Untitled Document

Monday, September 18, 2006

Good morning! Here's today's summary of news coverage of Auburn University.
NOTE: Any errors in text are due to formatting by the publication.

Total Clips: 12

	Date	Outlet
Stockton meeting to focus on growth	09/18/2006	Press-Register
Tedious treadmill?	09/18/2006	Los Angeles Times
Storage rental boom: Life changes disaster create need to find place for belongings	09/18/2006	Decatur Daily
AU Business Students Issued Video iPods	09/18/2006	WTVM-TV
Former Middle East Hostage Talks To Auburn Students	09/18/2006	WTVM-TV
Oxford council hears proposal for disaster-training center	09/18/2006	The Anniston Star
Dove hunting becomes tricky	09/18/2006	Birmingham News
AU receives $5.6M for aquatic research	09/18/2006	Opelika-Auburn News
After four decades, ferry reconnects a community	09/17/2006	Miami Herald
Year of the Pavement	09/15/2006	Roads & Bridges
Hoffsis to head Florida veterinary college	09/15/2006	JAVMA: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association
AU professor: Football too big	09/15/2006	Huntsville Times


Stockton meeting to focus on growth 09/18/2006 Press-Register Guy Busby		Return to Top
AU's Urban Studio is featured in this story. Residents, Auburn working to prepare goals for community development, preservation plan Stockton residents will have a chance Tuesday to describe what they would like to see in their unincorporated community's future at a public hearing designed to help prepare a master plan. The study is part of the Auburn University Urban Studio's Small Town Design Initiative Program, said Bill Thomas, one of the organizers of the effort. As part of the process, residents will be asked to take part in a public meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Fellowship Hall of Faith Presbyterian Church in Stockton. Thomas said some residents have been looking at the need for more planning since a large development was proposed for the area several years ago. Cooper Land Development announced plans in 2003 to build up to 9,000 homes on a 5,000-acre tract near the unincorporated north Baldwin community. The plans were withdrawn, but the announcement made people in the area realize that Stockton needed to be prepared to deal with growth, Thomas said. "Being an unincorporated community, we were trying to prepare for future expansion," he said. "When the Cooper Development people came in and proposed their project, we found out we weren't prepared to deal with that, and we decided to try to establish plans and procedures to follow." In 2004, Stockton voters rejected a proposal to set up a zoning district. Thomas said several subcommittees of residents have been working to study alternative ways to deal with growth. As part of the study, the Urban Studio, part of Auburn's Center for Architecture and Urban Studies, was contacted to help prepare a growth plan. The studio helps small towns and communities develop growth plans, according to the organization's Web site. The study will cost $12,000 to $13,000, with the cost being split between the Baldwin County Commission and a grant from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, said Thomas. About 900 post cards have been sent to people with mailing addresses in the Stockton 36579 ZIP code, inviting them to take part in the meeting, Thomas said. During the Tuesday meeting, Cheryl Morgan, Urban Studio director, and Auburn students will ask residents about local ideas for improvements and preservation in Stockton. Some of the questions will include asking about Stockton's history, past residents and traditions. The responses will be incorporated into a master plan. Studio representatives will work on the initial development of these concepts and studies from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday at the church. All work sessions are open to the public. On Saturday, they will make a short presentation of their work at 10 a.m. at the Presbyterian church. This presentation is intended to invite input and review by Stockton residents of the preliminary work. The final product in Small Town Initiative projects is a summary that is produced on a 22-by-34-inch poster that can be exhibited in schools, churches, businesses and other sites and distributed to residents. The poster includes ideas for improving the community and aspects of the area that residents want to preserve and promote. Printing the findings and recommendations as a poster, rather than a brochure or standard-size report, helps keep the ideas on display rather than being filed away, according to a report on the Small Town Initiative project. For additional information, contact Thomas at 937-5679. The Urban Studio, located in Birmingham, began the Small Town Initiative in 1999 to help communities around the state work with and control their futures, according to the Web site. Educators, students and residents work together to evaluate community assets and opportunities, create a vision and develop a master plan that can promote prosperity and help to enhance quality of life. Many of the group's suggestions help communities find ways to build on the resources of their location, their scenic countryside, rivers and lakes and their distinctive small-town character. These assets represent economic engines and ways of diversifying beyond a traditional industrial base, the organization's report states. In the last six years, the center has worked with 40 towns and communities across the state, including Valley, Headland, Marion, Gadsden, Guin, Russellville, Haleyville and Helena. and gulflive.com] All rights reserved.Use of this Site constitutes acceptance of our and .
