UA study to help meteorologists understand how people respond to severe weather
WGCL-CBS (Atlanta) – Oct. 15
Keith Stallman is the meteorologist in charge here at the National Weather Service in Atlanta. He is talking about a special survey conducted this past spring and summer by Dr. Laura Myers of the University of Alabama. That survey polled some 4,000 people across our region about the ice jam event and that winter storm that brought the ninth largest city in America to a grinding halt for nearly three days. “She’s going to be talking about the public response to this and what the public was thinking and where they get their information and where the communication breakdowns may have been.” As you all know, the ice jam didn’t truly happen without warning, but it did come at a unique time for our city on a busy work day in the middle of the work week during some of the coldest temperatures of winter.
Movie night will raise money for Secret Meals program
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 16
Every Friday, 31⁄2-pound bags of nonperishable food are slipped into backpacks at elementary schools across Alabama in an effort to eradicate child hunger. … The Alabama Credit Union in Tuscaloosa began Secret Meals for Hungry Children, feeding 18 children at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in 2008, as part of the backpack feeding program through Feeding America. The program now feeds more than 1,000 kids per school year in Tuscaloosa county and city schools and more than 2,000 kids across the state. Students in the advanced public relations development classes at the University of Alabama will accept donations and operate a concession stand at the Mildred Westervelt Warner Transportation Museum’s Friday movie night to raise money for the program. Friday’s movie will be the animated comedy “Hotel Transylvania.” The credit union first teamed up with the advertising and public relations department at UA in the spring of 2011 to raise money for the program while providing the public relations majors with a real-life client. The partnership has continued every semester since then.
UA Be the Match competes with Texas A&M
Crimson White – Oct. 16
One out of 540 people is a match for bone marrow donation. If a person develops a form of bone cancer or other bone disease, he or she must rely heavily on the Be The Match Registry. Be The Match is a nation wide bone marrow registry and it operates through student organizations at multiple colleges. The University of Alabama’s branch of Be The Match held its biannual drive on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tables were set up to receive students who were asked about their health history and family health history. They also provided a cheek swab so Be The Match could have their DNA on file. … “This year, Be The Match at The University of Alabama is competing against Texas A&M,” said Caitlin Roach, a senior majoring in biology and president of Be The Match for The University of Alabama. “It’s a three-fold competition. Whoever registers the most people gets a point and whoever raises the most money at the Chipotle fundraiser gets a point, and whoever raises the most money on the online donation page gets a point.” Roach said this year the prize would be bragging rights and with the University of Alabama vs. Texas A&M game occurring Saturday, the competition is a great way to pump students up for the game.
Peacock discusses book
Crimson White – Oct. 16
Wednesday afternoon, UA professor Margaret Peacock spoke about her recent book, “Innocent Weapons: The Soviet and American Politics of Childhood in the Cold War,” and invited students and professors to follow her back to the years of the Cold War. As Peacock spoke about the amount of propaganda from both sides of the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, both students and professors attending the lecture said they found themselves surprised with their new knowledge. Andrew Drozd, professor of modern languages and classics, said he learned a lot from Peacock’s lecture. “I thought the lecture was very, very interesting. I haven’t read the book yet, but the lecture made me curious and I am definitely going to read it now,” Drozd said. Drozd, like Peacock, is a Russian specialist, and said a lot of the material, including Russian propaganda, was familiar to him, but the true surprise was what he learned about the United States. “The stuff on the American side was news to me and I definitely learned a lot from this experience,” he said.
Fossil Day at UA’s Museum of Natural History (gallery)
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 15
J.K. Kim, 12, watches a 3-D printer create a replica of a fossil during the University of Alabama’s Museum of Natural History’s Fossil Day in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Wednesday Oct. 15, 2014.
