FIU Magazine - Spring 2000

FIU law school on its way
The Florida Legislature unanimously approved a bill to establish a law school at Florida International University by the Fall of 2003, and re-establish a law school at Florida A&M University. FIU's law school will be South Florida's first public law school. It is expected that the law school bill will be signed by Governor Jeb Bush and then FIU will move toward hiring a dean, faculty, staff and developing a curriculum in accordance with the standards of the American Bar Association.
For updates on the new law school, visit the FIU web site at www.fiu.edu

Commercial use of Panther Skin expected soon

Panther Skin, the material and method developed by FIU researchers that can dramatically strengthen aging aircraft and increase passenger safety, has received a federal stamp of approval that could hasten its widespread commercial use.
Last fall, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released test result data on Panther Skin's ability to significantly strengthen aircraft. The results were issued at the Third Joint FAA/Department of Defense/NASA Conference on Aging Aircraft in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Panther Skin is a lightweight, solvent-resistant, fire retardant plastic (polyisocyanurate) that has been shown to reduce aging aircraft concerns while increasing passenger safety from fire and other corrosive elements that normally affect aircraft.
Very lightweight and solvent- and fire-resistant, Panther Skin bonds permanently to the metal skin and supporting frame of a plane's fuselage, adding strength and rigidity. It has been proven to end fatigue to the structure of an aircraft, making the body of the plane 10 times stronger, thereby extending the life of the plane by 100 to 150 percent.
"The true value of Panther Skin lies in its promise to help save lives," said Milton Torres, the FIU researcher who has been working on Panther Skin. "Panther Skin will retard fire for up to 26 minutes, allowing for a greater passenger survival rate after a crash. …You can imagine the choice for airline passengers: flying on a fire-safe or a non-fire-safe airplane."
By strengthening the body of the plane, Panther Skin will also help extend the life of an aging fleet: Some 5,000 airplanes flying the American skies today are more than 20 years old. In fact, 80 percent of the U.S. commercial fleet is more than five years old. The average life of an aircraft is currently 20 years, but with Panther Skin applied it could be extended to as long as 50 years.
The substance can be applied either by spray equipment or by liquid pour. The solidification of Panther Skin takes place in less than five minutes. It has been estimated that applied to a Boeing 727, Panther Skin would cause a loss of payload of approximately 200 pounds and would cost around $250,000. During a 20-year life span, Panther Skin would cut corrosion costs by at least 50 percent over 20 years.
Torres, who spent the last 10 years researching Panther Skin, anticipates that licensing agreements for the commercial use of the product could soon be reached. He said that there have been inquiries from organizations including the Air Force, Boeing, Lear, Airbus and Embrear to purchase Panther Skin. Any licensing fees received for Panther Skin will be split 50-50 between the University and Torres. For more information, visit www.eng.fiu.edu/pantherskin.

New identity and increased development planned for North Campus
Renewed growth and a fresh identity are in store for FIU's North Campus.
Last fall, it was announced that the North Campus will be renamed the Biscayne Bay Campus. For years, the North Campus has been known for its serene waterside setting. In May, the University will request official approval for the name change from the Board of Regents.
The change in identity is just the start, however, of what's in store for the campus. Academic programs will be expanded, buildings will be renovated and new facilities will be planned. To that end, two senior administrative officers - one for broad-based responsibility for the campus and another for focusing academic efforts - have been appointed.
"Internationally, Biscayne Bay is a very well-known and highly valued place," said Provost Mark Rosenberg. "The fact that you have a campus on this stunningly beautiful place is an asset, and we need to take advantage of it."
Raul Moncarz, professor of Finance, was named vice provost for Academic Affairs for the campus. In this capacity, he is responsible for developing the campus master plan - including the possible construction of new facilities, managing the campus-related budget, coordinating enrollment management efforts for the North Campus, and developing and promoting partnerships with the communities associating with the campus. A member of the provost's staff, he will work with all University divisions to ensure that campus operations are maintained and enhanced.

