The UCF Report, Vol. 05 No. 33, May 4, 1983

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The UCF Report
Volume 5, Number 33
for the Faculty and Staff
Wednesday, May 4, 1983
Reminiscent president emeritus
This generous smile on the face of
the university's founding president,
Charles N. Millican, greeted the 1,100
spring graduates who attended Friday
morning's ceremonies on the lawn
between the HFA and Education
buildings.
Millican's reminiscences of that first
decade, and his urgings to help bring
to UCF higher educational standards
drew a standing ovation from graduates and the audience of more than
4,000 family members and friends,
the first such salute to any UCF graduation speaker.
Smith interim head of Nursing
Frances B. Smith, a member of the
UCF nursing faculty since 1 979, has
been named to head that department
pending the results of a national search
for a permanent chairman. Smith sue-
Summer program
offered minority
high school seniors
Minority high,school seniors interested in attending a summer academic
program at UCF to prepare for college
are asked to contact UCF for details.
This summer will make the fourth
such Equal Opportunity Program at the
university. The six-week program runs
from June 20 through July 29.
Robert Belle (director, Minority Student Services) noted that of the 97 students who have attended EOP in the
past three years, 78 percent are in
college.
The students selected to attend this
summer will take courses in English;
mathematics, science and study skills to
prepare them for entry into regular
university courses in the fall, said
Charles N. Micarelli (dean, Undergraduate Studies).
ceeds Martha Neff, who has returned to
the department faculty.
Smith joined the faculty the first year
students were admitted to the B.S. in
nursing program here. She also has
taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Valencia Community College, Orlando.
Recipient of the 1982-83 Excellence
in Teaching award for the College of
Health, Smith is professionally active at
state and national levels. She is director
of the Florida Nurses Association and
chairs its division of psychiatric mental
health. She also is a member of the
nominating committee of the psychiatric
mental health division of the American
Nurses Association.
She has her B.S.N, degree from UNC
Chapel Hill, the master's in nursing
from the University of Florida, and the
Ed.Dfrom FSU.
The UCF Nursing Department currently enrolls 120 students in the upper
division of the nursing program. Both
R.N.s who wish to complete the B.S.N,
degree, and those who plan to study for
the R.N. are eligible to apply.
An extension of the B.S.N, program
will be implemented at the UCF Brevard
campus this fall.
Ground holes
intrigue new
Sinkhole chief
The newly appointed director of the
Florida Sinkhole Research Institute
brings with him a professional career
full of holes.
Barry Beck has been fascinated by
caves, wells an assorted holes in the
ground since his undergraduate days at
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
In the 17 years since receiving his
B.S. in geology. Beck has added an M.S.
and a Ph.D. from Rice. He is a licensed
professional geologist and until his
recent selection to head the Sinkhole
Institute at UCF, was teaching and
doing research at Georgia Southwestern College.
The 38-year-old director likens sinkholes to floods.
"We can try and stand clear of them
as long as we can, but there is really no
way to stop them," he said.
Beck said a major order of business
for the new institute is to understand
sinkholes, "predicting where and when
they are likely to occur, how to avoid
mishaps, and learning how to engineer
their repair.
Florida insurance Commissioner Bill
Gunter's views on the task ahead for
the new institute are similar. Speaking
in Tallahassee to the institute's advisory
board, he noted: "The Sinkhole
Research Institute ... has a viable and
vital responsibility for the collection,
development and analysis of... data
necessary for the future rating of insurance risks, the development of special
zoning categories, for guiding future
water resource management, and for
guidance in construction activities ..."
Beck is expected to begin his new
duties in early August after relocating
from Americus, GA.
Staff Assembly
next Tuesday
All career service employees are urged
to attend the annual CS Staff Assembly
next Tuesday in the Engineering Auditorium, according to Philip Goree,    .
VP/Business Affairs, who is Staff
Assembly chairman.
At the meeting, which will be from 2
to 3 p.m. May 10, results will be
announced of the winners in the recent
election of Staff Council representatives.
Report's next
issue May 18
The university again is into
another season of summertime
classes and courses. So, too, is
the UCF Report at the point of
moving into its annual biweekly
publication schedule.
Today's issue is the last of the
fall-spring weekly issues until
they are resumed in late August.
The next publication of Report is
May 18 — and every second week
on through most of the summer.
Early submission of copy still is
desired and will receive priority
handling.
BARRY BECK
early August starting date
Inventive prof
works way into
3-ring bind(er)
Frustration was the mother of invention for an engineering professor who
devised a simple and effective method
of filing information in universal 3-ring
binders without punching holes in the
material.
The uses for the clear, plastic adhesive strip, that can be attached to everything from magazines to maps with no
3-hole punching, are "limitless," said K.
K. Chang.
It was Chang, a member of the University of Central Florida faculty since
1977, who found a way to save valuable
information on computer print-outs,
technical papers and the like that often
was obliterated by the omnivorous 3-
hole punch.
"I was very frustrated," Chang said.
"There had to be a way to file things in
3-ring binders without using a punch."
Off-duty experiments led to the simple
plastic strip that can be attached to
material to be filed.
Ashmun Brown, attorney for the university, is just as optimistic over
Chang's invention.
"We really think we have something
here," he declared. He noted that while
it was on display at a technical conference in Orlando, the strip whetted the
interest of entrepreneurs from overseas. Subsequent approval was given to
market the device in France and Israel.
A U.S. patent is pending.
The UCF Small Business Development Center is playing an active role in
assisting Chang find marketable outlets
for the product. Vicki Cribbs, management analyst with the SBDC, said it
would be test-marketed initially at the
campus bookstore. The going price will
be 15 cents. The next outlet, Cribbs
said, most likely will be office supply
wholesalers.
Cribbs added that comments on uses
of the plastic strip will be the subject of
a campus survey to be conducted by the
SBDC this summer.
If the simple plastic strip catches on,
as everyone who has seen and used it
believes it will, the benefit to the university will be considerable, said Brown.
Sales of the device will provide the kind
of financial support needed for other
local projects, from robot research to a
better mousetrap.
Frustration can be good for the soul of
an inventor.