Students call for climate change action
USA Today – June 28
At the University of Alabama, Parker McCrary, a third-year graduate student, is developing a green technology that can replace rocket fuel for his Ph.D. project. McCrary, 24, said campuses provide the right academic environment needed to develop cheaper alternatives to oil and coal. “The best thing that Obama can do is fund those research projects and fund the things that create new technology and excite people,” he said. “Innovation is the key.”
Dean of University of Alabama law school retiring
AL.com – June 27
Kenneth Randall, who has served as dean of UA’s School of Law for two decades, will retire at the end of June. UA President Judy Bonner confirmed the news Thursday night, stating an interim dean will be named within the next few weeks while the university conducts a national search for Randall’s replacement. Randall will enter the private sector upon his retirement, Bonner said…Bonner said Randall has been instrumental in the school receiving “unprecedented levels of recognition,” including being ranked in the top 25 law schools by U.S. News & World Report in March 2013.
Lack of experience, competition with older workers top reasons for rising teen unemployment rate
AL.com – June 28
A recent study by Employment Policies Institute shows teen unemployment has exceeded 20 percent each year for more than four and a half years, resulting in troubling work prospects for young people across the U.S. In Alabama, the current joblessness rate among teens ages 16 to 19 is more than 21 percent…A Center for Business and Economic Research report from the Culverhouse College of Commerce at the University of Alabama was released in March on the state of the workforce in region two, which includes Madison, Morgan, Limestone, Jackson, Dekalb, Marshall and Cullman counties. The report shows the top five employers in the region by sector are manufacturing, retail trade, health care and social assistance, professional, scientific and technical services, and accommodation and food services. All five industries provided more than 204,000 jobs, or about 62 percent of the regional total in first quarter 2012.
Local Q&A: Grace Tant
Tuscaloosa News – June 28
Grace Tant is a 20-year-old rising junior at the University of Alabama studying apparel design. In the spring she was part of a fashion show where she and another girl modeled two designs she had made and sewn. She’s also in Mallet Assembly. Q: Who are you? What do you do? A: I’m a student at the University of Alabama in the apparel design program. Right now I work parttime as a desk assistant in Bidgood Hall. Q: Where are you from? What brought you to or keeps you in Tuscaloosa? A: I was born in Birmingham but raised in Tuscaloosa. I’ve been here pretty much my whole life, and a lot of my family is here. A lot of my childhood friends are at UA or working around town, and it’s nice to know people and be familiar with the town.