University of Alabama announces search for diversity chief
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 11
The University of Alabama on Thursday announced plans to start a search this fall to fill a new chief diversity officer position. The new position and a new diversity plan are part of a campus strategic plan announced last year by UA President Stuart Bell. The creation of the office at UA has been a persistent recommendation from faculty and students during the past few years as the university has faced its own issues with diversity and inclusion on campus.
Birmingham Business Journal – Aug. 11
Public Now – Aug. 11
How important are childhood friends?
The Observer (Uganda) – Aug. 11
Friendship is one of the most important aspects of life. Almost everybody has at least one friend, and many a time for married couples, their best friends will actually be their spouses! … Neyfakh quotes Jeffrey Parker, an associate professor at the University of Alabama who specializes in childhood friendship, as saying, “Even if, as a parent, you might look at your children’s friendships and think, you know, ‘Oh, they just play together, how hard could that be?’ it is in fact hard work.”
‘Men in Suits’ welcome Tuscaloosa students to a new school year
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Aug. 11
Students at Central Elementary School in Tuscaloosa got a surprise when they walked through the doors Thursday morning for the start of a new school year. Dozens of men, dressed in suits and ties, lined the school’s entrance, cheering, shaking hands and high-fiving as the students filed through the doors … “When you walk in and you see all these men smiling, clapping you up. It gives you chills really,” said Joshua Foster, a member of Collegiate 100 at the University of Alabama.
NBC 10 (Albany, Ga.) – Aug. 11
WTOC 11 (Savanna, Ga.) – Aug. 11
A Black Hole Story Told by a Cosmic Blob and Bubble
Space Daily – Aug. 12
Two cosmic structures show evidence for a remarkable change in behavior of a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy. Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers are piecing together clues from a cosmic “blob” and a gas bubble that could be a new way to probe the past activity of a giant black hole and its effect on its host galaxy. The Green Blob, a renowned cosmic structure also called “Hanny’s Voorwerp” (which means “Hanny’s object” in Dutch), is located about 650 million light-years from Earth. This object was discovered in 2007 by Hanny van Arkel, at the time a school teacher, as part of the citizen science project called Galaxy Zoo. . . . “Extended X-ray Emission in the IC 2497 – Hanny’s Voorwerp System: Energy Injection in the Gas Around a Fading AGN,” Lia Sartori (ETH Zurich), Kevin Schawinski (ETH Zurich), Michael Koss (ETH Zurich), Ezequiel Treister (University of Concepcion, Chile), Peter Maksym (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), William Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa), C. Megan Urry (Yale University), Chris Lintott (Oxford University) and O. Ivy Wong (University of Western Australia), 2016 Apr. 21, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
West Virginia Section Volunteers Lend Helping Hand to Flood Victims
American Society of Civil Engineers – Aug. 11
The rain started Thursday morning and didn’t stop until Friday … The flash floods that poured through West Virginia June 23-26 washed away trucks, trailers, homes, and livelihoods … Among the volunteers, Emily Gould is a senior civil engineering student at the University of Alabama, where she is vice president of operations for the ASCE Student Chapter. She grew up in Charleston, WV, and was home this summer for an internship. She volunteered at the Elkview Baptist Church flood relief distribution center and was excited to work with the ASCE group. “Being an ASCE member and a West Virginia resident, you pitch in where you can,” said Gould, S.M.ASCE. “You see a lot of people banding together to help their neighbors, so, for me, it’s been an inspirational story of people coming back from a tragic event.”
Parents Need More Discipline
LifeZette.com – Aug. 11
New technology, rapidly changing family dynamics, and an evolving education system all challenge parents today — more so than in previous generations … Larry Clayton, professor emeritus of history at the University of Alabama and author of the book, “Work and Wealth in Scripture: How to Grow, Prosper, and Work as a Christian,” said the issues facing parents today are not going to be solved by going along with the status quo. Focusing on the practice of faith can make people better parents — and help parents raise better kids.
Public-police forum is Tuesday
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 11
A community and police forum open to the public will be held Tuesday at 6 p.m. at First African Baptist Church, 2621 Ninth St. The free event is designed to foster good relations between the public and police. Panelist will include Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson, Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy, University of Alabama Police Chief John Hooks and Northport Police Capt. Keith Carpenter. UA law professor Bryan Fair will serve as moderator. The event is being co-sponsored by The Tuscaloosa News and WVUA-23.