Barry University has been included in three lists ranking its diversity at the national level by Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine. The rankings, published in the July 10, 2008 issue, place Barry at 82nd in the country for the total number of minority master’s graduates, 40th for Hispanic master’s degrees awarded and 45th for Hispanic doctoral degrees awarded.
Barry University is ranked No. 1 in the Campus Ethnic Diversity category for universities in the South offering master’s programs, according to the 2007 U.S. News & World Report college ratings.

Barry was federally designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution in May 2006 (applicable through 2011).

According to Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, in granting degrees to Hispanic students in the United States, Barry ranks:
Number one for first professional degrees in podiatry
Number two for bachelor’s degrees in education
Number two for bachelor’s degrees in public administration
Number six for bachelor’s degrees in computer science
Number nine for bachelor’s degrees in health sciences

During Spring Break (March 2-8) more than 15 students travelled from Barry University in Miami Shores to New Orleans, where they helped gut St. Mary’s Academy High School, which was flooded during Hurricane Katrina and is now scheduled to be demolished. The students also volunteered with the Episcopal Diocese of New Orleans helping to clean, and in some cases gut homes scheduled for demolition, in the Lower Ninth Ward.

A group of nine Barry University students spent their spring break performing community service in Atlanta, volunteering for two days at the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, which is home to more than 40 children, all under the age of five. Many of these children come from families headed by a single-mother and have become homeless as the result of domestic violence. The shelter assists these families by providing clothing, career assistance and temporary housing.

The Alumni Relations Office has officially started their student alumni program with the addition of FAB (Future Alumni of Barry) and the Alumni Ambassadors. The purpose of the two groups is to engage the students to be a part of the Alumni Association while they are still here on campus - to start a lifelong partnership with them before graduation.

Barry University opened its contemporary Andy Gato Gallery in September. The 4,100-square-foot gallery is named in honor of the late Andy Gato, co-owner of the Miami-based Farrey’s Lighting, who first became actively involved with the university in 2006. The gallery will house student and faculty exhibitions throughout the school year, with a section of it serving as a student lounge area with around-the-clock access.

Dr. Aphrodite Alexandrakis, a professor of philosophy and humanities, received the prestigious Fulbright Scholar Award for her proposed research on “Plato’s Notion of Beauty and Egyptian Painting.” During a four-month stay in Cairo, Alexandrakis will be studying Plato’s references to Egyptian painting and arts in order to analyze and formulate a new theory on Plato’s use of the formal elements and approach to beauty and the arts. She will also give lectures on ancient Greek aesthetics to faculty and students at the University of Helwan in Cairo.

Dr. Zuzana Zajickova, assistant professor of physical sciences, received a grant from the Department of Energy. Zajickova’s grant provides funds for her summer appointment at the Molecular Foundry with additional funding for three Barry undergraduates to accompany her. Zajickova and her research students will conduct research on monolithic media for use and application in high performance liquid chromatography.

The Barry University choir performed an all-Hispanic production at Carnegie Hall on in April. The performance featured zarzuelas (a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes) from “Maria La O” and “Cecilia Valdes.” The pieces were arranged specifically for the event by Grammy-nominee Alfredo Munar.

Six Barry University communication students are spending this semester producing their own public affairs TV show. The show, “Community Crossroads,” airs Saturdays at 6 a.m. on iNetwork [formerly Pax Television]. Barry is the only university with a student-produced program that broadcasts to three major television markets -- Miami, West Palm, and Tampa. With the exception of a faculty member who oversees their work and hosts the show, the students are entirely responsible for the 30-minute public affairs interview show. In the past, topics included child abuse, AIDS awareness, college alcohol-abuse, spirituality, hip-hop as a culture, and civility.

The Andreas School of Business at Barry University is ranked No. 3 in business schools that provide the greatest opportunity to minority students in Princeton Review’s “Best 290 Business Schools.” The No. 3 ranking in the 2008 edition of Princeton Review’s annual business school guidebook puts Barry behind only Howard University and the University of Houston –Victoria in schools that afford the greatest opportunity to minority students. It also marks an improvement from last year’s No. 4 ranking.

