University given national community service award
Crimson White – Jan. 26
The Corporation for National and Community Service and the U.S. Department of Education have named The University of Alabama to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction for the fifth consecutive year. The President’s Community Service Honor Roll is a national award presented each year to institutions that demonstrate commitment to community service. The application requires each university to submit their overall community service and service-learning hours, as well as the number of students participating in each. Each university is also expected to give in-depth descriptions of three outstanding service projects it has performed. A national committee reviews all applications and releases the Honor Roll, Honor Roll with Distinction and Presidential Honor Roll. “It’s been very exciting to see the growth in UA student involvement in community service and service-learning initiatives over the past five years,” said Heather Christensen, research project coordinator for the University’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. “Each year, we have more and more students choosing to serve and actively address problems in Tuscaloosa, West Alabama and beyond.”
Tuscaloosa County ends 2014 with 4.6 percent jobless rate
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 23
Tuscaloosa County ended 2014 with a 4.6 percent unemployment rate. Only eight of the state’s 67 counties had lower rates. Four other counties in West Alabama — Bibb, Pickens, Lamar and Fayette — had jobless rates below 6 percent in December. Alabama’s official unemployment rate in December was a seasonally adjusted 5.7 percent. County rates are not seasonally adjusted and tend to be lower. “Despite a slight slowdown in payrolls we saw in December, the state’s economy is still on track to add about 30,000 to 35,000 jobs in 2015,” said economist Ahmed Ijaz of the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research. Seasonal factors influenced the numbers in December, he said, citing an anticipated slowdown in manufacturing during December when many manufacturers cut back on their operations or shut down for annual maintenance work of machinery. “Employment in most industries either showed a decline or remained flat in December, but if you look at December 2013 to December 2014, you can see the significant gains the state has made over last year,” he said.
Disconnect: Why you should make time to be bored
Aberdeen News (South Dakota) – Jan. 26
Does the rise of smartphones signal the death of boredom? A new study from Pew Research & American Life Project estimates 45 percent of adults now own smartphones and many use the devices for entertainment to combat boredom. In an interview with CNN, Christopher Lynn, anthropology professor at the University of Alabama, said smartphones help ease the tedium felt in day-to-day life. But they also overstimulate users, increasing our natural craving for stimulus. “When we aren’t used to having down time, it results in anxiety … (a)nd we reach for the smartphone. It’s our omnipresent relief from that,” he said. Our increased desire for entertainment has led researchers to study how smartphones have affected our attention spans and ability to concentrate. A recent study discussed in The New York Times found our ability to focus has remained constant. However, our desire to focus has changed.
Deseret News (Utah) – Jan. 24
Same-sex marriage ban a slam-dunk with both parties in Alabama State House 10 years ago
Al.com – Jan. 24
It was 10 years ago that the Alabama Legislature proposed to enshrine a ban on same-sex marriage in the state Constitution, and the decision was not close. Not for lawmakers and not for voters, who overwhelmingly approved it the next year. Democrats controlled the Legislature in 2005. Both parties backed what became the “Sanctity of Marriage Amendment.” No senators voted against it. The House of Representatives passed it 85-7 … Bill Stewart, professor emeritus and former chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said public sentiment has changed some in the last decade, but not enough to change the outcome of that 2006 vote. “Certainly if the amendment was put back before the people again it would once again be passed overwhelmingly,” Stewart said. Stewart said Alabama Democrats are probably more inclined to support same-sex marriage rights than 10 years ago because the party has become smaller and more liberal. “So many moderate to conservative Democrats have abandoned the Democratic Party and have joined the Republican camp,” Stewart said.
Cepeda: Coke and the big business of food
Denver Post – Jan. 26
It’s not often that I hate and love a book at the same time. Perhaps this is because I usually stick to nonfiction books written by journalists. Recently, however, I stumbled onto “Citizen Coke: The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism” by Bartow J. Elmore, thinking mistakenly that I would get a full account of the good, the bad and the ugly. But instead of delivering on the book’s promise to explain how “a patent medicine created in a small Southern pharmacy in 1886 [became] one of the most ubiquitous branded items in human history,” Elmore, an environmental historian at the University of Alabama, spends 432 pages portraying Coca-Cola as a sort of great Satan. A water-guzzling, environment-pillaging corporate devil that will stop at nothing to “sell more stuff, not less.” As if any for-profit company would do otherwise. But if you can get past the dense diatribes, there is beautifully presented research about the rise and continued success of the soft-drink maker. Elmore’s information is spot on. But he wields his information about one business’s moves across a time period of nearly 130 years with little background regarding the competitive market in which Coca-Cola operates.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Fla.) – Jan. 26
Longview Daily News (Wash.) – Jan. 25
Benefit to feature University of Alabama music professor Diane Boyd Schultz
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 25
Diane Boyd Schultz, a professor of flute at the University of Alabama School of Music, will be honored as a former Birmingham Music Club scholarship recipient at the organization’s annual Rhythm and Muse Gala on Saturday in Birmingham. Schultz performed for the guild 27 years ago as an undergraduate student hoping to win a scholarship. This time, she’ll be playing for their entertainment. “I hope I’m better than I was back in 1988,” Schultz said. The organization has given more than 100 scholarships in the categories of voice, piano, flute and string instruments to musicians seeking degrees at Alabama state colleges and universities since 1988, said gala chairwoman Judy Anderson.
