Obama’s visit to the Coral Gables campus was targeted at motivating the country to support the development of American-made energy in an effort to decrease dependence on foreign oil.

Several students who attended the event felt “inspired” by Obama’s remarks.

“This is exactly what we talk about at RSMAS,” said Ph.D. student Erica Towle, who is studying marine biology and fisheries at UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “He nailed exactly what America needs right now.”

The decision to host the event in the Fieldhouse and to limit the attendees to students was made by the White House, which wanted to keep the event small. About 1,490 UM students and special guests – including UM President Donna E. Shalala, Senator Bill Nelson and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz – attended Thursday’s event, according to Margot Winick, assistant vice president for UM Media Relations.

Before his speech Thursday, Obama toured the Industrial Assessment Center at the UM College of Engineering. The project, which has existed for 13 years, has given recommendations to more than 200 South Florida corporations about how to increase industrial energy efficiency.

James Tien, dean of the CoE, said that the Industrial Assessment Center could serve as an inspiration for Obama’s federal energy policy.

“We need more engineers, so I could not be prouder of those of you who are studying engineering,” Obama said at the beginning of his remarks Thursday. “It was fascinating stuff. I understood about 10 percent of what they told me, but it was impressive.”
“Figuring out how our buildings can waste less energy is one of the fastest, easiest ways to reduce our dependence on oil and save a lot of money in the process,” he said.Obama said that the work at the CoE couldn’t be more important.

The president opened up his speech by noting the current problem in the United States: Gas prices are rising – again.

“And that hurts everyone – everyone who owns a car, everyone who owns a business,” Obama said. “It means you have to stretch your paycheck even further.”

Obama said that, especially because it is an election year, other politicians may begin to push an increase in drilling for oil.

Although the United States has independently produced more oil today than in the past eight years, the president said that “anyone who says we can drill ourselves out of this problem doesn’t know what they’re talking about, or isn’t telling you the truth.”

Instead, he said, his administration is focused on the production of more home-grown energy.

“Young people especially understand this,” he said. “You guys are so much more aware than I was of conserving our natural resources and thinking about the planet.”

According to Obama, the United States consumes more than a fifth of the world’s oil, while the country itself only possesses 2 percent of the world’s oil reserves.

“And that means we can’t just rely on fossil fuels from the last century,” he said.

Obama said that, so far, there has been substantial progress made in promoting and developing clean energy, including the development of the first new nuclear power plant and the implementation of tougher fuel economy standards for cars an

d pickup trucks. And locally, in 2008, Miami was the first major American city to power its city hall entirely with solar and renewable energy.

But this progress is not a “silver bullet” to reducing dependence on foreign energy sources, Obama said.

For now, the president said, the federal government is working “to support discoveries that would get new energy ideas off the ground.”

“After all, it was public research dollars, over the course of 30 years, which helped develop the technologies that companies are now using to extract all this natural gas out of shale rock,” he said.

And America is capable of being optimistic and creative in making more progress in the development of alternative forms of energy, Obama said.

“Solving it will take time and effort,” Obama said at the end of his approximately 30-minute speech. “It will require our brightest scientists, our most creative companies, and most importantly, all of us – Democrats, Republicans and everyone in between – to do our part.”

Sophomore Vanessa Street said that until Obama reached out to youth specifically, she had never realized how large her carbon footprint must be.

“It was a smart move,” she said. “He is talking to our generation about something that matters to us. He’s being honest, blunt, and he was speaking in a way that reaches to us.”

Other students agreed.

“Hearing the president talk to you about how important it is made me take a step back,” sophomore Kiera Wallace said.

Before and after his speech, Obama interacted with students who attended the event, shaking hands, kissing cheeks and giving hugs.

“I got to shake his hand,” senior Coral Millican said. “He has really soft skin and I love that he looks you in the eye.”

Erica Hord, president of CoE’s advisory board, introduced Obama.

“You never really know what it’s like to meet the president until you do,” she said. “It’s exhilarating.”

Margaux Herrera, Alysha Khan, Stephanie Parra and Demi Rafuls contributed to this report.

