The event takes place at the Casa Marina Hotel in Jacksonville Beach from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and will provide an early chance to register for the cancer walk Oct. 16 at Seawalk Pavilion. The kick-off also offers a chance to learn about breast cancer and provideS support research on the topic.

The Beaches unit received corporate sponsorship from Tom Bush, St. Vincent’s, Ring Power, The Mayo Clinic and The PGA.

The event will promote Celebrating More Birthdays and will have speakers from the American Cancer Society, the First Coast Beaches volunteer unit and breast cancer survivor Benivia Forester.

Last year, more than 2,000 people participated in the walk. The walk raised over $120,000 last year and organizers.

For more information about the kick-off event, call Michelle Knowles at 904-391-3645 or e-mail her at Michelle.Knowles@cancer.org. The kick-off event is free, but RSVPs are requested.

People gather to support breast cancer awareness in last year's events

In light of the tragic spill, research funding from BP and an increased awareness regarding coastal issues may strengthen biology departments in state universities, said director of coastal biology, Courtney Hackney.

Short Term
BP has dispersed about $10 million for research to the state-funded Florida Institute of Oceanography.

The institute comprises several universities and some non-for-profit research groups and was created to give students field research experience while in college.

The $10 million will fund immediate research to establish a standard for comparison in areas which the oil has yet to affect.

Without baseline data about marine life in areas where oil could spread, scientists would not be able to gauge how severely the oil affects a population.

Baseline data facilitates research and streamlines any future litigation that will arise over the spill.

“For instance, people have said ‘ok, all these populations have been affected by the Exxon Valdez, whereas Exxon said: Well… you don’t know that,’” Gelsleichter said.

In some cases, increasing research opportunities may spill over into the private sector.

“If I get one of these grants, I’ll have to hire extra people. All my students have projects; there’s no body left to work on these kinds of projects,” he said.

Newly created research opportunities will nonetheless be a boon for UNF coastal biology. Students will do about 90% of the research that UNF has proposed to the FIO, Hackney said.

Some schools have committed money to begin research before the FIO distributes grants in a few weeks.

Joe Butler, department chair and biology professor, has already begun research with students in the gulf.

Long Term
Hackney said even a three-month-old deep sea oil geyser can have its silver lining, if only a glint.

“This just brings home the points that the people working on the coast have been saying,” he said. “We don’t know enough about the coast to know what’s there, much less the damage caused by something like a spill.”

With better regulation, the EPA could have prevented the use of oil dispersants, which cause more harm by allowing oil to mix with water and distribute evenly throughout the water table, Hackney said.

If the oil was on the surface, like it was before dispersants were added, it would be easy to calculate the spill’s impact, but scientists do not know enough about the gulf currents to estimate where deep-water oil will travel, he said.

“It’s the unknown part of this that scares us the most,” Hackney said.

As the spill’s long term effects surface, so will more opportunities for funded research.

Gelsleichter expects BP to pump out another $90 million to $100 million for long term research.

He said he plans on teaching a class on environmental toxicology. Students will utilize baseline samples Gelsleichter’s colleagues have collected and toxic samples being collected right now for lab work and to complete research.

Florida State legislators almost disbanded the FIO two years ago, but the spill has brought a renewed awareness and, with that, university funding.

“What you see is like big clumps of like the brownish-reddish oil-like muck. You can walk out on the pier and you can see like big slicks of oil out there. It’s wild,” Dumbacher said.

The spill turned Pensacola Beach into a ghost town. The catastrophe, which started after the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion, hit beach businesses the worst. According to Dumbacher, the hotels in Pensacola are dead. He heard the only people you see in them are reporters, he said.

“There’s no tourists out there. Zero,” he said. “The people living on the beach could smell diesel for like two months, three months.”

Pensacola’s tourism economy has taken a big hit from the spill, but Jacksonville Beach and St. Augustine Beach businesses are benefiting from the decline in western Florida’s business. Many hotels at these beaches are seeing increases in occupancy.

Celeste Kuhar, general manager for the Holiday Inn Hotel at St. Augustine Beach, said they are doing better than last July. She sees a lot more Alabama and Mississippi license plates in the parking lots.

“The oil spill has helped us. The 50-percent down that the gulf coast is experiencing is coming to us.”

Kuhar believes that her hotel is getting its money back after losing business due to wildfires in 1998.

“It’s really too bad that the pain on the gulf coast is our gain, but it was just the opposite with the fires of ‘98.”

Jeff Truhlar, General Manager for the Courtyard Marriott Jacksonville Beach Oceanfront believes there is a direct correlation between the hotel’s four percent increase and the spill. Business is also up by 20 percent from last year at the Casa Marina Hotel, said General Manager Mark Vandeloo.

