NSU Horizons Fall 2011

around campus NSU’s Greek Community Grows Fraternity brothers and sorority sisters at Nova Southeastern University are campus leaders dedicated to building a strong, student-centered community. And their number is growing each year. Currently, there are 12 established fraternities and sororities at NSU. More than 300 students are represented by these organizations, which, despite their differences in origin and rituals, are each based on common principles such as philan- thropy, scholarship, honor, friendship, and knowledge. “Joining a fraternity or sorority provides a student with many opportunities to make new friends and enhance their leadership skills, while making memories that last a lifetime,” said Andrea Gaspardino Kovachy, M.A., director of student activities at NSU. Kovachy said that NSU’s Greek groups place a strong emphasis on academic excellence and scholarship, while also promoting a high level of campus involvement. Becoming a part of the Greek community can help ease a student’s transition into college and connect those who share similar interests, she added. Some of NSU’s annual Greek traditions include a Strongman Competition to raise funds and awareness for multiple sclerosis; a Breast Cancer Benefit Dinner; the Mr. Fintastic male beauty pageant benefiting cystic fibrosis; the Prevent Child Abuse American Benefit Concert; and Greek Week, which celebrates values and traditions that build NSU’s Greek community. For more information about NSU’s fraternities and sororities, visit www.nova.edu/greeks. 37 horizons altered and filled for more pills than prescribed. The physician would use what’s called a public key—or code—but the pharmacist would have a private key that only he or she possessed. Using “a bidirectional encryption,” the pharmacist also can be certain that the message came from the prescribing physician. One of the members of Lemma’s dissertation advisory panel, Sumitra Mukherjee, Ph.D., a professor at NSU’s GSCIS, said that e commerce is much more prevalent now than when Lemma did his work. “This kind of encryption hadn’t been applied yet in the medical field,” he added. “He was one of the most efficient students,” Mukherjee said. “He is good at explaining complex subjects so that people can understand them.” Most graduate students may spend six years on their studies and dissertations, but Lemma “couldn’t afford to do that” because he had a full-time job. Although other NSU graduate students were employed, too, “Lemma probably held a much more senior position than any of the others,” Mukherjee said. Lemma finished his studies in three calendar years—two years in the classroom and one year researching and writing the dissertation. While in New Jersey, Lemma also worked for Governor Christine Todd Whitman, who asked him to modernize New Jersey’s technological infrastructure. For more than two years, he managed a 140-person staff and a multimillion- dollar budget. Lemma, 48, who is married with a son and daughter in college, doesn’t spend all his time around computers. He has climbed Half Dome in Yosemite National Park three times. Now, he’s working on reaching the highest points in each of the 50 states and has done 29 so far, including Mount Whitney in California. Florida has the nation’s lowest high point, Britton Hill in the panhandle at 345 feet. Last year, Lemma walked to the North Pole, although he confessed that he had a helicopter get him near that point. How did it feel there? “Cold,” he said. “But, at the top of the world ‘the time’ was anything I wanted it to be, and every- where I looked was south.” n President Hanbury with members of Delta Phi Epsilon, one of NSU’s established chapters.