Ex leader of S. Africa says world needs U.S.
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 18
The United States’ role as the world’s lone superpower is not an easy one, former South African president F.W. de Klerk said Friday during a lecture at the University of Alabama…De Klerk, who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with Nelson Mandela, the man who succeeded him as president, spoke to more than 200 people at the Bryant Conference Center as part of the Blackburn Institute’s annual Frank A. Nix lecture. John L. Blackburn created the institute, an organization of student leaders who want to make a difference in Alabama, in 1995. Blackburn served as the dean of men at UA in the 1960s and helped integrate UA…
Crimson-White – Oct. 20
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) — Oct. 17
Get More from Your Store
Food Management Magazine – October (Print version only)
When the University of Alabama was planning to remodel its busiest campus c-store to make it more customer-friendly, dining services administrators also saw the project as an opportunity to totally overhaul the product mix. Julia’s Market, unveiled in August in Julia Tutwiler Hall, a 900-bed women’s dormitory, is an upscale, inviting 2,000-sq. ft. space designed down to the details to appeal to female students…”What we heard from everyone was that it is all about fresh and healthy so you won’t see frozen meal replacements at Julia’s,” says Dining Services Director Kristina Hopton-Jones. The product mix emphasizes fresh fruit, freshly prepared single-serve entrees, portable dessert and snack items and lots and lots of sushi. “I campaigned for a long time to get sushi on campus—it finally was introduced in2005—and I think we serve some of the best sushi in Tuscaloosa,” says Hopton-Jones. A Japanese husband and wife tem employed full-time by dining services makes sushi for sale in the retail food court and at three campus c-stores…After extensive taste testing, Julia’s Market is also rolling out a branded Boar’s Head deli concept, a campus first, as well as ovens to bake fresh bread…Hopton-Jones projects a product mix of 46% c-store items, 32% coffee and 23% Boar’s Head products….
West lecture will be replayed
Crimson White – Oct. 20
After the unexpectedly high turnout for intellectual speaker Cornel West ended up turning many away from the doors of Morgan Auditorium on Thursday, some questioned why the popular speaker wasn’t in a larger venue. UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen said Morgan Auditorium, which holds nearly 600 people, was the largest available space that night. She also confirmed that a video of the lecture will be aired three separate times in the Ferguson Theatre on Oct. 29 between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. for those who missed the lecture or want to see it again.
Paul R. Jones donates $4.8 million collection to UA
Birmingham News – Oct. 19
Atlanta art collector Paul R. Jones has donated his 1,700-piece art collection to the University of Alabama. Valued at $4.8 million, the collection of 20th-century African-American art is the result of more than 40 years of collecting. Born and raised in a mining camp in Muscoda, near Bessemer, Jones said he chose UA as a way of “coming home
The collection will be displayed in galleries and other venues on the UA campus and will be available to historically black colleges and universities and other academic institutions, as well as museum throughout Alabama…
Ala. school bus seat belt study hits some bumps
Associated Press – Oct. 18
Alabama’s pilot study on using seat belts to increase school bus safety hit a couple of bumps early on over difficulties monitoring whether young riders kept the belts buckled. But leaders of the three-year project, which began at 12 Alabama schools in August, said the problems did not appear insurmountable as they develop guidance on new seat belt requirements for the 25 million students who ride buses nationally. “I consider these minor. I’ve done a lot of these type projects and all of them have little bugs you have to work out,” said University of Alabama civil engineering professor Dan Turner, who is heading the study…
InsuranceJournal.com – Oct. 20
Fox 6 (Birmingham) — Oct. 17 and Oct. 18
Alabama’s jobless rate hits 4-year high
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 18
…Ahmad Ijaz, an economist at the University of Alabama, said he expects the state’s jobless rate to keep inching up, possibly hitting 5.5 percent in October. But he anticipates improvement in 2009. Ijaz, who is with the university’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said Alabama is doing better than its neighbors because of a wide mix of industries and because the automotive companies in the state — Mercedes, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota — “are doing relatively well” compared with other automakers…Ijaz said sales tax collections and unemployment rates are connected.
“If people are afraid they are going to lose their jobs, they are not going to spend as much,” he said.
