University Of Alabama chimes play in honor of area woman’s birthday
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 25
…In honor of her 94th birthday, Helton’s family brought her back from Atmore to the city where she was born and raised, and where her father, Oliver Hasting Thompson, helped construct the University of Alabama’s Denny Chimes and Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library…Denny Chimes’ carilloneur Garrett Martin played the chimes and Pat Whetstone, director of UA’s Alumni Association, gave Helton an honorary certificate. Jessica Lacher-Feldman, curator of rare books and special collections at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, gave Helton a picture of Denny Chimes dating to its original construction. “It’s such a unique story. It’s nearly 100 years of history. Her father has been gone for 50 years, but to have the opportunity to come back for her birthday is too cool,” Lacher-Feldman said. The official certificate reads, “On Friday, January 23, 2009, the playing of Denny Chimes at the University of Alabama is dedicated to Irma T. Helton to honor her 94th birthday and her father Oliver Hasting Thompson, who along with other craftsmen, built Denny Chimes in 1929 to serve as a lasting symbol of the University’s tradition and pride.”…
Crimson White – Jan. 26
UA program teaches babies and parents to talk with their hands
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 24
Communication starts early at the University of Alabama’s Child Development Research Center. Fifteen families across Tuscaloosa were selected to take part in a new program that teaches parents how to communicate with their children nonverbally. For eight weeks, parents with children ages six months and older are invited to take part in the “Come Sign with Me” program, which shows parents how to incorporate sign language into their daily lives…Baby TALK, a community service program that is part of the College of Human Environmental Sciences at UA, is a good support system for parents…
Praised writer’s road ended in Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 26
Richard Yates, considered by literary critics the “great lost American writer,” lived out the last years of his life in a sparsely furnished duplex on a cul-de-sac just off Bryant Drive. Gasping from an oxygen tank, but still stubbornly smoking, Yates came to Tuscaloosa in 1990 for a one-term endowed chair in writing at the University of Alabama…Yates is finally receiving fame for the unsparingly dissected suburban life he depicted in stories and novels such as “Revolutionary Road,” adapted into an Oscar-nominated film starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Tony Earley, a UA graduate student in creative writing in the early 1990s, says the acclaim should have come decades ago. While the film’s high profile is helping bring Yates’ work back into the public eye, Earley is ambivalent about the movie. “He was, I think, pretty desperately poor, and never had the income I thought somebody of his stature should have had, or even deserved,” said Earley, now a writer who holds the Samuel Milton Fleming Chair in English at Vanderbilt University…“He lived kind of an ascetic, monkish life,” said Allen Weir, who helped bring Yates to UA as director of the creative writing program. Weir is now a writer at the University of Tennessee…“He had the worst luck,” said Don Noble, at the time a professor in UA’s English department. “Every time he got published, it seems he got dwarfed by other, bigger books.”…
UA student combines love of law, writing to become a top blogger
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 25
…Nichols’ blog has won first place in the student category for the American Bar Association Journal’s “2008 ABA Journal Blawg 100,” the 100 best Web sites by lawyers for lawyers…Nichols, a 24-year-old second-year law student at the University of Alabama, is thrilled by the honor, saying, “I was really flattered to be nominated even. The ABA is really prestigious.”…Nichols’ blog is about “political commentary and general frivolity,” as it states at the top of the page. And she gives a bird’s-eye view of life as a lawyer-in-training at the University of Alabama…
Doctors believe mother has Munchausen syndrome by proxy, has medically abused children
Dallas Morning News – Jan. 26
…”It’s infrequent that these cases get to the criminal system … which is very frustrating to me,” said Dr. Marc D. Feldman, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa who has studied Munchausen. He said these women know what they’re doing when they make their children sick or allow them to undergo medical procedures they don’t need. “In some cases [there is] significant planning and deception in carrying out the ruses,” Feldman said. “That’s evidence that they’re not psychotic.” “It’s child mistreatment, undeniably,” he said. “It may be the single most lethal form of child abuse there is.”…
Report: Alabama doing better than rest of U.S.
