University of Alabama winter graduation exercises today
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 14
When Charles Williams Jr., the engineering manager for the city of Jackson, Miss., finished his undergraduate degree in civil engineering at the University of Mississippi in 1996, he didn’t plan on more school. “I wanted to go to work and do the career thing,” he said. Williams’ career brought him to the Mississippi capital almost 12 years ago. He began working for the city as a project engineer, before being promoted to a senior engineer and eventually a manager overseeing capital projects such as work on roads, bridges and drainage systems. “What I noticed was that my undergrad served me well, but there was always this itch that I wanted to continue to learn more,” Williams said. That itch turned into a search for a doctoral program in civil engineering that eventually led him across state lines to the Capstone. Williams is among more than 2,158 undergraduates and graduate students at the University of Alabama scheduled to graduate today in ceremonies at Coleman Coliseum. He will graduate with a doctorate in civil engineering. “I tell you I have truly been blessed to obtain this,” Williams said. “I am excited to end it at Alabama.”
Alabama Student-Athletes Slated To Receive Degrees Saturday
WAAY-TV (Huntsville) – Dec. 14
More than 30 University of Alabama student-athletes are slated to receive their degrees Saturday, Dec. 14, when UA holds its winter commencement at Coleman Coliseum. A total of 19 football players are set to receive their degrees Saturday, including 17 on this year’s roster including: Deion Belue, John Fulton, Daniel Geddes, Adrian Hubbard, Brandon Ivory, Wilson Love, Cody Mandell, C.J. Mosley, Kevin Norwood, Anthony Orr, Nick Perry, Ed Stinson, M.K. Taylor, Matt Tinney, DeAndrew White, Jarrick Williams and Kellen Williams. Norwood and Kellen Williams both earned their Master’s degrees this semester. Overall, there will be 28 graduates on the Crimson Tide’s roster when it plays Oklahoma in the All State Sugar Bowl on Thursday, Jan. 2, in New Orleans.
UA holds commencement ceremony (no video)
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Dec. 14
The last part of the University of Alabama class of 2013 received their degrees during the winter commencement ceremonies earlier today. The university awarded 2,150 degrees to this class. One UA grad says walking across the stage at The Capstone means more than just receiving a certificate. “I feel really honored because I feel like this is one of the most prestigious schools in the country especially in the South. And it’s such an honor especially with the business school that we have.” And you might have seen a familiar face walk across the stage, our very own producer and anchor Daniel Sparkman received his undergraduate degree this morning.
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Dec. 14
Alabama’s two AJs
CNN-Headline News –Dec. 14
The University of Alabama is packed with legacies, and although they won’t have the perfect season or trip to the BCS, and their star player AJ McCarron didn’t win the Heisman, it doesn’t matter to one special student. Here’s a special of Alabama’s two AJs. AJ McCarron: “I always remember him watching football through the cracks of our fence so he can see a glimpse of the team standing in rain and, you know, cold weather, whatever it was, because he wanted to be around the game. We had gotten done with practice and I saw two buses starting to pull away. I saw A. J., I could tell, you know, he had some type of disorder and tried to, like, raise his hand at the bus, two buses and they pulled off, and it was starting to rain and so I just felt bad.”…he had this big smile on his face and was like, yeah, that’s A.J. McCarron.
WFTS-ABC (Tampa, Fla.) – Dec. 15
Academic support system allows Alabama athletes to excel in classroom
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 14
C.J. Mosley didn’t return to the University of Alabama only to try to win another national championship. The senior linebacker is on his way to a degree in human and environmental sciences. He said it is important that people see him as a student-athlete and not just as a football player. “I think it’s important because you never want to be a stereotype because everybody sees a football player and is like, ‘Oh, he gets everything easy, this and that,’ but it’s a lot of hard work, especially playing football with Coach (Nick) Saban, especially like coming (after) practice, had a rough practice today, then you’ve got a study hall 30 minutes right after you’re done with practice. So your mind changes real quick from football to classwork,” Mosley said. He isn’t the only athlete to try to shrug off the stereotype. Men’s basketball junior guard Levi Randolph has spent three years at UA on the court and in the classroom.
University of Alabama project takes top ‘breakthrough’ honors
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 14
A University of Alabama-affiliated Antarctic sensor array built to observe cosmic subatomic particles has been named the 2013 Breakthrough of the Year by the British magazine “Physics World.” The IceCube Neutrino Observatory allows an international team of scientists including UA researchers, to detect neutrinos from beyond our galaxy, which may yield clues about distant phenomena such as black holes and supernovas. Researchers published some of their initial observations from the project in the journal “Science” in November. IceCube was selected for making the first observation of high-energy neutrinos and potentially ushering in “a new era of neutrino astronomy” with its detector array under the Antarctic ice, according to announcements from UA and “Physics World.”
University of Alabama houses little-known insurance museum, gallery
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 15
In the final days of 2012, National Public Radio aired a program on unusual halls of fame across America. It included the Insurance Hall of Fame Museum and Portrait Gallery at the University of Alabama. “I was interviewed by Robert Siegel of (NPR’s) ‘All Things Considered,’ ” said William Rabel, a professor who specializes in insurance and financial services at UA’s business school. “I was interviewed for about 20 minutes; it got edited to about 90 seconds when it aired. “They had some unusual halls of fame. The Insurance Hall of Fame was (featured) between (segments on) the meat packers’ and prostitutes’ halls of fame.” Despite its juxtaposition in the broadcast, Rabel said NPR did a professional job reporting on the world’s Insurance Hall of Fame, which is in Mary Hewell Alston Hall, home of UA’s business school. On one end of the fourth floor of Alston Hall is the insurance museum. It’s not large, but it helps tell the story of the insurance industry and some of the people who developed it.
