The University of Miami now sports its own Quidditch team.
Unfortunately, all the team members are Muggles, so I don’t rate their chances in the Quidditch World Cup very highly.
Update: Good grief — can there really be more than 200 US college Quidditch teams in the International Quidditch Association?
In addition to teaching I have for the past few years carried a semi-administrative responsibility to be a general faculty resource — to do stuff to help colleagues with their research. The fun part is reading draft papers (although I'm terribly behind at the moment because my energy levels are still not back to normal). The boring parts are compiling information that may be useful for people and writing memos about them, or doing various administrative stuff to foster interdisciplinary cooperation.
Some places call this function “Research Dean” or “Assistant Dean for Research” or something like that. We've never given it a decanal title, which is good, as I never want to be a Dean (shame about the decanal budget, though). Until this week, the job was called “Director of Faculty Development” which was a pretty horrible title, one that sounded like a fund-raising post. I never liked it. Now the job remains unchanged, but has been re-named “Coordinator of Faculty Research” which is less bad, but still a little creepy as it sounds as if I could actually tell someone what to do research on, which of course I cannot and would not want to do.
Finding a name that accurately reflects the enabling but non-directive nature of the post is difficult. When the Dean proposed changing the title, I suggested “Faculty Research Guru” but apparently I'm the only person who finds that funny. Booster, Stimulator, Invigorator, Promoter, Facilitator, all have worse connotations than “Coordinator”, suggesting respectively PR, electroshock, a need to combat morbidity, Florida land deals, and those folks who run a certain type of meeting. So I'm a “Coordinator” until and unless someone comes up with a better word.
The rebadging comes along with the appointment of colleague Frank Valdes to be the first “Coordinator of Junior Faculty Development”. I'm still going to be doing whatever I can for junior faculty, but now there will be two of us — a good thing as the number of people teaching here who do not have tenure is suddenly very large: add up the untentured tenure track, the clinical people who haven't yet progressed to long-term contracts, and our new bumper crop of a dozen or so writing instructors, and you're looking at more than twenty people, certainly more than I can handle alone, especially in my current improving but still low-wattage state. Junior faculty will thus be able to pick either, both, or neither of us to read their papers or give them advice. And those who pick both to read their work may get usefully divergent advice.
These two emails were sent about two hours and twenty minutes apart. I could have endured a little bit more explanation in the second one.
Email #1:
from UM Police
DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL
Crime Alert
CORAL GABLES CAMPUS
September 2, 2010
On September 2, 2010 at approximately 1:15 P.M. two black males attempted to rob the Sbarro’s at the University Center, 1306 Stanford Drive. No weapons were displayed. The subject fled without any property.
Subject 1: RACE: B SEX: M AGE: Early 20’s.
WEIGHT: 6′ 0’ HEIGHT: 190 EYES: Brown HAIR: Black
Last Seen Wearing: Black T-shirt, White shorts with dark blue stripe and light blue trim, black sock and white sneakers.
Subject 2: Race: B SEX: M AGE: Early 20’s
WEIGHT: 5’8″ HEIGHT: 140 EYES: Brown HAIR: Black
Last Seen Wearing: Black cap, black tank top shirt, long dark shorts, black sneakers with light blue trim.
– Report all emergencies immediately by calling 911.
– Report all suspicious activity immediately by calling (305) 284-6666.
– To request a UM Police safety escort, call 305-284-6666 or use any blue light telephone.
– Visit the UMPD website for personal safety information.
– Visit the UMPD website for more information on self-defense programs.
Post this alert as necessary to keep our community informed.
Email #2:
from UM Police
Do not reply to this message
Crime Alert Update
CORAL GABLES CAMPUS
September 2, 2010
Police investigation of the robbery attempt at the University Center Sbarro’s at approximately 1:15 p.m. on September 2, 2010 has resulted in the identification of the subjects. It has been determined that no crime has been committed.
Also note that due to a listserv issue a previous crime alert dated April 20, 2010 was sent in error. Please disregard that message.
– Report all emergencies immediately by calling 911.
– Report all suspicious activity immediately by calling (305) 284-6666.
– To request a UM Police safety escort, call 305-284-6666 or use any blue light telephone.
– Visit the UMPD website for personal safety information.
– Visit the UMPD website for more information on self-defense programs.
Post this alert as necessary to keep our community informed.
Links to a few of the early tributes to Bruce Winick:
There are some video interviews with Bruce at Cutting Edge Law, Bruce Winick: An Agent of Social Change.
It grieves me to report the death of Bruce J. Winick, a long-time and extraordinary professor at the University of Miami School of Law. Bruce was an amazing man, passionate about his commitments, generous with his time, consistently a highly productive scholar despite long-standing and progressive vision troubles ending in near-blindness.Bruce held an appointment as Professor of Law and also as Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He was the co-founder of a legal approach called “therapeutic jurisprudence” whose effects can be seen in, for example, the proliferation of Drug Courts in which judges try to intervene in the life and care of offenders rather than simply sentence them to confinement. Bruce established and directed our Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center. He was the first recipient of the Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professorship.
True to form, despite serious illness Bruce was writing multiple works (and planning a trip to present to a conference abroad!) right up until the last. You can read about his many, many awards, books, and articles here.
Dean Patricia White's announcement earlier today noted Bruce's “extraordinary courage and grace” which she said “should serve as an inspiration to all of us” and promised more information about the commemorations when they are available.
The highly reliable folks at US News have given the University of Miami another bump in the rankings, raising it to 47, and vaulting it above its in-state rivals. The local booster rag, the Miami Herald, duly pens a very favorable local story, Once derided, University of Miami basks in now-lofty status.
For all the USN rankings' lack of science, there is something real going on here. In fact, there are two sets of things.
Locally, “the U” has made enormous strides in the past decade — new faculty being hired in the departments are smart and industrious, SAT scores are way up, there is a great sense of optimism.
Equally significantly, the cash-poor state of Florida has been starving its public universities, and that as much as anything may account for their declining USN scores.
Indeed, the parlous condition of public higher education around the country is, I suppose, another argument for the legitimacy of private education if the private schools are better able to weather hard times: they keep us from eating all the seed corn. Of course, the counter-argument is that if elites had to send their children to the state system then they would take better care of it….
Jotwell Blenderlaw