Moncarz is a founding member of the University and the Department of Economics, where he served as its chair from 1988 to 1994. He has served as assistant to the executive vice president and assistant vice president for Academic Affairs at FIU, with responsibility for developing FIU's relationship with Miami-Dade Community College (1977-79).
Brian L. Cutler, professor of Psychology, was named associate vice president for Academic Affairs, the chief academic officer for the campus. In this capacity, he is responsible for developing the North Campus academic master plan and for promoting academic excellence through high quality research, teaching and creative activity. He will monitor the overall level of campus academic efforts and promote the development of more on-campus start-to-finish degree programs. Currently professor of Psychology, he served as associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1992-98, where he assisted the College in achieving a 42 percent enrollment increase, implementing 14 new graduate programs, and significantly increased grant funding.
Strides to open the North Campus took place during the administration of Harold Crosby, FIU's second president. When the campus first opened in 1977 it consisted of four trailers and the Trade Center Building, which served as the main building on campus.
Today, the 195-acre campus has over 8,000 students - more than the total enrollment of other universities - and 11 major structures, which includes housing that can accommodate 552 students.

Poll reveals `complacency' among hurricane evacuees
An FIU/Florida Poll revealed that the largest evacuation in Florida history took place last September, when some two million Floridians from almost 800,000 households evacuated their homes as Category Four Hurricane Floyd approached.
The evacuation rates were highest in the area near Jacksonville and progressively diminished further south along the east coast of the state.
In Miami-Dade County, the estimated evacuation rate was low enough to indicate that a good number of Miami Beach and Key Biscayne residents stayed in their homes and would have been at risk if the hurricane had not turned north.
"This is an ongoing trend that we have noticed," said FIU hurricane researcher Walter Gillis Peacock, an associate professor of Sociology and Anthropology. "The poll results confirm our concern that people who live in areas that evacuated for recent storms, including Hurricane Andrew, are less likely to evacuate. Complacency is a factor."
The poll's data indicated other important issues resulting from the Floyd experience:

The experience of Floyd lessened the willingness of Floridians to say they will evacuate for the next big hurricane. This "experience" effect may indicate complacency or it may indicate more realistic appraisal of a hypothetical question.

Evacuees in the northern half of Florida were more likely to evacuate to hotels or motels than those in South Florida. They were much more likely to evacuate outside of the area where they live. This resulted in much more traffic congestion and potential risk had the hurricane come onshore.

People in coastal areas were generally supportive of actions taken by officials. Seventy-nine percent felt official decisions were correct or mostly correct.

Having an evacuation plan is the most important way households can prepare for a major hurricane. The data suggested that the experience of earlier hurricanes such as Erin and Andrew taught people along the South Florida coast the importance of having a plan with nearby safe houses as the best destination. Authorities need to plan evacuation areas, maps, and public education programs with this in mind.

The results were based on a random telephone sample of 1,224 people conducted in October and early November. Of those surveyed, 12.6 percent said they did evacuate their homes as Floyd approached. Given the margin of error for the survey (plus or minus two percent), the actual number of evacuated homes is between 770,000 and 800,000 households. Assuming most households evacuated together, this corresponds to almost two million evacuees. Five percent of respondents lived in households that took in evacuees, corresponding to 325,377 households taking in evacuees (with the margin of error, about 320,000 to 330,000).
"In this survey, `evacuation' can mean walking a block from your mobile home to a friend's house," said Hugh Gladwin, director of the Institute for Public Opinion Research (IPOR) at FIU, which conducted the study. "As a result, the poll estimate may differ from traffic counts on expressways."
The poll questions were part of FIU's continuing research on hurricane preparation behavior, which has been conducted since Hurricane Andrew. The evacuation research group includes Gladwin, Peacock, Betty Morrow and Nicole Dash at the Laboratory for Social and Behavioral Research at the International Hurricane Center, as well as Christina Gladwin at the University of Florida.
Researchers at IPOR continue to process data from the poll that track issues important to Florida residents and decision-makers. Results will be posted on the IPOR web page as they become available at www.fiu.edu/orgs/ipor

