White House official to speak at Shelton State, University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa News – March 9
The deputy director of the White House’s Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities will give presentations at Shelton State Community College and the University of Alabama Tuesday and Wednesday. Ivory A. Toldson, deputy director for the HBCU initiative, will discuss the initiative during meet-and-greet events at Shelton’s C.A. Fredd Campus from 2 to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Atrium Building and on the Martin Campus from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Martin Campus Rehearsal Hall, Room 1927. He will be joined by UA students Morgan Curry and Justin Wells and Stillman College student Jeraun Pogue, who are serving as ambassadors for the program. Toldson is an associate professor at Howard University, senior research analyst for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and editor-in-chief of “The Journal of Negro Education.”
Alabama aerospace engineering students might just bring another championship to Tuscaloosa
Yellow Hammer News – March 9
A group of aerospace engineering students at the University of Alabama is hoping to attend a “Design, Build, Fly” competition in Tucson, Arizona this Spring, but they need a little help getting there. The six seniors on the team established a “GoFundMe” campaign, hoping to use the “crowd funding” website to raise the $2,500 needed for the trip in April. “This project is the culmination of our undergraduate education,” the members of the team said on the GoFundMe page, “and seeing it come to fruition would make the team, the faculty, and the department proud. The funding we are requesting would be used to travel to Tuscon, Arizona and stay for the four day competition. We have been fortunate to receive funding for the design and manufacturing of the aircraft, but we will not be able to showcase our design without your help.” The team’s operations manager, Shelby Cochran (who also just so happens to be a beauty queen), said she and the other team members have put in around 200 hours each over the last year into designing and building the aircraft for this competition.
ASHRAE revises heat pump book
SNIPS – March 9
The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has released its newly revised Geothermal Heating and Cooling: Design of Ground-Source Heat Pump Systems. The new book was written by Steve Kavanaugh, professor emeritus at the University of Alabama, and Kevin Rafferty, a consulting engineer, Klamath Falls, Ore. Both have spent the last 25 years focused on geothermal/GSHP work. “One of the realities of the GSHP industry is that, to some degree, it has been a victim of its own success,” Rafferty said. “Years ago the struggle was to simply get design teams to consider using the technology. Though this is still an issue in some areas, nationally it is far less of an issue than 20 years ago.
HOT BLAST: A law professor’s opinion about the Alabama Supreme Court ruling
Anniston Star – March 9
The Alabama Supreme Court ruling that stopped same-sex marriages in the state continues to be a strong national topic of discussion. Opposing critics — some for same-sex marriage, others against — have filled newspapers and websites with opinions about last week’s ruling. The latest comes from University of Alabama law professor Ronald J. Krotoszynski Jr., who wrote in a New York Times op-ed that “the Alabama Supreme Court’s action represents an unfortunate departure from the cooperative norm that must prevail between these independent judicial systems. Other state judiciaries would do well not to follow its example.” The professor’s main point involves not same-sex marriage but instead the legal relationship between the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Alabama Supreme Court Example Could Create Chaos For Nation’s Dual Court System
Daily KOS – March 9
When Alabama’s state Supreme Court decided to defiantly step into the marriage equality issue in the state, it was a bit surprising to most folks. It has also caused quite a bit of chaos in the state with regard to marriage and who can wed. And, a University of Alabama law professor says that it could also lead to chaos within the nation’s dual court system if other state supreme courts follow Alabama’s lead. This is because only the US Supreme Court can settle issues between lower federal courts and state supreme courts, and the SCOTUS only hears about 80 to 90 cases per year. That caseload could increase dramatically under such a scenario … “If State Supreme Courts followed the Alabama Supreme Court’s lead, a system of dual courts simply would not work,” Krotoszynski wrote. “The United States Supreme Court, which hears only 80 to 90 cases per year, would not be able to disentangle the legal morass that would result if state courts routinely thumbed their noses at the decisions of their local lower federal courts.”
Children and adults can volunteer together
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – March 9
Most people enjoy giving back to their community, but what some don’t know are the benefits of volunteer work at a young age. University of Alabama Community Service Director Courtney Chapman Thomas says early service activities build a standard for children’s futures. “We think it’s important to start children serving at a young age, because they serve with an authenticity and a genuineness that doesn’t always come as you walk through life,” Thomas said. She recommends involving children in community service as early as age four. “I think if we can prepare children at small ages we’ll be in a much different world,” she added.
