For more than 30 years, Miami magazine has chronicled the undulations of life through an orange and green lens, capturing the stories of students, faculty, staff, and alumni who shape human progress in big and small ways.
The spring 2020 issue continues this proud legacy in its first online-only edition. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a heavy economic burden on many sectors, including higher education. Producing an exclusively digital issue supports the University’s efforts to conserve resources during this challenging time.
Published at magazine.miami.edu, the spring 2020 issue is no doubt a historic record—a snapshot of the leadership, courage, innovation, and altruism at the University in the months leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Early in the spring semester, around the time the first novel coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States, University of Miami students were in the Bahamas, helping victims of Hurricane Dorian reestablish their lives. Thousands of people were gathered at Hard Rock Stadium for the Dolphins Cancer Challenge, raising funds for groundbreaking research at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. Frost Band of the Hour student musicians were enjoying a post-show euphoria following their epic halftime performance at the Super Bowl. And on the Coral Gables campus, Lakeside Village was taking its final shape as the new benchmark in modern, student-focused housing. You’ll read about all of these endeavors in this issue of Miami magazine.
Then, practically overnight, everything changed. The cover story, “A Pandemic Strikes, and an Academic Community Responds,” details the rapid shift from campus- and community-based activities to virtual classes and meetings, as well as the Herculean efforts to redesign patient care and research at the University of Miami Health System.
For many people, stay-at-home orders and physical distancing guidelines seemed to bring the world to a stop. But the University of Miami kept on going. And like many other challenges Miami magazine has covered throughout the decades, this issue documents what it means to be a ’Cane—always on the front lines, always caring for others, always upholding the spirit of optimism.
