UA Engineering, A&S open new workshop
Crimson White – April 18
A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held on Friday to celebrate the opening of a new foundry at the Capstone. The new metal casting workshop will serve as a collaboration place for both the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences. “I am really excited about the opportunities the new foundry will present for our students,” Charles Karr, dean of the College of Engineering, said. The foundry is about 5,000 gross square feet and contains three Inductotherm furnaces for melting cast-iron, steel and alloys. “First of all, we have a long history of doing exciting foundry work in the College of Engineering,” Karr said. “Unfortunately, our former foundry came offline as we were making room for the North Engineering Research Center, the fourth building in the Shelby and Engineering and Science Quad.” The ribbon cutting ceremony and dedication will be held at 1 p.m. between Hardaway Hall and the Bureau of Mines building on campus. “I am very pleased that we were able to construct our new facility because our students really get a leg up on other graduates from across the country due to their experiences in our foundry,” Karr said. The University of Alabama is one of only 20 schools certified by the Foundry Educational Foundation is the United States.
UA cheerleaders deliver check to Children’s Hospital of Alabama
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – April 17
Big Al and the University of Alabama cheerleaders made a special appearance in Birmingham today. They delivered a big check to Children’s Hospital of Alabama. The connection between the university and the hospital is unique. It’s a program called “Picks for Kids.” For every pass Alabama picked off during the football season, Wells Fargo Bank donates $2,000. Last season, $36,000 was raised.
UA Greek community gives grants to nonprofits
Tuscaloosa News – April 18
The University of Alabama Greek community has awarded $100,000 in grants to 30 nonprofit groups in the Tuscaloosa area. The grants were announced Tuesday at the Profiles in Service and Leadership banquet. Money for the grants was generated through ticket sales at Greek Week activities in March, which included nightly tournaments of bowling, basketball and dodge ball.
Authorities hone fight against terrorism
Wall Street Journal – April 17
Investigators into the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta had to pore over grainy photographs to try to identify their suspect…The cameras and computer systems used in New York, Atlanta and practically everywhere these days can be a big deterrent because most terrorists don’t want to get caught, said Adam Lankford, a criminal-justice professor at the University of Alabama and the author of a book on terrorists and mass shooters. People who are mass shooters are often suicidal, and don’t care if they get caught, he said. Terrorists who leave bombs are “people who want to get away with it,” he said. “The No. 1 way to prevent these types of attacks is video cameras on the streets.”
Budget cuts slice into confidence of Alabama biz leaders
Birmingham Business Journal – April 17
Federal sequestration and economic uncertainty is limiting optimism for Alabama executives, according to the Alabama Business Confidence Index for the second quarter. The overall score for Alabama in the quarter was 47.7. Scores above 50 indicate expected growth, while scores below 50 indicate contraction. Alabama’s score was hurt by low expectations for the national economy (40.5), state economy (47.3) and hiring (46.8). Huntsville, which was hit particularly hard by sequestration, had a particularly poor score of 35.6. The outlook is much brighter for Birmingham, where the index remained in positive territory for the second consecutive quarter … The quarterly index is compiled by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama based on a survey of executives.
Pell Grant changes will slow black graduation rates
Seattle Medium – April 18
The Pell Grant program nearly doubled from assisting about 5 million students in 2009 to 9.4 million students in 2012. The program, which provides low-income students with financial aid they do not have to repay, was projected to face an $18.3 billion shortfall during 2012-2013 academic year because of an increase in need… Schools across the Deep South have also experienced a decline in enrollment this year, which the University of Alabama Education Policy Center attributes to the eliminations made to the Pell Grant program. In three of the most uneducated and impoverished states in the nation—Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi—just under 250,000 students were awarded Pell Grants to attend public colleges and universities in the 2010-2011 school year. Two-thirds of the full time community college students in the states are Pell recipients. According to the report, enrollment decreased at 47 of the 62 two-year colleges in those states during the 2012-2013 academic year, something the authors of the report attribute to the changes made to the Pell Grant program. “The Deep South states clearly rely on public higher education to educate their citizenry beyond high school,” the report reads. “By definition, this means that Pell Grants are vital to enhancing college degree completion in the Deep South, for it is the community colleges where economically disadvantaged students begin higher education.”
