Untitled Document

Friday, September 22, 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: 5

	Date	Outlet
The Scanning of the Fittest	09/22/2006	Wired News
Former Auburn SGA President on Marine duty in Iraq	09/22/2006	WPMI-TV
Employee incentives increase profits, study shows	09/22/2006	Central Alabama Business Journal
UA officially logs state's largest enrollment	09/22/2006	Tuscaloosa News
Long ago decision leads Tide, AU on different paths	09/22/2006	Huntsville Times


The Scanning of the Fittest 09/22/2006 Wired News Tracy Powell		Return to Top
A source for this story is Lenda Jo Connell, AU apparel product development specialist, who talks about body-scanning technology used at AU. Move over diamonds, body scanners are soon to be a girl's new best friend. A crop of the 3-D, body-measuring devices are replacing outdated sizing paradigms, and they're making shopping for clothes that are inconsistently sized and unrealistically fitted a little less painful. "These scanners are taking body measurements that are converted into patterns from which garments are cut," said apparel product development specialist Lenda Jo Connell from Auburn University. "This saves a lot of time because, otherwise, it's a one-on-one, hands-on process," said Connell. "It lines up with mass customization and is one of the islands of technology … that are beginning to link together so that you can get scanned, and that information is used to produce a garment for one." Auburn is one of a handful of universities that is using scanners to research the changing shape of American women. Using statistical analysis software and body scans taken of hundreds of women -- and, more recently, "tween" girls -- Connell and colleagues are providing the apparel industry with data to help bridge the gap between what it produces, and the fit and styling customers actually want. Utilizing a 3-D scanner developed by TC2, a two-year SizeUSA National Sizing Survey found that the women’s fashion industry is shifting from its hourglass-figure paradigm. The research, sponsored in part by J.C. Penney, Target and Jockey, showed that the hourglass figure is the least dominant shape for women -- only 8.4 percent of the 6,318 women scanned. In fact, the hourglass figure almost doesn’t exist in women above a size 8. Lead researcher Cynthia Istook, a North Carolina State University textiles professor, teamed up with AlvaProducts, a company that makes customized mannequins for some of the world's leading apparel manufacturers and retailers. Their findings were of particular significance to mass-market retailers. "Because the hourglass figure represents such a small percentage of American women, the larger the market share a retailer targets, the more likely it is to provide clothes based on the wrong body shape," said Janice Wang, CEO of Alvanon, parent of AlvaProducts. Based on the research, Istook identified nine body shapes, which were then boiled down to four dominant types. AlvaProducts created mannequins to represent these main body shapes: rectangle, spoon, inverted triangle and hourglass. But scanners aren't only used for research purposes. Brooks Brothers has been using TC2 in its stores for almost three years. Custom-tailored suits are fitted for customers within minutes of when they step inside the device's chamber. One downside: shoppers must shed street clothes and don form-fit clothing during scanning. Other scanners let customers keep their clothes on, although these scanners collect less data. Nova Scotia-based Unique Patterns, the world’s largest custom-pattern company, recently opened its first Fit Place in Hudson, Ohio. Located inside a retail Jo-Ann Store, Fit Place is the first permanent installation of a Unique Patterns bodyskanner, which captures a person's measurements and uses them to custom draft sewing patterns. Before Fit Place, the bodyskanner was seen in portable scanning booths at trade shows and retail locations. Another scanner, Intellifit, has a 7-by-8-foot chamber, and uses radio waves to scan a person's fully clothed body in 10 seconds. The radio waves bounce off water just under the person’s skin, much like a Dopplar radar that detects atmospheric moisture, according to Intellfit co-founder and CTO Albert Charpentier. A "wand" rotates around the individual, gathering 200,000 points of data of the body shape. This information is then processed against Intellifit's database, which compares a customer's measurements to a range of specifications given by retailers to determine the best-fitting sizes and apparel brands for the individual. Intellifit installed its first scanners in Lane Bryant stores in April 2005. To date, more than 11,000 Lane Bryant customers have been scanned, providing information the retailer can use to do a better job of sizing clothes, as well as measurements that help customers shop. The scanner was tested at mall locations across the country last year. It's also found in outlets that include Levi's, Gap and American Eagle Outfitters. "There’s no doubt that these scanners will become a part of the shopping experience," said Fabulous Fit author Judith Rasband, founder and CEO of Conselle Institute of Image Management. "It's a matter of how long it will take for retail owners to become acquainted with the technology and its application."