Eight speakers selected for TEDxTuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa News – March 9
The first TEDxTuscaloosa event now has its eight speakers to share “ideas worth spreading” on April 11. They will offer a mixture of voices on co-op innovation, post-tornado reconstruction, the need for meaningful debate in place of shouting matches, shifting health-care focus to prevention, turning hobbies into life-changing hustles and more. Those wishing to attend should get applications by Wednesday at www.tedxtuscaloosa.com. Only 100 attendees will be allowed in, and the cost is $50 each. Organizers will curate the crowd, hoping for a diverse mix, the better to stimulate discussion. About 32 people from as far away as New York, Texas, Michigan, Tennessee, Georgia and Mississippi put forth propositions to be among the speakers. “Honestly, The Tuscaloosa News article got a whole lot of people from Tuscaloosa to apply,” said Andrew Richardson, TEDxTuscaloosa organizer. “And that’s ultimately what we wanted — people from here, or with a strong tie to the area.” Richardson, director of advancement and alumni relations at the University of Alabama’s College of Community Health Sciences, obtained a one-year license to produce the event from TED, which began as annual conferences in 1990, with talks based around technology, entertainment and design. … Each of the final eight will be required to attend at least two sessions of speaker training, through UA’s public speaking program.
University of Alabama to reboot yearbook, Corolla to be produced by University Relations
Al.com – March 9
After production was shuttered in 2014 due to dismal sales, the University of Alabama’s Corolla yearbook will soon be available for purchase again. But the university will take the yearbook’s reins after more than a century of independent, student-run production. “This year’s Corolla will be produced by University Relations with content developed with significant student and campus input,” Deborah Lane, associate vice president for university relations, said Monday. “It will focus on capturing the UA experience while offering all students the opportunity to be in the book in ways that capture their time on campus.”
Realizing the Dream lecture rescheduled
Tuscaloosa News – March 9
The Realizing the Dream Distinguished Lecture scheduled for Tuesday night had been rescheduled for October. Bryan A. Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, will speak on Oct. 27 at Stillman College. The lecture is part of a series of events honoring the life and legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Sponsors of Realizing the Dream are the University of Alabama, Shelton State Community College and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Artist exhibits art inspired by Alabama childhood
Crimson White – March 10
Richmond Burton pays tribute to his roots in Talladega, Alabama, and celebrates his return to the state for the first time in over 12 years in his exhibition, “From the Alabama Oval,” currently on display at the University. Burton has shown his art in New York and other cities in the United States and Europe. Before opening the current exhibition in the University’s Sarah Moody Gallery of Art last month, his most recent visit to Alabama was for the installation of a painting in Birmingham in 2002. “I’m hoping that this show will open up more possibilities for me to return to Alabama,” he said. “It’s really been a great experience, so full of warm memories and reconnecting with people who I hadn’t seen in 30 years or more.” The opening of “From the Alabama Oval” was special to Burton, because it was the first time he included biographical details and showed photographs of his childhood in Alabama to celebrate the exhibition, he said. “I was able to make it more about my life story, as opposed to when I usually lecture, I just keep it more to my work,”
he said.
Vanderbilt center named for ex-slave turned social justice pioneer
Vanderbilt.edu – March 9
Vanderbilt University’s African American and Diaspora Studies Program will launch the Callie House Research Center for the Study of Black Cultures and Politics on Thursday, March 12, with the inaugural lecture by Mary Frances Berry, former chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission. … The event also will recognize the research of three professors affiliated with African American and Diaspora Studies who have published books this spring: Houston Baker, Alice Randall and Sharpley-Whiting. The Trouble with Post-Blackness (Columbia University Press) is edited by Baker, a Distinguished University Professor and professor of English and African American and Diaspora Studies, and K. Merinda Simmons, assistant professor of religious studies at the University of Alabama. This collection of original essays confronts the premise, advanced by black intellectuals, that the Obama administration marked the start of a “post-racial” era in the United States.