SGA senate tables Zimride bill

In its first session of the summer, the Student Government Association senate tabled a proposal to create a social media ridesharing network.

A bill to bring Zimride to the university was sent to the financial affairs committee for further consideration. Senators discussed whether or not they wanted to commit funds to the program.

Speaker of the Senate Ryan Flamerich said the senate effectively rejected the proposal, since funds needed to be allocated before July 1.

“I think if anything what we learned from this senate meeting… is that this senate is very different from the senates that have been here before and this senate is very much more of a reflection of the student body and they’re going to stand up for what they believe is right,” Flamerich said.

“I think there’s going to be some really special things to happen this year in this body,” he said. “This is a message to the executive branch that the senate is not going to be a rubber stamp this year.”

Arts and sciences senator Jeff Elrod was confirmed as president pro tempore of the senate. Elrod is the first non-greek student to hold the position in the recent years, Flamerich said. In the speaker’s absence, the president pro tempore will lead the senate.

“[Elrod] has been a leader in senate,” Flamerich said. “He was an instrumental part of the new 2011 SGA constitution; he has been instrumental in just about every major legislation that senate did last year. He will do a great job.”

Elrod said, “I’m humbled and honored by my colleagues to give me the trust and the confidence to hold this position. I look forward to serving in any way that I can.”

To show appreciation to the UA Greek Relief efforts, the senate presented James Fowler and Meg McCrummen with a resolution. The senate also approved transfers of funds to the financial affairs and student affairs accounts.

“Those accounts have run deficits from the previous administration,” Flamerich said. “Senate approved the funds to zero-out the deficits, but there are going to be serious questions on why those accounts ran deficit in the fall.”

A total of six resolutions were passed in memory of UA students who were killed by the April 27 tornado.

“On April 27 it was not a good day in Tuscaloosa, and I think it’s good that senate is celebrating the lives of those who passed away because it shows that every student is important on this campus no matter what,” Flamerich said.

For his performance at the 2011 NCAA Track and Field National Championship, Alexis Paine authored a resolution congratulating Kirani James for his athletic success. James won the 400 meter for the second year in the row and was named the South Region Athlete of the Year.

The last resolution presented and approved by the senate was a resolution to approve payment for the SGA “Through the Years” video project.

6.23.11

Red Cross helps rebuild

After the April 27 tornado, the American Red Cross was forced to relocate. While the West Alabama chapter had problems of its own, they still answered the call to help the residents of Tuscaloosa in the aftermath of the storm.

“Immediately after any disaster, including the tornado, our goal is to get in and be able to see what the needs of the people are, and with anything as large as that particular tornado was, and as devastating, we knew there were going to be sheltering needs,” said Sarah McPherson, health and safety services director. “We had people on stand-by to open up shelters, and that was our first goal after the tornado—to give people a safe, warm place to stay and have food available for them.”

The Red Cross provided shelters and counseling for citizens affected by the tornado. According to assistant professor and Red Cross volunteer Suzanne Horsley, the organization provided three meals a day and delivered food and drinks in Red Cross emergency response vehicles to heavily affected areas.

Though the last shelter closed on June 10, the Red Cross continues to help those who were affected by the storm physically and mentally to recover, while also taking care of other daily responsibilities, such as fire incidents, Horsley said.

“The chapter is part of a long-term planning committee in Tuscaloosa that is working to address needs of the community as we start to rebuild,” Horsley said in an emailed statement. “We are also continuing to do casework for clients, in which Red Cross personnel work with individuals and families who still need help recovering from the storm.”

The Red Cross has moved to a temporary office at 325 Skyland Blvd. E., across from Skyland Elementary School. Training sessions will take place at the training center located in University Mall near the Piccadilly Cafeteria entrance. Health and safety, disaster and community education classes will be available.

One specific class that will be offered in July will educate participants on what to do if emergency services cannot get to affected areas or people in the allotted time and how to help yourself and neighbors. The center will also serve as the Red Cross merchandise sales headquarters. Items such as first aid kits, clothing, weather radios and emergency water collection devices will be in stock.

