[art_vandele]

Hello,

This looks like an informative resource, thanks. I am considering a professor job with UA and would appreciate some information.

1) Where do most professors live?
2) How is the public school system (K-6)?
3) Would you take a professor job at UA?
4) Does Alabama fund their public schools well?
5) What would you say is the biggest problem with Tuscaloosa?

thanks

av

[Bravo35223]

I an Alabama alumnus....

I would indeed take the job.

President Robert Witt has brought a tremendous level of energy and progressiveness to the campus. For decades, student enrollment stood at 20,000 and he pledged to grow it to 28,000 while increasing academic standards at the same time. Currently at 25K and growing. He is a whirlwind...

Growth in facilities has been remarkable and they are all first rate.

The faculty is very loyal and are known to spend decades in their positions. I graduated from the College of Commerce and Business Administration and Dean Barry Mason was a professor of mine in 1976. The faculty there do a lot of textbook publishing and private consulting.

The vast majority of the faculty live across the river in the town of Northport - which has a population of 25K and is growing. Northport has some beautiful neighborhoods and is a well managed town with very low crime.

As a generality, the state funding for public schools is average. You need to be selective about which public school you would choose for your children.

The Tuscaloosa metro is bifurcated into two areas by the Black Warrior River: Tuscaloosa on the south/eest side of the river and Northport on the North/west side....over the past decades, there has been a lot of 'urban flight' from Tuscaloosa to Northport, leaving the City of Tuscaloosa with some crime problems...which I would say is the biggest issue facing the City now (population 85K). The City of Tuscaloosa itself needs to revitalize and fortunately, this is indeed underway with a new young mayor and real estate development along the banks of the river. There are many new condo developments in the City of Tuscaloosa now which will bring it's tax base up...lots of new retailers coming in as well.

Alabama state employees have excellent benefits including BCBS health insurance (which is superb) and a well funded retirement system....so in addition to your salary, you would have a very good benefit package.

For a county its size 175K - Tuscaloosa has a thriving arts scene as well.

Private employers in the county include Mercedes Benz (4000 employees) and JVC - which makes compact discs and DVD's....

Please PM me if you have additional questions.

[Southlander]

I, too, am an alumna of the University, and encourage you to look seriously into employment there. It's a beautiful campus, with incredibly loyal alumni.
The state of Alabama provides basic funding for locally-run schools. Citizens of the more concientious governing bodies vote themselves extra taxes to strengthen their school systems. You will need to look carefully at that - Tuscaloosa has some very poor schools and a few good ones. Many choose to educate their children privately, and a growing number homeschool, as much for religious education as for quality.
Many professors lived in a neighboring historic district when I was in school there, but that was back in the early 1970s.
I hope you will make a visit to Tuscaloosa to judge for yourself. Welcome...and Roll Tide!

[Alatex]

1.

The vast majority of the faculty live across the river in the town of Northport

I'd disagree with that statement. A lot of faculty do live north of the river,
but still within Tuscaloosa city limits (35406 zip code) . Moderator cut: link removed is a good source of demographic data, and this part of Tuscaloosa compares very favorably to anything else within 50 miles.

Some new faculty also choose to live in the Hillcrest/Taylorville area south of town.
There are also some in the historic districts.

2) How is the public school system (K-6)?

I don't have kids, but any school is what you make of it, and
"average" data for schools generally corresponds to economics.
The elementary schools in 35406 carry the highest ratings in the
area, for instance. I can't say if it's necessarily that they're really
better schools, or if it's just that there aren't hordes of poor
kids weighing down the averages.

3) Would you take a professor job at UA?

My father was a professor at UA for nearly 40 years,
and my brother is moving on, after serving on the UA faculty for
7 1/2 years. It's a beautiful campus, and there are lots of wonderful
people, but it's very much a mixed bag as a place to work,
depending on department. If you're in business or liberal arts,
you'll probably have a grand time of it. The business school especially
seems to be well-supported at all levels.

The engineering dean is an unethical jerk, though, and I have little use for
the administration, in general. To give you an example of the way
some are treated here,
a professor emeritus I know gave this university many, many years
of loyal service. As had been customary in his department,
he was allowed to maintain an office. Well, when he went on
vacation to Europe, the department decided to clear out his office
and put everything on the street, including some personal belongings.
What a sorry way to treat anyone ! They at least should've told him they
needed the space, rather than getting rid of his stuff without giving
him a chance to go through it himself.
The way they treated my brother was even worse, but I won't
get into all that here, other than to say that the 2005,2006, and 2007
teachers of the year in his department all left the university on bad terms, and that some of their "replacements" are basically low-level research jockeys who by their own admission "don't want to be bothered with teaching."

4) Does Alabama fund their public schools well?

Supposedly not, but the Tuscaloosa city school budget this year amounted to over $10,000 per student. As with public education and governmental bureaucracies everywhere, it's a lot of dollars and very little sense.

5) What would you say is the biggest problem with Tuscaloosa?

That's a tough one, but self-image is up there. It's a place with surprisingly rich history, tremendous location, beautiful lush green scenery, abundant natural resources such as water, low cost of living, and very low unemployment, yet there seems to be very little pride taken in it, and as a result, the city puts on a very poor face. Take downtown and the riverfront, for instance. What should be a very lively, attractive place with well-kept older buildings and shiny new ones is instead a mostly neglected (though generally very safe) area used mainly for RV parking on football weekends. If it's not college football, then
the powers that be are against it, because of some weird, perverse fear that anything could distract from the 24-hour-a-day,365-days-a-year worship of Bear Bryant winning football games 30 years ago.

It's a shame, because the area actually does still have a tremendous amount of potential. This could've been "Alabama's Austin." Instead, it's a town held back by anachronistic, delusional college football goofballs who see the town as nothing more than the nuisance to pass through when driving between the football stadium and the interstate. Those goofballsare in positions of power all the way up to university trustees.

[Highpointer]

Originally Posted by art_vandele

Hello,

This looks like an informative resource, thanks. I am considering a professor job with UA and would appreciate some information:

5) What would you say is the biggest problem with Tuscaloosa?

Obviously the biggest problems with Tuscaloosa are the tornado hazards. I would never live in any place like Alabama or other states in the South and Midwest that are high risk of experiencing tornadoes.

[Threestep]

Originally Posted by Highpointer

Obviously the biggest problems with Tuscaloosa are the tornado hazards. I would never live in any place like Alabama or other states in the South and Midwest that are high risk of experiencing tornadoes.

LOL We had them in DC, VA and Munich.