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Tedious treadmill? 09/18/2006 Los Angeles Times Jeannine Stein		Return to Top
Henry Williford, director of the Human Performance Lab at AU is a source in this story. THE workouts that cardio machines get are usually pretty monotonous. Treadmills are walked upon. Elliptical trainer foot beds move forward and back, forward and back. Stair climbers and stationary bikes are pedaled the same way, day after day. Not a terribly exciting life, even for an appliance. Now some trainers and group fitness instructors are pushing these popular cardio machines beyond the usual routines, including the ones already programmed into equipment. They've devised unconventional workouts and added apparatus to up exercisers' cardiovascular levels and train new muscle groups. They're looking for new ways to get clients and students fitter faster — all, of course, while keeping an eye on safety. Anyone who's seen somebody on a treadmill get so caught up watching "Access Hollywood" that they trip and get shot out the back can attest to the potential dangers of these machines when used incorrectly. Often, the programs are born out of a trainer or instructor's own personal ennui: • That's how it was for Los Angeles-based personal trainer Erik Flowers, co-owner of LA's Body Builders Gym and creator of a new interval workout on the current "it" machine, the elliptical trainer. "I was working out at home and I thought, 'I'm not even paying attention to what I'm doing, I'm not sweating anymore…. There's got to be more to this machine,' " Flowers recalls. He began experimenting, eventually coming up with ElliptiSize, which uses a combination of speeds, resistance levels and positions, such as squatting and lifting up on the toes. Beginners can progress in stamina, strength and balance. Sequences include pedaling the machine in a squat position at high resistance (taxing the glutes and quadriceps) and pedaling backward while up on the toes, training the core and working major muscle groups, including the calves. A few things, he found, didn't work — such as keeping one's eyes closed. Though this does help improve a person's balance, most people found it too difficult and awkward. Adding dumbbells — even light ones — threw off coordination and made the ride too unstable. He officially launched the trainer-led program last January. • Amy Dixon, group fitness manager for Equinox in Santa Monica, is another who's retooled workouts for classic gym machines. She teaches Shreadmill, a treadmill-based group exercise class inspired by her high school track team days: walking lunges, walking with knees up, walking on toes, or backward or sideways, with various combinations of speed and incline — and sometimes with eyes closed. Dixon says that some students are skeptical about the class. "They think, 'What can this woman give me on a treadmill that I don't already know?' " Other gyms have adopted such classes: Last spring, the Sports Club/LA launched a version of Shreadmill, taught by instructor Felix Montana. • Brooke Siler, Pilates instructor and owner of re:AB fitness studios in Manhattan, has reformatted gym machine workouts using cardio machine moves she practiced on her own for years. When she did them, "my biceps were popping, my shoulders were more developed, and I realized I could use the equipment to sculpt my body." Siler put her moves into a book, "Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge: At the Gym, on the Mat, and on the Move," released last December. Among her suggestions: leaning forward and doing push-ups on the fixed arms of the elliptical or the Cybex Arc Trainer while pedaling; or putting hands on shoulders and twisting while on the stair climber or elliptical, to better work core muscles and improve coordination. She tells clients to imagine, while on the treadmill, that they're pushing the belt themselves, because it makes the leg muscles work harder. • Some go further than asking clients to "imagine." Trainer Todd Durkin, owner of Fitness Quest 10, a personal training and workout facility in San Diego, shuts the treadmill motor off so that clients have to propel it themselves, sometimes with both legs and sometimes, per his instructions, with just one, to check for strength imbalances. He also has clients walk and run backward and sideways — and skip, to improve coordination. Supervision and starting slowly keep the exercises safe, he says. • At A Tighter U Fitness Studio in Culver City, trainer and gym owner Steve Zim teaches a workout combining treadmill for cardio and elastic bands, wrapped around the console of the machine, for toning the arms. He developed the idea on his own years ago, while traveling and working out in hotel gyms. Compressing strength and cardio into one routine to save time is one appeal, Zim says; another is the boosted cardio benefits and calorie burn from walking while doing upper body work. Such new twists on old equipment are gaining fans. On a recent day at Zim's gym, 21-year-old Hillary Reed walks on a treadmill at a breezy three miles per hour and 7% incline while alternating between bicep curls, tricep kick-backs and shoulder presses with armbands. Twelve minutes into her routine, she is sweating and breathing heavily, something she says takes twice as long to achieve doing the treadmill alone. At Body Builders Gym, Jennifer Mechner did Flowers' ElliptiSize program for five weeks and says she dropped 6 pounds from her 5-foot-7 frame, and took 3 inches off her hips and 1 1/2 inches off her thighs. The 35-year-old L.A. photographer was no stranger to elliptical workouts — but this, she says, was different. "What I was doing before was not even close to a cardio workout," she says. "The actual interval training is way more intense." Though trainers and teachers and some students might be enthusiastic about these boosted cardio workouts, experts wonder how far they can go. Research has shown that walking backward and sideways burns more calories because it requires more oxygen, says Henry Williford, director of the Human Performance Lab at Auburn University in Alabama. But combining cardio with strength training might not improve calorie burn or cardio benefits. Adding bands or weights could "affect your normal activity and you could even burn fewer calories because it's going to make you slow down," he says. An elevated heart rate isn't always proof of added benefit, he adds: More detailed metabolic tests must be run. Manufacturers are aware of how their machines are being modified. "We realize it's a trend," says Greg Bahnfleth of Life Fitness, an Illinois-based exercise equipment-maker. In fact, observing gymgoers and listening to trainers has caused the company to add new programming to the machines — cueing people to push and pull more on the arms of an elliptical trainer, or change pedal direction. "We'll definitely continue to explore ideas," says Susan Bell, director of commercial marketing for Washington-based Precor Inc., which manufactures ellipticals, treadmills and bikes. "We love to learn how people are using the machines."
