Thursday, June 26, 2008

AAMU Ranks 10th in producing African American engineers

(AAMU Release) Huntsville, Ala. ---- Diverse Issues in Higher Education has published its annual “Top 100 Degree Producers” list for 2008 (June 12 edition), and Alabama A&M University appears on the list several times.

The magazine records those institutions most successful in the matriculation of African American students at the baccalaureate level from a pool of more than 2,200 institutions, including several proprietary (for-profit) schools.
AAMU ranked 46th, or in the top two percent, of institutions nationwide in the awarding of bachelor’s degrees to African American students by graduating 506 students in the 2006-07 academic year. The top three spots were dominated by three much larger historically black colleges (HBCUs)—Florida A&M, North Carolina A&T and Howard—that recorded more than 1,100 African American graduates each. Hampton University, with 849 graduates, held the banner for private HBCUs.

In the awarding of biological and biomedical sciences degrees to African American students, AAMU ranked 13th nationally with its 48 students. However, small, private Xavier topped the list with 126 graduates during the 2006-07 year, significantly outperforming the mammoth Howard, which reported 90 students. Even cross-town sister institution, Oakwood University, which reported 44 biological-biomedical graduates, achieved a ranking of 18th.

Although Alabama A&M University ranks 34th in the production of African American computer science graduates (22 graduates in 2006-07), that number was 33 percent less than the previous year’s number. Sister HBCU Alabama State University achieved a ranking of 8th place in the nation (61 graduates) in this category. However, had it not been for the listing (first through seventh place) of proprietary schools, Alabama State would have the distinction as the nation’s top producer of black computer science graduates.

AAMU is 15th in the nation in the production of African American graduates who received degrees in the field of education. It awarded 55 such degrees for the reporting period, which was a drop of 40 percent from the 2005-06 academic year. However, such losses in the number of education graduates were common throughout the list’s Top 50, including a 44 percent drop reported by Florida Memorial and a 31 percent drop recorded by Temple.

Perhaps the jewel in the magazine’s reporting on the baccalaureate degrees received by African American students for the previous academic year was AAMU’s 10th place national ranking for the production of African American engineers, edging Tuskegee out of the Top 10.

AAMU alumnus William E. Cox is president of Cox, Matthews and Associates, the publisher of the bi-weekly magazine, which has become one of the most respected publications in the higher education community. A similar listing for graduate schools will be published in the upcoming weeks. For more information, visit www.diverseeducation.com.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Judge will Rule if Gov. Bob Riley's Illegal Republican Tactics will hold

Judge to rule on A&M's re-appointed trustees
Lawsuit filed to keep the Senate reject appointees from illegally serving.

MONTGOMERY - A judge will decide Thursday whether four people reappointed to the Alabama A&M board of trustees by Gov. Bob Riley can participate in board meeting on Friday.
Circuit Judge William Shashy has scheduled a hearing in Montgomery at 9 a.m. to hear a request for a temporary restraining order that would block the four from taking part in the meeting.

The lawsuit, filed by a former A&M trustee, also seeks a permanent injunction that would keep Riley's four reappointments from serving in the future.

Unless the judge blocks the appointments, the suit said Riley's "reappointments would strip the (Alabama) Senate of its veto power over the governor's appointments. " Jeff Emerson, Riley's chief spokesman, said the governor's office had not had an opportunity to fully review the suit. But he added, "We're confident the governor's appointments are 100 percent legal."

The request for the order was filed Tuesday by Montgomery attorney William Massey, a former A&M board member, on behalf of Robert T. Hughes of Florence, a former A&M trustee, and David Marzette of Birmingham, the financial secretary of A&M's National Alumni Association.

Defendants in the case include the four trustees, David Slyman Jr. of Huntsville; Leroy C. Richie of Birmingham, Mich.; Mayor Edward E. May of Bessemer; the Rev. Willie Clyde McNeil of Chatom; and Riley.

The governor on June 9 reappointed the four men after the Senate Confirmations Committee during the regular legislative session in early May voted 8-0 to reject their nominations.

Massey said he based his suit on state law and a 1991 attorney general's opinion covering a similar situation at Alabama State University.

"The essence of it is that once a nominee is rejected by the Senate, they cannot be reappointed as a trustee in a subsequent session," he said.

Massey was appointed to a six-year term on the board by former Gov. Fob James in the 1980s, and later was appointed by the late Gov. George C.

Wallace to an unexpired term in the 1990s. He said he served about four years before resigning.

SOURCE: Writeen by By BOB Lowry,submitted to A&MFamily List by Alumni Association President.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Study findings from Alabama A&M University broaden understanding of crystallography

Alabama A&M Univeristy is one of the leading research institutions in crystal growth. Below are published findings reported in the June 2008 edition of Vertical News:

2008 JUN 23 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research from the United States, "Cesium cerium bromide (CS2CeBr5) and potassium cerium bromide (K2CeBr5) are new scintillator materials for X-ray and gamma ray detector applications. Recently, halide scintillator materials such as Ce-doped lanthanum bromide have been proved to be very important materials for the same purpose."