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 24
…In more bad news coinciding with the annual conference, the state’s unemployment rate in December climbed to 6.7 percent, up from 6 percent in November, according to figures released Friday. “Everything is going down,” said Sam Addy, director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Business and Economic Research, which sponsors the conference. Addy said that while the state’s economy is better than other states, it’s expected to get worse before it gets better, probably late this year or in 2010. Alabama’s economic output this year could range between a negative 1.5 percent to a positive 0.7 percent with employment gains or losses and government tax collections basically within the same range. Addy said ThyssenKrupp will be an economic strength for Alabama as will U.S. Army Base Realignment and Closure Commission activities in Huntsville, hospital expansions, education construction, federal contracts, Alabama State Docks business, and convention and tourism taxes. “Alabama is weathering this economic crisis better than any other Southeast state,” said Wade, who announced a new initiative to help existing and small businesses. Still, the Center for Business and Economic Research said Alabama could lose 4,800 manufacturing jobs this year, but there could be job increases in government and in professional, business, health and education services. “Many aspects of the state’s economy will be weak or declining in 2009,” Addy said. “We are not immune to what is happening globally and nationally.”…
Mobile Register – Jan. 24
Montgomery Advertiser – Jan. 24
10 Commandments judge eyes run for governor
Montgomery Advertiser (Associated Press) – Jan. 24
…David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said that in hard times, voters tend to make economic issues more important than social issues, and that could hamper Moore. “When people think of Roy Moore, they think of social issues,” he said. “If Judge Moore hopes to be a strong candidate in the 2010 primary, he’s going to have to broaden his portfolio.”…
Clanton Advertiser – Jan. 24
Gadsden Times – Jan. 24
Treating college students with ADHD poses challenges, UA researcher says
Medilexicon.com – Jan. 25
Diagnosing and treating college students with ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – presents several challenges, a UA expert says. Dr. Mark Thomas, staff physician at the UA Student Health Center and the University Medical Center, will present a paper on “Optimizing ADHD Medication Therapy in College Health” at the annual meeting of American College Health Association…Thomas will provide insight on selecting ADHD medications and providing effective coverage for college students…
Master class
New York Times Magazine – Jan. 25
…Jessica Lacher-Feldman, the curator of rare books and special collections at the University of Alabama, has found Country Captains in “The Geechee Cookbook,” published by St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Savannah in 1956 (with an introduction by the songwriter Johnny Mercer), and in the “Recipe Jubilee,” published by the Junior League of Mobile (another port city) in 1964. “River Road Recipes,” the 1959 cookbook of the Junior League of Baton Rouge, has one as well, as does one published a decade later by the league in Lafayette, La. There are captains enough in Lacher-Feldman’s collections to staff a navy…
Opinion: Bush not worried about judgment of his tenure
Tuscaloosa News – Jan. 25
…“He’s holding one lottery ticket,” said David Lanoue, the chairman of the University of Alabama department of political science. “If Iraq does indeed become a safe, functioning democracy and that spreads through the region, I think historians will take a second look at Iraq, at least. “But right now, I think that’s a long shot.”…
Real estate event welcomes students
Crimson White – Jan. 26
Students and business professionals alike will have the opportunity to attend the ninth annual Alabama Commercial Real Estate Conference to be held on Jan. 30. The event is run by the Alabama Center for Real Estate…The keynote speaker, David Bronner, chief executive officer of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, will address attendees as the cornerstone of the event…
Study at Guatemala now offered
Crimson White – Jan. 26
UA students now have a chance to study in Guatemala in a Summer Overseas Study Group Program through Capstone International for one of the cheapest rates offered for a study abroad program. Brendan O’Farrell, overseas study academic advisor, said this is the first year for a trip to Guatemala to be a summer program. In the past students went to Guatemala for alternative spring break and other related trips…
Rubber meets road for student engineers at Barber Motorsports Park
Birmingham News – Jan. 24
…engineering students from six universities ventured out of the workshop and onto the pavement at Barber Motorsports Park today to test the designs of their formula-styled race cars…The universities competing are Auburn University, the University of Alabama, the University of Maryland, Mississippi State University, Southern Polytechnic University and Vanderbilt University…
Chinese New Year celebrated at Ferg
Crimson White – Jan. 26
The Ferguson Ballroom was transformed Sunday night into a little piece of home for many of the University’s Chinese students and Tuscaloosa’s Chinese residents. However, people from all countries and of all ages enjoyed the festivities as the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars rang in the New Year with their annual Chinese New Year Festival…
From the campus
Huntsville Times – Jan. 25
Laura Jones of Madison has been inducted into Xi chapter of Kappa Delta Pi at the University of Alabama. Individuals are invited to membership in this largest of education honor societies on the basis of high academic achievement, worthy ideals, and evidence of leadership attributes…Ben Parvin, a senior at the University of Alabama, has been selected to participate in a unique student teaching program that allows certain seniors to student-teach abroad. Parvin is scheduled to leave on Jan. 15 to work with middle and high school students in Darwin, Australia, and return on May 3.