Campus Announcements and Updates

Campus Announcements and Updates

• March 20th, 2017
• in Messages from the President

It is hard to believe the semester is almost over, but we are moving quickly toward the end of another academic year. I appreciate everything you do to make our university the special place it is.

I hope you will find time this week to meet our four finalists for Vice President/Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. All of them are visiting campus this week. The first session for faulty and staff is at 10 a.m. today in North Lawn Hall, Room 1014. Schedules and information on all four candidates are available at www.ua.edu/diversitysearch.

We recently broke ground on our new Adapted Athletics Facility. This is a huge step forward for more than 100 of our student-athletes who participate in competitive and non-competitive sports that include men’s and women’s wheelchair basketball, adapted golf, wheelchair tennis, para-rowing and adapted track and field. We are one of only 12 universities in the nation that offer adapted athletics programs and the first to have a facility solely for these athletes.

You have probably noticed we are making additional safety improvements to University Boulevard. It is important that we begin this work before the end of the semester to allow enough time to complete it before fall. Two lanes will remain open, but traffic may be a little slower than usual so please be cautious.

Looking ahead, I hope to see you at Honors Week activities April 3-7 when we recognize many of our students for their commitment to academic excellence. We will also present our Premier Awards this Thursday. These are the University’s top individual awards for scholarship, leadership and service. Faculty recipients are Dr. Katrina Ramonell and Dr. Norman Baldwin. This year’s student recipients are Lillian Roth, Charlotte Watters, Chris Lancaster, Caroline Morrison, Faulkner Hereford and Justin McGrath.

On April 5, we will celebrate excellence in research and scholarship at Faculty Research Day. Please join us at 4 p.m. at the Bryant Conference Center as we honor these finalists and award the President’s Faculty Research Award.

Physical and Biological Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering

• Senior Investigator:
  Gregory Starr, Biological Sciences
  Jason Bara, Chemical and Biological Engineering
  Brian Jordon, Mechanical Engineering
• Junior Investigator:
  Kim Genareau, Geological Sciences
  Paul Allison, Mechanical Engineering
  Andrew Lemmon, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Social and Behavioral Sciences

• Senior Investigator:
  Aaron Kuntz, Educational Research
  Andrew Billings, Telecommunication and Film
• Junior Investigator:
  Adam Knowlden, Health Sciences
  Jingping Sun, Educational Leadership
  Lesley Jo Weaver, Anthropology

Arts and Humanities

• Senior Investigator:
  Michael Picone, Modern Languages and Classics
  Paul Horwitz, School of Law
• Junior Investigator:
  Rebecca Salzer, Theatre and Dance
  Benjamin Kozuch, Philosophy
  Stephen Rushin, School of Law

I know your calendars are crowded, but I hope you plan to attend the Spring Campus Assembly on Thursday, April 13, in the Ferguson Center Ballroom. We will award the E. Roger Sayers Distinguished Service Award and the Minnie C. Miles Endowed Excellence Award. Presidents of the Faculty Senate, PSA, OCTSA and SGA will report on their initiatives, and I will provide a campus update. I hope to see you there.

Thank you for all you do every day.

Stuart R. Bell
President