BCS title proving good for local business
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Jan. 9
Retailers in Tuscaloosa are still feeling the effects of Alabama’s big win Monday night. Several stores opened up after the game and started selling BCS merchandise right away. The Academy Sports store in Tuscaloosa, kept their doors open until 3 a.m. Tuesday to accommodate the line that formed before the game was over. But how big of a boost is a BCS National Championship for retailers? Footballs, shirts, and hats oh-my! About a thousand people filed through the doors at Academy the night of Alabama’s big win. Since then the traffic hasn’t stopped. Store manager Glenn Wilkinson said on black Friday they didn’t have a line of 700 people outside the store like they did Monday. So the Tide’s victory is proving good for business. Wilkinson said, “We are truly a college store. We want to respond very quickly to the needs of our customers and their enthusiasm for the University of Alabama sports teams.” Academy stores asked their merchandise buyers to purchase more BCS gear this year than years past. And with that request granted the Tuscaloosa store has not run out of championship merchandise…The University of Alabama book store didn’t open until Tuesday, but they did put merchandise on their website immediately after the game. And based off sales since Tuesday, the store is hoping for another record year.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 9
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 9
Duck Tape PR campaign wins award
Crimson White – Jan. 10
The University of Alabama’s Public Relations Student Society of America chapter placed first in a national contest to promote the Duck brand College Duck Tape. The chapter received a $1,000 prize for their work during the fall 2012 semester. “This campaign was a great way to start off the semester,” Melissa Stewart, co-director of Duck Tape for the University, said. “I was so pleased with the number of students who participated and helped implement it. We could not have led an award-winning campaign without everyone on our committee and their hard work.” The Duck brand produces a College Duck Tape that features logos and mascots from college teams across the country. PRSSA chapters across the country were challenged to develop a campaign to raise awareness about the product on their campuses. Tracy Sims, the faculty advisor for the University’s PRSSA chapter, said the UA team produced great results under a tight deadline. “Within a month’s time, they not only put together a comprehensive, multimedia communication plan, but also successfully implemented it, exceeding their campaign goals,” Sims said. The team utilized social media to raise awareness, using the Twitter hashtag #DuckTapeforUA and creating a Facebook events page. The team also created a board on Pinterest.
Brand new Twitter Chat to launch today, featuring Alabama PR student
Al.com – Jan. 9
Twitter is becoming the way of the world with President Barack Obama, Dalai Lama, top celebrities and political figures tweeting news, information and even some random thoughts. Twitter chats are gaining traction as a popular way to connect with people, where you use a hashtag (#) to share ideas and thoughts with people of similar interests. Today at 1 p.m. (CST), a new weekly public relations Twitter chat will launch, according to the Washington Times and Status Creative CEO Jeff Barrett’s personal Twitter account. A new guest will be featured every week and they will discuss five questions in a serious yet fun manner. This week’s guest is University of Alabama public relations student and Capstone Agency Firm Director Jessica Colburn. Colburn, along with other PR students, will share more information on the successful Twitter campaigns they’ve run recently which helped them land Shaq for that anti-binge drinking PSA. They’ll be using the Twitter hashtag, #BareItAll. To follow the chat, simply log onto your Twitter account and search #BareItAll.
New Pell Grant restrictions resulted in lower enrollment at 14 of the state’s 15 community colleges (With video)
Clarion Ledger (Jackson, Miss.) – Jan. 9
New regulations enacted by Congress in June have stripped Pell Grant eligibility from nearly 3,000 Mississippi students and cut the amount of aid others are receiving in some cases. The changes led to lower enrollments for the fall 2012 semester at 14 of the state’s 15 community colleges, according to a recently completed study of the impact of the new Pell Grant regulations on Mississippi two-year colleges by University of Alabama Education Policy Center Director Stephen Katsinas. Without a strong statewide college tuition program, the federal Pell Grant program serves as the de facto student aid program in Mississippi, making Pell a key economic development driver for the state’s future work force, Katsinas said. “Pell Grants are the life blood of Mississippi and the Deep South,” he said. And the situation promises to worsen. In addition to the 2,960 students who lost eligibility for Pell Grants last fall, another 7,154 will lose eligibility in the next several semesters because of new requirements.
