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.

Eduardo Alfonso, left, and Terrence O’Brien toast Bascom Palmer’s 50th anniversary with other gala attendees.

Hundreds of guests attended Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s 50th anniversary gala on March 10 at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, where they celebrated the “Evening of Vision” theme.

Before a night of socializing, dining, and dancing, Bascom Palmer Director Eduardo C. Alfonso, who is also professor and chair of ophthalmology, highlighted the institute’s impressive history, crediting founding chairman Edward W.D. Norton for establishing the institute’s ongoing dedication to superior patient care, innovative vision research, and outstanding education and training programs. Read the full story

Elizabeth Anderson, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Rawls Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan, will present “Democracy, Public Policy, & Lay Assessments of Scientific Testimony” on Friday, March 30 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Memorial Building, Room 110.

Anderson earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1987 and previously taught at Swarthmore College. She is the author of Value in Ethics and Economics (Harvard UP, 1993), The Imperative of Integration (Princeton UP, 2010), and over 60 articles in journals of philosophy, law, and economics. She has written extensively on issues of equality, race, and antidiscrimination law, the ethical limitations of the market, the interaction of facts and values in social science research, and the intersection of democratic theory and social epistemology. She is currently working on a history of egalitarianism. Her research focuses on the philosophy of logic and language. For more information, visit www.miami.edu/phi or call 305 284-4757.

The School of Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning, in partnership with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, will host a dialogue on the consequences, challenges, and ethics of current school reform. The event will take place on Friday, March 30 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Storer Auditorium at the School of Business Administration.

Alfie Kohn, noted writer and speaker on human behavior, education, and parenting, will speak. He will be joined by Maria de Armas and Nikolai Vitti, assistant superintendents, Miami Dade County Schools; Wendy Morrison-Cavendish, UM School of Education assistant professor; and UM doctoral students Andrea Adelman and Xuchilt Perez.

The forum is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to Laurie McDonald at 305-284-6119 or [email protected].

Colin McGinn, professor of philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences, will present “The Science of Philosophy” on Thursday, March 29 from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. at the University Center, Room 241.

McGinn joined the UM philosophy department in 2006, having taught previously at the University of London, University of Oxford, and Rutgers University. He was the recipient of the John Locke Prize at Oxford University in 1973. His research interests are in the philosophy of mind, philosophy of body, philosophy of language, philosophical logic, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of physics, philosophy of film and literature, ethics, metaphilosophy, philosophy of sport, and Wittgenstein. He is the author of 20 books, including Mental Content (Blackwell, 1989), The Problem of Consciousness (Blackwell, 1991), The Character of Mind (Oxford 1997), Ethics, Evil and Fiction (Oxford 1997), The Mysterious Flame (Basic Books, 1999), Logical Properties (Oxford 2000), Consciousness and Its Objects (Oxford, 2004), Mindsight: Image, Dream, Meaning (Harvard, 2004), and Shakespeare’s Philosophy (Harper, 2006). For more information, visit www.miami.edu/phi or call 305 284-4757.