First, Gatorland and then SkyVenture

Stephen Fjellman

"I don't know who would go from Iowa to see Disney (World) and then take a day off to go to these places," said Stephen Fjellman, chairperson of the University's Sociology and Anthropology Department, who noted the way smaller, grade B attractions in Orlando continue to thrive. "I think it's just sheer numbers. If you get enough people, it'll keep these places alive."
-The Orlando Sentinel, November 25, 1999

`Yuh as a rezedent ave di rights ahn di rispansabilities…'

Tometro Hopkins

"It [the pamphlet] would be just as hard for a Jamaican to read as it [would be] for us [creolists]," said Tometro Hopkins, associate professor of English and a linguist specializing in Creole. "It's a word-for word translation and you can't do that. This is just English with an accent [pronunciation]." Hopkins was commenting on U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development pamphlets, directed toward Haitian Americans, which were written in an imitation Jamaican dialect but not what is considered Jamaican Creole English.
-The Dallas Morning News November 16, 1999

Public Health project aims to reduce HIV among minorities

A project being launched by three faculty in the Department of Public Health aims to eliminate health disparities in the African American and Hispanic populations in Broward County, with an emphasis on reducing the incidence of HIV infection and AIDS.
Virginia McCoy, chair of Public Health, Professor William Darrow and Associate Professor Robert Stempel received $331,22 in funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the planning phase of a project in which FIU and four collaborating community-based organizations will develop an action plan.
"The goal is to prevent minority populations from becoming infected - and if they do become infected, ensuring they have the same access to quality health services as the white population," said Darrow, who is nationally known for his pioneering research on the spread of AIDS.
For the last three years for which data exists (1996-98), four cities in South Florida - Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Fort Pierce - have had the highest rate in the nation of HIV among 18 to 25 year olds. In Broward County, 60 percent of all HIV cases are among minorities, although they constitute only 25 percent of the total population. The rate of infection among African Americans is four times higher than whites, and for Hispanics it's two times higher than whites.
The project is part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initiative known as REACH (Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health) 2010. CDC has distributed $9.4 million to 32 organizations throughout the country that are formulating such programs; FIU was one of two in Florida that received a grant. By September 2000, participating organizations must submit their four-year implementation plans to compete for $30 million in funding that CDC will distribute in the next round.
FIU is partnering with the following Broward organizations: Think Life, Inc., Hispanic Unity of Florida, Minority Development and Empowerment, Inc.-Haitian Community Center, and Minority Institute of Health.
"In many respects, this represents the kind of research that urban universities ought to be focused on - research that has the potential for very real benefits for the urban community," said CUPA Dean Ronald Berkman.
The University's investigators and the four organizations have been conducting discussion groups with individuals at risk to identify problems and possible solutions. They also conducted formative evaluations of promising interventions to address current deficiencies in the health care system.
"This is a real opportunity for innovation," Darrow commented. "It's not about just printing another pamphlet about HIV prevention.
"If people aren't using condoms, we want to learn why they aren't using condoms. For others at risk, we want to know why they're injecting drugs and sharing needles. People know what they shouldn't do, but they're still doing it. What inhibits safer sex and injection practices? In some cases it's cultural competency or perhaps mistrust of government information. There are no simple answers to the questions we seek to answer. We need to get at the underlying values, beliefs and folk tales of different cultures - and to be effective, we must deal with them as they are, not as the moral imperialists would like for them to be."

From Ricky Martin to novelas

Mario Diament

"Spanish-speaking people have come a long way from being second-class citizens here to feeling pride in the language and culture," said Mario Diament, associate professor and coordinator for Spanish-language programs in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. "There used to be a feeling of shame, but nowadays there's a sense of pride and its growing. It's a natural shift when people become fluent in both languages."
-Austin American-Statesman November 12, 1999

Just say no to paperback redemption

Dan Wakefield

"I don't like those books that are five easy steps to peace and happiness," said Dan Wakefield, distinguished visiting writer in the Creative Writing Program, who has published several books on his spiritual reawakening. "I think a lot people get discouraged and they think they messed up and so they're not really Christian or whatever it is."
-Chicago Tribune December 22, 1999

