President Bonner's Fall 2014 Faculty/Staff Address - Increasing Graduate Enrollment is a priority

<p>Not sure if anyone is interested in this, but I listened to/watched it the other day at work, and there was some interesting info. She goes over the latest record fall class, both in terms of numbers and quality, and explains UA’s goals for future enrollment growth, which involves mostly bringing in more PhD seeking graduate students rather than more undergrads. I think that is good news for those concerned about campus crowding. She also reviews various completed construction projects, as well as upcoming construction on the land acquired from Bryce Hospital. At the 24 minute mark, you can see a rendering of the coming new classroom building. </p>

<p><a href=“Dr. Judy Bonner delivers the 2014 Fall Faculty/Staff Address on Vimeo”>http://vimeo.com/108385138&lt;/a&gt; forgot to include the link!</p>

<p>This is a good plan. A bigger grad school is good for Bama.</p>

<p>BTW… @atlanta68 do you or someone else know how many students received the Presidential scholarship and/or UA Scholars scholarship (either last fall or this fall)? </p>

<p>@mom2collegekids Last fall there were 913 Presidential scholarships and 361 UA scholarships awarded. The data for this year has not yet been published.</p>

<p>I like that she said that UA will start allowing scholarship students to use a portion of their scholarship money to apply to graduate educatio at UA. But how many of those will actually stay for the PhD? I imagine a lot will gather some graduate credit, then transfer to more prestigious PhD programs. However, having more grad assistants on hand, even if they are only there for one to two years, which help profs conduct more research. So much of the important research work is actually done by or assisted by grad assistants. Regardless, it is good that they are making an effort to grow the PhD programs. Surely the new facilities in Science and Engineering will help with that effort. </p>