College News

Dr. Subhabrata Chakraborti, a professor of statistics at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce, has been elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA).

Chakraborti received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Calcutta, and a master’s degree and a doctorate from State University of New York at Buffalo.

The designation of fellow is reserved for professionals in statistics who make outstanding contributions to the field. ASA members work in government, industry and academia applying statistics in medical, biological, physical, economic and social sciences.

The fellow designation is limited to no more than one third of 1 percent of the ASA membership, which now is about 18,000 in the United States, Canada and overseas.

“Dr. Chakraborti is both a world renowned researcher and world renowned teacher,” said J. Barry Mason, Dean of the Culverhouse College of Commerce. “In modern society the use of statistics to assist in making intelligent decisions is a critical skill. It plays an important role in our everyday lives. To achieve the designation of Fellow in this important discipline is a great accomplishment, and Dr. Chakraborti is to be congratulated.” Chakraborti is the fourth Culverhouse faculty member to receive the designation. The others are Drs. Jean Gibbons, Badrig Kurkjian, and William Woodall.

Chakraborti has published more than 50 articles in a variety of journals and has made presentations in both national and international venues. He was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa for 2004 and has won a number of teaching and research awards.

The ASA was founded in Boston in 1839 and counts among its members Florence Nightingale, Alexander Graham Bell, Herman Hollerith, Andrew Carnegie, and Martin Van Buren.

ASA members apply their expertise in a number of areas, including research in medical areas such as AIDS; environmental risk assessment; the development of new therapeutic drugs; the exploration of space; quality assurance in industry; the examination of social issues such as the homeless and the poor; analytic research on current business problems and economic forecasting; the setting of standards for statistics used at all levels of government; the promotion and development of statistical education for the public and the profession and the expansion of methods and the use of computers and graphics to advance the science of statistics.

Laura Rector, a 2003 graduate of The University of Alabama, has been named events coordinator for the Culverhouse College of Commerce, replacing Susan Newman who moved to a similar position at the UA law school.

Rector earned a degree in restaurant and hospitality management and has been employed in the event planning and hospitality profession since graduation, including serving as banquet manager for the Summit Club in Birmingham, where she was involved in coordinating a number of themed events for large groups.

Rector, a native of Pleasant Grove, also has hotel management experience with the Hilton Family.

Dr. J. Michael Hardin, associate dean for research at the Culverhouse College of Commerce, has been appointed to the board of the Alabama Quality Assurance Foundation, a nonprofit, physician-sponsored organization designated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) as Alabama’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization (QIO). Read More

TUSCALOOSA, Al. - More than 1700 articles of clothing have been collected over the past year for distribution to impoverished children in Third World countries, thanks to the combined efforts of The University of Alabama’s Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) and Cintas Corp.

The collection of clothing, from students, faculty and staff, made the local Cintas Corp.’s “Clothe the Kids” program the most successful in the company’s South-Central Region history.

“Clothe the Kids” was started in 2003 by Cintas Corp. in conjunction with Matthew 25 Ministries to raise awareness of the need for children’s clothing in foreign countries. The program collects donations of slightly used clothing and/or money for new clothing to help impoverished children in Third-World countries.

Since the program began more than 500,000 items of clothing have been donated. This year with the help of the SIFE team, Cintas, Tuscaloosa expects to be in the top-10 collections in the nation. Stacey Bledsoe, human resource manager for Cintas, was instrumental in helping the SIFE team reach its goals. “With SIFE’s help we were able to exceed our goals for this year,” Bledsoe said. “I look forward to having SIFE and UA’s help again next year.”

The prestigious Austin Cup, awarded each year to the top graduating senior in The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, was awarded this year to W. Steven Spiehler, Jr., a major in health care management. Read More