“We slowly transitioned,” McPherson said. “We are open for business; we just had to relocate and keep going. Hopefully we will take [the new training facility] and make a positive turnout of it and be more available and more visible in our community.”

Many donations have been generated through text messaging where people can text “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation and also by calling the Relief Fund Hotline. While the Red Cross helps Tuscaloosa to make progress, Horsley says it is not the Red Cross alone.

“The Red Cross was one part of a huge effort to help the community recover,” she said. “Every group who has done something for tornado relief has brought its own specialty to the table, and the Red Cross specialty is helping individuals and families who have immediate needs following a disaster.

“I have been so proud of how all groups, regardless of their area of specialty, came together for a common purpose to help the people of West Alabama recover from this massive disaster. No single organization could do this alone –it took a lot of hard work from many diverse organizations to help.”

McPherson and Horsely said the Red Cross is always looking for and accepting volunteers; to get involved, call 205-758-3608.

To learn more about the American Red Cross, visit their website at redcross.org. The West Alabama chapter also has a Facebook page (BamaRedCross), Twitter account (@Bamaredcross) and a blog (redcrossofwestalabama.wordpress.com).

6.22.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/06/22/red-cross-helps-rebuild/

Birmingham Vet Center provides services

The Birmingham Vet Center is working with University of Alabama veterans groups to provide services and support to student and local veterans.

“We are providing readjustment counseling to combat veterans,” said Natalie Williams, a counselor at the Vet Center.

Counseling is available to veterans every Friday and by appointment at Canterbury Chapel, located at 812 5th Ave in Tuscaloosa. Services include individual and group counseling, as well as family therapy.

Jo Pryce is an associate professor at the school of social work and faculty adviser to the Campus Veterans Association. She has been prominent in coordinating a location for the counseling services following a request from the program’s team leader, Alicia Stanton. Pryce’s husband, David, is a Vietnam veteran.

“I had become aware that we had students who would benefit from vet center outreach,” Jo Pryce said. “I called [Stanton] up, she was looking for a place and [Canterbury Chapel] was willing to do it. The Vet Center is one of the legacies of the Vietnam War, and it is hugely successful. Part of it is that the centers have counselors who themselves are combat veterans.

“My husband benefitted greatly by the Vet Center. I think they’re wonderful, and I think other universities and colleges should welcome them because they are good at outreach.”

The Vet Center is only beginning the process of being more visible on campus.

“We are in the process of establishing a memorandum of understanding with the University so they are aware that we are here and to make sure we are visible on campus to be able to provide services for veterans,” Williams said.

Williams said she has been meeting with different departments on campus such as the Women’s Resource Center and the Counseling Center.

The University’s Campus Veterans Association president, Will Suclupe, said it is beneficial and a great thing for the Birmingham Vet Center to visit Tuscaloosa.

“The way the CVA has been involved is by supporting Natalie and the Veterans Center and getting the word out,” Suclupe said. “I think it’s a great benefit that they’re coming out here and I appreciate them for doing that because it allows student veterans not to have to go all the way to medical center, and if they don’t want it documented in their medical records it’s beneficial if they have the fear or the stigma of getting treatment.”

Like Pryce, Suclupe said it’s great for veterans not to have to document receiving services.

“What I like about it is that it’s really not affiliated with the VA in a sense that you have to get documentation,” he said. “It’s something that’s more like undocumented in your medical records so therefore people have that less mental health stigma of getting help.”

“They’re records are completely confidential—that is extremely important. The veteran is the only person who can give them permission to let them share their records with anybody else,” Pryce said.

Vet Centers are a part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and are located across the nation providing community based services. As stated on the Vet Center website, vetcenter.va.gov, “the goal of the Vet Center program is to provide a broad range of counseling, outreach, and referral services to eligible veterans in order to help them make a satisfying post-war readjustment to civilian life.”

For more information on these services contact Williams at 205-212-3122 or Pryce at 205-348-5405.

6.22.11

Boy Scouts volunteer and help tornado victims

Following the destruction of the tornado on April 27, a number of local organizations and groups provided a helping hand for the city of Tuscaloosa. Some were adults, but there were also young people involved.

The Black Warrior Council Boy Scouts of America had tools in tow as they began their work to rebuild the city the day after the storm.

