Sunday Focus: Alabama ready for revival under Anthony Grant
Miami Herald – June 14
…Grant, 43, took what his parents instilled, and in March, the University of Alabama made him the first black head basketball coach in the school’s history, signing him to a seven-year contract worth a reported $12.8 million. Grant now is an educator himself, charged with molding young men into a cohesive basketball team as well as solid representatives of the university…”The feedback we got on Anthony was consistently strong,” Alabama athletic director Mal Moore said at the news conference announcing that Grant was hired. ”He’s a family man, a good citizen, a great coach and a great recruiter.”…
THE MOM STOP: Behaviors compared in autism study
Tuscaloosa News – June 14
My 2-year-old son Jack recently took part in a study at the University of Alabama…It’s fun to watch a mom say, ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t know he could do that,’ ‘ said Angela Barber, an assistant professor of communicative disorders. Barber, along with graduate student Melissa Van Kirk, are conducting an autism study called ‘The Relationship of Developmental Function to Symptom Presentation in Young Children with Spectrum Disorders’ and asked us to be a part of it. Jack does not have autism. But the study is looking at both typically developing kids as well as autistic kids…With this study, Barber hopes to discover further autism red flags in young children. ‘The diagnosis of autism is being made at a younger and younger age,’ Barber said. ‘It really challenges us as researchers so we know what it really does look like.’ The children being studied are between 17 and 36 months old. ‘I’m real excited about this study,’ Barber said. ‘What’s unique about our study is that we are matching every child one-on-one to a typically developing child who’s at the same cognitively functioning level.’…
More than 1 million visit Alabama site
Tuscaloosa News – June 15
More than 1 million people have logged on to the online Encyclopedia of Alabama since it went “live” on the Internet last fall, and the Web site has already gained national recognition…Unlike the open-sourced Wikipedia, one of the Internet’s most successful resources sites, the EOA commissions articles from experts in their field, many of whom are from the University of Alabama, where Dan Ross, director and editor and chief of the University of Alabama Press plays a key role in the project as a member of the encyclopedia’s advisory council. Clark Center, the curator of the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library at UA, authored the lead article about the history of the Capstone, while other UA scholars contributed entries about Alabama geography, minerals found in the state and the wide variety of fossils unearthed in Alabama…
Sanford’s upset win gives GOP big boost
Montgomery Advertiser – June 14
Some people were ready to write an obituary for the Alabama Republican Party’s Campaign 2010, an effort to try to wrest control of the Legislature from Democrats, following a tough loss in a special election in south Alabama earlier this month… David Lanoue, chair of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said he does not see the special elections as “much of a harbinger of what is to come in 2010.” He said some keys in 2010 could be the economy at the time of the election, whether people begin to blame any of the economic troubles on the Democrats in power and who will be leading the ticket for each party in the governor’s race. “I would tend to argue that what’s happening now is probably a combination of people’s attitude toward government in 2009,” Lanoue said. People also will become a lot more engaged in the 2010 calendar year, he said…
Area foreclosures edge up
Tuscaloosa News – June 14
More people are falling behind in their monthly mortgage payments. And many of those falling too far behind are facing foreclosures…The national figures would appear to signal a crisis out of control with almost 1 in 50 homes in foreclosure. But the high national rate is being skewed by a few states whose housing markets have collapsed, said Leonard Zumpano, a University of Alabama professor of real estate and finance. If troubled housing markets in California, Nevada, Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Maryland are excluded, the national foreclosure would be closer to Alabama’s less alarming rate, he said…
They are the champions, concrete canoe champions, that is
PR-USA.net – June 15
…With equal parts technical skill, creativity and determination, the University of California, Berkeley captured the ‘America’s Cup of Civil Engineering’ yesterday at the American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) 22nd Annual National Concrete Canoe Competition…The event, organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers and hosted by the University of Alabama, was made possible by the support of the American Concrete Institute; Baker Concrete Construction; World of Concrete; and Holcim (US) Inc. The National Concrete Canoe Competition is organized by the American Society of Civil Engineers and is funded by the generous support of the American Concrete Institute; Baker Concrete Construction; World of Concrete; and Holcim (US) Inc. This year’s event is hosted by the University of Alabama.
AmeriSurv.com – June 15
FoxBusiness.com – June 15
Biloxi (Miss.) Sun-Herald – June 15
Birmingham News – June 14
KSBY.com (Santa Barbara, Calif.) – June 15
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – June 14
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – June 12
Federal building on a fast track: Architects drew on city’s Greek Revival historic roots
Tuscaloosa News – June 14
A scale model of a new federal courthouse for Tuscaloosa sits on the long conference table in the office of U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler, while less than a mile away a construction site is being cleared… Craig Brandt, one of the architects who worked on the design, said he made several visits to Tuscaloosa. To gain inspiration, he looked at buildings on the University of Alabama campus, the old state capitol building and antebellum houses…Brandt said Greek Revival is a “an historically grounded style regionally.” In Tuscaloosa, examples include the University Club and the UA President’s Mansion…
16 commissioned murals will depict city’s culture, history
Tuscaloosa News – June 14
This month, O’Connor and his family will move to town and plan to stay for as long as two years so he can paint 16 wall-sized murals for the federal building downtown…The series will run chronologically…The Civil War era will be represented, most vividly by the burning of the University of Alabama campus. Other panels will note the area’s industry and the workers who drive it, Tuscaloosa’s history as the state capitol, UA itself and so on up to the present day. O’Connor will have a studio on the UA campus, as soon as a large enough spot can be found to create the works. Visitors are welcome to watch the art in progress…
Education Briefs
Birmingham News – June 13
The University of Alabama Campus Master Plan has received the 2009 Merit Award from the Society of College and University Planning, the university announced. The honor recognizes work done by UA with HOK San Francisco to plan the campus’s new Science and Engineering Complex that includes Shelby Hall and about 900,000 square feet of science and engineering classrooms, auditoriums, laboratories and support facilities. Dan Wolfe is the UA planner and designer who worked on the project.
College Honors
Mobile Register – June 14
The following local students graduated in spring 2009 from the University of Alabama…