Jacksonville State University (JSU)

Jacksonville State University (JSU) is a regional public coeducational university located in Jacksonville, Alabama, USA. Founded in 1883, Jacksonville State offers programs of study in five academic units leading to Bachelor's, Master's, Education Specialist, and Doctorate in addition to continuing and distance education programs. In the Fall semester of 2011, JSU began offering the school's first doctoral degree, Doctor of Science in Emergency Management.

The university was founded as Jacksonville State Normal School, and in 1930 the name changed to Jacksonville State Teachers College, and again in 1957 to Jacksonville State College. The university began operating as Jacksonville State University in 1967. In 2008, the university celebrated its 125th anniversary.

JSU currently has an enrollment of nearly 9,500 students, with nearly 500 faculty members (more than 320 of whom are full-time). Jacksonville State's Business School was ranked within the nation's top tenth percentile by the Princeton Review. The current University President is Dr. William A. Meehan.

With a focus on providing a quality education, Jacksonville State University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). In addition, 40 academic programs (79% of programs that can be accredited) earned specialized programmatic accreditations. These programs include business, education, engineering and technology, nursing, social work, drama, art, music, computer science, family and consumer science, and communication.

Campus: On January 1, 2012, the school's marching band and dance team, The Southerners and the Marching Ballerinas, led the New Year's Day Parade in London, England which also kicked off the year-long celebration of both Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 London Summer Olympics. The invitation to lead the parade came in September 2010, just as the Southerners learned that they had been awarded the nationally recognized George Washington Honor Medal for their patriotic 2009 show, "Of Thee I Sing."
In spring 2008, the website GetEducated.com ranked the Master of Science in Computer Systems and Software Design as second on its list of "best buys" among 67 online master's programs in computer science and information technology offered by regionally accredited institutions in the United States. In spring 2010, they followed this with a third-place ranking for JSU's online nursing master's program  and a sixth-place ranking for the online nursing bachelor's degree .
In October 2007, the College of Commerce and Business Administration was named one of the 290 best business schools in the world by The Princeton Review and ranked second in providing the greatest opportunities for women.
In 2007, the school broke ground for the 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) Little River Canyon Center. The building houses National Park Service offices, an exhibit hall, meeting space, classrooms, and comfort stations and is the site of the JSU Little River Canyon Field School, which sponsors dozens of activities, seminars and programs each year. In 1992, the canyon was designated a national preserve. During the summer months, the staff includes 15 park rangers.
In February 2006, Jacksonville State University was named the "winner" of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) Speech Code of the Month. At the time, FIRE called the University Code of Conduct “illegally overbroad.” They considered the code to be in violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution which protects offensive speech. The policy has since been changed.
In August 2007, University President Dr. William Meehan was implicated in a plagiarism scandal related to his periodic column entitled "Town & Gown," which was actually written by the school's news bureau. These columns were written by the recently retired Director of JSU’s News Bureau who was working part-time to ghostwrite the weekly “Town & Gown” column. A committee appointed by the President found no wrongdoing on the part of Meehan other than a lack of administrative oversight, and it was decided that responsibility for the plagiarism was that of the writer.

Alabama State University (ASU)

Alabama State University founded in 1856 as the Lincoln Normal School of Marion in Marion. In December 1873, the State Board accepted the transfer of title to the school after a legislative act was passed authorizing the state to fund a Normal School, and George N. Card was named President. Thus, in 1874, this predecessor of Alabama State University became America's first state-supported educational institution for blacks. This began ASU’s history as a “Teacher’s College.”
In 1878, the second president, William Paterson, was appointed. He is honored as a founder of Alabama State University and was the president for 37 of the first 48 years of its existence. Paterson was instrumental in the move from Marion to Montgomery in 1887. In 1887, the university opened in its new location in Montgomery, but an Alabama State Supreme Court ruling forced the school to change its name; thus, the school was renamed the Normal School for Colored Students.

