Interviewing Jeff Elrod

Interview for Broadcast Class

The link provides an interview I did for one of my intro broadcast classes. There's one blooper, but the professor said I made a good comeback. This was my first on camera interview. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Neighborhoods plan next move after storm

Cedar Crest

By Jasmine Cannon

When the tornado pummeled down 15thStreet on April 27, much of the Cedar Crest community was hit and damaged. Now the area is in its cleaning up and rebuilding phase.

Melissa Powell, along with her daughter Meghan and husband Richard, who works for the University, received damage to the back of their house, while the front remained untouched. Powell recalls large amounts of glass and gravel from the surrounding buildings being in her backyard. They have been working to repair the damages sustained by their home. 

“It’s been a stressful three months, and everything has changed, but also now we should be excited about the changes,” said Powell, who has lived in the neighborhood for 14 years. “The city’s come out with a new city plan, so this is going to be like a village neighborhood; it’s going to be mixed with some residential and some retail.”

There were some houses in the neighborhood that were left without a scratch. Others received slight damage, and some residents are in the process of rebuilding their homes from the ground up. Powell said she thinks the area will be rebuilt as a residence and business establishment community. Some of the businesses that were located on the outskirts of Cedar Crest include Express Oil Change and Krispy Kreme Donuts.

“It’s good to see people building back, and now I’m just anticipating seeing what’s going to become of our neighborhood,” Powell said.

Some of the houses in Cedar Crest are rented and lived in by students. Cedar Crest Apartments, which also housed fellow UA students, was one of the landmarks of the community that was ruined.

Construction and clean-up crews have been working to clear away the area where the apartments once stood, as well as areas outside of Cedar Crest.

“After they tear it down, we pick it up,” said Marcus Jones, one of the members of the crew. “It’s a good thing that people are trying to [get the city back together].”

Once crews clean up the areas, rebuilding can begin.

According to the new Tuscaloosa Forward plan, there will be changes such as improved bicycle and walk lanes, as well as a greater variety of retail establishments in and around Cedar Crest as it is rebuilt.

T-Town competes in Tea Town USA

There are eight days left to vote for Tuscaloosa in the McAlister’s Deli Tea Town USA contest. As stated on the official voting website, teatownusa.com, the town with the most votes and bonus points will win $7,500. As of today, Tuscaloosa is currently ranked No. 4 with just under 10,000 votes.

“We could definitely win,” said Britt Marshall, general manager of McAlister’s in Tuscaloosa. “I really believe Tuscaloosa can win the competition; we got a slow start, but the reality of it is that we were all the way down in 19th place two weeks ago, and now we’re in fourth. I don’t have any doubt that we can still win this.”

Anyone can vote once daily by visiting the website. Project Team Up is the chosen non-profit organization that the funds will go towards. The organization’s purpose is to help rebuild communities that received heavy tornado damage.

Marshall said they have received support from the UA Athletic Department and Alumni Association, contributing to more involvement.

Though the student population is smaller over the summer than in the fall and spring semesters, there has been student participation in the contest. Much of the push for student involvement has been led by juniors Christian Smith, Collins Todd and David Wilson.

            “The biggest thing is that we do as well as we possibly can and get a higher cash prize for tornado recovery,” Wilson, a marketing and finance major, said. “Objective number one is to get as much money as we possibly can for tornado recovery.”

Todd, an accounting major, said, “My hopes are that the people of Tuscaloosa – more importantly, the students at the University – will realize just how easy it is to help Tuscaloosa. With the tornado affecting the community right around the campus, students have been trying to get involved in relief efforts like volunteering and such. This is the easiest way for us to help. Since we are students and don’t have enough money to donate to the relief efforts, this is the way for us to give back.”

Todd said she wants to see more voting, and since the contest is through social media –mainly Facebook – it’s too easy not to vote. She created a Facebook group “Help Tuscaloosa Tornado Relief,” and voting numbers increased tremendously.

“If people would just start spreading the word and voting every day, we could have a great chance to win this contest,” Todd said.

