CCM vocalist crowned Miss Ohio

Tiffany Haas' coloratura soprano soared and sparkled like the jewels in the crown that would soon proclaim her Miss Ohio 2003. Striving for a Broadway and Metropolitan Opera career, the CCM musical theater student performed "Glitter and Be Gay," a courtesan's mock lament from Leonard Bernstein's comic operetta "Candide."

In addition to the crown, she earned approximately $15,000 in scholarships, a year of speaking engagements and appearances across the state, a talent award from composer and lyricist Marvin Hamlisch and the chance to compete for the Miss America title, where she was a runner-up in the Lifestyle award. Just two years ago, DAAP alumna Heather Renee French Henry wore the Miss America 2000 crown.

Tiffany's platform issue, "Operation Smile: Changing Lives One Smile at a Time," will bolster support for the nonprofit organization that performs reconstructive surgery throughout the world for people born with facial deformities. There is an Operation Smile chapter located in Cincinnati. -- photo/Jim and Jodie McDowell/Miss Ohio Scholarship Program

Links:

Other pageant winners from UC

Miss Ohio Scholarship Program

Nobody won

Nobody won any of Ben Stein's money, but the TV celebrity certainly won the admiration of UC's Class of 2002. The star of Comedy Central's "Win Ben Stein's Money" quiz show gave the June commencement address, hammed it up during a faculty photo shoot and made an unannounced appearance at the student reception hosted by the alumni association afterward.

Valedictorian of his own Yale Law School class, Stein has been a lawyer for Presidents Nixon and Ford, an adjunct university professor, a columnist, an author, an actor (a teacher in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off") and a screenwriter. Now he holds an honorary degree from the University of Cincinnati.

Four others also received honorary degrees that day:

• Michael Barrett, A&S '74, JD '77, former member of the UC Board of Trustees and partner in the Barrett and Weber law firm
• Webster Cavanee, a pioneer in cancer biology and director of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
• Richard Lindner, president and chairman of REL Group, as well as a philanthropist on behalf of children and families
• Joel Wyler, a global entrepreneur, a staunch supporter of UC's Carl H. Lindner Honors-PLUS Program and chairman of Eagle-Picher Industries, Granaria Holdings, Landinvest N.V. and Cocon B.V.

Particularly 'grand' total

UC's best fund-raising year in history, $135.8 million, recently caused the University Foundation to celebrate. The year's triumphs included the university's largest-ever single gift, $62.5 million from the French family trust; Oliver Waddell's $5 million contribution, ranked among UC's top five largest gifts, for a multiple sclerosis center in the Medical Center's Neuroscience Institute; and the A.B. Dolly and Ralph Cohen Foundation's $3.8 million to establish a chair in drama and name the College-Conservatory of Music's Studio Theater.

Link:

University of Cincinnati Foundation

Underground Railroad depot at UC

Connecting UC to the $110 million National Underground Railroad Freedom Center was natural for a museum dedicated to education about freedom and for an educational institution whose mission espouses community service and "the freedom of intellectual interchange." The fact that the two facilities will be located only a few miles apart reinforced the idea of designating UC a "Freedom Station."

Due to open along the Ohio River in 2004, the center is working with UC to create a digital library of oral-history interviews, maps, photographs, articles and correspondence. Not only can scholars and researchers around the world access it 24 hours a day, but the public can view the collection by visiting University Libraries.

The "Freedom Station" designation places the university in an international network that includes Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery and Abolition, as well as Youngstown State University.

The alliance with the Freedom Center is not the university's only connection to the Underground Railroad:

• The UC Archives and Rare Books Department has the handwritten will, dated 1877, of Cincinnati resident Levi Coffin, "President of the Underground Railroad."
• The UC College of Law edits the Freedom Center Journal.
• Two UC professors, Kevin Burke and Keith Griffler, have won grants to create a documentary on the Underground Railroad and the Ohio River Valley and have formed a partnership with WCET-48 for production and distribution assistance.
  

Links:

National Underground Railroad Freedom Center Web site

Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition

Long time coming

Out of the more than 4,000 degrees awarded in June, no one waited longer for theirs than Robert Brotherton. Rather than marching to "Pomp and Circumstance" in 1943 when he would have graduated, the engineering-ROTC student found himself marching into battle on the island of Iwo Jima.

After the war, he joined his father in business rather than finishing the final credit needed for his degree. This year, his wife and former college sweetheart, Ann LaForce, wrote the college asking if he had waited long enough.

Following the letter's procession through the dean, the provost and the college faculty, the appropriate parties voted to award Brotherton his degree at long last. In May, his family surprised him with the news on his 83rd birthday.

"He cried when we told him," said daughter Roberta. "It was an incredible loving thing my mother did."

Prickly 'Devil' arrives at UC

"Forest Devil," a new piece of public sculpture, is glittering tensely on UC's Library Square. The unusual art form, known as "tensegrity art," shows rigidity, while the parts that form it do not touch, but are held in place by means of tensed wires.