Website: www.alasu.edu

Academics:  Alabama State University has more than 5,000 students from more than 42 states and six countries.

Alabama State University has eight degree-granting colleges or schools or divisions.

• College of Business Administration
• College of Education
• College of Health Sciences
• College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences
• College of Science, Mathematics & Technology
• College of Visual & Performing Arts
• Division of Aerospace Studies
• Continuing Education

Alabama State offers 47 degree programs including 31 bachelors’, 11 masters’, two Education Specialist and three doctoral programs (Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Policy, and Law (EdD), Clinical Doctorate in Physical Therapy (DPT), Doctorate in Microbiology (PhD)).

Alabama State is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, the National Association of Schools of Music, the National Association of Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy, the Commission of Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs, Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM, the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST) and the Council of Social Work Education.

Campus:  ASU's urban, 172-acre (0.70 km2) campus has Georgian-style red-brick classroom buildings and architecturally contemporary structures. ASU is home to the state-of-the-art 7,400-seat academic and sports facility the ASU Acadome; the Levi Watkins Learning Center; a five-story brick structure with more than 267,000 volumes, the state-of-the-art John L. Buskey Health Sciences Center; which is 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2) facility which houses classrooms, offices, an interdisciplinary clinic, three therapeutic rehabilitation labs, state-of-the-art Gross Anatomy Lab, Laboratory for the Analysis of Human Motion (LAHM), a Women’s Health/Cardiopulmonary lab, and a health sciences computer lab, and WVAS-FM 90.7; the 80,000-watt, university operated public radio station.

University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH)

The University of Alabama in Huntsville (also known as UAHuntsville or UAH) is a state-supported, public, coeducational research university, located in Huntsville, Alabama, United States, is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees, and is organized in five colleges: business, engineering, liberal arts, nursing and science.

UAH is one of three members of the University of Alabama System, which includes the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. All three institutions operate independently, with only the president of each university reporting to the Board of Trustees of the system. The university enrollment is approximately 7,500, and has a distributed ratio of 49:51, women to men. Incoming freshmen have an average score of 25 on the ACT, which is one of the best among Alabama's public universities.

Websit: http://www.uah.edu/

Academics: UAH offers 71 degree-granting programs, including 33 bachelor's degree programs, 23 Masters' degree programs, and 15 PhD programs through its five colleges: Business, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Nursing, and Science. Nursing is UAH's largest single major, although Engineering is the largest college.


A scientist in the Nano and Micro Devices Center research facility
Not surprisingly given Huntsville's technology-based economy, UAH is known for engineering and science programs, including astrophysics, atmospheric science and aerospace engineering. UAH scientists managed the first "commercial," non-government rocket programs (Consort and Joust) in the U.S., the first "high-temperature" superconductor was discovered at UAH and the first U.S. experiment flown aboard the Soviet Mir space station was from UAH. UAH is a Space Grant university, and has a history of cooperation with NASA at the Marshall Space Flight Center, and the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal. In conjunction with helping NASA reach its goals, UAH makes NASA's research and technology available to all of Alabama's colleges and universities. The National Space Science and Technology Center is on the UAH campus.
The UAH Propulsion Research Center ([PRC]) is a research center that promotes interdisciplinary research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Popular Science cited the PRC as the third "most awesome" college lab in the United States. The PRC was founded by Dr. Clark W. Hawk in 1991 and has since provided support for NASA, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Energy. Research topics explored include air-breathing propulsion, solid, liquid & hybrid propellent combustion, magnetoinertial fusion, electric propulsion, high temperature materials, and space and terrestrial power systems.
Research in nanotechnology and microfabrication is administered by the Nano and Micro Devices Center.
At least nine departments or programs also hold accreditation from professional associations, including the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business, the American Chemical Society, the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board, The National Association of Schools of Art and Design. and the National Association of Schools of Music.

