LEND A HAND: Families invited to attend space-themed event
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 4
West Alabama families are invited to don spacesuits and prepare for blastoff during this year’s space-themed Hands-on Family Night at the Alabama Museum of Natural History on the University of Alabama campus. A collaborative effort among UA’s Graduate School, the Graduate Student Association, Graduate Parent Support and Alabama Museum of Natural History, “Adventures in Space” will run from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the museum in Smith Hall.

Symposium addresses women in STEM program
Crimson White – Feb. 4
On Feb. 3-4, The University of Alabama’s Women in STEM program hosted its fifth annual Empowering You: The Future of WiSE symposium, which brought together members of academia and industry to collaborate on how to spur the growth and support system for women in STEM. The lack of women and gender equality has long been an issue of discussion in the STEM fields; an issue the symposium hopes to address.

UA holds Students of Color Leadership Summit 
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 3
A Students of Color Leadership Summit took place at The University of Alabama today. It was one of the events the University has planned for Black History Month. Hundreds of students and professors showed up this evening.
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 3

ARE REFUGEES A SOURCE OF TERRORISM OR CRIME? A FACT CHECK OF ONGOING FEARS AND RUMORS
News 4 Security – Feb. 4
Since 1980, when the latest resettlement program started, more than 20,000 refugees from nearly 50 countries have started new lives in Idaho. They re among 3.2 million refugees to find new homes nationwide … Robert Adelman of the University at Buffalo and Lesley Reid of the University of Alabama pointed to a variety of reports, from as old as 1931 to as recent as 2012, in addition to their own research to disprove the idea that immigrants are somehow more prone to committing crimes than existing American citizens. While they looked at the immigration system as a whole, this also provides context for the refugee debate specifically. The Boise Police Department does not keep track of the number of crimes committed by refugees or immigrants, Williams said.
Patch.com – Feb. 5
 
Alabama Grad Becomes Youngest Black Judge In US History
The Voice – Feb. 5
A 27-year-old Alabama graduate was recently sworn in to a six-year term as a district judge in Wilcox County. Briana Westry-Robinson, a graduate of the University of Alabama appeared teary-eyed during her swearing-in ceremony last week, admitting that this is a dream she’d been working toward since the second grade. “It feels wonderful, the outpouring of support I’ve received from everyone,” Westry-Robinson told local Alabama news station WSFA.

UA law professor explains executive orders
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 4
You might have heard the words, Executive Orders, actions, memorandums and proclamations thrown around in the last few weeks, but what do they all mean? Trying to understand them all can be daunting, so I sought advice from a professor (Paul Horwitz) at The University of Alabama Law School.

A permanent wound: How the slave tax warped Alabama finances
Montgomery Advertiser – Feb. 5
Like slavery, the slave tax would leave a permanent wound on the state. When slavery died, so did the tax. Reconstruction-era efforts to replace the lost revenue with increased property taxes — the only major source left — sparked an angry reaction. Legislators rushed to introduce tax restrictions after Reconstruction without making serious efforts to find other sources of revenue. That set in place decades-long policies that, to this day, make it difficult and sometimes impossible for Alabama to generate enough revenue to pay for its state services. The $1.8 billion General Fund, which pays for most noneducation services in the state, should grow no more than $25 million in 2018; the state’s Medicaid agency alone has requested a $44 million increase for the year. “The slave tax in a weird way was a stabilizer,” said Susan Pace Hamill, a University of Alabama professor and expert on state taxation. “It was a bad stabilizer — the whole system of slavery was a bad stabilizer. A shameful stabilizer.”

TransAtlantic Horn Quartet joins the Albany Symphony for Romantic Evening
Albany Herald (Ga.) – Feb. 4
Music can have a healing effect, if for no other reason than as a brief respite from troubles. After the January disasters in Albany and Southwest Georgia, officials with the Albany Symphony Orchestra — and a founding member of an international horn quartet that will perform with the orchestra — say they are hoping Saturday evening’s “German Romantics” concert can provide that … Charles “Skip” Snead, a professor of horn at the University of Alabama and an original member of the TransAtlantic Horn Quartet that will perform with the symphony, said in a phone interview last week that he is looking forward to visiting a city he’s familiar with, though he wished circumstances were better.

