UA recognized for community service efforts
WLTZ-NBC (Columbus, GA) – March 21
In fact, seven Alabama schools are being recognized for their community service efforts. Auburn and the University of Alabama are among the schools named on the 2012 President’s Higher Education Community Service honor roll. Alabama was on the list for the third year in a row, Auburn for a second year. A Corporation for National and Community Service report estimates 3.1 million college students gave more than 312 million hours of service across the country.
UA engineering students build a concrete canoe
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 21
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – March 21
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – March 21
…we profiled UAB’s team of engineering students set to compete in a concrete canoe competition. Not only will they be competing against teams from around the country, they’ll be competing against a team from the University of Alabama. This group’s canoe is called “April’s Fury” and was inspired by the recovery and rebuilding of Tuscaloosa. April’s Fury is stained to look as though the top layer is being ripped off with houndstooth showing underneath, and then on the inside there is a stencil of a tornado painted…The competition is this weekend in Tallahassee.
Druid City Arts Festival organizers plan projects to promote artists
Tuscaloosa News – March 22
The third annual Druid City Arts Festival is set to begin Saturday in downtown Tuscaloosa, but not before a series of public activities to promote the event. Creative Campus, a student-run arts collective at the University of Alabama, is responsible for planning, promoting and putting on the event. The idea of promoting the event with a series of interactive community art projects began with Kirkland Back, a SGA senator for the College of Arts and Sciences. “I want to touch artists and people who’ve never been exposed to art,” Back said. “I want these artists to feel as important as the football team, because they are just as talented, if not more so, but people just aren’t exposed to them.” Using canvas and art supplies donated from the university’s Supply Store, students ranging from studio art to finance majors assembled Wednesday afternoon in the cherry tree grove next to the Angelo Bruno Business Library on campus to create art in a highly visible public spot, Back said…Other events include a poetry march beginning at 7 p.m. today from Kappa Delta Park across from Russell Hall to Maxwell Hall, Back said. Participants will carry “poetry picket signs” and poetry readings will take place at various points, including stops on the Quad, Back said. There will be poetry writing prompts and refreshments.
Old Havana: A Cuban and an American explore a city
BBC News – March 21
Decades into the punishing US economic embargo, the Old Havana neighborhood of Cuba’s capital city shows its wear. Buildings are in desperate need of a paint job or a new coat of plaster, cars are older than the men driving them, poor families crowd into grand old homes that once housed the city’s aristocracy. But when photographers Chip Cooper (artist-in-residence at the University of Alabama) and Nestor Marti ventured into its streets, they found a city under change… Cooper’s and Marti’s photographs, published in Old Havana: Spirit of the Living City/La Habana Vieja: El Espiritu de la Ciudad Viva, illustrate how the vibrant, vivacious Cuban people have thrived amid the long hardship and adapted first to communism and now to the gradual economic reforms.
Text-a-thon to raise money for hungry children
Crimson White – March 22
Students involved with Secret Meals for Hungry Children are working to raise money for the initiative. Five public relations students are hosting a text-a-thon throughout the week. By texting “FOOD” to 27722, you can donate $10 to the Secret Meals organization. “We chose to do a text-a-thon because almost every student has a cell phone,” said Toni Graham, a senior majoring in public relations. “It’s also an innovative way to allow people to donate to a cause. Anyone, anywhere with a cell phone can donate. “More importantly, money that is donated here in Tuscaloosa stays in Tuscaloosa. With college students not usually carrying cash but constantly texting, it seemed to work well with our target audience.” Secret Meals is a nonprofit organization started by the Alabama Credit Union. The program provides more than 20 percent of Alabama children who live below the poverty line meals to eat over the weekend. Graham, along with Chance Blake, Jessica Burns, Jahmir Jones and Stephanie Putnam worked to coordinate the text-a-thon. All donors receive a prize.
Jones brothers spend spring break helping others
Gadsden Times – March 21
Spring break for most college students is just that — a break. For University of Alabama football players Barrett and Harrison Jones, it was anything but a break. The brothers traveled with family to Jinotega, Nicaragua, on a five-day service mission during the break.
Q and A: Rick Bragg
Houma (La.) Courier – March 21
Big Fun on the Bayou Staff Writer Thad Angelloz recently caught up with Rick Bragg to ask him some questions so readers can get better acquainted with the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer from Alabama. Bragg, 52, will serve as the keynote speaker at the annual Jambalaya Writers’ Conference and Book Fair scheduled for March 31 at the Terrebonne Parish Main Library, 151 Library Drive, Houma. Bragg has written two best-selling memoirs and is a writing professor at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Roff leaves retirement for interim dean position
Crimson White – March 22
When Lucinda Lee Roff, interim dean of the School of Social Work, first came to the University in 1974, she did not expect to stay in Alabama for more than a year or two. However, in 1987, the University appointed Roff as Dean of the School of Social Work, a position she served until 2000, Roff said. She then became a full-time faculty member until her retirement from the University in 2008. Two years into her retirement, the University Provost Judy Bonner asked Roff to return and serve as interim dean, she said. “I believe in what social work does and what the School of Social Work does in teaching, research and service,” Roff said. “I wanted to help [continue to] make a difference in the quality of people’s lives through preparing the next generation of social workers.”
