NEWS
- UNF Turns 35
- Foreign tales Ace Stryker
- SMS expands coverage to include chronic conditions Josh Salman
- Finance students compete for real prizes with virtual stock portfolios Ashley Beland
- SG election code changes underway Jessica Medina
- Student Union groundbreaking
- No plans for family housing at UNF Sarah Diener
UNF Turns 35
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October is Founder's Month and the University of North Florida will be celebrating its 35th
anniversary Oct. 2. Events throughout the month will celebrate the people who made UNF into what it is today and explore its varied past and evolving future.
35th anniversary: Looking back
UNF Presidents
1969-1980 Thomas G. Carpenter
1980-1982 Andrew A. Robinson, Jr.
1982-1988 Curtis L. McCray
1988-1989 Roy E. McTarnaghan
1989-1998 Adam W. Herbert
1998 E. K. Fretwell
1998/1999 A. David Kline
1999-2002 Anne H. Hopkins
2002-2003 A. David Kline
2003-present John A. Delaney
Founding faculty still at UNF
Dr. Richard Bizot
Director of Irish Studies
Dr. Ray Bowman
Director of the UNF
Environmental Center
Dr. Minor Chamblin
Psychology department chair
Dr. Dale Clifford
History department chair
Dr. Paul Eggen
Foundations and
secondary education professor
Dr. Chris Rasche
Criminal justice
associate professor
Dr. Daniel Schafer
History professor
Dr. Steven Shapiro
Director of the Center
for Economic Education
Dr. William Slaughter
English professor
Linda Smith
Librarian
Dr. Reza Vaghefi
Management professor
Dr. Janice Wood
Childhood education
associate professor
Dr. Louis Woods
Economics professor
A full calendar of events for Founder's Month can be found online at www.unf.edu/35. Activities begin Oct. 2.
Foreign tales
Pulitzer-winning journalist recounts jobs, adventures abroad
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John Burns (middle) has served as a New York Times foreign correspondent for the past 30 years in places like Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. |
The longest-serving foreign correspondent in the history of The New York Times spoke Sept. 25 at the University of North Florida to journalism students about his career and the lessons he's learned about reporting and humanity.
John Burns, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner, said he's learned a lot of life lessons over the past 30 years as a foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. He said among the most important things he's picked up along the way is the value of history to reporting current events.
"We have weighted - very heavily in what we do - human rights," he said. "We have underweighted something else, and that is history."
Burns said he "fell backward" into being a journalist as a young man when he walked into the office of a Vancouver newspaper seeking a job closer to where his girlfriend at the time lived.
Within a week, he was covering the police beat for the newspaper. His first international stint was as a foreign correspondent in China - a role that he said also came merely by way of circumstance.
Burns said the life of a journalist is a hard one, with long hours and little thanks, but it's provided him with opportunities unique among his contemporaries.
"There are rewards in this business that offset that," he said. "Perhaps the greatest of them is freedom."
Burns gave a public lecture later that night about his experience covering affairs in Iraq from Baghdad for the past five years.
He said the job has often put him in harm's way - perhaps most starkly when he negotiated his way to Saddam Hussein's grave shortly after his execution for a front-page story - but he's lived by the dying words of famed early 20th-century Arctic Explorer Robert Falcon Scott.
"We took risks, we knew that we took them, and now that events have transpired against us, we have no cause to complain."
Contact Ace Stryker at copydesk@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
SMS expands coverage to include chronic conditions
In an attempt to attract more students, the University of North Florida's Student Medical Services is now treating chronic conditions and more complicated health issues.
Since hospitals don't regularly treat chronic conditions and medical bills for students lacking insurance can become quite costly, the clinic has opened their doors to these types of issues.
"It's not necessarily only about age," said Li Loriz, director of the school of nursing, who just started working at SMS. "We want to meet the needs of the more mature students. Not all students are 19 or 20 years old these days."
According to Loriz, SMS focuses on promotion of health and preventative behavior, but a new goal has been set to improve the older students' way of life.
"It's all about convenience," Loriz said. "Here at UNF, we have great providers. The emphasis is really on the benefits for the students. A lot of lab work and medication can be provided for much cheaper [...] We really try to keep the cost down."
The university is able to provide these types of care for less since students' medical fees are already covered in the cost of
tuition.
"Although I haven't used it yet, it's a great service," said Jeff Gouge, an information technology major. "It's all basically free. I will definitely take advantage of the service if I ever get sick."
To receive care, students need to call or stop by SMS in Building 14, room 1501, to schedule an appointment. SMS is open for students Monday, Thursday and Friday from 8-4:30 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-6:30 p.m.
Contact Josh Salman at news@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Finance students compete for real prizes with virtual stock portfolios
The Finance and Investment Society at the University of North Florida is sponsoring a virtual stock portfolio competition, which began Sept. 24 and allows students to compete for cash prizes until Nov. 26.
It is a two-part competition where participants create personal virtual portfolios to compete with peers and an FIS group portfolio to compete against other clubs, said Amanda Brzoska, portfolio manager for FIS.
The competition is taking place on a forum called The UpDown, which was designed by Harvard students, said Brzoska, a senior finance major. The site requires members to create investment profiles and allows people to send messages and post comments,
she said.
