More than half of UA freshman from outside Alabama
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 26
For the second year in a row, more than half of the University of Alabama’s freshman class hails from outside the state. Of the 6,397 first-time undergraduates attending UA this fall, 2,857 are from Alabama. The remaining 3,540, or 55 percent, are from other states or countries. The top-represented states, following Alabama, include Georgia with 543, Texas with 374, Florida with 362 and Tennessee with 303. Also, Illinois, California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia each have more than 100 freshmen enrolled at UA. “It is important for UA to have students from out-of-state because they help to create a diverse student body and enrich the college experience,” said Mary Spiegel, UA’s executive director of undergraduate admissions, in an email.
Comprehensive prenatal care can decrease rates of low birth weights
Medical News – Sept. 25
Comprehensive prenatal care can decrease the rate of low birth weights, according to a study led by Dr. Yasmin Neggers, a University of Alabama researcher and professor of human nutrition and hospitality management. Neggers and her colleague, Dr. Kristi Crowe, UA assistant professor of nutrition, traveled to Havana, Cuba during February 2012 to conduct research on the relationship between comprehensive prenatal care and rate of low birth weight in this developing country. Low birth weight, or LBW, – less than five and a half pounds at birth – is a significant factor affecting neonatal mortality and predictor of newborn health. Neggers, whose main research focus is nutrition during pregnancy, was intrigued by Cuba’s low rate of LBW. “Cuba, being a third-world, developing country, has a LBW rate that is half that of Alabama. It was kind of surprising.”
Have smartphones killed boredom (and is that good)?
CNN – Sept. 25
Thanks to technology, there’s been a recent sea change in how people today kill time. Those dog-eared magazines in your doctor’s office are going unread. Your fellow customers in line at the deli counter are being ignored. And simply gazing around at one’s surroundings? Forget about it. Between smartphones, tablets and e-readers, we’re becoming a society that’s ready to kill even a few seconds of boredom with a tap on a touchscreen. . . . Christopher Lynn, an anthropology professor at the University of Alabama, compares tapping at smartphones to smoking a cigarette. Both can be “pivots,” he says — things that quickly transfer us from the monotony of everyday life into a world of “unscheduled play.” “Smartphones are like cigarettes are like junk food are like chewing your nails or doodling …,” Lynn wrote in a May essay for the Evolutionary Studies Consortium. “Does the naked space of your own mind and the world around you send you screaming into oblivion when you walk across campus, across a street even? Pull out your smartphone and check your email again — that car will swerve around you.”
Review: Simon’s fable proves stupid can be fun
Tuscaloosa News – Sept. 26
Walking into “Fools” is like stumbling across a previously unknown early novel by a favorite writer, despite the fact that it’s mid-career (1981) Neil Simon. It’s not the kind of work that would have made Simon’s fortune or fame; at times it seems to be straining for its one-liners, or to plumb a theme deeper than “stupid is funny.” But the throw-it-against-the-wall-to-see-what-shticks production at the Allen Bales Theatre works despite frailties in the script, with director John Nara heading a committed cast into the absurdity of playing absurdity, so it actually has more than one level: There’s laughing at bits, and then there’s laughing about the idea of laughing at such silliness…Snead is the bang-on choice for the lead, not just because he’s a top example of the strength of the acting program at the University of Alabama — everyone in the cast, as it happens, is an undergrad; MFA directing students such as Nara often get more comfortable working in at least one or two grad-student ringers — but because he’s got that likability thing.
AL.com – Sept. 25
Graduate art exhibit features piece inspired by music
Crimson White – Sept. 26
Since high school, Micah Craft knew he wanted to be an artist. Now, after receiving his bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama in 2012, Craft is exhibiting his work, called “Tension and Release,” in the Ferguson Art Gallery. “Tension and Release” is a collection of abstract pieces Craft made during his time at the University. Craft said his work begins as improvisations that gradually become a cohesive work. Music plays a very important role in the production of his art, as well. As a musician, he draws from both his imagination and music. “Music can remain completely abstract, but still have an impact on people,” Craft said. He derived the title of his exhibition from a musical term. “The phrase “Tension and Release” is a musical concept, and I use it to describe aspects of painting and drawing. It is a concept common to both visual art and music.” Sky Shineman, an assistant art professor, said she enjoyed watching Craft develop as an artist. Shineman taught Craft for three years and developed a friendship with him.
Public Relations Student Society of America to hold duct tape tailgate
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Sept. 25
Less Than U Think is an anti-binge drinking campaign. It is led by advertising and public relations students at The University of Alabama. They’ve got a fun event that’s happening this weekend, one that involves duct tape. Leighton Brown is here from the University of Alabama s Public Relations Student Society of America to tell us more. Duct Tape for UA is Saturday across from Carmichael Hall. The tailgate starts at 5 p.m.
Southern Living teams with GAC on hour-long tailgating special
Great American Country – Sept. 26
Southern Living and the Great American Country channel are teaming up to produce “The Southern Living Tailgating Playbook,” an hour-long TV special to air on Great American Country on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 10 p.m. EST. It will re-air many times throughout the fall football season. This September, GAC captured interviews and footage of tailgating traditions on the Quad at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL during a game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, and at the Grove at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS during a game between Ole Miss and the University of Texas Longhorns. The show stars GAC host Nan Kelley, who hails from Mississippi, and Southern Living Test Kitchen Director Rebecca Kracke Gordon, a self-proclaimed Crimson Tide fan, who also writes a blog on tailgating.