HCET provides expertise and support for Opa-Locka redevelopment project

Vice President Al Gore announced that FIU is one of 14 Hispanic-serving institutions that will be awarded a total of $5.65 million in grants to help rehabilitate low-income communities.
Under the Hispanic-Serving Institutions Assisting Communities Program (HSIAC), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), FIU's Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology (HCET) will receive $400,000 for a local rehabilitation project in Opa-Locka.
The Community Gymnasium Project is a partnership between FIU-HCET and the city of Opa-Locka to acquire vacant property to build a community gymnasium for area residents. FIU-HCET will provide technical expertise and assistance in evaluating the environmental status of the site.
The vacant lot, adjacent to the newly renovated Seagull Park, Northwest 22nd Avenue and 103rd Street, is in an area of the city that is designated as an Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community and is also designated as a proposed brownfields economic development area.
Brownfields are abandoned, idled or underused industrial and commercial facilities where real or perceived environmental contamination complicates expansion or redevelopment. The city block in Opa-Locka has minor environmental impacts such as building waste, construction debris and other pollutants, which will be detected and eliminated to develop an improved area of recreation.
FIU-HCET will use the HUD funding for the environmental assessment and to purchase the land, which will then be given to the city of Opa-Locka. The facility will be owned and managed by the city of Opa-Locka and will provide several employment opportunities to local low- and moderate-income individuals.
This is HCET's first project in the brownfields area. There are an estimated 2,100 brownfield sites in the corridor from Florida City north to Port St. Lucie, and 600,000 throughout the country.
"This is really an example of FIU helping the community and our commitment to improving the local environment," said Nick Lailas, HCET senior program manager for environment.
Football kickoff changed to 2002
In February, University officials announced that pending Board of Regents' (BOR) approval, the inaugural season of FIU football will be the fall of 2002.
"Originally, our goal was to put this team on the field in 2001. However, our ongoing research into this matter led us to the conclusion that the extra year will make the FIU football and athletic programs that much stronger," said FIU Senior Vice President for Business and Finance Paul Gallagher. He cited three reasons for the decision:
• The stadium expansion will take approximately two years. The current stadium on University Park will be expanded to hold 16,000 - 18,000 fans in the first phase of the expansion and ultimately 30,000.
• Title Nine regulations dictate that FIU maintain equilibrium between men's and women's athletic programs. FIU plans to begin programs in women's rowing and swimming, but these programs will take some time to implement.
• The search for a new athletic director is underway. A professional search firm is being contracted to help FIU identify potential candidates for the key position.
"The FIU family and this community deserve and expect a top-notch program, and these extra 12 months will allow us to make sure they get it," said Gallagher, who is spearheading the football effort.
Originally, the University was slated to seek BOR approval for the program at February's meeting. Instead, approval by the Regents will be sought at the May meeting.
For months, officials at FIU have been working to set the stage for football success. A fund-raising effort has already yielded $3 million, and FIU student fees for football have totaled $2 million. A season ticket campaign, which began late last year, has garnered support from hundreds of alumni and friends of the university.
"Financially, we are in good shape," said Gallagher. "In a year, we will be in even better shape - with $8 to $9 million in the bank - and we will have the leadership of a new athletic director."
Don Strock, director of football operations, noted that recruiting for players will begin once the program is approved. He said that more than 20 high school football coaches have expressed interest in sending players to FIU.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu visits FIU
Last December, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a leading figure in South Africa's struggle to end apartheid and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, delivered a lecture at FIU and was honored with the conferral of an honorary doctorate. Seen are (front row, from left) FIU President Modesto A. Maidique, Tutu, Provost Mark Rosenberg; (back row, from left) Carole Boyce-Davies, director of the African-New World Studies Program, and Tito Omaghomi, North Campus president of the Student Government Association.