Huntsville Times – Oct. 18
Alabama unemployment rate jumps to 5.3 percent, highest in four years
Birmingham News – Oct. 18
…While the Alabama economy is faring better than the U.S. economy, it is feeling the same trend of weak consumer and business spending, said Ahmad Ijaz, an economic researcher for the University of Alabama. “We will most likely see a significant slowdown during the next two quarters for the state economy,” he said…
PACs shield donations in Alabama Supreme Court race
Birmingham News – Oct. 19
…”The PAC system allows interest groups to pool their money,” said David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama.
The system also makes it difficult for voters to figure out who financially backs candidates, Lanoue said. “That is meaningful information,” he said. “Donors have agendas.”…
Truth missing in mudslinging?
Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger – Oct. 19
…But David Lanoue, head of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said political mudslinging happens because it works. “Your message may be false, you may be called on it, but you can’t put the toothpaste back into the tube,” he said. “It’s out there.” Lanoue said campaign inaccuracies will resonate the most with the least-informed voters. “A certain number of people will never hear the rebuttals, will never read the fact-checking and they’ll believe,” he said…
Experts say Obama wins by not losing
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 19
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama won his series of debates with Republican John McCain chiefly by not losing them, the chairman of the University of Alabama department of political science said. David Lanoue, who recently co-authored a paper in an academic journal titled “Debates Are for Losers,” said he thinks that what had been a fairly even race in the polls began to go Obama’s way during the course of the three presidential debates and single vice presidential debate. “I think the perception is that the Republicans lost all four debates, even as you can point to very little Obama did or said that captured the imagination,” Lanoue said. “And I think that helps to explain the lead that Obama seems to have taken and even expanded.” Meanwhile, Karen Cartee, a UA professor who has written several books on campaign advertising and steadfastly maintains that “negative advertising works,” said she has seen things in this year’s campaign that may be an exception that proves her rule. “Negative campaigning tends to work where you have low-information voters and this year has been extraordinary in the amount of attention the whole nation has focused on the long primary fights and now the general election,” she said. “McCain has tended to be more negative in his advertising, but I think a lot of people don’t think that matches his own image of a principled, straight-shooting politician.”…
Senate campaigns offer little on major issues
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal – Oct. 19
…Historically, attack ads have worked in elections even though voters generally say they don’t like them, said Karen Cartee, a professor at the University of Alabama, who has written books on political advertising. Issue ads and biographical ads serve a purpose, she said, but at the end of the day, they aren’t the ones that change voters’ opinions. “They make people feel better but they don’t move poll numbers.” But Cartee said it’s unclear in this election cycle, in which people have deep concerns about the direction of the country and the economic crisis, if negative ads will have the same impact as in past elections.
“Certainly, politics as usual have been thrown out the window,” she said.
Watch out for pitfalls during financial turmoil
Montgomery Advertiser – Oct. 19
…Caroline Fulmer, a former banker who teaches personal finance at the University of Alabama, said many consumers are wasteful in their spending habits. They can get by by making simple changes here and there…Consumers confuse what they want with things they need. “We need food,” Fulmer said. “Some¬times we just want to eat at the steakhouse.” This was only one of several examples she gave of ways people spend more than they have to on life’s necessities. Working out a household budget is the simplest way to fix this, she said. “People waste up to 25 percent of their spending every month,” she said. “You have to track all spending.”…
A grim verdict awaits law grads
National Law Journal – Oct. 20
…One of the biggest challenges for career services professionals is dealing with the rumor mill among law students, who are a “worrisome lot” by nature, said Tom Ksobiech, assistant dean for career services at the University of Alabama School of Law.
“Everyone has heard something from ‘a friend,’ ” he said. “According to the ‘friend,’ there are no jobs anywhere.” His school has made a push in recent years to get more law firms to participate in on-campus interviews. This year’s turnout was strong, Ksobiech said, but he remains guarded about the future. “Where we are in two years as a nation, that’s the thing that everyone has to watch out for,” he said…
Beat Auburn, Beat Hunger kicks off today
Crimson White – Oct. 20
Beat Auburn Beat Hunger, the annual competition with Auburn University to raise food to fight hunger and poverty in Alabama, kicks off today. The food drive, which is being held for the 15th year, will kick off at the Ferguson Center Plaza today with a chili-cooking competition…
Presidential election forum held tonight
Crimson White – Oct. 20
Students from the College Democrats and the College Republicans will participate in a forum on the presidential election sponsored by the University of Alabama Honors College and UA Housing and Residential Communities tonight. Bill Stewart, emeritus faculty in political science, will moderate the forum at 7 p.m. in 205 Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library…