Student government: The UAH Student Government Association is the primary recipient of student activity funding. With the exceptions of ACE and the campus newspaper The Charger Times, all student organizations must be chartered with the SGA. The SGA hosts a number of events including Frosh Mosh, an annual event that welcomes incoming freshman the weekend they arrive on campus. Events have included a hypnotist, live music, and the highly anticipated foam party. The SGA also charters two buses to allow approximately 80 UAH students to make an annual trip to Niagara, New York to cheer for the UAH Ice Hockey team as they compete against Niagara University.

University of Alabama at Birmingham

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public university in Birmingham in the U.S. state of Alabama. Developed from an academic extension center established in 1936, the institution became an autonomous institution in 1969 and is today one of three institutions in the University of Alabama System. UAB offers 140 programs of study in 12 academic divisions leading to bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and professional degrees in the social and behavioral sciences, the liberal arts, business, education, engineering, and health-related fields such as medicine, dentistry, optometry, nursing, and public health.
The UAB Health System, one of the largest academic medical centers in the United States, is affiliated with the university. UAB Hospital sponsors residency programs in medical specialties, including internal medicine, neurology, surgery, radiology, and anesthesiology. UAB Hospital is the only ACS verified Level I trauma center in Alabama, as rated by the American College of Surgeons Trauma Program.
UAB is the state's largest employer, with more than 18,000 faculty and staff and over 53,000 jobs at the university and in the health system. An estimated 10 percent of the jobs in the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area and 1 in 33 jobs in the state of Alabama are directly or indirectly related to UAB. The university's overall annual economic impact was estimated to be $4.6 billion in 2010.
In the fall of 2012, the University of Alabama at Birmingham enrolled 17,999 students from more than 110 countries, including 1,605 freshmen.
The UAB President is Dr. Ray L. Watts.

Sitweb: http://www.uab.edu/

Campus: UAB is located in the Southside neighborhood of downtown Birmingham. Spanning around 83 blocks, the UAB campus blends with the urban character of the Southside. The campus is rectangular in shape with University Boulevard serving as the main axis of the rectangle and Campus Green serving as the center of the campus.
The campus can be divided into three sections. The medical center occupies most of the campus east of Campus Green. The medical center is home to health science schools and their teaching facilities, including the UAB Health System (UABHS). The medical center overlaps with the larger Birmingham Medical District where, in addition to UABHS, non-UAB affiliated hospitals such as the VA Medical Center Birmingham, Children's Hospital of Alabama and Cooper Green Mercy Hospital are located.
The part of campus from Campus Green west and University Boulevard south is the academic center of the campus, as well as the center of student life on campus. It is anchored by Campus Green, which was developed between 2000 and 2007 as the centerpiece of the move to convert the school from its theretofore commuter school feel into a more traditional residential campus.
Athletics facilities, including Bartow Arena, are located on the far western side of campus. Legion Field, located a few miles west of campus, is the home of the football team, but planning is underway for an on-campus football stadium adjacent to Bartow Arena.
Since 1969, UAB has undergone extensive growth and is sometimes jokingly referred to as "The University that Ate Birmingham"[citation needed], and construction projects are common across campus. Projects that are in planning, recently completed, or under construction include:

• Shelby Biomedical Research Building
• Southern Bio-Safety Lab Alabama Birmingham
• Alumni Affairs House
• UAB Softball Complex
• Campus Green Project
• Women's and Infants Center 
• Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Facility

Academics:

UAB is a large, four-year primarily non-residential research university. UAB has been accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1970, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Undergraduates comprise a majority of the total university enrollment. Part-time and transfer student comprise a sizable portion of the undergraduate student body. The undergraduate instructional program provides a balance between professional programs of study and the liberal arts (meaning the number of degrees awarded in the two areas is similar), and there is a high level of co-existence between the graduate and undergraduate programs (meaning that the majority of undergraduate program have graduate degree program counterparts). The university has a high level of research activity and has a graduate instructional program emphasizing doctorates in STEM fields as well as professional programs in the health and veterinary sciences. UAB is only one of 108 universities in the country (and only one of two in Alabama) with the "very high level" research rating.