University of Alabama student explores America’s nighttime culture
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 14
Annie Agnone is on a mission to find out what goes on at night. Today, she begins the second part of her online project, “America By Night,” which has taken her everywhere from Las Vegas wedding chapels to monasteries. “I feel like ‘America By Night’ is important because there is so much that we day-dwellers don’t realize about what goes on at night and that in itself is kind of exciting and gives the project value,” said Agnone, a master of fine arts student in creative writing at the University of Alabama. “To be able to explore a culture that in some ways is under-explored — there really is a whole world at night,” she said. She hopes to eventually write a book about her experiences that will focus on the people she’s met along the way. The project is funded by a National Geographic Young Explorers grant and through a Kickstarter project, which allows users to fund their creative ideas through donations given by online backers.
Univ. of Alabama study shows traffic accidents increase near Christmas
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Dec. 14
Traffic around the holidays can be a little hairy at times. “Traffic was backed up all the way from Midtown to Skyland Blvd. It was bumper to bumper,” Benjamin Mallisham said. Friday afternoon on McFarland Blvd near 15th Street, a handful of cars were involved in a chain of accidents. A new study finds scenes like these are happening more often on the days leading up to Christmas. Researchers at the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety or CAPS compiled 10 years worth of traffic data during the six day periods surrounding Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. In 2012, the days before Christmas had 18 percent more auto accidents than those other holidays. “We think there’s more with all the holiday shopping and of course the holiday traveling,” Rhonda Stricklin with CAPS said.
Seat belt sound off: Do belts make school buses safer?
KLTV 7 (Tyler, Texas) – Dec. 13
With multiple school bus wrecks this week, East Texans are speaking up about installing seat belts on buses… According to studies by the National Safety Council and University of Alabama, installing seat belts on buses would add $8,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a new bus. The same study says the phase-in process for adding those seat belts would take ten years and the average cost to each state would be at least $117 million.
KSLA-CBS (Shreveport, La.) – Dec. 13
Shorter shopping season this year puts pressure on retailers
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 15
The number of deals and discounts offered by retailers has increased this year during the intense competition of a shorter holiday shopping season and an economic environment that continues to put pressure on consumers’ budgets, according to a University of Alabama marketing professor. “It’s more intense than ever this year,” said Kristy Reynolds, the Bruno professor of marketing at UA’s Culverhouse College of Commerce. Reynolds said more intense advertising this season anecdotally points to an effort by retailers nationwide to lure consumers to stores with discounts during the traditional holiday shopping season between Black Friday and Christmas Eve. This year, the shopping period is only 26 days, compared to 32 in 2012.
Turnout is the key for Tuesday’s election for 1st Congressional District
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 15
Former candidate for governor Bradley Byrne has one challenge left in his political comeback — making sure voters turn out Tuesday in a rare holiday-season special election for the 1st Congressional District. Byrne, the Republican nominee, leads Democratic nominee Burton Leflore in campaign funds, endorsements and political experience. But Democrats are hoping that a low turnout could give Leflore a chance in the southwest Alabama district that has elected Republicans since 1964…William Stewart, the retired chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, predicts Byrne will win Tuesday, but the turnout will be lower than the 13 percent who participated in the primary. “It’s not a good time to get people’s attention,” he said.
Dothan Eagle – Dec. 15
Progress Implementing the IOM’s Future of Nursing Recommendations
Nurse Zone – Dec. 13
Three years since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report, much progress has occurred, including raising awareness of the role the health care professionals play in improving America’s health, promoting nurses’ academic progression and advancing changes in scope of practice so nurses can practice to the fullest extent based on their education and licensure…Marsha Howell Adams, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, president of the National League for Nursing (NLN) in Washington and senior associate dean of academic programs and professor at the University of Alabama Capstone College of Nursing in Tuscaloosa, agreed that the profession has definitely made progress in implementing the report’s recommendations.
THE PORT RAIL: Exceptionalism of U.S. lies in unique unities
Tuscaloosa News – Dec. 15
In American history, observers both here and abroad have called attention since the era of the Revolution to the “exceptional” nature of this nation, chosen to lead, if you will. Even earlier, the Puritans who settled New England thought they were building a “city upon a hill,” the new Jerusalem, in the wilderness of North America, thereby kicking off a fresh start for man, away from the decadence and feuding world of Europe they left behind. Is the American nation singularly blessed by God and/or Godly circumstances to stand out from all other peoples and nations of the modern world? And, if so, what is the evidence? Curiously, it was not an American who first applied the term “exceptional” to the new nation and its people in the early 19th century. Alexis de Tocqueville, a Frenchman who traveled America in the 1830s, recorded his impressions in a famous book, “Democracy in America,” where he identified and analyzed how this experiment in a republican form of democracy was evolving. (Larry Clayton is a retired professor of history at the University of Alabama.)
Any sacrifice we make will be lost in China’s smog
Everett Herald (Washington) – Dec. 15
Congress should not waste time debating a comprehensive climate change legislation in the coming year. First, the combination of the natural gas revolution created by fracking and the economic doldrums we are stuck in have already cut our emissions of greenhouse gases dramatically without Congress doing anything at all. If they did jump in, they’d be as likely to screw that up as make things better. In addition, we should wait because the current proposals on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are all expensive and will be cheaper in the future as technologies improve. Consider the change in cell phone technology and prices over the past 20 years. When the director of Wall Street wanted to emphasize Gordon Gekko’s power and wealth, he portrayed him holding a brick-size cell phone. Today, even schoolchildren carry iPhones, which are orders of magnitude more powerful — and much cheaper. That same innovative process will make both emissions reduction technology and mitigation efforts cheaper and better in the future. (Andrew Morriss holds the D. Paul Jones Jr. and Charlene A. Jones Chair in Law and professor of business at the University of Alabama.)