Students plan all-night fundraiser to fight cancer
Tuscaloosa News – April 10
More than 4 million people around the world participate in Relay For Life events each year, according to the American Cancer Society. On Friday, University of Alabama students will host a 12-hour, all-night Relay For Life event to raise money for cancer research and treatment. Kristin Payne, UA’s Relay For Life director of development, knows how important cancer research and treatment can be. A senior at UA, she is one of the cancer survivors who will participate in Friday’s Relay For Life. She was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma when she was 7 months old. “I had a tumor on my spinal cord and cancerous cells in my bone marrow,” Payne said. After multiple surgeries and a few rounds of chemotherapy, doctors still gave her a very low chance of survival, Payne said. “By the grace of God, I can now call myself a cancer survivor,” Payne said. She said she got involved with Relay For Life for that reason. “Cancer doesn’t sleep, and neither will we,” Payne said. The 2013 Relay for Life will take place at the Sam Bailey Track and Field facility at the University of Alabama. The event starts at 6 p.m. Friday and continues until 6 a.m. Saturday.
UA fraternity, sorority to host philanthropy cookout on Thursday
Al.com – April 9
One University of Alabama fraternity and one sorority are teaming up to host a cookout for a good cause this Thursday from 4-7 p.m. Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity and Delta Gamma sorority are joining forces to benefit UA’s Women’s Resource Center and Turning Points organization. All proceeds from the cookout will go to these organizations. The cookout will be held at the Alpha Kappa Lambda house on UA’s campus. The event is associated with “These Hands Don’t Hurt,” which is also sponsored by Alpha Kappa Lambda and Delta Gamma. This runs through Friday. For more information on “These Hands Don’t Hurt,” stop by the table in the UA Ferguson Center where you can donate $1 and also sign the “Promise Wall.” It costs $5 per person to eat at the cookout.
Alabama table tennis team off to nationals
Tuscaloosa News – April 10
Four women from the University of Alabama will be making history in Illinois this weekend. They are the first team from the University of Alabama Table Tennis Club to advance to and compete at The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association’s national championships. The tournament will be Friday through Sunday in Rockford, Ill., and will feature more than 250 of the nation’s best collegiate players, including many international players with professional experience. The championships include singles and doubles play. “We are so excited,” UA’s Huan Li said. “I can’t believe we have made history.” All four are from China. Two played there professionally before putting down the paddles to journey to Tuscaloosa to enroll in school. One of those is Yi Li, 24, a graduate student from Xinfiang who is the top-ranked female in the state and 81st in the U.S. Table Tennis Association rankings.
UA Theatre to close season with musical ‘Show Boat’ April 15-April 21
Al.com – April 9
The University of Alabama Theatre and Dance department will present the musical “Show Boat” in the Marian Gallaway Theatre on UA’s campus from April 15-21. The musical will be the last production of the 2012-2013 season for the Theatre and Dance department. Ed Williams is directing the play and describes it as “the American musical theatre coming into being. It combines vaudeville, specialty numbers and operetta long before Hammerstein brought us ‘Oklahoma,’ ‘Carousel’ and ‘South Pacific,'” according to a recent release. This will be Williams’ last director role before his May retirement after spending 42 years at Alabama.
Author to discuss outlaw of slavery
Crimson White – April 10
Award-winning author James Oakes will discuss the Emancipation Proclamation in commemoration of the proclamation’s 150th anniversary. Oakes’s lecture entitled, “The Emancipation Proclamation: Myths and Realities” will take place at 5:30 p.m. in Room 205 of Smith Hall Thursday. “The Summersell Center has hosted an event each spring for the last three years in commemoration of a different aspect of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War,” said Joshua Rothman, a professor and director of the Summersell Center for the Study of the South. “Thinking about slavery, and the Emancipation Proclamation in particular, was an obvious theme for this year.” He said Oakes is among the most prominent scholars working in the field today. “The Summersell Center and the University are really privileged to be able to have him in Tuscaloosa,” Rothman said. Oakes, a professor at the City University of New York Graduate Center, was the 2013 recipient of the Lincoln Prize award for his book titled, “Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865.”
MFA students fund writing programs online
Crimson White – April 10
Southern Fried Scribes, an eight-week creative writing program funded through Kickstarter, will offer free writing and literacy workshops to high school students in the Black Belt region. The founders of the project, creative writing MFA candidates Jessica Masterton and Matt Jones, are hosting the classes through their micropress, Field Tiger Press. Masterton and Jones are also involved with the UA Creative Writing Club, which offers area high school students the opportunity to explore creative writing with guidance from MFA candidates. The program will allow students to have similar writing opportunities during the summer months. “In the summer months, especially in these Black Belt counties, there’s a lack in some of the areas of arts, so we’d like to take the experience we have with the club and our micropress and bring it out there,” Jones said. Jones and Masterton currently plan to take the Southern Fried Scribes program to Hale, Greene, Pickens and Tuscaloosa counties. In each county they will host a two-week workshop that will included three-hour sessions Monday through Thursday.
What Should I Do With My Tax Refund?
CardHub.com – April 8
Each year, roughly 75% of taxpayers get a refund from the IRS because the amount withheld from their paychecks wound up exceeding their ultimate income tax liability we also asked professors of personal finance what they believe are the best ways to use tax refunds…Robert McLeod – Professor of Finance and John S. Bickley Faculty Fellow in Insurance and Finance Economics in the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce “For consumers I would suggest that they apply the refund to credit card debt of student loans, if they have any. Pay the ones with the highest interest rates first. If they have no credit card debt of student loans and are currently renting, they may want to put the funds in an investment account dedicated to providing money for a downpayment on a house (depending on the relative attractiveness of renting vs. owning in the area in which they reside). Other uses are to save the money and put it in a “rainy day fund” for emergencies; save for children’s education; or to put into a retirement account. For small businesses I would suggest that they pay down high interest debt and/or save the funds to provide working capital to take advantage of discounts for early payment on trade accounts or for quantity discounts. Having additional funds in the business will normally improve the company’s credit picture.”