UA Honors College students arrive early for outreach work
Al.com – Aug. 13
More than 200 University of Alabama Honors College students arrive here a week early to help Tuscaloosa storm recovery efforts by taking part in the service-learning projects Alabama Action and Outdoor Action Sunday through Friday. Some 150 UA honors students will participate in Alabama Action, a program combining service to the community with enriching academic sessions. The 2011 program is the 11th annual Alabama Action project organized and carried out by UA honors students. The Alabama Action students will work at Collins-Riverside Middle School in numerous renovation projects in the front of the school, hallways, cafeteria, outdoor courtyard, gym, football field, outdoor basketball court and band room. Added this year as an additional outreach project in response to the recovery efforts following the April 27 tornado, the students will also work at the new, temporary site for Holt Elementary (which was destroyed during the violent storm, and is now temporarily housed at the former Lloyd Wood Middle School in Northport) … While the Alabama Action students are busy in a school setting, another group of honors students will spend the week in the college’s Outdoor Action service-learning program. Outdoor Action focuses on environmental issues and allows students to make a contribution through an environmental service project. The Outdoor Action students will participate in a two-day Hurricane Creek clean-up project and a Perry Lakes Park service project …
UA freshmen begin moving into residence halls (photo gallery)
Al.com – Aug. 13
Cars lined the Tutwiler Hall parking lot Friday afternoon as families waited for volunteers and workers to help them unpack their cars and move their daughters into new homes at the University of Alabama. The university moved in around 480 freshmen today and plans to move in an additional 480 into the residence hall Saturday, UA housing operations manager Rob Hall said. Female freshmen were able to move in this weekend due to sorority recruitment, which will be held from Aug. 13-20 … Hall said the university’s goal is to relieve anxiety and to take the pressure off the students and their families. “This day is all about people welcoming people to the university,” Hall said. Million Dollar Band members and students involved in the Honors College’s Alabama Action and Outdoor Action service-learning projects will also move in this weekend.
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Aug. 12
FOX6 (Birmingham) – Aug. 12, 13, 14
NBC13 (Birmingham) – Aug. 13, 14
CBS42 (Birmingham) – Aug. 13
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 13
WSFA (Montgomery) – Aug. 13
Rx for the future: Demand for health care workers to grow as population ages
Montgomery Advertiser – Aug. 13
… But looking ahead to when today’s babies and toddlers grow into working adults in about 25 years, there will be an even greater demand for registered nurses and home health aides. The jobs tie into an aging population, said Ahmad Ijaz, an economist with the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama. “Even though some manufacturing jobs will be there, they will continue to shrink,” Ijaz said. “It’s not that we’re building less products; we’re building the same or more with fewer people. As newer technology comes on line, they don’t need as many people.” Today, the job growth is in administrative services, such as office clerical jobs, followed by the restaurant industry and not surprisingly, ambulatory health care, Ijaz said, noting that the need for health care professionals will continue to rise …
In the land of Atticus Finch, jury trials are scarce these days
Mobile Press-Register – Aug. 13
… The fact that there are fewer criminal trials in Monroeville isn’t surprising to Steve Emens, a University of Alabama law professor. The town sits in a rural area with a declining population, he said, and the lawyers are all familiar with one another. “It’s easier to know who they can have absolute trust in, in terms of sharing information, in terms of working out a settlement,” Emens said. Also, by settling drug and property offenses, prosecutors can focus resources on violent crimes, he said…
UA Opens New Art Gallery
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 13
The University of Alabama has established the art gallery in downtown Tuscaloosa. The gallery will exhibit works year round from the Paul R. Jones Collection of American Art from the University as well as other artists’ exhibitions …
Some High School Students Get Early Start on Classes at UA
WTVY (Dothan) – Aug. 12
… Saje Cox is a senior at Northview High School but she will be a sophomore at the University of Alabama by the time she graduates. She filled out a dual enrollment application for early college with the university last year and is attending school for a fraction of the cost. Saje recieved school funding for having a grade point average above 3.5
Business buzz
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 14
… University of Alabama Professor John R. Wheat, M.D., M.P.H., has been selected to receive the Mayo Clinic Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award. The award acknowledges significant contributions by a graduate of Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Mayo Graduate School or Mayo Medical School. Accomplishments may be in a clinical, research, educational or administrative field…Wheat is a professor of community and rural medicine at the UA College of Community Health Sciences in Tuscaloosa, where he has focused on recruiting and training rural students to become primary care physicians in rural communities in Alabama that are underserved in health care …