University of Alabama updates

[SpawnOfVulcan]

It is impressive that The University continues to attract quality students while also growing the student population by ~1,000 students each year.

As I've said before, I hope UA will now increase its focus on increasing research, hiring new faculty, and raising the bar for new students while maintaining the current student population. I think The University's student population has grown large enough and into the future, UA will have the greatest impact upon the state by investing heavily in research, and the growth of post-graduate studies (new Masters and Phd fields).

UA is still a just a huge liberal arts college. Auburn just finished a fantastically successful fundraising campaign that is going to pump millions and millions into its endowment... UAB has also recently completed a highly successful campaign... UA needs to seriously consider a massive fundraising campaign for education purposes only. Considering UA's enrollment, and it's potential, it's endowment should be above 1 billion. There is no longer an excuse for The University to have an embarrassing endowment of around 6 to 7 million dollars. It is ridiculous that UA's endowment is so low...

[Packer16]

Good grief. LOL!!! The University of Alabama has the best BOT it's ever had. ALL Universities in the System are reaching record enrollments every year. The University of Alabama's Endowment is several Billion. One of the largest College Endowments in the World!!! The plan for The University over the next five years is to hold undergraduate enrollment level and to grow the graduate school by 10,000 students. So, the goal total enrollment will be around 50,000 students. Don't worry, some very smart people are on it. And for the Capital Campaign, UA has waited for UAB to finish their Campaign. When we get ours started, you'll see a Campaign like this state has never seen. Don't worry. We're good. ROLL TIDE!!!

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Packer16

Good grief. LOL!!! The University of Alabama has the best BOT it's ever had. ALL Universities in the System are reaching record enrollments every year. The University of Alabama's Endowment is several Billion. One of the largest College Endowments in the World!!! The plan for The University over the next five years is to hold undergraduate enrollment level and to grow the graduate school by 10,000 students. So, the goal total enrollment will be around 50,000 students. Don't worry, some very smart people are on it. And for the Capital Campaign, UA has waited for UAB to finish their Campaign. When we get ours started, you'll see a Campaign like this state has never seen. Don't worry. We're good. ROLL TIDE!!!

I made a typo, UA's endowment is around 600 to 700 million, not 6 to 7. The endowment just for UA really is below 1 billion, unless you have some data I've not seen those are the only numbers I'm aware of. Of course, system-wide, the endowment is well above 1 billion.

[Packer16]

I know the data at the end of this message is a bit dated. But, The University has endowment in {real dollars} in interest bearing accounts and investment accounts. I don't know where you got your figure, but, I can assure you, that number is much higher. The University of Alabama also has several million acres of land in Alabama and Mississippi that was paid to the University after the Civil War as restitution by the Federal Government for the burning of the campus. Those, plus donated lands through the years, are considered part of the endowment and bring in millions of dollars per year in timber rights, hunting rights, mining rights, and gas rights. The UA endowment is much larger than reported.

http://endowments.com/university-of-alabama-system/

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by Packer16

I know the data at the end of this message is a bit dated. But, The University has endowment in {real dollars} in interest bearing accounts and investment accounts. I don't know where you got your figure, but, I can assure you, that number is much higher. The University of Alabama also has several million acres of land in Alabama and Mississippi that was paid to the University after the Civil War as restitution by the Federal Government for the burning of the campus. Those, plus donated lands through the years, are considered part of the endowment and bring in millions of dollars per year in timber rights, hunting rights, mining rights, and gas rights. The UA endowment is much larger than reported.

http://endowments.com/university-of-alabama-system/

Here's the federal government's list of the 120 universities with the largest endowments as of 2016 (the most recent year available). LINK Unfortunately, UA's wasn't large enough to make the list.

The most recent year that UA appeared on the list was 2013 at $673.6 million. LINK

I'm well aware of the University's other assets in the Black Warrior Basin, so I know that UA has much much more money to throw around than just what exists in the endowment fund. That being said, university endowments are incredibly important for maintaining the future of a university, and are huge indicators of research activity and clout.