While many of the larger chain hotels are doing well, the restaurant business is having mixed results. Tom Sprowell, coowner of Campeche Bay Cantina in Jacksonville Beach said overall sales are down by 15 percent.

Sprowell is unsure as to the cause and said it could be a mixture of economic problems as well as the oil spill.

Sharon Mcree, General Manager for Bukkets at Jacksonville Beach, said business is down because of the lack of seafood coming in to their business.

Compared to a few months ago, things are looking better for Pensacola.

Bruce Parris, general manager at The Dock in Pensacola Beach, said cleanup efforts have been very good on the beach and that the beaches are not being closed.

Similarly, Holiday Inn Express front desk clerk Janet Smith said business is getting better and the hotel is frequently sold out.

Dumbacher thinks it is awesome BP capped the leak July 15, but is disappointed in how long it took for them to do so.

“I really feel like they should have stepped it up … it kinda messed up our whole summer,” he said.

John Schrock, a finance junior, went back to see the Blue Angels July 10 in Pensacola beach and said the event was a big success for the area. It included a special concert by Jimmy Buffett which had a large turnout, he said.  Schrock is optimistic about the cleanup, but is worried about the hurricane season’s potential effect on the cleanup process.

“All we need is one hurricane to come in and there’d be oil on almost everybody’s house everywhere,” Schrock said.

When students move away to college certain essentials, such as a laptop and
textbooks are required. For many schools, this list now includes thefamily pet.

In recent years, schools like Eckerd College, Stephens College and MIT have
established living spaces where students can room with their pets.

Although schools allowing pets are beginning to flourish, the University of NorthFlorida has remained steadfast in its pet policies.

Kristin Smith, coordinator of student life at UNF, said the school has never considered
or discussed the idea of pet-friendly residence halls. Smith said there are ahandful of concerns with adopting pet-friendly policies.

“Residence halls are limited in  space, which could create stress on the pet,” Smith said. “There is also the thought of a pet getting loose and not being able to locate it.”

According to UNF pet policy, “With the consent of your roommate(s), the only pet you may
have in your room is a non-aggressive fish. The fish tank may not exceed 10 gallons.”

Failure to comply with student policy can result in a fine and the immediate removal of any petfound living in a dorm.

“Many concerns are centered on health and safety issues such as allergies, room cleaning, and waste disposal/sanitation issues,” Smith said. “There is also the concern of noise ­—
as not all pets are passive in personality — and that could become disruptiveto the overall community.”
UNF and Jacksonville University have similar pet policies. According to JU’s website, “All pets, other than service animals and harmless varieties of fish stored in tanks of 15 gallons or less, are prohibited in and around residential facilities.”

Students who fail to comply with JU’s pet policies may be removed from the residence.

Even though UNF and JU are standing behind their pet policies, colleges throughout the country are beginning to jump on the pet-friendly bandwagon. Schools that aren’t yet may not be far behind.  With the creation of Facebook groups like “Student’s for Pet-Friendly Dorms!” students are showing more
support for the movement.

Critics of pet friendly dorms are concerned with the animals’ welfare.

Although living with pets may provide soothing stress relief it can also cause stress for the pet, said director of development at the Jacksonville Humane Society, Pamela Javins.

“When you have a pet in college it’s all about being able to get back and forth from
classes and social events to care for an animal,” Javins said.

Students need to think about the financial responsibilities of raising a pet as well, Javins said.

No one should plan to bring a pet into their home without taking into consideration their
ability to provide that animal with regular vet care, she said.

“There is also the cost of food,” Javins said. “Cheap food often has a great deal of filler that has no nutritional value”

Stetson University recently joined the pet-friendly movement by adding 36 pet-friendly dorm rooms to its campus. Megan Young, a residential life coordinator at Stetson University, served as the committee chairwoman for Stetson’s new pet-friendly policies.

The idea for the new dorms came from Stetson’s President Wendy Libby, who started a similar pet-friendly program when she was president at Stephens College.

“Our students never imagined it was a possibility for them to live with their pets on campus,” Young said. “Libby was the one who showed interest in the pet halls.”

“Once Libby verbalized it, students jumped on board,” she said.

Young believes there are many advantages to living with a pet in college. She said it gives students a sense of community to live with other students who are also pet owners.

“After a bad day, your pet will be there,” Young said. “Pets are unconditional love and teach students a larger sense of responsibility.”

Even though UNF has expressed no desire to adapt dorms for pet lovers anytime in the future, two large colleges in Florida have already made the transition into the pet-friendly world. It may be a matter of time before more schools across the state join the trend.

No one on campus can account for the disappearance of five punching bags valued at $500 and a boxing ring valued at $2,400 – all of which were stored on the second floor of Hodges Stadium.

Jim Baur, assistant director of campus recreation, called everyone who works in campus recreation and UNF athletics, but nobody has seen the ring or bags, he said.

