The Year in Brief — November 2002
UA Honors Program Offers Course on Understanding Islam — The UA International Honors Program presents "Understanding Islam," a special forum on the origin and nature of Islam. The program allows University students to learn more about the Islamic religion, its texts and beliefs, the origination and growth of the Islamic civilization and its place in the world.
UA Dean Robert Olin Receives National Award for Using Technology to Teach Math — Dr. Robert F. Olin, dean of the UA College of Arts and Sciences, receives the prestigious Year 2002 Virginia B. Smith Innovative Leadership Award at ceremonies in Washington, D.C. Jointly presented by the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated leadership and innovation in American higher education.
UA Awarded Grant to Study Ways of Reducing Agitation Among Nursing Home Residents — Dr. Louis Burgio, professor of psychology and director of UA's Applied Gerontology Program, will use a $550,000 HHS grant to study the benefits of additional training for certified nursing assistants in reducing agitation among nursing home residents suffering from dementia.
UA Museum Resumes Excavation of Rare Native American Council House, Determined as Southeast's Largest — Dr. Vernon James Knight, curator of Southeastern Archaeology for UA's Alabama Museum of Natural History and leader of the UA archaeological team that discovered the earth lodge council house in 2001, announced that new information reveals it to be the largest such structure ever found in the Southeast.
UA's MINT Center Receives $6 Million National Science Foundation Award — The University of Alabama Center for Materials for Information Technology (MINT) has received a $6 million award from the National Science Foundation to support research on new disk media, spin electronics, and molecular information storage.
UA Organizations Donate 47,067 Pounds of Food to West Alabama Food Bank — University of Alabama students, faculty, and staff collected 47,067 pounds of food for the West Alabama Food Bank during the 2002 "Beat Auburn — Beat Hunger" canned food drive.
2003 Economic Outlook Conference Presented by UA — The 2003 Economic Outlook Conference, presented by UA's Center for Business and Economic Research, emphasizes globalization and its ramifications, as typified by the investment of Mercedes, Hyundai, Honda, and Toyota in Alabama.
Additional Funding for UA/Holt High School Partnership Brings Total to Nearly $2 Million — The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention awards UA and the Tuscaloosa Family Resource Center a $220,000 grant to establish a Juvenile Mentoring Program (JUMP) at Holt High School. The program will be conducted in cooperation with GEAR-UP, a 3-year, $1.6 million federal grant program that provides students and their families with comprehensive support services to prepare for college.
UA College of Nursing Assists with Carbon Hill Health Care Needs Following Walker County Storm — A group of health care professionals, including six people affiliated with the UA Capstone Rural Health Center in Parrish, Ala., staff a temporary nursing station in Carbon Hill to treat storm victims and members of the clean-up crews.
Trade Show Features UA Engineering Students' Prototypes Designed to Help Handicapped Children — Nine mechanical engineering student teams at UA designed and built devices to help children with spina bifida get into and out of wheelchairs and bathtubs as part of an assistive technology project.
