UA administrator, civic leader dies
Tuscaloosa News – July 5
Longtime University of Alabama administrator and civic leader John L. Blackburn died Friday night at Hospice of West Alabama. He was 84. He was best known for the UA organization that bears his name, the Blackburn Institute, a nationally known leadership development program that links state leaders with UA students and Blackburn fellows. Since its establishment in 1995, the institute has worked to realize Blackburn’s dream of becoming a global network seeking to realize the state’s potential. “Dr. Blackburn was a highly respected educator who helped lead the University of Alabama through some of its most challenging and important times,” UA President Robert Witt said. “While he will be greatly missed, we are pleased that his legacy will live on through the Blackburn Institute.”…On June 11, 1963, he helped assure the successful enrollment of the university’s first black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood. “When the roll is called of the legendary, iconic figures of UA’s 20th-century faculty and staff, John L. Blackburn’s name will be right there alongside Hudson Strode and [Paul W.] ‘Bear’ Bryant,” said Culpepper Clark, author of “The Schoolhouse Door: Segregation’s Last Stand at the University of Alabama.”… “Forrest Gump” author Winston Groom, a UA alumnus, admired the dedication Blackburn showed to helping students realize their potential. “He was smart, selfless, fair, honest, and he didn’t view public service as a business, but as a way to give of his talents to young people,” Groom said. “John was an institution within an institution that he was devoted to – the University of Alabama.”…
Birmingham News – July 5
ABC 33/40 (Birmingham) – July 4
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – July 4 and July 5
Food, fun and the Fourth: Teaching kids about America’s Independence Day
Andalusia Star-News – July 3
…Dr. Liza Wilson, professor of education at the University of Alabama, said, “For younger students, the notion of independence can be related to their lives. The colonists were becoming independent and wanted to be on their own.”…”For any age, students should know the people that were involved and understand their contributions to the Declaration of Independence – Thomas Jefferson, John Hancock, Richard Henry Lee, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington (Washington was not involved in the actual writing of the Declaration of Independence because he was serving as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army),” she said…Dr. Wilson and her colleague, ZuZu Freyer, director of the Teaching American History Program have developed three ideas for teaching children about Independence Day. 1. Children of all ages can create their own “history in a box”…2. You could sing (and add songs to the history in a box), “Yankee Doodle,” and other period pieces. 3. Play games from the time period: Blind Man’s Bluff, Hide & Seek, Leap Frog (only boys played this one!) and Skip Rope…
Montgomery County’s white flight continues
Montgomery Advertiser – July 4
…The African-American population isn’t the only one that is increasing in the tri-county. Statewide, the Hispanic population in Alabama is increasing in Alabama as it is in the rest of the country, said Annette Jones Watters, assistant director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and manager of the Alabama State Data Center at the University of Alabama. Hispanics were the fastest-growing group in the United States. There were 46.9 million Hispanics in the country in 2008, up by 3.2 percent from 2007. In 2008, nearly one in six U.S. residents was Hispanic…
Spiritual conversion
Tuscaloosa News – July 4
…According to a survey on changes in religious affiliation in the U.S. released in April by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life, 44 percent of Americans change their religious affiliation at least once during their lifetime. Most make the change before they turn 24, and many make the change more than once. Theodore Trost, an associate professor of religious studies at UA, said conversion means to essentially change adherence from one religious system to another. And there are numerous reasons for it. Palmour’s reasons for converting, Trost said, would fall into the ‘religious seeker’ category. ‘She began to entertain questions, or doubts, about the faith that she had inherited,’ Trost said. ‘From a minister’s point of view, doubt was her problem. But from her point of view, it would have been that a minister was unable to answer her questions. ‘So it started her on a religious quest that led her to another religion. This is intellectual searching. One set of answers that used to satisfy no longer do.’…
Leaders hope to attract new retailers to area
Tuscaloosa News – July 4
Kristy Reynolds, the Bruno’s professor of retailing at the University of Alabama, said she, too, sees Tuscaloosa as having a shortage of retail stores. Retailers like Kohl’s Department Store and Burlington Coat Factory could do well here, she said. ‘In addition, I know that many moms take their daughters to Birmingham to shop at value-priced clothing stores such as Forever 21,’ Reynolds said. ‘After the downturn, I think that folks will be clamoring for Best Buy and Banana Republic.’…
Once scorned, single parents now a norm
Florence Times-Daily – July 5
…So why are people influenced by the rich and famous? Often they are a constant of culture that connect our conversation, Daniels said.” Celebrities are a commonality of our experience, and that’s because we’re consuming the media.”
Alabama grant to boost da Vinci Academy
Gainesville (Ga.) Times – July 3
Hall County’s da Vinci Academy has received a $20,000 service learning grant from the University of Alabama to jump-start the school’s student-run museum…Jane Newman, associate professor of education at the University of Alabama, said she believes the da Vinci Academy’s grant proposal was “very innovative” and called it the best of the 40 or so proposals submitted by Georgia schools. Educational leaders at the University of Alabama selected Georgia as its partnering state for the federal grant to create a “teacher network” to foster and support progressive educational opportunities, White said. Newman said the University of Alabama gained access to the grant funding through the Corporation of National and Community Service. She said the federal grant aims to get high poverty middle school students involved in learning science. “That’s what we’re looking for is schools who are teaching students those skills and those concepts that will make us more competitive in a global society,” Newman said…
‘Black Belt 100 Lenses’ coming to BWWMH
Demopolis Times – July 3
Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital’s newest art exhibit will feature young photographers from five counties across Alabama’s Black Belt. The sponsoring program, called “Black Belt 100 Lenses,” began two years ago as a partnership between the Center for Community-Based Partnerships at the University of Alabama and the Black Belt Community Foundation. “Black Belt 100 Lenses is a tool to get students to think about taking ownership of their communities,” said program co-director Elliott Knight. “It gives them an opportunity to have a voice about things that are important to them.”…
Education briefs
Birmingham News – July 5
The University of Alabama’s College of Engineering will host two programs, the Engineering Math Advancement Program (E-MAP) for entering freshmen and the Student Introduction to Engineering (SITE) for rising high school juniors or seniors… — The University of Alabama School of Social Work will hold its eighth annual Fall Social Work Conference Aug. 27-28 at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa Conference Center in Montgomery. The theme of the conference is “Achieving Balance: Bridging Child Welfare Practice and Research,” and the keynote speaker will be Dennis Saleebey, professor emeritus of social welfare at the University of Kansas. — Alvin Sella, professor emeritus of painting at the University of Alabama, received a Governor’s Arts Award in May from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. Sella was honored with an article in Alabama Arts magazine.