KeyFacts
The University of
Alabama is ranked among the nation's top 50 public universities in U.S.
News & World Report's 2002 edition.
The University of Alabama's graduates include 15 Rhodes Scholars, 15 Goldwater
Scholars, and nine Truman Scholars. Our most recent Rhodes Scholar is
Bradley Tuggle, an English major who received the award in 2001.
The University of Alabama's chapter of the prestigious liberal arts honor
society Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest of the three chapters in the state.
Approximately 66 percent of UA's undergraduates receive some type of financial
aid.
UA ranks as one of the top public universities in enrollment of National
Merit, National Achievement, and National Hispanic Scholars. Our fall
2000 freshman class accounts for 94 of these 300 outstanding undergraduate
students.
For over a decade, The University of Alabama has been one of the top public
flagship universities in the Southeast in enrollment of African-American
students. In fall 2000, African-Americans comprised 14.9 percent of freshmen
and 14.5 percent of total undergraduate enrollment, and 13.6 percent of
the student body overall. Enrollment of African-American students in UA's
Graduate School has increased by 44 percent since 1996.
U.S. News & World Report has ranked the University of Alabama School
of Law among the top 50 in the nation for three consecutive years while
our undergraduate business program has made the top 50 nationally for
two years.
Across our beautiful 1,000-acre campus, several buildings dating back
to the founding of the university are still in use today—alongside other
historic structures and recent construction housing state-of-the-art technology.
We offer excellent facilities for study and research, including campus-wide
computer labs, multimedia classrooms, and online libraries.
More than 20 percent of the university's entering freshmen and 22 percent
of all undergraduates received merit scholarships for the academic year
2000-01.
The University of Alabama debate team holds 14 national championships—two
more than our football team!
UA offers 215 degree programs.
Founded in 1831, The University of Alabama was the state's first university.
UA students Monica Moss, left, and Vivian Chen, far right, join Oshequilla Parham, a Stillman College student, as participants in UA's undergraduate research program, supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The trio was observing a fish from the Cahaba River.
$1.8 million from Howard Hughes Medical Institute to Enhance Undergraduate Education in Biology at UA
by Chris Bryant
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded $1.8 million to The University of Alabama, enabling the university to continue strengthening undergraduate education in biological sciences. The four-year grant is one of 44 grants totaling $80 million awarded this year to research universities across the nation through HHMI's undergraduate grants program. Recipients were selected from among the 189 institutions that submitted proposals.
"Our biological sciences department in the College of Arts and Sciences is becoming a model for melding undergraduate teaching and research," said UA Interim President J. Barry Mason. "In addition to allowing us to expand those efforts, this grant will also significantly impact the University's outreach efforts in K-12 education and provide us with another opportunity to collaborate with faculty and students at Stillman College and Shelton State Community College."
UA will use the funds to redesign some of its teaching and research laboratories and restructure portions of the biological sciences curriculum; expand to Shelton its undergraduate research program, which already involves UA and Stillman faculty and students; broaden the interdisciplinary experiments available to rural high school students and teachers at their sites; expand its popular Rural Science Scholars Summer Program, which brings high school students to campus to learn more about science and its career opportunities; and develop interactive Web-based technologies for use in integrated science programs for middle schools.
Dr. Martha Powell, professor and chair of biological sciences, said the biology field is in the midst of a revolution and support such as this helps ensure the department continues preparing its students to lead the way in the scientific challenges that lie ahead.
"There has never been a better time to be a biologist than now," said Powell. "We are able to manipulate genes, we are able to sequence molecules, and we can now begin to understand the mechanisms of diseases at the molecular level. This has applications in developing potential therapies and cures for diseases. It's a time for a lot of opportunities, but we're also concerned with the bioethics of what's happening, so students need to be informed."
"We don't just take students, put them in the lab and lock them up," Powell said. "They do the research. Rather than just cookbook science, they are learning how discovery-based science is taught."
Through the latest grant, UA will also enhance its role in the Alabama Science in Motion program, a state-funded effort where vans transport research equipment, labs and master's level teachers to participating teachers and students in rural areas. The program previously concentrated on biology and chemistry experiments, but Powell said the grant would enable UA to develop a biophysics element as well. K-12 teachers also receive extensive training through the program during the summer and on select days during the academic year.
The expansion of UA's Rural Science Scholars Program means more high school students from rural areas will be brought to campus during the summer and exposed to biology and English courses, as well as to university life. That program has previously attracted 72 high school students from 21 rural counties in Alabama.
The grant will also allow the biology department to work with the University's Center for Communication and Educational Technology to increase the Web-based technology available to middle school students involved in CCET's Integrated Science program. Integrated Science is a new middle-school science curriculum introduced in 1991. It emphasizes the mastery of key concepts and the development of problem-solving skills rather than memorization.
Middle-school students taking Integrated Science are exposed to an on-air instructor, along with visiting scientists and other guests, who introduce major science topics and concepts in three weekly 20-minute telecasts. Middle-school teachers are provided with science kits and teachers manuals as resources that enable them to incorporate the Integrated Science concepts within their regularly scheduled classes.
"It's research that makes me enthusiastic about what I'm teaching in freshman biology," Powell said. "My experience has been that your best researchers are typically your best teachers."
In addition to UA, recipients of the HHMI grants include such prestigious universities as Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. With these latest grants, the Institute has awarded $556 million to colleges and universities since 1988.
More information on the grants program is available on HHMI's Web Site at www.hhmi.org/news/070902.html.
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a medical research organization whose principal mission is biomedical research. Through its complementary grants program, the Institute supports science education in the United States and a select group of biomedical scientists abroad. |
