share your ideas!

november 17
The Indian Students Association will hold its annual “Diwali 2001 Celebrations” tonight at 7:30pm at the North Miami Performing Arts Center. Tickets are on sale at $10, $15 & $20. Come and see this beautiful exhibition of Indian Culture at its finest ever and celebrate the Indian New Year with us as we dance, sing and share our food and heritage with you. Part of the proceeds will go to “United Way” fund. For more information e-mail us at isaofum@hotmail.com visit our website at www.miami.edu/studorgs/isa.

The Lowe Museum presents Once Upon A Saint today. Admission is free to students.

november 18
Hurricane Productions is proud to announce That Grammy award winning spoken word artist Henry Rollins will be performing at the Storer Business Auditorium at 7pm tonight. All tickets distributed previously will be valid for the new date, however seating is limited and will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. Doors will open at 6:30pm and guests will be admitted for $15 at the door. Please call the Hurricane Productions office at 305-284-4606 for more information.

november 20
UM’s Law School has Open House from 9am-1pm

november 21
Inquiry: The Research Connection. Professor Chatterjee will be discussing his fascinating career as a documentarist. Eaton Classroom 145 at 4pm.

The construction on San Amaro Drive has been a project the University and the City of Coral Gables have been working on for more than a year and is now underway.

When finished, it will provide sidewalks, lighting, signage, medians, a traffic circle, landscaping and irrigation. The construction work extends to Miller Drive up through the Doctor’s Hospital area.

“The University was required by the City to provide sidewalks and lighting only along the perimeter of the university,” said Janet Gavarrete, University Campus Planner.

“We recognized the importance of being a good community partner and neighbor and the need to address the vehicular traffic along San Amaro Drive as part of the project. The University worked with the City staff, city consultants and neighborhood to deal with the street calming recommendations made to the city by their traffic consultants,” Gavarrete said.

The University of Miami offered the City of Coral Gables the funding for the professional services for the construction documents and the construction work. The City accepted and is now a City project.

Alberto Delgado, City of Coral Gables Director of Public Works was unable to get in contact with for comment.

The University retained engineers to design the improvements to comply with the City requirements, said Gavarrete.

“The University felt that going beyond the city requirements was a more comprehensive and proper manner of dealing with the safety issues expressed by the city and the community,” said Gavarrete.

The construction though has created some problems for commuter students that drive as well as walk through San Amaro Drive. While city workers renovate the area, drivers have been inconvenienced, having to detour through Urbino Avenue.

“There are no pedestrian signs anywhere along San Amaro Drive and it makes it dangerous to cross the street,” said John Lopez, a senior who walks through San Amaro.

“I think it’s great they’re putting in a sidewalk because being a runner it’s safer for students,” said Lopez.

David Shair, a senior and Eaton resident, said, “The sidewalks are good but why is taking so long?”

Hiking to the waterfalls of Central America, making trips to the long strand beaches of Nicaragua and helping one’s fellow men all along the way.

UM student, April Runkle did just that, last summer on a mission trip to Central America organized by International Service Learning (ISL).

Runkle and a small team of predominately pre-med students-as well as registered doctors and nurses from the US-volunteered for a medical mission trip to Costa Rica and Nicaragua, providing health services and clinics to needy recipients in the villages they visited.

It was mission-based but they didn’t push it on you. It was very relaxed. You participated in what you want to participated in,” Runkle said.

Runkle is not a pre-med student but the Latin American studies and Spanish major was the translator for the group, which, “definitely helped my Spanish,” she said.

“Particularly being able to translate on the spot…it was great practice and a good work skill for later on,” she said.

“The kids were really the highlight of the trip,” said Runkle, “they were the real positive sparks.”

Since most of the students on the trip wanted to talk to the kids, April spent a lot of time as the intermediary, she said.

The two-week trip started off in San Jose Costa Rica, where they had a brief orientation for the pre-med students, familiarizing them with the tropical diseases that they would encounter there, like malaria, worms, dengue fever, and cholera, said Runkle.

“For me there was a special list of medical terms that I had to learn,” she said, particularly ways people would be describing pain and discomfort, since she was the intermediary between the ailing, Spanish-speaking patients, and the American students and medical staff.

After the orientation in San Jose, the group headed north through the rainforests of Costa Rica to the Nicaraguan border.

ISL offers two types of programs, one is more urban-based and students visit hospitals, and the other was on the road less travelled-literally.

“We were on the more rugged, backwoods trip,” said Runkle. “Most of the places we went to were only accessible by horseback or boat, sometimes a two-hour or more bare back horse ride through the rainforest.”

Once they arrived in a village, they would notify everyone close to the village, and set up the clinic, usually in a church.

“People would come and bring their children, and we’d give out medicines, like antibiotics, aspirin, and ibuprofen. Also lots of vitamins for the kids,” said Runkle.

“Their health looked alright”, said Runkle except on an island in Lake Nicaragua where most of the people were malnourished, she said.

Time spent with a Nicaraguan dentist stood out in Runkle’s memory.