The equipment in question was last seen April 1, and was reported missing by Baur on June 23 when the UNF boxing club notified him the equipment was missing.

“At this point, we can’t call it stolen, because the police haven’t finished their investigation,” Baur said.

UPD has not cleared the case, but with no leads it has suspended the investigation.

“There’s been no communication between us and them,” Baur said.

According to campus recreation director Becky Purser, the ring and punching bags – which were funded by Student Government, and therefor students’ Activity & Service fees – resided in the UNF arena until the fire marshal deemed the ring’s placement hazardous two years ago.

Since then, Hodges Stadium has been the boxing club’s de facto home, but in April the university told the boxing club they could no longer practice in the stadium due to mounting concerns about safety, Purser said.

The club disassembled the ring and left it and the punching bags beneath a tarp on the second floor of the stadium.

The ring takes about two hours to dismantle, and once the boxing club installed it in the stadium, it stayed installed until they were told to find a new practice space in April. Thieves would have had a lot of trouble stealing it if it was assembled, Baur said.

The ring went missing anywhere between one day to two months after it was dismantled. But, if someone stole it, Purser doesn’t think it was an inside job, she said.

“[The boxing club is] affiliated with other boxers around town and we just think maybe somebody knew about it and thought, ‘Iv’e got a garage that would look nice in’,” Purser said.

While there are doors which lead inside the stadium building, it is an open-air structure and the walls preventing trespassing are about seven feet tall in the lowest places. The building’s doors and elevator are locked at night, but the wall is easily scalable, Baur said.

Since the time of the theft is unknown, locks may not have even played a factor.

Similarly, the gates leading to the boxing equipment were locked, but the fence is not secured at the bottom and the perpetrators probably lifted the fence and crawled under, Baur said.

The Spinnaker staff was able to access the spot where the equipment was stored in about 5 minutes.

The area has not been under construction recently, nor was it used to host any events, which may rule out the possibility that the equipment was moved or accidentally disposed of, Purser said.

There are no cameras in the back of the building, where access is easiest, and there are a number of items such as grills and large coolers which remain on the stadium’s second floor.

Despite grim prospects, campus recreation hasn’t given up hope of recovering the stolen goods.

“If [someone] posts it on Cragslist, we’ll find you, casue I’m searching every day,” Baur said.

“I am really, really pleased with the court’s decision,”  said Tayeb Giuma, a former electrical engineering professor.

Giuma said he celebrated his victory and enjoys the relief.

“I’m going to soak it up and enjoy it,” he said.

Giuma was arrested Sept. 25 and charged with battery after hitting his gazebo contractor, Dustin Brown, with a piece of wood outside Giuma’s Queens Harbour home.

County Judge Roberto Arias withheld adjudication.

A neighbor’s security camera shows Giuma and Dustin Brown in a physical altercation.

But Giuma has to meet the demands of the judge. He must undergo 12 months of probation and some psychological evaluation.

Depite his recent victory in the criminal courts, Giuma is still fighting for his UNF job.

Giuma has an ongoing appeal with UNF over his recent termination.

“The Univesity did me wrong,” he said.

Giuma’s attorney, Tallahassee-based Mark Levine, said the results of the criminal case with either help their case or have no effect.

Giuma’s arbitration is scheduled for mid-October and lasts about four days. After this, a decision on Giuma’s future will come about 30 to 60 days later.

“It is highly unlikely there will be an appeal either way,” Levine said.

Giuma said his attitude hasn’t changed since the very beginning.

“I’m still winning,” he said.

Despite his dissatisfaction with the university, Giuma still looks forward to coming back and teaching.

“I would love to go back to UNF,” Giuma said.

E-mail Josh Gore at editor@unfspinnaker.com

The technology fee will increase tuition by five percent per credit hour, which is equivalent to $4.78 per credit hour.

The fee was presented to the BOT after the Board of Governors did not allow the Academic Enhancement Fee –approved at the BOT meeting May 27- to be chosen for approval. The BOG wished to establish a regulatory process before accepting new fees.

The technology fee does not have to go through the BOG in order to be approved. Florida Statute 1009.24, which discusses student fees, previously allocated a spot for a technology fee that could be up to five percent per credit hour.

The BOT Chair Bruce Taylor said at the meeting in June that this is a necessary fee to provide extra funding to the university’s work plan. The fee will generate an estimated $1,883,320 for improvements.

Vice president of administration and finance Shari Shuman said the fee was something the university needed and wants to make sure the improvements remain student-oriented.

“One of the things we really wanna do with the help desk is improve the quality of service,” Shuman said.

The funds collected through the technology fee will be used to improve the student help desk. These improvements may include increased hours and more available staff members. Shuman said the improvements to the help desk would prove especially beneficial for students taking distance learning courses.