"These materials are highly hygroscopic; a search for high-light-yield non-hygroscopic materials was highly desirable to advance the scintillator technology. In this paper, we are reporting the crystal growth of novel scintillator materials, CS2CeBr5 and K2CeBr5. Crystals were successfully grown from the melt using the vertical Bridgman-Stockbarger technique. In comparison with the high-performance LaBr3 or LaCl3 crystals, cerium-based alkali halide crystals, CS2CeBr5 and K2CeBr5, have similar scintillation properties, while being much less hygroscopic. Furthermore, cesium-based compounds will not suffer from the self-activity present in potassium and lanthanum compounds. However, the CS2CeBr5 crystals did not grow properly probably due to non-congruent melting or some phase transition during cooling," wrote R. Hawramia and colleagues, Alabama A&M University.

The researchers concluded: "Published by Elsevier B.V."

Hawramia and colleagues published their study in the Journal of Crystal Growth (New scintillator materials (K2CeBr5 and CS2CeBr5). Journal of Crystal Growth, 2008;310(7-9 Sp. Is):2099-2102).

For additional information, contact R. Hawramia, Alabama A&M University, Dept. of Physics, Normal, AL 35762, USA.

Publisher contact information for the Journal of Crystal Growth is: Elsevier Science BV, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands.


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Source: This article was prepared by VerticalNews Electronics editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2008, VerticalNews Electronics via VerticalNews.com.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

NBC's 'Today'throwing weddinggiveaway June 11

After a long distance courtship and an Egyptian proposal in front of the Sphinx, Alabama A&M graduate LaDonna Bradford decided to take her engagement one step further. Why not get married on national television and let America plan her wedding?

So Bradford and her fiance, Darnell Suggs, applied for NBC's "Today" show's "Today Throws a Wedding" giveaway. They are now one of the final two couples in line for the honor.

The giveaway, in its ninth year, offers viewers the chance to vote online and via text message each week for the couple they want to win.

Bradford and Suggs have made it to the finals. "We decided to try," she said. "They were going to give it to someone, so it might as well be us."

The winner will be announced Wednesday during the show. All voting will end Monday at 11 a.m. CST.

Bradford graduated from Alabama A&M with honors in 2006 with a degree in electrical engineering. A native of Tuskegee, she attended A&M on a full academic scholarship. The couple, who met at job fair in Boston in 2005, live in Atlanta.

The first year of their relationship was long distance while they both finished college in separate states. For her birthday in January, Suggs took Bradford to Egypt. He surprised her with a proposal next to the Sphinx. In April, they found out they were finalists for "Today Throws a Wedding."

Each year, the "Today" show offers couples across the country a chance to apply for the wedding giveaway by sending video entries and applications. As NBC narrowed the field, Bradford and Suggs were named one of five couples to compete this year.

Bradford said she watches the "Today" show every morning and had just been complaining to family about how expensive a wedding is. "We originally decided to plan it for next April so we could save up," she said.

Once the top five couples were notified, NBC sent out camera crews to film a "meet the couples" interview for the show. Those segments aired on "Today" May 14. This year's theme for "Today Throws a Wedding" was "Race to the Altar."

Each Wednesday afterward, the couples competed in a race. Each race was a different game, including a treasure hunt, a design project, a bake sale and a name-that-price game. The winning couple from each race got to choose one aspect of the wedding's details.

The first race was to choose the theme of the wedding, which is East meets West. The second race was to decide the cake's style. The winning couple chose mini three-tier cakes for the guests and a large, matching cake for the bride and groom.

The winners of the third race chose the party favors for the guests. The favors chosen were Kodak digital cameras. The fourth race, which Bradford and Suggs won, was a game to guess the price of different wedding gifts closest to the dollar amount without going over. For winning, the couple was able to keep all the gifts.

After the winner is announced on June 11, viewers will choose from a group of rings, honeymoon trips and wedding attire, including bridal gown choices, for the June 25 wedding at Rockefeller Center.

Bradford said she doesn't mind the viewers choosing those details. "I'm an indecisive bride," she said. "Just tell me where to show up."
She said she trusts NBC to pick out the tuxedos, dresses and rings the viewers will vote on.

Each week, Bradford and Suggs flew to New York City on Tuesday evening, taped the show Wednesday morning, and flew back to Atlanta Wednesday afternoon.

"It's truly amazing," she said. "All this time, it seemed like a regular relationship. Now it's a regular fairy tale."

By VICTORIA CUMBOWTimes Staff Writer victoria.cumbow@ htimes.com

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Source: [aamufamily]yahoo group, submitted by A&M Alumni President, Lee Harris - written by huntsville times writer Victoria Cumbow, which was published on the "Everything Alabama" blog, AL.com.