Alabama Higher Education Profiles

Last week the Alabama Commission on Higher Education issued fall 2008 institutional student profiles for all 2- and 4-year public institutions of higher education in the state.  Institutional profiles give an overview of the institution (total enrollment, broken down by gender, level, and status; race; state of origin; financial aid, etc.); the report also includes an overview of the top majors across Alabama institutions of higher education (for example, the top major for Masters Degrees is Business Administration; the top major for both Associates Degrees and Baccalaureate Degrees is Nursing.)

If you want to compare changes to these institutions over the years, ACHE includes profiles back to 2004 on the site.

I found it interesting to page through the report; I will also remember this the next time someone asks me for some detailed data about higher education enrollment in the state!

Swine Flu

This weekend the news has been abuzz with stories of individuals infected with the swine flu virus.  Thus far no cases have been reported in Alabama, but it always makes sense to be aware of precautions that you can take.

More information, along with guidance for treatment and infection control, is available from the CDC and from the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Updates

Hi all,

I’ve been attending the spring meeting of the Depository Library Council & haven’t had a chance to post anything – not even my notes!  Those will be coming over the next few days, so stay tuned!

Congressmen to visit UA Campus tomorrow

Just a quick announcement – two members of the Alabama Congressional delegation will be speaking on campus tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning, Senator Jeff Sessions will be speaking to students about the federal stimulus package.  The meeting will be from 9-10 a.m. and will be located in room 205 of Gorgas Library.  Senator Sessions’ visit is sponsored by the SGA.

Tomorrow afternoon, Representative (and 2010 candidate for Governor) Artur Davis will be presenting the inaugural University of Alabama Honors College Distinguished Lecture, “Vital Signs: Social Responsibility and the Prognosis for 21st Century Global Health.”  He will be speaking at 4 pm in the Ferguson Center Theater.  This event is open to the public.

House Members Disclosure of Earmarks – Alabama edition

This year, Members of the House of Representatives were required to disclose their 2010 requests for federal spending (aka earmarks) on their web sites by last Saturday, April 4th.  While I don’t know if they complied with the deadline, I do know that all members of the Alabama delegation had complied by the time I began preparing this post.  I haven’t delved into these to analyze any of the requests – just wanted to put the information out there!

Rep. Bonner (AL-1) – details his requests on a single web page. Rep. Bonner also has his FY2009 requests listed – as well as guidelines for submitting earmark requests to his office.

Rep. Bright (AL-2) – provides an overview, with links, of his requests in a press release

Rep. Rogers (AL-3) – details his requests in alphabetical order under the appropriate Subcommittee (note: requests are provided as Excel documents)

Rep. Aderholt (AL-4) – details his requests as individual pdf files

Rep. Griffith (AL-5) – details his requests in alphabetical order under the appropriate Subcommittee (ie, Defense, Military Construction, etc.)

Rep. Bachus (AL-6) – details his requests on a single web page

Rep. Davis (AL-7) – details his requests in a press release.

For a list of all Members’ earmarks that were available, see the Sunlight Foundation’s ‘Real Time Investigations’ blog.

Alabama County Governments – What’s Available?

An organization called the Sunshine Review looked at every county government web site in the U.S., in order to determine how much information is easily accessible to citizens.  Categories include Budget, Meetings, Elected Officials, Administrative Officials, Permits/Zoning, Audits, Contracts, Lobbying, Public Records, and Taxes.  The overview of Alabama county governments is fascinating to me.  First off, there are 30 counties (of the 67 in the state) that don’t have a web site.  At least one county (Marion) has a web site, but it doesn’t look like it’s been updated in several years, and doesn’t include any information that reviewers were looking for.

The web site that included the most information that the group was looking for is, unsurprisingly, Jefferson County.  (I would expect that the largest county, population-wise, would have the most developed web site.)  What did surprise me is that the county with the next-highest ’score’ was Tallapoosa County.  Sites were most likely to include information on elected officials, taxes, and administrative officials. No site included information on lobbying, and only 6 included some information about the county budget.

I just can’t get over the fact that 30 counties don’t have a web presence at all!  So, where do you go if you’re looking for information on county government activities?  Great question.  One place I’d start would be the public library – occasionally they will have web sites with some information, and they usually have copies of budgets, etc., available for the public to view (in paper, of course).

Anybody have some other suggestions?  Aside from physically visiting the county to obtain the information?

State Agencies on Twitter?

Last year I tried to compile a list of state agencies whose sites included RSS feeds as a way to notify interested parties of new content. While doing that research I came across the Alabama Media Portal, which serves as a site for state agencies to “locate any media they may have in one convenient place, online.”

I subscribe to the “State of Alabama: All State Agencies” rss feed, so the other day I was made aware of the State’s Web Services and the Alabama Media Portal presence on  Twitter, the microblogging service (posts are limited to 140 characters).  While the federal government and several other states are active on Twitter, this was the first hint I got that Alabama state agencies were coming on board.  I hope to see further development in this arena – currently Alabama is following most other states, in that they’re using the service for announcements and press releases.  (I really like Virginia’s use of Twitter – and other social networking tools – to promote tourism, state parks, etc.)

If you are a Twitterer, you can now follow ISDWebServices and MediaAlabamaGov for some state news.  You can also follow Governor Riley!