I'm not saying all this to tear down UA, I love school, it's where I got my BS. I'm just saying that the endowment is something that the school really needs to work on.

[chadinhsv]

Don't get me wrong. I love UAH and UAB and what they bring to the system; however, the BOT really screwed UA in Tuscaloosa badly when they allowed UAH to have the premier Engineering school (although that is rapidly changing) and UAB to have the medical school (huge mistake) so they get the research dollars. I think UA is now focusing their efforts on increasing the grad school which will allow to receive more research funding. Hopefully Dr. Bell will stay around long enough to see his vision play out. It will be interesting to see UA's numbers for incoming students next year. Remember this past fall (17') freshmen numbers went down and graduate student numbers went up.

[chadinhsv]

I also forgot to mention UA did just recently have a fundraiser campaign. It was the Bama Blast fundraiser that raised I believe $1.8M in just 1 day 18 hours and 31 minutes. 1831 being the year the school was found.

I could go on a rant about how I'd like to see the school position itself and alumni, but I don't know how I would look, LOL.

[SpawnOfVulcan]

Originally Posted by chadinhsv

I also forgot to mention UA did just recently have a fundraiser campaign. It was the Bama Blast fundraiser that raised I believe $1.8M in just 1 day 18 hours and 31 minutes. 1831 being the year the school was found.

I could go on a rant about how I'd like to see the school position itself and alumni, but I don't know how I would look, LOL.

When did this happen? I'm a member of the alumni association and never heard a thing about it.

[chadinhsv]

Originally Posted by tascalisa

When did this happen? I'm a member of the alumni association and never heard a thing about it.

https://www.ua.edu/news/2018/04/ua-a...raising-event/

It was actually called Bama Blitz. I received a lot of emails about it so you may want to reach out to UA to see if they have a current email address for you.

[chadinhsv]

This could potentially be great news for the University

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/news/2...r-out-of-state

Maybe this will turn the tide of talented high school students from this state from going to other schools in this state and a state over. It's no secret the "big" cities in this state are sending their best and brightest to the other schools over the past 6 or 7 years. This will also hopefully increase our focus to graduate school studies bringing in more research dollars. In my opinion that has been one of the biggest deterrents to us moving up the rankings of these so called "College rankings" publications.

[atlanta68]

I don't want to rain on Packer's enthusiasm. In fact, I love it. BUT, we alumni need to be honest if we want to help make UA what it deserves to be.

For some reason, over the last 8 or so years, Auburn has been out-recruiting Alabama's in state students. UA is surely getting its fair share of top in state students, but just look at the following links to see that Auburn is getting a much bigger share of the students in Madison, Jefferson, Shelby, Montgomery, Mobile and Baldwin counties. What is strange is that UA was out-recruiting in state students by the mid 2000s, then let Auburn go back to winning the in state recruiting battle around 2010. I have been following this from about 2010, and have been noticing the trend become more of a problem. I HOPE UA has woken up and realizes they need to do better. This in state tuition freeze seems to suggest that!

https://web.auburn.edu/ir/factbook/e.../soafmfhs.aspx

http://oira.ua.edu/factbook/reports/...-high-schools/

On the other hand, I would rather see UA greatly raise its admission standards to keep out the students with low ACT scores. There is no reason why the state flagship must be expected to take in students with an ACT of below 21. It is absurd. UA has an extremely wide middle tier range, from 23-32. Schools like FSU, Clemson, USCarolina, etc, have much higher lower tier quality, even as UA has a much higher quality upper tier. Raising standards would probably make it difficult for UA to reverse the in state problem for a while, but over the long term, increasing selectivity would make more of the top Alabama students want to go to UA, not Auburn. For some reason, too many people still think that Auburn has much higher admission standards. I think Auburn does (their high acceptance rate reflects largely their overall higher quality but much smaller applicant pool), but it is not as greater as so many think.

