University of Alabama president unveils principal goals for new strategic plan
Tuscaloosa News – April 26
University of Alabama President Stuart Bell on Tuesday unveiled the principal goals for a new-five year strategic plan, which he hopes to begin implementing this fall. “The basic framework is now done. Moving forward we will identify and discuss objectives for us to focus on to achieve these goals and some of these objectives,” Bell said. Bell gave a general overview of the plans four “pillars” at the annual spring faculty and staff meeting. Last fall, Bell tasked a 15-member group of administrators, faculty, staff and students led by Interim Provost Kevin Whitaker to develop recommendations for the new five-year plan, with the goal of announcing details this spring. The strategic planning council will continue to fine-tune the language this summer, Bell said.
NASA Responds to an S.O.S. of Historic Proportions
Smithsonian Magazine – April 26
The earth shakes millions of times every year. Often, these earthquakes strike in familiar places, such as the recent, deadly quakes in Ecuador and Japan. At other times, a quake may hit in a spot less familiar with the temblors, such as the magnitude-5.8 earthquake that struck Virginia in 2011 and damaged the Washington Monument. Historic structures are often vulnerable during a quake. Several World Heritage Sites in Nepal were destroyed or badly damaged in 2015 during a magnitude-7.8 earthquake and aftershocks as strong as magnitude 7.3. Older building practices and aging construction materials make most historic structures less able to withstand the vibrations that occur during an earthquake or from high winds. Modern building techniques can be used to update these structures to mitigate some of the potential damage, but even then they are more vulnerable than their modern counterparts. . . . Historic structures can lack the kinds of connections, such as steel reinforcement, that transform the individual pieces of a building into a more durable, cohesive system. Engineers, however, can retrofit those buildings with external ties that hold the building together. “On [some] of these buildings, you’ll see plates on the exterior with a bolt coming through them and a big old nut on the end,” says Michael Kreger, director of the Large-Scale Structures Laboratory at the University of Alabama. “They’ll usually paint these things black so they kind of look like they’ve been there forever.”
UA researchers hope virtual reality will help calm severe weather fears
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 26
Five years after one of the deadliest tornadoes ripped through Tuscaloosa and other parts of Alabama, people are still dealing with the emotional and physical effects. “A large number of people still have a low level anxiety with it,” Dr. Laura Myers, Executive Director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS) said. Researchers with the university’s CAPS program continue to fine tune their virtual reality tornado simulator. A person puts on goggles and virtually walks through a home during a tornado emergency.
NBC 12 (Montgomery) – April 26
Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo named 2016 Achievement in Library Diversity Research honoree
American Library Association – April 27
Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo, associate and Foster-EBSCO Endowed professor, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama, has been named the 2016 Achievement in Library Diversity Research honoree. As part of its ongoing support of the propagation of library-based diversity research, the Diversity Research Grants Advisory Committee, a subcommittee of the ALA Council Committee on Diversity, and the ALA Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services are pleased to recognize him for his contributions to the profession and his promotion of diversity within it. The Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services began designating this honor in 2004.
UA professor studied aftermath of Tuscaloosa tornado
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 26
Tuscaloosa has come a long way since the April 27, 2011 tornado. A University of Alabama professor studied the aftermath of the storm. Dr. Andrew Graettinger has spent a lot of time studying tornadoes to better understand the forces that these large storms generate. He has studied tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Joplin, Missouri and Moore, Oklahoma.
Alabama a harbinger of Trump or Cruz election?
Fort Meyers Florida Weekly – April 26
For decades, that state’s governor’s mansion has been home to an astounding procession of grifters, buffoons, xenophobes, homophobes, Bible-thumping hypocrites and Ku Klux Klan sympathizers. The current occupant is Robert Bentley, a Republican who carries on in the not-so-grand tradition of his predecessors … In 2011, HB 56 (backed strongly by Mr. Bentley) became law. It is the nastiest piece of immigration legislation in the United States. It is probably unconstitutional (a federal appeals court has invalidated large swaths of HB 56), but the law’s supporters couldn’t care less. Its expressed purpose was to expel immigrants (primarily Latinos), and in that regard it succeeded grandly. In the law’s first year, between 40,000 to 80,000 immigrants hightailed it out of Alabama, costing the state as much as $10 billion in lost income and tax revenues, according to a 2012 study conducted by the University of Alabama.
‘Community effort’ spurs rebirth after storm
Tuscaloosa News – April 26
The text message on April 27, 2011, contained just four words: “We’re fine. Neighborhood destroyed.” That’s how Forest Lake resident Linda Parsons learned that when she emerged from a University of Alabama storm shelter, she would not be going home to sleep that night. Parsons, an associate professor of accounting at the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, had huddled with colleagues in a power-free basement as an EF-4 multiple vortex tornado tore a diagonal 5.9-mile path of devastation across the city, from Rosedale Court in west Tuscaloosa to Alberta in the east, before continuing into unincorporated Holt and beyond.
UA students to perform in Scotland
WVUA23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 26
University of Alabama Dance Students are headed to Scotland this summer as part of a new program called UA Fringe. Eight dancers will plan, promote and perform a week of shows at the Edinborough Fringe Festival, the largest arts festival in the world.
Stillman College and UA join together with OLLI
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 26
Stillman College and The University of Alabama are joining forces to bring life-long learning opportunities to for older Alabamians with OLLI. OLLI stands for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and is a program that allows mature adults to learn and socially interact with others.
2011 Tornadoes: New Research, Old Problems
Alabama Public Radio – April 21
During severe weather, most people get their forecasts and weather information from TV meteorologists like ABC 33/40’s James Spann. But those forecasts start far earlier. It’s a beautiful spring day in Huntsville now. But a group of forecasters and other scientists are laser focused on what’s coming tomorrow. All their models suggest severe weather on the horizon and the potential for strong tornadoes. The National Weather Service forecasters and emergency managers seem concerned, but other scientists seem almost hopeful. Or maybe “hopeful” isn’t the right word. . . . That’s Kevin Laws, Science and Operations Officer at the National Weather Service in Birmingham. Another issue, according to Dr. Laura Myers with the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety, is the infrastructure in this area. “We have a lot of manufactured homes, mobile homes, so there’s a lot of vulnerability, and so you’re going to have more fatalities with poor infrastructure.” Another problem is terrain. Trees and other obstructions don’t just block radar from seeing storms, they keep the people in the path of that storm in the dark as well. “…and so they may waste their lead time trying to figure out if it’s really coming, and it may be too late, because we can’t see them coming.”