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Storage rental boom: Life changes disaster create need to find place for belongings 09/18/2006 Decatur Daily Eric Fleischauer		Return to Top
AU sociology professor Paul Starr is quoted in this story. Sprawling orange metal buildings are on every corner, and they are a microcosm of life in the 21st century. Thirty-eight self-storage units are listed in the Decatur phone directory, and several were built too late to get a listing. They are a symbol, says the manager of one, of our tragedies and celebrations. Also of our obsession with stuff, says a sociologist. Jilayne Wingo's family is on the tragedy end of the scale. When her house burned in October, the salvageable possessions had to go somewhere. Two days after the fire, she squeezed them into a unit at Storage Plus on Modaus Road Southwest because they would not fit into her parents' home, where her family is living until a new house can be built. Pregnant, no space "My parents have no storage space. I was six months pregnant, so we had lots of baby stuff," Wingo said, sitting next to the stored crib that her son has outgrown. "It all had to go somewhere." Phyllis Prichard, resident manager of a Decatur self-storage facility, said heart-wrenching stories are often behind the rental of her units. And many of those sad stories force people to downsize, leaving them less space for a lifetime of accumulations. "A lot of it is financial hardship, people losing their jobs and things like that," Prichard said. "The economy has been a lot of the problem that has increased rentals." But not all is gloom. As Buck Dozier, operations manager for Storage Plus, explains, many of his tenants come with a smile. They have just gotten married and are combining two households. They sold their house before the new one was built. They bought a recreational vehicle. They are successful business owners who need more space for inventory. Or, as James Moses, a district manager of A Storage Place, notes, "Some people just have more stuff than they have room for." Auburn University sociology professor Paul Starr said this last reason for renting storage units is a fairly recent phenomenon. "We've just got more stuff," he said. "American consumerism has never been greater. We're persuaded that happiness is the acquisition of goods." Starr has nothing against storage units, but he said the acquisitive mindset has its drawbacks. "Americans are working harder and longer than ever to acquire goods. That means parents have a weakening role," Starr said. "Socialization — how society seeks to shape us — was once done largely by parents. Increasingly, because we work so hard to acquire more stuff, it's done by video games and the media." Other societal changes create excess stuff, too. "The pattern has been to defer marriage to a later age. There's much more legitimization of the single lifestyle, so you see marriages coming later," Starr said. That, said Dozier, means each spouse comes to the marriage with more possessions. The solution? Those orange metal buildings. Increasing mobility is an issue, too. "People move a lot, and they move more in midlife now. We're seeing more mid-career moves, at a stage of life when they have more stuff," said Auburn sociology professor James Gundlach. Gundlach said higher divorce rates, which often force a move from house to apartment, also contribute to the excess of possessions over closet space. Whatever caused the excess of stuff over available space, it has created a flourishing business. As a developer who owns both storage facilities and apartment complexes groused, "I wish I had built more storage and fewer apartments." James Moses, a district manager of A Storage Place, won't talk profit margins. "Let's just say it's a good business. A very good business." Occupancy Prichard's facility has 221 units. For months, she said, she had no units available. Now her occupancy rate is 90 percent. Storage Plus has two Decatur facilities, each with about 400 units. Dozier said the occupancy rate is so high that plans are under way to build another facility with up to 600 more units. A Storage Place has three Decatur facilities with a total of almost 1,000 units. Its occupancy rate of 96 percent has it planning several expansions. "We should have built more long ago," Moses said. "We'll put them down right next to (competing) storage facilities, but they all seem to stay full." Some of A Storage Place's expansion, especially in its Madison County facilities, is aimed at incoming transplants from the Base Realignment and Closure process. Several storage facility owners said they expect the influx to increase demand. Part of what makes storage facilities good business is that they benefit from both family disaster and celebration. Reeling from the housefire, Wingo rented a unit at Storage Plus for her salvageable possessions. Since then, however, she has rented another unit. "As we buy furniture for the new house we're building," Wingo said with a smile, "we're keeping it in the new unit."
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AU Business Students Issued Video iPods 09/18/2006 WTVM-TV Brock Parker		Return to Top
Some Auburn University business students are taking the class out of the classroom. Video iPods are being handed out as part of this semester's Executive MBA and Physician Executive MBA courses. The students take the course through distance learning because they're scattered all over the country. The iPods keep them up-to-date with pre-recorded lectures. "It's a review of basics in accounting, finance, economics and marketing to prepare students to move into the core classes. This is a refresher," said Dr. Dan Gropper, associate dean of MBA programs in AU's College of Business. The iPods are also loaded with course files that can be downloaded. The Video iPods could also be handed out for undergraduate students in a later semester.
