Faculty Senate Vice Chair Sam Terilli is among 31 new Iron Arrow members.

UM News

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (February 18, 2016) — Journalism Professor Sam Terilli was waiting, impatiently, in the School of Communication courtyard Thursday morning for a meeting with a couple of University of Miami trustees and potential donors. They were late and he was ready to leave. He had a class to teach.

But Terilli, the second vice chair of the Faculty Senate and chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Management, would not make it to his class. Instead, he was about to become one of 31 new members inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society. As the procession of solemn society members approached Terilli to tap his shoulder with an iron arrow, present a distinctive Seminole patchwork jacket, and mark his forehead with three stripes, Paul Driscoll, vice dean of the School of Communication, ’fessed up. The courtyard meeting was a complete ruse, and much of Terilli’s day would be consumed by rituals associated with the University’s highest honor and oldest tradition.

“It’s a wonderful honor,” Terilli, the former general counsel for the Miami Herald Publishing Company who joined the faculty in 2003, said. “But right now it’s a little overwhelming. I have a lot of rescheduling to do.”

And so it went across the University last week, when other unsuspecting and often stunned faculty, staff, students, and alumni were lured by phony meetings, fake invitations, and other subterfuge to their own tapping ceremonies for embodying good character, leadership, scholarship, and humility and demonstrating a love of alma mater.

The other Spring 2016 Iron Arrow inductees are:

Farah Barquero

Sophie Braga de Barros

Nicole Chabloz

Leen Dahman

Kayla Derby

Colton Freitas

Brian Goldenberg

Kenneth Goodman

Nika Hosseini

Abdul-Hadi Kaakour

Quinlan Kasal

Aqeel Khanani

Sarah King

Joshua Kronenfeld

Manish Kuchakulla

Adam J. Lawrence

Kara McCormack

Morgan Owens

Jeremy Penn

Matthew Phillips

David T. Poole

Aalekhya Reddam

Janyl Relling

Dennis Scholl

Briana Scott

Jeffrey Sznapstajler

Deandre Tate-Drummer

Albert J. Varon

Stephanie Wagner

David Wyman