UA In the News — Aug. 11

UA In the News — Aug. 11

To prevent traffic fatalities, Alabama invests $1.8 million in data science
State Scoop – Aug. 10
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is investing $1.8 million into new digital tools and data collection efforts to stop a surge of traffic fatalities throughout the state … Ivey awarded the funding Monday through three grants to the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS), a group that has served the state through its collection of traffic data, its traffic survey software and its efforts to develop a state highway safety plan. Ivey said in a statement she hopes the additional funding will lower the state’s traffic fatalities, which jumped nearly 24 percent from 788 in 2015 to 975 in 2016.
 
Move-in day brings excitement to University of Alabama campus
CBS 42 (Birmingham) – Aug. 10
Thursday was move-in day at the University of Alabama, and 2,600 freshmen students spent the morning moving into dormitories on campus. One year ago, UA had a record enrollment of more than 37 thousand students. The majority of students will move in the weekend of August 18-20.
WAFF-NBC (Huntsville) – Aug. 10
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Aug. 10
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 10
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 11
 
Alexa, Siri, Cortana: Our virtual assistants say a lot about sexism
Radio Australia – Aug. 10
OK, Google. We need to talk. For that matter — Alexa, Siri, Cortana — we should too … Feminist researcher and digital media scholar Miriam Sweeney, from the University of Alabama, believes the fact that virtual agents are overwhelmingly represented as women is not accidental. “It definitely corresponds to the kinds of tasks they carry out,” she says.
ABC.net.au – Aug. 10

Writing organization, founded in 1923, gets a millennial makeover
Alabama News Center – Aug. 10
The Alabama Writers’ Conclave beefed up its digital presence this summer working with Capstone Agency, the student-run communications firm at the University of Alabama. The conclave, which has supported the development of Alabama writers since 1923, had a dated website with a photocopied logo and a Facebook page that didn’t reflect the current membership. Hank Henley, treasurer of the conclave, noticed a lack in diversity on the organization’s Facebook page and knew there needed to be some changes. “The only young person or person of any ethnicity other than white in the picture was the server in the background,” Henley said. “When we noticed this, we were horrified.”

University Medical Center is expanding into Demopolis
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 10
University Medical Center is expanding into Demopolis, Alabama. The new location, which opened August 1, is next to Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital inside the hospital’s out patient facility. Clinicians from the college of Community Health Sciences at The University of Alabama are there supporting the local hospital.

‘Confederate’ danger: Americans don’t have the education to handle it
Staunton News Leader (Virginia) – Aug. 10
Backlash and a #NoConfederate hashtag have already greeted the provocative idea from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to create a fictional HBO series depicting America as if the Confederacy had won the Civil War. While artists should be allowed to tell any story as they please, the danger here stems from an uneducated public and a very real legacy of institutionalized racism. (Al Brophy holds the Paul and Charlene Jones Chair in law at the University of Alabama and is the author, most recently, of University, Court, and Slave: Proslavery Thought in Southern Colleges and Courts and the Coming of Civil War.)

Manchester people in the news
Gloucester Times (Massachusetts) – Aug. 10
People items should be sent to the Gloucester Daily Times, Whittemore Street, Gloucester, MA 01930, via email to gdt@gloucestertimes.com or faxed to 978-282-4397. College graduation and dean’s list items should come directly from the school … Anthony Lange has been named to the 2017 spring semester dean’s list at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Tuscaloosa County Alumni Chapter holds kick off event
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 10
The Tuscaloosa County University of Alabama Alumni Chapter hosted their 4th annual Fall Kick-off tonight. The chapter raises money for scholarships for Tuscaloosa County students to attend The University of Alabama.