Athletics to donate $1 million annually for academics
Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 15
The University of Alabama athletics department has pledged to donate $1 million annually to the academic side of the campus, UA athletics director Mal Moore announced Friday. It’s a rare move for any collegiate athletics department to give money to the rest of campus, instead of the other way around, but UA athletics has one of the healthier ledgers in the country. Trustee Joe Espy called the annual pledge a class act…UA President Robert Witt said prudent budgeting by the athletics department resulted in surpluses, the reason it is able to pledge an annual donation. In 2007, the last year complete financial date is available; athletics pocketed $15.6 million after expenses. Moore told trustees strong ticket sales and overall excitement about Crimson Tide athletics made the gift possible. Half the money will be for academic scholarships and the other half will go to hire and pay new professors, Witt said.
Trustees approve stadium expansion
Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 15
The University of Alabama board of trustees on Friday approved an expansion of Bryant-Denny Stadium, which would bring the stadium’s capacity to 101,000. Although trustees approved an estimated cost, look and scope of a roughly 10,000-seat, $80.6 million addition to the stadium’s south end zone, it is not a done deal because no construction contracts have been awarded. Witt said if financial pieces fall perfectly, he’d like to have the addition ready for the 2010 season. Demand for tickets is too great to ignore, he said. “We’ve reached a point where it’s not a question of if, but when, we can go forward with this project,” Witt told trustees. The annual cost of operating an expanded south end zone is estimated to be $7.7 million, but it’s predicted to bring in $9.2 million through ticket sales, according to board documents. Since the athletics department sustains itself, no state or taxpayer money will be used to pay for the expansion.
Witt looks to future of UA’s growth
Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 17
It’s likely the University of Alabama will enroll more students than its president originally envisioned, but the campus can handle more, President Robert Witt said…“The cornerstone of our strength is enrollment, and we can draw upon that overall strength to deal with the current financial situation,” Witt told UA trustees at a meeting Friday
Crimson White – Nov. 17
UA professor uses online game Second Life to teach
Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 16
…It’s all part of the University’s first attempts at a “virtual campus,” set up inside the online social networking game Second Life…A virtual world can sometimes bring — at least cognitively — a better understanding of certain things,” said UA education professor Rick Houser, a founder of the school’s Second Life endeavor. He said the goal of the virtual campus (located at “UA ESPRMC,” in the game) is not only to educate UA students but also recruit future students to the actual campus. Already in place in Second Life are realistic replicas of Carmichael and Graves halls standing along a budding representation of the Quad. A virtual Denny Chimes is under construction. In the digitized Carmichael Hall, students can take School, Culture and Society, a 300-level course that will be taught by Rebecca Ballard. The class will focus on the development of an in-depth understanding of the various political, historical, philosophical and economical foundations of the modern American education system. Houser said the Education and Arts and Sciences colleges have plans for research into ethics and cyber bullying, the act of intimidating others via the Internet…
Alabama attorney wins national award
Associated Press State Wire – Nov. 17
Alabama attorney Stephen Black has been selected as one of 10 people nationwide to receive the Community Health Leaders Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The $125,000 award honors people who are tackling some of American’s most challenging health problems. Black was selected for starting FocusFirst in 2004. The program has provided eye screenings for more than 40,000 preschoolers in low-income areas throughout Alabama. About 5,000 children have failed the vision screenings and been referred to follow-up care. Award manager Janice Ford Griffin said Black’s innovative work is having a major impact on the well-being of youngsters. Black is director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the University of Alabama.
Opinion: Black a good choice for award
Tuscaloosa News – Nov. 17
The Robert Woods Johnson Foundation, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to improve health care over the past 40 years, made an excellent choice in selecting Stephen Black as one of 10 winners of its Community Health Leader Award. Black head’s the University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, which is involved in many innovative programs within the UA community and in the state at large. It was one of those outreach programs, FocusFirst, which Black started in 2004 to bring eye care to rural and poor areas, that garnered him and his program recognition from the Princeton, N.J.-based foundation and $125,000 to enlarge the scope of the program. Black said he started the program with two missions in mind — to screen children before they entered public school for vision problems and to get college students to take their social responsibilities seriously…The greatest thing about the award is it will let us hire staff and screen more children,’ a modest Black said when his program was nationally recognized…
Fairfield Works announces layoffs
Montgomery Advertiser – Nov. 16
…Trevor Bain, a labor expert and management professor emeritus at the University of Alabama, said U.S. Steel’s announcement last week that it was delaying a $450 million plant planned for Sumter County was “a big blow to the Black Belt.”…
Gas prices remain higher than average
Florence Times-Daily – Nov. 16
…Peter Clark, an associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Alabama, attributes the higher prices in northwest Alabama to a lack of aggressive pricing by gasoline marketers. He said if one retailer in a community makes sharp cuts in fuel prices at the pump, nearby retailers tend to follow suit. “Gasoline pricing to a certain degree is local,” Clark said. “The price at one station will influence that at others close by. If someone in the Florence area would become aggressive in their pricing, it could help lower prices throughout that area.”…
Underemployment still issue in Wiregrass
Dothan Eagle –Nov. 16
…According to Sam Addy, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama, 24.2 percent of full-time working Alabamians are underemployed. Addy is completing a study on underemployment for the state after tracking underemployment numbers for three years. He defines underemployment as the number of full-time workers whose skills and education are not utilized properly in their current jobs…Addy says underemployment can be caused by an array of issues. “The major cause of underemployment is the innate productivity growth, because people have the ability to learn,” Addy said. “When people learn at their job, they tend to do things better and quicker, often to maximize their leisure time. Others are underemployed because they live in places where there is a lack of job opportunities.” “Some are underemployed because of retirement or disability. They adjust to their disability status and become less productive,” he added. “Others are underemployed by choice, because they take part-time jobs, maybe because a spouse takes a really, really good job. Others are forced to be underemployed because of child care and other family care-type situations.”…
Two-year colleges brace for proration
Mobile Register – Nov. 17
…”The position of higher education generally, and community colleges specifically, as well as the position of public education, has dramatically weakened across all of the states over the last year,” said Stephen Katsinas, a University of Alabama professor who was one of the survey’s authors…Two-year system Chancellor Bradley Byrne said the Alabama system “is in better shape than most states,” and Katsinas agreed that Alabama is at least “marginally better off.” “Structurally, our special education trust fund has dedicated revenue streams, and there is the long history of protecting that fund from other sectors of state government,” said Katsinas, the director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama.