<p>what is the budget situation in alabama like? how has it affected education there?</p>
<p>Bad like in other states but not as bad as many. Due to the university’s tremendous growth, especially the growth in the number of out of state students, the university of alabama is one of the few schools that is actually expanding its faculty and spending huge amounts on new facilities.</p>
<p>While the state of Alabama is having some funding problems, the University of Alabama is very well off. It just completed a huge campaign for donations and is accomplishing its goals (such as increasing enrollment and building new buildings) ahead of schedule, but without the major overcrowding, forced tripling, etc, that other schools have seen. I don’t have the exact data for this, but when I applied, parents were told that the university is very financially sound and instead of losing tons of money on its investments in the recession, UA actually made some money.</p>
<p>Do you guys anticipate any big cuts over the next few years?</p>
<p>When I visited in February, Gates, Halli, and Sharpe all convinced my mom and I that there were no huge budget concerns. In fact, they even talked about how the University of Alabama had more money and could technically hire more faculty right now, except that other schools were cutting down and they didn’t feel it was right.</p>
<p>This impression was MUCH different than Clemson (South Carolina), who talked about all of the budget control problems they were facing, and since I visited the two in consecutive days, it was an immense positive factor in my decision to attend UA.</p>
<p>“This impression was MUCH different than Clemson (South Carolina), who talked about all of the budget control problems they were facing, and since I visited the two in consecutive days, it was an immense positive factor in my decision to attend UA.”</p>
<p>That’s interesting to hear - I also visited those schools in consecutive days; however, I didn’t hear any talk of budget issues while there. Definitely something to keep in mind, as Clemson and UA are two of my top choices.</p>
<p>I’m from CA, where the budge crisis in education is HUGE. I went on these visits with my mom, who made sure to specifically ask them about how the economy was affecting the school.</p>
<p>As an aside the South Carolina budget issue goes beyond the campus. There was a lot of shock in the SC library community last year when the state cut off 90% of their previous funding towards databases; this affected public and state academic libraries. See [Partnership</a> Among South Carolina Academic Libraries - PASCAL’s Funding Crisis](<a href=“http://pascalsc.org/content/view/173/1/]Partnership”>http://pascalsc.org/content/view/173/1/)</p>
<p>My son’s girlfriend is on a sports scholarship to a California State School. She accepted last fall and didn’t know what they would tell her when she went to orientation: there is no way to graduate in four years. ALL students are restricted to 14 credits max. Very sad. Right now she is an engineering major.</p>
<p>Some were questioning my ‘willingness’ to let my (i.e., encourage) my son to attend college some distance from home. I consider her five + hour drive home on bad freeways vs. my son’s 7 hour flight travel time…He’ll have his master’s in five years and she won’t be able to have finished her bachelors. God Bless Alabama!</p>
<p>I live in CA. I have another son in a state university don’t know when he will graduate. Getting classes is so tough. This is one of the reasons I was having my son look into out of state schools. With his UA scholar scholarship he is getting to attend UA for the same price we would pay out here for a cal state. The differences are amazing…He will get out in four years, live in a wonderful dorm with his own room. And the way he has been treated at UA compared to the Cal State system. NO COMPARISON!</p>
<p>Roll Tide!!</p>
<p>Yeah, my sister goes to UCLA and will double major in 4 years, but she came in with a lot of credit. However, a lot of her friends are having to take summer school to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Bama’s budget issues are rather minor. If the budget was a big issue, big then they would be delaying their building and expansion plans.</p>
<p>Dr. Witt commented that budget cuts were mostly only negatively affecting re-landscaping plans.</p>
<p>To support Momw2k’s assertion, UA had planned to create a pedestrian and honor’s plaza in between the Main Library, and Clark Hall, but due to the big decline in money from the state, it simply decided to delay such landscaping projects. But the main building plan in the campus master plan is still on target, with another 900 plus bed dorm about to be built, and with construction on the final half of the (total cost of around $ 270 million) Science and Engineering Complex underway. Also, a new Nursing Building is completed ($20 plus million), and millions of dollars in renovations to various other campus buildings are recently completed, underway, or soon to come. </p>
<p>My only caveat, is that UA could raise its standards even more, if the state of Alabama provided more money to it. With the low level of funding relative to other states, UA has had to dramatically raise its enrollment to achieve its goals. Fortunately, each freshman class at UA has been more impressive than the one before since Dr. Witt became the president at UA, despite the huge jump in enrollment. With enrollment about to hit 30,000, I think UA is finally at a place where it can afford to focus less on growth and even more on quality.</p>