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Former Middle East Hostage Talks To Auburn Students 09/18/2006 WTVM-TV Brock Parker		Return to Top
A former Middle Eastern hostage met with Auburn University students Monday. Jerry Levin was working for CNN in Lebanon when he was kidnapped. He escaped, and still works out of Hebron, West Bank, to find peaceful solutions to war. Jerry Levin was kidnapped in Lebanon by the terrorist group Hezbollah in 1984 while he was CNN's Middle East bureau chief. He said he was taken hostage for the same reasons Americans are kidnapped in that part of the world today. "To exchange us for prisoners. That's not a happy thought, but this is the same quid pro quo that Hezbollah threw out to the Israelis when they captured the two soldiers," Levin said. Levin was held captive for about a year, and believes a peaceful dialogue led to his release. His wife talk to leaders in Syria, who in turn sent to word to Lebanon. "Somebody from within Syria was able to convince a jailer to be careless. I was able to get loose of my chain, but I was never told, 'You're free,'" said Levin. Since that time, Levin and his wife work throughout the Middle East to find peaceful alternatives to war. "What she did was, and her advisors, was so important, it points out a way to dealing with the problems in the Middle East," he said. Students listening to Levin say the 9/11 anniversary makes them hope for peace more than ever. "It seems like a long time, and it feels like we should have more worked out by now. I hope within the next couple of years we can build a relationship between the Middle East and the United States," said Nikki Hicks. The Levins now work for the Christian Peacemakers Teams in Hebron, West Bank. Levin said the perception in the Middle East toward the U.S. is mainly one of animosity. Not specifically because of the war on terror, but because they believe the U.S. doesn't want to help Palestinians.
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Oxford council hears proposal for disaster-training center 09/18/2006 The Anniston Star Crystal Jarvis		Return to Top
AU is mentioned as a partner in an organization to help bring a disaster-training center to Oxford. After hearing a detailed proposal Thursday night, the Oxford City Council agreed to consider further a request for help to establish a disaster-training center in the city. Organizers of a proposed Center for Collaborative Research and Training attended an Oxford City Council work session to request city support for the venture. The group asked for $10,000 and for meeting space. In return, they said, the city would gain high-paying jobs and eventually would attract other similar businesses. Oxford council members were upbeat about the proposal. "I'm optimistic, and I think it has the potential to be a good opportunity for our citizens," said Councilman Steven Waits. "We can talk about getting high-paying jobs for our citizens all day, but it's going to take effort and work to recruit these jobs here. That's what we are committed to doing, and this is the opportunity to do just that." One of the organizers, David Lindquist, owner of Delcom Services in Anniston, said the organization would be certified by the Department of Homeland Security to provide the training programs. He said the group's efforts would not overlap the work of the Center for Domestic Preparedness to train first-responders. Instead it would train management personnel for private businesses and government officials. The organization would offer two-to-five-day training programs to 40 to 50 people at a time. Lindquist said organizers are looking at Oxford instead of McClellan so the trainees can be closer to the interstate, hotels and restaurants. Council President Mike Henderson said the technology center would bring Oxford more tax revenue from out-of-town visitors. "I see the long-term potential of this," Henderson said. "I see it as an opportunity to create a niche in Oxford, Alabama, to serve the country." The organization has four partners: Auburn University, The University of Alabama at Birmingham and two Anniston-based companies, EM Assist and the Entrepreneurial Center. All but UAB had representatives at the meeting. According to their presentation, the four partners will donate $12,000 to $15,000 each to help launch the organization. Lindquist said the group hopes to begin its first project as early as October. It plans to conduct a study of Alabama's open-air venues, including football stadiums and the Talladega Superspeedway, which attract thousands of spectators at once. Giles McDaniel, CEO of the Entrepreneurial Center, said over time the technology center could have a major impact on Oxford. "Look at the impact this could have on this area," Giles said. "This $10,000 today could turn into millions of dollars in the next five years."