Creator Kenneth Snelson, considered the father of tensegrity art, carefully guided the sculpture's reassembly last spring with the assistance of students from the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. This latest addition to UC's outdoor sculpture gardens was originally created in 1975 and has been exhibited in Berlin, Chicago and New York City.

Link:

Kenneth Snelson's Web site

Medical research nets $5 mil

The thinnest and most delicate tissue has delivered a hard-hitting impact upon UC's research community. Scientists in John Cuppoletti's medical lab are working to better understand how proteins travel through membranes -- a discovery that may lead to significant advances on cystic fibrosis, cardiac disease and neurological disorders. The interdisciplinary research attracted a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.

In a separate lab run by Sun-Tak Hwang and William Krantz, an entire field of discovery revolves around membrane technology. The National Science Foundation awarded $250,000 this year to UC to become a site for the Center for Membrane Applied Science and Technology.

The goal is to develop biomedical applications, such as artificial kidneys. Past breakthroughs in membrane research allowed development of contact lenses, the artificial lung machine and controlled-release medications, such as the nicotine patch.

Big splash for cash

DAAP's Amy Ferrell employed the classic Superman technique on her chilly slide across Sigma Sigma Commons in May. Though the temperatures didn't make it out of the 50s, fraternity and sorority students easily outdid last year's fund-raising totals at the Greek Games, which featured races, tug of war and a homemade Slip 'n Slide.

Chubby double

Obesity research at UC has taken a new turn, one that may not totally allay fears of human cloning, but one that certainly makes it less attractive in some circles.

Associate professor Randall Sakai and his colleagues at the UC College of Medicine Obesity Research Center have published the first documented research linking cloning and obesity. Their report, published in Nature Medicine last spring, shows cloned mice are prone to adult-onset obesity.

Ian Wilmut, a key member of the team that generated Dolly the sheep, the first clone, wrote in an accompanying article that detailed observations of clones are "important before large-scale use of the technology in medicine" can take place.

Evening College retires

Discovering that your college had been dissolved was a little unsettling for students returning to the College of Evening and Continuing Education this year. The university, however, assured students that their degree programs remained in place, just transported elsewhere -- all part of an ongoing effort to serve students better.

The reorganization lies among UC's largest changes to academic programs in a hundred years. Chief among them, the College of Evening and Continuing Education no longer exists as a separate entity. CECE's programs were merged under other colleges, mostly within the McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. Specific programs within University College have also been realigned under other colleges so that it may focus on becoming the gateway for students to transition into baccalaureate programs.

Goals of the comprehensive reorganization include strengthening A&S by emphasizing liberal arts, streamlining academic programs to reduce duplication and expanding opportunities for all students -- whether under-prepared or well-prepared.

On the way up

When each of these gentlemen announced his latest appointment, the occasion called for more than a hearty slap on the back. Going beyond simple promotions, two were made deans and one a presidential adviser.

• William Martin, M.D., is the new dean of the College of Medicine, the Christian Holmes Professor of Medicine and acting UC senior vice president. For the past 14 years, Martin has worked at the Indiana University School of Medicine, most recently as executive associate dean of clinical affairs and as CEO and president of the school's clinical practice group. His early career includes seven years on the faculty and medical staff of the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota.
• David Devier, the new Clermont College dean, previously served as dean of industrial and engineering technologies at Owens Community College, Toledo, where he built corporate relationships that helped increase employment for graduates. In addition, he taught courses in manufacturing and digital media.
• Robert Herbold, A&S '64, was recently appointed to President Bush's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology, the 22-member council that will address issues such as using technology to fight terrorism and reducing broadband-technology barriers. Herbold is a UC Foundation trustee and the former chief operating officer of Microsoft.

To Broadway and back again

In the last few months, the bright lights of Broadway have welcomed new CCM alumni to its boards, shone with particular brilliance on one performer and even followed a Tony-winning alumnus back to UC where he premiered a brand new show.

Stephen Flaherty, CCM '82, and his lyricist partner Lynn Ahrens created their first musical revue at the suggestion of CCM drama chair Richard Hess, MFA (CCM) ’93, who directed the college's Hot Summer Nights production. "We Tell the Story: The Songs of Ahrens and Flaherty" incorporated tunes from eight shows, including the Tony-winning "Ragtime" and the animated movie "Anastasia"; merged numbers from different plays into new songs; turned solos into duets; gave a sneak preview of the team's "A Man of No Importance," which has since premiered at New York City's Lincoln Center; and featured never-heard-before songs that had been cut from original productions.

Being involved with the revue's birth was "like creating a new show," Hess says. "And it was nostalgic for Stephen because the first show he wrote as a student was a musical review that premiered at CCM 20 years ago."

While in town, Flaherty not only spent time coaching CCM students individually, but also attracted Jake Heggie, the composer of the opera "Dead Man Walking," and renowned mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade to a performance. Both were so impressed that they came back to tour the college the next day.