Wilson said that if Tuscaloosa wins, the cash prize awarded from Tea Town USA will be matched.

The top 10 cities that receive the most votes will receive cash prizes. There are weekly challenges where participants can win prizes and gift cards also. Checking-in through Facebook at McAlister’s goes towards bonus points for Tuscaloosa. On July 28,McAlister’s will be hosting Free Tea Day. The McAlister’s that gives away the most teas will win major points to go towards their total.

The contest ends on July 29, and the winner will be announced July 30.

“One of the biggest messages I keep trying to put out there is don’t just vote once,” Marshall said. “You can vote once a day, every day until it’s over.”

To vote, you can log on to Facebook, like the “McAlister’s Deli Tea Freaks” page, click on Tea Town USA, and vote for Tuscaloosa, Ala.

print/web 7.20.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/20/t-town-competes-in-tea-town-usa/

ONYX prepares to start year off right

Members of the minority student organization ONYX have decided to take a new approach for the upcoming 2011-2012 school year. ONYX started out as a block party hosted by the National Panhellenic Council and Black Student Union that served as a jumpstart into the school year, according to President Courtnee Davis.

“Four students – Jahmir Jones, Cynthia Morgan, Alex Camardelle and myself saw a need to morph the annual block party into an organization,” said Davis, a senior majoring in fashion retailing. “This year, we are having a mini week at the beginning of the school year.”

This year, the ONYX is composed of members from almost every minority organization on campus. These organizations include the National Council of Negro Women, Collegiate 100 Black Men of America and the National Association of Black Accountants.

The mini week will be from Aug. 31 until Sept. 2.

“[ONYX] is a big event for students, if not the biggest,” ONYX vice president Jahmir Jones said. “This year, the other coordinators and I have taken intricate measures to insure that the event goes well and appeals to incoming minority students.”

NPHC Convocation will start off the week, followed by midnight breakfast at Lakeside on Aug. 31. Davis said there will be an eat-off that all minority and greek organizations will be participating in. The annual block party will be the following day where all minority and greek organizations will have tables and performances or presentations. The festivities will wrap up on that Friday night with an NPHC party.

“This has never happened before,” Davis said. “All the greeks doing a party together will be interesting and fun.”

The main focus for ONYX is to engage first year students to build long term relationships.

“This series of premier events is going to be one of the greatest opportunities for minority organizations to showcase themselves to the first year students,” said Alex Camardelle, ONYX vice president of external affairs and president of Future Black Law Students of America. “They are the target, and they are the ones we want to get involved the most. After all, they carry so much weight in the success of our university’s attempts to become a better, more progressive institution.”

Davis said, “The basis of our new organization is to focus on incoming freshman and help them to hopefully get a close look and insight into some of the different organizations on campus.”

ONYX’s theme for this year will be “One.” Camardelle said students will learn and have fun with the organization.

“It’s going to be a very informative event, but the students are going to have a great time as we attempt to reach out to them in a modern, more unique way,” he said. “We have got to further diversify the minds of these incoming students, and ONYX believes that joining these minority organizations will be one of the initial steps.”

In addition to fostering and engaging first year students, the mission of ONYX is “to assist the minority organizations in the development of a common bond that will contribute to the general welfare of the University.”

All minority organizations included are as follows: NAACP, BSU, House of éprouver, FBLSA, National Society of Black Engineers, National Association of Black Accountants, Afro-American Gospel Choir, Collegiate 100 and the NCNW.

The organization can be followed on twitter @ONYXatUA or emailed at onyxatua@gmail.com.

print/web 7.20.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/20/onyx-prepares-to-start-year-off-right/

Senate proposes not funding Zimride

After discussing whether or not to pass the Zimride bill, a bill to disallow funding for the program has been sent to the finance committee of the Student Government Association.

“We’ve decided that the SGA doesn’t have to fund [Zimride],” said Jeff Elrod, president pro-tempore of the senate. “The program will continue – that was never the point of controversy – it was just who should fund it. We decided that SGA doesn’t need to fund it, but we will participate in marketing and making sure students know about it.”