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Dove hunting becomes tricky 09/18/2006 Birmingham News Mike Bolton		Return to Top
Ralph Mirarchi, a zoologist at AU is quoted in this story. The majority of doves taken on that hunt last year were not the typical mourning doves found in Alabama, but Eurasian collared doves, a non-native species that is suddenly prospering in Alabama. Alabama has a bag limit and seasons on mourning doves, but none on the Eurasian collared dove. Hunters can take as many of the exotic species as they like and can even hunt them year-round. State wildlife officials say it is likely that dove hunters from every area of the state will encounter Eurasian collared doves in this 2006-2007 dove season that began Saturday in the state's north zone. "We believe they are growing in numbers in the cities, the suburbs and any rural areas where there are grain-type operations," said David Hayden of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries. "People are reporting seeing them everywhere." Sightings in Birmingham have been few, ornithologists say, but the birds are a common sight now in Shelby and St. Clair counties. Pelham has a large population of the birds, birdwatchers say. The dove is native to India, the Middle East and southern Europe and is sold in the pet trade. The bird is believed to have reached the United States by escaping from pet owners in the Bahamas. U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials speculate that the bird is sometimes purposely released because owners find the loud cooing of the dove annoying. The bird first appeared in the United States in Florida more than 10 years ago and has since been found as far west as California and as far north as Canada. While the majority of exotic birds that reach Alabama perish because of differences in climate from their native range, the Eurasian collared dove has found Alabama to its liking. The birds are now flourishing across the state and are successfully breeding, officials say. A hunter with quick reflexes and good eyesight could, in theory, hunt the bird year-round because there is no hunting season. But officials warn that the exotic species is gathering and flying with the native mourning dove, which makes hunting them outside of dove season tricky. The Eurasian collared dove is easily identified by a backyard birdwatcher because of its size and markings, but the identification might not be that instant by a hunter firing at a fast-flying bird from a distance. The non-native species is slightly larger and lighter in color than the mourning dove that Alabamians are accustomed to seeing. The Eurasian collared dove also has a distinctive black band around its neck that a mourning dove lacks. The bird's habits have allowed it to prosper quickly in Alabama. Several birds will fly long distances and start a new colony, then other birds will fill in the gaps, according to Ralph Mirarchi, a zoologist at Auburn University. Wildlife officials in the state have not yet seen any negative impacts on native mourning dove populations because of the exotic bird, but they have some concerns, Hayden said. Florida is currently conducting a study to see if the bird is competing with native doves for food and habitat but has not reached any conclusions, he said.
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AU receives $5.6M for aquatic research 09/18/2006 Opelika-Auburn News Staff Report		Return to Top
The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Friday released $5.6 million to Auburn University to establish the Center for Aquatic Resource Management. With the funding provided, Auburn University will replace antiquated facilities with modern laboratories, including wet and dry floor spaces for multidisciplinary research. The announcement of the funding came from the office of U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Commerce, Justice, and Science "Auburn's Department of Fisheries is renowned for its research in fisheries management and aquaculture technology," Shelby said. "In Alabama alone, the fishing and aquaculture industries have an economic impact of several billion dollars a year," he said. "The new Center for Aquatic Resource Management will allow Auburn to continue to produce quality research to sustain our fisheries and develop new methods and technology for aquaculture throughout Alabama." As the population of Alabama and the Southeast grows, demands on water resources will increase. Auburn will work to develop sustainable practices to protect and manage aquatic resources in the area. Auburn will also conduct research on endangered aquatic species and habitat restoration to provide valuable tools to deal with the increasing pressure on aquatic resources.
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After four decades, ferry reconnects a community 09/17/2006 Miami Herald Audra D. S. Burch		Return to Top
AU associate professor David Carter is quoted in this story. More than four decades ago, the ferry that motored along a stretch of the Alabama River was stopped by whites to keep blacks from voting in one of the quiet but no less hideous moments of the civil rights movement. Seven years after the Montgomery bus boycott and three years before the Voting Rights Act, the tiny, remote peninsula of Gee's Bend was separated from the world and from the promise of equal rights by a muddy river and a ferry that never came. Until now. Come Monday at 10 a.m., on a day that promises glory and gray skies, the brand new white ferry will sail to Gee's Bend and its people, up to 150 of them, and a few cars, too, will ride across the river for the first time since 1962. ''For years, people tried to suppress these people and their move toward full citizenship. Finally, the ferry will run. Finally,'' says William Stewart, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Alabama. "Alabama has done the right thing.'' Left largely out of the nation's collective memory, the shutdown of the 15-minute ferry forced the people of Gee's Bend, mostly black, mostly poor, to drive 40 miles along rural roads to get to Camden. An hour's drive to get groceries or go to the doctor's or go to work. Or to register to vote. Never made right even after the civil rights movement changed the political, social and economic landscape of the country. Not here, where the town is nearly cut off by a bend in the river and so remote even the bread truck still only delivers once a week. Though slowed by a 78-year-old mind and bad legs, Willie Quill Pettway intends to take his rightful place aboard the ferry on Monday morning. He piloted the old ferry 10 years before service was discontinued. 