U. of Alabama president celebrates 60th anniversary of first black student accepted, enrolled
USA Today College – Feb 7
University of Alabama President Stuart Bell sent an email to students, faculty and staff on Feb. 5, 2016, marking the 60th anniversary of the day the first black student was accepted and enrolled at the University. On Feb. 6, 1956, Autherine Lucy Foster became the first black student to enroll at the University, the statement read. Because of campus unrest, administration could not protect her. Her enrollment lasted three days, after which she was suspended and later expelled, the statement read. On June 11, 1963, Vivian Malone and James Hood, two black students, enrolled on campus. This, the statement read, was the day the University successfully desegregated. According to the statement, the Board of Trustees overturned Foster’s expulsion in 1988, and she re-enrolled a year later. Her daughter, Grazia Foster, was also a UA student at the time. Foster earned a masters degree in elementary education, the statement read.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 5
Crimson White – Feb. 5
Panorama – Feb. 7
Board of Trustees approves UA’s adaptive athletic facility
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 6
The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees approved preliminary plans for an Adaptive Athletic facility at UA and a new football operations building on its Birmingham campus. The two new facilities were part of a lengthy physical properties agenda approved by trustees on Friday. The preliminary plan for the adaptive athletic facility, which will be attached on the south side of the Student Recreation Center, is a 27,036 square-foot, facility that includes a gym, training and storage space, offices and locker rooms. The gym would include an NCAA-sized basketball court and seating for 500. While the gym would be a permanent home for the wheelchair basketball teams, the facility is envisioned as a space serving all of the adaptive programs on campus. The budget for the project is $10 million.
UA researchers study rainforest recovery
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 7
A pair of researchers at the University of Alabama is among the co-authors of a paper in the latest edition of the journal “Nature” about the rate at which forests in Central and South America regrow after being cut down. Eben Broadbent and Angelica Almeyda Zambrano were among teams gathering data at 1,500 individual plots across 45 sites. The two worked in Bolivia in 2006, gathering information from more than 8,000 trees, shrubs and palms in 29 plots. The paper “Biomass Resilience of Neotropical Secondary Forests” was published online by “Nature” on Wednesday. “What this paper is showing is how long does it take for a forest to look structurally similar to a forest if it had never been cut,” said Almeyda Zambrano, an adjunct professor of geography. As part of the research, the teams explored why it takes some secondary forests longer than others to recover.
Freedom Riders reflect upon past and future at First African Baptist Church
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 8
Three Freedom Riders spoke Sunday at First African Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, sharing their personal stories of fighting racial segregation in the South during the 1960s. The activists, Reginald Green, Joan Browning and Dion Diamond, offered insight into the struggles they faced and gave advice to members of younger generations who face new barriers. “To look around (today) and see all these young people is a testament to what happens when ordinary people decide that they can do extraordinary things, which is what the Freedom Riders movement captures,” Green said. The Freedom Riders were a group of activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated South to protest the area’s non-enforcement of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which made the segregation of interstate bus and rail stations unconstitutional. . . . The event was co-sponsored by the University of Alabama Crossroads Community Center, Black Student Union, University Programs, the Afro American Gospel Choir and the First African Baptist Church.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 7
Get to Know an Organization: Al’s Pals is an opportunity to help and mentor students
Crimson White – Feb. 5
College students often feel like they have no free time. From working to school to extracurricular activities, many people find their hands tied up. Even then, it is important to give back and there are great opportunities available in Tuscaloosa. Al’s Pals is an organization at the University of Alabama that pairs willing student volunteers with young children in the Tuscaloosa community to help the youth with their homework, aid in enhancing math and reading, then enjoy some fun. “It is incredibly hands on, and they develop really tangible and transferable skill that they can translate to their resume,” said Chris Chirino, a career advisor describing what Al’s Pals can do for students. “[It can] show employers ‘Listen, I have cared for another student, I have assisted them in their academic success and growth by doing x, y, and z’, while having to manage my schedule in a way to be able to do that.”
Regrowing rainforests may help curb climate change more than we thought
Huffington Post – Feb. 5
Scientists have long promoted rain forest preservation as a way to mitigate climate change, but now it turns out that regrowing forests is just as important. Newly grown tropical forests can capture harmful carbon from the atmosphere at a rate up to 11 times faster than older forests, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. The study includes a map of Latin America (pictured below) that shows the regions with the greatest potential for carbon capture. . . . The ability of a secondary forest to grow and capture carbon depends mainly on rainfall, the researchers found. “Rainfall came out as being the most significant factor,” said Dr. Eben Broadbent, an assistant professor in the University of Alabama’s geography department, in a statement. “That’s really what’s going on here … Wet forests have a quicker recovery rate, and dry forests typically have a very low regrowth rate.”
Candidates crowd ballot for a shot at Senate seat
Anniston Star – Feb. 7
Listen closely to any of Sen. Richard Shelby’s election rivals, and you’ll hear plenty of talk about 2016 as an anti-establishment election year. “He’s not used his position to make the country better” said John Martin, a Dothan resident who’s challenging Shelby for the Republican nomination. “We’ve fired coaches for less than that.” . . . An insurgency against Shelby is possible, said University of Alabama political scientist Nichole Bauer — though an election upheaval is more likely in some states than in others.”Alabama’s political process just isn’t very competitive,” she said.