The Miami Hurricane information:

• To take advantage of the new channel lineup all TVs should be HD / digital ready
• Your TV should be 720p or any variety of 1080i
• Analog TVs will receive only 30 basic channels
• To receive all channels with an analog TV you need a QAM Digital Cable HDTV Tuner/Receiver
• Receiver are available at any electronics retail store.

University of Miami TVU – Frequently Asked Questions

Channel Lineup

Channel No. — Channel Description

2 PBS – WPBT

3 Lineup Guide
4 CBS – WFOR
6 NBC – WTVJ
7 FOX – WSVN
10 ABC – WPLG
21 CNBC
22 CNN
23 UNI – WLTV (Univision)
24 IND – WSBS (Mega)
25 CNN Headline News
26 Fox News Channel
27 MSNBC
31 ESPN
32 ESPN 2
33 ESPN News
34 ESPN U
35 ESPN CLASSIC
36 Sun Sports
37 CBS College Sports
38 Spike
39 FS Florida
40 Cartoon Network
41 Comedy Central
42 E! Entertainment
43 FOX Movie Channel
44 FX
45 MTV
51 TMO – WSCV (Telemundo)
80 HBO
96 UMTV
101 Lineup Guide
102 Bloomberg
103 CNN Headline News
104 CSPAN
105 CSPAN2
106 Current TV
107 Fox Business Network
108 IND – WGEN (Gen TV)
110 ESPN CLASSIC
111 ESPN Deportes
112 Big Ten Network
113 Fuel
114 Golf Channel
115 NHL Network
116 Sportsman Channel
117 Tennis
118 Link TV
119 Cooking Channel
120 History International
121 Military Channel
122 Biography Channel
123 National Geographic Wild
124 FIT TV
125 Ovation TV
126 E! Entertainment
127 TBN (Faith)
128 The World Network
129 LOGO
130 Reelzchannel
131 MNTV- WBFS (MY 33)
132 PBS – WLRN
133 IND – WSBS (Mega)
134 TFT – WAMI (Telefutura)
135 American Movie Classic
136 Chiller (Scary movies)
137 Documentary Channel
138 FOX Movie Channel
139 Lifetime Movie Network
140 Oxygen
141 Sleuth (Crime & Mystery)
142 Soap Net
143 IND – WJAN (America Teve)
144 truTV
145 TV Land
146 Women’s Entertainment
147 Independent Film Channel
148 BET
149 Game Show Network
150 Investigation Discovery
151 ION
152 OWN
153 TV ONE
154 MTV2
155 HITN (Hispanic Info and Telecom Network)
156 VH1 Classic
157 Country Music Television
158 FUSE (Music)
159 Planet Green
160 HBO
161 HBO 2
162 HBO Signature
163 HBO Latino
164 HBO Zone
165 U Health
166 UMTV
167 NBC – WTVJ
168 Weather Channel
169 Spare
201 CNN HD
202 PBS – WPBT HD
203 Fox News Channel HD
204 CBS – WFOR HD
205 CNBC HD
206 NBC – WTVJ HD
207 FOX – WSVN HD
208 MSNBC HD
209 ESPN HD
210 ABC – WPLG HD
211 ESPN News HD
212 CBS College Sports HD
213 FS Florida HD
214 MLB HD
215 NBA TV HD
216 NFL Network HD
217 Speed HD
218 Spike HD
219 Sun Sports HD
220 Versus HD
221 Cartoon Network HD
222 Nickelodeon HD
223 UNI – WLTV HD (Univision)
224 Animal Planet HD
225 Discovery Channel HD
226 Food Network HD
227 National Geographic HD
228 ESPN 2 HD
229 Science Channel HD
230 ESPN U HD
231 HD Theater HD
232 HGTV HD
233 Learning Channel HD (TLC)
234 Lifetime HD
235 ABC Family HD
236 Travel HD
237 Comedy Central HD
238 A&E HD
239 CW – WSFL HD
240 Bravo HD
241 FX HD
242 HDNET HD
243 Syfy HD
244 TBS HD
245 TNT HD
246 USA HD
247 MTV HD
248 VH1 HD
249 History HD
251 TMO – WSCV HD (Telemundo)