Students assist illiterate
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 21
…Aycock’s speech led Horne and other graduate students in Bruce Berger’s persuasive communication class to turn the class into a service-learning advocacy course. The class launched a literacy information campaign dubbed “Literacy Is The Edge,” or LITE last fall, and recruited volunteers who began training two weeks ago to tutor illiterate children and adults. Berger, chair of UA’s advertising and public relations department, said the class had only seven weeks to put together a campaign that included public service announcements on TV and radio, chalk message on the Quad and an information table at the Ferguson Center. He said he had only expected about 100 volunteers to respond to the group’s “30/60 Challenge For Literacy,” asking students to volunteer for 30 to 60 hours throughout the 2009 spring semester. Nearly 200 students signed up…
UA professor’s film debuts in Germany
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 21
Janeann Dill, a professor in the University of Alabama’s New College…film she produced had just premiered on the other side of the world. The project, “Moving Around Heidegger,” was a collaboration among Dill, 25 students and Hank Lazer, UA associate provost and poet. It was selected to be part of the Globalscreen Program premiering in Germany and touring throughout Europe..
Economic scorecards: How state metro areas stack up
Birmingham News
…But in spite of the buzz on the state’s northern and southern ends, Birmingham is still Alabama’s center of commerce, said Sam Addy, director of the center for business and economic research at the University of Alabama. “Birmingham is still the state’s economic engine,” he said. “It would take a long time for Mobile or Huntsville to overtake it.”…Addy says each metro area has its own individual challenges. For example, Montgomery, the seat of state government, has been quietly expanding, but still has a lot of potential because the city hasn’t taken full advantage of developing its riverfront.
Meanwhile, Birmingham, Mobile and Huntsville all have infrastructure weaknesses that need to be addressed, he said…
Difficult times for salespeople who get their paychecks from commissions
Montgomery Advertiser – Feb. 22
…Using sales and average pricing information gathered by the Alabama Center for Real Estate at the University of Alabama and an average commission of 6 percent on home sales, Montgomery’s real estate industry saw its available commissions plunge in 2008…
Hanging on
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 22
…“If employees are reading the newspaper, I think they have to be happy if this happens to them,” said James Cashman, a University of Alabama professor of management. While it forces workers to tighten their belts, they still have their benefits and their jobs. Those who have jobs have to be extremely happy that their employer did not take the hatchet out to cut jobs.” Trevor Bain, a UA professor emeritus in management, said employers make an investment in training and recruiting their workers. That investment is lost in layoffs. “Firms do not want to lose good people,” he said. “They want to hold on to them, so the business will cut workers’ hours, reduce their salaries or tell them to take an unpaid vacation — anything to keep the connection with the company going.”…But with the recession more than a year old and expected to last through this year, if not longer, UA’s Cashman said he expects more employers will be forced to reduce payrolls. He said he thinks it would be better to do that by cutting pay rather than jobs…Both Cashman and Bain said workers who have had their pay cut should not expect employers to immediately make up the lost pay when the economy recovers. “Once wages are cut, they will come back very slowly,” Bain said. “You will not see wages being brought back up until there is an extended market recovery.” When better times return, pay increases will be driven more by the competition for skilled workers than by an effort to make up for reduced pay and nonraises during the recession, he said.
Uggs and shorts a bad combo, some say: Radio director attempts to get rid of the trend
Tuscaloosa News — Feb. 23
…“We had to have a whole change in women’s leg-wear,” said Virginia Wimberly, an assistant professor of clothing, textiles and interior design at UA. “Stockings at that point only went mid-thigh, so out of the miniskirt we got the development of the pantyhose. The pantyhose was kind of a way of mollifying things.” Even as far back as medieval times, women were chastised for fashion. The surcoat, a poncho-like garment worn by knights to protect chainmail, was picked up by women for its comfort…His proposal stands about as much chance of succeeding as the Church’s screeds against the surcoat, Wimberly said. “As a society, we’re used to our personal freedoms,” she said. “When you bring up the word ‘ban,’ you kind of think he’s using a hot-button word to get attention. “We’re way past the dress-code era. Those died in the ’60s …Especially at a university, where the whole thrust is intellectual freedom.”
Mayor Langford to speak tonight
Crimson White – Feb. 23
Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford will speak tonight on his lecture, titled “Race, Politics and the Media in the Age of Obama.” The event is hosted by The Capstone Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) in partnership with the Society of Professional Journalists, and will take place at 7 p.m. in 125 ten Hoor Hall Auditorium…
Series of SGA presidential debates to start this week
Crimson White – Feb. 23
… The series of debates include the SGA Elections Debate hosted by RHA today at 7 p.m., the Mallet SGA presidential candidate forum hosted by the Mallet Assembly Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Moody Music Hall, the debate hosted by the Alpha Kappa Psi business fraternity on Tuesday at 8 p.m., and the Final Presidential Debate hosted by Freshman Forum and The Crimson White on Monday, March 2, at 7 p.m…