September 26, 2004: Headlines: COS - Iran: University Administration: Miami Herald: There is a growing sense in the UM community that, under Iran RPCV Donna Shalala, the university is finally on the map. Her mere presence, as a 63-year-old former Clinton Cabinet member with a household name and powerful Beltway buddies, has raised the school's academic currency, contributing to a surge in freshman applications and a rise in median SAT scores.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Iran: Special Report: Iran RPCV, Cabinet Member, and University President Donna Shalala: September 26, 2004: Headlines: COS - Iran: University Administration: Miami Herald: There is a growing sense in the UM community that, under Iran RPCV Donna Shalala, the university is finally on the map. Her mere presence, as a 63-year-old former Clinton Cabinet member with a household name and powerful Beltway buddies, has raised the school's academic currency, contributing to a surge in freshman applications and a rise in median SAT scores.

By Admin1 (admin) (151.196.185.151) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 1:37 pm: Edit Post

There is a growing sense in the UM community that, under Iran RPCV Donna Shalala, the university is finally on the map. Her mere presence, as a 63-year-old former Clinton Cabinet member with a household name and powerful Beltway buddies, has raised the school's academic currency, contributing to a surge in freshman applications and a rise in median SAT scores.

There is a growing sense in the UM community that, under Iran RPCV Donna Shalala, the university is finally on the map. Her mere presence, as a 63-year-old former Clinton Cabinet member with a household name and powerful Beltway buddies, has raised the school's academic currency, contributing to a surge in freshman applications and a rise in median SAT scores.

There is a growing sense in the UM community that, under Iran RPCV Donna Shalala, the university is finally on the map. Her mere presence, as a 63-year-old former Clinton Cabinet member with a household name and powerful Beltway buddies, has raised the school's academic currency, contributing to a surge in freshman applications and a rise in median SAT scores.

Bush-Kerry debate's real winner is UM

A presidential debate puts the University of Miami on the map and for something other than sports. It's a triumphal moment for the school and its president, Donna Shalala.

BY DANIEL de VISE AND ROBERT L. STEINBACK

ddevise@herald.com

Forget the candidates, South Florida. Think instead of Thursday's presidential debate as a cotillion for Donna Shalala and her University of Miami.

Securing the first debate -- and perhaps 50 million television viewers -- for UM is a pinnacle of the Shalala presidency, a megawatt blast of exposure for the ascendant university, gift-wrapped and hand-delivered by its canny leader.

''Our students will have the greatest bragging rights, at Christmas when they go home, of any students in the country,'' Shalala said, speaking in her office on the leafy Coral Gables campus on a recent afternoon.

There is a growing sense in the UM community that, under Shalala, the university is finally on the map. Her mere presence, as a 63-year-old former Clinton Cabinet member with a household name and powerful Beltway buddies, has raised the school's academic currency, contributing to a surge in freshman applications and a rise in median SAT scores.

THE SOBE OF ACADEMIA

The campus is fast becoming the South Beach of Florida academia. The Dalai Lama visited UM last week. Political strategists James Carville and Mary Matalin were there on the first day of classes, and Maya Angelou addressed graduates in the spring. Sen. Hillary Clinton paid her regards last December, and the MSNBC talk show Hardball broadcast live from the campus in February 2003.

''The university is competing with South Beach,'' Shalala said. ``It's competing with a dynamic city. The competition is world-class, so we have to figure out ways to reinforce the educational experience with what's happening in the classroom, with lectures and classes and speakers and events.''

This is what university trustees had in mind when they named Shalala to the presidency four years ago. They wanted, in short, for UM to be known throughout the land for something other than sports.

South Florida's premier private university long ago shed the label of ''Suntan U,'' and its academic reputation was secure before Shalala arrived. But there was talk of raising UM to the next level: a bit higher in the collegiate rankings, a tad more selective with the applicant pool, a trifle better-known outside the state.

''We could very well be the Stanford of the 2010 decade,'' said Charles Cobb, a Stanford University alumnus who chaired the search committee that picked Shalala.

Shalala left the presidency of the upper-tier University of Wisconsin to work for President Clinton. She came to Miami aswirl in energy and ambition.

She invited important people to the campus. She launched the largest fundraising campaign in school history. She opened a new Convocation Center, the largest structure on the campus. She moved the university from the Big East athletic conference into the more academically prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference, home to the University of Virginia and Duke.