Free legal clinic held for Alabama Veterans
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Feb. 3
Alabama veterans who need some legal help got some for free today at the Tuscaloosa VA Medical Center’s free legal workshop. Lawyers helped veterans with financial issues, landlord disputes, divorce and more. The medical center and University of Alabama’s Law School and the Tuscaloosa County Bar helped put on the clinic.

UA School of Music holds Spectrum Concert

WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – Feb. 4
A big turnout tonight for The University of Alabama Music Department’s Spectrum Concert. Moody Music Building was packed. Performances included several different ensembles, faculty members and the Million Dollar Band. UA hosts two concerts a year for the department to showcase their hard work and for high school students to get an idea of what it’s like to play in college.

Digging Deeper Into Campus Diversity
Inside Higher Ed – Feb. 4
Amid all the literature about the merits of college diversity, an important trend is often overlooked, according to a new study in The Journal of Higher Education. Although more students report having positive experiences by studying and living with those from different racial, religious, political, gender and ethnic groups, negative experiences are fairly common, too — and they can impair student learning and cognitive development, according to the study … The other authors of the study are Cindy Ann Kilgo, a professor of educational leadership at the University of Alabama; Teniell L. Trolian, a professor of education policy and leadership at the University of Albany, State University of New York.

Students across campus prepare for UADM
Crimson White – Feb. 5
The time of year has come again where hundreds of students across campus come together for a whole day to support a cause and raise money, all benefiting the Children’s of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. The University of Alabama chapter of Dance Marathon raised $211,342 last year alone. This year, UADM is uniting with Miracle Network Dance Marathons across the nation to incorporate “the flame of hope, passion and determination.” Just last week UADM raised $36,538 during their Miracle Mania three-day event.

UA student talks about National Wear Red Day
WVUA 23 (Live interview) – Feb. 3
February is Heart Health Awareness Month, and today is National Wear Red Day. In light of that, we have some very special guests with us to talk about heart health, and why it is so important. Joining us tonight is Audrey Barnett, a University of Alabama student, who has been through a lot over the past few years including three open-heart surgeries. And also, Margaret Woods with the American Heart Association.

UA professor discusses upcoming workshop on public speaking
ABC 33/40 (Talk of Alabama – Live interview) – Feb. 3
If you would like to conquer your fear of public speaking there is an upcoming workshop just for you. It’s taking place at The University of Alabama. We’ve got Brenda Truelove and Dr. Adam Brooks here with all of the details.

PREVIEW: Study Abroad Fair
Crimson White – Feb. 6
UA Education Abroad will be hosting its spring 2017 study abroad fair this Monday night. Chad Berry, assistant director of Education Abroad, said this is the first time they will have hosted the fair at night and at the Witt Activity Center. “We decided to try something different this spring with the fair to make the event more fun and interactive,” he said. “With its close proximity to many of the freshman dorms, we hope to attract a lot of first-year students so they can be thinking about how to study abroad at an early stage in their time as a UA student.”

THE PORT RAIL: Immigration policy must entail some restrictions
Tuscaloosa News – Feb. 5
It is time to visit immigration-land once again, especially to correct many absurd and patently wrong assumptions about this hot-button issue. The first immigrants to North America were, of course, the ancestors of the American Indians who arrived maybe 15 or 20 thousand years ago. The second wave of immigrants were Spanish conquistadors, English merchant-adventurers, gold hunters of all stripes, dissenters (Puritans for example), French priests, ministers and government bureaucrats (they have always been around) who trickled into North America in the 16th and 17th centuries, and then came over in serious numbers in the 18th century.