"The UpDown is the Facebook for finance majors," said Chris Miller, a senior finance major. "It's a great opportunity to network with students who are in the same boat as you."
Once students create an account on The UpDown, they receive $1 million in virtual money to start trading stocks,
Brzoska said.
"I joined the competition because it's a good way to practice trading money and see how your trading strategy works without having to lose real money,"
Miller said.
The goal of the competition is for students to gain valuable skills, Brzoska said.
The purpose of FIS is to support finance students professionally and academically, and the virtual portfolio helps students prepare for the highly selective Osprey Financial Group, Brzoska said. The group is a class for finance majors that only accepts 10 students a year, she said.
The virtual portfolio is also an outlet for job networking, Miller said. People students meet on the site may be able to help them get a job later, he said.
FIS will be discussing topics related to the competition at its meetings, where students can learn from each other's experiences with their portfolios,
she said.
The winners of the competition will be announced at the FIS meeting Nov. 28.
"Essentially, we will be measuring the portfolio returns over a period of time, and the three students with the highest returns will win the competition," Brzoska said.
The prizes include $100 for first place, $50 for second and $25 for third, she said.
Contact Ashley Beland at news_staff@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
SG election code changes underway
With fall elections only weeks away, the University of North Florida Student Government is still putting the finishing touches on a revision to the constitution and statutes elections code which started this summer.
The elections code is the governing document which determines how SG elections are run.
Though the last election was taken into consideration, it was not the only reason for the revision to the code, said Chelsi Henry, chair of the SG Elections, Selections and Appointments Committee.
"One of the purposes of that revision was just to be sure that in everything concerning elections, Student Government was doing the best to serve the students who are voting as well as the students who are running in the elections,"
Henry said.
The members of the Elections, Selections and Appointments Committee included new definitions in the revision to make sure that candidates and students will be able to understand the election code's content, Henry said.
A new Senate appointment process was also a part of the revision. The number of signatures a person must obtain to be considered a candidate was changed from 75 to 150.
"We wanted to be sure that each appointee - when they come up - they are aware of what each of the committees here in the legislative cabinet are responsible for, how senate meetings are [run], and just the overall purpose of Student Government," Henry said.
Another modification was a change in who would be in charge of the elections process.
Previously, the ESAC chair was the elections supervisor and the elections commissioner.
Now the elections supervisor will oversee the whole election process while the election commissioner will be the person who reviews violations and chairs election hearings.
"After reviewing statutes of many other public universities in our area and just taking feedback from many different people, it came to a consensus [...] in the ESAC committee that there be a separation," Henry said. "This separation is just to be sure that the students are being served in a way that [there's] less chance
of bias."
Another major change this year will be a separation of the inter-college and general
elections.
The inter-college elections decide candidates who serve in seats in their respective colleges, and only students in that college are allowed to vote for those candidates.
Previously, these Senate seats were elected at the same time as at-large Senate seats.
Now they will take place two weeks apart.
The inter-college elections are slated for Oct. 9-10, and the general elections will be Oct. 24-25.
Both elections will be held on campus in front of the UNF Bookstore, Fine Arts Building and Coggin College of Business.
Tutwiler won the spring 2006 SG election by a margin of five votes, and the newly elected officials were not sworn in for almost a month due to elections conflict.
Contact Jessica Medina at news_staff@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE
Student Union groundbreaking
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Pressed suits, rain and school spirit joined together Sept. 19 for the Student Union groundbreaking ceremony. President John Delaney spoke about what the groundbreaking meant for the campus and to University of North Florida students. "Half of what is learned is in the classroom," he said. "The other half is the student experience." The ceremony was moved to the Boathouse Grille due to rain. |
No plans for family housing at UNF
Universities across the country are adopting a new type of residence hall for nontraditional students.
Married students or students with children are now finding more on-campus housing options.
"Family housing," as it has been dubbed, is comprised of special dorms that are allotted specifically to students who already have children upon entering college or who become pregnant while enrolled in school.
These areas can also be used for couples who are married or plan to be married while
at school.
The University of Florida, Florida State University, Florida International University and the University of South Florida all currently offer family housing options for students.
The University of North Florida does not offer family-style housing.
Married students cannot live together, and students with children cannot live with them in any housing area.
Associate Director of Residence Life Bob Boyle said he doesn't see family housing becoming a reality at UNF in the near future.
"We haven't had an overwhelming demand for this type of housing," Boyle said.
Boyle said for now, Housing Operations and Residence Life are focusing on their next phase of dormitory expansion, the new 1,000-bed unit Osprey Fountains.
The apartment and condo complexes that surround campus should better suit the needs of students with families, he said.
The Child Development Research Center on campus echoes Boyle's opinion that students with children have not expressed concern about family housing.
The center's director, Pamela Bell, said she hasn't talked to many parents that are looking for family housing.
"I have maybe talked to one person who was interested," Bell said.
Bell said parents are more concerned with hours the center is open and parking hassles than anything else.
Contact Sarah Diener at news@unfspinnaker.com -- PERMALINK -- TOP OF PAGE