Student Body President Sitou Byll-Cataria expressed confidence in the technology fee at the BOT meeting in June and said he is looking forward to having more jobs for students on campus through improvements to the help desk.

“In order to have something, we need to sacrifice something else,” Byll-Cataria said.

Vice President Chief of Staff Tom Serwatka presented the fee at the meeting in June and said software packages would benefit the students and get rid of outdated software and technology in the classrooms.

“What was new technology five years ago is outdated technology today,” Serwatka said. “There’s new technology like SMART boards and things like that and they’re floating around and we don’t have them on our campus yet.”

Distance Learning will receive significant improvements from the fee, including more available courses and expanded software licenses. Assistant Vice President and Chief Information Officer Lance Taylor said the university would need more servers to support any changes or additions made to distance learning.

“I think that there is a demand by students to not have to come to a physical classroom for every class that they take,” Taylor said. “There’s got to be a change in the way we deliver classes.”

Improved wireless Internet is a topic Taylor said the university is looking into. As more students gain better wireless technology such as laptops and smart phones, the wireless Internet on campus is going to need to improve along with the presence of higher technology. Taylor said the improvements may include installing more wireless access points and determining the hot spots on campus.

“Wireless technologies are improving all the time and so we can improve the technology,” Taylor said.

Staff Writer

A group of UNF electrical engineering students beat six competing universities to win first-place at the 7^th annual Robotic Lawn mower Competition.

The competition, held June 3 through June 5 in Beavercreek, Ohio, acts as an opportunity for college students to test their ability to design and operate a robotic unmanned lawn mower using technology to direct the lawn mower. This was UNF’s first time participating in the competition and received a $2,000 first-time entry grant and will help with the group’s travel fund.

The team of UNF students included seniors Pedro Sierra-Barrita, Rasem Mourad, Anna Nguyen, Ganna Kudrey Lewis and Pedro Duarte. Kevin Anderson, a UNF alumnus, acted as an alumni advisor. Assistant Professor Dr. Alan Harris acted as the team’s faculty advisor.

The group met once a week from August 2009 up until the competition in June 2010 to work on creating the autonomous lawn mower. The team decided to work on the lawn mower for their Senior Design project after Nguyen found out about the competition online.

“I figured that robotics would be something that’s interesting to me and would benefit the rest of the team members,” Nguyen said.

The group was happy that they were able to win the competition on their first attempt.

“I think we [were] probably considered the underdogs,” Sierra-Barrita said. “We never competed before [and] our budget was lower than most other universities that were participating that have been doing it for more than one year.”

The group’s lawn mower, named “The Green Reaper,” includes a variety of different technologies to make it work. The lawn mower includes a sensing module, line detection programming, wheels and a digital compass for orientation. The mower’s uses DC batteries for power and the base of the lawnmower is a Black and Decker cordless lawn mower.

Harris commended the group for their dedication to making sure the lawn mower was completed and worked well.

“I think they did a really good job when they went up there,” Harris said. “They worked really hard up there to adjust to the different conditions being a completely different environment than Florida and really came together and did a really good job.”

Harris plans to continue the school’s involvement in the competition through upcoming courses and programs through the engineering department. Harris also hopes to grab some corporate sponsorship for future endeavors with the next year’s team.

Dr. David Jaffee is one of five American educators who will be traveling to Hong Kong as a Fulbright scholar and visiting professor. The five scholars will spend 10 months in Hong Kong, and each will be placed at a different university.

The work Jaffee will be participating in is unique from past Fulbright scholars, because he and the other American experts will help Hong Kong develop a general education program. The universities’ administrations want students to benefit from general education programs which will expose them to a broad range of disciplines. By enabling a general education program, Hong Kong universities will transform from three-year degree programs to four-year degree programs. The fourth year will be the general education program.

Jaffee will be placed at City University of Hong Kong in Kowloon. He will work with faculty and staff to develop the teaching techniques and courses for the Hong Kong universities’ general education programs in 2012.

Jaffee said he was notified about the selection in February and was honored. He said the scholarship is quite competitive, and he is excited for the learning opportunity.

“It will be interesting for me as a sociologist to observe how decisions are made and policies are developed in a different environment,” Jaffee said.

Jaffee will also work with the applied social studies department at City University of Hong Kong. Within this department, there are sociology courses.

Jaffee has been in an administrative position at UNF since spring 2000. He served as director of Faculty Enhancement Center for two years and also member of sociology department. Since 2006, he has been director of undergraduate studies in academic affairs department. After his tenure as director of Faulty Enhancement Center, he moved to College of Arts and Sciences as associate dean. One year he was interim dean of COAS. In fall 2010, he will be appointed as a member of the faculty in the sociology department.