I agree with another person here who said the Board of years ago made a huge mistake letting the Huntsville and Bham campuses to have the Engineering and medical focus, respectively. What in the hell where they thinking? It is much easier for those schools to get research funding and if you look at their state funding, they get FAR more per student than does UA. It is pretty depressing seeing how much more money both UAB and Auburn get. Yet Auburn folks insist the state starves it to keep UA pretty. Another big Auburn fib.

I just hope they start the Capital Campaign before the next crash! One thing that is confusing is that Auburn's endowment is still less than UA's. Could be due to the fact that many of the pledges to their campaign won't come in for years to come.

[atlanta68]

Anyone know when the Gorgas Library renovation will finally take place? I saw on the Construction page that they are almost done with the planning phase of it. I think other academic buildings coming online in the next two years are a new business bldg, a new Biology bldg, and of course the Performing Arts Center, which will be the bomb!

[chadinhsv]

Originally Posted by atlanta68

I don't want to rain on Packer's enthusiasm. In fact, I love it. BUT, we alumni need to be honest if we want to help make UA what it deserves to be.

For some reason, over the last 8 or so years, Auburn has been out-recruiting Alabama's in state students. UA is surely getting its fair share of top in state students, but just look at the following links to see that Auburn is getting a much bigger share of the students in Madison, Jefferson, Shelby, Montgomery, Mobile and Baldwin counties. What is strange is that UA was out-recruiting in state students by the mid 2000s, then let Auburn go back to winning the in state recruiting battle around 2010. I have been following this from about 2010, and have been noticing the trend become more of a problem. I HOPE UA has woken up and realizes they need to do better. This in state tuition freeze seems to suggest that!

https://web.auburn.edu/ir/factbook/e.../soafmfhs.aspx

http://oira.ua.edu/factbook/reports/...-high-schools/

On the other hand, I would rather see UA greatly raise its admission standards to keep out the students with low ACT scores. There is no reason why the state flagship must be expected to take in students with an ACT of below 21. It is absurd. UA has an extremely wide middle tier range, from 23-32. Schools like FSU, Clemson, USCarolina, etc, have much higher lower tier quality, even as UA has a much higher quality upper tier. Raising standards would probably make it difficult for UA to reverse the in state problem for a while, but over the long term, increasing selectivity would make more of the top Alabama students want to go to UA, not Auburn. For some reason, too many people still think that Auburn has much higher admission standards. I think Auburn does (their high acceptance rate reflects largely their overall higher quality but much smaller applicant pool), but it is not as greater as so many think.

I agree with another person here who said the Board of years ago made a huge mistake letting the Huntsville and Bham campuses to have the Engineering and medical focus, respectively. What in the hell where they thinking? It is much easier for those schools to get research funding and if you look at their state funding, they get FAR more per student than does UA. It is pretty depressing seeing how much more money both UAB and Auburn get. Yet Auburn folks insist the state starves it to keep UA pretty. Another big Auburn fib.

I just hope they start the Capital Campaign before the next crash! One thing that is confusing is that Auburn's endowment is still less than UA's. Could be due to the fact that many of the pledges to their campaign won't come in for years to come.

Atlanta, you and I are on the same sheet of music when it comes to issues within the University. I believe we are on the same forum on College Confidential and it has been reiterated over there as well. I was the one that made the suggestion that the Board did the Tuscaloosa campus a disservice by allowing the Huntsville campus to have the Engineering focus and the Birmingham campus the medical focus. However, in saying that it's hard to argue that UAH is not deserving of the Engineering focus due to the proximity of the campus to the Engineering jobs in Huntsville. After saying that though the Tuscaloosa campus has in my opinion just about matched the quality of UAH when it comes to Engineering. You can see the shift on the arsenal with many more UA grads coming on board proving our/their worth. As far as Medical goes it's again hard to argue Birmingham getting that focus due to the large population in the city and I'm ok with it as long as UAB is in the UA system. What's good for UAH and UAB is good for UA in Tuscaloosa.

I made this point in another forum but both UA and AU need to be on the lookout for Mississippi State taking a lot of quality Alabama students. They offer in-state tuition for all bordering states and are doing a great job of cherry picking students that would otherwise go to UA.

