New UA Jewish center to have grand opening
Tuscaloosa News – April 1
The Bloom Hillel Student Center will have a grand opening ceremony from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at 380 Ninth St., across from the Paul W. Bryant Museum. Pam Parker, the University of Alabama’s vice president for advancement, will cut the ceremonial ribbon. The university has about 700 Jewish students, according to Star Bloom, treasurer of the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation board. The former Hillel House was across from Bryant-Denny Stadium on Wallace Wade Avenue for more than 50 years until 2008, when the building was sold to UA at the university’s request. For the past two school years, the organization has met temporarily in another building near campus. The new Hillel will be about 4,200 square feet and includes a student lounge, a multipurpose room, a kitchen, a library and a courtyard.
UA grad student ‘plays with’ sharks for research
al.com – April 1
When University of Alabama graduate student Nikki Wheelus decided to go into aerospace engineering she didn’t want to go the average route…The Samantha native wanted to stand out, so she took the traditional aerospace engineering ideas and turned them upside down. Now when she sees friends she hasn’t seen in a while back home, she has fun with the standby “What do you do?” question. Then she drops the bomb: She hangs out with sharks…Her journey has been made even more challenging by the fact that she has Holt-Oram Syndrome, an inherited disorder that affects the formation of her arms and hands, as well as heart abnormalities. But she prefers to focus on the research she can control rather than the disorder she was born with. Studying sharks is an effort one might not easily associate with aerospace engineering, but Wheelus is studying sharks’ hydrodynamic ways. Put simply: “We want to know how they can glide through water so effortlessly.” A best-case scenario for her research would be to help airplanes, submarines, boats and even cars move either faster or in better ways, said her supervisor aerospace engineering professor Amy Lang…For her work, Wheelus was named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research fellow in April 2009, which covers the cost of tuition and provides a $30,000-per-year living stipend for three years…
Alabama honors new Capstone Heroes
Crimson White – April 1
Several University of Alabama students and two student organizations were honored as Capstone Heroes Thursday afternoon in Carmichael Hall. The Capstone Heroes award was designed to recognize UA students, faculty, staff, student organizations and members of the community whose contributions to life at the Capstone reflect the values within the Capstone Creed, said Joshua Burford, coordinator of student development programming… Twelve students from different parts of campus were recognized at Thursday’s ceremony, Burford said…
Dew Point to debut this Monday
Crimson White – April 1
English honor society Sigma Tau Delta is presenting the inaugural issue of their literary journal, DewPoint, at a release party Monday night. The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Woods quad, and will feature readings from creative writing professor Michael Martone and several students whose work was accepted into DewPoint… “We are very grateful to have Michael Martone supporting us by beginning our release party with a reading,” said Meg Brandl, poetry editor for DewPoint and secretary of Sigma Tau Delta. Brandl said DewPoint is different from most literary magazines in that it publishes creative and critical work. “We really wanted to showcase all kinds of fantastic writing that UA students do and in addition to creative work the critical papers that students work so hard on for their English classes,” Brandl said…Martone, who will be reading at the release, said it is exciting to see the energy of writers on campus. “It is even more exciting to have a venue where that creative spirit is recorded,” he said…
UA graduate returns from covering news in the Middle East, speaks to current UA students
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 31
Journalists must sometimes travel to places thousands of miles away from home, that’s the case of one University of Alabama graduate. Kristen Chick works for the Christian Science Monitor overseas in the Middle East. Today she was a guest speaker for the University of Alabama’s journalism department J-Day program.
Honda slowdown could have larger economic impact
Anniston Star – April 1
… Some economists suspect the slowdown, which the Japanese automaker initiated Tuesday to compensate for a lack of certain parts from tsunami-stricken Japan, may start hurting the economy, depending on how long it lasts. “If they only expect it to last for a short time, it may not change spending much,” said James Cover, professor of economics at the University of Alabama. “But if it lasts longer, employees may cut back on discretionary spending quite a bit.”…
Journalists discuss Civil Rights era cold cases
Crimson White – April 1
…John Fleming with The Anniston Star, Jerry Mitchell with The Clarion Ledger, and Stanley Nelson with The Concordia Sentinel spoke to journalism students Thursday evening about the work involved in investigating a cold case…The reporters explained that with cutbacks at newspapers, cold case work is tacked onto their daily reporting, meaning lots of late hours and overtime. “These stories are important for the world to know, and they might never be told otherwise,” Nelson said. “Reconciliation for families and communities is the ultimate goal.”… “I wanted students to realize that race relations in the United States were not pretty before they were born,” said Chris Roberts, assistant professor of journalism and an organizer of the presentation. “Perpetrators are still walking the streets, and these guys are about justice. It was incredible to have these three MacArthur geniuses in the same room.”…