Former UN Ambassador John R. Bolton, speaking to an audience at the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies last Friday, reiterated his assertion that sanctions against Iran are not the answer to getting the country to abandon what many believe are attempts to develop a nuclear weapons program. Bolton also addressed other topics during a lecture titled “Challenges to the U.S.: Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela.”

His comments came as a team of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency prepared to travel to Iran to probe allegations that the country is laying the groundwork to build a nuclear weapon. Iran has denied the charges, saying its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful purposes.

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced Bolton at last Friday’s lecture, co-hosted by ICCAS and UM’s Cuban Heritage Collection and made possible by the Goizueta Family Foundation.

Prior to his lecture, Benjamin Chavis talks with, from left, students Arlesa Hubbard, co-chair of UM’s 2012 MLK Celebration Committee, and Dara Collins, president of United Black Students, which helped bring Chavis to campus; Renee Dickens Callan, director of Multicultural Student Affairs; and student Yasmin Assar, MLK Committee co-chair.

Much older today but still consumed with a youthful passion for equality and justice, noted civil rights leader Benjamin Chavis Jr. stood behind a podium inside the University of Miami’s Newman Alumni Center on January 18 and recounted for an audience of mostly 19- to 21-year-olds one of the little-known facts that defined the character of Martin Luther King Jr.

So concerned was King that the shoes worn by some protesters on one of his long freedom marches had begun to wear out that he purchased new ones for them, allowing them to continue their trek. Read the full story

As two rows of people in azure T-shirts faced each other in the growing darkness, a young woman arrived to begin coaxing flames from the unlit candles they held.

The woman lighting the candles was Lauren Book, who came to The Rock last Wednesday on the Coral Gables campus to shine a light on the issue of childhood sexual abuse. Read the full story

Mitsunori Ogihara

The University of Miami’s College of Arts and Sciences and the University Libraries have announced that Mitsunori Ogihara has been named associate dean for digital library innovation. He will hold joint appointments in the Center for Computational Science and the College. Also, under an innovative and unique partnership to more closely align library and College of Arts and Sciences digital programs, the Libraries will contract a percentage of Ogihara’s time to lead the UM Virtual Library Program, especially in the digital humanities. Read the full story

Shing-Tung Yau, William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard, addresses attendees of the 2012 McKnight Zame Distinguished Lecture.

A standing-room-only crowd of students, faculty, and string-theory enthusiasts welcomed Fields medalist Shing-Tung Yau to the CAS Gallery on January 17 for the 2012 McKnight-Zame Distinguished Lecture.

Yau, who currently serves as William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard, is one of the most celebrated living mathematicians. His work in algebraic and differential geometry has had a profound influence on important topics in physics including string theory and relativity. Yau’s lecture on his recent book, The Shape of Inner Space, described his groundbreaking mathematical work on the curving of space within a closed vacuum. Read the full story