'HURRY UP AND RIDE' ''I told them I wanted to be the first one to ride it when it comes back,'' Pettway told the Montgomery Advertiser. "I hope they hurry up and get it because I want to ride on it, just one time.'' Gee's Bend is about 60 miles southwest of Montgomery in the so-called Black Belt, named for color of the soil. The place was born around the Civil War and just about all its residents are descendants of former slaves who labored on the cotton plantations then stayed after they were freed. There are about 700 people living in the community and many of those carry the Pettway name -- the surname of the former slave owner who obtained the plantation from the Gee family. Gee's Benders lived quietly until their quilts, intricately woven from scrap cloth, were discovered and celebrated as a pure form of folk art. But all that attention -- the quilts were exhibited all over the nation and the quilters were honored on a U.S. stamp -- didn't get the ferry open. The story of the Gee's Bend ferry was even chronicled in a Pulitzer-Prize winning series of stories published in the Los Angeles Times in 1999. DECADES OF NEGLECT Nearly four decades of politics and benign neglect kept it closed. In 1995, $500,000 in federal money was set aside for a ferry at the behest of then-U.S. Rep. Earl Hilliard, Alabama's first black congressman since Reconstruction. ''They took this boat away to isolate those people and to exclude them,'' said Ken Mullinax, an aide to the former congressman. But the project ran into various hurdles until a $2 million federal grant finally became available two years ago. Officials were ready to resume service last year; then the boat was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The ferry, which will be free the first month, then cost a nominal fee to ride, will run up to six times a day. It will be operated by the state the first year, then likely turned over to Wilcox County. ''Unfortunately, this has been a political volleyball. These people have been denied basic transportation for so many years,'' said Alabama Transportation Director Joe McInnes. "They deserve this ferry.'' DEEMED AS RACISM The ferry was closed just as the civil rights movement was gaining steam and blacks were demonstrating for the right to register to vote. Camden, a mile from the riverbank, was the county seat. At the time, officials said they were moving the ferry to transport paper mill employees who worked up the river. The residents of Gee's Bend called the move racist. This was the ''high point of the movement,'' David Carter, an Auburn University associate professor, told the Montgomery Advertiser. "They justifiably felt like they were being singled out for economic and political retaliation because of their sympathies, but in terms of national attention to what was happening in Alabama . . . it was sort of a blip on the radar.'' But in this community, where so much of life was tethered to Camden (population 2,200), the ferry incident became the way in which Gee's Bend was defined -- life before and life after the ferry stopped. ''This is overdue, way overdue,'' says Marvin Carter, a teacher at Wilcox Central High School in Camden, which is attended by Gee's Bend students. "This is the biggest deal we're going to have this year. We don't have much going on here except for Friday night football and the ferry.''
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Year of the Pavement 09/15/2006 Roads & Bridges By Dave Timm, P.E., and Angela Priest Contributing authors		Return to Top
Timm is an assistant professor at Auburn University. Dealing with different pavement demands, experts work to construct the toughest in the Far East It is common knowledge that China is rapidly developing its national infrastructure to support its economic growth. Well-known projects such as the Three Gorges Dam are symbolic of the interdependence of economic growth and civil infrastructure. Less well known, but of significant importance, is recent construction and expansion of the Chinese national highway network. Since 2001, China has spent more on transportation infrastructure than in their previous 50 years. Specifically, expressway mileage grew 65%, from 15,350 miles to 25,480 miles between 2001 and 2005, and it is expected that the expressway mileage will approach 53,000 miles by 2020. With the rapid growth comes the need for a dependable transportation network with quality pavements to support the economy and a rapidly mobilizing population over the next 50 years. Pavements designed and built today must perform under heavy and high-volume traffic that is expected to only increase in the coming years. Historically, Chinese provincial governments have relied upon both flexible and rigid pavements on their expressways. However, as traffic volume and weights have continued to increase, their conventional designs are no longer performing at the desired level. For example, pavement failures in five to eight and three to five years for rigid and flexible pavements, respectively, are not uncommon. Expecting their system to expand by 25,000 miles in the next 14 years, pavement engineers in China are looking for ways to meet the traffic demands and improve the life-cycle cost of their transportation system. In November 2004, a team of U.S. pavement engineers and researchers visited Shandong Province to discuss the application of flexible perpetual pavements under the extreme traffic conditions in China. The U.S. team represented the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Indiana Department of Transportation, the Virginia Transportation Research Council, the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) and Heritage Research Group. The Chinese delegation represented the Shandong Highway Bureau and the Shandong Transportation Research Institute. During the course of this visit, a perpetual pavement experiment was proposed for construction as part of the Bin-Bo expressway. This expressway, when completed, will connect Shanghai to the major port city of Tianjin. The main objective of the experiment was to construct a number of perpetual pavements, along with some control test sections, so that a better understanding of perpetual pavements could be developed. More specifically, the experiment will test the perpetual pavement concept under more extreme Chinese loads. From this, a set of recommendations for further perpetual pavement design could be established and applied to other projects in China. Additionally, it is expected that the findings will provide valuable data that will greatly assist the Shandong Highway Bureau in future pavement designs as they continue to expand the expressway system. Heavy duty The project is located in east central China, about 200 miles southeast of Beijing. Generally speaking, Shandong Province is low-lying, with an elevation less than 330 ft above sea level. The soil in the area is mainly river-deposited silt that is used to build the 10- to 20-ft-high embankment on which the pavement structure is constructed. Traffic data collected from an onsite weigh-in-motion (WIM) station clearly illustrate the extreme loading conditions in China. The WIM was installed as part of the study and will gather valuable data regarding traffic volume and load distributions. The average weights of the larger