Because of lack of information on the Zimride program and reasoning as to why the SGA should release expenditures for it, the initial resolution was tabled in June.

Vice President of Student Affairs David Wilson said funding for the program will be fully covered by transportation services.

“The SGA office for student affairs worked it out with transportation services so that transportation services would cover the full cost of the program and SGA funding would no longer be needed anymore,” Wilson said.

The old business for the senate’s July meeting included the resolution regarding attendance policies and office hours for senators. The attendance policy for regularly scheduled weekly sessions will be determined based on a point system. Office hour completion will also be based on a point system, and each senator is required to complete two hours a week. The policies are outlined for undergraduate, graduate and law students, as well as senate staffers.

“It’s great to have it cleared up, because I know with the change in the constitution and with the Code of Laws, it’s important to establish a clear policy for all the senators, senate staffers and everyone involved,” said Senator Jonathan Thompson, co-sponsor of the bill. “It’s great to be in the same boat, great to be on the same page.”

Members of the senate voted to immediately pass the bill to approve expenditures for homecoming. Senators voted to approve $3,500 for homecoming expenses and $2,500 for marketing and advertising expenses.

“We need the money to go ahead and move forward,” Elrod said. “Homecoming is coming up very quickly, and we need to go ahead and get that in place.”

The senate will be back in session on Aug. 25 as the fall semester begins at the Capstone.

web/print 7.20.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/20/senate-proposes-not-funding-zimride/

Computer science program awarded grant

Earlier in July, the University’s computer science program was awarded a $15,000 grant from Google that will be used to fund a computer science program for high school teachers.

“We are very excited about this grant, particularly as a chance to interact with a growing number of teachers who are aware of the opportunities that a career in computer science can provide to their students,” Jeff Gray, associate professor in the computer science department, said in an emailed statement. “We are one of two recipients in the South and very honored to be able to help our state’s teachers in becoming more aware of new technologies. This grant will help us in our continuing efforts to raise awareness of computing.”

The program will take place July 25-27. Gray said funds from the grant will assist teachers with travel support when they travel to Tuscaloosa for the program. There will be teachers from around the state and one teacher from Columbus, Miss., participating in the program. Last month, some of the grant money was used when two teachers from Dallas came to the city to learn more about the UA computer science approach.

Much of the material presented at the workshop will revolve around developing apps using Scratch and Google’s App Inventor. Shaundra Daily, a recent MIT Ph.D. graduate, will present on Scratch programming.

Gray will be teaching alongside UA Ph.D. student Amber Krug about Google App Inventor.

“The App Inventor is a friendly environment for creating smartphone apps for the Android,” Gray said. “It uses a graphical/visual block language that is easy to use for quick app development.”

Teachers will have the opportunity to create their own app that can be used in their classrooms and present their findings for Google and others to see. Along with using apps to create a greater student interest in computer science, Gray said he hopes the workshop will become a place for networking connections to be made as well.

“We also hope to use this opportunity to initiate a grassroots networking opportunity among these teachers so that they can share new experiences throughout the year,” he said.

The Google grant is a part of the Computer Science for High School or CS4HS initiative. As stated on cs4hs.com, the program is an “initiative sponsored by Google to promote Computer Science and Computational Thinking in high school and middle school curriculum.” The grant allows universities to provide these 2-3 day workshops. Grants for CS4HS are for universities, community or technical colleges in the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

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http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/20/computer-science-program-awarded-grant/

Computer science students develop smartphone apps

Students in the Computer-Based Honors Program have been working to create and develop smartphone applications. The apps the students are working on are classified as beneficial because they will help those who have health issues or physical disabilities. They range from assisting those with diabetes to helping the visually impaired or blind.

“The smartphone and mobile development space is really interesting,” said Jeff Gray, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science. “Many folks have their own mobile devices, and on more than one occasion, almost everyone thinks ‘I wish I had an app that did XYZ.’ We are seeing this area as a way to motivate and encourage students to learn more about technology in a way that hits their own special interests and taps into their creativity.”