Attracting attention was also an admirable achievement for Justin Bohon, CCM '00, whom the Astaire Awards named Best Male Dancer in May and who received nominations from both the Outer Critics Circle Awards and the Drama Desk Awards for his role as Will Parker in "Oklahoma!"

This summer, two '99 CCM classmates officially joined the ranks of Broadway alumni. After recording the Off-Broadway cast album of "Godspell" and doing backup vocals for Michael Jackson's 30th anniversary concert, Shoshana Bean is playing Shelley in "Hairspray," and Sara Gettelfinger is a courtesan in the first Broadway revival of "The Boys from Syracuse."

Back in Cincinnati, excitement has been mounting over Lee Roy Reams returning to perform at the Aronoff Center when "The Producers" recently stopped on its first national tour. Hailed by the New York Times as "Broadway's song and dance man nonpareil," Reams, CCM '64, MA (CCM) '82, Hon. Doc. '98, is appearing in the role of Roger De Bris through Nov. 10.

On a final note, Matt Bogart, CCM '94, who was in the Broadway company of Elton John's "Aida" over the summer, released his first solo musical theater record, "Matt Bogart -- Simple Song" last month.

Get your slimy coils off the table and
... take smaller bitessssss

Taking smaller bites at the dinner table may be polite behavior for humans, but not for snakes. Reptiles have only one way of eating -- a giant gulp at a time.

Or so we thought. Imagine the world's surprise when a UC researcher discovered a tropical serpent that politely tears its prey into bite-size pieces.

OK. Maybe "politely" is going overboard, but biologist Bruce Jayne has a video tape to prove that two species of Singapore snakes, Fordonia leucobalia and Gerarda prevostiana, capture their prey (crabs), coil around it and tear it apart.

"Most snakes are limited to prey they can swallow whole," Jayne says. "It's a little mind-boggling, but prey size limits must be rethought. We don't know what the upper limit is now."

Bruce C. Jayne Web site

Student efforts lead the world, the state

Winning is never easy, but it certainly looks that way if you have the spirit, talent and work ethic of students who recently took top honors in international and statewide competitions.

• In June, a Distinctive Merit certificate from New York's Art Directors Club went to seniors in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning for "The Dirt on Midea," an interactive CD-ROM virtual reality tour of life in an ancient Greek village (above). "Midea" was selected from among 13,000 submissions from 50 countries in the international professional show, which is still exhibiting in the U.S., Europe, South America and Asia. Last year, the DAAP project topped hundreds of entrants and won the Columbus International Film and Video Festival's Chris Award, its highest honor.
  
• Ohio's smartest radiologic technology students come from Raymond Walters College. UC's radiology club members defeated 14 other student teams from across the state at a student quiz bowl sponsored by the Ohio Society of Radiologic Technologists at the end of last school year.
  
• The author of Ohio's best history dissertation is Sanjam Ahluwalia, PhD (A&S) '01, a native of India who teaches women's studies courses, world history and Asian women's history, gender and nationalism at Northern Arizona University. The Ohio Academy of History conferred its 2002 award for "Controlling Births, Policing Sexualities: History of Birth Control in Colonial India, 1871-1946."

See the light

Chemistry professor William Connick can make photons -- single particles of light -- work twice as hard as scientists thought they could, and the National Science Foundation is rewarding his creativity with a prestigious CAREER Award for promising young faculty. This breakthrough has several possible applications, such as easier conversion of nitrogen into ammonia for fertilizer and what Connick calls "the holy grail of the future," splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. Last year, the chemist was the first UC researcher to receive a Beckman Young Investigator Award for his photon energy research.

Link:

Connick's 'light touch' earns NSF CAREER award

Tanks for helping

Ten dollars at a time, CBA Honors-PLUS student Regina Schneider hopes to raise $7,000 for Women Helping Women, a local crisis intervention agency. She and DAAP design student Jaleen Francois created original tank-style shirts with an "Every 45 Seconds" logo, to increase awareness of sexual assault.

Photo/Dottie Stover

Rebuilding 'Ground Zero'

Preliminary plans for rebuilding the 16-acre grounds of the World Trade Center (above) are being developed by UC alumnus Richard Blinder's architectural and planning firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Blinder, DAAP '59, is known for his work restoring Ellis Island, New York's Grand Central Terminal and the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on Broadway.

Chosen from proposals submitted by groups representing more than 90 architectural, engineering and planning firms, Blinder's group is working with a transportation consultant to plan land uses, including retail space, commercial office towers and several acres devoted to a memorial -- for both the 2,823 victims of Sept. 11, as well as the six who died in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and whose memorial was destroyed.

Selected by the governor's Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the team has been meeting with victims' families, area residents, business owners and the general public to develop a master plan during the first half of next year. Occupancy will not occur before 2005.

Link:

Beyer Blinder Belle Web site