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Former Auburn SGA President on Marine duty in Iraq 09/22/2006 WPMI-TV		Return to Top
This story also appeared in the San Jose Mercury news, Sarasota Herald Tribune and Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. When Mobilian Jonathan McConnell got his business degree from Auburn University two years ago, his parents never imagined that he would end up in Iraq searching rooftops and livestock pens for explosives and insurgents. McConnell, a Davidson High School graduate who also served as president of the Auburn Student Government Association, had planned on going to law school, and even had a job arranged with Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, said his mother, Susan McConnell. Instead, he came home and informed his parents that plans had changed: He was enrolling in officer candidate school for the U.S. Marine Corps. "I want to serve my country, I want to serve in the military, and I want to serve in the Marine Corps because I feel like they have the best training," Susan McConnell recalls her son telling her and his father, Roger McConnell, that summer. Even though he had sometimes mentioned military service, his announcement came as something of a shock. "We did question his decision," Susan McConnell said. "I've also told him that I have always trusted his judgment. I told him I would trust his judgment as long as he felt like he was making a good decision and it's what God wants him to do." After completing training in North Carolina and California, 2nd Lt. McConnell became a platoon commander for L Company, part of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment known as the "Betio Bastards." On July 15 this year, he left for Iraq, where the group was charged with searching towns and cities for insurgents, explosives and information. The Marine Corps recently featured McConnell along with several other members of the Betio Marines in a news story as they completed missions east of Fallujah. "I can't say any house was left unturned," McConnell said in the Marines news report. "It went well. My Marines got the job done quickly. There's not as nearly as many IEDs (improvised explosive devices) as there used to be." The search also netted several detainees and information about insurgent activity in the area, the Marine Corps reported. On the home front, Susan McConnell said it's obviously hard to be the parent of a son who embarks on dangerous missions daily. Even though hearing the details his work may cause her worries, she asks Jonathan to keep her closely informed. "I do want to know what he's doing, because then I know how to pray for him, how to encourage him," she said. While the Marines work toward improving safety, local Iraqis are still slow to trust members of the U.S. military, McConnell told his parents during a telephone call Sunday night. "Jonathan talked about that these people have been oppressed for thousands of years, and because of that it's hard for them to trust," Susan McConnell said. To help ease his parents' minds, Jonathan McConnell tries to call and check in as often as possible. His family makes sure that their Marine is up to date on news from home, especially football scores. Jonathan McConnell received a prompt report on Auburn's 4-point victory over Louisiana State University this past weekend, Susan McConnell said, but that wasn't the case after the Sept. 9 game against Mississippi State. A fellow Marine's wife sent a message saying Auburn had lost that game, his mother said, and it wasn't until a few days later, his mother said, when Jonathan McConnell got the correct score - Auburn won 34-0. His mother said that he told her, "I walked around for a day and half wondering how Auburn lost to Mississippi State." McConnell is scheduled to be back in the United States in 150 days, his mother said - not that she's counting. He told his parents that he plans to eventually move forward with his law school plans. "He chose to do this," Susan McConnell said, "so I have to feel proud of his commitment to our country and his willingness to serve, and I really appreciate the support our family has received."
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Employee incentives increase profits, study shows 09/22/2006 Central Alabama Business Journal		Return to Top
AUBURN -- A study of nearly 20,000 organizations shows that employee incentives really are good for business. Data from 19,319 organizations reveal that when a company emphasizes human resource activities such as incentive pay and flextime, it can enjoy a 10-20 percent improvement in employee retention, employee productivity, profitability and stock price, according to an upcoming study in Personnel Psychology. Meanwhile, companies that cut these programs can expect a 10-20 percent reduction in their bottom line. "Over the last 25 years, corporate America has debated whether the human resources function adds value or if it is just a necessary evil," said Dave Ketchen, study co-author and Lowder Eminent Scholar at Auburn University. "Our results show that negative images of human resource managers miss the mark. Skilled HR managers can make the difference between a company making a profit or losing money." The study also found that human resource activities make a bigger difference among manufacturing firms than among service firms. "Manufacturing jobs often involve complex and dangerous machinery," Ketchen said. "In high-performing companies, the services that the human resource function provides, such as safety and training, support other programs such as quality management and lean manufacturing systems to make sure that workers are safe, motivated, and productive." The study used a technique called meta-analysis to mathematically combine the findings of 92 previous studies published since the mid-1980s. Co-authors with Ketchen on the project were James Combs, Yongmei Liu, and Angela Hall, all of Florida State University.