Associated Press – Jan. 9
The three transits of Venus 2012
Spaceref.com – Jan. 9
Many people around the world were thrilled to see a transit of Venus in June (June 5 in the United States and June 6 in Asia, on the other side of the International Dateline), the dark silhouette of Venus passing in front of the Sun…The event was a rare opportunity to see close up, in our own solar system, the type of transit that is being studied by many scientists around the world using NASA’s Kepler spacecraft and ground-based telescopes. Some thousands of these exoplanet transits have been seen. Though it was widely and correctly said that the 2012 transit of Venus was the last to be seen before the year 2117, that restriction applies only if you are limited to observing from Earth … Coordinated observations during all three transits were made from all possible spacecraft aloft to study the Sun, so that variations on the Sun itself could be monitored and separated from the effect of the transit as seen from Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, respectively. The spacecraft-related scientists who collaborated, coauthors on the paper, include…Murray Silverstone of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa for the Japanese-American Hinode spacecraft’s Solar Optical Telescope….
Three voice student recitals at UA set for this weekend
Al.com – Jan. 9
With the Spring semester getting underway, the University of Alabama School of Music is jumping right into showcasing the talent of their students. This Saturday and Sunday, you have three chances to hear voice students perform under the direction of Paul Houghtaling, assistant professor of voice at UA. On Saturday at 4 p.m., you can hear tenor and UA Music Therapy senior Christopher Nix perform. “He will be performing a variety of works on Saturday, including a set of songs sung to his own guitar accompaniment, music which he has prepared for his work in a music therapy setting, but will now be heard in a concert setting,” said Houghtaling…On Sunday, there are two chances to catch different recitals by two voice students. Beginning at 2 p.m. Lawson Daves, bass-baritone and vocal performance senior, specializes in early music. Highlights from his recital will include Bach and Handel selections as well as three arias from “The Hermits,” an opera by Stephen Paulus. At 6 p.m., soprano Jennifer Stephenson will perform a program titled “The Cost of War.” “All of the music has to do with war and its aftermath in one way or another,” said Dr. Houghtaling. “It is an intense, timely and provocative program.”
UA professor comments on Brent Musburger’s comments about Katherine Webb during National Championship Game
Fox News National (The O’Reilly Factor) – Jan. 9
If you were watching the Alabama/Notre Dame college football game Monday night you heard Brent Musberger say, “Do you see that lovely lady there? She does go to Auburn … Right there on the right is Dee Dee Bonner. That’s his mom.” You quarterbacks get all the good-looking women. What a beautiful woman. Wow.” … Well now ESPN has apologized … Some are asking for what? Here is what Jennifer Grier ,the chairwoman at the journalism department at the University of Alabama, “The role that women play, even in the journalistic respect is in the supportive role, the mom, the hot girlfriend, the sideline reporter. They are accepted in this world but in particular roles that reinforce the stereotype of the hot model girlfriend attached to a quarterback. I don’t t know if that’s a stereotype but in this case it is the hot model attached to the quarterback.”
SUPe store manages usual early semester rush
Crimson White – Jan. 10
During the beginning of each semester, The University of Alabama Supply Store implements extra workers, additional registers and online options to serve approximately two and half times the typical amount of customers each day throughout the first week of classes. To manage the volume of customers, Supply Store Director Teresa Shreve said the SUPe Store hires extra staff to assist with preparing for the book rush as well as assisting customers at the start of each semester. To prevent book shortages, staff members work some days during the holidays processing shipments in order to be better stocked, she said. “Additional training is conducted with the staff in order to better serve the University community,” Shreve said. Molly Moore, a junior majoring in public relations, was in and out of the SUPe Store in 20 minutes, which she said was much faster than in the past. “Considering the amount of people that they have the first week of classes, they do a pretty good job,” Moore said. Moore attributed the quick service to the amount of employees helping students.
Denny Chimes plays “Celebrating Achievement” for UA Football Team
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 9
There has certainly been no shortage of congratulations going to the Crimson Tide…today, the university honored Nick Saban, his staff, and players with “Celebrating Acheivement,” a song that is played on Denny Chimes. The song played at nine, noon…the chimes will ring again at six and eight p.m.
UA students reflect on winning 15th National Championship
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 9
On Monday, the Alabama Crimson Tide brought history to Tuscaloosa when they won back to back championships making Tuscaloosa “title-town.” Today, students at the university had their first day of classes, but as WVUA’s Molly Mitchell explains, it was anything but normal. “Here at the University of Alabama, spring semester is officially underway. “It’s pretty amazing, it felt good to win it back to back … as far as far as our attitude towards our football and other athletic programs … Saban is known for holding a strict standard for his players, and students say they are modeling that in their own lives.”