Alabama immigrant coalition says Mississippi should take heed about what could happen with immigration law
Birmingham News – March 21
Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice officials this morning said that Alabama’s immigration law has affected the lives of immigrants and the state’s economy and that’s why the state should repeal it and why Mississippi and other states should not try to enact similar laws…The briefing was led by Olivia Turner, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, and a member of the steering committee of the Coalition…She said a recent study at the University of Alabama showed that HB56 — the common name for Alabama’s law — is costing Alabama $11 billion a year. The economic impact has been disputed by supporters of the bill.
Hattiesburg (Miss.) American – March 21
Joblessness down with shrinking workforce
Crimson White – March 22
The unemployment rate for the state of Alabama has dropped to 7.8 percent, the lowest unemployment level in the state since 2008…In the past year, while unemployment levels fell by 1.5 percent, the Alabama labor force shrank by 42,000 workers. The reason for this sharp drop in eligible workers mimics a negative national trend involving two different groups of workers that make up significant percentages of the unemployment rate … Sam Addy, an economist at the University of Alabama, indicated that there has been an increase in jobs in several business sectors over the last year.
State anti-abortion laws have mixed results
The Idaho Statesman – March 22
Laws requiring ultrasounds, waiting periods and specific types of counseling, while burdensome and demeaning, rarely dissuade women from having an abortion. Laws that boost the cost of an abortion, coupled with bans on any public funding, can have an impact, as much as 8 or 9 percent, according to Michael New, a political science professor at the University of Alabama.
Feminists of color fight for equality
The Eastern Echo – March 21
Feminists are fighting for a united cause, but still find divisions in their community due to racial issues according to Brittney Cooper, a co-founder of Crunk Feministic Collective, Monday night in the Eastern Michigan University Student Center. “You cannot build a feminist world that is racist,” Cooper, who is also an assistant professor at the University of Alabama, said.
GCCC hears update on retail project
The Garden City (Kansas) Telegram – March 22
The Garden City Community College Board of Trustees…Discussion at the monthly meeting also touched on a new study by GCCC about the impact of federal Pell Grants for college students on rural communities, community colleges and access to higher education by women. The study is titled “Powered by Pell: A Grassroots Perspective,” and was completed by Deanna Mann, assistant to the president for grants and accreditation, Schwartz, and Frank Mensel, senior fellow with the University of Alabama Education Policy Center.
The Tuscaloosa (AL) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated SuccessLinks Program flourishes
The Birmingham Times – March 21
The SuccessLinks program of the Tuscaloosa (AL) Chapter of The Links Incorporated provides a vast array of opportunities for students at Westlawn Middle School. Most recently, chemical engineering doctoral student, Shonteria Johnson conducted an interactive experiment with the students using strawberries and spoke with them about science, mathematics, technology, and engineering…Students participating in SuccessLinks also had an opportunity to attend “An Evening with a Red Tail” presented by the Black Faculty and Staff Association at The University of Alabama. Students learned first hand about the experiences and history of this important and historic group of men. “During this academic year, our focus is on generating pathways for students to increase literacies in reading, science, technology, and mathematics while maintaining some emphasis on health, wellness, and interpersonal relationship and communication skills. These pathways are aligned with Westlawn Middle School’s 2010 – 2011 Continuous Improvement Plan (CIP),” said B. Joyce Stallworth, Services to Youth Chair for the Tuscaloosa (AL) Chapter.
“Meeting the challenges of running a mail center” at UBTech 2012
Universitybusiness.com – March 22
The mail center remains at the heart of campus operations and is a major gateway into all areas of the university. Ensuring the mail center runs efficiently is crucial to the success of all campus departments. But the challenges of running a mail center have changed dramatically, leaving many schools with questions about controlling costs, upgrading technology and making better use of existing resources. In this session, Mike Butts, manager of Campus Mail Service at the University of Alabama and current Vice President of the National Association of College & University Mail Services, will focus on helping administrators understand some of the many challenges college and university mail center managers face on a daily basis.
Men’s pageant comes to campus
The Crimson White – March 22
Pageants, such as the Miss Corolla pageant, are annual events at Alabama with storied traditions. Until now, the pageants in Tuscaloosa have almost always been for women only. This Sunday, at the Bryant Conference Center, a new pageant will show off the dance skills, talents, smarts and swimwear of the other half of the student body. Men from across campus will compete for the title of Mr. Esquire. National Council of Negro Women historian and student Kyle Frazier brought up the idea to bring a male pageant to the University of Alabama after attending one in high school to support a friend. “I noticed that there was nothing like this on our campus, so I thought this would be a great event for NCNW to make [as] their signature event,” Frazier said.