UA holds panel discussion about Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – June 4
Over the next two weeks the University of Alabama is hosting several events to honor the schools integration in 1963. Today, Dr. Sandra Hullett and Dr. Art Dunning were the special guests on a panel discussion about the “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door.” Both attended college in the years after Vivian Malone Jones and Dr. James Hood enrolled at the University of Alabama. Hullett called her father a “foot soldier for integration” and said even though he encouraged her to attend UA in the early ‘60s, she wasn’t ready to tackle the obstacles. “And I even differed from going here because I didn’t want to go through the whole process. I wanted to go somewhere, where I at least went to school I could feel comfortable there. The anniversary of the Schoolhouse stand is on June 11.
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UA commemorates desegregation
Crimson White – June 5
Throughout 2013, The University of Alabama’s Through the Doors program will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the University and remember the opposition faced by early black students. This opposition was epitomized by the infamous “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” speech made by Gov. George C. Wallace in 1963 to prevent the enrollment of Vivian J. Malone and James A. Hood. The College of Community and Health Sciences hosted “Through These Doors: Changing the Face of Medicine” Tuesday, a discussion about increasing the presence of members of underserved minority groups in health professions. Dr. Herbert Stone, a panelist at the event, said commemorating the University’s desegregation is important because it motivates those in power to take further action to increase racial equality. “Realizing what the historical perspective is can bring people closer,” Stone said. “I think it causes people who have some position of influence to redouble those efforts to ensure that everybody gets a seat at the table.” Stone said increasing the presence of minority groups in health professions can also be a way of increasing access in underserved communities.
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – June 5
UA researchers join team studying Okla. tornado
Tuscaloosa News – June 5
Researchers from the University of Alabama are part of a team studying the deadly tornado that struck Moore, Okla., last month. Experts from six schools were part of a group that went to the city to assess damage from the twister, which killed two dozen people. The work is part of a National Science Foundation grant program. The researchers will look at ways to improve the construction of wood-frame homes in tornado-prone areas. Alabama engineering professor Andrew Graettinger said the Moore area has a history of twisters, so the team will look at the performance of homes built after earlier storms. Several members of the research team worked together surveying damage left by the killer tornadoes that hit Tuscaloosa and Joplin, Mo., in 2011.
NBC 13 (Birmingham) – June 5
Seymour Tribune (Ind.) – June 5
WLTZ-NBC (Columbus, Ga.) – June 5
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – June 5
WDFX-Fox (Dothan) – June 5
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – June 5
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – June 5
WPMI-NBC (Mobile) – June 5
WTVM-ABC (Columbus, Ga.) – June 5
WEAR-ABC (Mobile) – June 5
WAFF-NBC (Huntsville) – June 5
WSFA-NBC (Montgomery) – June 5
WAKA-CBS (Montgomery) – June 5
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – June 5
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UA holds rural health scholars program
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – June 4
Right now, a group of rising high school seniors is studying at the University of Alabama as part of the Rural H Scholars Program … Experts say one of the challenges facing rural communities, including much of Alabama, is the lack of doctors and health care facilities. Plus, many of the doctors who do practice in these areas are nearing retirement … This program brings students from rural communities who are considering health-related careers to UA, and gets them started on their college coursework. And the students don’t study just math and science; they also take an English class to help them develop the well-rounded skill set needed to be competitive in their academic careers and in a health related field. It’s all a way to encourage them to return to their communities or other rural areas, to provide health care services in these areas.
What business leaders should expect of their employee communications programs
9 and 10 News (Michigan) – June 5
Business leaders can find new insights on what to expect from their employee communications programs in a new study entitled, “Best-In-Class Practices in Employee Communication: Through the Lens of 10 Global Leaders.” Created by the Institute for Public Relations’ Commission on Organizational Communication and conducted by KRC Research, the study features in-depth interviews with senior communications officers from 10 leading global companies. Often included on most-admired and best-places-to-work lists, the companies are Cargill, Chevron, FedEx, GE, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, McDonald’s, Navistar, Petrobras and Toyota. “The research says it’s imperative for heads of employee communications to deeply understand their companies’ business objectives,” added Bruce Berger, Ph.D., member of the Commission and professor of advertising and public relations at the University of Alabama.
Read Bama Read to hold summer fundraising program
Tuscaloosa News – June 5
Young people with a flair for fundraising could win an iPad mini while helping a local nonprofit group move closer to its goal of replacing school library books that were destroyed in the April 27, 2011, tornado. Read Bama Read is holding a summer fundraising program open to kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The group wants kids to host fundraisers to benefit Read Bama Read. Kids who raise more than $500 will be eligible to win an iPad mini. The official end date for the fundraiser is Sept. 3. Students can register and find more information at readbamaread.org. Lemonade stands, bake sales, car washes, baby sitting and dog walking are some of the usual fundraising ideas, but organizers urge kids to be creative.
