The Economist – July 30
…these bad times, can Alabama or Mobile, its most charming city, be so jolly? In June the state’s unemployment rate hit 10.1%, more than double what it was a year ago. And things will get worse before they get better: a new survey from the University of Alabama says that business leaders expect the state’s economy to go on shrinking in the third quarter…
Experts link tanning beds to cancer
Tuscaloosa News – July 30
…Alan Blum, a professor of family medicine at the University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences, has been trying to get UA to stop printing ads for local tanning salons in its student publications, comparing them to ads from tobacco companies. “[The research] agrees with what I’ve been saying for years,” Blum said. “I think getting a tan has got to be the stupidest thing next to smoking. They are two of the most harmful behaviors.”…
Alabama Voices: Program helps boost minority faculty growth
Montgomery Advertiser – July 30
…Until the 1980s, few African-American and Hispanic students in the South had earned Ph.D.s and very few taught in colleges and universities across the region. Today, Alabama and its neighboring states are forging a new path that helps countless scholars like me — and the many students we will teach in the future.
I am one of 465 scholars who have earned their Ph.D.s with support from a program sponsored by Alabama and the nonprofit Southern Regional Education Board, based in Atlanta…Today, the SREB-State Doctoral Scholars Program is making history and putting many of our region’s most gifted minds to work in many different fields of research, scholarship and teaching….You and I can be proud that Alabama has more of the SREB program’s doctoral graduates than any other state in the region. Auburn, the University of Alabama, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham each have graduated dozens of doctoral students with the program’s…the program’s 450th graduate, Dr. Pablo Arriaza, who finished his Ph.D. in social work at the University of Alabama. He was in Germany working with our soldiers returning from Iraq. I was honored to represent him and two of Alabama’s research universities at the SREB meeting.
Lecture on green buildings today
Crimson White – July 30
..Students can learn more about the organization and its Living Building Challenge, an ambitious ratings system that will make buildings more eco-friendly while also preserving their original beauty, at a lecture held Thursday at the Student Recreation Center…
The Green Building Services Lecture will be held this afternoon from 3:00-5:00 at the Rec Center. The event is funded through SGA Department of Environmental Concerns and the University of Alabama Environmental Stewardship Committee. Admission is free.