PolitiFact and Scripps team up to fact check the last Republican debate before New Hampshire votes
WTFS –ABC (Tampa), Feb. 7
A May 2015 poll found broad public support for path to legal status, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. The poll found that 72 percent of Americans said that undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States should be allowed to stay in the country legally, if certain requirements are met. The poll found that 42 percent said they should be able to apply for citizenship while 26 percent said they should only be able to apply for permanent residency. Pew’s survey found that 56 percent of Republicans favored a path to legal status. However, George Hawley, a political scientist at the University of Alabama, previously told PunditFact that the Pew survey also shows a complicated set of attitudes. “A majority of Republicans also felt that giving people who came to the United States illegally a way to gain legal status is like rewarding them for doing something wrong,” Hawley said. “Further, 42 percent of Republicans felt legal immigration should be decreased, compared to 21 percent who think it should be increased. Also, far more Republicans view immigrants as a burden, 63 percent, than view them as an asset for the country, 27 percent.”
Politifact Florida – Feb. 7
Adam Griffith shares his adoption story
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 6
WSFA-NBC 12 (Montgomery) – Feb. 5, 2016
Alabama is celebrating International Adoption Day. The day recognizes families who have gone through the process of adopting children from other countries. Secretary of State John Merrill hosted a commemoration at the state capital today. One of the speakers was The University of Alabama’s kicker Adam Griffith, who was adopted from Poland.
WSFA-NBC 12 (Montgomery) – Feb. 5
UA gymnastics team holds Power of Pink Meet
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 5
It was a night to think pink at The University of Alabama’s gymnastics meet against Kentucky. The meet was part of the 11th annual Power of Pink weekend in support of breast cancer awareness.
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 6
UA students to replace steps to Mound B at Moundville
WCFT-ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Feb. 5
This weekend, students from The University of Alabama will be installing new steps to Mound B. Mound B is the tallest at the park. The original steps were built in 1967, but after 50 years of use, they’re in pretty bad shape. UA engineering students will replace them Saturday.
Go Granny D! play to be performed at The University of Alabama
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 5
The Tuscaloosa County Democratic Committee will host a production titled “Go Granny D!” The show is currently touring nationwide. The show is about an 89 year-old woman who walked from Pasadena, California to Washington, D.C. because of her concerns over campaign finance reform. The performance will take place in the Ferguson Center Theater at The University of Alabama.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 5
UA employees wear red for the American Heart Association
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 5
The University of Alabama is trying to help raise awareness of heart disease and generate interest in the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk with national “Wear Red” day.
Library looking for sports stories
Gadsden Times – Feb. 7
Got some interesting sports stories? Whether you’re young or old, the Gadsden Public Library would like you to share those tales Tuesday as part of an upcoming traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institute. “Hometown Teams,” part of the Smithsonian’s Museum on Main Street traveling exhibition, will be at the library from March 3 through April 14. Adult Services Librarian Craig Scott, the project’s director, said the library wants to personalize the experience by obtaining tales of sports-related experiences from local residents. It’s partnering with the University of Alabama’s Center for Public Television & Radio to do so. Representatives of the center will be at the library from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday with “The Box.”
Ferguson Center hosts Black on Film exhibit
Crimson White – Feb. 5
On Thursday night, Creative Campus and the Crimson White came together to host the opening reception of the Black on Film exhibit. The exhibit featured past Crimson White newspapers that covered significant events in The University of Alabama’s history, such as the first African American student, Autherine J. Lucy, being admitted to the University. Photographer Adrian O. Walker’s pictures from his book Our Ferguson, My Lens were also showcased. A native to St. Louis, Walker captured the Ferguson, Mo. protests that followed the shooting of Michael Brown to create his book of photography.
Music as therapy not limited by genre
Crimson White – Feb. 8
Some Tuscaloosa music lovers recall how the fast paced, aggressive melodies of punk rock helped them cope
with stress. According to Andrea Cevasco-Trotter, director of music therapy at The University of Alabama, the efficiency of music as therapy is not limited to a certain genre of music. “Research supports the use of a person’s preferred music,” Cevasco-Trotter said. “Yes, hard rock, metal and punk rock music can be relaxing to people who
prefer it.” Matt Hector, an alumni of the University, said he has been listening to punk music since he was in the eighth grade and remembered checking out the album “Never Mind the Bollocks” by The Sex Pistols from his
local library. “At the same time, I was going through the early stages of a developing bipolar disorder,” Hector said. “Punk allowed me to channel some of the worst part[s] of deep lows into music that gave power to anger and made
it hope.” Hector also said he finds different genres of punk service different parts of his brain, and even that lighter punk music is fun and helps promote his good moods. The more fast-paced, hard music lyrics help his stress.
Up-and-coming organist in recital at downtown church
Anniston Star – Feb. 7
Hearing the triumphant tones of the organ — the king of instruments — can be inspiring, especially in the realm of sacred music. Such sounds will be heard today at 2:30 p.m. at First United Methodist Church of Anniston, when organist Katie Loudermilk gives a free concert as a part of the Soli Deo Gloria Concert Series.Loudermilk is from Waco, Texas. . . . . After she graduated from high school, she attended Baylor University. She is currently working towards her master’s degree in organ performance at the University of Alabama, where she has also performed in master classes.
Academically speaking 02.08
The News (Brunswick, Georgia) – Feb. 8
Kingsland residents Dana Sweeney and Hannah Watson were recently named to the fall President’s List at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
College News
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 7
A delegation of 10 students from the Alabama International Relations Club recently received awards at the fifth annual Harvard National Model United Nations- Latin America conference in Mexico City. For the second consecutive year, the club was named Most Outstanding Small Delegation. AIRC members who received individual awards were Brandon Hooks, Best Delegate; Alex Unger, Outstanding Delegate; and Davis Wright, honorable mention.
ASSE celebrates first anniversary
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 5
The Tuscaloosa branch of the American Society of Safety Engineers celebrated its one year anniversary with safety administrators from The University of Alabama, and local businesses. Mayor Maddox shared some insights of the aftermath of the tApril 27th tornado, and talked about how Tuscaloosa can improve safety in the future.