trucks (four-plus axles) exceed 70,000 lb. Of particular interest are the S1.2.2 vehicles, a standard five-axle semi-trailer comparable to Class 9 vehicles in the U.S., as they represent 33% of the heavy traffic volume and have an average gross vehicle weight of 122,000 lb. This is nearly double the gross vehicle legal limit in the U.S. The average single-axle load is approximately 19,000 lb, which is nearly the legal limit for U.S. federal routes. Even more significant is the average tandem-axle load of 43,000 lb, which is 9,000 lb heavier than the U.S. legal limit. Translated into damage using the generalized fourth-power rule, an empirical relationship between axle load and pavement damage, the average tandem axle in China would cause 2.7 times more damage than the maximum legal tandem axle in the U.S. The extreme traffic is one of the unique aspects of this project, challenging traditional western pavement design and materials and allowing for performance evaluation under extreme conditions. Licking the leaks The Shandong Highway Bureau dedicated five pavement sections, each 1 km long, to the perpetual pavement experiment. The sections shown in Figure 3 were developed using load distributions and a limited amount of material property data provided by the Chinese team. The two control sections comprised relatively thin HMA on top of cement-stabilized granular layers. This design is commonly used on expressways in China. After investigation and discussion, the team came to believe that the early pavement failures may be due to excessive stresses imposed on this weak “concrete” layer that cracks and rapidly causes reflection cracks to appear at the pavement surface, allowing moisture infiltration and subsequent moisture-related damage. The three experimental sections were designed as full-depth hot-mix asphalt (HMA) sections with some common perpetual pavement features. The team believes that this design, which omits the cement-stabilized granular layer, will avoid the overstressing and consequent early cracking. The stone-matrix asphalt (SMA) and dense-graded Superpave layers commonly used in China were chosen for their rut resistance. An open-graded drainage layer was used within each section to help remove moisture and mitigate stripping problems. Moisture damage (stripping of asphalt binder from the aggregate) has been observed in several failure investigations of pavements in the Shandong Province that had been in service for five to eight years. Reducing moisture infiltration or providing an outlet for internal pavement drainage has been shown effective in reducing moisture-related distress. Therefore, the drainage layer was included in the perpetual pavement sections. It should be noted that Control Section 1 also included an open-graded drainage layer. Each of the three experimental sections included a so-called rich bottom layer that was placed at 0.6% above the optimum asphalt content. Based upon previous studies, it is believed that the added asphalt content will improve the density and overall fatigue resistance of the pavement where the tensile strains are the highest. The “125 me (modified)” section has a polymer-modified binder that is expected to further improve the fatigue resistance. The thicknesses of the experimental sections were designed using the perpetual pavement design software PerRoad 2.4. This mechanistic-empirical pavement design software enables engineers to incorporate critical pavement response thresholds in the design of flexible pavements. The first experimental section was designed with a critical tensile strain threshold of 70 me to control fatigue cracking at the bottom of the asphalt layer. At the top of the lime-stabilized layer, 200 me was used to control rutting. Given the materials and traffic conditions, this resulted in 20 in. of asphalt pavement. The next two experimental sections used less conservative tensile strain thresholds (125 me), which resulted in 15 in. of asphalt pavement. The 125 me(modified) section utilized a higher grade of asphalt in the rich bottom to evaluate its effectiveness in controlling fatigue cracking. A major aspect of the experiment was instrumentation that was embedded during construction. As shown in Figure 3, strain gauges and pressure plates were placed at depths to measure pavement responses critical to perpetual pavement performance (i.e., horizontal strain at the bottom of the asphalt layer and vertical stresses at the top of granular layers or soil). The temperature sensors, also shown in Figure 3, provide a critical link between environmental conditions and pavement response. The embedded instrumentation will provide comparisons between theory and field as well as among the five different designs without having to wait for observed damage. The test sections were constructed during the summer of 2005, and engineers from NCAT and the Heritage Research Group were onsite to provide technical assistance. Rolling patterns were established on trial mixes and two pavers were used in tandem to pave widths up to 40 ft. During construction, HMA samples were obtained from the delivery trucks and shipped to the U.S. for further testing. Extreme example The project opened to traffic in December 2005. Since then, data collection efforts have focused upon characterizing live traffic distributions and pavement response analysis under a known test vehicle in various environmental conditions. The use of control vehicles allows for a more direct comparison among sections as well as providing reliable traffic to evaluate the design and performance of the test sections among one another and over time. Some of the important research goals supported by control-vehicle testing are: Compare response among test sections; Validate structural design methodology; Predict structural performance of the test sections; Enhance theoretical models; Characterize seasonal and temperature effects on pavement response; and Evaluate load-response interaction. The control-vehicle testing will be followed by testing under live traffic conditions in addition to quarterly testing with the control vehicle. Laboratory testing is currently being performed in both the Shandong Province and in the U.S. to determine fatigue and stiffness properties. This testing was expected to be completed during the summer of 2006. While the core objective of this project is to better understand traffic-loading conditions and their effect on pavements in China, it is expected that the results also will directly benefit perpetual pavement research and practice in the U.S. Testing under the heavy traffic loads will give U.S. researchers and practitioners a better understanding of flexible pavement performance in extreme traffic conditions. Findings from this research may help guide future decisions toward legal limits and overload permitting here in the U.S. Timm is an assistant professor at Auburn University. Priest is a civil engineer with Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc.
