September 20, 2002: The University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved the UAB Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infections. October 1998: UAB awarded $750,000 as part of the Fannie Mae Foundation's 1998 University-Community Partnership Program, one of the largest non-medical grants in University history. January 25, 1998: The Sorority Square Building, the renovated former Van Corr Building, officially opened to provide housing suites for five UAB sororities. Her appointment had been announced in February. September 19, 2014: In order to reflect new alignments and campus streamlining efforts, the University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved the closure or merger of numerous research centers and institutes at UAB, including those in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Schools of Business, Dentistry, Medicine, and Nursing. February 2, 1982: UAB Synopsis was first published for the medical and dental staff of University Hospital; Dr. Richard McElvein was first editor. April 1969: Alabama Act 91, passed by the state legislature during a special session on education, appropriated funding for a new School of Optometry at UAB. June 5, 1992: The Kirklin Clinic was dedicated. Dix had appeared in the very first Town and Gown production back in 1950 and had starred in both the original Broadway and Hollywood versions of Best Foot Forward.". August 1999: Caron Van Gilder Thornton, founding director, was reappointed director of the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center. June 1, 2000: Bert Brouwer became dean of the School of Arts and Humanities. 1953: Milton Odean Otwell graduated from the University Hospital School of Nursing, becoming the first male graduate of the hospital's nursing program. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with a keynote address by Rev. The Annual Report was focused more toward the College of General Studies since the dental, medical and nursing schools already had their own discrete yearbooks. May 21, 1983: UAB held its first telephone student registration in a pilot program sponsored by the Office of Registration and Academic Records. June 1997: HealthSouth CEO and UAB alumnus Richard M. Scrushy agreed to donate $2 million for construction of a new building for the School of Health Related Professions. Some 2,083 students participated in the universitys newest tradition. September 1, 1969: Dr. Henry B. Peters arrived on campus as the first dean of the new School of Optometry. August 1975: School of Nursing received approval for the first nursing doctoral program in the Southeast.