I agree with your stance about raising the admission standards; however, I believe they should utilize Shelton State community college as a partner for all of the students that were borderline to getting into UA. Once the student gets their grades up at Shelton or meets a minimum requirement they should be able to transfer to UA. I didn't have the highest ACT coming out of high school and if I were to apply today I wouldn't get in. Thank God the standards were lower back then or else I would have been devastated. Now I'm making more than 2x the amount in salary compared to the average UA graduate according to published salary averages. By the way some of those numbers cannot possibly be right.

[atlanta68]

Originally Posted by chadinhsv

Atlanta, you and I are on the same sheet of music when it comes to issues within the University. I believe we are on the same forum on College Confidential and it has been reiterated over there as well. I was the one that made the suggestion that the Board did the Tuscaloosa campus a disservice by allowing the Huntsville campus to have the Engineering focus and the Birmingham campus the medical focus. However, in saying that it's hard to argue that UAH is not deserving of the Engineering focus due to the proximity of the campus to the Engineering jobs in Huntsville. After saying that though the Tuscaloosa campus has in my opinion just about matched the quality of UAH when it comes to Engineering. You can see the shift on the arsenal with many more UA grads coming on board proving our/their worth. As far as Medical goes it's again hard to argue Birmingham getting that focus due to the large population in the city and I'm ok with it as long as UAB is in the UA system. What's good for UAH and UAB is good for UA in Tuscaloosa.

I made this point in another forum but both UA and AU need to be on the lookout for Mississippi State taking a lot of quality Alabama students. They offer in-state tuition for all bordering states and are doing a great job of cherry picking students that would otherwise go to UA.

I agree with your stance about raising the admission standards; however, I believe they should utilize Shelton State community college as a partner for all of the students that were borderline to getting into UA. Once the student gets their grades up at Shelton or meets a minimum requirement they should be able to transfer to UA. I didn't have the highest ACT coming out of high school and if I were to apply today I wouldn't get in. Thank God the standards were lower back then or else I would have been devastated. Now I'm making more than 2x the amount in salary compared to the average UA graduate according to published salary averages. By the way some of those numbers cannot possibly be right.

Makes me wonder if Judy Bonner is part of Miss State's recruiting efforts. Remember when she was "going back to teaching," only to take the Provost position at MSU a few months later?

Auburn uses AUM for the lower tier applicants before letting them transfer after one or two semesters. I find it strange that UA does not use Shelton State in the same way.

[chadinhsv]

Originally Posted by atlanta68

Makes me wonder if Judy Bonner is part of Miss State's recruiting efforts. Remember when she was "going back to teaching," only to take the Provost position at MSU a few months later?

Auburn uses AUM for the lower tier applicants before letting them transfer after one or two semesters. I find it strange that UA does not use Shelton State in the same way.

I honestly forgot Judy went there. I think they have been offering that for a little while, but I may be wrong on that. It would make sense seeing how practically nobody from my high school or anyone I knew went to Miss St. in the early 2000's to all of a sudden you can't turn the corner on your street without seeing a Miss St. car tag or decal.

To be honest I could have used my first semester at Shelton before attending UA to get a feel for college level classes. I hope UA will collaborate with them at least

[atlanta68]

Originally Posted by chadinhsv

I honestly forgot Judy went there. I think they have been offering that for a little while, but I may be wrong on that. It would make sense seeing how practically nobody from my high school or anyone I knew went to Miss St. in the early 2000's to all of a sudden you can't turn the corner on your street without seeing a Miss St. car tag or decal.

To be honest I could have used my first semester at Shelton before attending UA to get a feel for college level classes. I hope UA will collaborate with them at least

What part of Alabama are you seeing a lot of Miss State tags?

[chadinhsv]

Originally Posted by atlanta68

What part of Alabama are you seeing a lot of Miss State tags?

Huntsville. In my neighborhood there are many houses where you will see multiple cars with Miss State tags. Of course, they are a lot like Auburn people where they find their significant other in college and marry as soon as they cross the stage. Kind of weird in my opinion but nothing wrong with it.