“The day after [the tornado], we had Boy Scout volunteers,” said Chris Mehaffey, senior finance director. “Several of our volunteers got together on their own and started going out and cutting trees on the 28th. We had Boy Scouts here in Tuscaloosa County, Walker County and Winston County that manned donation sites.”

At these donation locations, the Scouts collected donations, helped sort items, distributed items and prepared meals.

“The Boy Scouts are prepared and helpful, so they – youth and adults – were out there trying to do what they could to help those that had been affected,” Mehaffey said.

While the Black Warrior Council has been working at home, there have also been troops from outside of Tuscaloosa that have lent helping hands. Mehaffey said there were two representatives from the national headquarters that made a visit to see what assistance they could provide. Neighboring scouts also came for the Storm Relief Day Camp that the BWC hosted.

“Several of our neighboring boy scout councils – Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Atlanta and as far away as Dallas, Tx. and Bethesda, Md. – they all sent support to help us put that day camp together,” Mehaffey said. “Nationally, the scouting family has come together to help here at the BWC to make sure scouting continues.”

The camp was a free one-day event held at Snow Hinton Park. Youth participated in activities such as flag football, pinewood derby and also received free movie tickets.

“I think it’s always nice that, although you’re in the environment where it happened, you can remove yourself and have some relaxation, because if you concentrate on that too much it can consume you,” said Herb Ragsdale, director of the Scott Reach program. “What we wanted to do was take a day where we could catch our breaths and get away from the day-to-day catastrophe-looking areas.”

The BWC will continue recruiting at the beginning of next school year while still assisting with the clean-up and rebuilding of Tuscaloosa.

“I’m happy [with the work we’ve done],” Ragsdale said. “I wish we could do more, but the efforts we have put forward will really help out, and I think that’s what the organization is all about in terms of community service, so I’m very pleased across the board to be a part of anything that’s trying to rebuild our city.”

“We’re going to continue our mission – which is to instill character in young people so they’ll lead a moral and ethical life,” Mehaffey said. “We’re going to continue to reach out to kids that were affected by the storms, whether they were directly impacted or if they have to ride through a part of town that the tornado went through.”

“It’s our desire to help and to continue to reach out to those kids and make sure they’re still kids and don’t grow up too quickly because of this storm.”

For more information on the Black Warrior Council Boy Scouts, visit their website at www.bwc-bsa.org or call their office at 205-554-1680.

6.15.11
http://cw.ua.edu/2011/06/14/boy-scouts-volunteer-and-help-tornado-victims/

Police departments adjust following tornado

After the tornado hit and damaged much of Tuscaloosa and surrounding areas, there was a desperate need for help from local emergency services units. The University of Alabama Police Department and the Tuscaloosa Police Department were two of the main responders to issues deriving from the occurrence.

Today, they are continuing their tornado relief efforts while moving towards regular day-to-day operations.

“UAPD worked side-by-side with city and county law enforcement and emergency management agencies throughout the tornado response,” said Cathy Andreen, University spokesperson, in an emailed statement. “On April 27, UAPD held personnel in anticipation of the storm. When the storm struck, UAPD officers were immediately sent into the devastated areas to aid in the emergency response and off-duty personnel were called in to work.”

Public Information Officer at Tuscaloosa Police Department, Brent Blankley, said, “We’re still in a rebuilding phase; we’re still having to protect property. We have people running details in the storm affected areas, but we switched our assets back to try to get to a normal operation, which moved a lot of people back to our criminal investigation division, patrol division and normal day-to-day functions. But, we still have people located in those storm areas.”

According to Blankley, the initial goal of TPD after the tornado hit was to try and get all injured persons out of houses and to get them to hospitals and other places that were providing medical assistant. After houses were searched, the department’s goals were switched to protecting property.

“There was the looting that was going on, so we switched roles into that and protecting our city,” Blankley said. “We still had normal calls from day-to-day operations that we had to respond to.”

TPD had a command station located at UAPD, which worked specific storm-affected areas along with officers from out of town and assisted TPD in their CID division. Following the storm, UAPD implemented 12-hour, seven-day-a-week work shifts.

