Alabama archaeological team fights to save artifacts along Black Warrior River from eroding
Al.com – Jan. 28
An archaeological team with the University of Alabama is working to save artifacts from an eroding stretch of the Black Warrior River’s bank on the north side of Moundville Archaeological Park. “This is a salvage operation to get as much as we can,” said archaeologist Jera Davis, who is part of the team excavating the site. The sites along the bank overlooking the river have been endangered by rapid erosion caused by a shift in the river channel. The salvage effort is a stopgap measure until UA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can agree on a plan to stabilize the stretch of riverbank along the wooded northern border of the park, according to Matt Gage, director of the UA Office of Archaeological Research. “Since 2010, we have really seen a major change in what is happening with the erosion in this area,” Gage said. The university and the Corps are trying to work on a feasibility study, he said.
Mobile County Public Schools to partner with The University of Alabama
WPMI-NBC (Mobile) – Jan. 27
Mobile County Public Schools are teaming up with The University of Alabama to help high school students get college credits. Beginning in April, students will be eligible to participate at the Murphy University Center. It’s a new wing added to Murphy High School dedicated to college academics. Students say they are excited and they are certainly up for the challenge of college work. 50 tenth graders will be selected for the pilot class this spring. It will open for all students in the county in the fall.
CBS 5 (Mobile) – Jan. 27
Plank celebrates 10 years
Crimson White – Jan. 28
The Plank Center at The University of Alabama kicked off a yearlong social media campaign this month to celebrate its 10-year anniversary. For the past 10 years, the Plank Center has been the leading international resource for public relations students, educators and practitioners. The center was named after Betsy Plank, a 1944 UA alumna who broke many barriers for women in the field of public relations. Using social media and #Plank10, the center launched a yearlong campaign to celebrate its programs and leaders. “Each month we have a different theme,” said Jessika White, communications specialist for the Plank Center. “We’re going to showcase a lot of what the Plank Center is about as well as, you know, helping you get your first job and that sort of thing.” The organization facilitates a Fellowship for Educators, where teachers spend two to four weeks in the summer in a corporate or agency sector. Through this program, educators can share current industry trends with students. In addition, the Plank Center has hosted Milestones in Mentoring, an annual dinner that honors public relations practitioners and educators who mentor young professionals.
Report: Alabama residential sales improved in 2014
Decatur Daily – Jan. 27
Alabama residential sales in 2014 improved for the fourth straight year, a report says. The state had a 3.4 percent increase in home sales over 2013, jumping from 43,160 to 44,614, the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama reported. The reports says median sales price also increased from $125,152 in 2013 to $131,144 in 2014. Homes are also selling quicker. The average stay on the market in 2014 was 153 days, a decline of four days or 2.5 percent.
UA in Cuba program sees benefit in lifted embargo
Crimson White – Jan. 28
United States diplomats continue talks this week with Cuban officials over President Barack Obama’s recent lessening of sanctions that began over 50 years ago. More than 765 miles from Havana, students and faculty members at he University of Alabama are watching closely and studying what the easing of tensions means for an already well-established UA in Cuba program. “The new dialogue puts Cuba in the spotlight in a more profound way than it has been in decades,” said Chip Cooper, the Honors College artist in residence. Cooper, an award-winning photographer whose work in Cuba is chronicled in “Old Havana,” has been traveling with the University to Cuba since the very beginning of the semester program there. “These changes offer a lot of opportunities for students to travel,” Cooper said. “Cuba is an incredible journey that not only serves as an academic experience, but also a spiritual one.” The University of Alabama’s relationship with Cuba began in the early 2000s, when Robert Olin, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, was looking for a new place for UA students and faculty to study. Olin selected Spanish professor Michael Schnepf to lead the program.
Alabama Supreme Court chief justice encourages defiance on gay marriage ruling
Yahoo! – Jan. 27
In a move viewed skeptically by legal experts, the socially conservative chief justice of Alabama’s Supreme Court on Tuesday encouraged judges in his state to ignore a federal ruling last week striking down its ban on gay marriage. Justice Roy Moore, in a letter addressed to Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, said Friday’s federal ruling, which was put on hold for two weeks and could be superseded by a U.S. Supreme Court decision on gay marriage due by the end of June, violates the state constitution. … Ronald Krotoszynski, a constitutional law expert at the University of Alabama School of Law, said Moore’s words carry little legal weight, as federal constitutional law trumps that of states. “There is no credible legal argument that an order from a federal judge with jurisdiction over a matter isn’t binding on a state government,” he said.