“All she did was pull out teeth left and right, very seldom using anesthesia,” said Runkle.

“But people wanted it done. It was obvious we were helping because the people would be lining up at the clinics.”

Despite not being a medical student, April did get some actual hands on experience while helping the dentist, “cutting away” at a patient’s gums with the dentist’s supervision. Some of the methods were a little crude, but it was the only help these people could get, said Runkle.

“We saw this lady cut worms out of this guy’s head,” said Runkle, relaying her craziest experience on the trip.

“It was a life learning experience, really once in a lifetime…you don’t get that experience in America” said Runkle.

“I got to intermingle with the people and learn their culture and language first hand.”

April highly recommended the trip, first for pre-med students, then anyone else who is interested in Latin American culture.

“They will learn a lot,” Runkle said. “It doesn’t matter how religious you are, you can still be a valuable and appreciated member of the group.”

Runkle was one of only two students on the trip who were not pre-med-another girl was an elementary education major who sat in on classes in some of the Nicaraguan villages where the medical clinics were set up, and accompanied Runkle as a translator.

She also added that the experience was a great way for pre-med students to build their resume and stand out it in the crowd of applications.

“You don’t even have to know Spanish-all of the trip leaders were English-speaking Americans and not all communication is verbal,” Runkle said.

She mentioned a pre-med student from Hawaii and a young Nicaraguan boy drawing pictures to communicate.

“They were laughing and carrying on for hours,” she said.

As mentioned above, the group also takes some time out for sightseeing. The group went for hikes up volcanoes, to waterfalls, and also went to the beautiful long strand beaches on Nicaragua’s Pacific Coast.

To increase safety, the Houston-based ISL had a network of contacts throughout the country, and they had the same support staff (e.g. bus drivers) for all of the trips.

Also, everywhere they went people knew about the program and were excited to see the group, said Runkle.

ISL offers programs like the one Runkle went on throughout the year, starting this December 30th, with more trips over Spring Break and including a new one to Belize and Guatemala, as well as six other two-week courses in the summer.

The trip costs about $1,700, plus airfare, but since it was a mission trip, many people get pledges from churches or other well-meaning philanthropists.

Runkle will be giving a presentation November 18, at 3 pm in Mahoney Classroom #103, where she will be showing pictures and answering any questions.

If you have any questions e-mail Runkle at: a.runkle@umiami.edu.

As part of UM’s 75th Anniversary celebrations, the U.S. Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, addressed the nation’s educational challenges to an audience of professors, faculty, students, students, alumni, and representatives of the community at UM’s Storer Auditorium on Nov 13.

Paige, who has served as School Superintendent in the Houston area and was Dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University, was invited to UM to speak about the nation’s position on education.

“He has a real feel for education,” said Leonard Miller, Life Trustee of UM, Chairman of the Board of Lennar Corp., and Chairman of South Florida Annenberg Challenge. “His sense of collaboration in the way he brings in the community gets things done”.

“I came because I thought it would be interesting to learn about the field I plan to go into,” said Rebecca Stead, senior in Elementary Education.

Among Paige’s most noted achievements is his involvement in creating the first independent school district in the Houston area, a model for the national charter school concept.

During his lecture, which was hosted by the School of Education, Paige shared a proposed bill by the Bush Administration known as No Child Left Behind.

Among the agenda for the bill is defining curriculum standards; setting clearer academic goals; giving more control and flexibility to local school districts; and expanding parental choice.

“This bill will allow us to educate one hundred percent of our children,” said Paige. “However, this is a difficult task that will require all of us to work together”.

“Magic happens in the classroom when teachers and students come together under these efforts,” he said.

Paige mentioned that all these efforts must be confined to data-based research in order to assure that ineffective actions are not taken based on public opinion. Also, he stressed the importance of including the local community in the schools.

“Currently, 32% of fourth graders can’t read at a proficient level,” said Paige. “This is not an educational system worthy of our great nation.”

“We not only have the capabilities, we have the responsibility to better our educational system,” Paige said.

Paige also said that once the bill is passed, five billion dollars will be dispersed into the nation’s schools in order to aid in the formation of reading programs.

“I am very happy that a significant amount of money will be going towards reading literacy,” said Cindy Amar, Counselor at Claude Pepper Elementary School and Alumni from the UM School of Education. “At the same time, I am opposed to the idea of viewing schools as a business”.

“I think it’s important for the government to talk and get feedback from teachers out there in the field”.

After the speech a Q&A session took place.

Issues of teacher accountability in regards to student achievement, special education, funding for construction of school buildings, standardized testing criteria, and the availability of federal funds for higher education were among the issues discussed.

“I think it’s important to learn the standards of the country as a whole in relation to education,” said Julie Defina, Elementary Education major. “Most of the courses offered here only mention guidelines for the state of Florida”.

In summation of the ideals set forth in relation to the nation’s system of education, Paige quoted the words of our nation’s greatest leaders, Martin Luther King:

“We may have all come on different ships, but we are all on the same boat when it comes to education”.