Out of 352 business schools in the United States, Barry University’s Andreas School of Business is ranked No. 47, according to the Social Science Research Network, which bases their finding on the number of downloads from its Web site. The ranking puts Barry in the top 13.4 percent of business schools in the country. Barry ranked higher than other notable universities in Florida, including the University of Miami, Florida International University and Florida Atlantic University. Internationally, BU was ranked No. 61 out of 800 business schools around the world, placing it in the top 7.6 percent of all international schools monitored, along with other notable business schools from around the world, including Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, Columbia University, Cornell University, University of London, University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge.

The Barry University chapter of the Financial Management Association has earned the Silver NHS Membership Development Award for the 2007 – 2008 academic year. The award is given to fewer than five percent of all FMA chapters worldwide.

The Trial Team won the American Bar Association (ABA) national championship in Chicago in March.

Barry Law School graduates earned the highest first-time Florida Bar passage rate in the school’s history (80 percent based on February 2008 results). Barry’s passage rate is four percent above the state average exceeded that of the University of Miami (78.9), Stetson University (76.1), St. Thomas University (73.3), Florida International University (78.9), and Florida A&M University (59.3).

For the third consecutive year, the American Bar Association (ABA) has awarded Barry University School of Law its National Law Student Division Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program Award. The IRS recognized the Barry VITA program as the fastest growing in Central Florida and has presented Barry with two Community Service Leadership Awards. In its first year the program had 15 volunteers, served more than 90 low to moderate income taxpayers and was applauded by the IRS for the lowest error rate of any new site in the region.

In February, the Law School hosted the Earth Jurisprudence Symposium, the first of its kind in the United States. The symposium titled, “Framing an Earth Jurisprudence for a Planet in Peril” explored the need to re-envision law from an earth-centered perspective, particularly in light of increasing concern about climate change.

Dean Leticia Diaz won the inaugural Hispanic Women Who Make the Difference Award. ImpreMedia, which owns the Hispanic newspaper LaPrensa, honored Diaz with the award in the category for “Outstanding 2008 Hispanic Female in the Legal Field.” The Hispanic Women Who Make the Difference Award recognizes the outstanding contributions of Hispanic women in the Central Florida area in their respective fields and their active involvement in the Hispanic community.

In March, Barry’s Moot Court Team finish second at the 2008 Domenick L. Gabrielli National Family Law Moot Court Competition in Albany, New York.

For the first time in the history of Barry’s Moot Court program, the two Barry teams advanced to the sweet 16 of the American Bar Association National Competition held in March in Washington, D.C.

In July of 2007, the Dwayne O. Andreas of Law School received a $778,000 three-year grant from the Eckerd Family Foundation to start a Juvenile Justice Center at its campus in Orlando. The Center will train lawyers and law students to represent children accused of crimes in Florida’s juvenile delinquency system. The Juvenile Justice Center, which will be a part of the Law School’s clinical programs, will work with juvenile defenders around the state and provide continuous training and consultations with defender offices to improve the provision of representation of children.

In February, a group of 12 individuals became the first to graduate from Barry University’s new Emergency Medical Technology Certificate Program, which began in the fall of 2007. The Florida Department of Health’s Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) approved the program, which is offered through Barry’s School of Adult and Continuing Education and gives students the opportunity to earn a certificate as an emergency medical technician (EMT).

Faculty and staff from Barry University’s School of Podiatric Medicine and the Physician Assistant Program moved into the Center for Community Health and Minority in July. The new facility will serve more than 400 health professional students, including students from the College of Health Sciences. With its three-phase development plan, the center will house classroom, research and clinical facilities used to focus on diseases that adversely affect minority and underserved communities. It will also facilitate the development of educational programs for the prevention, treatment and management of these diseases.

The amount of charitable care rendered at the Barry University Foot and Ankle Institutes has increased dramatically since 1987. In 1987, charitable care totaled $40,000, in 1996 it equaled $492,156, and in 2006 it reached $1,219,874. The institutes provide vital podiatric primary care to tens of thousands of Miami’s medically underserved residents.

In the spirit of the Easter holiday and Holy Week, more than 20 students and podiatric physicians from Barry University’s School of Podiatric Medicine provided foot care and washed the feet of the homeless at the Miami Rescue Mission/Broward Outreach Center’s second annual “Thanksgiving in March” event. More than 1,000 people showed up to the event, which has proven to be enormously popular, according to Marilyn Brummitt, director of community development for Miami Rescue Mission, Inc/Broward Outreach Centers.