Associate professor of electrical and computer engineering Edward Sazonov has been working with two students on apps relative to physical health.

“We are solving very practical problems here – one is monitoring of food intake,” Sazonov said. “The application that we are developing will be able to detect food intake, compute caloric content of the meal and keep track of daily food intake. The second is monitoring of physical activity.”

Kyle Redding, a senior majoring in computer science, has been working on the Diet Diary app for Android with Sasonov. The Diet Diary app will help users keep track of calories and food intake using sensors.

“The app will be a research tool for Dr. Sazonov,” Redding said. “He is interested in Bio-medical research, specifically using Bluetooth sensors for health monitoring.  The app will help in this area by allowing users to track their caloric intact through manual input or, hopefully, Bluetooth sensor.”

Sazonov said, “We use shoe-based sensors that talk to a cell phone to recognize what the person is doing – for example, sitting, standing or walking – at any given moment of time. Shoe sensors can also be used to accurately predict caloric energy expenditure. Combine that with the food intake monitor, and you have an app that tracks your diet and physical activity for body weight management.”

Michael Robson, a senior majoring in computer science, has been working on an app for people with type 2 diabetes. He began working on the project with UA graduate Samantha Lindsay, associate professor Patricia Wood and former director of instructional technology for eTech Julia Hartman.

“The app is designed to help people with type 2 diabetes, mainly with low health and general literacy levels, learn more about their condition and how to take care of themselves,” Robson said. “Diabetes care is almost 95 percent self-management, and so it is critical that people with diabetes are doing certain things like checking their blood sugar and feet daily in order to insure their health.”

The diabetes app has three parts – a reminder system, “Diabetes Dictionary” and interactive DVD.

“I hope that this app can have a great impact on the University population,” Robson said. “While we are primarily targeting individuals in rural Alabama with low literacy levels, anyone with diabetes or who is curious about the disease can benefit from this application.”

Seniors Leah Boling, Melissa Bowman and Andrea Torske, alongside junior Elizabeth Williams, have worked on the “Digital Eyes” app. The smartphone app was designed to assist those who are visually impaired or blind to get around buildings. Information regarding rooms in the building is spoken aloud after using the smartphone to scan a tap at the entrance of the building.

The students and faculty working on these apps say they hope they will prove to be beneficial to those in the community.

“I have really enjoyed the creative process and learning the new technology,” Redding said. “It has been an incredible, challenging and rewarding experience.”

Gray said, “There is something deeply empowering in knowing that a smartphone app idea has the potential to really help others, as opposed to typical projects in the past that primarily served an academic or course need but really did not have a connection to the community.”

According to Sazonov, some of the apps that have been developed through the CS department are now being used by several research groups around the country.

“I hope that with further development and enrichment of capabilities,” he said, “these apps and wearable sensors will be used in research, clinical practice and even consumer applications.”

print/web 7.20.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/20/computer-science-students-develop-smartphone-apps/

Alabama in Cuba Study Abroad Program, a Rare Opportunity for Students

After almost 10 years, the Alabama in Cuba study abroad program continues to provide UA students and faculty with the opportunity to travel and learn in a nation many Americans are not allowed to enter.

Every spring semester, the program, which is directed by UA professor Michael Schnepf, consists of students who are educated on different subjects inside and outside of the classroom.

“We would take cultural excursions outside of Havana, and in Havana too, so we could get the whole picture of Cuba,” said Shelby Calambokidis, a spring 2011 participant.

Calambokidis said they took four classes – two of them University Cuban culture classes, one taught by Schnepf and one Cuban relations class from a Cuban perspective.

“Not a lot of students know about [the Cuba study abroad program],” Calambokidis said. “But, it’s so amazing and such a unique opportunity because it is a country that we don’t have relations with. They have the richest culture. It was an amazing opportunity, and I’m so glad that I did it.”

Carmen Burkhalter, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences senior and senior information officer, said universities and colleges such as The University of Havana are based more on humanity subjects, and participants can learn the similarities between Americans and Cubans.