Gadsden Times – June 4
The Boost: Yesterday’s JeffCo bankruptcy deal could be a milestone date for the county
Al.com – June 5
Yesterday was a milestone day for JeffCo: Yesterday, Jefferson County and its major creditors came to an agreement five years in the making that could lead the county out of its $4.23 billion bankruptcy – the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The deal, which must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge and other creditors, includes a concession by JPMorgan of $842 million on the $1.2 billion the bank loaned JeffCo – a significant cut in JeffCo’s sewer debt that University of Alabama finance professor Robert Brooks suggested was “extremely generous.” “I wonder if perhaps there is a reason for their generosity other than they are really nice people,” Brooks said. “Obviously, you don’t give up that kind of money unless you believe that your firm has inflicted harm on Jefferson County.”
Black Kos, Tuesday’s Chile
Daily Kos – June 4
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez. Civil disobedience is a time honored tactic in our struggles over the years for civil and human rights. Sunday, I wrote about the Moral Monday Movement in NC, and the upcoming June 3rd “Mega Moral Monday” protest, and had to follow up today to report on how things went. Happy to share some good news. The movement is growing, and arrest numbers are mounting … James C. Hall, who teaches history and literature at the University of Alabama, interviewed Mr. Demby extensively in the 1990s for “Mercy, Mercy Me,” his book about efforts by black artists of the 1960s to reach beyond race. “A lot of the complaints about it were that it didn’t seem sufficiently black,” Mr. Hall said of the reaction to “The Catacombs” in a recent interview. “There’s no question that ‘Catacombs’ was really ambitious,” he added. “He did not want to speak of racial justice in a direct way. But you could make the argument it did, by defending the right of the African-American artist to choose whatever subject matter and to choose whatever method he or she thought was most appropriate.”
NYU visiting professor insults the obese Ph.D.s with ‘impulsive’ tweet
New York Daily News – June 4
Here’s the skinny on a small mind. Geoffrey Miller, a prominent professor of evolutionary psychology, attracted an onslaught of criticism for fat-shaming potential Ph.D. students via Twitter. The visiting NYU lecturer, who clearly never possessed the willpower to transform himself into some bulky Adonis, exposed another lack of self-discipline Sunday with a statement he later renounced as an “idiotic, impulsive, and badly judged tweet.” Oh, the irony… “Dear obese PhD applicants: If you don’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the willpower to do a dissertation. #truth.” … The truth? Scientifically speaking, whether a person qualifies as obese according to medical guidelines does not determine intelligence or dedication to intellectual pursuits, as Samuel Johnson, Harold Bloom and Ryan Lochte demonstrate. “Current human biology and health psychology research show conclusively that a combination of genetics and social environment have far more to do with obesity than does ‘willpower,’ contrary to what people often assume,” said Jason DeCaro, a biological anthropologist at the University of Alabama.
Farmers markets encourage buying local
Crimson White – June 5
Sonja Rossow, art professor at The University of Alabama, decided to buy all local and organic produce one year ago. She said in those 12 months, she has found Tuscaloosa to be relatively adaptive to her needs. “My main reason for buying local food is simply number one to support the local economy,” Rossow said. “I think it’s really important that we do that kind of thing because you’re giving farmers a chance to do what they love to do: working on a farm.” Rossow always had an interest in farmers markets but recently began educating herself on the importance of buying local for health, economic and environmental reasons. “To me, the big thing is we are becoming more environmentally aware of what we are doing to our planet,” Rossow said. “The word is out that these big agrobusinesses don’t care about what they’re feeding us but just their profit margin.”
UA theatre students take show to Gulf Shores
Crimson White – June 5
The University of Alabama’s SummerTide Theatre program is returning to Gulf Shores, Ala., for its 10th anniversary season. Since summer 2004, UA’s College of Arts and Sciences department of theatre and dance has brought a variety of professional shows to Gulf Shores, Ala., featuring UA theatre students. This year’s production, “Jubilee: Songs of and about Alabama,” is an original music revue conceived by director Edmond Williams, musical director Raphael Crystal and choreographer Stacy Alley. The festival showcases songs from Alabama’s musical history, like “Sweet Home Alabama” and “Stars Fell on Alabama,” as well as a few originals. “We’ve been given permission to use some of the best-known Alabama songs and also have selected some that may have been forgotten,” said Crystal. “Some of the songs will be heard for the first time, some for the first time in this century.”