C O L L E G E
Weather alert The National Weather Service has designated Auburn’s campus as a “StormReady” university for having met specific criteria in advance planning, education and awareness to ensure the safety of students, faculty and staff when severe weather threatens. The university boasts e-mail and phone alert systems, outdoor warning sirens, and a weathermonitoring process, among other precautions. The only other “StormReady” universities in Alabama are Jacksonville State and the University of South Alabama.
S T R E E T
Building on research JAY GOGUE ’69
President, Auburn University When the Auburn Research Park opened in 2008, it assumed a vital mission to support the state of Alabama in moving toward a knowledgebased economy. By establishing an atmosphere in which business and research come together to foster creativity and innovation, the research park will enhance the economic vitality of the community, state and region. Auburn University faculty and researchers have worked to bring in privatesector investment and federal grants, and have made great progress toward this goal, leading to the construction of two new centers. In February, the university broke ground on a 45,000-square-foot Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center that is scheduled for completion in September. The center will house one of the world’s few 7-Tesla MRIs, the most powerful available. A master research agreement signed last year with Siemens will advance Auburn to the forefront of biomedical engineering and has the potential to bring life-saving technologies to the citizens of Alabama and the region. Examples of cur-
Q and A Has there been another time when politicians and citizens have been so divided on the issues?
The contemporary issue is about partisan politics and ideology, and there are many examples of periods when people have objected to policy changes by the national government. Many of the New Deal programs were met with objections by pockets of the citizenry, as were women’s
rent and potential areas of MRI-related research include brain function, metabolic imaging and pharmaceuticals, as well as research into diabetes and heart disease. The university will match $14.4 million in federal funds from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology as cost-share support to build a Center for Advanced Science, Innovation and Commerce. The 68,000-square-foot, 21-lab facility will contain five multidisciplinary “research clusters” where scientists from a variety of disciplines across campus will collaborate on research projects aimed at improving standards, measurements and forecasting related to food safety, bioenergy technologies, aquaculture development and sustainability, and water and environmental quality. The new research center is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012. These two new additions to the Auburn Research Park will soon have a major impact on the university in keeping with Auburn’s goal to seek innovation, discovery and knowledge to improve people’s lives.
jgogue@auburn.edu
The cheaper four-year plan Forget the five-year
total cost for an Auburn
degree. Beginning this
education.”
summer, Alabama stu-
dents could save as much
burn’s executive
as $10,000 in tuition,
vice president and
fees, housing and other
chief financial officer,
expenses by enrolling
estimates the savings
in more course hours
to be significant for
per semester under
most students. “The
Auburn’s new tuition-
updated tuition sched-
and-fees structure.
ule reflects the realities
of both today’s econo-
The new menu of
Don Large ’75, Au-
prices, announced by
my and the academic
the university board
requirements to earn a
of trustees earlier
degree,” he says.
this spring, will allow
students to take more
summer, tuition for a
than 12 credit hours
full-time, in-state under-
at no additional cost
graduate will be $3,950
during fall and spring
per semester, regardless
semesters, and attend
of whether a student
summer classes part-
takes as few as 12 hours
time at reduced rates.
or as many as 18. Stud-
ies have shown that a
“Eliminating the
Beginning this
financial hurdle for
whopping 94 percent of
suffrage, the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act, our involvement in Vietnam, and the results from court cases like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade. Although widespread, it is questionable whether the current protests are attracting a broad base of support. For example, the Lee County TEA Party protest in April attracted 400 people, or one-third of 1 percent of the population.
taking either more
Auburn students (and
hours or summer
their parents) want
classes helps students
or expect to graduate
and families cope with
in four years, which
tough economic times,”
requires taking 15 or
says Sarah Newton ’74,
more hours per semester
board president pro
or attending summer
tempore. “We want our
school. Before the new
students to be able to
structure was adopted,
both take the course
students had to pay
Mitchell Brown
loads they need to
higher tuition and fees to
graduate on time and
take more than 12 hours
also to reduce their
per semester.
Assistant professor of political science
a u a l u m . o r g Auburn Magazine
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