“UAPD remained in emergency scheduling and continued to assign the majority of its staff to directly support the recovery efforts through May 15,” Andreen said. “This includes assigning personnel to field response efforts, the missing persons task force, and to incident command.”

TPD officers began working 12- to 16-hour shifts daily while transforming into one unit and dividing up into the three badly affected areas. By the end of the second week following the storm, the department began moving back towards eight-hour shifts.

“One thing we learned is how much everyone is willing to pitch in,” Blankley said. “I was amazed. There were just tons of officers here from different jurisdictions, states, troopers. That was one of the overwhelming things. In a time of crisis, it’s amazing to see how the community pulls together.  We had people in the community donating food [for the officers] and bringing supplies in to us. You knew we could depend on the community and the community could depend on us.”

TPD continues to patrol and run details in areas in and around Tuscaloosa. Blankley said TPD has learned from the experience and gathered knowledge that can be useful to local departments and those abroad.

“One of the big things that we do have now, is we’ve got a plan, so if anything like this happens in the future we can say ‘this is what we did last time,’” he said. “We’ll go back and look at stuff that could have been improved and fix that.”

Andreen said UAPD is continuing to provide patrol support in Cedar Crest and Forest Lake areas.

6.8.11

Print and Web

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/06/08/police-departments-adjust-following-tornado/

Samaritan's Purse focuses on the people

According to the Samaritan’s Purse website, the organization has worked for more than 40 years to help those in need all over the world,.

After the tornado that devastated areas of Tuscaloosa on April 27, Samaritan’s Purse began offering a helping hand and uplifting voice to those in need.

Brian and Pati Bartholme of Ft. Wayne, Ind. are two members of Samaritan’s Purse and part of the disaster relief team stationed in Tuscaloosa.

“The biggest goal is sharing the gospel – that’s the number one priority,” Brian Bartholme said. “To do that is by showing love. There’s not a specific goal to go to a house and do a specific thing; it’s we need to do whatever needs to be done for that person.”

Samaritan’s Purse has specially equipped RVs for disastrous events. Teams of workers have been assisting at many homes and locations that were hit by the tornado. Pati Bartholme said many students and local citizens have volunteered with Samaritan’s Purse. There are a number of operations such as cleaning up debris, moving trees and setting up tarps that have been completed every day.

“We get all the volunteers to come in and that’s our platform to work from,” Brian Bartholme said. “The main objective of Samaritan’s Purse is to share the gospel. We do that in various ways – either by speaking with people or by the works that we do.”

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse work as brother and sister organizations. BGEA’s rapid response team members have been traveling to Tuscaloosa alongside Samaritan’s Purse as they venture out into the community.

As stated through the official website, the Rapid Response Team “exists to recruit, train and deploy Chaplains to disaster areas to offer God’s compassion and hope through Jesus Christ to those affected by a man-made disaster or natural disaster.”

Suzanne Thompson is a Rapid Response Team Chaplain and has been helping in Tuscaloosa for nearly three weeks.

“Our job is to come up alongside Samaritan’s Purse and offer them spiritual and emotional care and then also to come up alongside the home owners and offer them spiritual and emotional care,” Thompson said.

Thompson said she feels the work that Samaritan’s Purse has done for tornado disaster relief is pleasing.

“I think it’s amazing what Samaritan’s Purse has done here,” she said. “They’ve had work orders that they’ve gone through. I think this is one of the biggest deployments they’ve ever had and the people’s lives that they’ve touched is incredible.”

The Samaritan’s Purse Reconstruction Team, which is responsible for tasks such as rebuilding, will move into town following the completion of the disaster relief team’s work.

Samaritan’s Purse conducts daily orientations for local persons interested in volunteering with the organization. The meetings are held at First Baptist Church in downtown Tuscaloosa at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. Registration can also be done online.

“You have to look at the people. The work is secondary. Part of the thing we want the people that come and volunteer to understand is absorb the people and listen to them because they need to talk through things, and it gives you a chance to get to know them and experience what they are going through and to minister to them.”

For more information on Samaritan’s Purse visit their official website at samaritanspurse.org.

Print and Web 6.6.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/06/08/samaritans-purse-focuses-on-the-people/