Bayou Buzz (Baton Rouge, La.) – Jan. 27
Scholars To Fox News: Writing About White People Doesn’t Make You Racist
Huffington Post – Jan. 27
A Fox News host raised alarm bells Friday over a university course that studies whiteness, saying that the titles of the books used in the class make it clear that the syllabus aims to stoke anti-white resentment among students. But the authors of two of those books, one of whom is herself white, say the claim is ridiculous. In a Friday segment of “Fox & Friends,” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck described an Arizona State University course called “U.S. Race Theory & the Problem of Whiteness,” taught by Lee Bebout, an assistant professor at the school. Hasselbeck characterized the class as an attack on white people, calling it “quite unfair, and wrong, and pointed.” Hasselbeck based her comments on an interview with ASU student Lauren Clark, who has not taken the class but who said she objects to the teaching of books like Jane Hill’s The Everyday Language of White Racism and Richard Delgado’s Critical Race Theory. Delgado, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, also dismissed Fox News’ portrayal of his book and the course’s subject matter. “I think Fox’s main criticism is absurd,” Delgado told HuffPost. “Critical race theory — at least in my view of it — is not fixated on white people. Fox should realize it is just not about them and their favorite audience.”
Esther Cepeda: Instructive, unsatisfying look at Coke
Battle Creek Enquirer (Mich.) – Jan. 27
It’s not often that I hate and love a book at the same time. Perhaps this is because I usually stick to nonfiction books written by journalists. Recently, however, I stumbled onto “Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism” by Bartow J. Elmore, thinking mistakenly that I would get a full account of the good, the bad and the ugly. But instead of delivering on the book’s promise to explain how “a patent medicine created in a small Southern pharmacy in 1886 became one of the most ubiquitous branded items in human history,” Elmore, an environmental historian at the University of Alabama, spends 432 pages portraying Coca-Cola as a sort of great Satan. A water-guzzling, environment-pillaging corporate devil that will stop at nothing to “sell more stuff, not less.” As if any for-profit company would do otherwise. But if you can get past the dense diatribes, there is beautifully presented research about the rise and continued success of the soft-drink maker. (Esther Cepeda’s email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com. Follow her on Twitter, @estherjcepeda.)
Las Cruces Sun News (N.M.) – Jan. 27
Farmington Daily Times Opinion (N.M.) – Jan. 27
Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise (Okla.) – Jan. 27
University of Alabama’s UnlockED to present free forum on race in public schools
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 27
The University of Alabama student organization UnlockED will present a free public forum on race and the nation’s schools Thursday at Shelby Hall. The forum “Confronting Reality: Race in Our Public Schools,” will be at 7 p.m. Thursday in Room 1093 of Shelby Hall. The forum will feature a discussion by the event’s panelists and a question-and-answer session. “We are hoping to make this a big discussion about race and schools nationwide,” said senior Karen Ekeh. The forum is meant to inspire further interest in those who attend about how race relates to schools and educational opportunities, Ekeh said. The forum will feature journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, who wrote about race and zoning in the Tuscaloosa City Schools in the 2014 ProPublica and Atlantic magazine article “Segregation Now.”
UA students get to learn about SEC Network
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 27
Some University of Alabama students got the chance to learn about the SEC Network. This afternoon, SEC Network Director of Sports Management Ben May spoke to students about his experiences in the sports field and discussed a variety of job opportunities.
UAPD: A Day in the Life
Crimson White – Jan. 28
It’s 2 p.m. and officer Chance Atkins sits down in his Crown Victoria patrol car and reaches for his police radio. His 8-hour shift begins as it does every day. Atkins tells his dispatcher “10-8” – in service and ready for duty. The University of Alabama Police Department granted The Crimson White the opportunity to ride along with an officer to see the daily routines and challenges public university police officers face. The challenges may be different than those of other police departments, but the goal remains: to protect and serve. “I enjoy the helping aspect of criminal justice more than taking someone to jail,” Atkins said. “As a police officer, you put on many faces, including counselor, father figure and so on. It can be very rewarding.” … Criminal justice professor Douglas Klutz said university police departments, such as UAPD, are distinct from other police departments because of who they serve. “UAPD is unique in that it serves a law enforcement function to a university and campus community as opposed to a city and county environment like city police and county sheriff’s departments traditionally do,” Klutz said.
Class explores ecology
Crimson White – Jan. 28
One afternoon several months ago, Bart Elmore, a history professor at The University of Alabama, sparked a conversation among his colleagues about the infamous “smell of Tuscaloosa.” He and his coworkers, concerned about the quality of air in Tuscaloosa, decided to do more research. They learned Tuscaloosa received an F rating for air quality back in 2010. The discovery started a new conversation, which led to the idea for a new history class, Coca-Cola Globalization: The History of America and Global Ecological Change Since 1800. Elmore began teaching the class this past fall and has continued teaching it this semester. “What many Tuscaloosa residents, particularly the college students, don’t realize is that our city has two steel plants, an oil refinery, a rubber plant and many other industries that cause our air quality to be severely compromised,” he said. “We often think of Tuscaloosa as just a college town, but it is a center for major industries and businesses as well.”