THEATER REVIEW: Musical showcases UA’s strengths
Tuscaloosa News – April 18
“Show Boat” might well have been retitled “Showcase,” for the production at the University of Alabama. It’s kind of a greatest hits collection of some of the Department of Theatre and Dance’s finest, supported by a couple of old friends, no strangers to the Marian Gallaway Theatre. It’s an apt choice for UA, which has been focusing more on musical theater in the past decade, to stage the Hammerstein and Kern piece that re-invented the style, a drama with music as an integral element rather than a series of songs and dances strung together via a flimsy premise, as was the norm before “Show Boat” debuted in 1927.
The Southeastern Conference wants to be known for more than football
Bloomberg Businessweek –April 18
Traditionally, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is known for its dominance in athletics, particularly on the football field, boasting that its members have won the last seven national championships. Now the deans who represent each of the SEC business schools are hoping to make a similar impact with their MBA programs by bringing this competitive spirit to the classroom. Last weekend the conference’s 14 member schools participated in the first annual SEC MBA Case Competition, hosted in Columbia, Mo., by the University of Missouri’s Trulaske College of Business, as part of the conference’s academic initiative. Each of the SEC member schools (see list of SEC members below) sent a team of four students to take part … The 2014 SEC MBA Case Competition is tentatively scheduled for mid-April of next year and will be hosted by the University of Alabama. Similar competitions are hosted annually by other NCAA conferences, including the Big Ten and the Big 12.
SGA asks for donations for veterans
Crimson White – April 18
To give back to those who have served our country, the Student Government Association is asking students to donate their old textbooks to student veterans through its “Textbooks for Troops” initiative. Students can bring books they have finished using to either the SGA office or the Office of Veteran and Military Affairs behind B.B. Comer. Sorority houses will also have bins for collection now through May 1. From there, the books will be sorted and veterans will be able to check out a book they need for a class and return it once they are done using it, so others may use it again. “The great thing about this program is that there is no wait,” said Dawit Solomon, a senior majoring in criminal justice and director of Veteran and Military Affairs. “If you need it and we have it, then it is yours. It is a direct line from student to student.” The program was adopted last semester. “We had a great turnout for a first-time program. Fifty textbooks were donated and they were utilized immediately by our student veterans, dependents and survivors. With the help of the student body we are hoping to triple that number,” Solomon said.
ALLELE lecture on literary Darwinism Thursday
Crimson White – April 18
The last lecture in the Alabama’s Lecture on Life’s Evolution Series, or ALLELE, will be held Thursday night in the Biology Building auditorium. Joseph Carroll, professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a leading scholar on the connection between social science and literary study, will visit The University of Alabama to give the lecture “The Historical Position of Literary Darwinism.” Christopher Lynn, faculty advisor for the series, said Carroll’s lecture would end this year’s series as a prelude to the next. “We chose Dr. Carroll because one of the goals of our ALLELE and Evolutionary Studies program are to demonstrate the broad applicability of evolutionary principles across the natural, social and applied sciences and humanities,” Lynn said. In his lecture, Carroll will discuss literary Darwinism, which is a school of thought that integrates literary study with evolutionary social science.
Spectrum to host 4th annual ‘Sashay, UA’ drag show
Crimson White – April 18
Spectrum, The University of Alabama’s campus group for LGBTQ students and allies, will be hosting their fourth annual “Sashay, UA” Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Ferg Theatre. “‘Sashay, UA’ consists of drag performances by both UA students and local performers, as well as spoken word and musical acts by UA students,” Noah Cannon, president of Spectrum, said. Cannon said tickets are $5, and proceeds will be used for local AIDS outreach. “The drag show is always an entertaining, high-energy event that benefits a great cause,” Cannon said. “One-hundred percent of ticket sales and tips from the show go directly to West Alabama AIDS Outreach, a fantastic organization right here in Tuscaloosa.” Kaylyn Johnson, political chair of Spectrum, is directing the event and said there will be a variety of acts and participants, both students and friends of The University of Alabama.
University of Alabama alumni to hold annual golf scramble May 17
Al.com – April 17
The University of Alabama Alumni Chapter will host its annual golf tournament at TimberCreek Golf Club on May 17. Proceeds from the tournament, which serve as the club’s main fundraising event, fund the chapter’s scholarship program, which currently provides more than $33,000 annually to outstanding Baldwin County students attending the University of Alabama.