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UA officially logs state's largest enrollment 09/22/2006 Tuscaloosa News Adam Jones		Return to Top
It's official. The University of Alabama ended a 57-year streak to become the state's largest institution this fall. UA's enrollment for the fall semester is 23,878, a 10 percent increase from a year ago, surpassing Auburn University's 23,547 students. It's the first time since 1949 UA has had more students. "The University of Alabama competes with Auburn in athletics, but, in academics, we work more collaboratively," Provost Judy Bonner said in an earlier interview. "We are focusing on a plan to be the institution of choice for the best and brightest. We learned years ago that focusing on what is happening at other institutions is not the way to move your institution forward." Auburn passed the 20,000 mark in 1988, but UA never had that many students before President Robert Witt arrived in 2003. Since fall 2003, when enrollment was 19,828, the student body has grown 20 percent. "Our enrollment has grown substantially over the last several years," Witt said in a statement. "This planned, steady growth is a significant part of our long-term vision for the University of Alabama." "Our faculty and staff, our academic programs and our facilities have all contributed to our ability to attract and retain excellent students." The number of freshmen from Alabama is also at an all-time high. The 2,891 UA freshmen from the state are also more than the 2,472 at Auburn. "These outstanding students could go to any university in the country. We are proud that they chose Alabama," Witt said. In all, there are 4,378 freshmen on campus, a record class. Since last fall, the freshmen class grew nearly as much as it did the previous three years. From 2003 to 2005, the freshmen class grew by 660 students, from 3,075 to 3,735. This fall, the freshmen class is 643 students larger. But 't wasn't just a larger freshmen class that increased enrollment. It was the graduation of smaller classes from before Witt’s arrival, Bonner said. "Because our smaller freshman classes from 1999, 2000 and 2001 have progressed through the system and graduated and we have replaced them with larger freshman classes, we expected to see a bump this fall that is bigger than you would expect based on the numbers of new students alone," she said. Witt said not only is the size impressive, but the quality of students enrolled. One in five freshmen this year are part of Honor's College, which is limited to students who score 95 percent better than others on college entrance exams. The 901 freshmen in the program is a 47 percent increase over last fall's honors class. Also, UA claims 83 National Merit Scholars, 11 more than last year, and perhaps the most ever in a UA freshmen class.
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Long ago decision leads Tide, AU on different paths 09/22/2006 Huntsville Times John Pruett		Return to Top
Provocative Wayne Flynt, the distinguished Alabama historian, author, former history professor at Auburn University and recent guest speaker at the Huntsville library, once played football himself, albeit briefly. Flynt's football career ended at the age of 14 in 1954 when he was in high school in Dothan "because I got tired of having to practice in the line across from Travis Casey.'' Casey, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound lineman, played football at Alabama under Paul "Bear'' Bryant. "Travis Casey was a lot bigger, faster, stronger and meaner than I was,'' said Flynt, who later became a longtime season ticket holder at Auburn. In an intriguing history lesson, Flynt related a story from the 1920s that clearly illustrated the beginning of Alabama's ascendancy as a national football power during a temporary period of time when Auburn - under then-president Spright Dowell - was de-emphasizing the sport. Dowell, who believed football was becoming far too important on campus and among the alumni, decreed that coach Mike Donahue must share the school's only playing field, located behind Samford Hall, with the student body. Donahue objected. The Auburn Board of Trustees sided with the coach and eventually forced Gov. Bibb Graves to fire the president. Across the state at roughly the same time, Alabama president George Denny had settled on a decidedly different plan for the future. He decided the best way to modernize the University of Alabama was to build a powerhouse football program, pure and simple. To that end, Denny hired the school's first "Bear,'' Wallace Wade in 1923. Wade quickly began turning the Tide into what would soon become "Dixie's Football Pride.'' Meanwhile, at Auburn, Dowell was sharply upgrading his school's academic standards at the expense of the football program. By 1927 he was gone, only to eventually land on his feet at Mercer University in Georgia, where he served as president for the next quarter-century - and eliminated football from Mercer's varsity sports along the way. In 1925, the same year as the Scopes "monkey trial'' in Dayton, Tenn., Alabama went undefeated under Wade, allowing only one touchdown in a nine-game regular season and outscoring Union, Birmingham-Southern, LSU, Sewanee, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Florida and Georgia 277-7. Invited to represent the East in the Rose Bowl after Michigan, Rutgers and Dartmouth turned it down, the Tide traveled to Pasadena and upset Washington State 20-19 in the game that put Southern football on the map to stay. Dothan's Johnny Mack Brown, who later became a cowboy star in Hollywood, caught a 63-yard scoring pass for what turned out to be the winning touchdown. As Flynt noted with a touch of bemusement, a reporter for The Birmingham News helped immortalize Johnny Mack's play when he wrote: "Brown was slicker than an eel in a sea of stewed okra.'' Talk about imagery ...
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