Taking part in the ribbon cutting ceremony were, from left, Mark Diaz, associate vice president for budget and planning; UM President Donna E. Shalala; Thomas J. LeBlanc, executive vice president and provost; Joe Natoli, senior vice president for business and finance and chief financial officer; Sebastian the Ibis; Chef Rose, owner/operator of GOT Spot Featuring Rose’s Café.

Anxious to sample some of the cuisine from the menu of the University of Miami’s newest dining option, dozens of employees attended the café’s grand opening celebration on March 26, snacking on complimentary cuisine that ranged from mini wraps to small salads. UM officials hope the eatery becomes a popular place for enjoying good food and for making new friends.

“When you come here, I want you to pretend that you’re running for mayor and introduce yourself to each other,” UM President Donna E. Shalala told employees at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for GOT Spot Featuring Rose’s Café.

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Women's Commission Breakfast attendees look on and listen as UM President Donna E. Shalala delivers the keynote address "Words of Wisdom for Women."

When University of Miami president Donna E. Shalala was a young college instructor in the early stages of her higher education career, the chair of the department in which she taught told her she would never be granted tenure and that she had embarrassed her male colleagues by publishing more scholarly works than they had produced combined.

Today, years after her first college presidency, a chancellorship at a Big Ten university, and a stint as the longest-serving U.S. secretary of health and human services in history, President Shalala said she still senses discrimination against women. Read the full story

Speaking to approximately 200 people at the Lowe Art Museum, Cole touched on subjects ranging from being the first African-American woman to serve as president of Spelman College to “playing Sunday school” at her grandparents' home in Jacksonville.

Intensely knowledgeable, compelling, and at times funny, Johnnetta Cole, director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, shared her life’s passion with a University of Miami audience of about 200 on March 23.

In a talk entitled “My Love Affair with Art” at the Lowe Art Museum, Cole touched on subjects ranging from being the first African-American woman to serve as president of Spelman College to “playing Sunday school” at her grandparents’ home in Jacksonville and experiencing first encounters with art via books from the library named for her great grandfather, A.L. Lewis, Florida’s first black millionaire. Read the full story

Excited about the opportunity to attend a Major League Baseball game at the Miami Marlins’ new ballpark in Little Havana, hundreds of University of Miami employees lined up for tickets on all three campuses last week as ticket distribution began for Family Weekend with the Miami Marlins, which takes place April 27-29. On the Coral Gables campus, employees picked up tickets at the Foote University Green, experiencing the new Marlins Park Mobile Headquarters, where fans can sit in the actual seats that have been installed in Marlins Park and see a 3-D view of the field. Billy the Marlin made an appearance. Ticket distribution continues this week. For more on Family Weekend with the Marlins, click here.

Students display their scholarship awards at the Woodson Williams Marshall Association and UM Black Alumni Society Scholarship Reception. Among the those joining the students in the group photo were UM President Donna E. Shalala (front row, fifth from left); School of Education professor Robert F. Moore (back row, far right); Hurricanes linebacker coach Micheal Barrow (front row, left); and Phyllis Tyler, president of the UM Black Alumni Society (front row, far right).

The evening’s more than 120 attendees chuckled as the featured alumni speaker confessed that as a kid growing up in Homestead, Florida, he had a big head, big feet, and a small body. Back then, he added, when he told people his dream—to play football—they laughed at him outright.

But Micheal Barrow, a 1993 alumnus of the University of Miami School of Business Administration, made sure they weren’t laughing long. Read the full story