Burkhalter, who got involved in the program while working in the modern language department, said she hopes the program will continue to grow each year. There will be a big push for recruitment and spreading knowledge about the program early in the fall semester for students of all majors and minors, ranging from political science to music to Latin American studies.

Because of the differences between the democratic U.S. and communist Cuba, participants in the program have to receive national permission to be allowed to travel to the country. Burkhalter said she feels programs like Alabama in Cuba could eventually help ease relations between the two countries.

“I believe that, eventually, travel between the United States and Cuba will be open and free,” Burkhalter said. “In Cuba, [the students are] ambassadors for the Cubans, so that when there is a lifting of the regulations, there will be enough ambassadors from both countries that the transition will be much smoother.

“It may not happen today, it may not happen tomorrow, it may not happen five years from now, but I think eventually it will happen, because I see the young people. The future is in college-aged students, so I think as they get older, they’ll recognize the importance of the relationship of the two countries.”

“It’s such a rare opportunity that you get to visit a communist country and see what that is like,” Calambokidis said. “This is the only country that we’re not legally allowed to visit. If you’re presented with this opportunity, why not take advantage of it? It’s so close to us and it’s such a different, amazing culture.”

To learn more about the program, contact Schnepf at mschnepf@bama.ua.edu or 205-348-4238 or visit as.ua.edu/cuba.

web/print 7.13.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/13/alabama-in-cuba-study-abroad-program-a-rare-opportunity-for-students/

Phi Psi Teams Up With Boys and Girls Club

Amid the damage to the West Alabama chapter of the Boys and Girls Club sustained on April 27, the Alpha chapter of Phi Kappa Psi has organized a relief and support fundraiser to help rebuild the organization.

Chapter President Conner Barnes and Vice President Ryan Snyder worked to put together a plan that would spread to the fraternity’s national level.

“The original plan was to pitch the idea to our other chapters around the nation and see what they could do to help out,” Barnes said. “When our nationals got word of what we were doing in Tuscaloosa to help out, they wanted to take the idea and spread it to all of our chapters in attendance at a conference this summer, as well as the alumni in attendance.”

The Boys and Girls Clubs of America are Phi Psi’s nationwide philanthropic partner. Barnes said after they explained their plan to help out the Boys and Girls Club of West Alabama, those at the national headquarters helped make the fundraiser national instead of solely local.

“The damage done to the Boys and Girls Club of West Alabama by the tornado has given Phi Psi an opportunity to focus the efforts of our chapters and Alumni Associations on one Boys and Girls Club,” stated Tryon Hubbard, Alabama alum and national president of Phi Kappa Psi.

Stephen Miller, UA alum and senior unit director at the West Alabama Boys and Girls Club said, “I think it’s important for students to always give back. And, the fact that you have a group of greek guys that want to come out and adopt us as their local philanthropy, I think it means a lot to our kids, to the community, as well as the campus of UA. It speaks volumes about college students that are not only here to get an education, but to give back in the process.”

With the help of UA grad Bo Latham, Snyder and Barnes put together a video telling about their help with the local Boys and Girls Club that is now featured on the national website, phikappapsi.com. Barnes said the video was also featured at the fraternity’s national conference, and an article about their work will be printed in the next issue of the national magazine.

“Our whole goal is to aid those who have been a part of this tragedy,” said Shawn Collinsworth, executive director of Phi Kappa Psi. “Our hearts go out to them…it really affects all of us. We want to make sure that we, as Phi Psi men, are here to help where we’re needed and where we can.”

Hubbard said, “The result of the campaign will be a better facility for the Boys and Girls Club and more focus by our chapter on working with the club in the future. The children served by the club will be the ultimate beneficiaries, not only of the facility, but of the hands-on service by our chapter down the road.”

To support or donate to Phi Psi’s efforts to rebuilding the Boys and Girls Club, visit phikappapsi.com/Today/BoysandGirlsClub.

web/print 7.13.11

http://cw.ua.edu/2011/07/13/phi-psi-teams-up-with-boys-and-girls-club/