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Hoffsis to head Florida veterinary college 09/15/2006 JAVMA: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association		Return to Top
This brief about the Lowder donation to AU was included in a roundup of college news in the JAVMA journal. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Donations support a plethora of programs at colleges -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Veterinary colleges have recently received funding benefiting a teaching hospital, shelter medicine, equine research, and wildlife health. Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine received $1 million from Robert Lowder, a university trustee, and his wife, Charlotte. The funds will support the Small Animal Teaching Hospital, which has treated two of their Boxers. The University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine accepted $1 million from Koret Foundation Funds of San Francisco for the Koret Shelter Medicine Program—as the school will call the program during a five-year funding commitment. Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences accepted $1 million from horse enthusiasts Jon and Abby Winkelried. The gift will go to the Gail Holmes Equine Orthopaedic Research Center and the Equine Reproduction Laboratory. Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine received $1.45 million from Janet Swanson, wife of a university alumnus. The gift will endow a residency at Maddie's Shelter Medicine Program and fund relocation of the Wildlife Health Clinic. The University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine received the first Equine Consortium for Genetic Research grant through the Morris Animal Foundation. The foundation will raise $2.5 million for the grant.
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AU professor: Football too big 09/15/2006 Huntsville Times John Pruett		Return to Top
AU professor emeritus Wayne Flynt is quoted in this story. Wayne Flynt, a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University and widely recognized as the leading authority on Alabama history, has spoken in Huntsville many times over the years. But his talk Thursday night to a rapt audience in the auditorium of the Huntsville Library was a first. Flynt has long been an outspoken critic of what he describes as widespread and systemic corruption in athletics, particularly in the football programs at both Auburn and Alabama. The best-selling author of 11 books on such issues as race, religion and politics focused solely on football in his latest visit. Those who showed up expecting verbal fireworks did not leave disappointed. "If you do serious research about the football programs at Alabama and Auburn, you will not be nearly as infatuated as you once were,'' Flynt said. "And I say that with deep, deep regret.'' A season ticket holder at Auburn football games for 30 years and an avid basketball fan who regularly attends Auburn basketball games and the SEC tournament, Flynt holds degrees from Samford and Florida State. But "Auburn was always in my genes'' because his father and uncles were lifelong Auburn fans. Family loyalties aside, Flynt is the forefront of those who maintain that athletics - particularly football - at the state's two major institutions has lost its way, and not just because of the various NCAA probations both schools have suffered through. "You can love football and appreciate all its values, and I do,'' Flynt said. "But people (in Alabama) have simply got to decide. Are we going to do it right, or are we going to continue to try to win at all costs?'' Is there any wonder, he asked, that so many athletes find themselves in trouble? "What do we expect when these players have such a sense of entitlement?'' he said. During questions and answers, Flynt touched on a variety of subjects ranging from Hoover High coach Rush Propst to controversial Auburn trustee Bobby Lowder to the recent New York Times story on directed studies in the Auburn sociology department. Asked for his views on Propst, the hard-bitten prep coach whose team is ranked No. 1 nationally, Flynt said: "I'm glad he doesn't coach at Auburn. I'm embarrassed by that MTV series they've been showing on Hoover. I've visited at Hoover, and I can tell you a lot of the teachers at that school are embarrassed, too. "What he does sends all the wrong messages. They may win national championships in football, but it's not worth the price.'' When someone in the audience asked how long Bobby Lowder would "control Auburn,'' Flynt replied: "Until he dies. Bobby Lowder has two goals in life - to run Auburn University and to run Colonial Bank. A lot of people have tried to get him off the board, but he is one tough hombre - and one rich hombre.'' And what should be made of The New York Times story, which caused such a furor a few weeks ago? "What happened at Auburn is a terrible academic scandal,'' Flynt said. "But I do not think it's an athletic scandal. "Faculty members can get caught up in that football culture just like anybody else. I do believe it diminished our reputation academically. My son in Seattle, who's an Auburn graduate, was very angry about it.'' Flynt added, however, that he believes Auburn's interim president, Ed Richardson, "handled the situation very well'' and took appropriate steps to rectify the problem. "What's sad,'' Flynt said, "is that he had to handle such a situation in the first place.''
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