Local photographer shows exhibit in Cuba
Tuscaloosa News – May 4
…Chip Cooper…his new joint project, ‘Side by Side,’ featuring the longtime Tuscaloosan and University of Alabama employee working with Havana photographer Nestor Marti. The exhibit opens Wednesday in the Julio Larramendi Gallery in the Hostal Del Habana in Havana. It comes UA in the fall, prior to its culmination as a book…Joining Cooper in Cuba this week will be Robert Olin, dean of Arts and Sciences and leader of the Alabama-Cuba Initiative, which has several ongoing projects involving not only student exchange programs, but also baseball, theater, music and more. Olin said this exhibit is considered ‘a huge deal’ in Cuba…
NBC13.com (Birmingham) – May 3
An Old Scourge, Piracy, Is New Again
National Public Radio (Morning Edition) – May 4
Most piracy was seen as a stateless crime, and the laws for combating it became a key building block for today’s international legal system, according to Kenneth Randall, dean of the University of Alabama law school. “Piracy, for about five centuries, really has represented an exception to the lack of consensus on much of international law,” Randall says. “The crimes are viewed to be against the whole world order, the entirety of international commerce.” Randall says the problem is that, even though every nation has the right to arrest and try pirates, very few modern nations want to take on the cost and controversy of doing it. For that reason, he says, the world community should find some collective legal way to deal with piracy. There are efforts to prosecute captured pirates in various courts…Randall says there is ample precedent for a United Nations special tribunal to prosecute pirates, adding that it would make more sense than dealing with them on an ad-hoc basis. “If the international community collectively, collaboratively can’t go after this offense, you know I think it really shows the impotence of some of these organizations,” Randall says.
Transformation of retailing industry should help malls reach full occupancy
Tuscaloosa News – May 3
…Retail experts say they expect more stores will close as retailing undergoes a major transformation. “All major retailers are now looking at the performance of all their stores,” said Kristy Reynolds, the Bruno associate professor of marketing at the University of Alabama. Stores that fail to meet their chain’s expectations could find themselves getting the axe even among retailers with enough cash on hand to weather the recession, she said. Barnes & Noble, the nation’s leading book store chain, for example, announced last month that it was closing its underperforming store in Montgomery.
Such announcements are not good news for shopping malls, and they definitely are not good news for the stores remaining in the malls. “Vacancies don’t make malls as attractive, so people lose a reason for going there,” Reynolds said…
Financial advice for college grads
Birmingham News – May 3
I recently attended a lecture sponsored by the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Alabama where well-known financial expert Jonathan Pond offered advice for soon-to-be graduates. His 10 key points were so timely that I’d like to pass them along and include a few thoughts of my own…
College News
Tuscaloosa News – May 4
Glenda Williams, associate professor of telecommunication and film in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, was elected president of the Broadcast Education Association. BEA is the national professional association for professors, industry professionals and graduate students who are interested in teaching and research related to electronic media and multimedia enterprises…
Foundation awards agencies five grants
Tuscaloosa News – May 2
The Community Foundation of West Alabama has awarded grants to five area agencies as part of its spring grants cycle. The grants were provided through the foundation’s P.D. and Anna E. Brown Education, Health and Welfare Fund. The awards were: $700 to Project Horseshoe Farms, a nonprofit organization in Hale County partnering with the University of Alabama to provide after-school tutoring and mentoring programs for elementary students…