Fifty-two flights have been made and more than 5,000 crippled children in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico have received medical treatment, including life-altering surgeries as a result of the Yucatan Project at Barry University. More than 75 physicians and 50 residents have volunteered over 20,000 hours to the project, which marked its 10th year of operation in November of 2006 at a celebration in Merida, Mexico.

Among the colleges of podiatric medicine, Barry has the highest proportion of degrees awarded to women and the highest proportion of degrees awarded to minorities. Barry’s School of Podiatric Medicine graduates the highest number of Hispanic podiatrists among the nine accredited podiatric colleges in the country.

The Barry University Physician Assistant Program (BUPAP) celebrated its 10th anniversary in December at a joint reception at both the Miami Shores and St. Petersburg, Fla., campuses. Since the inception of the program in 1997, the BUPAP has graduated more than 300 physician assistants and has received two three-year Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Bureau of Health Professions grants of nearly $1 million for training PA students in medically underserved areas.

The BU Student Nurses Association is the second largest in the state. Students currently hold three key state offices, including President.

A team of three BU nursing faculty were chosen to participate in Duke University’s federally funded Technology Integration Program for Nursing Education and Practice. The BU team shared strategies to incorporate multicultural health in the use of clinical simulation with teams from across the country.

The School of Social Work operates the Office of the Public Guardian in Broward County. Public guardians are appointed by the court to individuals in need of assistance who do not have anyone to care or make decisions for them and who lack the financial means to pay someone, such as an attorney, to help them do so. There are 16 local public guardian programs in 23 of Florida’s 67 counties, but the Broward office is the only one in the state and one of two in the country to be run by a school of social work at a university. Staff members and interns from the School of Social Work currently serve more than 200 indigent and vulnerable adults in Broward County.

The School of Social Work’s neighborhood technical assistance program provides aid to six local communities in need. With centers in Homestead, Little Havana, Little Haiti, Gladeview, Sweetwater and North Miami, the program focuses on providing resources and assistance to collaborating members of these communities, including businesses, organizations and residents.

Pierre Ceinor, a Master of Social Work student was recognized by the Broward County School Social Workers Association as the School Social Work Intern of the year for 2008. It is the second consecutive year a Barry graduate has won this honor.

For six years, students from the School of Social Work have been delivering Thanksgiving baskets to homebound seniors in the community surrounding Barry’s Miami Shores campus. The students work in partnership with the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce through the North Miami Foundation for Senior Citizens to identify seniors in need. Students then buy food, assemble baskets and distribute them to elderly clients in their homes

Barry’s intercollegiate athletic teams have won seven NCAA championships: women’s soccer (1989, 1992, and 1993) and women’s volleyball (1995, 2001, and 2004) and men’s golf (2007).

Spring 2008 was the 5th consecutive year with the Team Spring term GPA averages at 3.1 or greater -- The average spring 2008 term GPA for all teams was 3.144. 61.5 percent of all student-athletes had a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher following the spring, 2008 term. Women’s Tennis led the way for all teams with a term GPA of 3.669. Men’s Tennis led the way for men’s teams with a term GPA of 3.236. The average cumulative team GPA was 3.160, with 10 of 12 teams topping 3.0. Women’s tennis was the top squad at 3.652, while the men’s tennis team led the men at 3.260.

Barry University has had six NCAA Women of the Year finalists, which is the most of any NCAA Division II Institutions and second most overall in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III history.

Barry has also produced 176 All-Americans, 171 Scholar All-Americans and two NCAA Walter Byers Scholarship Award winners. Only two institutions in the country have two Byers Scholarship recipients – Barry University and the University of Georgia.

Barry has made 104 NCAA Division II National Tournament appearances with 54 appearances in the NCAA Division II National Finals.

Barry athletic teams have won five Sunshine State Conference women’s Mayor’s Cup Championships and one men’s Mayor’s Cup Championship. Barry teams have also won 38 Sunshine State Conference Team Championships.

Two former Buccaneers, Jenny Nilsson-Tecklenberg ’01 (soccer/rowing), Christian Witt ’01(tennis), were inducted as part of the 2008 class of the Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame. Twelve former student-athletes, coaches and administrators have been honored.

Baseball alumnus, Henry Owens ‘01 became the first Barry Buccaneer to make the Major Leagues playing for the New York Mets and Florida Marlins.