Alabama men’s golf team wins second consecutive NCAA championship
Tuscaloosa News – May 28
Trey Mullinax had played enough golf. Under the late-afternoon sun on the Kansas plains, the University of Alabama senior wanted to nail down the Crimson Tide’s second consecutive national championship. “I told Coach (Jay Seawell) I was ready to end it,” he said. “I’m ready to be done. I’m tired. Let’s get in.” Golf isn’t a sport that typically blesses such willfulness, but granted Mullinax his wish. By rolling in a 20-foot eagle putt on the par-5 17th hole at Prairie Dunes Country Club, Mullinax scored the clinching point for the Crimson Tide to defeat Oklahoma State 4-1 in match play in the NCAA championship final. Alabama becomes just the second team since Houston’s back-to-back titles in 1984-85 to successfully defend its national title, powered by a senior class bent on creating a legacy and a steel-nerved freshman. “It’s been an unbelievable ride, and to go out like this, back to back, it’s just a cherry on top,” said senior Bobby Wyatt, who won his match to score the Crimson Tide’s first point in the first-to-three format. “It’s been an unbelievable run and the best experience of my life.”
Pro Golf Now – May 28
WTVM 9 (Columbus, Ga.) – May 28
Help pick the winner of the 2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction
ABA Journal – May 29
The three finalists for the 2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction have been announced by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama Law School, co-sponsors of the Harper Lee Prize. They are: Ronald H. Balson for Once We Were Brothers; John Grisham for Sycamore Row; and Elizabeth Strout for The Burgess Boys. You can help choose the winner by voting for your favorite in the poll accompanying this post. Voting is open through June 30, and the winner will be honored on August 28 at the Library of Congress National Book Festival in Washington, D.C.
Study explores where high number of women earn STEM degrees
Phys.org – May 28
There have been concerted efforts in recent years to determine how more women can be involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—the so-called STEM fields. Research from the University of Kansas shows that master’s degree institutions that are doing the best in granting degrees to women in those fields are also the best at employing women in leadership positions within the disciplines. Amanda Ostreko, program director of graduate enrollment in the Office of Graduate Studies, co-authored a study with Austin Ryland and Sara Tomek of the University of Alabama, examining predictors of graduate STEM degree production for women at U.S. master’s degree granting institutions. In some, but not all of the STEM fields, having high numbers of female faculty and administrators was positively correlated with higher numbers of women who received masters’ degrees in the fields. The research was based on Ostreko’s doctoral dissertation, which examined predictors for women gaining doctoral degrees in engineering.
Labor Market Improving Across U.S. Cities — Except in Alabama
Wall Street Journal – May 28
The labor market improved over the last year in most of the nation’s largest cities, following the national trend. But 11 metropolitan areas experienced increases in their jobless rates — and almost all of them, it turns out, were in Alabama. The Cotton State saw unemployment-rate increases in several metro areas, including Montgomery, Huntsville and Mobile, according to new Labor Department figures. Carolyn Trent, a socioeconomic analyst at the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said declines in government jobs at all levels, among other reasons, contributed to the increases in the metro area jobless rates. “A disconnect between available jobs and job skills among the unemployed could be keeping unemployment up, despite job creation,” she said. “Many of the new jobs being created require specific engineering or production skills and some employers report difficulty finding skilled workers in the state.” But she noted that four of those metro areas still have jobless rates at or below the national level, which was at a non-seasonally adjusted rate of 5.9 percent in April. (Seasonally adjusted, the U.S. jobless rate fell to 6.3%.) She also highlighted several positive signs for the state’s labor market, including recent capital improvements at Gulf of Mexico ports and the fact that Airbus is hiring engineers and production workers for a new manufacturing plant in Mobile.
Maya Angelou dies
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – May 28
University of Alabama English instructor Andy Johnson says Angelou is one of the most influential African-American writers of all time, and it was her period of silence where she developed her wisdom in writing. “Most critics agree this is a time where she really learned to observe and really learned to embrace the world around her and also started to develop her tremendous literary gifts.”