Business professor was a life teacher
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 14
John S. Bickley…former University of Alabama insurance professor, who passed away Sunday at the age of 90…founding the Alabama Insurance Society, the International Insurance Society and the Insurance Hall of Fame, Bickley created the John and Mary Louise Loftis Bickley Endowed Teaching Chair in Insurance and Financial Services at UA, which includes the name of his wife of 61 years, who died in 2004…Bickley raised more than $6 million for UA, and not just in business. It was Bickley’s friendship with Filipino diplomat, philanthropist and insurance magnate Alfonso T. Yuchengco that secured a $500,000 donation for the School of Nursing…
Economists predict that the 4th quarter could be rough for Alabama businesses
Birmingham News – Oct. 14
…two new reports from the University of Alabama’s Center for Business Education and Research indicate that many business leaders expect tougher times in the fourth quarter, generally the most profitable period for businesses. Nearly a third of Alabama business executives – 32.9 percent – now have a negative outlook for the state’s economy in the last three months of the year, according to a survey released last week by Compass Bank and the UA’s research center. Only a quarter of the leaders surveyed expect the state outlook to improve…A separate UA report underscores that the nation has moved into a recession and that the downturn will have a negative effect on Alabama, said Ahmad Ijaz, a researcher for the center. “Right now we’re looking at three negative quarters for the U.S. economy, the third and fourth quarters of 2008 and first quarter of 2009,” Ijaz said. “We do not expect a negative quarter for Alabama, but at best it will be either be flat or perhaps around 0.5 percent.” Even if Alabama’s economy doesn’t contract, he added, the state unemployment rate will continue to inch upwards. “Problems with housing markets, financial markets and labor markets will effect consumer spending in the fourth quarter and will continue to be a drag on both economic growth and employment,” Ijaz said…
Poll shows state opposed to bailout
Montgomery Advertiser – Oct. 14
…Opposition to the plan stems mainly from the mistaken belief that it’s “a Wall Street bailout,” said University of Alabama finance professor Robert McLeod. The average Alabamian doesn’t see ramifications on them personally, he said…
UA to host two noted speakers this week
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 14
The University of Alabama will host two noted speakers on campus this week. Princeton professor and author Cornel West will give a lecture at 7 p.m. Thursday in Morgan Auditorium and will sign books afterward…Former president of South Africa and Nobel laureate F.W. De Klerk will give the 2008 Frank A. Nix Lecture at 10 a.m. Friday at Sellers Auditorium in the Bryant Conference Center. The Nix Lecture is a program of UA’s Blackburn Institute…
Ridgecrest construction ‘tops out’
Crimson White – Oct. 14
Friday afternoon, construction workers took a break from their work on the Ridgecrest South site to celebrate their work with a “topping out party.” Tim Leopard, assistant vice president of planning, design and construction, said a topping out party is a celebration of finishing the steel infrastructure of the project, or specifically reaching the highest point of the building…
GOP ‘Hometown Connection’ tour visits Alabama campus
Tuscaloosa News – Oct. 14
Every Republican statewide candidate on the Nov. 4 general election ballot made Tuscaloosa the 44th of Alabama’s 67 counties to be visited by the party’s “Hometown Connection” bus tour when the bus pulled up at the Ferguson Center on the University of Alabama campus Monday morning. Joining the five-week, 106-stop tour for the first time was U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, who will be at the top of the state ticket after the presidential candidates…
Crimson White – Oct. 13
ABC33/40 (Birmingham) – Oct. 13
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Oct. 13