Black and white (memories and politics)

Dario Moreno

"It's important to remember that 75 percent of the Cuban Americans in this country were born in Cuba," said Dario Moreno, associate professor of Political Science, on the intense emotions stirred by the Elian Gonzalez saga. "They remember Cuba and what they lost when they left there. For them it is black and white, good and evil. Fidel (Castro) is the devil incarnate, Cuba is hell on earth and sending a six-year-old boy back to that hell is immoral."
-The Atlanta Journal and Constitution January 9, 2000

Make sure you eat your vegetables

John Landrum

"The surprising finding of this study is that dosages of as little as 2.4 mg of lutein per day produced measurable increases in the retinal pigment levels of the subjects in just six months," said John Landrum, associate professor of Chemistry, who has conducted research on lutein and the way in which it may protect against age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss among adults. Lutein is found in green, leafy vegetables and yellow vegetables and fruits. "This study is one of a kind that shows how lutein dietary supplements can increase the amount of pigment present in the macula of the human retina."
-PR Newswire January 7, 2000
FIU alumni named Miami-Dade County Public School principal and teacher of the year
Two alumni of the FIU College of Education were recently honored by the Miami-Dade County Public Schools for being tops in their posts.
Dennis Davis (M.S. '75), principal of Sunset High School, was named Miami-Dade County Principal of the Year and received a check for $5,000. Sunset High, has 4,700 students. Davis began his career as a biology and math teacher at the former Mays High School and held administrative posts at several schools before being named Sunset High principal in 1992.
Patricia JoAnn Cohen (B.S. '89), who teaches language and arts and reading to second-grade students at Wesley Matthews Elementary School, was named Miami-Dade Teacher of the Year. She was given the "Francisco R. Walker Golden Apple Teacher of the Year" award; she received $7,000 and her school got $2,000.
Concert choir wins first place in international competition
Last fall, the Florida International University Concert Choir, under the direction of John Augenblick, participated in the First International Choir Festival and Competition of Fort Lauderdale and won first place in the Chamber Choir Category. In addition, the panel of five judges, made up of leading choral conductors from around the world, gave FIU's Concert Choir the highest rating of any choir in the competition.

