My wife, my son, and I flew in from Phoenix to Atlanta on Saturday and drove to a northern suburb, where we visited with my brother. Mid-day Sunday, we drove to Tuscaloosa and checked into the Hampton Inn near the campus on Harper Lee Drive. The hotel was recently renovated and quite nice. The desk clerk said they are already booked solid for all 2016 home football weekends! We wanted to see the Strip on University Boulevard, so we drove there for dinner. It was pretty quiet after Thanksgiving weekend, but looked attractive and prosperous, with lots of student hangouts.
On Monday, after our complimentary breakfast, we loaded the car and drove over to park at Nott Hall for a short meeting with Susan Dendy. Susan passed out our updated itinerary for the day and then we walked over to Gate 25 at the south end of the Stadium for our campus tour. This was our 21st campus visit in the last four years, so we had lots to compare with. First, this was the only college to provide air-conditioned buses for the tour. For larger campuses, this was a blessing, even in December. If we had been visiting in August or September, I’m not sure we would have made it and certainly could not have covered as much time.
Our tour guide was Morgan a sophomore Capstone Woman. The Capstone Men and Women are selected to serve as official ambassadors of The University of Alabama. Morgan was bright, enthusiastic, and very knowledgeable. Our tour basically circled campus with several stops. Our overall impression is that Alabama’s campus shows very well. The grounds and older buildings are very well maintained. There has been a tremendous amount of recent construction and UA has done a great job of integrating the new buildings into the red brick and white traditional architecture. Another father on the tour said that he had graduated in 1995 and barely recognized the place. UA has also tried to avoid too much sprawl by replacing older campus-service buildings with classroom and student facilities. The service buildings then get relocated to the perimeter instead of the new buildings. Overall, although Alabama has grown to record size, it still feels like a much smaller campus and is still walkable.
Our first stop was at the Ridgecrest South Dormitory. This is one of the newer suite-style residential complexes, which represent about two-thirds of student housing. The Ridgecrest complex is used for honors housing, but Morgan assured us that the other new complexes, such as Lakeside complex and the brand-new Presidential Village, are just as nice if not nicer. In any event, Ridgecrest South was the nicest dorm we have visited on all our trips, even nicer than the Arizona State Barrett Honors College dorms! Each four-person suite features separate bedrooms for each student, two-shared bathrooms, and a common area with a couch, dining table, and kitchenette, including a microwave and full-size refrigerator.
Our next stop was the 200,000 square foot Student Recreation Center, originally built in 1983, but renovated several times since. It has all the bells and whistles: weight equipment, aerobic equipment, indoor 1/8-mile track, climbing wall, two large gyms, 12 courts, indoor and outdoor pools (including lazy-river) saunas, and more. Membership is included in tuition. There is also a new 85,000 square foot Student Activity Center conveniently located in the new Presidential Village residential complex, which provides many of the same facilities to students living in the northern part of campus.
Campus buses (Crimson Ride) are free for students and seemed to run frequently. The Crimson Ride routes include multiple campus routes, a perimeter route, and off-campus transportation. They also offer a shuttle service to and from the Birmingham Airport during campus breaks. With more than one-half of new students coming from out-of-state, this is a real plus.
Our tour started at the 102,000-seat Bryant-Denny Football Stadium, most recently renovated in 2010. On our tour, we went by many of the campus athletic buildings, which were also very impressive (at least from the outside), including those for gymnastics (two-time defending SEC champs), swimming, and softball. The new baseball stadium opens this spring. The tennis complex hosts many national tournaments. Sports are obviously huge at Alabama. They are a real bargain for students to attend. Student football tickets are just $10 per game and all other sports events are free.
Our bus tour concluded on University Avenue at the Denny Chimes, UA’s bell tower, where we started a short walking tour through the Quad. The tower is surrounded by the Walk of Fame, concrete slabs imprinted with the hand and shoes of Alabama football captains going back 1947. It’s fun to look for famous alums like Joe Namath, Ozzie Newsome, and Amari Cooper.
The Quad is much like those at other universities, a large open space surrounded by older campus buildings. At the north end, stands Gorgas Library, a handsome, pillared building serving as the main campus library. We continued walking north to the Ferguson Student Center, a huge building that serves as the student union. It was renovated just last year, and includes an art gallery, film theater, meeting rooms, and a food court with Wendy’s, Panda Express, Chick-fil-A, Topios, Union Market, Subway, and Auntie Anne’s Pretzels. Downstairs there’s a bookstore, apparel store, and the world’s largest Starbucks.
