The UCF Report, Vol. 07 No. 17, November 21, 1986

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University of Central Florida
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The UCF Report
Volume 7 Number 17
For Faculty & Staff
November 21, 1984
Athletic Facility Phase II bids too high for budget
All seven bids received on Nov. 1 5 for
construction of the Athletic Facility
Phase II came in higheF than funds
available.
University project manager Dick
Lavender said the project will go back to
the architects, Barrett Daffin and Carlan
Inc. to find a way to get a bid in line
with money allocated.
Atlantic Central Corp., Longwood,
was apparent low bidder at $1,539,000
base. The company's add-on alternatives included $8,000 for team, lockers
and $271,400 for canopy, plaza, planter
wall, landscaping, sodding, sprinkler
system, parking, patio wall, electrical,
plumbing and incidental demolition to
complete.
• Lavender informed bidders after the
opening that the maximum in the project for building is $1,230,776.
Atlantic's base bid was $90,000
lower than the next lowest, submitted
by Girdley Construction Co., Orlando.
The 20,000 square foot Phase II is
designed to go between the 1 7,000
square foot Phase I and the tennis
courts to the southwest.
Phase II will serve varsity teams of an
expanded athletic program.
Teacher of Russian brings
inside knowledge to class
A seat at UCF
Honorarily speaking, Hizzoner Bill Frederick, earned the rocker,
emblem and all, from UCF Alumni Association and Foundation for
his interest in and support of the University. Actually, says Pat
Powers, coordinator of development and alumni affairs, shown
introducing the useful tribute to Frederick, the rocker occupies a
place beside the mayor's desk in Orlando city hall.
Nina Efimov never ceases to be
amazed at the way most Americans she
knows view foreign languages. While
some shudder at the thought of learning
another language, others shrug their
shoulders, and ask "What for?''
It's the "what for" that puzzles the
35-year-old former translator at the
Ministry of Culture in Moscow, who
arrived in the U.S. three years ago and
Dean Miller
to retire
next May
C. C. Mi'ler, dean of the College of
Education since 1967, announced last
week he will take early retirement as of
May 31. 1985.
The date he chose is the last under
the present law that allows retiring
faculty to draw retirement and continue
to work for the state. He said he would
like to continue as a faculty member,
teaching one semester per year for the
next five years.
The early notice was to give the University time for an orderly transition.
Miller followed the first president of
the University, Charles Millican, from
the University of South Florida where
he worked seven years. He spent
another seven years on faculty of Florida State, where he earned his
doctorate.
A native of Pennsylvania, Miller got
his BA and MEd from Penn State, then
taught high school six years at Hershey.
African nation
seeks exchange
Somalian Ambassador A. Mohamoud
Abubaker said at UCF Monday that he
wants to get American university educators to teach in English in his country.
Speaking in Arabic through a U.S.
State Department interpreter, Abubaker
was making one of many State
Department-sponsored stops in the U.S.
His campus visit was coordinated by
Joan Johnson-Freese, director of the
International Studies Center, who
responded that she is interested in a
possible exchange program with the
African nation that lies between Ethiopia and the Indian Ocean.
Abubaker said his country's agrarian
economy feels the effects of Africa's
prolonged rain scarcity, but does not
have the starvation problem of its Ethiopian neighbor.
is now teaching conversational Russian
at UCF.
She hopes that some of her students
will be able to dispel the assumption in
other corners of the world that Americans have little or no interest in learning foreign languages.
"It takes dedication to learn any foreign language, and Russian certainly is
as difficult as any other," said Karl-
Heinrich Barsch, who teaches French
and Russian at the University, and oversees the Soviet area study program as
well. "We are extremely fortunate to
have a specialist like Nina, who has
been trained in language training," he
explained.
Before she moved to the U.S., Nina
taught Russian privately in Bucharest,
Rumania, worked there as a translator,
and earlier taught Rumanian at Moscow's Komsomol University. It was in
Bucharest that she met her husband,
Vassily, a linguist in his own right who
is fluent in six languages and familiar
with an additional five. The couple and
their daughter, Anastasia, 5, are living
in Winter Park, which has been home
since their arrival in Central Florida
under the sponsorship of the World
Council of Churches. Their marriage in
Rumania followed a six-year wait for
governmental approval, she noted.
Under Rumanian law — "a silent law,
you'd call it" — foreigners are not permitted to teach in public schools or universities, Nina said. "I competed continually for jobs and still could not teach
except privately." She holds a master's
degree in Russian and Rumanian languages from the University of
Bucharest.
"I like very much to teach and I was
very happy to be able to teach at the
university level. The students are more
mature and are more determined to
learn," she observed. So determined
are some, Barsch remarked, that they
signed-up for Russian simply to be able
to read Dostoyevsky. "That's dedication," he laughed.
In addition to her classroom obligations, Nina is also secretary of the Rus-
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