UA capital campaign nears $613 million
Tuscaloosa News – July 9
Over the past seven years, donors gave $613 million to the University of Alabama, the most ever for a state institution during a major fundraising effort. The total bests the $609 million donated to Auburn University during its capital campaign, which ended in June 2008. Both universities officially kicked off their money-raising efforts within weeks of each other and had identical $500 million goals. ‘It always matters if you beat Auburn,’ joked Pat Whetstone, director of alumni affairs. ‘But what matters so much more is the good this campaign brought the university.’ The dual capital campaigns weren’t in competition with each other, but the end result of more than $1.2 billion raised for higher education is great for the whole state, Whetstone said. UA President Robert Witt announced the capital campaign, called ‘Our Students, Our Future,’ in April 2006, making public an effort begun in 2002. When the campaign became public, UA had collected $299 million…’The campaign focused on raising scholarship support for our students and providing facilities that will enhance our ability to provide our students with a high-quality education,’ Witt said in a statement Wednesday. ‘The overwhelming support of our alumni, fans and friends has been evident throughout the capital campaign, and we sincerely appreciate their investment in the future of the University of Alabama.’…
Business school receives $600,000 donation
Crimson White – July 9
Current partners, retired partners, principals and employees of accounting firm Ernst & Young have pledged more than $600,000 to the Culverhouse School of Accountancy, according to a UA news release. The money will support the Ernst & Young scholarship, which is given to juniors and seniors continuing their education at the master’s level, said Mary Stone, director of the Culverhouse School of Accountancy. All recipients are selected by a faculty committee familiar with their performance. The scholarship is then presented at the annual accounting honors awards banquet every April, she said…
Longtime UA administrator dies
Crimson White – July 9
Two weeks ago, with his health failing, John L. Blackburn asked to see the campus he loved for the last time. “That was his one request – he wanted to take a ride around the University of Alabama,” said Cheree Causey, a close friend and former director of the Blackburn Institute. “He lived and breathed the University of Alabama.” Blackburn died Friday, succumbing to myleodysplasia, a disorder that hampers the body’s ability to produce red blood cells. He was 84…”Instead of a building named after him, he wanted a living, breathing organism that would change the state of Alabama,” said Becky Reamey, the Institute’s current coordinator. “He saw a need within the state of Alabama. He wanted to the Blackburn Institute to teach students about the state.” The Blackburn Institute’s goal was lofty: to take the best and brightest students from the University, teach them about the problems and potential of Alabama and prepare them to be future leaders…
Tuscaloosa dancer trains in world-renowned program
Tuscaloosa News – July 9
…American Ballet Theatre summer intensive held at the University of Alabama each year…Since 1997, the American Ballet Theatre has traveled to UA every summer for a three-week summer intensive, one of six intensives across the U.S. established to give aspiring dancers the opportunity to train with ABT instructors…The summer intensive is aimed at intermediate to advanced dancers between the ages of 12 to 18. The class, which began June 29 and will end July 18, has 184 students this year. Sarah Barry, UA dance professor and director of the ABT summer intensive program at UA, said it is one of the most reputable dance programs today. ‘The dancers learn the ABT curriculum, and they get the opportunity to train with master instructors. The emphasis of the training here is the future,’ Barry said…
Statue added to Woods Quad
Crimson White – July 9
There’s a new addition to Woods Quad this summer, and it looks like it just stepped off the set of a science fiction movie. Resembling a cross between “The Iron Giant” and the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz,” “Goldie,” created by grad student Joe McCreary, weighs in at nearly two tons. “Goldie represents the old, no longer needed and decommissioned,” said McCreary, who serves as the metal arts coordinator at Sloss Furnace…Goldie will lay decommissioned for spectators on Woods Quad until December…
University hosts two engineering programs
Crimson White – July 9
The College of Engineering is hosting the Engineering Math Advancement Program and Student Introduction to Engineering this month for prospective engineering students. According to organizers, E-MAP offers special activities for high school students, such as engineering events with faculty and local engineers, but it is mainly for enrolled freshmen. Entering freshmen should have a background in Pre-calculus, Algebra and Trigonometry. Organizers said the goal of E-MAP is to increase graduation rates and increase the number of engineering graduates employed in the state…While E-MAP is mainly for incoming freshman because of limited space, SITE is a pre-college summer program for rising high school juniors and seniors who are interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They focus on learning information, such as why skyscrapers don’t collapse during an earthquake and why bridges can withstand 100 mph winds. SITE Director Greg Singleton said the program is very successful because about 50 percent of high school students who attend the camp return to enroll in the College of Engineering…
Demopolis native travels to SE Asia
Demopolis Times – July 7
…Demopolis native Rob Quinney…, a junior civil engineering major at the University of Alabama, is part of a group called Engineers Without Borders. Engineers Without Borders is a national organization with collegiate chapters around the nation that does both local and international volunteer work with the goal of creating and applying sustainable engineering projects…Quinney recently had the perfect opportunity to utilize his passion for engineering. Last May, Quinney, nine other students, and two professors from the University of Alabama traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia for a 19 day service learning project about drinking water quality in rural villages…
Concert benefits social work students with cancer
Crimson White – July 9
To help a student and a staff member both facing cancer, the School of Social Work held the 3rd “Fight Cancer Benefit Jam” Friday at Little Willie’s in downtown Tuscaloosa. Proceeds from the concert were used to help cover medical and other related expenses of cancer patients Josh Wimberly, a doctoral student studying social work, and Susan Broughton, director of fiscal affairs in the School of Social Work. Approximately 70 friends, family and co-workers of Wimberly and Broughton attended the event, including the dean of the School of Social Work, Jim Hall…
The Quad Blog (Adam Jones): Where’s the camera?
Tuscaloosa News – July 9 (Online only)
Every once in a while there’s something on the Internet, TV or movie that is, for lack of a better term, cool. The new virtual tour on the University of Alabama’s web site fits the bill…”It’s amazing how much of the whiz-bang of all that is in post production,” said Andy Rainey, UA’s director of Web communications. UA hired Virtually Anywhere, a company based in Austin, Texas. Owner and founder Canny Weems came to Tuscaloosa in April with a tripod and digital camera to take the pictures…Now that it is up on the Web site, the virtual tour will be a frontpage feature, but is ultimately a tool for admissions and recruitment, Rainey said. Although, he said many alumni have contacted to say they enjoyed looking at the campus. “It’s a tour designed with externals in mind,” Rainey said. Being a promotional piece for a university, there are some planted people in the foreground of some shots, but Rainey said most of the students in the background didn’t know their picture was being taken for this purpose. [Students long ago agreed in some form to allow the university to use their image for promotional purposes.] In fact, getting students in the picture was the goal, Rainey said. “We had a list of locations, but the idea was not just to showcase facilities, but student life,” he said.
Ashford Police Get New Laptop Computers in Patrol Cars; Have to Train at UA
WTVY (Dothan) – July 8
…The officers assigned this equipment will be required to attend a one day training program at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
Education briefs
Birmingham News – July 9
The National Science Foundation selected two University of Alabama professors, Laura Busenlehner and Kim Caldwell, for awards totaling more than $1.45 million for research into two proteins and their roles in disease. — Alvin Sella, professor emeritus of painting at the University of Alabama, received a Governor’s Arts Award in May from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. — James A. Hall has been named dean of the University of Alabama School of Social Work.