The academic calendar is based on the semester system, which divides the academic year, lasting from mid-August to early May, into two 15-week semesters (fall and spring) and the summer. The fall semester ends in early December and the spring term begins in early January. The summer, which lasts from mid-May to August, is divided into a number of sessions: a 12-week session, a 3-week "mini-semester" in May, a nine-week session in June and July, and two four-week sessions in June and July, respectively.[20] The schools of medicine and dentistry follow an academic calendar beginning in July and ending in late May/early June.

In academic year 2011-2012, UAB awarded a total 2,009 bachelor's degrees and post-bachelor certificates; 1,547 master's degrees, educational specialist degrees, and post-master's certificates; 286 research doctorates; and 279 professional doctorates.

The University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)

The University of Alabama (UA) is a public research university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA, and the flagship of the University of Alabama System. Founded in 1831, UA is one of the oldest and the largest of the universities in Alabama. UA offers programs of study in 13 academic divisions leading to bachelor's, master's, Education Specialist, and doctoral degrees. The only publicly supported law school in the state is at UA. Other academic programs unavailable elsewhere in Alabama include doctoral programs in anthropology, library and information studies, metallurgical engineering, music, Romance languages, and social work. The university is ranked first among public institutions and fourth out of all universities in the 2012–2013 enrollment of National Merit Scholars with 241 enrolled in the fall 2012 freshman class.

As one of the first public universities established in the early 19th century southwestern frontier of the United States, the University of Alabama has left a vast cultural imprint on the state, region and nation over the past two centuries. The school was a center of activity during the American Civil War and the African-American Civil Rights Movement. The University of Alabama varsity football program (nicknamed the Crimson Tide), which was inaugurated in 1892, ranks as one of 10 winningest programs in US history. In a 1913 speech then-president George H. Denny extolled the university as the "capstone of the public school system in the state [of Alabama]," lending the university its current nickname, The Capstone.

Website: http://www.ua.edu/

Campus:From a small campus of seven buildings in the wilderness on the main road between Tuscaloosa and Huntsville (now University Boulevard) in the 1830s, UA has grown to a massive 1,970-acre (800 ha) campus in the heart of Tuscaloosa today. There are 297 buildings on campus containing some 10,600,000 square feet (980,000 m2) of space.[13] The school recently added 168 acres to its campus after purchasing the Bryce Hospital property in 2010. It also plans to acquire more land to accommodate the continuing growth of the enrollment.[14]
The university also maintains the University of Alabama Arboretum in eastern Tuscaloosa and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab on Dauphin Island, just off the Alabama gulf coast. According to Campus Squeeze's 20 Most Beautiful Colleges in the USA rankings, the University of Alabama's campus was ranked 17th among both public and private colleges.[15] In 2011, the Sustainable Endowments Institute gave the university a College Sustainability Report Card grade of "B+".

Colleges and academic divisions: There are 13 academic divisions at the University of Alabama (see the table). Eight of those divisions (A&S, C&BA, C&IS, Education, Engineering, HES, Nursing, and Social Work) grant undergraduate degrees. Degrees in those eight divisions at the master's, specialist, and doctoral level are awarded through the Graduate School. The law school offers J.D. and LL.M. degree programs. CHS provides advanced studies in medicine and related disciplines and operates a family practice residency program. Medical students are also trained in association with the University of Alabama School of Medicine, from which they receive their degree.
The College of Continuing Studies provides correspondence courses and other types of distance education opportunities for non-traditional students. It operates a distance education facility in Gadsden.
Founded in 1971 and merged into the College of Arts and Sciences in 1996, the New College program allows undergraduate students more flexibility in choosing their curriculum while completing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Sciences degree. The program allows students to create a "depth study" in a particular field chosen by the student. The student completes approved independent studies alongside their normal coursework. The objective of New College is to inspire interdisciplinary learning at the undergraduate level.
The Honors College is a non-degree granting division that encompasses all the university's honors programs.