[atlanta68]

from UA website, updated scholarship info from 6/29/18

Scholarships for Students in Lower Half of Performance Shows UA is committed to increasing in state enrollment? The first one, UA Recognition, is new. I wish that UA would have raised the amount given to students with an ACT of 25 or higher, but I like the signal this sends. UA wants to make enrolling more affordable for instate residents. This plus the freezing of instate tuition are powerful signals. UA needs to make a much bigger noise about this in its PR. It could generate a lot more good will.

UA Recognition

A student with a 21-24 ACT or 1060-1190 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a UA Recognition Scholar and will receive $8,000 over four years ($2,000 per year).

Crimson Achievement Scholar

A student with a 25 ACT or 1200-1220 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Crimson Achievement Scholar and will receive $12,000 over four years ($3,000 per year).

UA Legends

A student with a 26 ACT or 1230-1250 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a UA Legends Scholar and will receive $16,000 over four years ($4,000 per year).

Capstone

A student with a 27 ACT or 1260-1290 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Capstone Scholar and will receive $20,000 over four years ($5,000 per year).

[chadinhsv]

Originally Posted by atlanta68

from UA website, updated scholarship info from 6/29/18

Scholarships for Students in Lower Half of Performance Shows UA is committed to increasing in state enrollment? The first one, UA Recognition, is new. I wish that UA would have raised the amount given to students with an ACT of 25 or higher, but I like the signal this sends. UA wants to make enrolling more affordable for instate residents. This plus the freezing of instate tuition are powerful signals. UA needs to make a much bigger noise about this in its PR. It could generate a lot more good will.

UA Recognition

A student with a 21-24 ACT or 1060-1190 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a UA Recognition Scholar and will receive $8,000 over four years ($2,000 per year).

Crimson Achievement Scholar

A student with a 25 ACT or 1200-1220 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Crimson Achievement Scholar and will receive $12,000 over four years ($3,000 per year).

UA Legends

A student with a 26 ACT or 1230-1250 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a UA Legends Scholar and will receive $16,000 over four years ($4,000 per year).

Capstone

A student with a 27 ACT or 1260-1290 SAT score and minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Capstone Scholar and will receive $20,000 over four years ($5,000 per year).

I have not seen this. This is just for in-state students? I don't know if I quite understand what they are trying to accomplish though with giving scholarships to lower scoring students. I wish they would've had that when I was in school. I guess I can see your point in this being enticing for in-state applications. I just hope we don't lower our standards

[atlanta68]

Originally Posted by chadinhsv

I have not seen this. This is just for in-state students? I don't know if I quite understand what they are trying to accomplish though with giving scholarships to lower scoring students. I wish they would've had that when I was in school. I guess I can see your point in this being enticing for in-state applications. I just hope we don't lower our standards

Yes, these are IN STATE scholarships

My guess is that they are trying to keep the AA enrollment up with scholarships for good high school students who happen not to score very high on the ACT. UA has a Diversity Officer and as she has said, "she is very big on numbers." I am sure that UA also wants to do all that it can to attract more in state students of all races, and to be fair, most students with an ACT as low as 21 won't have a GPA as high as 3.5, so most of those in that lower tier schollie category will have an ACT of 23 or 24.

However, I think it is kind of absurd that someone with an ACT of 25/GPA of 3.5 or higher, would only get 1000 more bucks per year in scholarship than someone with an ACT of 21 and a GPA of 3.5 or higher. UA should have put those with an ACT of 24 (maybe 23 too) and 25 in the same category rather than creating a lower tier category of 21-24.

Other than keeping the "diversity" going and rapidly increasing in state enrollment, why would UA want to go out of its way to attract lower tier quality students, especially given that its lower 25th percentile (bottom 25 %) is already an ACT of only 22 or less. Most SEC schools with far fewer top students, enroll far less lower tier students. UA's middle tier is way to wide relative to peer institutions. Some group at UA seems obsessed with going out of their way to keep UA from being too elite, even as they spend loads of money on mansions for frats and sororities. See the mixed message there?