Stuart Bell says freshman enrollment rate rises
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 19
In a continuation of a decade-long trend, the University of Alabama president expects an increase in freshman enrollment for the fall semester that starts today. During a UA Faculty Senate meeting Tuesday, President Stuart Bell estimated new student enrollment was “slightly up” for fall 2015 based on preliminary figures. Last year, the freshman class was 6,856. Bell estimated the freshman class had increased by a couple of hundred students this fall. A more definite count won’t be available until after the university completes its fall census, Bell said. UA typically releases its enrollment count in the first half of September. UA’s fall 2014 enrollment was 36,155 students. The campus’ student body will remain roughly split between Alabama residents and students from outside the state, Bell said. While the university’s shift toward a state institution with a majority of its student body from outside state borders has been met with some skepticism, Bell argued the demographic change has been positive and helped create a more diverse student body.
300 UA students serve community before classes start
ABC 9 (Columbus, Ga.) – Aug. 18
A community service project for University of Alabama freshmen is a long standing tradition, and a way to get the new students more familiar with the Tuscaloosa area. Tuesday’s community service project is part of the Week of Welcome going on at the University of Alabama. One group of the UA freshmen painted the cafeteria at Central Primary School. They pushed positive reinforcement by painting the logos of several college and community colleges, calling it the “Cafeteria of Champions.” Some of college students will also get the opportunity to sign up and become Al’s Pals mentors for kids in schools like Central Primary. Fall classes start at Alabama on Wednesday.
Tuscaloosa News (gallery) – Aug. 18
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 18
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – Aug. 18
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – Aug. 18
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Aug. 18
UA students get ready for new school year
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Aug. 19
Thousands of University of Alabama students are getting ready to begin a new school year on campus. Classes begin Wednesday for UA students. Many spending today busy buying textbooks or downloading them on their computers or tablets. WIAT caught up with a few new freshmen students who are a bit nervous about being college students.
Students return to classes at UA, Shelton, Stillman
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 18
The University of Alabama begins classes for the fall semester Wednesday. Traffic typically is heavy on the first day as new and returning students figure out their schedules on campus, and UA officials expect congestion on campus along Campus and Bryant drives as well as Hackberry Lane north of from University Boulevard. Construction near campus is also expected to be a factor. Construction on the new Shoppes at Legacy Park development is ongoing near the intersection of 15th Street and McFarland Boulevard. Shelton State Community College also resumes classes on Wednesday. Stillman began earlier this week.
25 African American women among 2,261 who received bids in 2015 rush
Crimson White – Aug. 18
The University of Alabama’s new sorority recruitment tradition of being the largest in the nation continued this year for the sixth time in a row. The number of women who registered for recruitment this year increased by 7 percent, bringing the total up to over 2,400. Of those who registered, 214 self-identified as minority women, a 13 percent increase from last year. “We are very proud of our young women and their commitment to continue to move forward with resolve, energy and enthusiasm,” said Dr. David Grady, the vice president for student affairs. “While numbers are not the only measure of success, they do indicate that we are making progress. We will continue to focus on creating and sustaining a welcoming and inclusive campus for all students.” This year, each sorority gave bids to at least 120 freshman and seven upperclassmen, but some sororities exceeded that quota in order to place all of the women who went through recruitment. UA Panhellenic President Olivia Acker attributes the growth to the already immense size of the Greek system at the University. “It offers every single person who wants to join a Greek organization here the opportunity to find one that fits their needs,” she said.
Rural Medical Scholars Program holds Orientation; Starts 20th Year
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 18
It’s a well-known University program serving an often over-looked need in towns and counties statewide. The Rural Medicine Scholars program trains prospective doctors to practice in their hometowns, often the places most in need of family physicians. Dr. John Wheat says, “We are in a severe shortage of primary care physicians in rural Alabama.” Dr. John Brandon, the medical director for the program says, “It’s a critical need.” He says 60 of Alabama’s 67 counties are deficient in primary care.
Value Investing U
Business Alabama – Aug. 18
C.T. Fitzpatrick has created a successful career in value investing. And he definitely sees value in investing $3 million in the University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce to help create the Vulcan Value Partners Research Library and Trading Room. The Fitzpatricks — C.T. and Kelley — made the donation in January, demonstrating their strong ties to UA. C.T. is an Alabama alumnus and founder of the Birmingham-based investment adviser Vulcan Value Partners. Kelley is the daughter of Lewis Manderson, for whom the university’s Manderson Graduate School of Business is named. The gift will enable Culverhouse to become the first business school in the nation to offer a value investing specialization at both the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition, it will give members of the student-run Culverhouse Investment Management Group a dedicated space for meetings, along with the tools and equipment needed to make real-world investment decisions.
Flooding’s impact on wetlands measurable via low-cost approach
BrightSurf.com – Aug. 18
Scientists designed a new, on-site method for studying potential impacts rising sea levels can have on vital wetlands, said a University of Alabama researcher who led a study publishing Aug. 17 describing the modifiable apparatuses. Primarily using materials available at the local hardware store, the scientists, including UA’s Dr. Julia Cherry, designed, constructed and tested low-cost enclosures, called weirs, to realistically simulate three flooding levels on coastal wetlands. Simulating impacts of sea level rise on-site and at larger scales had previously proven difficult. “I hope this provides other researchers with a template to ask their questions and to improve upon the method we’ve documented to do bigger and better coastal wetland studies,” said Cherry, an associate professor in UA’s New College and its biological sciences department. The research, publishing in the scientific journal, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, was co-authored by George Ramseur Jr., of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources; and Drs. Eric Sparks, of Mississippi State University; and Just Cebrian, of Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the University of South Alabama.
AZO CleanTech – Aug. 18
Book controversy brings opportunity for learning
Tallahassee.com – Aug. 18
I’m guessing the well-intentioned teachers who designed the summer reading curriculum at one of our high schools never imagined they’d be reading about it all over social media, never mind national media. Alas, the instruction they’d intended for their students has provided a teachable moment of national proportion. Fortuitously, the dissension around this particular book has provided us the opportunity to learn from each other while modeling appropriate, if lively, civil dialogue about the value of literature and its ability to generate diverse perspectives that enable critical thinking and intellectual discourse … Additionally, we must prepare our students, not just for college and career, but also for life as active citizens to sustain our participatory democracy. Stephen Black, a colleague at the University of Alabama and the grandson of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, identifies a pressing crisis facing our country as “social cocooning,” where young people rarely encounter people unlike themselves, resulting in a trend of civic withdrawal. If that’s true, literature that introduces new concepts and simultaneously stirs community conversations might help mitigate our civic demise. (DeeDee Rasmussen is the Vice Chair of the Leon County School Board and the executive director of Florida Campus Compact.)
Truancy down in Montgomery City Schools
WSFA-NBC (Montgomery) – Aug. 18
Good news for Montgomery schools. District Attorney Darrell Bailey tells us that truancy is down. The District Attorney’s office, Montgomery Police Department and Montgomery Public schools held a press conference to talk about it today. Bailey says his office is partnering with the school system to make sure children are in school, which has a huge impact on their future. The University of Alabama is using Montgomery’s Helping Families Initiative in creating a program in every school district in the state.