"As their conductor, I am extremely proud of the fine work by the 21 students in this choir," said Augenblick, director of Choir Studies. "The Concert Choir was especially honored to win first-place honors in this prestigious event. They represented FIU as wonderful musical ambassadors to the 22 choirs from 10 nations that participated in the competition."
This was the first International Choral Competition to be held in the United States. By winning this competition, the Concert Choir qualified to participate in the 2000 Choir Olympics to be held in Linz, Austria in July.
Institute for International Professional Services established
It is estimated that service sector exports from Florida to foreign countries totaled some $9.4 billion in 1998. Based on the magnitude of this business and the desire to expand it further, the University has created a new institute devoted to promoting the state's export of services.
The Institute for International Professional Services (IIPS), affiliated with the Latin American and Caribbean Center (LACC) and the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER), will work in partnership with the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce (GMCC) to be at the forefront of strategic thinking on the future development of Florida's international service economy.
IIPS will be responsible for analyzing trends in the export of services, as well as investment in services. Through the gathering of key statistics on service industries and the monitoring of current trade initiatives and commitments, IIPS will seek to identify trends in service industries and opportunities, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The institute will work closely with the state's business community to identify obstacles to trade in services. One of the first initiatives is to conduct a survey, in collaboration with GMCC's International Services Group, to inventory Florida's international services community. The survey's findings will provide valuable insights into Florida's strengths as a global and hemispheric services center.
Mark B. Rosenberg, FIU's provost and executive vice president and a longtime advocate of the growth of the services sector in Florida, said "this initiative will help the Florida business community accelerate its competitiveness in the rapidly changing global economy."
Service trade accounted for 90 percent of growth in U.S. employment in the last two decades. A U.S. Department of Commerce 1997 report suggested that every $1 billion of service exports supports 20,000 service jobs.
The role of services in Florida's economic development cannot be overlooked; currently, the service sector is responsible for nearly 25 per cent of the state's annual gross state product. The export of business, professional and technical services will ensure Florida's future competitive advantage.
In addition to its other activities, the IIPS will develop credit and noncredit certificate programs in international services.
Labor Report finds economic boom not benefiting Florida's workers
Despite the state's booming economy, Florida's workers are not sharing in the prosperity and are not a priority of the state's public policies. That's among the key findings in the second annual Labor Report on the State of Florida issued by FIU's Center for Labor Research & Studies.
The study, conducted by Bruce Nissen and Pete Cattan of the center, focuses on the disparity between Florida's overall economy and the status of its workers, who often labor under standards and conditions well below national or regional norms.
"Compared to the nation and the other states of the Southeast region, on most measures of worker well-being Florida is sliding backward," the report states.
Unemployment rates in Florida have steadily dropped for some time, from 8.3 percent in 1992 to 5.5 percent in 1995 to 3.9 percent in June 1999. Total non-agricultural employment has also been rising rapidly - by June 1999 it was up 3.5 percent from a year earlier. Eight years of economic expansion have also been accompanied by rising incomes, although not as rapidly as for the nation as a whole. Last year, Florida per capita income was $25,922, which was 97.9 percent of the U.S. average.
Looking at wages, however, Florida appears worse than it does in terms of income. As of the fourth quarter of 1998, the Florida average yearly wage was $30,150, only 89.6 percent of the national average. Despite the current economic expansion, median hourly wages in Florida (adjusted for inflation) have dropped since 1989.
The state also has a large concentration of workers earning very low wages. As of 1997, 9.2 percent of the state's workers only earned the national minimum wage ($5.15/hour) or less, compared to a national average of 7.7 percent. The study also found that 33.2 percent of Florida workers earned less than the wage needed to keep a family of four above the poverty level, compared to a national average of 28.6 percent.
Nissen and Cattan also considered employee treatment in the workplace. Florida has 19.6 percent of its residents without health insurance coverage, placing it 45th of the 50 states. The state's tax burden is about average for the U.S., despite its reputation as being a low tax state. In 1998, its tax burden was 95.3 percent of the U.S. average, 26th of the 50 states. But Florida is actually a high tax state from a worker's perspective, because the state's highly regressive tax structure forces workers and low-income people to pay a disproportionate percentage of the taxes collected.

Campaign for FIU receives notable gifts-in-kind

The Campaign for FIU continues to move toward its $200 million goal. Reaching the $179 million mark, the campaign recently received several noteworthy gifts-in-kind. These contributions include both equipment and other tangibles that complement research and teaching, or artwork, books and other items that enhance FIU collections.
The College of Business Administration in March confirmed a gift of computer software from Oracle Corporation worth more than $1 million. The software will assist in the creation of a new database and support e-business courses in the college's new MIS graduate program.
The Art Museum at FIU has benefited from a number of recent gifts-in-kind. A Virginia collector gave the museum 113 works that together have an appraised value of nearly $250.000. Among the treasures are many fourteenth and fifteenth century ceramic pieces from Thailand. A Palm Beach couple donated 93 works with a total appraised value of more than $200,000. The pieces include a rare fifteenth century Sawankaloke blue and white glazed figure from Thailand. A total of 313 art objects, valued at $600,300, were donated to The Art Museum in 1999. The 1999 donations include including an etching by Milton Avery and a Wassily Kandinsky woodcut print.
The School of Architecture has taken possession of more than 3,400 slides depicting art, architecture and urban design. A professor emeritus from MIT donated the collection along with several architecture books geared toward working professionals. The gift has a value of nearly $100,000. Local architect William Cox donated a $25,000 two-volume set of Frank Lloyd Wright monographs printed in Germany in 1909.
The Department of Visual Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences has been given a collection of 1,500 ceramic molds. The gift from a local donor has a value of more than $20,000.
In addition to gifts-in-kind, several significant cash donations to a number of different programs have been made this year. The College of Business Administration received a $200,000 commitment from Burdines department store to endow the Burdines Professorship in Retailing and establish an undergraduate certificate program in retailing. State matching funds will bring the value of the contribution to $250,000. The College of Engineering received a $75,000 gift from SMLX Technologies in support of graduate fellowships in biomedical engineering.