Within academia, UM is thought to be blessed with 25 years of steady improvement under two consecutive presidents. Shalala replaced Edward T. Foote III, who had built UM into a national research institution over two decades.

RISING SAT SCORES

The all-important endowment, UM's financial engine, rose tenfold during Foote's tenure and hovers now above $400 million. Median SAT scores for incoming freshmen went from 1,065 at the start of the Foote era to 1,185 at Shalala's appointment and to 1,250 this fall. The number of freshman applicants doubled under Foote and has risen steadily under Shalala.

''We now have as many applications as Harvard does,'' Shalala said. ``We have 18,000 applications for 2,000 slots.''

But Miami must accept 42 percent of applicants to fill those slots, while Harvard accepts just 10 percent. That's because students invited to attend Miami are more likely to decline.

RANKINGS

UM ranked 58th among national universities in this year's U.S. News & World Report college guide, up from 64th in 2000, higher than any other Florida school except the University of Florida, at 50.

But UM has not been invited to join the prestigious Association of American Universities, a group of 62 leading research institutions. Among Florida schools, only UF is a member.

Shalala's most visible accomplishment may be the campus itself. Where predecessors planted trees, she planted chairs -- 3,000 of them -- all around the campus, creating enclaves for students, professors and the broader UM community.

''We were talking on campus one day,'' recalled trustee Mike Abrams, a UM alumnus. 'And she said, `Mike, you know, the problem with this place is it's too pristine.' She did little things to change that -- expanding the library to 24 hours, putting Starbucks coffee in the cafeteria, creating little gathering spots.''

Lately, debate banners and video cameras have sprung up around the campus. Outside the University Center, Republicans and Democrats have set up opposing tables to register students to vote.

TICKETS IN DEMAND

'Everyone I talk to is like, `Do you know some way to get a ticket?' '' said Leigha Taber, a senior psychology major who edits the newspaper The Miami Hurricane.

Other college presidents are surely ''lusting in their hearts'' for Miami's debate, said Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, retired president of Barry University and Shalala's friend.

''This kind of foresight she had in setting this up many months ago is what's been the genius of her success as a president,'' O'Laughlin said.

Shalala had a notion of hosting a presidential debate even before she accepted the job at UM. Attending a 2000 debate with the Gore campaign at the University of Massachusetts, she asked the campus president how he had landed the event. He directed Shalala to the Commission on Presidential Debates. She went to work.

Nearly 47 million viewers saw the first Bush-Gore debate in 2000. In this acrimonious election year, at least that many should tune in.

''It's like hosting the Super Bowl,'' said Abrams, the trustee. ``I think it's going to be enormous.''

Shalala lobbied hard to host the first debate, the one with the most people watching. She knew from experience that her university would reap collateral publicity.

PUBLICITY BONANZA

''You know that the University of Miami will be mentioned in every print piece within the first couple of 'graphs, I would think, and in every broadcast, at least in the introduction and the sign-off,'' said Terence Smith, media correspondent and senior producer of PBS' News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Lehrer will moderate the debate.

''If I know Donna,'' Smith said, ``she'll paste the University of Miami on every backdrop.''

There are other ways for a university to grab this sort of media attention, said Todd Gitlin, a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University: a sex scandal, perhaps, or a murder. ``Nothing good.''

The attention may be fleeting. Debates can, on occasion, change the course of an election. They will be remembered. Their hosts may not.

''I can't tell you where any of the previous debates were,'' Gitlin said.

Wake Forest University hosted a debate in 2000 and saw freshman applications rise from 5,400 that fall to 5,700 the next year. Many of the new applicants said they had become aware of the school when they saw it on television, said Kevin Cox, spokesman for the North Carolina school.

Some UM students remain skeptical of the motives that brought a 2004 debate to their school. 'It's not `Let's get students out to vote;' it's 'Let's see how much media attention we can get,' '' said Edward Matos, president of the nonpartisan student group Council for Democracy.

Shalala has declared that all debate tickets the university receives, aside from those for the Miccosukee tribe sponsors, will go to students. Even her own.

''I sat and thought, who is this for?'' Shalala said. ``It's really for the students.''
Herald staff writer Matthew I. Pinzur contributed to this report.





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Story Source: Miami Herald

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