UA in the News: Jan. 27, 2016

Culverhouse fundraising challenge brings in $3.6 million
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 26
The latest challenge by a Florida businessman meant to spur donations to support scholarships and others assistance at the University of Alabama has raised roughly $3.6 million in three months. Hugh Culverhouse Jr., the son of the namesake of the Culverhouse College of Commerce, and his wife, Eliza Culverhouse, agreed in October 2015 to donate as much as $1 million to UA as a match meant to encourage other donations and gifts to the business college by the end of the year.

Bama Dining host cooking classes, aims to teach the basics of creating dishes
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 26
Standing in aprons in front of bubbling pots and pans, 26 people of all ages filled the Fresh Food Company at the UA campus Tuesday night. With the guidance of five Bama Dining chefs, they were busy cooking up sauces like Velouté and Béchamel. “We both enjoy cooking together and have taken some other cooking classes,” said Ann Schaetzle, who brought her 13-year-old daughter Emma to the class. “I think it’ll just give us some variety, and to [help Emma] make her grandmother’s birthday dinner.” Tuesday’s two-hour class, called “Learn Your Mother Sauces,” was the first in a series of Crimson Kitchen workshops offered by Bama Dining. The Bama Dining cooking school aims to teach basic cooking techniques used by chefs at UA that can be used at home.
Crimson White – Jan. 26
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 26

State superintendent: Poverty is biggest challenge for AL students
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Jan. 26
There are many challenges facing children in Alabama. On Tuesday, hundreds gathered at the Bryant Conference Center at the University of Alabama to find solutions to help them. The 10th annual Doing What Matters for Alabama’s Children Conference brought in educators, social workers and service providers who work with kids from around the state. The all-day conference addressed many child and family needs. Alabama School Superintendent Dr. Tommy Bice said the biggest challenge facing Alabama school children is poverty. Poor school systems spend most of their money on basic services and programs.
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 26
NBC 12 (Montgomery) – Jan. 26

Renowned West Alabama artist dies at 87
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 26
Artist Thornton Dial, who assembled odds and ends into artworks that lifted him from picking cotton as a child in west Alabama to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, has died at 87 … Dial helped shape the career path of Stacy Morgan, an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Alabama who teaches a course on African-American art and literature. To fulfill a graduate-school class assignment at Emory University, Morgan attended a folk-art exhibit, where he first saw Dial’s work.

Millennials The New Majority But Still Less Likely to Vote
Herald Globe – Jan. 26
Millennials – young people born between 1982 and 2000 – could have more influence than any other group when it comes to this year’s presidential election. That’s because there is so many of them. Eighty-three million millennials now live in America, according to United States Census Bureau. The number represents one quarter of the U.S. population, and it surpasses the 75.4 million baby boomers, individuals born between 1946 and 1964. With those numbers, millennials could dominate the election. Except that they mostly don’t vote … Kayleigh Moller, 24, is studying law at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She is a republican who in the last presidential election voted for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. She is also a member of the Alabama Republican Party, has volunteered in republican campaigns and served as the executive director of the Indiana Federation of College Republicans.

How to make business travel bearable: If you need a Bloody Mary, it’s the tomato juice you’re after
Cityam.com – Jan. 26
Indeed, the pressures of international business travel can affect your job performance by 38 per cent, according to a study by the University of Alabama. And the more exotic the destination, the more deleterious the effects may be. The researchers describe a phenomenon known as “institutional distance”, which sees foreigners struggle to adjust to social customs, cuisine, language and laws very different to their own, which makes long-distance travel particularly stressful.

Sonic Frontiers hosts composer Olivia Block
Crimson White – Jan. 26
On Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Recital Hall Moody Music Building, artist and composer Olivia Block preformed. The event lasted from 7:30 to 9 p.m. and was free and open to the public as part of the Sonic Frontiers concert series throughout West Alabama. The crowd was filled with diverse faces that were all intrigued with her performance. The night began with announcements and thanks to sponsors. Block then sat down and began. She used several other instruments and props to transform the typical sound of the piano, making it sound much darker than usual. Hannah Edmunds, a freshman student at The University of Alabama said, “The performance given was unlike any I have ever witnessed. Being that I, too, play the piano, it gave me a different outlook on how there are always multiple ways to do something and there are also many different ways to interpret art.”

“Interracial Intimacy” lecture discusses relations between slaves and slave owners
Crimson White – Jan. 26
The word ‘intimate’ suggests emotional…and physical closeness between two human beings, even unlikely ones,” said Sharony Green, UA Assistant Professor of History. “The word sheds light, too, on the wins and losses of such closeness when one party has more power than the other, but still both find ways to reap some benefit.” Green felt it was important to explain the word while speaking at the “Interracial Intimacy in Antebellum America” lecture that was held Wednesday from 5-7 p.m. at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, in which she and three colleagues discussed sexual relationships between slaveholders and slave girls and the ramifications of such relationships.

UA students hold dance marathon
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 26
University of Alabama students are dancing for a cause. UADM had their first dance marathon tonight at the Ferguson Center. The group raises money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in their community.

Remembering Coach Bryant
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Jan. 26
Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the death of University of Alabama Football Coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant. Most of us remember Bear Bryant for his record. He is the namesake of our stadium.