Former UA Football Player Loses Big
Today Show (NBC, National) – Feb. 20
…Slimming down with a teammate. 20 years ago, Trent Patterson was a star on the University of Alabama’s football team. So when a former teammate (Roger Schultz) called Trent with a chance to get fit on NBC’s hit reality show “The Biggest Loser”, well it took a little persuasion…
Cubans look to future without Fidel Castro
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 20
…Officials with the University of Alabama’s growing Alabama-Cuba Initiative, which promotes academic exchanges between UA and Cuba, said they expect very little to change with the country’s transition to new leadership. ‘In reality, the transition has already occurred,’ said Carmen Taylor, an associate dean of the UA College of Arts and Sciences who works with the Cuba Initiative. ‘From our perspective, it’s been basically a seamless transition…’No one I know who has serious experience in Cuba thinks anything like radical change is going to happen,’ said Jim Knight, a professor of anthropology at UA who’s worked in Holguin Province, on the other end of the island from Havana, as part of a joint U.S.-Cuba archaeological expedition studying the pre-Spanish conquest culture. Taylor and A&S Dean Robert Olin were in Cuba last week, looking for dorm-style housing for a 2009 program for undergraduates to study at the University of Havana…
Fox 6 (Birmingham) — Feb. 19
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) — Feb. 19
UA, AU trustees join in budget battle
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 20
Trustees for the University of Alabama System and Auburn University will meet today in a joint session to discuss Gov. Bob Riley’s proposed state education budget, which would slash four-year institution money by an average of 13 percent. ‘This is rather significant, but it comes during a very significant and critical [time] not only for our institutions, but for higher education in general,’ said Joe Espy, chairman of the UAS board. ‘Our boards need to understand exactly what we’re talking about, so the purpose of our coming together is to hear exactly what a disproportionate cut to higher education means for our institutions.’…
Evolutionary expert comes to UA
Crimson White – Feb. 20
Neil Shubin, professor of anatomy and associate dean at the University of Chicago…author of “Your Inner Fish: a Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body,” evolutionary biologist Shubin is giving a lecture titled “Finding Your Inner Fish” Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in 127 Biology Building…
Community Service Center hosts Sleep-Out
Crimson White – Feb. 20
The Community Service Center is sponsoring the Grate American Sleep-Out tonight from 6:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. on the Quad. The all-night event is part of the 13th Annual Hunger and Homelessness Week, which strives to raise awareness about the growing problem of poverty in the United States…
Mayer recalled for his love of Demopolis
Demopolis Times – Feb. 20
Dr. Morris Lehman Mayer,…before he became a well-known professor at the University of Alabama and penned several successful textbooks on retailing, Mayer was the son of a prominent Jewish family in Demopolis who later founded Mayer Brothers bank, the beginnings of which later became Robertson Banking Company…
Scholarship applications available
Crimson White – Feb. 20
…The Students Playing an Important Role in Tradition campaign was created by the SGA two years ago…Alicia King, the University’s director of annual giving and coordinator for S.P.I.R.I.T., said 17 percent of the students at the Capstone are first-generation college students. “The S.P.I.R.I.T. campaign was founded by the SGA to award scholarships to first-generation college students attending UA,” King said. “We have awarded 12 scholarships over the past two years.”…
UA trying to recruit minorities
Crimson White – Feb. 20
…The College of Arts and Sciences created a Diversity Committee in spring 2001 to contribute to the effort. The 15 faculty members on the committee work to increase diversity on campus by organizing events, bringing in speakers and reaching out to potential graduate and undergraduate minority students interested in the University…
UA Faculty Senate approves PA system
Crimson White – Feb. 20
The University is in the process of installing a campuswide public announcement system that will be activated during emergency situations. “We will be installing PA in academic buildings and libraries,” UA spokeswoman Debbie Lane said. “The system will allow us to send alerts campuswide or to a specific location.”…According to the minutes from the meeting, the faculty agreed on the installation of PA systems in all building on campus, electronic notification of emergencies and the development of a document establishing the process to follow during an emergency…