State’s Largest Road Project on UA Campus
Fox 6 – Feb. 4
The state is planning a lot of road and bridge projects this year. 302 to be exact. Governor Bentley made the announcement today. The biggest project is in Tuscaloosa. 5th Avenue will be extended to Hackberry Lane at the University of Alabama campus. The state will finance the projects with bond sales.
WTVM (Columbus, Ga.) – Feb. 5
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 5
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Feb. 5
WRBL-TV (Columbus, Ga.) – Feb. 4
WDEF 12 (Chattanooga, Tenn.) – Feb. 4
UA graduate produces commercial for Super Bowl
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 4
Enjoy the commercials last night on the Super Bowl? One getting lots of buzz was created by a University of Alabama graduate! Ruth Brown joins us now by phone with her reaction. Ruth Brown, an alumni of the University of Alabama, graduated in 2007 with a degree in advertising. Hired as an office coordinator in 2008 for Pogo Pictures, a high-end commercial production company, Ruth found herself in just four short years being promoted as Pogo’s executive producer. Currently as the executive producer at Pogo, she has produced national commercials for companies such as KFC, Embassy Suites, Disney, Ford, Home Depot, AT&T, Alabama Tourism, Komen 3 Day Breast Cancer Walk and many others. One of Ruth’s dreams has always been to have a commercial she’s produced air during the Super Bowl and this year her dream came true!
UA archaeologists surveying future hotel site
Crimson White – Feb. 5
A team from the Office of Archaeological Research for The University of Alabama Museums is conducting an archaeological survey of the future site of the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Tuscaloosa, which was formerly the home of a Civil War prisoner of war camp, among other things…Matthew Gage, director of the Office of Archaeological Research for UA Museums, is overseeing the excavation project. Gage said a team of 25-30 people will work on the full-scale excavation in order to finish the project as quickly as possible. “We’re working to finish the project as fast as possible,” Gage said. “We know that [Embassy Suites] needs to begin construction pretty soon and we’ve devised our research design to address that so we can get everything out of the ground quickly but maintain the methodical approach that is necessary for the data recovery.”
Sentimental and weepy… and that was just the ads
Irish Examiner – Feb. 4
Unabashed sentimentality took the unofficial Super Bowl trophy for advertising brilliance, with draft horses and pickup trucks both putting a lump in America’s collective throat. … “This is the ultimate spectacle of sports,” said Andrew Billings, director of the University of Alabama Program in Sports Communication. “This is the pinnacle of the ads industry.”
Shut Out: New Federal Rules Excluding CC Students from Pell Grant Program
Community College Week – Feb. 4
Call it the law of unintended consequences or the inevitable result of a dysfunctional decide-at-the-last-possible-moment Washington political system. Whatever the label, changes made last year to the bedrock Pell Grant program are taking a heavy toll on community colleges and their students, depressing enrollments and squeezing the pocketbooks of thousands of students, if not pushing them out of the classroom altogether. … Added Steven G. Katsinas, director of the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama: “If you’re not really destitute, you’re not going to get a Pell Grant.” Katsinas recently completed a study that found that the changes enacted by Congress stripped Pell Grant eligibility from nearly 3,000 Mississippi students. The changes contributed to lower enrollments for the fall 2012 semester at 14 of the state’s 15 community colleges, the study found.
Scottsboro Boys Exoneration Bill To Be Presented To Alabama Legislature
Huffington Post – Feb. 5
In 1931, Alabama wanted to execute the black Scottsboro Boys because two white women claimed they were gang-raped. Now, state officials are trying to exonerate them in a famous case from the segregated South that some consider the beginning of the modern civil rights movement. Two Democratic and two Republican legislators unveiled proposals Monday for the legislative session starting Tuesday. A resolution labels the Scottsboro Boys as “victims of a series of gross injustice” and declares them exonerated. A companion bill gives the state parole board the power to issue posthumous pardons. … University of Alabama history professor Tom Reidy, who has written about the Scottsboro Boys, said they should be considered “the beginning of the modern civil rights movement.”
Alabama Business Confidence Indx Falls Again
WBRC-Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 4
The Alabama Business Confidence Index shows business leaders in the state a little glum over the economy. While a score over 50 indicates expected economic improvement, the index fell for the third straight quarter to 45-point-4. The index, which comes from the Center for Economic Research at the University of Alabama, finds that while business leaders were pessimistic about the national economy, they felt better about the state economy.
Birmingham Business Journal – Feb. 4
Bama Dining supports Meatless Monday campaign
Crimson White – Feb. 5
Americans are eating less meat than they were five years ago and Bama Dining is no exception to the trend. Fall 2012 brought more vegetarian options than ever in campus dining halls, especially on Mondays. Meatless Mondays is a nonprofit campaign initially developed by Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health offering information and recipes for meat-free meals according to meatlessmondays.com. Various celebrities such as Tamera Mowry and Emily Deschanel are on board with the campaign, promoting its health and environmental benefits, and the Humane Society of the United States recently recognized The University of Alabama’s development of their own Meatless Monday program. Bama Dining supports the Meatless Mondays campaign by providing more vegetarian-friendly meals all over campus.
LeaderShape to host information sessions for interested applicants
Crimson White – Feb. 4
University of Alabama students who have attended The LeaderShape Institute, a yearly leadership program held in Atlanta, Ga., and the division of Student Affairs are hosting an information session in Room 302 of The Ferguson Center, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. This is one of three information sessions this semester. These sessions will cover topics such as other students’ previous experiences with the program, transportation and the application process. LeaderShape is a six-day leadership development program where students learn new skills and how to improve an organization. Over the six days, students interact with 60 other college student leaders from all over the country.
Music takes flight in the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse
Marshall University Parthenon – Feb. 4
Jazz fans gathered Saturday in the Joan C. Edwards Playhouse to watch the Thundering Herd All-Stars and the Airmen of Note perform at the winter jazz festival. … The jazz festival aimed to teach high school students about jazz music and to help improve their skills. … This year, Steve Roberts, a professor from the University of Alabama, was chosen to conduct the all-star band.
Fashion Inc. provides students opportunities to intern, design
Crimson White – Feb. 5
For the members of the club Fashion Inc., fashion is not just a job but a way of life. These future fashionistas are not hitting the streets to find their next look but instead surfing the net on the hunt for the next big sale. In this club, the networking possibilities are endless and clothes are only half the fun. Fashion Inc. President Kelly Druce, a senior majoring in apparel designs said the organization aims to provide an outlet for fashion-minded students on campus.