All You Need to Know: Alabama Gameday (Part 1)

In case you've been living inside a cave for the past several weeks, Alabama football starts this Saturday. We kick off at 6:00 p.m. against the San Jose St. Spartans. As I mentioned here, I am a huge football fan. I realize that many of you may not have any idea what goes on in Tuscaloosa on a gameday, so I've tried to put together a list of things that might be nice to know. The list ended up being quite long, so I've split it up into a couple of parts. This first part deals with what will be going on before the game. But first, a video to get you excited...



Before the Game

• First of all, a quick word about the gameday congestion in Tuscaloosa...the city will get very crowded very quickly on Saturday. If you know you're going to need anything from off-campus (groceries, etc.), get it Friday! You will not want to be on McFarland Boulevard, 15th Street, University Drive, or any other major Tuscaloosa thoroughfare at any point Saturday.
• Now for a word about parking. As a freshman student living in one of the dorms, you have the best deal of anyone in Tuscaloosa when it comes to gameday parking. All residential lots are guarded by ferocious-looking Transportation Services officials reserved on gamedays. Please realize how big of a deal this is...most off-campus students (myself included) would love to have free parking this close to the game. Hopefully you won't have to leave campus on Saturday (see above), but if you do you'll have parking when you get back.
• If there is one place to be before the game, it's the Quad. Fans will start setting up tents on Friday evening, and many won't leave until Sunday. There will be people with grills, electric generators, TV's, stereo systems, and enough food to feed this college student for a month year. Most of the tailgaters are very nice, and many don't mind if you stop outside their tent to catch part of another game on their big screens.

The Quad on Gameday. Yessir it's packed.

"Sweetgrass" at the Bama

Find yourself questioning: "What ever should I do this fine Tuesday evening?" Or even, "Is there a good spot in Tuscaloosa for sweet Indi films?" Well question no more because this Tuesday, August 31st the Bama Art House film series presents "Sweetgrass," a sweeping gem of Americana about sheepherders in the Wild West. Check out what the Bama Art House site has to say about the film here.

Where? The Bama Theatre on Greensboro in downtown Tuscaloosa

When? 7 pm Tuesday, August 31st

How much? Admission to the film is $6 with your student ID or $7 without.

See you at the Bama!

Tentative Date for FYE Events

First of all, I apologize for the lack of posts during the past couple of days...the first full week of the semester always seems to get pretty busy. Anyway, I had a meeting Friday afternoon with the other FYE team members, and I came away pretty excited about this year! We did our best to set some tentative dates for the events that we will be hosting this semester. Check it out:

• Away game party (Sept 18, Sept 25, Oct 9, Oct 23, or Nov 6). Okay, so I know I just listed all of the away game dates. We will probably do one or two parties, and the specific date(s) depend a lot on which venues are available for which games. Stay tuned for more.
• Tailgate on the quad for the Florida game (Oct 2)
• Community service Saturday (Oct 9). Don't worry...we'll be done in time for you to watch the South Carolina game.
• Homecoming reception in Nott Hall (Oct 16)
• Trip to Kentuck Art Festival (Oct 17)
•  Hike in the Sipsey Wilderness (Oct 24)
• Coffee hours with professors from various departments (early November). These were incredibly popular last year...with students and professors alike.

I think that all of these events will be pretty cool. Also, we're working on putting together a weekly email exclusively for Honors College freshmen that will include information about all kinds of events going on around campus and  in Tuscaloosa. Look for the first one sometime this week.

Finally, Nick Saban would like to remind you that (a) these dates are tentative and (b) football starts in less than a week.

Listen to this man.

Don't worry, we'll be posting all the Alabama gameday information you'll need.

