Protective Life insurance firm to give $2 million to University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 23
The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce received a $2 million corporate gift Monday that will be used to endow a professorship in actuarial sciences and risk management and support the college’s Insurance Hall of Fame. The gift will be given over three years by Protective Life, a Birmingham-based insurance company, and its parent company, Dai-ichi Life of Japan. Dai-ichi completed its acquisition of Protective Life earlier this month. The gift includes $1.5 million for an endowed professorship at Culverhouse that will be called the “Dai-ichi Life Teaching Chair in Actuarial Sciences and Risk Management.” It will honor Tsuneta Yano, the founder of Dai-ichi Life. Yano is known in Japan as the “father of mutual life insurance” and is recognized as an insurance industry pioneer. His portrait hangs in the Insurance Hall of Fame, housed at UA’s Alston Hall. A total of $500,000 from the gift will be used to support the Insurance Hall of Fame, which chronicles the history of insurance and honors leaders in the industry.
Al.com – Feb. 23
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 23
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Feb. 23
UA establishes new research center in Cuba
Crimson White – Feb. 24
The University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved the establishment of the Center for Cuba Collaboration and Scholarship at the University on Feb. 6. The new research center will build on the activities of the Alabama-Cuba Initiative, providing educational opportunities in Cuba for UA students and faculty. The establishment of the Center comes at a historical time as the United States and Cuban governments work toward normalization of relationships between the two countries. “For students this is a transformational experience. It is hard to see things in the same way once you step into the shoes of a Cuban student or teacher,“ said Bob Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Science. “Over the years I have taken six groups of students to work on collaborative book projects with Cuban artists and writers. Working sometimes in challenging situations, Cuban artists have adopted our Alabama students and shown them a world far apart from what a tourist may see. These experiences have beautifully matured my students.”
Sophomore from Enterprise earns Miss University of Alabama title
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 23
Payton Edberg, a sophomore from Enterprise, earned the title of Miss University of Alabama during a competition held Saturday night at the Bama Theatre in downtown Tuscaloosa. Edberg will receive a full-tuition scholarship and book scholarships for her year of service and will represent UA at the 2015 Miss Alabama Pageant in Birmingham in June. Maggie Gelhson of DeWitt, Iowa, was first runner-up, Allison Farris of Jasper was second runner-up, Shelby Lynne Shaw of Collierville, Tenn., was third runner-up and Chandler Shields of Huntsville was fourth runner-up in the Miss University of Alabama competition.
Crimson White – Feb. 24
The Box provides students with campus storytelling opportunities
Crimson White – Feb. 24
Traveling across campus, the Box has been a source of curiosity and mystery for UA students. Stepping inside the Box, a retrofitted photo booth, students are greeted with a recorder and a place to share their memories of campus. The Box is both a marketing and collection tool for Creative Campus’s new website Retrospective. Retrospective is an interactive look at campus through the multimedia lens of audio recordings and geotagged stories. The website is designed to show how campus evolves and changes over time. “I’ve always been interested in the idea of how coincidental [it is that] there are so many stories intersecting at one place. Retrospective is a way to ground that in something tangible,” said Jordan Sandy, one of the students working on Retrospective. Sandy, a sophomore majoring in economics and English, said the idea for the website began when Creative Campus wanted to find a way to connect people to Tuscaloosa and its history. “We’re going to have a Google map with the stories tagged on the website, so you can see campus and see what happened at all these different places,” he said.
More troopers patrolling in Wiregrass region
CBS 12 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) – Feb. 23
More troopers will be on patrol across Alabama following a law enforcement reorganization. Officials at the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said 21 new state troopers will be working roadways across the state after their recent graduation from a training center in Selma. Col. John E. Richardson told The Dothan Eagle (http://bit.ly/1AvHMrY ) it’s the first trooper class to graduate since 2010. He said the state troopers have been understaffed for several years. A total of 289 troopers were assigned to highway patrols in 2014. That’s significantly less than the 871 troopers recommended in a recent study by the University of Alabama.
PHS students win awards at ASPA convention
Shelby County Reporter – Feb. 23
The excitement of Write Night followed by late-night cleanup duty quickly gave way to an early morning bus ride the following day for Pelham High School Literary Magazine staffers. Journeying to the Alabama Scholastic Press Association State Convention at the University of Alabama is an annual trip for the Lit Mag staff. The exhaustion of Write Night was quickly replaced by the adrenaline of this annual pilgrimage as we arrived in Tuscaloosa and made our way into ASPA’s general session. Soon, the Lit Mag staff looked just as alert as the PHS broadcast and yearbook staffers joining us this year. Treated to a presentation by Sarah Patterson, legendary University of Alabama Gymnastics coach, who revealed the significance of media to the rise of the popularity of the University’s Gymnastics program, students representing the best of Alabama’s scholastic press set off with renewed purpose to build their skills in several sessions during Friday’s festivities. Students attended sessions expanding their knowledge and creativity in all aspects of communications including photography, design, social media, writing, broadcast, leadership and staff organization and motivation. Advisers for statewide scholastic media also met, networked and planned for the coming year.