Today
Carlos Hernandez
Geoffrey Gamble
New appointments
Two new administrators joined UNT this summer.
Carlos Hernandez, former associate vice president for business affairs and comptroller
at the University of Texas at El Paso, was named UNT’s controller and associate vice president for finance. He also serves as the controller for the UNT System. Hernandez brings 22 years of higher education accounting and administration experience to UNT. Geoffrey Gamble, former president of Montana State University, was named interim
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senior vice provost at UNT. His duties include assisting with strategic planning, and he is leading a team that is reviewing UNT procedures and policies relating to institutes and centers. Gamble also advises the provost’s senior staff on academic-related topics. He retains his title as President Emeritus and Professor Emeritus at Montana State.
Ask an Expert
How can Santa deliver toys to all the children in the world in just one night?
T
he holidays are an exciting time of year, but only with careful planning will your gifts reach your loved ones on time. So, how does Santa accomplish such a momentous task in just one night? Ted Farris, professor of marketing and logistics, is absolutely certain it is possible — if Santa follows the fundamental principles of logistics. “By traveling from east to west, the lovable Saint Nick adds three hours to his schedule to take care of the 57 million children in the world who celebrate Christmas,” says Farris, who joined UNT in 1997 as its first logistics professor and has helped transform the program into one of the Top 25 in the nation. “In Dallas-Fort Worth alone, Santa spends just 12 minutes to visit more than 400,000 children, delivering more than 2 million pounds of gifts — enough to fill 1,800 railcars.” Farris offers these tips to make your shopping and present deliveries as successful as Santa’s:
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Help from elves • Use third parties to help handle the heavy lifting. • Don’t run around shopping when you can order gifts from the comfort of your computer. Internet shopping also saves gas and effort as long as you allow for delivery times. Shopping smart • Do your homework. Half of consumers buying gifts in a bricks-and-mortar store previously have researched the items online. Ironically, half of consumers buying online started by going to a bricks-and-mortar store. — Adrienne Nettles
Gary Payne
Planning ahead • Make a list for both the naughty and nice. Check it twice. • Map out an efficient route for shopping to save time and effort. For example, avoid taking left-hand turns
on your drive route like UPS, which engineers its delivery routes to be as timeefficient as possible. • Keep yourself energized by planning shopping breaks for milk and cookies (or your favorite cappuccino and biscotti).