Involvement Symposium Tonight

After the craziness that was Get On Board Day yesterday, the Honors College will be hosting a Student Involvement Symposium tonight at 7:00 in the Ferg Ballroom (on the third floor). While all of the booths that were out yesterday hopefully gave a you a good idea of the organizations that are available on this campus, we realize that events like that can be a bit overwhelming. (Did you see the sword-wielding gorilla!? Gotta love it.) Our hope is that the Symposium tonight will give you a calmer atmosphere in which to check out some cool opportunities on campus. The following organizations will be participating:

• Honors College Ambassadors
• Student Government Association
• Honors College Assembly
• Community Service Center
• Creative Campus
• The Office of Student Involvement
• Capstone International
• The Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility
• The Source
• Intramural Sports
• Blackburn Fellows

Should be a good time. And, just for those of you who prefer visual presentations...

Get on Board Day

Student Involvement Symposium (come tonight!)

Honors Connection Scavenger Hunt

A few days ago (last Tuesday to be exact) all of the Honors College students involved with Honors Connection got together to have a pizza party and a scavenger hunt. What is Honors Connection? It's one-hour freshmen-only Honors College course. In the course, freshmen are placed into groups of about ten other freshmen and two or three upperclassmen. The groups meet five times during the semester and discuss everything from T-town dining to campus involvement. So it's basically a great way to get an hour of honors credit while learning things that you'll need to know anyway.

Back to the scavenger hunt. Each of the Honors Connection groups went gallivanting around campus trying to get pictures of all sorts of things. And what was the motivation for all of this madness? One of these:

The Prize.

That's right...every member of the winning group received a bona-fide Honors College Hot/Cool Bag. One of the groups (led by Michael Schmidt) emailed me their pictures from the hunt. Here are a selected few with descriptions (tangoing, water fountain, and mullet after the jump):

Entire team pretending to be under the sea with a visible copy of Moby Dick.

About (one of ) the Authors

Hello all! My name is Jonathan Pittman and I will be one of the main posters in this little corner of the Internet. I'm working as a Freshman Year Experience Intern in the Honors College this year...which means my job is to answer your questions and provide you with some (hopefully) useful information. As always, you can contact me or any of the other Freshman Year Experience team members at honorsconnection@gmail.com. Before we dive into some "real" posts dealing with campus events, I thought it might be a good idea to put together a brief  "About Me" post so that you guys have some idea where this information is coming from. So, without further ado....

I am not an English Major - Let me get this one out of the way first...I am not, and have never been, an English major. Why is this important? Without a doubt, I will make many grammatical errors in my blog posts. Feel free to point them out, but realize that (a) there is no reward for this and (b) I may not fix them anyway.

I am an Engineer - Electrical, to be specific. I am a junior in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department here at UA. I love my major, and would be happy to talk to any of you about all of the nerdy things I do. Don't worry, though, I know most of you aren't interested in my latest Modern Physics assignment.

I am a HUGE football fan - I have always loved college football...and coming to this campus did nothing to change that. It is quite possible that I have spent more money on Alabama football than I have on food during the past two years (seriously, it's bad). I apologize in advance for any pigskin pontification on this blog (but it will happen).

I believe in the UA Honors College - I have loved every bit of being on this campus for the past two years. More specifically, I have loved every bit of my Honors College experience. I firmly believe that this is a great time to be in Tuscaloosa, and I hope you can share in my excitement.

Well folks, that's me in a nutshell. Later today we will hopefully be able to get up some pictures from the Honors Connection scavenger hunt that took place a few days ago. (Yes, we are a bit behind.)

Up and Running!

Hello Honors College freshmen! The Honors College Freshman Year Experience team would like to welcome you all to campus! We're setting up this blog in the hope that it will be a helpful resource to you as you go through your freshman year. What exactly will we be posting here? Here's a brief list:

• "All You Need to Know" posts about a variety of topics (exams, Alabama Gameday, campus traditions, etc.)
• Study Tips
• Information on Majors
• Honors College News and Events
• Campus Involvement Opportunities

Please note that this blog is still a work-in-progress and posting may be a bit slow for the first few days. Within a couple of weeks, though, we hope to have (at least) daily updates on a variety of topics.

Also, we would encourage all of you to send any questions or comments you might have about your UA experiences to honorsconnection@gmail.com. We'll do our best to get back to you with a quick (and hopefully accurate) response.

Enjoy and Roll Tide!

-UA Freshman Year Experience Team