Wake up for Chi Omega’s endless pancake breakfast
Crimson White – Oct. 16
Chi Omega is asking students to “Wake Up for a Wish” and eat a pancake breakfast this Saturday. Wake Up for a Wish is an annual pancake breakfast put on by Chi Omega to raise money for their national philanthropy Make-A-Wish. This year’s breakfast will be held at the Chi Omega house Saturday, before the Texas A&M game. The $5 all-you-can-eat breakfast is tentatively scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon. “The turn out has been great in the past,” said Adelaide Burrow, a philanthropy assistant in Chi Omega and a sophomore majoring in early childhood education. “It’s a great deal, $5 for all-you-can-eat pancakes while you help a great foundation.” Chi Omega partners with Make-A-Wish to raise funds and awareness to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses.
Relay for Life hosts first Oktoberfest at KA
Crimson White – Oct. 16
Relay for Life raises hundreds of thousands of dollars nationwide each year for the American Cancer Society through their main relay event, which usually occurs in April. However, the University’s Relay for Life organization has made it their mission to continue to spread awareness and raise funds. Relay for Life will host their first Oktoberfest fundraising event at the Kappa Alpha house. The event will feature games and competitions, as well as grilled hamburgers for attendees. Christin Spencer, the president of Relay for Life and a junior majoring in management and public relations, said the goal of Thursday’s event is not only to raise money for Relay for Life, but also to increase awareness. … Spencer said the University’s Relay for Life organization was able to raise $70,000 last year for the cause. “Through our events this year we are hoping to bump it up to $100,000,” she said. Spencer said the Oktoberfest event will feature games such as a pie eating contest, a potato sack race, a three-legged race, a wheelbarrow race, and contests.
Students, faculty discuss LGBTQ issues
Crimson White – Oct. 16
Students and faculty members gathered at the Ferguson Center for the first annual State of the (Queer) Union presented by the UA Feminist Caucus. At the event, a four-member panel addressed various deep issues facing the LGBTQ culture and American society at large. Ben Ray, event and programming coordinator for the UA Feminist Caucus, facilitated the State of the (Queer) Union. “Our hope is that this event will raise awareness in the LGBTQ communities in the area about issues, both political and social, that are very important to these communities,” he said. Some issues addressed by the group included genuine representation of the LGBTQ population in state and federal positions, student apathy regarding LGBTQ issues, goals of the LGBTQ community and ways that individuals can develop a personal platform for change.
Invasive fish swimming through local streams
Anniston Star – Oct. 15
Aliens may be creeping up Choccolocco Creek, and that’s got biologists at Jacksonville State University worried. While not extraterrestrial, the Asiatic weatherfish, sometimes called the loach or dojo, is an invasive species of fish recently found in the Choccolocco watershed. According to JSU biology professor Mark Meade, that could be bad news for the other species of fish in the creek. “The problem with it is, we have so many endangered and unique species in the watershed that introducing a competitor” could harm those native species. Some of them are unique to Alabama and found nowhere else on the planet. … Meade first learned they were in the watershed between 2009 and 2010. At a conference for biologists who specialize in fish ecology, another scientist from the University of Alabama told him he’d found the fish at a site near Choccolocco Creek.
George Smith: This one belongs in a small world
Anniston Star – Oct. 15
Tommy Ford, a graduate of Gadsden High School a long time ago, is an assistant athletic director at the University of Alabama. Somewhere in his earlier years there, Ford wrote a book “Bama Under Bear: Alabama Family Tides.” Having graduated from Gadsden, Tommy knew one Jimmy Smothers, sports editor of The Gadsden Times back then, asking if he’d edit the book for him. “Why don’t you call Jim Hunter,” said Smothers. “He’s better at editing than I am.” Hunter, a resident of Saks and PR boss at Talladega Speedway, did, charging Ford nothing. Now, to this week. Jim Hunter’s grandson, Hunter, is a senior at the Greater Atlanta Christian School in Atlanta. He wants to study journalism, will visit Alabama Thursday … and will sit down with the man whose first book was edited by his (Hunter) grandfather.