River Road Park East to be renamed in honor of donors
Tuscaloosa News – June 27
…Lewis M. and Faye Manderson have given in excess of $12 million to UA’s ‘Our Students. Our Future’ capital campaign, the latest a gift of $9 million. The gifts, in total the third largest in UA’s history, go mostly to support the Manderson Graduate School of Business, including scholarships, student recruitment, career services and alumni relations. River Road Park East, at the north of campus, will soon become The Park at Manderson Landing to recognize the Mandersons’ numerous contributions to their adopted community…Pam Parker, vice president for advancement, said their kind of generosity creates a ripple effect. Manderson made the first $1 million gift to the university back in the late 1980s. ‘It sure sets the example for other people. You can’t dismiss that,’ she said. ‘I get people call who say, ‘I saw so-and-so and noticed they did blank, and it got me thinking about what I could do.’ ‘ Barry Mason, dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, said gifts of this enormity are ‘transformational.’…Manderson considers the ongoing relationship a two-way street. ‘It has been a great honor for me to be associated with the university,’ he said. ‘I hope [the gifts] will be an inspiration to those that follow, and that good things will happen to others as they did to me.’
Bond fund hid fees for years
The Tennessean (Nashville, Tenn.) – June 29
…”The municipal finance industry desperately needs to rewrite their rules of engagement,” said Robert Brooks, a business professor and municipal finance expert at the University of Alabama. “This is a horrible breach of public trust. Outrage is my initial reaction.”…
West Alabama sees new stores, closures and buyouts in changing economy
Tuscaloosa News – June 28
…Typically, people will not want to travel for more than 10 to 15 minutes to reach a supermarket,’ said Barry Mason, dean of the University of Alabama’s business school. Mason, whose research includes retail strategies, said supermarket chains look at the area’s population density before opening a store. Other factors, such as the population’s household income and competing supermarkets within the service area, also are analyzed before a store comes into an area, he said…Mason said there could be a potential for more supermarkets in the area, as well as Tuscaloosa’s West End, where Piggly Wiggly last week opened a supermarket, replacing a Winn-Dixie. Mason said the Interstate 20/59 corridor between Tuscaloosa and Bessemer, which has seen significant growth of subdivisions in communities like Vance, Brookwood, Lake View and Woodstock over the past decade, is another potential site for new supermarkets…’A lot of people are trading down. Instead of eating at a restaurant, they might stop at a supermarket deli for a prepared meal to take home,’ said Kristy Reynolds, an associate professor in marketing at the University of Alabama. She noted many consumers also are trading down from brand-named products to store brands and private labels that cost less but are more profitable for grocers…’Value means different things to different people, even in this economic climate,’ Reynolds said.
Jerry Underwood: Alabama industrial recruiters face new challenges
Birmingham News – June 28
…Economic researcher Ahmad Ijaz of the University of Alabama this month predicted Alabama’s jobless rate will keep rising this year, possibly all the way to 12 percent…
Education briefs
Birmingham News – June 27
University of Alabama Associate Provost Hank Lazer and the Creative Campus Initiative will mark the publication of Lazer’s 15th book of poetry, “Portions,” with a free collaborative arts event at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Harrison Galleries on University Boulevard in Tuscaloosa. — Alvin Sella, University of Alabama professor emeritus of painting, received a Governor’s Arts Award in May from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. — Scott Starr, a graduate student in the University of Alabama’s biological sciences department, was awarded a grant to bring the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping’s airplane to survey a 40-square-kilometer area along the Sipsey River this fall. — The University of Alabama awarded four one-year scholarships to rising high school seniors who attended the 2009 American Legion Boys State convention. Scholarship recipients were Daniel P. Moore, Owen Kilmury, T.K. Scott and Maxwell Robert Jones… — In a partnership with Tuscaloosa City Schools, University of Alabama students are working in the Hispanic Jumpstart Program, a summer program aimed at preschool students. The program is held Monday-Thursday mornings at University Place Elementary School until Thursday.