Magic on a winter’s night
The Telegraph India – Jan. 24
The Kolkata Classics Club did the city a favour by presenting Yuletide Classics at the St Paul’s Cathedral on the bitingly cold night of December 17 last year. Listening to reputed musicians celebrate Christmas is a wonderful way to spend the time leading up to December 25. The programme featured the pianist, Jennifer Heemstra, and the soprano, Susan Williams. … Williams has performed worldwide in leading opera roles as a soloist; in Austria, she sang the soprano solos in Mozart’s Coronation Mass. She is assistant professor of voice at the University of Alabama. These are just a few of the women’s stupendous musical achievements; listing them all would leave little space for a review.
Professors use Twitter for teaching purposes
Crimson White – Jan. 26
From tweeting test tips to sharing news related to class topics, some professors at The University of Alabama have been able to enhance their classrooms with the integration of social media. Dianne Bragg, an assistant professor in the department of journalism, said practicing with social media while still in school can help students know how to use it later in their careers if it becomes applicable. “I just think that if you’re going to be a journalist [today], you have to be engaging with social media,” she said. She uses the hashtag #BamaMC401 on Twitter to keep in touch with her students. She said she retweets posts that are relevant to her mass communication law and regulation class and encourages her students to do the same. “It’s like, ‘If you see something, tweet that to me,’” Bragg said. “It might be something we want the whole class to see and know that’s happening.” Waverly Jones, a sophomore majoring in social work, is in a Survey of Asian Religion class this semester. She said she thought she was getting the chance to learn by participating in Ramey’s Twitter assignment. “I think that this is a really interesting way to submit assignments,” she said. “I liked being able to go and see the articles that other students had submitted while I was researching mine.”
UA history professor known for humor, friendly spirit
Crimson White – Jan. 26
Do not be dissuaded by University of Alabama history professor John Beeler’s dark wardrobe – this man’s inner color is released with the thunderous sound of his voice. Humorous, warm and intellectual is how students and colleagues alike describe him. Hailing from Greensboro, North Carolina, Beeler said he was directly influenced by his historian father and was, by his own confession, “an academic brat.” From North Carolina, Beeler traveled to the University of Illinois for his doctorate before winding up at the University in 1993. Beeler said he considers himself lucky that he gets to do what he loves, and it shows. John Young, a graduate student at the University, enrolled in Beeler’s Britain and the World Wars class in the spring of 2010, making it one of the first upper-level history classes he took during his undergraduate years at the University. “Dr. Beeler did an excellent job of making the material accessible and interesting,” Young said. “His passion for teaching was evident from the first day and he continues to bring to the history
department not only expertise in his field but a positive attitude and an excellent sense of humor.”
Here’s what’s happening in the Rock River Valley this weekend
Rockford Star (Ill.) – Jan. 24
Here’s a look at some of the bigger events happening around the Rock River Valley this weekend. For a listing of more events, visit rrstar.eviesays.com/events. Battles, embalming and Honest Abe … What: Civil War Symposium … Information: Three Civil War-themed lectures are part of the Winter Lecture Series, which runs through March: “The Battle of Fredericksburg” by George C. Rable, professor at the University of Alabama …
Running The Point: A deep-hearted farewell
Morehead News (Ga.) – Jan. 24
Let me start this final column by saying this decision was not an easy one. By now, most of you have learned that I will be leaving The Morehead News and the Journal-Times. I have accepted a job at the University of Alabama to become a part of Alabama Public Radio. I first became Sports Editor of The Morehead News and the Journal-Times on Jan. 3, 2013. … (by MacKenzie Bates)
For MCA Mardi Gras Queen Greer Turner, there’s no place like home
Al.com – Jan. 25
Several months ago, when Greer Stimpson Turner’s parents presented her with a book about the history of Mardi Gras in her native Mobile, she was confused at first. Little did she know that they were about to tell her that she had been selected as the 2015 Mobile Carnival Association queen. “I was very excited,” she said. “It’s such an honor to perpetuate the traditions that have been going on for more than 150 years. The celebration is so unique to the city of Mobile.” Greer lived in Mobile, where she went to St. Paul’s Episcopal School, until eighth grade, when the family moved to New Orleans. She graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School, and then went to college at the University of Alabama, where she’s a senior majoring in English, with a minor in art history. Her family now lives in Birmingham.